Trident

By VivettaVenray

 

(WARNING: Contains vore [soft and hard], cruelty, digestion, burping, tentacles, fleshy weirdness, and gore among other things

 

The main character of this story is a giant mermaid. That means no feet content, so please keep that in mind.

 

Although this story features some gentle content, much of it is with ominous undertones in the background. As such, I'm not applying any 'gentle' tags, as even with gentler scenes, the story features plenty of violence. I wouldn't want anyone to click this story and mistakenly think it's all 'kind' content when that is very much not the case.

 

One last little warning, this story 'technically' features a giant male for plot reasons. However, he's not actually giant in comparison to any other living thing whenever he shows up.)

 

(NOTE: This story is part of the "Fairly Big Tales" loose anthology that I will try to do, maybe.

This story is motivated by "The Little Mermaid", a danish fairy tale.

 

This is the first story in the anthology. Unlike the complete "Seven Sinful Size Stories", this one *could* always have some potential for more entries. That said, I think it obvious that it would be practically impossible to write some size spin-off of every notable fairy tale in existence, right?

 

Overall, I can't promise I'll write more in this series. I also can't promise that I won't write other stories in between entries assuming I even do another entry at some point. I just thought it'd be a neat idea to try and think of size/omni spins on fairy tales.

 

In other words, it's entirely possible this is the only entry in the intended anthology; in that case, I guess it's not really much of an anthology/series then right? Anyways, keep that in mind please!

 

As some more tidbits, I had wanted to do a sea-based story for quite some time, but at some point I figured it'd make sense to combine that desire with a fairy tale spin-off idea. This story was also originally much shorter idea-wise, but turned into a more detailed ascension-sort of story.

 

Anyways, I hope the story is enjoyed!)

 

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Chapter 1: Hunt

 

*Laaa, la la la la laaaa, la la la laaaa, fa la la laaaa, la.*

*La de da da da da daaaa, la la la, la laaa, laaa, fa la.*

 

Dulcet singing echoed through the ocean waters. The source was one Alurel, who sung as she swam through the sea, surveying the going-ons around her. Sun filtered far through the surface, trickling deep, deep down to keep the waters well lit and easy to navigate.

 

Deep-green tail-fins paddled her body through the sea in search of anything really. Part of the fun of just swimming around was not always knowing what’d you find, though she was looking for food in particular. It had been awhile since her last meal.

 

For some time, there was nothing around her but the ocean blue. Then, in the distance, she spotted something: a warbling of fish, long in body and black in color. She could tell by the wiggling of their noodle-ly bodies what they were.

 

“Eels~”, she mused aloud. For those who could speak underwater, her normal voice sounded as sweet and melodious as her singing.

 

With great beatings of her tail-fin, the mermaid raced towards them. She had spotted them before they did her, evidently, as they turned around briefly to see the source of the disturbed waters around them.

 

Alurel’s body was graceful, fetching. Her beauty was undeniable, and her fair-skin free from any blemish or mark. A good thing about living in the sea was that one was almost always taking a bath, after all.

 

Like most any mermaid, her lower body was that of a fish, albeit with that portion of her form having smooth, beautiful scales ending in a wide tail fin. Alurel’s fish-half was green, and stretched up to her waist. From then on, she had the body of a young, lithe adult human woman, with a bare tummy, arms, and shoulders. Indeed, the only article of clothing she had was a bra made from the beige-colored shells of a giant clam. Strands of seaweed held it snug against her perky chest: one shelf-half per breast.

 

What the eels saw most of all was her head: her face specifically. Long light-purple hair flowed past her shoulders, pushed back to her body by the brisk movements of her swimming. Green-irised eyes were locked on them, and her naturally red-ish lips were stretched in a smile.

 

The eels swam for their life.

 

Eels were some of the fastest swimmers in the sea, but they had no chance. Any mermaid was faster, but Alurel in particular was inescapable. She wasn’t just any mermaid, but a “great mermaid”, the rarest and largest variety. Simply put, she was huge. Her entire body stretched about 500ft in length. Each half of her tail fin put almost any ship’s sails to shame.

 

As she drew down upon them, Alurel opened wide. Her smile was gone, all there was to see was the red flesh of her mouth with her uvula dangling over that dark abyss of her throat. She went for the middle of the school first, and after passing through her cheeks brimmed with dozens of the eels.

 

One gulp sent them down her throat.

 

The remaining eels broke off against the sides of her body. They got their bearings fast, then swam for their lives, but she darted in and out of their new smaller groups. No survivor was left to swim away. All the fish were wiggling in her acidic gut, piled atop each other and doomed to dissolve.

 

“Hehe, tickles~” mused the great mermaid.

 

She swam on with a fuller tummy, spotting nothing else of much interest. So, daringly, she swam further upwards.

Alurel was a daring sort after all. Broaching the surface was forbidden for her kind, and even approaching it was taboo. She went farther up than she should’ve, but as she did so something of interest came into view. A large curvature of brown wood, poking into the sea from above.

 

“A ship!”, mused Alurel. “That means humans!”

 

She swam up and up, though at a distance so as to not emerge so close to the ship. Based on the bottom of the ship--the bilge--she had deduced it to be a large vessel. A full crew was on there.

Alurel was excited, her smile beaming as her head poked from the surface for a peek. She eyed it: not the cleanest ship, but still cared for. It was indeed large, with the crew in a bustle. They swarmed the deck, waving swords and shouting. Her eyes trailed upwards, and that’s when she saw the ship’s flag.

 

A skull and crossbones was emblazoned atop a black background.

 

“Pirates.”, she muttered. “Some of the evilest humans there are.”

 

She ducked her head back under the waters, then swam towards the ship.

 

The pirates were busy pursuing another vessel, a smaller one that Alurel hadn’t noticed till she got closer from below. She paid it little mind at the time, more concerned with the pirates. If the pirate ship was a shark, the other vessel was but a guppy both in its size and the precariousness of its position.

 

While the pirates were distracted, she surfaced. They had sensed some disturbances in the waves below, but she was far to quick to give them much thought to expectations. It was all so fast. Her upper-body broached the surface, splashing the entire deck and near capsizing the vessel with the resulting waves alone.

 

One moment, the port side of the vessel had a clear view of the early afternoon sun over the sea. The next, all one could see there was the navel of the towering female before them.

The vessel was a shark to other ships in the waters, true, but to Alurel it was but a toy.

 

Immediately all the pirate crew turned to face the new threat, ignoring the small sailing vessel they had been chasing. They tripped and scrambled across the deck as Alurel was quick to grab the main mast. Even without long fingernails, the force from her digits was enough to tear the shrouds leading up to the crow’s nest. She pressed the pads of her fingers against the wooden pillar itself.

 

“What are you naughty little humans up to hmmm?”, she said. That sweet voice of hers was a boom from above.

 

The ship rocked back and forth as she gently moved her arm. A few of the pirates fell overboard, catching her eye for a moment.

 

“F-fire!” shouted the gruff-voiced pirate captain. Alurel noticed him and others sneaking down into the ship’s hold. A few moments later, some cannons on the side of the port side of the ship fired. Alurel felt fast-moving black balls pelt her naked tummy and the nearby start of her fish-half.

 

She laughed.

 

“You sillies, mortal weapons can’t harm a mermaid. It does kind of tickle though: like little kisses~”

 

She continued rocking the ship, knocking more of those on the deck overboard. She toyed with them, like a dolphin playing with its prey before the moment to strike. In this laxity, she had positioned the ship so that the next volley of cannon fire aimed higher.

 

With a *kerpoom*, several cannon balls surged out straight towards her clam-shell bra. The projectiles cracked the shells, enough that bits and pieces fell to expose Alurel’s perky and petite breasts to the air. One shot even cleaved through the sea-weed band on her left side, causing the entire garb to fall off shortly after.

