Lance slowly lifted the necklace from Allura's palm, eyes wide. He didn't even know that it was in her family. Coran was Alfor's personal guard, and he'd become Allura's teacher when she was born. Lance had never really asked if Allura had a guard too- he just assumed that Coran would be "passed down" as the family's guard.

But now Allura was giving him the necklace, The Necklace, and he was almost afraid to touch it. This had been passed down for as long as the Altean line had been around, the family crest. It was simple, really, a 'V', but the tops of the points extended in. Lance had seen it drawn everywhere through his life. In the coral reef, a gifted mermaid once grew a patch of flowers and seagrass into the shape.

Lance had learned in History class- nearly 1/8 of the major mermaidian communities across the ocean were led by a descendant of the original Altean family. It was an ancient bloodline filled with the luminescence of leaders. Lance had laughed at the thought of a family reunion.

The job of a personal guard was given to the closest, worthiest friend of the leader of a community and their line. They were to protect and honor the bloodline, serve (but not in a weird way). And now Allura was asking Lance to be her guard and he really didn't know if she was asking the right person.

"Lance?" Allura asked. She looked stressed as ever, and he realized that she was waiting for his response.

"Yeah, of- I mean- Yes, yes, holy shit." Relief flooded over her face as Allura broke into a smile and pulled Lance into a hug, somehow attaching the necklace at the same time. Lance felt the weight on his collarbone and was hit with the responsibility of the whole thing. He inhaled shakily.

"Good, because I already have your trident." Lance froze, sail, flashing open.

"Are you serious?" he asked into her shoulder. Allura pulled back and grinned devilishly.

"Be right back," she said happily, then bolted into another room. Lance heard the muffled clatter of metal on stone, Allura groaning something that sounded like, "Quiznak!", and then watched her reemerge with the most beautiful trident Lance had seen.

Normally, the tridents that belonged to the guards were undecorated, straight, six-foot bars of metal with a three-pronged spear at the end. Sure, they were pretty, powerful, strong and intimidating. But the only other trident Lance had seen like this was Coran's ancient relic of a trident, engraved with seastars and bubbles and, of course, the Altean insignia.

But in Lance's opinion, this was even better. Allura placed the trident gently in his hands, then moving back to let him admire it. The metal was a shiny grey-blue, smooth and sturdy. Hues of periwinkle and sky-blue shone through as Lance twisted the trident around in his hands.

The top was the impressive part, though. Of course, it had three barbed points, dangerously sharp. Built into the prongs was the Altea crest, the V, laying in the two outermost points. There were no fancy etchings, no scratches at all, but there were pearls. Naturally a light, pastel pink, and wound by a wire around the prongs, the strands were the most beautiful adornment Lance had ever seen on a trident. He motioned for Allura to back up a little, and she did, giving him space to test it out.

The light metal made the staff easy to handle, and Lance was able to keep his light agility with the balance of the trident. Parry, thrust, duck, strike. Lance felt giddy with joy. Allura seemed pretty proud herself.

"Not to be insensitive..." she started, smiling nervously, "but we should really go."

...

"A boat?" Lance said questionably.

Allura nodded, flipping her hair out of her face. "He should be here any minute..."

The two bobbed under the water, underneath the pier in the harbor, right next to a small vessel. Above them, people walked and talked over the wooden slats of the boardwalk.

It was evening, too dark to see beneath the murky water, but Lance was still worried about being seen. After spending so much time up in the human world... it was odd to be just below it.

"Who?" Lance asked, just as a pair of feet dipped off the side of the pier into the water. Lance looked up, several meters below the surface, and noticed a tattoo of an anchor on the left ankle. "Is that him?"

Nodding, Allura slowly swam up to the surface, slow and careful- ready to retreat at any moment. The two of them surfaced beside the feet at the same time. Looking up, Lance was met with a man, probably early-fifties, wearing a suit and tie. His leather shoes were placed beside him, untied.

