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It was nights like these when Gura really started to hate her family. All the bickering and over protectiveness of being the youngest always got to her, but tonight it did even more so. Usually, looking over the glowing city of Atlantis would provide her with some semblance of comfort, but it did nothing.
Why couldn't they understand that she wanted to live her life the way she wanted. Gura didn't want to grow up to rule a kingdom! She wanted to swim out into the open ocean, see everything that the world had to offer.
Gura flicked her tail, wondering how long she could actually swim. Her mother, the queen, had prevented her from every leaving the peaceful city, even going as far as to keep one of her brothers watching her at all time.
'What if a swam away? Swim away and never come back? Could I do it? Wouldn't I miss my family?' Gura sighed and rested her head on her arms, leaning against the window sill facing over Atlantis. She didn't think she could do it, but if Gura was ever to see the world outside of her home, it seemed like the only option. Sometimes being the only heir fucking sucked.
So Gura thought. She thought and thought and thought, thinking of what she could do. Something in her gut was telling her to leave as soon as she could.
'Lights go out at around 11pm, that gives me the cover of dark. Around ten minutes after lights go out everything goes into lockdown for the night, which means I'll have to be near one of the exits when the lights go out' Gura mused, looking at the clock on her wall that read 10:42. She didn't have too long, and trying to sneak out would be pretty difficult, but still possible.
Gura leaned against the glass pane, seeing if there was anyway she could scale the building. It was at this moment she saw something wedged in a crack above an outcropping. It fluttered in what little artificial wind the underwater city had.
Gura paused, straining her ears to listen for any approaching footsteps. After hearing none, the small shark carefully opened the window, feeling the somewhat cool temperature of inside the giant dome. Looking up, she could see the silhouettes of various sea creatures swimming overhead, casting small shadows on to the city below.
'Quickly, or you'll be caught' whispered the voice in her head. Gura quickly clambered out of the window, making sure her footing was secure. She really didn't feel like becoming a splat on the pavement below, at least not now.
The small thing tucked away into the broken wall turned out to be a note. On it was a set of instructions written in a somewhat messy font.
'Keep following the ledge until you come out to the first overhanging. Look over the far right ledge and use the sculpture to get on to the ground.
Also, don't try and go to the nearest exit. You'll see a trail of notes like this one, keep following them until you reach the exit I made for this situation.
Have fun, Gura!'
- A. H. Watson
It wouldn't be until a few centuries later that Gura would come to meet Amelia and the rest of her friends, but for now the Atlantean princess was slightly put off by the fact that this Watson person knew her name, but considering she was well known royalty, she brushed it off.
And so Gura continued to follow the note's instructions. True to the writers word, peering over the far right edge of the first overhanging showed into her mothers private garden, filled with rare plants and expensive sculptures of different sea creatures. A few of them Gura could recognise, such as whales, turtles and sharks, but there were a few she couldn't, such as a dolphin like creatures with a long horn on it's nose.
Gura carefully climbed down a sculpture of a humpback whale, using the humps on its back as foot holds. She scraped her hands and knees a bit, but it would all be worth it.
After a few minutes of looking for the next note, Gura found it carefully tucked in a clump of flowers. During the day when the artificial light would come on and the flower heads would be open, the pale parchment would be almost invisible, but amongst the dark green Gura found it easily.
The next note is in the eye of the beholder, I know you're smart enough to figure it out Goomba
- A. H. Watson
'Goomba?! What does that even mean?' Gura shook her head. Was this note writer trying to be vague on purpose? If they were, they were doing a very annoyingly good job at it.
'Beholder... beholder... What's that saying? Beauty is in the eye of the beholder? Something like that? But what does that mean... was it something I like? I like lots of things though!' Gura furrowed her brows in thought. She really hoped there wasn't a time limited to get to this secret exit or whatever.
Maybe she could narrow this down. The note writer is telling her to look for something she likes, but it would have to be something close by. Gura sighed and leaned against the bricks holding the garden together. From here she could see her mothers prized beech hedge. Her eyes hovered over a small hole that was definitely not there before, and right next to it, a perfectly sculpted bull shark.
'I like sharks. In fact, I love sharks... is this what the note writer was trying to tell me?' Gura squinted and sure enough, in a little crack in the eye of the shark, was a glint of something pale. The shark looked around to make sure no one was nearby and quickly ran over to it, grumbling when she realised she was just a little too short to reach the paper slip. Luckily she was able to get it after balancing on the base of the sculpture.
