One night, Syrenna and the Emperor were sitting around, talking about movies. Earlier, they had had a discussion with Queen Quirky, curious to know what she was actually a queen of. And she had told them that on her island of Cyprus, she had ruled over munchkins. After a while, she had run off with her Lover, and they were off doing who knows what, and Syrenna and the Emperor were left alone.

They were chatting merrily away on the docs, when the merqueen, Maris, popped out of the water.

"Oh, hi Maris!" Syrenna said happily.

"Hello!" Maris replied, transforming her flippers into feet and hoisting herself up onto the dock. "How are you?"

"Quite well, thank you. Yourself? And how's the water?"

"The water is amazing around this time. Just perfect. You should try one day. Though, of course, you can't grow fins, but you can use your legs."

"YEAH! Let's go right now!" Lady Syrenna said excitedly, running to the edge of the dock and leaping in. Water splashed all over Queen Maris, turning her legs back into a tail, which she used to flip back into the water and swim out ahead of Syrenna.

"HEY! Wait for me!" The Lady shouted, swimming as fast as she could, catching up with Maris.

"Yoho!" Emperor Beluga called. He was riding along on a giant white beluga. It was smiling. He was smiling. They were smiling. Splish splash splish splash they went.

"Where are you," splish splash splish splash "going?" splish!

"What? Well, we are taking a most wonderful swim. Beluga, do you know where any beluga caves are? For swimming and diving?" Syrenna asked the beluga.

"Well, let me ask." the Emperor said. He started singing, but he was really talking to the beluga.

"There isn't a cave, like a mermaid would have," the Beluga told him, "Where the cave sits on the ocean and is surrounded by a sort of highly decorated dome place, but there is a cave right under the sea! It is quite dark on the way, but once you've made it to the rough black door, you will be blown by wonder! It sits where the horizon is, but to the very right of it where it begins to get dark and cold, as beluga whales do love cold climates."

The Emperor translated this to the other two (even though as a fae creature and a sea creature respectively, both Syrenna and Maris could understand the beluga's speech), and Syrenna clapped her hands excitedly.

"Is there air inside for a Lady and an Emperor of the land to breathe? For I know mermaids can breathe both in and out of water..."

"Umm... probably not," the Emperor replied with a laugh, "Because the beluga whales go in there. But I can fashion a mask that will let you breathe underwater!" He offered, whipping out a golden, studded mask, like an ancient roman warrior would have. It merely covered the nose and mouth, like a ninja, and the ears were plugged.

"See? This one's mine. Do you want one? We can make you a foresty one, for Queen of the Forest."

"WOW! That is so pretty! Yeah, I would like one, if it is not too much trouble. But don't belugas have to breathe air too?" Syrenna asked.

"Ohhh yeah... Ha ha, they are whales after all."

The beluga whale slapped the Emperor's face with its tail, and he spazzed and kicked his feet. He was wet!

"Well, I guess there are holes up near the surface of the water, aren't there, beluga?" He asked. The beluga nodded, and the Emperor got a little bit angry, as he was sitting there... and with the nodding, he moved up and down and almost fell into the water.

The Emperor took his teeny fingers and twiddled them and the eyes of the beluga whale glowed. She opened her mouth and the Emperor took out a nice emerald mask.

"There you go. It is like one of those fancy middle eastern veils, only there are emeralds and many jewels. The material it's made out of can let you move swiftly through the water since it's not heavy. Light, like real silk! And you can hear and speak through it, of course!" He said, handing the mask to Syrenna.

Syrenna placed the beautiful yet very durable mask on her face. She smiled, but the Emperor couldn't see it.

"Thanks! It is great! Let's go find the cave!"

She motioned for Maris to follow them as they dove under the surface and down into the deep!

Splish splash splish splash splish splash...

The Emperor put on layers of clothing as they descended into the deep.

"Won't you be cold, Lady Syrenna? Since it's deep, the climate gets colder. What about the mermaid? The mermaid isn't naked, is she?" He asked, unable to make Maris out in detail in the dark depths.

"No, She is not naked," Syrenna scoffed, "She is a mermaid! She will survive deep down in the depths. Won't you Maris?"

Maris nodded.

"You see, she is wearing a bikini! Heheeh, and I'll be fine."

"Hehehe, bikini!" The Emperor giggled.

"Yeah, a bikini!" Syrenna laughed.

"A seashell bikini!" The Emperor cackled.

"Actually, I'm not sure what kind of bikini that is... maybe a tie-dyed surfer one..." Syrenna mused.

"Ewww... tie-dyed surfer ones are totally gross!" The Emperor squealed.

Maris just rolled her eyes.

"Crazy. Well, then you won't be cold in the dark, Lady Syrenna? Mrs. Beluga here has a bunch of whale skins (thick and keeps the cold right out)."

"Well, I will be just fine in the deep. Besides, all the swimming I'll be doing will keep me nice and warm! But thanks anyways." Syrenna told him.

"My, there's a shaking in the air... or rather in the water, haha! I wonder what's going on down here in the sea?" The Emperor wondered out loud.

