“You are unique, Draco. As the descendant of a sorcerer king, you have the ability to sense the magical gems. That ability will be helpful during your search for the Ice Diamond. Now you must leave. The guards are about to open the door and check inside the Chamber Room. You don’t want to be caught in here.”
As the Sapphire finished speaking, Draco found himself being tugged in the back. He grasped quickly, snatching Cutie, and was immediately pulled back into the chamber room.
“Ow! Ow!” Cutie bellowed in pain, trying to loosen Draco’s grip on her.
“I’m so sorry,” Draco let her go, “I didn’t mean to hurt you. I just tried to grab you so that you wouldn’t get stuck in that dimension. You said you would die if we were separated between dimensions.”
Draco heard a click at the door. The guards had unlocked it and were slowly pushing the door open. In a panic, Draco transformed into the first thing that crossed his mind, a phoenix. The enormous roc of fire flapped its wings threateningly as the guards entered. An instant terror etched itself onto both of their faces. They dropped their tridents and shot from the room, toward the royal guard chambers, screaming for help.
“Uh oh!” Draco turned back into a human and then a fly. He needed a quick escape and knew that if he tried the floor, there would be a possibility of getting squashed in the onslaught of guards to come. As Draco and Cutie flew out the door, staying as close to the ceiling as possible to avoid detection, they witnessed what seemed to be every guard in the palace rushing toward the Chamber Room. They held their Water Tridents at the ready.
Draco was impressed that in their hurry they'd still shown enough sense to bring tridents that shot out water to fight a flaming bird.
“Now that was fun!” Cutie did twirls in the air as she laughed mischievously. “I can’t believe you turned into a phoenix. I take that back. I can’t believe those guards didn’t have a heart attack or pee their armor when they saw you! What possessed you to scare them stiff?”
“I didn’t do it on purpose. I panicked! When I heard the door opening I turned into the first thing that came to my mind. Don’t ask me why a phoenix. I don’t even know. All I know is that I was thinking I could fly out of the room over their heads.”
“Well, I hope you believe me now, Master. Don’t you see? It takes mixing magic in order to create a phoenix; fire and wind to be exact. You were able to do it so easily. I told you that you were stronger than you thought.”
Draco swelled with pride. “We need to get back to my room! Hurry!”
As they fled, Draco heard one of the guards say, “But it was right here. We saw it! I swear!”
They traveled down to the first floor and found it deserted. Draco turned back into his human form and walked with Cutie to his room. He decided to take a bath after all of the excitement, then went into the bathroom and took off his clothes.
Looking into the large mirror above the sink he saw Cutie floating in place behind him. She had followed him into the bathroom, unaware of where he was going or what he was about to do. Now she was blushing the deepest scarlet. Draco had ever seen her blush and covering her eyes, sort of. She had her fingers spread so that she could still see.
“What are you doing, Cutie?” Draco jumped into the empty bathtub to use it for cover.
“I’m sorry, Master. I didn’t know you were going to take a bath. You didn’t tell me, so I just followed you in here. I’ll go now.” She turned her back and flew toward the door. Then she gave her final words for the evening. “By the way, Master, you really are a dragon king.”
She blushed again and so did Draco. Then she left the room, but Draco was almost positive he heard her give a small growl, and not an angry one.
The following morning found the palace reverberating with noise. People were rushing everywhere, some putting up decorations, others bellowing out orders. The day brought with it the royal wedding. Draco woke to the excessive noise and turned his head to the side. Lying next to him, her body curled on the pillow, making her no longer than a pinky, Cutie continued to snooze. Her snores were as cute as anything else about her. She looked like a tiny and fragile porcelain doll and her snores were nothing more than barely audible kitten purrs. Draco got up and dressed in his finest apparel. It wasn't really wedding apparel, but he didn't own anything appropriate and with all the events of the past few months he had completely forgotten to pick something up. He didn't even know what qualified as wedding apparel in Atlantian culture. Tuxedos were a human custom.
At that moment there was a knock on the door and Cutie jerked awake, fully alert.
Draco started toward the door, but Cutie flew at top speed for the handle and prepared to open it. It took her entire body to open the door. With her arms outstretched, gripping two portions of the round doorknob, she spread her legs and stretched them as far as they would go, hooking her feet around the bottom of the doorknob. Using her wings to give her momentum, she spun in place and the door unlatched. She then began flying backwards, huffing and puffing, opening the door at a rather slow tempo.
Draco burst out laughing, unable to contain it despite his best efforts.
“It’s not funny!” Cutie protested defensively. “I was only serving you, Master.” She sat on top of the doorknob and stared at him with a pout on her face.
“I’m sorry, Cutie, really! I didn’t mean to laugh at you. It was just so cute! If only I had a camera. I wish I could have taken a picture of it. If you saw what you looked like, I bet you would have laughed too.”
Curiosity overcame her pouting.
“What’s a camera?”
She flew across the room and landed on her master’s shoulder.
“Never mind. I will show you someday, when we go up to the surface world, but for now we’ve got my wedding to prepare for.” Finally registering who was at the door, Draco went forward to greet him.
