The Twins from the Sea

Chapter XIII

There was a moment of stunned silence after the shocking transformation. Aikaterine looked as if she were about to explode with excitement.

"Come, come quick!" Aikaterine said and she quickly swam off.

"Wait, just a minute!" said a very stressed out Ophelia. Aikaterine spun around, confused.

"What. Just. Happened?" Ophelia said, starting to hyperventilate. Moana swam over, and reached out for her shoulders to calm her down, but Ophelia shoved her away in a sudden rage.

"You think I can just calmly walk.. Er... Swim! Swim! Swim away from this... Absolutely insane thing that just happened? Am I going crazy? This is the most impossible..."

Ophelia continued on in an absolute rampage as she spouted nonsense and angry words. Aikaterine gave up trying to calm her down after about a minute. Moana awkwardly tried to sit down, but then settled on lying on her stomach (still very awkwardly).

Then Ophelia suddenly gasped and collapsed to the ground. Aikaterine started forward to see what happened, but Moana stiff-armed her, because she knew exactly what was happening. This was not an abnormal thing for Ophelia, she had the exact same reaction when she found out the game was rigged at the summer Carnival. Then, she sat up and gave a childish whimper. Moana giggled and motioned for Aikaterine to move forward.

•

Along the way, Aikaterine spouted useless information about this underwater kingdom, called Jade Bay. Some of it was mentioned in the chapter of the book Ophelia and Moana read, but there was one major detail: the princess, the author of the book, was missing. She had disappeared seventeen years ago. Then Aikaterine went on to explain this war that was happening. Poseidon now wants a change in his ruling system; he wants complete and full control of everything under the sea. When a messenger came to deliver the news to King Marinus, he was rightfully outraged and refused to submit to Poseidon. When the messenger brought the news back to Poseidon, he declared war. Aikaterine paused at this moment.

"This is so odd of Poseidon. He's usually such a fair ruler. Why, so suddenly, he would want all this control, no one knows", she said. Ophelia and Moana swam along, drinking in all of this information.

The rest of the short journey was in complete silence. It seemed as Aikaterine had run out of things to say, and the twins were too dumbfounded to say anything.

"Well," Aikaterine said, looking up. "This is it."

Moana and Ophelia looked up and saw the most magnificent and amazing sight they had ever seen. There in front of them, was a stunning underwater palace. The main building had a high, domed roof with a huge spike coming out of the top. It reminded Ophelia of when their family vacationed to Italy and saw the Vatican. Surrounding the main building were five spiraling towers; two in the front and three in the back. The towers each had a seashell decoration on top. Rather than there being doors on the front, there was an enormous archway. The girls couldn't see inside it yet, but they couldn't wait to. Ophelia paused as something struck her.

"Wait," she said, turning to Aikaterine. "The book said that the palace was above the water. On an island. Why is it here? Or is this a different castle?"

A mournful look came into Aikaterine's eyes. She sighed and looked down at the sandy floor. "You don't know?"

"Know what?" Moana said.

"The island... It no longer exists."

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heeeey guys sorry for the long wait on this chapter. special thanks to OpheliaDay for all the help and constant support. go check out her profile, she's an amazing author with quite the menagerie of great books.

also the picture I found on the Internet is very roughly what the underwater palace looks like. :)

thanks for everything guys xoxoxo