 

Now nude, Alurel’s face went red. Her cheeks puffed out as she squinted at the pirates.

 

“You *are* naughty aren’t you? Grrr.”

 

She slipped back beneath the waves, and for a moment the pirates thought they had won. Cheering, they mocked the great mermaid for being embarrassed. With smiles, they tossed down ropes to those overboard to try and haul them up. The sailboat they were pursuing hadn’t traveled far. They had fired one cannonball square through its white sail after all. There was still time to catch it if they could get a move on.

 

Then, the waves shook again. The ship turned as the water rumbled with the force of something great. They looked out the port side.

 

Emerging with a great splash of water was a gigantic green tail-fin, attached to an enormous fish tail which had shoved oodles of water apart as it broached.

 

The captain stammered.

 

“Look at men. I-it’s coming this way!”

 

Indeed, that great body part heaved up and cast the entire ship in the shadow of its breadth. Once at the apex of height, it *slammed* down at the ship. The wood of the vessel shattered like an egg on impact, and the bones of much of its pirate crew didn’t fare much better.

 

The fin slapped back and through the water surface. Those not unlucky enough to be pushed under by it flew out from the ship in every direction. If they had the time, they swam to pieces of their once great vessel, now but floating driftwood.

 

Most did not have the time.

 

Alurel was upon them. People who had sunk earlier surfaced only briefly before she pulled them down and out of sight. Soon, her head broached the waters, mouth open, devouring those who floated entirely whole. She often took in whatever flotsam they held onto to as well, as she had no issues gulping it down. A few of the men fired gunpowder firearms at her, but most shots missed in her quick strikes, and the few that hit didn’t even warrant a reaction.

 

Those attacked could see her for only moments. Her open mouth above water, nearly 20ft wide and almost as much tall. It was upon them like a moving cave. The moment they were inside, her lips sealed and she swallowed them down to a gurgling doom.

 

In the span of only a few seconds, but a few pirates remained. The captain and much of his crew were adrift atop a flat piece of wood that used to be part of the ship’s hull. Alurel emerged near it, licking her lips.

 

“Aww, are you scared?”, she said. A giggle followed, then she leaned in and licked her lips.

 

The men trembled.

 

“P-please lady of the sea, w-we will do what ye wish, give ye whatever ye want!”, said the captain.

 

She paused. “Well, in that case, do your best to squirm as much as possible heading down. I love the little wiggles against my throat. It’s also fitting for naughty, active morsels like yourself, right?”

“N-no wait!”

She opened wide and, with but a dash of her tongue, lapped them right off their flotsam and up into her mouth. Her lips sealed them in darkness, with her wet spittle falling around around them. They had less hope of getting their bearings there than even on their tail-slapped ship.

 

Alurel’s tongue constantly nudged them around, savored them, made them feel like meat. Pleasant hums came up from her throat, mocking them till the time at last had arrived to swallow, at least half-a-minute past when she licked them up.

 

The great mermaid gulped, and the pirates found their sides squeezed and slimed by Alurel’s slick throat. The thumping of her heart became background noise alongside the gurgles from below that grew ever louder. Hardly able to move even their limbs against such strong throat muscles, they could only shout as they swept towards a fleshy ringed gate.

 

With a squelch, they plopped down in an immense gut, teeming with acids. The air stung, and a chorus of screams wailed around them. The scent was of bile, but it also stunk heavily of fish. Indeed, the pool of acids teemed with the carcasses of digesting eels. Many still wiggled, barely alive.

 

Their fellow crew wasn’t too dissimilar. Though they couldn’t see well in the dark, the skin of those she ate earlier was already raw. They swam and waded through the chyme, pounding at Alurel’s gut to try and get free. Some force from the walls knocked them back, inundating them in the foul digestive muck just in time for another churn of her gut.

 

On the outside, Alurel had merely patted her taut tummy.

 

“Mmmf, feisty in there. Just how I like it~”

 

With a lick of her lips, she rose further up out of the water. Her eyebrows perked as she spotted another lone pirate, adrift on just a couple of planks. Her had no shoes, and no shirt covering his fit looking tan body. All he had was some red trousers, cut short at the knees haphazardly and jagged. He was one of the newer members of the crew, and thus younger and, to Alurel’s eyes, handsome.

 

“Oh hello~”

She swam over while he shivered, unsure whether to try swimming away or keep clutching to his little life-raft.

With paddles of her tail beneath, she quickly approached, her navel beared down at him first before she reached over to pinch him up.

 

“Well aren’t you a handsome little fella? You’re too pretty to be running with such a rough crowd. I’ll treat you a little special I think~”

She moved him up to her mouth.

 

“N-no please! Please no we’re sorry. We’re sorry for-”

Alurel held him above her lips, opened wide, then let go. He plummeted right into her mouth. Her tongue slowly dragged itself against his naked chest. Her taste-buds felt the contours of his muscles, which had felt a bit more subtle to her finger-pads. Once she had enough, she swallowed him down more slowly and carefully than she did the others.

 

“Some fine finds today I’d say.”, she mused. “And there’s still so much of the day. Ah!”

 

Alurel had looked ahead, towards the sailboat she saw earlier from beneath. It was so small she had scarcely noticed it before, and didn’t think of it at all during her scuffle with the pirates.

 

Aboard the tiny craft, beneath its hole-torn sail, stood a handsome young man with brown hair and dressed quite well. A look of utter awe was plastered on his face.

 

“Oh my, I had almost forgot about you!”

 

With a giggle, Alurel swam over.

Chapter 2: Prince

 

Ethan stood shocked. One moment he was under attack by pirates, and the next they were gone. The gigantic mermaid who had saved him now looked right at him. The smile on her gigantic face beamed much the same as it did when she turned those tough guys to a meal.

 

He feared that’d be his fate too, and the fear near-paralyzed him.

 

She drew closer, steadily lowering her body into the water, her head growing more and more level with his gaze--at least as much as something large as that could be.

 

His training in regal composure failed him; his body started to shake. She beared down on him. Her head, poking out of the water, was close enough he could feel the breath of her nostrils. Her face loomed, and her lips stirred.

 

He raised his arms up.

 

“N-no!”

 

“Hello!”, she said.

 

--==--==--==--

 

Alurel’s senses were far keener than a human’s, so she took in much of the man’s features as she swam over. Still, he was quite small by comparison, and it’s only once close that she fully made out his form.

 

Short brown hair covered the fair-skinned man’s head. The hair was carefully cut thinner towards the edges of the side and back. Her had on a light-blue, thin-fabric top. It was wet from the sea, and its sleeves were rolled up high. White trousers clung to his legs, tight and wet enough enough to highlight the curves of musculature there. Presently, he was shaking in a pair of brown boots.

 

Once really close, she took special note of his blue-eyes: blue as the waters. They were the most stark feature of his handsome face, and they alight with fear.

 

“Ah, sorry I hope I didn’t scare you there.”, she said.

He kept shivering.

 

“Are you cold? You do look a bit soaked. I must’ve splashed you during that, did I? I’m sorry. Maybe I can help you warm you up though!”

 

She opened her mouth wide and started blowing on him; hot-fish scented breath assailed him. He let out a yelp and took a couple steps back. Showing off the inside of a man-eating mouth had a tendency to do that to some, it’d seem.

 

“P-please, don’t eat me.”

 

Alurel leaned in closer. She wanted to say the words, “don’t worry, I’m not going to eat you.”

 

Unfortunately, something stirred within her body. One especially thorough churn reverberated in her gut. It knocked all those fidgeting pirates over, and displaced oodles of the digesting eels atop them. With the pile of dissolving fish and humans disturbed, gases from the digestive process surged out from the disruption. It traveled up from her stomach and then up her throat fast as a current.