Without moving his head to look down at the two mers, the man began speaking. "Good evening, Ms. Altea and company. It is too crowded to have you change to your human forms on deck right now, so I'll throw out a rope for you. Grab hold of it. I'll tow you until we're a good distance away, and then you can come on deck." He had a thick, Spanish accent and dark, curly hair that flopped over his forehead. Something about him seemed vaguely familiar.

"Affirmative," Allura replied, so softly that only Lance and the boatsman could hear. He nodded, then took his feet out of the water and walked over to the boat. Lance and Allura ducked back under water to wait for the long tow rope that he surreptitiously threw into the water behind the boat.

The two mers took hold of it, Lance doing so one-handedly as he held his trident, Allura beside him. "Ally, who is he?" Lance asked, waiting for the man to untie the motorboat from the dock and prepare for leaving.

"His name's Ernesto. He's a mer who was changed by Lotor who lives here now- his old community is by an island somewhere southwest of the Dark Kingdom stronghold. He agreed to drive us to the warfront because if we can win this war, then the stronghold will lose too, and his community will be safe again." Allura paused, "All communities will be safe again."

Lance nodded, rubbing his thumb nervously on the shaft of the trident. It felt like he'd been stuck in a current ever since he'd stepped into the ocean again. He used to think that his village was so calm, that nothing happened there, but now it felt like the opposite.

A hundred or so mers has left from his community to go fight in the war, including his father. He'd been ripped from Keith, become Allura's personal guard, and now they were diving right into the heart of battle, completely unaware of what would happen.

He looked down at himself; he was still wearing Keith's shirt. Smiling sadly, Lance rubbed his bracelet, the one Keith had given him, and hoped that Keith was wearing his as well. The danger of the situation was immeasurable, more than Lance had even thought of before. It was hard to think that just this morning, he'd been laying with Keith, peaceful, unaware that he was about to engage in a war between a century-long feud of Mers and the Galra.

The rope yanked taught, and Lance tightened his grip as the boat peeled off of the deck, weaving slowly through the boats of the crowded harbor. Allura's bright hair trailed behind her in the water, and her face was set. Lance decided to tell her now, "Allura, whatever happens down there, you've gotta know that I love you no matter what and I'll try my hardest to be the best personal guard for you."

Allura looked over at Lance, smiling, "I know, Lance. I already know you're the best guard I could ask for."

...

Water rushed by Lance's face as the boat picked up speed, leaving the harbor, glowing with lights, behind quickly. After a few minutes, the boat slowed, then stopped, and Lance and Allura swam up to the back of the small boat where a ladder was positioned. Allura climbed up the rungs using only her hands, the muscles in her biceps rippling. Lance treaded water beneath the ladder, waiting for her.

Another wrung and Allura heaved herself up onto the deck, barely having enough time to call "don't look!" At Ernesto and Lance before she'd transformed into her human form, immediately wrapping herself in a towel from the bench next to her. She leaned over the side of the boat, looking down at Lance, and held out her hand for his trident. He passed it up, then prepared himself to climb onto the boat.

However, as soon as heaved himself onto the deck, the warm, summer night air warming his wet back, he didn't change. Confused, Lance looked up at Allura, who was covering her mouth with her hand, shock covering her features.

"Well, this could be a minor inconvenience," Lance muttered, slapping the deck with his tail. Ernesto just stared at him, his tail, his face, silent. Wow, he was a real help.

Biting her lip (and somehow managing to not let her towel slip from around her torso, Allura heaved Lance up onto the bench, then headed below deck to change into a spare change of clothes she'd brought in her satchel.

Ernesto was still staring, mouth hanging open. Lance quirked an eyebrow at him.

"Lance?"

...
okay SO I tried to draw the trident (the pic at the top) and it's rEALLY BAD so just like,,, imagine that general shape except WAY cooler and shit, k?

I'm heading to a music festival that my stepdad's running today and tomorrow morning, but ya author has almost no more data so I won't be able to reply to any comments and shit until tomorrow when my plan is renewed. Idk if this chapter will even post lol, I'm hoping it will.

Anyways another reminder: come to wattcon if you can!! I wanna meet you guys ahhhHHH

qotd: most underrated character in voltron?

I loooveeee uuu