Under the Waves

Bottomless Blue

I'll tell you a tale of the bottomless blue

And it's hey to the starboard, heave ho

Look out, lad, a mermaid be waiting for you

In mysterious fathoms below

Prince Renzo Shima leaned off the starboard side of a great fishing boat. He was on his way to find a bride as his parents had told him. His dog, Yamantaka, barked excitedly beside him.

"Isn't this awesome? The smell of the sea, the wind blowing through your hair!" He laughed. "A perfect day to be at sea!"

"Oh....delightful." his advisor, Saburota, groaned, leaning back over the side to empty what little was left in his stomach.

"A fine strong wind and a following sea! King Satan must be in a friendly type mood!" A sailor cheered. Shima looked at him. "King Satan?"

"Ay, lad! The ruler of the merpeople! Right every good sailor knew about him!" Another sailor mentioned.

Saburota sighed. "Merpeople. Renzo, pay no attention to this nautical nonsense." The second sailor from before hounded after the advisor with a fish flopping in his hand. "Why, it ain't nonsense, it's the truth! I'm telling ya, down in the depths of the ocean, they live!"

Fathoms below, below

From whence wayward Westerlies blow

Where Satan is king and his merpeople sing

In mysterious fathoms below

Heave ho, heave ho

§~•~§~•~§

Rin was the youngest of his brothers, the nine princes of Atlantis. He was the most beloved by their father, King Satan.

He also got in trouble more than any of his brothers. See, Rin liked to wander off most of the time. He looked to find things from the world above him and keep them for himself.

So of course he forgot about his debut.

He couldn't blame his father for being mad this time. He should've remembered......

Rin smiled sheepishly at his father's angry expression. But if Rin was honest with himself, he didn't want the entire kingdom to see his tentacles, or judge him on his voice, which was a pleasant tenor, or so he was told.

Yes, tentacles. All the other princes had Satan's genes, his rugged looks or his fish tail. Rin, however, had miraculously come out a spitting image of his mother-all slim muscles and swirling black tentacles and pretty blue eyes. And Satan loved him for it. Unfortunately, Rin was the last child Queen Yuri gave him before she died in an unfortunate shipwreck accident. Rin had no doubt that if she were still alive, he'd have many younger siblings by now.

"Irresponsible and reckless! Because of your behavior, the entire celebration was ruined!" The King growled. Rin rolled his eyes at the wise old crab agreeing with the king. Shiro was an old albino crab that had outlived his relatives by years and was the King's advisor.

Rin's best friend, Kuro, immediately jumped to his defense. "B-but! There was this shark! Yeah, a shark! And then he went RAWWW! and we swam away, but he was like ARRGH! and then whoo! We were safe!" Now, Kuro could've stopped there, but no, he had to open his big mouth.

"And then, there was this seagull and he was going 'this is this, and that is that'-" Satan stopped him in his tracks.

"Seagull?! You went to the surface, didn't you?!"