 

So, when Alurel went to talk to the man to calm him down, all that came out was.

 

“Do-Urp”

 

It wasn’t a fierce belch; in fact it was a gentle, dainty burp. But, at her size, the terms ‘gentle’ and ‘dainty’ had different meanings to a human.

 

A torrid gust of breath ripped by Ethan. He fell onto his butt from the force and shock of it, taking the brunt of the aromatic assault. It carried the scent of acid, mixed in with the odors of dissolving flesh from fish and man.

 

His brown locks stuck straight up, eyes wide. Alurel gasped.

 

“Ah, I’m sorry. That just came up so fast. They are a bit feisty in there I suppose.”

“D-don’t eat me. Please-”

“Relax, I’m not gonna eat you silly.”

 

She gently reached her hand out of the water, rocking his vessel. Her finger moved towards him and, with the very tip of her index finger, she patted his hair back down.

 

“Y-you’re not?”, he said. He slowly climbed back onto his feet.

 

“No.”, she said. “Now why don’t you tell me your name.”

“Ethan.”, he said. “Prince Ethan of the Afflelands”

“A prince?!?”

 

The mermaid’s green eyes widened. Her body jostled a bit up in surprise, splashing the poor man.

 

“Y-yes. It’s true I’m a prince. I’m not sure why I told you to be honest but-”

“Royalty is rare on these waters. I’m surprised.”

The man relaxed his shoulders. His body felt limber. He was calming down a bit, despite the cool water which drenched him and his vessel.

 

“Well,” continued Alurel. “It’s nice to meet you, Prince Ethan.” She bowed her head slightly, giggling. “My name is Alurel, Ah-lur-el.”

 

She laughed again, then spoke.

 

“What brings you all the way out here?”

 

The man was quick to bow back, though awkwardly. This was still all a bit odd to him.

 

“Well, I had a bit of an argument with the king.”

She frowned.

 

“I see, what about?”

“Oh it’s... it’s nothing really. I wouldn’t want to bore you.”

“Bore me?”, said Alurel. “I love humans and their culture. Whatever is going on atop land, I think I’d like to know about it.”

 

“Well I’m not sure you’d understand.”

 

Alurel frowned. She eyed him a moment, then looked to the sail of his little boat.

 

“Hmmm, you’re sail is torn isn’t it? The pirates must’ve hit it.”

“Ah yes.”, he said. “B-but not as much as they hit you with their volleys, my lady. Are you alright by the way, from all that?”

“Oh!”, she giggled. “Yes of course. A mortal cannot easily harm a mermaid. Hmmm, say, I know an island not far from here. It’s got plenty of tall trees with broad leaves. You could probably borrow from those to fix your sail. There’s also a nice tall cliff I can lean against there. You could tell me what’s going on there. We could have a nice chat, just the two of us.”

 

Ethan cocked his eyebrows.

 

“I, uh, I suppose that’d be alright. Thank you-whoa!”

 

Once again, the man was on his butt. The entire sailboat of his lurched upwards and out of the water. Alurel had moved her right palm beneath the craft. Her fingers curled upwards and around it, each digit well over a dozen feet long and near half as much thick.

 

Ethan was once again humbled. More of her upper-body broached the surface.

 

“Hold onto the mast.”, she said. “I usually swim far faster than you might be used to.”

Chapter 3: Island

 

Alurel wasn’t kidding about the whole ‘swimming fast’ warning. Ethan had to hold on for his very life as her massive form sped across the surface.

 

The great mermaid swam with her anterior side mostly beneath the water. To Alurel, Ethan seemed about three-quarters of an inch tall: roughly the size of a game die. His ship, a sturdy though small vessel, rested square in her palm as fragile as an egg to her might. Like an egg, she treasured it carefully in her hold. She kept her right palm as steady as possible, while her left hand curled to the side, further holding Ethan and his sailboat steady while she moved.

 

It certainly needed that level of care. Ethan couldn’t breath underwater, and that was a human limitation Alurel knew quite well. So, she had to swim across the surface. This meant noise and a lot of it. Her tail-fin slapped up and down hard, splashing up great waves which put the ones formed by her shimmying body to shame.

 

The constant sound of splashing and roaring of water filled Ethan’s ears. Droplets of the sea came up to wet him now and then too. It was too loud to chat, even if he could likely hear her booming voice over the commotion.

Still, he felt oddly safe. Alurel kept her eyes on him much of the time, knowing via experience and the alignment of the afternoon sun which direction to swim. Her soft, light-emerald gaze and warm ruby smile conveyed a sort of gentleness to him. He found it harder to believe he had just witnessed her utterly devour scores of men after single handedly cracking apart an entire pirate ship.

 

Part of him wondered how the navy of the Afflelands would fair against her.

 

The journey was fast at her speed. She spotted the island before he even had a chance to see it. Only once it was a brief swim away, to her, did she move from her speed-swimming posture.

 

The prince’s stomach lurched as she rose higher out of the depths. A bit dizzy from the journey, he managed to steady his self against the sailboat’s mast and gaze out towards the island.

 

He let out a sigh of awe.

 

The entire circular landmass hovered out in the sea with no other land in sight. Lush green grass and colorful flowers coated all but its beach. As Alurel had said, there were plenty of broad-leafed, tropical-like trees with sturdy brown trunks and sturdy-looking fruits dangling from the branches.

 

There was also the cliff she had mentioned. Though it sloped gently to the interior of the island itself, from the exterior of it was a sheer rocky face, stretching hundreds of feet high. Yet, even on the cliff itself the grass and flowers still grew.

 

She leisurely swam towards it, able to navigate the waters even while mostly upright. Her control of her body for swimming impressed Ethan, and watching her massive form move caught his sight between glances at the destination island.

 

Alurel swam towards the clifftop. She set the entire sailboat down atop the flat land there, which teemed with short grasses and pretty pink and white flowers.

 

“There you go.”, she said. “Sorry for not setting you down by the beach. I know a beach might make more sense for a boat to be, but it’d be trickier for us to chat there. I can bring you back to the water after you fix the boat, don’t worry.”

 

“U-uh yes of course, thank you Alurel.”

He stepped off the boat and looked up at her. The cliff came up about chest-height to the massive mermaid, which meant her bare breasts were very much level with his gaze. Being a proper gentleman, he tried not to look too hard, but there was no training which could take the blush from his cheeks.

 

She noticed.

“Oh!”

 

A giggle left her mouth.

 

“I’m sorry, I had forgot: human women often cover their chests right? Believe it or not, that’s very rare among us mermaids. In fact, I’m the only one I know to do it. I like the style of a covering, you know? Humans can be so creative with their clothes and garments and such. Is it bothering you?”

 

He scrambled in both posture and words.

 

“Oh uh, um no, not at all! I mean, it just takes a bit of adjusting I suppose. Ahem.”

Ethan moved over towards the nearest tree. It stood about 12ft tall, with some nice, broad, pliable leaves at the top that sheltered its hefty looking fruit. He grabbed the trunk of it, and started to climb it. He had trouble though, slipping from the wetness of his boots and a general ineptness at the athletic feat itself.

 

“Do you need some help?”, she asked. It was a formality really, as she was already leaning over towards him.

“O-oh no, I’m fine, really.”

 

He slipped, falling on his butt before the tree.

“Don’t be silly, silly. Let me help.”, she said.

 

Her upper body leaned in another for her bosom to loom right overhead. Her firm and--comparatively--petite mammaries bumped into him from above, knocking him down just as he began to stand. With a curl of her arm and just a press of her finger, she bent the tree down low, where he could easily yank one of those leaves right off the tree top.