“Hello, lad. What ya doing with a fairy?” Eri stared at Cutie suspiciously. “Fairies never hang around merfolk. They may talk to us sometimes, but they never hang around us.”
“She’s my friend, Eri.” Draco gave Eri a hug of greeting and introduced him to Cutie. “What are you doing here? I didn’t expect to see you until the wedding started.”
Eri gave a great smile and winked.
“Just thought I’d bring ya yer wedding outfit.”
He held up a gorgeous suit and cape embroidered with sapphires and pearls. The cape was a glaring silver that flowed down, slightly past Draco’s knees. The design of the suit was also extravagant. The cuffs were filled with pearls, there were lines of sapphires traveling up the arms, the neck collar looked like a necklace with sapphires all around and one large pearl directly below where the chin would go, and there were swirls of sapphires all throughout the front and back of the silver material, which looked like seasilk.
“Just made her last night,” Eri told him. “Took me a long time to get her to my liking. It was a pain getting her dyed silver to match yer hair. Hope ya like her.”
“I do.” Draco eyed it suspiciously. “This wouldn’t happen to be what you needed all of that seasilk for yesterday, would it?”
Eri gave a smirk, shut the door, and said, “Let’s try her on before ya head outside.”
Cutie flew over to the corner of the room and watched attentively, sitting on top of the music box Alana had given Draco as Draco started taking off his clothes. He stopped with his shirt halfway over his head. “How long do you plan on watching, Cutie? Turn around for a little bit, would you?” With that, Cutie let out a disappointed sigh and flipped around.
As Draco put the new suit on, he told Eri of how he met Cutie. When he was finished, another knock came on the door. “Who could that be? It can’t be Alana. The bride isn’t supposed to see the groom before the wedding. It ruins the surprise.” Without waiting for someone to open the door, King Aquarius turned the knob and entered.
“Oh, good, Son.” His eyes glowed with a newly found joy. “I am looking forward to today. I
am a little worried, though. My guards have been put on full alert and are searching every inch of the palace. There was some horrible creature in the palace last night and I don’t want it roaming about to harm anyone.”
“Uh, Aqua.” Draco knew he had to tell the king the truth in order to avoid unnecessary actions. “There was no horrible creature in the palace last night. The creature the guard saw in the Sapphire Chamber Room was me.” The king’s expression hardened at the news.
“What are you saying, Son?” He demanded. Draco asked the king to sit and then began to explain the whole incident to him.
“You see, I had to enter the room because it was very urgent, but since you weren’t there I snuck inside. When the guards opened up the door on me, I panicked and scared them away.”
“That’s preposterous! I’ve never heard such a story.”
“I’ll show you.” As he spoke, he disappeared and another phoenix flapped its wings in the space he used to be in. He flew over to the bed, perched upon it, and spoke, “You see, Aqua. The creature they saw was just me.” He then turned back into a man.
“I’ll need to hear a good reason as to why you snuck into the Sapphire Chamber Room last night, Draco. I never would have expected it from you and I’m shocked.” Draco explained about his strange merman form, Eri backing him up the entire time. “So, you snuck into the Chamber Room to find out why you were different than every other merman? What did the Sapphire tell you?”
“He told me many things that I cannot tell you, but I can tell you this. He said that I am a descendant of sorcerer kings. The silver hair I have is proof of that because all of the sorcerer kings have silver hair.” At this news, the king’s eyes sparkled.
“You are a royal descendant! This is wonderful news. I never would have expected this. I must inform everyone immediately.”
“No, Aqua. You can’t!” Draco moved faster than he thought possible, cutting off King Aquarius’s departure. He seemed to have used wind magic to speed himself toward the door instinctively. “No one must know about this, not just yet. I probably shouldn’t have told you about this because the only ones who need to know are Alana and me, but I had to tell you because I thought it impolite to hide it from my future father-in-law. Please promise me that you will keep this secret. When I am allowed to make my royalty known, then I will allow you to tell them, but until that day, I need this to remain a secret. Can you do that as well Eri? Neither of you can inform a soul about this. Promise?”
Both of them gave an affirmative nod and the king departed for the wedding hall. Eri finished helping Draco get ready and wished him luck. After his departure, Draco was left alone to contemplate.
“Are you okay, Master?” Cutie flew over and sat on Draco’s thigh, staring up at him.
“I’m fine, Cutie. I’m just thinking about what the Sapphire told me last night. I have a strong feeling that he and the other gems have something else in store for me. I know they want me to recover the Ice Diamond, but what happens after that? Something about all of this makes me nervous. I’m also worried about Alana and you. I am dragging both of you into this as well. What if something happens to you guys because of this? Because of me?”
“It’ll be alright, Master.” Cutie flew up to Draco’s face. At eye level, she placed her hand delicately on his nose and began to stroke it like she was petting a horse’s snout. Draco found this funny, but comforting at the same time.
Cutie continued, “Alana is also powerful, although she doesn’t know it yet. Her power may not equal yours, but she isn’t an ordinary sorceress either. I can feel some hidden power deep inside her. Something that is just waiting to burst forth. If the two of you continue to practice and increase your powers, I guarantee that you will both come out of this alive.”
