Colors of the Sea (A DNF Fanfiction)

Chapter 90: The Merfolk's Secret

After Dream had revealed his theory, the rebels had started looking for that way to get out that he had calculated had to be somewhere.

Knowing that he wouldn't be much of a help, George had started observing the map.

The empty middle was bothering him. It looked like it had always been meant to be like that and he hadn't found anything proving that something had been erased. What was the meaning of this?

Not that he really cared, but for some reason he felt like if he could figure out the secret of the map, maybe he would also find a way out.

Something was off about the huge gates marking the citys entrance, he felt like he had seen them before. But where? Not during his private lessons, he was sure.

The rest of the map was also not revealing much. George had never seen that landscape before, not even on a map.

He was a little worried. Although he still believed that theory with another species was stupid, the fact that there was a city displayed here that was almost the size of the capital city of the merfolk but that he had never heard of worried him.

A whole city can't just disappear like that...!

Disappear... George got up and swam towards the library. He began hastily looking through the book titles until he found something that could be useful, an atlas.

Carefully flipping through the old pages, he continued his search until a piece of paper fell out and slowly drifted towards the ground. George caught it and opened it, revealing a bunch of notes and sketches.

On the bottom of the page was a drawing, just an outline and a few words. A bunch of underwater islands and a measurement scale. Apparently these islands were pretty huge. On the biggest, the person who had drawn it had made an x.

George's breath shivered as he read the word beside it. He rushed back to the big map in the center of the room and compared the sketch to it.

It matched, the detailed artwork on the floor was a closer look at the big island on the sketch and the white space was exactly where the x was.

Following his instincts, George slowly wrote the word on the sketch on the ground into the white void with his finger.

For a moment nothing happened. But then all of a sudden, the map opened in the middle and moved away to the sides, revealing a hole in the ground that was the size of several sunfish.

"Wow...", Dream mumbled from behind, "guess you found the exit." "Yeah", George whispered.

"Hey, someone catch a few of the glowing fish!", Drean commanded and swam over to George. "Hey, you okay? You're shivering..."

The merman didn't answer at first and when he did, his voice was so quiet Dream almost couldn't understand him even though he was right next to him. "I... I know what they were looking for."

He turned around and faced Dream, who was shocked to see his fearful expression. "Promise me... promise me this room will always stay a secret..."

"Hey... yeah, of course...", Dream mumbled in shock. His friend looked like being in this room was threatening his life.

When Technoblade arrived with a bunch of the glowing fish behind them, George grabbed one and swam down the hallway as fast as he could, pressing a piece of paper to his chest, tears in his eyes.

Dream quickly followed him, but had trouble keeping up with him. "Hey, what's going on?"
No answer.

By making a big jump forward, Dream was able to catch up to George. He grabbed the merman's wrist and pulled him back. Suddenly, they were face to face.

"Hey", Dream smiled softly. George sniffled. "Hi." A small blush covered his cheeks.

"I hate seeing you sad", Dream admitted quietly. "Whatever it is, we can work it out, okay?"

George turned his head away. "Just promise me the sirens won't find out about this project. It can never be started again."

Dream sighed. "Okay", he said softly. "I promise. Do you... wanna tell me why?" George kept quiet for a moment. "I... I'm afraid of what they would find out", he admitted.

"It could ruin the merfolk."