 

She waited for him to do so.

 

“Go on, silly!”

Red as a beet from the boobs over ahead, he manage to snag a leaf. It took some effort to tug it off, but he managed it. The effort jostled one of those sturdy fruits off the tree to bonk him on the head.

 

Alurel gasped, letting go of the trunk so the tree sapped back and jostled its other fruits down as well.

 

“Are you ok?”, she said. She quickly leaned in even closer to be sure, her tits touching down at the cliff now. He stumbled from the blow from the fruit, and briefly pressed against the soft pillowy boob-flesh nearby.

 

The moment he touched it, he jolted off it, apologizing profusely.

 

“Ah, I’m sorry my lady Alurel, I just got clumsy from the shock of the blow. I-”

“Hey.”, she said. “Are you ok?”

 

“I-, uh, yes. I’m fine. It didn’t hurt all that much, it was just... unexpected.”

 

“Good, that’s all I was worried about.”

He picked up the fruit in one hand, board leaf in the other, then carted it over towards his sailboat. Alurel had since leaned back up and away from him. Her body once more loomed by the cliff. Although, her hands did rest at the very edge of the bluff. Ethan quietly marveled at how each digit was thicker than the trunk of that tree he just tried to climb.

 

“Thank you again, Miss Alurel.”

“Alurel is fine; you’re too nice Ethan. Or, should I say ‘mister Ethan’?”

 

She laughed, then spoke again.

 

“No no, sorry, prince. That’s right, you didn’t exactly tell me why you were out at sea on your own. That’s rare for a human royal, isn’t it?”

He had since tugged some tall grasses and pliable sticks from a nearby bush. He brought them over to his vessel, chatting as he worked.

 

“Well, like I said I had an argument with the king. He is my adoptive father, you see. Due to poor fishing yields this year, we had to rely more on our grown crops to feed our country.”

“The Afflelands, right?”, asked Alurel. “The closest coast is said to be theirs I think I’ve heard.”

“Yes, that is correct.”, said Ethan. He was tying the sticks and long grasses together. “The Afflelands is what we call our home, though not all humans are from there. The world is a big place.”

 

“Of course.”, said Alurel. “Go on.”

“Well, despite that, he still raised taxes on the peasants. Taxes are the money people pay to a king to live in their domain. A hike might not mean a lot to a noble, but to the less fortunate people, who we call peasants, that can be the difference between full bellies and hungry tummies. They need money to buy food, after all, so the more the kingdom takes the less they have.”

“Oh? I think I understand.”, said Alurel.

 

“Yes, my attempts to convince him for leeway went on deaf ears. He wouldn’t listen, seldom does. He says I am too young to be giving advice, but I’m over 20 years of age. That is well and away an adult.”

 

“So you sailed away?”

“Well, yes, but not to run away or anything. I’m no fool, nor am I some spoiled child. I just wanted to take to the seas, clear my head. Alas, I picked a poor time to sail. I ran into those pirates by chance, and they saw me as easy prey. Thankfully, you were there to make prey of them! Why, without you Alurel, I’m not sure I’d still be around.”

The giant mermaid smiled down at the man. “It was no trouble.”, she said.

 

“Ha, I’ll say. You kind of... really made short work of them there.”

 

“It was my pleasure! To help you, that is.”

 

She giggled.

 

“Well, I am sorry about your king.”

 

He waved a hand.

 

“It’s alright, just human business really.”

 

There was a pause till he spoke again.

 

“Say, you found this island all by yourself.”

“That I did.”

“Well, it’s beautiful.”

 

She giggled.

 

“I’m sure the island would appreciate your compliment if it could hear it. It’s my own private spot. I come here sometimes to think, just me and the flowers.”

 

“No one else comes here?”

“Oh no. There’s no animals to hunt, and the soil is too short for farming. I’m sure someone may have washed up here once or twice, but it’s not that useful for you humans I’m sure.”

Ethan smiled. There was something so sweet about Alurel. Her smile was warm, and her manner of speaking had a unique charm. Her voice was so sweet, even as it boomed around him. Though intimidated at first, he gradually felt himself growing ever more at ease in her looming presence.

 

“Well, like I said. It’s a fantastic spot, truly beautiful although, perhaps, not as beautiful as yourself.”

Alurel burst into a giggle fit. She covered her mouth and cheeks.

“Oh you are too kind, you silly little prince. Thank you.”, she said, smiling.

“Uh, say, you mentioned knowing about farming. I’m surprised to see you know that much about us humans!”

 

Alurel’s eyebrows shot up.

 

“Oh of course, of course. Like I said, I like parts of your culture. Your fashion, your dances. I’ve picked up lots of details in my travels over the waters.”

“Ah, from sunken ships and the like?”

“Yes, stuff like that.”, she replied.

 

“Ah, on that note, I’m sorry about that, umm, shell bra of yours.”

“Oh it’s alright, I know where to get another one.”, said Alurel.

 

“Ah, good good.”

Ethan scratched the back of his neck a moment.

 

“So, umm, it’s kind of obvious but-”

 

“Yes?”, said Alurel.

 

“Well, you really are a mermaid right. This isn’t just some dream, is it? I’m not dehydrated at sea, adrift and delirious am I?”

 

“Oh no. Didn’t you feel that fruit conk you on the head silly? This is real. I’m real.”

“Of course, forgive me. It’s just, mermaids are considered mere myths where I am from. Are all of you actually this... big? I mean, you’re giant! Our legends usually have them depicted smaller, like, our size.”

Alurel laughed as she was wont to do.

 

“Oh no, we’re very much real. You’re right though, most mermaids are your size. I’m what is known as a ‘great mermaid.’ We’re the largest and rarest of our kind. In fact, we’re the largest creatures of the sea far as I know.”

“Ah, well that is very fascinating. Well, marvelous really. I’m, I’m still quite a bit awestruck I admit.”

Alurel smiled. “Well, I’m the one who’s a bit awestruck. A real human prince, and a handsome one at that~”

 

She laughed, then her smile began to fade.

 

“But, I know we are only myths to you humans. In fact, I’m not even supposed to be so brazenly near the surface, let alone showing myself to a human.”

“Oh? What do you mean?”, asked Ethan.

 

“Well, in truth, we actually have a lot in common. I’m having some troubles with my king as well. You see, we’re forbidden from interacting with humans and any creature that’s not of the sea, really. It’s by his edict. It’s also by his decrees that your fishing yields are so low.”

 

“What?”, said Ethan.

 

“It’s true. Whenever King Poseidon feels humans are fishing too much, he tries to stop it. He and the foul sea-hags team up to conjure storms. These are what sink your ships and keep them away from fishing. I tried to tell him that we can just talk to the humans, but he refuses to even consider it.”

 

“Conjure storms?”, said Ethan. “You mean... magic?”

 

“Yes.”, said Alurel. “Magic. The sea-hags are powerful witches, and King Poseidon wields the Trident. It is a mighty artifact which grants him mastery over storm and sea. Whoever wields it has access to magical powers far, far more vast than the oceans. They could move entire seas and turn the whole sky to a storm.”

 

“Wow.”

 

Alurel nodded.

 

“He says we can’t reveal ourselves to the humans, as he fears what will happen if they learn any of our secrets. But, I think humans can handle us! I think there’s value in your fashions, your stories, and your culture. He does not see it though, no matter how much I’ve tried to get him too. So, we seafolk are forbidden to show ourselves to your kind, let alone trade or talk with you humans. And, as long as he holds the Trident, there’s nothing I or anyone else can do to change things.”

 

Ethan paused his work on the ship a moment, frowning.

“That’s... that’s awful.”

 

“It is.”, said Alurel. She frowned too, though it faded fast.