Suddenly, as if remembering something, he made a disgusted face (though half of it was hidden by his mask) and said, "GAH THAT CREEPY MAN in Reality almost found out about the Silent Island of Crow! I'm guessing now he has realized that I like crows."

"Uh oh! Do you suppose we will have to, well, dispose of him? I'm sure Ivanova will like that a lot!" Suggested Syrenna.

The Emperor laughed, saying, "Hm, disposing is good. When we make our expedition to the Reality world, we shall have to sneak into his terrible little office and chop chop chop that fool into the grave! Mwhahaha..."

"Hey look! It is a mini octopus!" Syrenna yelled suddenly.

"Let's follow that mini octopus! Grab onto its tentacles for faster transportation!" Maris said before she swam beside Syrenna, and they both grabbed onto the octopus. It jiggled around a bit before calming.

"Are you going to stay on that beluga?" Syrenna asked.

The Emperor stared back, saying, "Umm... not exactly ON..."

He opened the beluga's mouth and slid inside, just surrounded by its many teeth. He smiled and closed the jaw down. Through the blowhole, he said, "IN! Not on. Hohoho..."

And they dove so quickly down deeper into the sea! It was so dark and the little starfish and fish were thrown by the thrust of the octopus' and the beluga's passing... they flew up to the surface.

"There it is," Emperor called through the blowhole. Before them was a jagged, underwater mountain. There was a large, faintly glowing crack down the centre of it.

"WOW! It is so big! Let's go inside! Maybe there's a long-forgotten treasure or something!" Syrenna said excitedly. Maris crossed her arms, saying, "I doubt that very much, Syrenna."

The Forest Queen stuck her tongue out at her, and they continued on.

As they drew nearer, the giant crevice seemed to widen and light shot out through the cracks. The light glistened on the jagged surface of the black rocks and shone out their luminous mineral rocks that protruded out from its black body.

"Gadzooks! They're having a party! Join it!" The Emperor commanded.

"WOW a party!? Hehehe, crazy dancing music time!" Syrenna giggled.

They swam to the opening and peeked inside. It was dark at first but then their eyes adjusted, and they saw a cocktail party in a sort of lavishly decorated bar, with chairs and counters of golden rims and diamond-studded wine glasses.

The atmosphere in the cave was very different. It was more free, like a mix of air and water. You could move any way you liked and you weren't pushed slowly by gravity like in water and too quickly and pushed down like gravity in the air.

The Emperor leapt out of the beluga's mouth, and jumped up and even positioned himself as if he was in a Matrix fighting scene... he froze.

"See? It's fantastic!" He laughed.

They went in and saw that the ceiling stretched high up and that there were holes up there that shot light from the outside. That was the air hole for the whales. It looked like they were having a service up there too.

So they became curious and went up...

They stopped near the top and found that octopuses were giving free massages. The three smiled and stood in the not too long line. Maris was next. She went up to a purple octopus and it smiled at her. It put its sticky suction cups on her back and began massaging it. Maris closed her eyes. Two other octopuses came up to the Emperor and Syrenna. One was red and the other was blue. They gave the most relaxing massages ever!

After that, the three descended slowly, pretending that they all were in the Matrix fighting off each other! It was great fun! Maris assumed the 'Superman Pose' and circled the two. She was getting a little carried away when she swam right into a giant moray eel!

She screamed so loudly, "OH MY GOD!! That is the scariest-looking thing I've ever seen!"

And the moray eel gave her the most disgusted look ever. It truly was grey ugly. Then, it gave her the middle finger (it doesn't have fingers but it was holding a bunch of fish fingers to eat... fish and chips, aye).

Maris was embarrassed.

Then little bits of white liquid started to form just below the surface of the water... they were quite near to the top. More and more came.

"Hey, they're quite pretty. Keeps swirling round and round," Lady Syrenna said.

The Emperor replied, "Then why don't you wrap yourself in it?"

Lady Syrenna did so eagerly, and when she realized that they were drops coming from the holes of the cave that pointed to outside... she found out that... there were seagulls... and she was covered in SHIT!

She swam back down to the bottom, wiping herself off. The Emperor and Maris roared with laughter. She had to stop herself from strangling them to death. Once clean, she glared at Emperor and Maris.

The mermaid smiled and laughed at Syrenna again, flopping around in the water and moving her fins.

"That wasn't very nice!" Syrenna growled, "But I suppose we should all head back up to the surface for some tea and chocolate cookies? I do believe Viniveer will be there. Would you like to meet Viniveer, Maris?"

"That would be lovely," Maris replied, "I'd love some tea and chocolate. But what might I ask is chocolate?. Ooh Viniveer, I'd love to meet her!"

And with a flip of her tail, Maris swam to the surface.

"Come along, Emperor," Syrenna smiled from beneath her mask, "Let us go and meet Viniveer!"

They swam to the surface and onto the shore. Syrenna and the Emperor removed their air masks and then headed to the forest of Lady Syrenna, meeting up with Maris on the way.

Once there, Syrenna pulled up extra logs for Maris and the Emperor, and they all sat around a rock table. Once the tea and cookies were handed out they heard a call from above. They looked up. A huge golden eagle landed on a nearby branch. Syrenna talked in the silent animal language to her and introduced her to the others. It was a grand old time for all!

The End