'Hehehe, just so you know, I purposely put the note in here, I hope you had fun trying to get it. If it's you reading this Same-Chan, it means you must be using your brains.
Anyway, just go through the hedge, there should be one more note until you get to the exit.
Also, just cause I know you'll be worrying, no, there is no time limit to how long you have to get there, just make sure you don't get caught'
A. H. Watson
Gura glared at the note. Really? They really went out of their way to annoy her? Well, she has the note now, so it doesn't really matter (a part of her somehow believes that she'll get back at the note writer one day) and she marches onwards.
Turns out that while being small is not helpful when it comes to trying to get notes out of high places, it is useful when it comes to crawling though a hedge, although every now and then a stray twig would snag her by the hair.
While the journey through the hedge wasn't long, Gura didn't come out unscathed. Now baring several small scars and severely dirtied palms and knees, she travelled onwards.
Gura had no idea how this area was even made considering this was still technically part of her mother's garden, meaning it would've had to be cleared out from right under her nose. She vaguely remembered trying to get through the hedge several times when she was younger, but her mother had always stopped her, so did that mean she already knew it was there.
Gura didn't even have to try to find the last note, seeing as she almost walked directly into it. The small piece of paper was stuck to the wall right above and water bubble. Water bubbles were only used to keep water out of an area, so was this the exit?
It also begged the question of who made the exit. I couldn't of been anyone except an Atlantean since they were the only ones who could make bubbles and survive this deep in the ocean. But Gura had never heard of anyone name A. H. Watson, and she was certain she would've heard of them by now considering that her parents were always talking about one Atlantean or the other every morning.
Gura didn't even have time to read the note as a sudden commotion erupted from the castle. Gura cursed under her breath as she heard the distressed voice of her parents. She almost turned right back around, but the bigger part of her insisted that she had come this far, and reminded her of the absolute lashing she would receive from being out so late.
Without thinking, Gura tucked the last note into her pocket, shoving it right beside the others. She wasn't stupid, of course she had been pocketing them! Didn't want anyone using them to follow her.
She took one last look at the lights shining from her home before diving into the bubble and forever changing her destiny.
After that Gura swam. This was probably the most the young shark had ever swam in her life, and it felt amazing. She'd never been permitted to go to the coral reef that every other Atlantean child went to, even though it wasn't even directly out of the city grounds. So of course she slowed down her swimming to reminisce about the memories she never made.
'Can't dwell on that, I've made it this far and I can't get caught now' Gura shook her head and swam away.
"YOU'RE LYING!" Gura couldn't believe it, but the solemn detective across from her never lied, at least no about things this serious. Her yell must've caught the attention from the others in the house, as not ten seconds later, the concerned face of Ina peaked around the doorway, followed by a nervous looking phoenix and a panicked reaper.
Gura viciously wiped the tears off her face, letting out a few more choked sobs. Amelia stood up slowly, moving forward to comfort her, but Gura stumbled back, summoning her trident in retaliation. The detective froze, she expected Gura would lash out, but not to this extent.
"Nononononononono... you... you're... YOU'RE LYING" Maybe Amelia shouldn't of told her. Ame was only distantly aware of the priestess beside her, looking like she was ready to summon her tentacles at a moments notice to defend either Amelia or herself, or even Kiara or Calli. Who knew how Gura might react?
Amelia felt her words dying on her tongue, wondering how she could calm down the distressed shark without the usual and almost condescending 'just calm down' 'everything will be ok' 'we're here for you'.
Out of nowhere, Amelia felt herself thrown to the side, a soft oof forced from her lips as Ina was thrown against her. The detective heard Kiara let out a bird-ish shriek as Calli pulled her away from the raging shark.
"Just... Just leave me alone... I need to think" Gura let the prongs of her trident scrape against the hardwood floor, leaving three indents to mark her trail.
Amelia groaned as the reality of what just happened sunk in, along with the pain of being thrown against a bookshelf then having someone else tossed against you. She weakly grasped for Ina's hand, barely having the strength to pull herself up and had to rely on Ina to stand.
"Just let her get it out of her system.. God knows she needs it" Amelia felt a stab of guilt. Kiara, arguable the most emotional out of all of them, looked like she was ready to cry. Both for the anguish her genmate was going through and the fact that two more had just been injured (Amelia more so than Ina).