 

“But,”, she said. “You might be able to help me. And then, we could help each other.”

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“There’s a flower, but it grows only on land. Deep on land, that is. Its petals are red, green, and blue. It grows only in the shade of thick trees. It’s rare, but I imagine it grows somewhere in the Afflelands. If you find some of those flowers, I can use them to put Poseidon to sleep, then take the Trident. With the artifact in my hands, I can become the new queen of Atlantis and the seas, and usher in an an era of contact and cooperation with your kind! It would be beautiful.”

 

“Atlantis? That’s real too?”

“Oh yes.”, she said. “It is an underwater city. It’s a beautiful place Ethan. Perhaps I can show it to you, once this is all figured out. Imagine, humans being able to see Atlantis? A grand idea. But, as queen, I could make it so you never need to worry about terrible storms keeping your people away from fishing again; that’s for sure.”

 

“Red, green, and blue petals.” said Ethan. “I, I actually think I know the flower you’re talking about. I can probably get it for you!”

 

Alurel leaned in. She smiled wide. He had known her for such a short time, but he already loved to see her smile. Her pretty face, long light-purple locks flowing so neatly down her neck. Yes, she deserved to smile and much more in Ethan’s mind.

 

“Really?”

 

“Yes, yes I think I can Alurel!”

 

“Oh joy!”

The cliff rumbled as she slid her arms across it. With one hand, she reached out to pinch up Ethan. The prince flailed, yelping with surprise.

She brought him up to her red-ish lips and gave him a kiss, then another and again.

 

“Oh, thank you, thank you so much Ethan! It’ll be great. I can finally make human culture a part of my world.”

“I-it’s no trouble, really.”

Ethan was flushed red again. Her lips were so soft, he wanted to ask for yet another kiss, but that’d be rude. He just laid limp in her hands till she sent him back down near his sailboat.

 

“We can meet here again, tomorrow morning.”

 

“Of course”, said Ethan. “But, how will I get here?”

 

“It’s easy.”, she said. “I know the location of your Afflelands’ shores. Just swim straight from that direction, then turn East once you no longer see the shore. That should take you to this island again. From here, you can simply sail straight south-west to return to your home again. Based on how fast your tiny boat can go, I’d say the trip would only be about an hour and a half for you each way. That’s not so bad, right?”

 

Ethan nodded. “Not so bad at all. Alright then, it’s a date!”

 

Alurel giggled.

 

“Sure, but, ah, we still have to fix your sailboat, don’t we?”

 

Ethan nodded again.

 

“Yes but, I’ve got the leave all stitched up, all I need to do is hook it into the sail. Umm, would you mind lifting me up towards it?”

“Not, at, all~” said Alurel. Once more, she picked him up. What was out of reach for him was but the most minor movement of her hand. She brought him to the hole in the sail, and he patched it up with the leaf by running his makeshift grass-twig rope through smaller punctures in the fabric.

 

With that, the sail was fixed.

 

Alurel set her palm to the ground. He sat on the soft surface, wiping his brow.

 

“There. I wouldn’t say it’s good as new, but it should work.”

 

He moved back to the sailboat, but almost tripped over that big green fruit he left on the ground.

“Oh yes,” said Alurel. “You should eat that before you go.”

“Are you sure? I mean, this is your island after all.”

“Ah there you go being silly again, prince Ethan~”. She laughed. “The fruit has already fallen from the tree. It’ll rot if we leave it alone. We might as well have it.”

 

Her enormous hand raked over the grass towards the other fruits, near the tree from earlier. She scooped them up.

 

“Have you ever tried this fruit?”

Ethan took out knife from his pocket and started peeling the rind.

 

“I can’t say I have.”

“It’s a little tart, but also sweet. I think you’ll like it.”

 

He took a nibble.

 

“Mmm, it’s not bad.”

 

Alurel smiled.

 

“I’m glad you think so!”

 

She opened her mouth and tossed the few fruits she had into her mouth. For Ethan, the fruit was something he could only comfortably hold with two hands. Meanwhile, his great mermaid companion simply tossed three in her mouth where they looked like mere crumbs. A chomp of her teeth and he could hear the fruits burst. She swallowed, and he heard it. Even her most minor movements carried such weight and volume at times.

 

After that, she started pushing her tongue around her teeth.

 

“Oh, Ethan, I’m sorry to do this but, I have another request.”

“Yes, what it is?”

 

“I think there’s something stuck in my teeth, some ship matter from earlier. This is really embarrassing to ask but, would you mind helping me get it out?”

 

“Oh, uh, well I can try!”

 

Eager to please, he didn’t fuss as she pinched him up. Then, he was brought to her lips, which opened wide to show off her mouth.

 

He felt nervous, seeing her maw this close. Her teeth were rather human, not jutting fangs or anything, but the sheer scale of things frightened him. He knew it was a mouth that could swallow men whole.

 

She let go of him, so he could fall on her palm and walk in on his own accord. He stood frozen still, though.

 

“Is, something the mater Ethan?”

“Oh, it’s just. A bit intimidating.”

She laughed.

 

“Don’t be so silly, silly. If I wanted to eat you, you’d be swallowed by now. We’re friends, and you can trust me.”

 

“O-of course.”, he said. “Forgive me.”

 

He walked in. The soft ground of her palm gave way to the softer, squishier ground of her tongue. A dollop of saliva dropped from her palate in front of him, splashing his front.

 

“’ed yew hind it yet?”, she muttered, trying not to move her tongue or lips all that much.

 

He looked around and saw the culprit. A piece of that pirate ship was stuck near her molars. It was deep in her gob, but he carefully walked over towards it. He logged his hands around the wet chunk of wood, and pulled with all his might. After a bit of exertion, he popped it free, though tumbled near her throat.

 

“A-alurel!!!”, he shouted.

 

She tilted her entire head forward, letting Ethan fall down her tongue as though it were a slope. He landed safely on her palm. The spit-soaked wood-chunk rested by his side till she sent it flying with a flick of her finger.

 

“You got it!”, she beamed. “Oh thank you. It would've taken me awhile to get that out by myself.”

 

At the sight of her smiling face, his fear had faded. Making her happy filled him with such warmth. He wondered if he was feeling fond for the merwoman on a deeper level. Could such a thing be possible?

 

Perhaps if their kind could intermingle, like she had suggested.

 

“I did? Fantastic, I’m happy to help.”

“Oh you’re the best thing to happen to me all day Ethan.”

She gave him another kiss, and his body was alight with a loving warmth. Yes, he feared he was falling for her already.

 

She moved him back to the sailboat, then picked it up and started swimming out a little ways from the island. Slowly, she lowered her body back into the water, lowering the sailboat with it.

 

On the way down, Ethan thought of a few more questions. He thought to ask more about her kind. How many mermaids and mermen where there? What was Atlantis like? He also thought of a more personal question. It was clear she had the chest of a woman, but the fish parts of her body she had seemed smooth. There was no butt, or, well, no genitalia. Perhaps it was stowed away behind her scales?

 

He figured it’d be rude to ask about that sort of thing. No, he was content to simply take in the view of her as his boat was gently lowered down to the water.

 

“Remember, meet me here tomorrow, in the morning. Bring that flower please. Then, I can make my dream come true. It’ll be a most important step on that path.”

“Oh course Alurel, it’d be the least I can do. Thank you again for saving me.”

His sails blew out, the wind catching them as he moved south-west.

 

Waving, he shouted back to her head, which poked out of the water to watch him depart.

 

“Goodbye Alurel, see you soon.”

She waved back, mimicking the gesture and splashing water through the air.

 

“Goodbye Ethan, till tomorrow!”, she shouted back.

 

“Till tomorrow!”, he shouted in reply.

