"The ocean is everything that I want to be. Beautiful, mysterious, wild and free"

20|SAFETY IS NOWHERE TO BE FOUND

Poseidon's ocean eyes stare down at the sleeping girl on the bed. So calm and peaceful she lies there. The smile on his face is not difficult to see as he stares down at her. Few days have passed by and the girl has almost healed completely yet walking is still hard for her. But the ocean is able to keep her standing and guide her when she needs, though she refuses to have any sort of help at all, thinking that she can do it all on her own despite him helping her anyway with it. Isolde's stubbornness is still as strong as ever.

His warm smile can only bring his heart beating faster. The days may have passed but being with her forever has passed for him. With her by his side time seems to be slower. Yet he enjoys it. Something about Isolde does interest him, though it has been doing that for many years now. He sighs as he moves a lock of her hair to the side as it had gone over her face. Her body stirs gently when his skin makes contact with her due to their bond which she is begun to feel.

Still it has grown clear to him that there is danger lurking around them, without knowing where it comes from nor whose behind it. All he knows is that something is coming, soon and they will have to be ready for it will test them in ways that nothing has ever done before. However when the King is near her and when he watches her sleep he feels as if nothing in the world can harm the two of them, they are safe in each other's arms (still technically not holding each other due to her not wanting to) and they are together.

Tearing his eyes away from the girl becomes harder and harder with each passing day but when his eyes catch sight of the box that he had put down near the bed on small place where she can't see it but soon she will have the change to open the box and soon she will realize how important she is, not just because she's meant to be the Queen but also because he has fallen for her, and he does not hide it from anyone, least of all Isolde yet she is complete oblivious to it or pretends she doesn't notice.

During the last couple of days Ahmeya and Isolde had grown closer, even closer than he would've liked them to be but he had also had much on his mind to interfere with their friendship. His sister had escaped her prison and his brother knew about it. Luna had been imprisoned for ten thousand years but now that she's out in the world he fears that she might be the evil that once again tries to destroy the world as they know it which he would never allow to happen as he has come to like the world they live in.

The door opens and a mermaid servant swims inside. She bows before the King as he turns to face. "My King, a message has been sent to you, in the throne room" She tells him. He nods at her. "Thank you" He speaks in a dismissing tone. Bowing once again before the King she swims out of the room and closes the door behind her. His eyes once again run over to Isolde's and at her sleeping body, wondering how such a temper a calm person can hold. He sighs as he gently kisses her hand before he stets it down on her stomach where it rests.

Turning around and going out of the room and away from her, much to his dismay he goes into the throne room where a bottle has been laid near his throne. The bottle is that of the human world but the bottle itself is not the message but rather what hides inside it. The bottle is made out of clear glass, with a strand of blue-ish seaweed around the neck of it. He takes the bottle up and glares down at it. There is no need for him to open it to see the message.

Inside the bottle is a jellyfish, a dead one. The anger inside him grows when he sees it. Not only was the jellyfish one of his subjects but it also has a deeper meaning which he understands. There is nothing else in the bottle but the dead jellyfish was enough for him to get the message that was sent. He stares at the bottle in his hands, wondering who would give him this yet still he can guess who it is and he does not like the thoughts that enter his mind about it.

Isolde's eyes flutter open and this sense of happiness runs through her when she wakes up. Sitting up on the bed and stretching her arms. Her wound is barely there anymore which she does not seem to question at how it heals so quickly. With all that goes on in her life she does not seem to notice nor care much for that. Throwing the covers off her she gets out of the bed, allow the water to carry her down to the ground. The room is unlike anything that she had seen before and even now that she sleeps there each night she's still always surprised at how different it is.

While the bed as well as the door are high up from the floor, everything else is like the normal bedroom that she is used to. There are mirrors and furniture around which resemble ones that could be found where she is from yet somehow they are made out of material that Isolde would never be able to guess what it. Things move and are different in the ocean. That over the last couple of days she has realized and yet there are many things so similar.