Meanwhile, Gura was sprinting towards the ocean. She didn't care how long it would take to get there, all she needed to was the truth, whether Amelia was lying about the fall of Atlantis or whether she was telling the truth. While Gura knew that she wasn't lying, she could only hope.
'I didn't even get to say goodbye' She thought, her vision becoming obscured by the tears fogging her sight.
And for the first time in years, Gura dived into the ocean. It's waves tussled her in a way that was all too familiar, almost like it was greeting it's forgotten princess. Even after all those years, wandering the surface, enjoying the beaches, and making new friends and family, Gura still remembered the way back to Atlantis, though the shining city wasn't what greeted her, even if the surrounding area remained unchanged.
It was crumbled, everything was still, like it hadn't been moved in years. What made it worse was the skeletons.
Skeletons that looked like humans merged with fish. Some trapped beneath the rubble, and some were just laying there in the open street. Fish swam in and out of their skulls and Gura had to cover her mouth to prevent herself from throwing up seeing the various skeletons of small children.
But this wasn't what Gura came for, so she kept swimming. She swam and swam until she reached the centre of the city, to the palace,
To home.
She passed through countless hallways, even a few that hadn't been touched by water in years that were packed full of dust, and then she saw it.
The doorway that once seemed so bright and vibrant, studded with sapphires was now crumbled and broken, and between it and the wall Gura could see hints of what was inside. Before entering, Gura pried one of the more shinier sapphires from the stone and placed it in her pocket. 'A souvenir, I don't ever wanna forget this place' Gura, with her immense strength, pried away some rubble and squeezed through the gap.
There they were, two skeletons, looking like they were embracing each other lay there, trapped under a fallen marble beam. The sharp teeth and tail bones gave away there identities.
'Mum... dad...' Gura swam slowly towards them, like she was still wary of them jumping to life and trapping her here forever as a punishment of running away and being the only one to survive this disaster. But they didn't, they just layed there, their bones gently swaying in the currents.
Gura didn't think and she curled up next to them, like she used to do when she was a baby shark that had just had a nightmare. It provided her a semblance of comfort, like everything was normal.
She had no idea how long she stayed there, but she was only slightly aware of the fact that she might've fallen asleep at some point. Gura swam up from the bones slightly, before she turned around. Without thinking, Gura leaned forward and broke off a tooth from each of them, pocketing them along with the sapphire.
'Mum, dad, I'm sorry I ran away. I'm sorry I never said goodbye... but at least I'm alive, and... while I guess this isn't they best case scenario, I know you'd be happy I'm still alive... but for now, I have others I need to see' Gura stared at them a little longer before going back to the halls.
Luckily, the entire layout of the castle hadn't changed that much, and Gura easily found her brother's rooms. Two older and one younger, and judging by the way there skeletons were laid out, it looked like the larger two were trying to protect the smallest. Gura felt a stab of pain in her heart.
The shark felt the sensation of tears pricking at her eyes, but since she was underwater it didn't show.
'I should've been here. I should be here, at the bottom of the ocean, huddled with my brothers' Gura gritted her teeth, feeling the tears joining the already massive amount of water that was the ocean.
'But you're not. You lived, and you have friends who are worried about you, and who can help you. So why are you staying here wallowing in your anguish. You certainly should have time to grieve, but you have friends who can make it less painful for you' a part of her mind that sounded suspiciously like a certain reaper snapped her out of her sadness for a few moments.
Gura nodded to herself, trying her best to calm down her breathing, or however her gills worked underwater. 'Friends... yes. I'll go back... I'm pretty sure I owe all of them an apology' Gura could already see it now.
Calli would try and act all tough, but the reaper would probably break down and just be glad that Gura was home safe. Kiara would act similar, although Gura was certain she'd be a lot more clingy. Ina would accept the apology with her own apology, saying that it was fine that Gura acted that way considering what she'd learnt. And Amelia would try and playfully rib her, trying to make the shark laugh, but Gura would be able to see the sadness and relief that Gura was back.
'Everything will be fine, I just need to go home... home? I though Atlantis was home' Gura paused. 'No, home is where my friends are, at least, that's what it is to me'.
Gura smiled faintly to herself. She bade everyone farewell and left Atlantis again. She would swim. Swim all the way back home. Swim all the way back to her friends.