 

Alurel watched him sail off into the distance. A sigh left her lips.

 

“Perfect.”, she then said.

Chapter 4: New Bra

 

Alurel swam back underwater shortly after parting ways with Ethan. She was alight with joy. It seemed like she found someone who could help her, and she had high hopes. She carried that joy as she journeyed back towards the city of Atlantis.

 

Atlantis was many, many fathoms below the surface. Normally, the sun’s light would not reach down well enough quite that far. Thankfully, there were special sea creatures down there. Bioluminescent Urchins and sea anemones abounded on the sands and rock near the ocean floor around Atlantis and in general, so long as one didn’t go *too* deep, where darkness ruled.

 

These special creatures were called ‘sunbuds’ by the seafolk, although the term was misleading, since there were not plants and thus couldn’t really ‘bud’. However, they looked plant-y enough, and glowed with light the same shade as the sun itself. They also glowed bright, bright enough to illuminate the depths of the ocean. With this, any merfolk or other seafolk could easily navigate all but the deepest waters.

 

Seafolk were varied, even if the normal-sized merfolk were among the most common. Also, although Atlantis was *the* city of the seafolk, not all of them lived there. Alurel actually held her home outside the city, valuing her privacy. That was rare for a mermaid, normal or great: so rare she was the only one she knew of to do so.

 

However, some other types seafolk lived outside the city for their own reasons. One of Alurel’s acquaintances fit into that category, and she went to visit them on the way.

 

The great mermaid found the clay-beige, scallop-like shell nestled on the seafloor in a cozy spot of deep sand. Sunbuds were a bit denser in the area, making it even easier to see one’s surroundings. There was also some tall seaweed surrounding the bivalve shell, making it an even homier location.

 

The shell was large, giant by human standards, but it wasn’t all that big to a great mermaid like Alurel herself.

 

Alurel rapped the knuckles of her right hand against the clam-shell. It slowly opened. Inside was a being with the upper body of a naked, fair-skinned woman and the slimy, less rigidly shaped body of a clam stretched across the bottom half of the shell. That portion of the being’s body was more mollusk colored: namely, more yellow at the waist line and below.

 

“Clamdi!”, said Alurel.

“Alurel!”, said Clamdi.

“It’s good to see you again Alurel. It’s been so long, I was worried you forgot about me.”, said the clam-woman. She brushed some of her blonde hair from out of her eyes.

 

“I see you’ve ditched your shell bra at last. Are you finally giving up that silly quirk of yours?”, said Clamdi. She giggled after. She was stark nude herself, and saw no need to hide her pretty figure for anyone.

 

Alurel smiled down at her much smaller conversation partner.

 

“Well, not exactly. I actually lost it in a scuffle with some pirates.”, said the great mermaid.

 

“Pirates, but...”

 

Clamdi gasped.

 

“T-that means you were on the surface! That’s forbidden.”

 

“I know, but I ended up saving a human’s life. Don’t you think that would be worth the trip?”

 

Clamdi shook her head. “Well, hmm, I mean. That’s still very much taboo. I guess, given the circumstances, I won’t tell anyone.”

“Oh, I know you won’t.”, said Alurel.

 

“So, what brings you here then?”, said Clamdi. “Just stopping by to say hi?”

“Well, not exactly.”, said Alurel. “You see, that’s why I knocked. I need a new bra now, and your shell is the perfect size.”

“Oh? W-well I suppose that’s flattering in some odd way, but you know I can’t leave my shell even if I wanted to. It’s attached to my body; it’s a part of me.”

“Not for long.”, said Alurel. “I know it’s a tall ask, but consider it a last and final favor for your good friend.”

The great mermaid licked her lips. Clamdi tried top shut her shell, but it was too late. Alurel already her hands gripping either half of the shell. Even with all of Clamdi’s strength, she couldn’t shut her shut back even an inch.

She was exposed, and Alurel’s hungry mouth loomed right about her head. Smiling.

 

She opened wide with an “Aaaaah~”.

 

Clamdi flailed her arms in protest, but Alurel’s lips were stronger. Alurel was bigger: Clamdi was smaller. As a clam-woman to a great mermaid, Clamdi as at Alurel’s mercy.

 

Alurel wrapped her lips about Clamdi’s body. Her tongue stretched out and wiggled against her front, savoring her body with every movement. Her lips kneaded at Clamdi’s sides, her cheeks started suckling.

Clamdi screamed and protested, but all her words were swallowed up by Alurel’s mouth.

 

Just as Clamdi knew she herself would be.

Alurel started to suckle harder. Clamdi felt the suction against her body, threatening to rip her from the shell her fleshy clam-half clung too.

 

“Alurel stop, it hurts!” she shouted. But, the great mermaid cared not one bit for her pleas.

 

With body vibrating “mmm”s and loud suckling sounds, Alurel slurped her ‘acquaintance’ right up and into her mouth.

 

“Mmmf, slurp~”

 

Clamdi let out a scream as she felt her body rip from her shell. She had tried to hold on for some time, and then tried desperately to let go, if only to make it less painful to be yanked away. Unfortunately, staying or leaving the clam-shell was entirely at the mercy of Alurel, who apparently had none.

 

Clam-folk came in a variety of sizes. Since that clam-shell of hers was big enough to cup Alurel’s breasts, that meant Clamdi was on the larger end of size for her kind. Yet, big as she might’ve been to some, it was nothing compared to Alurel. A great mermaid was on its own level of ‘big’.

 

So, Alurel was able to fit the entire clam-woman into her mouth. Clamdi was fondled by that tongue as it raked across her front and twisted about her chest. Spittle dripped from her face and soaked her body. Clamdi’s entire body hurt from the force of suckling alone.

 

Big as Alurel was, Clamdi was large enough that the great mermaid’s meal did take up her entire mouth. Not many morsels could say to do that. This meant that although eating her was still easy, swallowing her whole, as was Alurel’s usual preference, was not.

 

So, Alurel decided to chew, and Clamdi’s nature made it easy to choose which part to chomp. A clam-person was human till about the waist line, at that point, their body became a bit more rubbery, trailing down to a flat base of flesh not too dissimilar from a slimy clam.

 

Clamdi felt that lower, clam-like part of her body briefly slide out past Alurel’s lips. Then, she felt nibbling just below her waist line. It came from Alurel’s incisors’; the great mermaid was testing where best to chomp.

Clamdi screamed.

 

“No, Alurel, please don’t-Aaaagh!”

 

Alurel chomped down, bisecting much of Clamdi’s upper-half from the lower, clam-half. It wasn’t an exact half-and-half cut, that’d be messy. Alurel knew that a clam-person’s blood flowed much slower in their clam-half, since it just a mass of rarely-moving flesh. This meant that her mouth wouldn’t be filled with too much of the clear-ish blood of that clam-half. It also meant that Clamdi wouldn’t bleed out, and could continue wriggling in her mouth in that delightfully manner.

 

Clamdi writhed, letting out yelps of intense pain.

“W-why?”, she called. Her voice was swallowed by the mouth, which vibrated in savoring “mmm”s all around here still. The clam-woman felt Alurel slurp her lower-bits back in. She could feel the severed part of her body glide against her upper-body, where Alurel’s tongue moved the clammier half to her molars.

Her severed lower body was chomped to bits, and those bits moved around her, rubbing against her body and dripping her own blood on her still living, wriggling upper-part. Alurel passed the clam-flesh from cheek to cheek.

 

While the great mermaid masticated her severed body all around her, Clamdi could do naught but struggle and whimper in vain. She had once called Alurel her friend, but it was clear to her now that she was just another piece of meat to the giant mermaid if it came down to it. Or, more accurately, *pieces* of meat.

