Aquaman

Chapter 7

"It's hot.." Althea whined as she undid her braid and then fanned herself, "Yeah, I know how much you hate the heat." Arthur comments. Althea then rubs her stomach as nausea begins to build "Getting airsick?" Arthur asks, noticing her look. She nodded and lays down on his lap "Air sick?" Mera asks, Arthur nods and combs his fingers through his daughter's hair "She gets nauseous whenever we fly."

Mera looks out the window of the small cargo plane they're in "I've never been this high up..or so far from home.." she says, Arthur scoffs "At least you have a home." He answers "Not anymore." Mera interjects "I turned my back on Atlantis when I saved you from the coliseum." She explains looking at him then at the resting princess. 

"Well at least you don't have to marry someone you didn't love." Arthur tried to brighten the situation "I didn't do it for love." Mera answers "I did it because it was my duty. You don't do things for love, you do it because it's right. Even if your heart aches for it..." they were silent for the rest of the trip.

Maybe a few hours later Mera's gps beeps indicating that they were here "We're here." She announces, Althea sits up and rubs her eyes, nudging Arthur awake in the process "Hey, what's near this place?" Arthur asks, "Nothing except for sand for thousands of miles." The pilot responds. Arthur looks at Mera as she goes to open the side door "Hey, you heard him. Nothing's out there."

That doesn't stop Mera from opening the door "Hey what are you doing?!" The pilot yells, "Mera, didn't I just say-?!" "Hold tight Althea." Mera grabs her hand and jumps out without giving the teenager warning. Arthur shrugs his arms "Redheads, you gotta love them." He tells the pilot, before jumping out too.

Needless to say it was a bumpy landing, Althea sits up and spits out a bunch of sand. Arthur goes over to see if she's ok while Mera gets up brushing sand off of her, "This way." She says and begins to walk off, Althea and Arthur both get up to follow her "Yo Mera, next time don't jump out of a plane with my daughter in tow."

(Get ready for a big time jump)

Althea stares down the hole that Arthur fell through, he had been arguing with Mera about how they were lost before he fell. Mera sighs and looks at the sky "If he is the true king then we're doomed." Before jumping in too. Althea hesitates for a few more seconds before jumping in herself. She goes down what seems to be a slide of sand, twisting and turning every other way before sliding off, she screams as she falls before Mera and Arthur grab both of her arms.

"Gah! Ahh!" Althea yells as she looks to the long fall below her, Mera and Arthur both pull the girl up and she lands on her back. Althea puts a hand to her chest and feels her heart beating fast "I think I had my first heart attack." She says, Arthur and Mera both laugh at that, Arthur pats his daughter on the shoulder "Well, you're not that old yet squirt." He says before looking up and seeing an old doorway "Hey look what I found." He says getting up.

"What you found?" Mera asks, looking annoyed "Yeah." Arthur walks towards it and Mera gives Althea a look "You'll get used to it." She answers while getting up herself. Both of them caught up to Arthur and Althea couldn't help but look in awe around the room "This place is completely dried out, I can't believe there was water here before." She murmurs.

"There was lots of water covering the parts of Earth that have no water now." Arthur explains holding out his hand "Stay close Althea." She takes his hand just as she trips over something "Whoa!" Arthur was quick to steady her and Mera bends down to examine what Althea tripped on. It was a mold that looked like a trident.

They all looked at it "The legend is real. Vulko was right." Mera says, Althea walks away from them and to an old device, it was huge "What's this?" She asks pointing at it, Arthur and Mera approach it and Mera takes out the scroll "This is it." She says. Arthur and Althea watch as Mera places the scroll in its spot and then....nothing. Nothing happened.

"Nothing." Mera looked confused, Arthur got annoyed "Of course nothing happened. It's because this thing has been sitting here since before the Sahara was even a desert." He says, "Since before the Sahara was even a desert." Mera repeated getting an idea "Thank you for repeating what I just said." Arthur replied, "Dad.." Althea realized what Mera was getting at.

Mera looks at Arthur "It's completely dried out." She explains, he still didn't get it. Mera rolls her eyes and looks at Althea "Please explain it to him." She says "Dad, this place used to run on water. You said it yourself." Althea explained. Mera walks up to Arthur and places her hand in front of his face "Whoa, what are you doing?" He asks "It needs water and you're the closest source, now stay still." Mera focused and drew a drop of water from Arthur's forehead.

She then dropped it onto the scroll and it turned on. All three of them watched as the machine began to work again until an image of King Atlan appeared "Whoa.." Althea mutters, Arthur laughs "Show off. I could've just peed on it." Mera and Althea look at him in disgust.

"In this trident..." King Atlan began "Resides the power of Atlantis. In the wrong hands, it would bring destruction. But in good hands, it would unite all kingdoms above and below." He explained, "If you seek my power, you must prove your worth." 'Your worth?' Althea thought "Journey beyond the edge of the world to the hidden sea, look inside the bottle for charted path. Only in the hands of the true king, can he truly see." And with that conclusion, the message ended.

They all looked at each other before Mera took the scroll "We have to make sure Orm doesn't find this." Arthur and Althea agreed, she goes to smash it "Hey wait!" Arthur yells but Mera was quick to throw it on the ground, shattering it. She looked at him "What?" "Shouldn't we have written it down first?" "I memorized it..didn't you?" Arthur and Althea shared a look before saying "Oh yeah, we totally did." Mera raised her eyebrow "What did he say?"

"Something, something trident." Arthur answered, Althea hid her face in her hands. Suddenly something opened below them and they all jumped, Arthur was quick to grab Mera's hand and pull her back while pushing Althea behind him protectively. Mera looks at Arthur holding her hand and Arthur realized what he was doing and quickly let go, blushing a bit, Althea watched this and cleared her throat snapping both of them out of their thoughts.

Arthur grabs the bottle and opens it "Look inside the bottle for the charted path." He grabs a piece of paper and hands the bottle to Althea, he unrolls it and there on the map was a red dot. A destination. "Well, looks like that's where we're going." Althea's eyes lit up and she looked at Arthur excited "We're going to Italy?!"