Cutie had to fight to keep her sorrow shut out of her voice or appearing on her face. Draco had said that he was worried about them both, but Cutie couldn’t help but feel that it was really Alana he was worried about, especially today.
“Thank you.” Those two words seemed to flood Draco’s consciousness with relief the moment they left his lips. It would all be fine. Nothing bad would happen to any of them. He knew it as though it were an undeniable fact and he trusted in that feeling to guide him.
The wedding hall, as King Aquarius called it, was nothing more than the dining hall. The large dining hall had been temporarily remodeled. Instead of one large table in the middle, there were many tables along each side. The guests were to sit at each table, their chairs turned to face the end of the hall farthest from the doors, where a temporary platform had been erected. On the platform were three thrones. The largest one in the middle was obviously for King Aquarius and on either side was a smaller throne. Draco could only suspect that they were meant for both him and Alana. Draco was instructed to go and sit on the king’s right side. As he walked up toward the platform, King Aquarius stepped out of a side door and took his seat on the platform. After arriving, the king gestured for Draco to sit.
“So, Son. It is finally the day.” King Aquarius was back to his cheerful self. “I’ve informed my guards that there is no need to continue the search for the creature. When they asked me why, I told them you destroyed the creature last night. Remember that, because you will have to stick to that story if you want to keep what happened last night a secret.”
“Thank you, Aqua. I will, of course, have to tell Alana all about what happened last night after the wedding because I can’t hide the truth from her. I will stick to your story for everyone else though.”
“I wouldn’t expect it any other way. What’s wrong, Draco? You seem flustered.”
“I don’t know what to do. This is nothing like a wedding where I come from. Can you tell me what I’m supposed to do?”
“Well first off, you do nothing except sit here. Alana will come in through the main doors and walk up to the platform. She will then bow to me, then you, and take her seat next to me. I will stand up, make a speech, and then the real ceremony begins. I will move back to my throne and remain standing. At that point, both of you will rise, and kneel in front of me. I will ask you some questions which you will answer with ‘I so swear to do’ and then I will pass a goblet to Alana. She will drink from it and then hand it to you. You will then drink from it. After that, I will ask you two to rise and kiss. Then the ceremony is complete. I must warn you now that the drink in the goblet tastes really dreadful. Try not to make a face when you drink it, okay?”
He laughed heartily at the look of mixed curiosity, confusion, and horror that stretched across every inch of Draco’s face, yet seemed to vanish as it reached his enchanted eyes. No matter what expression he wore, Draco was no longer capable of showing it in his eyes, which were constantly changing and never in focus long enough for another to read.
The next few minutes passed in silence. King Aquarius sat in his regal posture, inclining his head slightly toward each guest that entered and took a seat. Draco sat, running through what King Aquarius told him, determined not to forget any of it. He was so intent and lost in thought that he jumped slightly as Captain Orion entered the hall and slammed his trident into the floor for attention.
“Ladies and Gentleman! I present Princess Alana.”
He stepped aside and bowed. All of the guests stood and likewise bowed toward the door. Draco stayed seated, only because the king had grabbed his arm to inform him to remain thus.
Draco lost all breath as Alana entered the room. She was still wearing the blood earrings and ring Draco had given her, which she never removed except to sleep. Her outfit was both elegant and shocking. She was wearing a one piece bikini of seasilk that looked like it had been put through a paper shredder. There were four “X” patterns connecting the bottom to the top, each pattern relatively thin, one across her stomach, her lower back, and one on each of her sides. Her top and bottom were provocative. They covered just enough to keep Draco’s mind wandering and keep her decency, but nothing else. Dangling from her top and
bottom were threads of seasilk with sapphires dripping from them. It looked almost like a Native American bead design dangling over her breasts and her thighs. Draco snapped his jaw shut before anyone had time to notice it and quickly wiped the drool from the corner of his mouth.
He found himself questioning if he were only dreaming about the wedding and still in bed. The dress Alana was wearing was nothing like he'd expected a wedding dress to look like. It looked more like something that would be saved for the honeymoon. Alana was as beautiful as an angel wearing a devious and seductive outfit of a little devil.
Although the outfit was provocative, the innocence that radiated from Alana seemed to ease the sexual tension. Only Draco seemed affected by the outfit, probably because the others were used to the design as proper wedding attire, but it was not familiar to Draco due to his surface upbringing. The calm in the room depleted Draco's desires and he found himself looking at the beauty in front of him with a new kind of emotion. He was the luckiest merman alive to be marrying this precious woman and he found himself wondering if the lack of sexual energy in the air was what it used to be like on the surface before lust corrupted the purity and natural beauty of the body.
The speech King Aquarius gave lasted over half an hour. He went on and on about how proud he was to have his daughter marry a man of such honor and noble stock, a man she loved wholeheartedly and who showed every sign of being able to rule a country. At this, Draco tensed up, afraid that King Aquarius would let his royal background slip, something he knew the king was hinting at countless times in the speech. Luckily, no one understood the subtle hints that King Aquarius gave. He continued on about how he was putting every trust in Draco to protect his daughter and love her for the rest of their lives.
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