Alurel had chewed up Clamdi’s severed lower-half enough for her liking. The bits of masticated clam-flesh varied from little chunks to thoroughly chewed slush that clung to Clamdi’s upper body. Nevertheless, the great mermaid knew the meal was chewed ‘enough’ that she could swallow.

So, she did. Her throat grabbed Clamdi’s living form and the chewed bits. Her slimy throat muscles tugged it all down, bunched up and squeezed together. With a satisfied sigh, she felt Clamdi land into her gut.

 

Clamdi’s clam bits rained down from above after her. By now, much of Alurel’s previous meals had digested to the point of death. Some pirates still yet lived in that dark, acidic place. They heard someone new arrive.

 

One of the pirates, on the cusp of death, reached out towards the new arrival motivated by sheer curiosity and desperation. Clamdi was near-immobile, but she was big, and out of pained panic she cocked her fist back and punched whatever was trying to grab her. The blow landed to the man’s head and, given the size disparity, killed him instantly. It was a mercy, really, and one she herself would not get.

 

The environment of Alurel’s stomach was dark, noisy, and gross. Clamdi couldn’t exactly see in the pitch-dark, living cavern of flesh. She could smell though. It smelled like acid and fish, and a smell she didn’t know, but what was the stench that resulted from digested human bodies.

 

She was awash in a chyme of dissolved eel and pirate slurry, in which pieces of her own body floated. A churn from the gut splashed her entire form with the muck. Her skin began to tingle. She tried to crawl, but with her lower-body severed she started to feel weak.

 

She found a decent enough spot to lay down. Her whole body hurt, bad, and only got worse as the acids had their way.

 

Alurel’s heartbeat, gurgles, and humming filled her ears.

 

Back on the outside, Alurel snatched up the shells she had so coveted. She licked their insides clean, then got to work making her new bra, singing to herself all the while.

 

She yanked up some of that tall seaweed from the seafloor. It’s not as though Clamdi needed it anymore, after all. She tied the stuff into a band and used it to affix the clay-beige shells to her tits, exterior-side of the shell facing out of course, with its scalloped front facing up.

 

Alurel tugged the cups against her bosom and gave them a wiggle.

 

“Perfect fit.”, she said. “Just as I thought. You know, I think this bra is even better than my old one. A new bra, and a nice clam-folk meal. It’s been too long for both I’d say~”

 

She giggled, drumming her fingers against her stomach.

 

“Alright, time to visit Atlantis~”

Chapter 5: Undersea

 

Alurel had no more tasks to handle, it was time to return to King Poseidon for her report. As much as she maligned the man, he did worry if she was out too long. So, it wasn’t wise to keep him waiting.

 

She swam fast, much to the digesting Clamdi’s displeasure. All that stuff in her stomach did move when the rest of her body did, after all. Atlantis wasn’t too far off at all from where she was, so it quickly came into view. The light of the city hit Alurel’s green eyes. She would never deny that wonderful city was always a pretty sight.

 

Atlantis was spread over a great range of seafloor. It was a city designed by and for seafolk of all sorts. Its buildings varied wildly in size, but even the smallest hovel was beautiful. Every structure glistened with shiny gold and pearl-stone. Indeed, spires of the radiant metal and stone towered throughout the area.

 

The most obvious feature of the sunbud-lit city was the royal palace. It was there that King Poseidon lived. Though every building was fancy by human standards, what with its shiny gold and pearl-stone, the palace was very much the most marvelous building in the city. Like most of the most marvelous buildings, it was large enough to be scaled for the great mermaids, and thus towered at thousands of feet high.

 

Alurel swam towards it. Along the way, she came across a gathering of normal merfolk: the ones but the size of humans. They were busy playing some sort of leisurely rock-ball game, and waved as she approached.

 

Alurel kept swimming though, and they realized they’d have to move lest they’d be barreled through by her giant body.

 

“Out of the way, guppies~”, she said.

 

A few of the slower ones were indeed knocked a little to the side in her passing.

 

Alurel darted through the spires and over the smaller homes of the smaller seafolk. She was dead-set on reaching the palace, which was another journey not at all long for her.

 

Music wafted through the water as she glided above the pearl-stone streets. Bands dotted the jovial, aquatic metropolis. Alurel heard music from a big band below staffed mostly by crustacean-folk, as was common. Clacking claws made for a marvelous instrument after all, making their kind well known for being musically inclined. Although, such a boon did come at the cost of opposable thumbs.

 

The doors to the palace were always open. Two great mermaids stood--or rather, floated upright--as guards. However, that was merely formality and ceremony. None would dare think of hurting King Poseidon, and few would be foolish enough to think they could. Unlike the kingdoms of man, the kingdom of seafolk was at peace. It was unified.

 

Well, for the most part at least.

Alurel swam through the opulent halls of the palace. Sunbuds nestled to the walls like sconces, lighting the path through the shimmering corridor. She sped through the halls towards the throne room.

 

There, atop a majestic throne of solid gold sat King Poseidon. In his hand, as always, was the Trident. Alurel always drew her eyes to that artifact first. It was a solid gold, but not the same gold that made up much of Atlantis. No, it was a lighter shade, a kind like no other in the deeps. Sturdier and harder at a glance.

The item consisted of a long ending with a fork head. Each of its three prongs was tipped with sharp points. Alurel had no doubts it could serve as a formidable melee weapon if need be, but it was not meant for such crude physical might. No, its might was beyond that. Just looking at it she could also feel the power. It practically radiated it. Indeed, the Trident glowed with a gentle, light, golden illumination.

 

“Alurel!”, said King Poseidon. “It’s good to see you again my gal.”

She snapped her head to the king himself and, while swimming forward, took in other details of the room. Great mermaid guards lined the opulent chamber, along with some choreographed dancers in one corner. There were also some great mermaids stringing undersea harps as well, though they ceased once Poseidon gave his greeting.

 

“It’s good to see you, my king.”, said Alurel.

 

King Poseidon sat on the throne best as any merfolk could sit. He had a stately white beard with medium length white hair on his head. The color of it conveyed wisdom, a wisdom bellied by the rest of his form. Despite his many years of rule he, like any other immortal merfolk, didn’t suffer the ill effects of aging.

 

His body was fit as could be, with toned arms and chest proudly bared and bereft of any body hair. Like any merfolk, great or no, his lower body transitioned to a fish-like lower half. His was red, which was quite rarer than the much more common green.

 

Then again, most everything about King Poseidon was rare at the least. Merfolk were predominantly female, and great merfolk were especially so. All merfolk looked to be in their early twenties, but he alone had a more mature appearance: high 20s or early 30s. Poseidon was also the only merfolk of any size or gender who had stark-white hair. She had never seen a red tail on a great merfolk elsewhere either and, of course, there was only one ruler of Atlantis and wielder of the Trident.

 

She swam up close to him, and bowed her head.

 

“I’ve been waiting for you Alurel, you were a tad late. Is everything alright?”, he asked.

 

“Oh yes, I’m sorry I just caught up taking in some of the sights of the sea I suppose.” she replied.

 

“I see you have a new, one of those ‘bras’ of yours. Very nice shells. It’s quite lucky to find abandoned shells that fine I’d say.”

“Oh yes.”, said Alurel. “Very lucky.”

 

“Ah now then, I hope your surveying went alright. I was more eager than usual to see one of my beloved ocean surveyors back, in fact.”

“Why is that, my king?”

“Well I’ve heard some concerning reports of going-ons in the sea. You’re the last surveyor to come back, so I was hoping you’d know something about them.”

“About what, my dear king?”, said Alurel. She had her arms crossed behind her back, smiling to convey a sense of innocence.

 

“Well to start, the sea-witches have complained that their eel flock hasn’t returned. Do you know anything about that?”

 

Alurel shook her head.

