The Festival!

The Seablings

Joel's Perspective-

Joel yawned as he got on a boat with his parents.

"Joel, sit up." His father said sternly, and Joel rolled his eyes but followed his rules.

"We're going to talking to the Queen and King of the Ocean Empires about whether or not this arranged marriage will happen."

"This war over fish is stupid, why can't they just get along?"

Joel's father sighed.

"I don't know all of the details; all I know is that it's a touchy subject for them and it's one where you have to pick sides. I thought it was over as my father told me that they had solved it, but it seems more problems have arisen. Hopefully the two princes will somehow find a way to fix this conflict over time."

Joel looked out at sea, and they eventually came across huge and pristine towers made of real coral and quartz.

"Woah." Joel said breathlessly.

"Hey! Joel!"

Joel looked over and saw Lizzie and her brother Jimmy standing on a lily pad. There were many lily pads of different sizes scattered around the giant towers.

They sailed over and Joel got off the boat.

"Hey! Your empire is incredible!" He said.

"You like it? I helped my mom build one of the towers."

"Cool!"

Lizzie smiled and Joel's parents started to walk up one of the towers with Lizzie's parents.

"I prefer the swamp myself." Jimmy mumbled and Lizzie giggled.

"That's only because you were born and lived there for most of your life."

"Wait, you guys live in two different places?"

"Our parents were arranged to marry, they're more like friends, so my dad lives in the swamp. Jimmy likes to live there too since he's eventually going to rule there." Lizzie explained.

"Oh! Sweet!"

Jimmy and Lizzie showed Joel around the Ocean Empire and then went over the swamp.

It was very different. It was smaller, yet cozy. The one thing that caught Joel's eyes was the huge wall.

"What's with the wall?" Joel asked.

"Hm? Oh! That's the wall my dad's building to try and get to be bigger than the one in The Mythlands. It's like a little competition they're having." Jimmy explained.

"Oh...cool?"

"Yeah, I don't really understand it. Dad's weird." Lizzie said, shrugging.

Joel chuckled, "Well your family and parents seem...nice."

Joel trailed off and looked down.

Lizzie looked a bit concerned and she took Joel to the top of the wall where they sat and looked around at everything.

"So did you have fun at your party?" Lizzie asked, changing the subject.

Joel shrugged, "I don't know. It was alright. My dad shouted at me later."

"How come?"

"Because I have the colored hair."

"Can't you just wash it out?"

Joel shook his head.

They then saw someone walking down in the Mythlands by themselves.

"Oh hey- I think that's Sausage's cousin. That Efo kid- "

"His name was Etho," Lizzie corrected, "And yeah, I think it is. What's with his black mask though?"

Joel shrugged, "Sausage was trying to tell me something about him, but Etho cut him off and Sausage corrected himself and said that Etho was a prince."

"Yeah, Sausage's been acting weird, and Etho looked so uncomfortable at the party."

"Maybe it was his first time at a social gathering? I mean, they're cousins so maybe he wasn't used to being around Sausage's talkative self."

"I don't know...but I'm not the only one who thinks he seems weird, right?"

"No...I definitely think there's something up with him."