Saving Exom, BTS Fantasy! AU

Two: Living Underwater

 The merprince's shining skin was much bluer underwater. His body and hair flowed weightlessly, and despite his objections, majestic royal fins coursed up and down as he swam further from the sun-shattered surface. Green gloom turned turquoise, and the black seafloor turned brown, soon sprinkled with many more shades. The prince's brows tensed, and his heart pounded at the sight of the sandy hinterlands of Maiadem.

On that tiered purple rock below sat those same four teenagers; the mermaid with the golden-orange tail waved and hooted at him. "Lookie, there's my favorite merman in the whole sea!" she always came up with something new to say. "Isn't he quite the catch?!"

The four of them appeared scrappy and emaciated to him, and they decorated themselves with oddball accouterments: human leftovers, plants that fell into the sea, and broken shell crowns. Did they have nothing better to do than lounge on their rock every day and harass everyone who entered the city?

A pang of envy numbed his chest.

Taehyung jutted his chin forward, arched his back in a princely manner, and kept swimming. Soon, nacre domes sprouted up from the coral-covered seafloor, all polished into a rainbow of houses. Taehyung always admired these, which he affectionately named the Mothers of Pearls. Then he saw the stalagmite towers that dropped from the sky long ago. The kingdom of Maiadem crept up around him like a living forest of sea stones. The city routes had convex floors tiled with teal prismarine shards and smooth purpur stones. White bulb sea lanterns luminesced proudly from beneath the exquisite sea glasses to exude an ethereal aura.

The city center was a tiled amoebic shape lined with buildings carved from white stone, and merpeople bustled to and fro, slashing the scene with bright reds, greens, and purples. No lines of customers cascaded from the doors of colorful shops today, but there seemed to be just enough wanderers, mermaids giggling, and mermen trying crab cakes for the prince to feel comforted. He blew past the pretty ones who attempted to bow to his highness.

He stiffened when he came past the fluted white pillars that led to Castle Maiadem, another cluster of stalagmites magnificent in size, shimmering, and lovely, dressed in teal and turquoise prismarine bricks. The sight of green and burgundy seagrasses on either side of the sandstone path was a breath of fresh air for the prince; he inhaled their scent to remind him of what awaited him the next time he traveled up the tunnel to his secret cave. Taehyung clasped a hand around his charm necklaces: a tiny bottle filled with pixie dust and a juicy-looking, fiery orange berry tethered to a vine. The delicate grasp did not tighten around the cowrie chain that fell around his body over one shoulder. This shell necklace was his least favorite.

He wished to shut his eyes as Castle Maiadem swallowed him whole. Trident-bearing guards on either side of the gate glanced aside and pretended to smile, as always. The prince had made yet another mistake. And his heart went hollow for it.

Taehyung passed the darkest, bluest part of the foyer and rose to the second floor, where he heard his advisor hyperventilating. That stupid squid shrieked when he saw him, and Taehyung rolled his eyes when he drifted over from having clung to the cavern wall. The prince's valet was a pedantic, nervous fellow, a slimy white squid with beady black eyes that appeared from beneath the pale blue lip of his bulbous, speckled cap. He could be cute if his voice were not so unbelievably unbearable. On days when the merprince lost all his patience, Taehyung wished he could grab that tiny creature and squeeze him.

"Sire, your father has approached me upon the matter of your whereabouts," quipped Geom, curling a feather of purple seaweed in his fourth arm.

"Approached you?" the prince scoffed.

"And your trident lessons. You have missed your session for a second time!"

"The word you're looking for is more along the lines of 'imposed.'"