The Mer hog and Little Mermaid

Fathoms Below

It was a lovely day for the open seas. The seagulls soaring through the clear skies, the dolphins splashing through the waves, and the breeze was as gentle as ever. Such a perfect day for a sailing cruse. However, Prince Sonic cannot bring himself to enjoy such a boat ride for one specific reason.

"Why couldn't we just go on your plane to reach this meeting Tails? You know very well how I feel about water." The blue quilled price said while holding on one of the sail railings for dear life. "Because it still is in repair from the last mission we were on my prince. Besides, going to our destination would take way longer by car or foot. And last time I checked, even you can't run fast enough through the ocean's waves." Tails, the prince's royal adviser, answered in disappointment.

"Yeah well, it still sucks. You would think knowing that their prince can't swim, they would think twice about sending him to this stupid business meeting instead of doing some video call."

"Well, not every kingdom has as much advanced technology as the Green Hill kingdom, my lord. But I don't think you have to worry about your chances of swimming at this rate, right Knuckles?"

Knuckles, the prince's personal guard and this ship's captain, nods with such confidence toward his pouting prince friend. "Indeed, my lord. Clear skies and steady waves, meaning King Gerald must be in a friendly type of mood." Sonic looks at his friend in confusion.

"King Gerald?"

"Why, ruler of the Mer people my friend. All of the best sailors of the seas know all about him." 

"Giggles, really knuckle head, you believe in that fairytale stuff?"

"I don't know your highness, as far as the we know, not everything in the ocean has been discovered yet. Who knows what could be down there in the ocean's depts." Tails says as he gazes at the horizon.

 "Welp, I'm not going to stay out here possibly getting seasick, so if anyone needs me, I'll be in my-" As the ship floats past a big wave, Sonic stumbled on his feet and accidently knocks something off of someone's hands into the water.

That thing turned out to be a fish from the recent catch for dinner, and said fish was relieved to not be on the menu today. The little fish then swam deeper into the ocean and past many sea creatures and plants. Coral, sea turtles, anemones, even some whales. But the most fascinating sea creatures the fish swam past was something that was thought impossible, a family of Mer people. In fact, there seem to be groups of Mer people, all swimming to one specific place. A grand sea kingdom called Atlantis. In said kingdom, a traditional performance was about to begin.

A purple sea horse announcer cleared this throat before declaring: "His royal highness, King Gerald!" The king then enters the undersea indoor stadium in his clam ride and dolphin carriers, uses his mighty triton to light up the ceiling chandelier, and goes to his private seat. While the audience clapping for the gorgeous light show dies down, the other lights dimmed down, indicating that the real show is about to begin. A spotlight then showed a little crab with a conductor's baton, and the music started to play.

The performance was going great, the music, the singing, everything was going spectacular. There was one tiny problem though, the star of the show wasn't there. This discovery caused the sea king to yell with such fury: "MARIA!"