Under The Sea

Chapter One

Sunken Dreams

The bustling marketplace buzzed endlessly. Merpeople yelling prices to each other, patrons swimming hastily from shop to shop, table to table with small, silver medallions ready to eagerly give away and purchase whatever goods they need. Blue torchlight lit up the stands and each face studying items out on display. In the short lulls of noise, the distant singing of sea serpents filled the ears of the deep.

This was Koriyna Trench, located at a dark, cold 13,000 feet into the Atlantic Ocean. Koriyna Trench was home just over one thousand merpeople, much to a certain mermaid's disdain for socializing.

Meridid swam from shelf to shelf, bored and looking for anything to fill her mind. The bright green bioluminescent sea anemone swayed as Meridid's tail cut through the water, creating a current throughout the room. The green hues from the anemone and Meridid's dark tail reflected from eachother creating the watery atmosphere to be viridescent.

Nothing to read Meridid thought as she flipped through the swollen but enchanted pages of a romance novel set back in time when truly ancient fish swam the same seas she does. I die of boredom.

"Mer!" a voice called, belonging to a mermaid that was ancient herself. Meridid's mother, Kelphina, swam through the long jagged hallway. "Someone is here to see you."

Meridid perked up, quickly swimming over her messily made bed through the doorway herself, coming face to face with the old woman. Behind her was a face all too familiar, a face Meridid might as well each time she peers into a looking glass.

"Ryorid, thank Merrow!" Meridid sighed as she grabbed her older brother's grey tones hand and drug him into the room.

"Did you miss me?" He chuckled as he let the smaller girl pull him along.

"There's nothing to do. It's far too chilly out to go for a proper swim. And suddenly, I've noticed I've read all of my books." Meridid whined. Ryorid rolled his eyes at her complaints. Despite being from a sea that is only warmed locally in villages by the amount of boiling hot geysers, Meridid hated the cold water. She could not stand feeling cold, she always preferred warm, even hot water surrounded her. Cold water made her cough, and even shiver, an unfamiliar movement for merpeople.

"I had an idea for the day, I'm heading out soon but there's something new I noticed on my way down here. I wanted you to be able to see it, it should be close." Ryorid said excitedly. His sister looked at him curiously.

"It? What is it?" She asked, raising her eyebrows up to the man.

"A new shipwreck. It was about 3,000 feet down when I arrived. It's right above us now, I guarantee..." he assured. The smile on Meridid's face grew wider as he spoke. Excitement filled her body and she jolted up from the bed the two had perched on and she rushed out of her bedroom, right up to her mother.

"Going to see a shipwreck, be back later!" She said as she turned almost as quickly as she arrived. Kelohina had no time to respond before Meridid was back in her bedroom, hurrying Ryorid along. The two swam out of the skylight of the rocky ceiling of the room, and Meridid eagerly swam ahead of her brother.

"That's the wrong way!" He called out to her.

"We are making a stop first!" She replied, rushing faster into the town.

The two swam through the tables, through the neighborhoods and passing sea serpent carriages traveling through the deep sea caverns.

"Exactly where are we stopping?" The merman asked as they slowly stopped. He looked around, as the rocks became smoother, and the torches increased as a path appeared in front of him, leading into the next village over from Koriyna.