The waters of the ocean were dark, the sun had set hours ago, and the sunlight had stopped shining down through the water. The only thing illuminating their path was a torch, held high by Hurricane. Inferno knew that the light from the sun came from up above the water, and as a young mer, she had been filled with curiosity about the world above. But leaving the water was forbidden, and for good reason. A tragedy had destroyed all life above the water, and all of the earth-walkers had been killed. Above the surface was nothing but carnage, fire, and ruin. The only life anymore was in the oceans, the humans above the water had destroyed themselves, and the only reason the mer and ocean life had survived was because the queen had cast a protection spell over the oceans. This had all happened hundreds upon hundreds of years ago, the queen, a mermaid named Nixa, was a powerful witch. She had cast a spell to keep the humans from being able to touch the oceans, protecting all of it's creatures, and the surface world had destroyed itself. Nixa had gone down in legends as Nixa the Savior, the protector of the oceans. 

 Inferno was pulled from her thoughts by Tetra, who was pulling her arm. "What?"

 "You were drifting off, stay awake. We're nearly there."

 In  front of them a massive cliff loomed high above their heads, it reminded Inferno of a fortress. Tsunami swam down towards the base of the cliff, running her hands along the veins of silver that ran through the stone. She seemed to find a certain rock, and gave it a twist. There was a loud crack, one that sent tremors rippling throughout the water. The base of the cliff seemed to be widening, two rocks sliding to separate sides, revealing a small hole at the bottom of the cliff. 

 "It'll be tight, but everyone should be able to squeeze through."

 Flicking her tail, Tsunami propelled herself through the hole. Tetra followed her, but Hurricane indicated the Inferno should go first. Swimming down, Inferno pulled herself through the hole, feeling the rock scraping at her scales. Then she was in a small cave, when Hurricane squeezed in behind her, Inferno heard a thud as the rock passage closed behind them.

  The cave led out to a small tunnel, which went on for what seemed like miles. When they finally made it out of the tunnel, they were in an immense cavern. Inferno could see mer swimming around, the soft light from the candles casting a yellow glow over the cavern. She could see starlight shining down from the small holes in the roof, and she could hear soft lute music playing. 

  "Tsunami? Is that you? You've cut your hair!," a tall orca mer swam forward and crushed Tsunami in a hug. "I was wondering how long it would take you to find your way here."

 "Forgive me for the delay brother, but we have run into our fair share of obstacles."

 Now that Inferno's eyes had adjusted to the low light in the cavern, she realized just how similar looking the two orca mer were. Of course all orca mer had black tails with two white patches just below their hips, but the similarities of these two mer went far beyond their tails. Both had ebony hair, and clever green eyes. They both had sharp cheekbones and a proud tilt to their heads. Inferno noticed that the male orca mer had black tattoos running down his arms and across his back. Inferno recognized some of the black symbols on his back, they were the same as the tattoo's on Tsunami. 

  Turning to the group Tsunami said, "Everyone meet my older brother, Riptide."

  "Pleasure."

"Nice to see you again mate."

"Hello there Rip, how's your wife?"

  Riptide led the small group to a cave, and, pushing the curtain of green seaweed to one side, he gestured for them to make themselves comfortable. "You can rest here for the night, and I'll introduce you to 'The Band' tomorrow."