The mirror is what strikes her the most as the interesting things which she has seen. The looking glass is the same but the frame around it still makes her question it. Looking over at the mirror her emerald eyes see the violet coral with this golden streaks as if they had been painted gold and yet it is not painted. The frame is not the shape of the mirror which is a rectangle but the frame goes in many directions as if it were a cloud and it also slightly goes inside the glass itself but despite it being so strange she can't help but admire it.

Beside the mirror there is a desk with a chair by it. Both are made out of something that does resemble wood yet it is not. She has no clue what it is nor does she intend on figuring it out. Despite Isolde's curious nature there are many things that she does not voice out. Being surround by creatures that could tear her apart in seconds does that to her. While with Thomas she feels safe (never would she say that) but with others she doesn't as much, except for Ahmeya who has become her friend.

Brushing her hair with a brush she looks at herself in the mirror. Isolde's skin has become much lighter and paler than it had been before, even in such a short time. However her skin does not look sickly but almost as if it glows. She looks healthy and her smile speaks of all the happiness that she has inside her body. Her eyes are brighter than they've ever been, and she has not gotten used to her own eyes changing color yet she does love them, the emerald green in her eyes is special around a place where nothing is emerald green but rather pale green-ish blue.

Once she has brushed her hair she changes into a gown that had been chosen for her. Thankfully she had clothes that she knew from her own castle. Her own gowns and dresses. She had no clue how they were able to get them but she had decided to not question it for she would not like the answer very much. Despite her gowns floating around her and the material strange in the water, it does not cling to her nor does it feel heavy as clothes especially dresses do in water.

But rather they feel light as if she were not wearing anything. Her hair is the same. It floats around her when she does into style it but at the same time it does so gracefully and it does not go over her eyes not does it look disastrous to her. The Princess would never admit it to anyone, especially Thomas who has been teasing her about it, but she has enjoyed her time there and she does like being in the ocean. Even when she has not seen much around the castle they're in.

She had barely been allowed to leave the room she's in and the times that she did leave she had to fight to get out (by yelling or throwing something at Thomas who always smirks at her) of that room. Still, despite her being inside it, she has grown quite comfortable. She no longer feels as if she's alone but always surrounded by people without actually being around anyone. The lights are floating around the room which she had learned are actually named butterflies because they mimic butterflies in their movements but because of their small size she's unable to see their actual movement.

Sighing she walks around the room, there aren't that many furniture but there is a grand piano there which has always been one that she doesn't know what to do with. It might be a piano but all the notes are much different and the sounds are unlike anything she's ever heard before, as if it is not earthy sounds at all. She sits down by the piano but as she was about to press the first note she hears the door from above open which makes her look up only to see that Ahmeya has entered the room.

The ocean nymph goes down to where Isolde sits by the piano but the look on her face is one that shocks Isolde to the core as this pure fright has taken over her. "Is there something the matter?" The Princess ask her. Ahmeya gives her a weak smile. "We have to leave. It's coming. I feel it greatly inside me. The danger is so close to you, it's in this room. You have to leave, we have to leave" She speaks with fright, her voice shaking violently as the rest of her body is as if she had seen a ghost and perhaps she had.

Isolde stands up and takes Ahmeya's hands into hers. "I do not understand. In this room?" She asks, confused and uncertain. Her emerald eyes look everywhere around the room and even in the darkness she is able to see that they are alone in there, there is nothing else but the lights yet they have been there from the moment that she woke up there. "I may not know much about this world but I'm certain that there is nothing here unless they live in the solid walls" Isolde speaks when she doesn't answer her question.

Ahmeya does not look like she's in her right mind and Isolde does notice this so when she looks at her once again to notice that her eyes stare at the wall. With her blackened eyes it is hard to tell what she looks at yet The Princess has started to see the signs and know the patterns on when she is looking at something or someone. This makes the dark browned haired girl worried for her friend but also for herself but she will not let it show it on her face nor in her body.

The ocean nymph them drags Isolde upwards towards the door until they go through it. Still, she does not allow Isolde to touch the walls nor does she slow down. Her speed through the water is much quicker than Isolde would've imagined but she does not speak a word. Not only is she seeing the hallways a bit better but she's also going to hallways that she has never gone to. They excite her to the point where she is unaware of the dangers that Ahmeya is trying to warn her with but Isolde has never been one to accept danger when it is told to her but rather when she is in danger.

