Areteanni:Daughter of Poseidon

Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Summer Solstice

Percy

Waking up in Oceanae is wonderful. I was told that it was always serene and refreshing. This morning however is quite the opposite. I woke up to the busy bustling of merfolk and siren alike in preparations for this morning's ceremony. It seemed like the Summer Solstice was a much anticipated festival here. To the netizens of Oceanae it was a day of happiness, song, dance and overall the joy of birth.

I trudged- well more of floated- out of my enormous anemone bed and decided to pay my sister a visit considering my whole family would be busy. My father would be busy with kingly duties, Tyson would be busy in the forgery- probably eating peanut butter with his other cyclopes bretheren- and Areteanni should be resting, keeping away from the public eye. No one knew that the Siren Queen had returned and it would stay that way until the ceremony.

Fortunately for me, her chambers were in the same wing of the palace as my quarters. I swam a few rooms down to her ginormous door that was apparently guarded by two sirens with some mean looking spears that could do some real damage. One was a blonde and the other a brunette. They both had silver tails because they were just ordinary sirens. But the blonde had a glowing aqua spiralling tattoo on her right bicep and the brunette had a red one on hers, indicating that they were Andrina's and Elodia's 'frylings' as Areteanni called them. Weird, I know, but at this point in my life I don't consider anything weird anymore.

"Who are you and what is your purpose here?" the blonde bluntly interrogated me. I was about to answer when the brunette recognized me.

"I believe this is Lord Poseidon's demigod son, Sybil." the brunette informed her sister who was apparently called Sybil. Both of their eyes roamed all over me and for some reason I had the urge to gulp nervously. Damn sirens and their gorgeous and intimidating looks. Luckily, I wasn't mortal so I was able to endure their very emasculating stare.

"Prince Perseus, how may we... serve you?" the brunette asked in a... seducting tone? Ok, this is so wrong on so many levels. I was about to tell her off and make my point when her sister came to my rescue.

"Easy, Maliea. Prince Perseus isn't here for that. Have you come to visit our Queen?" Sybil asked and I gratefully nodded. Maliea pouted slightly but I know she was just fooling around with me. Sybil and Maliea stepped aside and let me into the room. I swam gingerly in and the door behind me shut. I had to gasp in amazement at what I saw inside. Areteanni's room was glorious. It was twice the size of mine and that meant it was gigantic. Her room was illuminated by hundreds of glowing purple, aqua and royal blue stalagmites on her very high-up ceiling. She had no windows but balconies on three out of four sides of her room. The floors were made of a magnificent royal blue marble. Her anemone bed was in the middle of the room laiden with a teal silk-like kelp blanket. The four marble pillars that connected her three balconies had engraved images of her four daughters, each holding out a pearl in their hands. Both sides of the bed's head was choraled by two big glowing purple stalagmites. On the foot of her bed sat a very ancient but intriguing looking chest. I wonder what it contained?

"That chest contains all that I am down here in Oceanae." a voice startled my gawking at the room. I looked towards the main balcony and there stood my sister in her human form. She still looked as ravishing as I first saw her and probably will be. Instead of just her scaly outfit, she was clad in a knee-length see-through torquoise toga above her scaly attire.

"Oh, hey. That explains the bodyguards outside." I joked and she smiled gently as I swam over to her.

"I hope Sybil and Maliea didn't give you too much trouble. Sybil is a great warrior albeit strict and Maliea is quite intelligent but sometimes she can be a bit vapid. But I assure you they mean no harm." she explained as we looked out the balcony at the busy bustling of both merfolk, nereids, cyclopes and sirens alike.