Chapter Text
It was a beautiful day outside.
Well, it was always beautiful with all of the different sea plants schools of fish swimming about.
You hear a hiss and a few thuds at your bedroom door. You smile and swim over to open the door for you pet electric eel, Panic. He was pretty big for his size by being around fifteen feet long with five inch long fangs. He was a navy blue with shining golden eyes. You had gifted him with a lovely silver chain collar with his name and your contact info on a silver banner on the front of it. The letters were engraved and filled in with black squid ink. On the back of the collar, was a ring for a leash to be attached to. He was a bit banged up with a few scratches from run ins with a few sharks some years ago. Everyone in town was afraid of him, but he was a big softy. Well, at least when it came to you. Yeah... their fear was probably justified.
He has a twin brother named Pain, and your older sister, Alonda, owned him. He was a dark crimson and had silver eyes. Alonda had put a similar looking collar on him, only it was gold. Pain was prissy and stuck up whereas Panic was more laid back and playful. Your eels must get it from you two since that's how you and your sister are. She had always loved being Daddy's little girl, but so did you. What made it different was the fact that she always used that to get what she wants. So she had stayed at the palace and helped your older brother, Alexander, with his princely duties. Now, he was a mixture of both of you. He was proud and at times arrogant, but he had a heart of gold. Which is probably why he was the heir of the throne. You were happy for him, he'd make a great king.
Merfolk who have more magic than others were held in high esteem. You were one of them. Although, that was probably because your father had the most magic out of everyone being King Trident himself. Yes, you were a Princess, and so were your siblings. However, you were the youngest and was third place to inherit the throne. You didn't mind though. You thought all of that 'Royal Duty' crap was overrated. So, you had moved out of the palace to go to college a few leagues over. You lived in a grand coral apartment that overlooked Atlantis and it's fabled Ebott Ravine.
Now, legend has it that Ebott Ravine was cursed and that whomever swam near it's edges got sucked in and never returned. There had been a few disappearances throughout the years to prove this fact. No one said it out loud, but they all knew that it must have been the ravine. You weren't too bothered by all of this however. You actually found the stories fascinating to you. You would even swim around the area of the ravine sometimes. You never got too close though. There had been disappearances and you could never be too careful.
Panic slithered over to you and rubbed against your torso and part of your tail. You giggle and stroke his fin. "Alright, alright! I'll take you on a walk as soon as we eat, alright?" Your eel gave you a look of acceptance and swam back out and towards the kitchen. You go back to your bed which was a huge luxurious clam and straightened the plush and cushy sea flowers that covered the bottom of it. It was the summer season so the cold currants wouldn't be coming for awhile, otherwise you would have had your kelp blanket to fold back up. You finish fixing up your bed then you get dressed and give your f/c and o/f/c shark-like tail a strong flick, shooting you out of the bedroom door and into the hallway. When you reach your kitchen, you pet Panic again as you pass him to reach your Cooling Cupboard. Very few Merfolk have magic these days, but some of them were scientists and they've made some ingenious inventions to get by just as well as humans. When you were in school, you had learned all about human's metal moving boxes called cars and flying contraptions called airplanes. The merfolk scientists had done their best at duplicating these 'vehicles' and other devices, and most of them worked out pretty well. All they needed was a slight change in design and a dash of magic. Nowadays, you would find merfolk zooming around in ship cars and watercycles.
You pull out a sushi salad for you and a few pieces of raw squid for Panic. The eel gives out a gleeful and thankful hiss before snatching up the first piece. "You're welcome, precious." Panic rolls his eyes at your nickname for him before going back to his meal. He much preferred the name you gave him when he was but a hatchling. You chuckle at him as you swish some of your long h/c hair out of your face. It tickled when it floated into your face and it almost annoyed you, but your hair was your pride and joy. Besides your lovely tail and Panic of course.
After you and Panic had finished your breakfast, you grabbed his leash and clipped it to him before you went out. It made your neighbors nervous when he wasn't on a leash so you keep him on one when you're in public.
You make sure you lock the door behind you then store your keys into your waterproof messenger bag. It was your favorite! The bag was black with f/c swirly designs and a picture of an octopus and an eel fighting on it.
You head out to your normal hangout spot at the local ocean park. It was very pretty with it's various coral formations and thousands of different sea plants. Tons of friendly sea life stayed around the area as well. Panic swims next to you contentedly, occasionally snapping at passing fish. He managed to catch a few and then proceeded to eat them. Used to his antics, you just shake your head and keep on swimming.
After circling the entire ocean park once, you and Panic decide to float around Ebott Ravine a bit before going home. It was the weekend, so you didn't have school until Monday. It takes around thirty minutes of leisure swimming before you reach Ebott Ravine.
It was deserted and a little spooky if you were honest. There was no marine life anywhere and nothing grew for a mile long radius. The water was so still. Usually there were nearly constant currants coming and going it was rare for it to be still, but not here. The water was almost stagnant.
You and Panic look around for a bit before deciding that it was time to leave. But before you could, you noticed something glowing near the edge of the ravine. It was closer than you had ever gotten to the ravine and you were tempted to leave it there, but your curiosity got the better of you.
And we all know what happens to that fabled cat.
You cautiously swim forward. Everything was fine, you were just going to dart over and take a peek at whatever was glowing, then back away. Panic whined and circled you restlessly. He had a bad feeling about this.
Just as you reach the edge of the ravine, you catch glimpse of a gorgeous glowing flower, one that you've never seen before, which was strange because you loved any kind of flower and knew many of them.
You hadn't realized that you were drifting forward until it was too late.
It was like there was a sudden whirlpool sweeping you and Panic up and sucked you two down, down, down into Ebott Ravine's depths with a roaring ferocity.
You were jerked to the left and you hit the side of the ravine with a loud crack.
Everything went dark.
[TBC...]