HoloPirates: A Tale of Adventure

Ruler

"Alright, all of you out of the cart." Philip said as we neared the gates of the palace. "Y'all are on foot from here."
As we piled out of the cart, I gripped the shark tooth in my hand, not wanting to let go of the only bargaining chip that we had. Once all of us had exited the cart, Philip walked up to the large stone wall that encircled the perimeter of the palace, and he started talking to some of the guards that stood around, watching us.
"Bringing them to see the Empress." He said, grabbing a beautiful lantern out of one of the guard's hands. "Urgent business."
"I'm sure she'll be happy to see you, Officer Philip." They said, parting before us.
He turned back to us, and he waved us forward, through the pearly gates of the courtyard and it on what looked like a massive garden. As we entered the perimeter of the garden, I began to notice that along with having grass and trees, there was also an abundant amounts of coral, seaweed, kelp, and many other plants that had glowing, glistening, or pulsating parts, displayed throughout the garden in a very showy fashion. Along the rows and ridges of the garden, there were also tons of statues, from simple crabs, to Leviathans. But, as I glanced down the row of the garden, something caught my eye, and I stopped dead in my tracks. Down about forty feet away from me, there was a statue of a man, holding a quill in his right hand, raised behind and above his head, and out of the tip of the quill, there was a bolt of lightning, zigzagging through the air and striking the book that he held in his left hand. And yet, that part wasn't what caught me the most off guard about him.
It was that it looked IDENTICAL to the Storyteller. I tapped Marine to get her attention, and when she looked over, her eyes widened.
"Is that.."
"Yeah, its him." I said.
"But- but how do they know about him?"
"Haven't a clue." I said, then I turned to Amelia.
"What?" She said.
"Is the Storyteller worshipped in this world?"
"Uhm, not really." She said. "Some people know about him, sure, but no one really worships him."
"Then why is there a statue of him?"
"Why is there a city underwater? Not too sure, but I guess we'll figure it out."
I nodded, then turned back to the palace, at all of the flickering lights that shone through the gigantic stone pillars, a product of the beautiful braziers that burned bright with orange, flickering flames. We kept going along a nicely lit street, passing up large manors, houses, and orchards along the way, and finally, we got up to the enormous entrance to the palace. In front of us, there was a gargantuan set of oak doors, engraved with an image of a large merman holding a golden trident, his black, obsidian eyes having a very unsettling gleam that gave me the chills.
"Alright, you are about to see our great ruler. While in her presence, do not be disrespectful. Let me do the talking at first, and do not speak to her unless she talks to you first, do all of you understand?"
We gave him an assortment of nods, and he planted his hands on the massive doors and pushed, forcing the doors to open inward to allow us inside. We wove around Philip to enter the palace, and once inside, I was instantly taken aback by the beauty. Nowhere, and I do mean nowhere, in either my world, or this one, could ever compare to the throne room. It was absolutely gargantuan, stretching about a hundred and fifty feet tall, with massive stone pillars and arches that donned the ceiling of the structure. There were enormous and beautiful works of art painted all over the ceiling, depicting tons and tons of the fish people, in ceremonies, piloting the leviathans, and participating in battles with regular ships on the surface. My eyes traced their way over the intricate patterns and sculpting that was dominating the support columns, and my eyes eventually rested on the floor of the palace, being entirely made out of glass. I gasped at the sight of the floor, with all of the intricate patterns and designs that caught my eyes, and I noticed that underneath the floor, there was a huge pool of water, swirling and churning against the bottom of the glass floor, and in the pool of water, there were hundreds and hundreds of fish, swimming around in the churning water.
"Wow." I said, somehow getting words out of my mouth. "Its amazing!!"
"Its beautiful." Jansen said to the left of me.
I heard a small grunt from behind me, and when I turned, I saw Botan staring nervously at the floor, fidgeting uncomfortably.
"You gonna be okay?"
She looked up, startled at my voice, but she immediately composed herself and nodded.
"I'll be fine."
I nodded and turned back to the throne room, but suddenly, a woman's voice boomed through the palace, echoing and reverberating off of the columns and walls.
"STEP FORWARD." The voice echoed.
As the woman's voice blasted throughout the room, I got a nervous feeling in my gut. The voice sounded ancient, powerful, and, in a way, a little bit like Fauna, from the Isle of Animals, what seemed like so long ago. I kept silent as all of us trotted our ways forward, careful not to bump into anything, and eventually we were standing in the middle of the throne room, in front of a large, empty fire pit that dominated the middle of the room. As we passed the fire pit, a shimmer of light appeared from the far end of the room, and suddenly, a large section of the floor, all around us, began to rise, in the shape of an oval, and all the way around the top of the oval, there was dozens of large empty, thrones, made mostly of wood or stone, but at the end of the palace, opposite us, there was a single throne that was occupied. It was blue and cushy, almost like a La-Z-boy recliner, but on the side of it, there was a large stand, like for holding a microphone, but it was made entirely out of gold. However, the seat was occupied, and when I saw them, my head clouded itself with confusion.
It was a little girl. She had to have been no more than ten years old, maybe being only four or five feet tall, but despite that, her middle back length hair was pearly white, with two little shark ornaments that supported long twin tails that extended down to her stomach. Even from the distance that we were standing from her, her bright blue ocean eyes were clearly visible to all of us. However, despite the elegant appearance of her face, the only other clothes that she wore was an oversized shark themed hoodie, with white and blue sneakers that covered her feet. She lounged on the chair quite lazily, but as we made eye contact, she grinned.
And I collapsed. As I laid on the floor, clutching my sick stomach, I heard that little girl's voice, the same one from inside the Rift, echo throughout the chamber.
"I am Gawr Gura, the Goddess of the Sea." She said. "And welcome, all of you, to the Great City of Atlantis."