She smiles when they go into a room which is unfamiliar to her, it's large yet it's empty. Nothing is on the floor and nothing is on the walls. It's complete empty yet the walls themselves are what interest her. They have this writing on them in a language that she does not understand nor has ever seen. The walls are covered in those words and while she might not understand them they have a certain beauty to them. The walls themselves are pale blue in color, almost like the sky while the ink that was used is in this periwinkle but glowing shade of color that light the room.

It amazes her when she watches the words, desperately trying to read what it says but no matter how much the Princess looks at the word she is unable to understand nor even read it for that matter. Even when in the empty room with the door closed Ahmeya still doesn't allow her to touch the floor nor the walls. She breathes heavily as if she's growing sick and now Isolde has become worried. Holding her hands she tries to search her face for anything that could tell her what is the matter with her friend.

Her pitch black eyes do not speak to her. "What is the danger you refer to?" Isolde asks her with worry in her tone which she tries and fails to hide. The Princess is not one with emotions and finds them hard yet the ocean nymph has become her friend, her true friend. Ahmeya's grip on Isolde tightens as she holds her close to her. "Here it cannot find you. Here I shall protect you, my Queen" She speaks before she leaves through the doors and closes the right behind her.

Leaving Isolde alone in the room with the writing on the wall, confused and frustrated. "Does anyone in this place ever give a straight answer?" She questions when she's alone in the room but perhaps she's not as alone as she thought she was. Ahmeya was right about one thing. There is danger around her and it's even closer than both of them know for it is inside the room with her, it hides in the shadows (even with the glowing light from the writing), it hides and waits for the right moment.

Unknown to the Princess and future Queen something or rather someone is there with her in the room. And while she looks around on the walls, once again trying to figure out what the words mean. From behind her he chuckles. "You cannot read it" He speaks, his voice holding amusement and darkness. She gasps then turns around yet she cannot see anyone but he's right in front of her. "Who are you? I demand you show yourself, and may I remind you that I am of Royal birth" She speaks with her voice normal when on the inside the fear is starting to take over.

When only her own voice echoes around the room and then the silence is all that greets her she wonders if someone had even spoken at all but she is confident that a voice had been heard and someone had spoken. A man had spoken. Her eyes look around her but she cannot see anyone. Isolde is alone in the room yet there is someone else in the room with her but she can't see him. He stands close to her but her eyes are unable to see.

She gulps when she feels a presence in front of her yet she can't see it. "I am aware of you here, it would do you no good to hide like a coward. At least show your face like a true man" She hisses in front of her but all she hears is a chuckle. She does not know how but she is certain that whoever is there is right in front of her. "Whoever said I was a man?" He asks her with a chuckle once again. She nearly pales but holds her head high as she has been thought to do.

"If you wish for me to know if you are a man then why not let me see you, why hide like the coward that you are? I have seen servants braver than you and here I believe you are a Demon as well as the rest of everyone here" She spats at him with anger in her voice. Isolde is rather skillful at turning her own fear into anger and she does it well but when dealing with creatures that are beyond anything that she's ever seen or know the fear can be visible around her.

A cold laughter rings around her ears. The waves in the ocean she notices moves around something or rather someone in front of her, though she is unable to make out the shape but she can tell that it is not a man after all but some creature, a creature that she is not sure wishes to kill her or... well she doesn't know what it wants with her. "Wrong Kingdom. Your highness" His mocking voice speaks but even the Princess could feel the mockery in his tone and while she should be anger at him, she doesn't no matter how much she wants to.

"What do you call yourself?" She asks him, perhaps stalling this creature will soon catch Ahmeya's attention or even Thomas' and they might come, as much as she hates it, she is unable to do much when she can't even see this creature. "I have had many names through the ages, many whom I despise but others I must admit are clever but the one that has always remained with me is one that brings fear throughout the whole ocean and all that lives there" He tells her. "And what name is that?" Isolde asks uninterested in his glory as she has heard enough of that from guards and knights alike. "Hunter" He answers.