 

“I’m afraid not, I saw not a single eel during my swimming.”, she said, lying. “If you ask me, I bet those sea-hags simply-”

“Alurel!”, said Poseidon in a raised voice. She had known she had made a mistake even before he continued.

 

“Do not call our allies hags. Yes, unlike us merfolk they are not gifted with eternal youth, but they are immortal just as us. Their magical gifts can keep them looking just as beautiful as a great mermaid like yourself is naturally, and there’s no shame in that.”

 

“Ah, forgive me my king!”

 

Alurel bowed her head and crossed her arms at the wrists over her ‘alp’. She frowned. Internally, she made a note not to let her thoughts come out so carelessly.

 

King Poseidon chuckled softly.

 

“Now now that is alright my dear. I’m sure it’s just a slip of the tongue, you probably heard the term said from some of the more rambunctious types of this city, and it came out by mistake.”

“Yes.”, said Alurel. “That’s it, I think I overheard some of the normal merfolk use it on the way in. It must’ve wiggled into my speak that way. My sincerest apologies.”

She bowed again.

 

“It’s alright, all is forgiven. Now then, there was another matter still.”

“Oh?”

“Yes.”, said King Poseidon. “One of my normal mermaid surveyors, Orabelle, reported seeing some flotsam on the seafloor: wooden wreckage of a ship, in fact. It was near the area you usually swim in, so I was wondering if you saw or heard anything perhaps?”

 

“A wreck? Why that sounds horrible.”, said Alurel. “Were any people found?”

 

“Well no, the ship was completely empty, which is unusual for wrecks as you know. After all, normally at least one poor person is stuck in the ship’s hold when it goes down, and they often float down with the flotsam.”

Alurel shook her head.

 

“Well, I am sorry to report I didn’t notice anything like that. Perhaps the humans had some sort of battle with one another.”

Poseidon stroked his beard.

 

“Hmm, that does make some sense. There were some cannon balls found near the site. I’m surprised you wouldn’t have noticed such a commotion though.”

“Forgive me my king, I’ve been feeling a bit scatterbrained, I suppose.”

He chuckled.

“Nonsense nonsense, do not disparage yourself in my presence my dear gal. We all have our off days, you’re still a valued surveyor of the kingdom.”

She smiled, then spoke.

 

“My king, if I may broach a topic.”

 

“Hmm? Is it what I think it is Alurel?”

 

She wiggled her tail fin, hands behind her back again.

 

“Well, I think this latest incident with that ship is just more evidence that the humans could benefit from meeting us. I mean, they keep getting into scuffles.”

 

King Poseidon sighed.

 

“Alurel, you know that is out of the question. I know it can be hard to know humans make each other suffer, but that they do so is precisely why they aren’t ready to meet us. They have their own problems to sort out.”

 

“There’s more though,”, said Alurel. “I don’t think they understand that the storms are to keep them from fishing. Some see it as a challenge. If we could just talk to them-”

 

“Alurel, I know the storms can be troublesome, but they keep enough of the humans away when the fish need time to recover. They aren’t designed to sink their ships, only keep them away. Accidents do happen, and some humans are foolhardy, true. I know it’s not a perfect solution, but it’s the best we can do while upholding the rule of no-contact. We can’t let them deplete the populations of fish. The seas need balance after all.”

“Then why let them fish at all?”, said Alurel.

 

“My dear gal, they have to feed themselves too. I’ve always been ok with humans fishing, so long as they don’t overdo it. In time, they will figure things out about it. They’ll come to respect the seas and fish in a balanced way.”

Alurel squared her shoulders.

 

“It’s hardly balanced that they get to fish our waters, while we get nothing from their lands. We can never sample their food, hear their stories. We can’t even chat with them. It’s not fair at all, it’s not-”

“Alurel!”, barked Poseidon. He punctuated his words with a thud of his Trident on the chamber floor.

 

“That is enough of that. The humans have their own lives and dreams, just like us. Still, they aren’t ready for contact. Imagine if they knew the powers we held in their current state. Imagine the scuffles they hold with one another, but with one side having a great mermaid to help them battle. It could only lead to trouble. They would covet our treasures and aid, and destroy each other and themselves in pursuit of it.”

 

His brow furrowed.

 

“As the more mature beings, we must abide the inequality of their partaking of the sea’s resources. This is not the first time we’ve had this discussion Alurel, you should know better than to get worked up over silly things like this.”

 

“I’m...”, Alurel quivered her lips. “I’m sorry, my king.” Her eyes managed to squeeze out a couple tears too for good measure.

 

The king sighed.

 

“Now now, it’s ok Alurel. You just have a big heart, I know. It's only natural to want to share our wanders with the humans, given what they go through. It just won’t work out. We have an important duty to preserve the balance of the seas. We check the sands for richness, the coral for signs of malaise. If humans were introduced to our world as you wish, they’d only mess the balance up, and mess up themselves too. It wouldn’t be good for anybody then.”

 

Alurel looked up. A look of sadness on her pretty face could soften even the most stone of hearts.

 

King Poseidon continued.

 

“Now, it seems today has been a little rough on you. Why don’t you have the rest of the day to yourself. Relax, sample the music of the city a bit. You can even entertain yourself in my palace, the door is always open you know.”

 

“That’s ok.”, said Alurel. She smiled softly.

 

“Are you sure? I’d so love to hear your singing again. Why, the harpists are on stand-by now as I speak.”

“No that’s alright, I think I’ll just relax at home for a bit. Thank you for your kindness my king.”

“Bah”

 

He waved his hand, then continued.

 

“Kindness is the least a person can do. Also, Alurel, are you sure you don’t want to live in the city? You’re the only great mermaid who doesn’t. I could get you a nice estate, probably much better than that distant cove of yours.”

 

“Oh, my king, you are so generous.”, she bowed her head again. “I appreciate the offer, but I do love my cozy cove, and the privacy and quiet comfort it affords.”

 

The king nodded his head.

 

“I understand. Well, if you ever change your mind, do let me know. And take do care. I look forward to a survey report tomorrow.”

 

“Of course.”, said Alurel. “My thanks again, my king.”

 

She swam out the palace, wiping her tears on the way.

Chapter 6: Home

 

Alurel went from the palace straight towards her home. She lived far outside the city: far enough that the golden metropolis was just barely in view from her residence.

 

An enormous cove was what she called home. It was alone on a seafloor with a sparsity of sunbuds, though there were still enough of the bio-luminous things to give any needed light. The massive nook was set into an even more massive mountain that, as far as undersea mountains went, wasn’t *that* big.

 

Alurel swam through the rather short entrance ‘hall’. Along the way, she spotted a small, shelled sea-snail-man slithering along the seafloor. He looked up to spot her, and waved a hand as she approached.

 

“Oh hello there, I’m sorry I didn’t realize this was your home-wait, wait no!”

 

She had opened her mouth and lapped him right up. A quick gulp and he entered her gut.

She enjoyed her privacy. It was rare to see another living creature even near her home. That was how she liked it. The dumber creatures of the sea naturally stayed away as there was nothing to feed on in the area. Sunbuds were effectively inedible to most, of course, and there were no other flora of fauna nearby. Alurel had picked that all clean when she moved in.

 

Still, some curious smaller seafolk would stop by now and again, typically without telling any others, thankfully. Alurel liked that too a bit, as it meant she could have a nice, wriggly meal.

 

It was of course the ultimate taboo for a larger seafolk to eat any of the smaller. The notion was so unthinkable, though, that no one would ever suspect it could happen. As far as Alurel was concerned, that was just perfect. Anyone’s missing friend, lover, or any mysterious disappearance always had another explanation.

 

Alurel didn’t remember too well the first time she ate another seafolk. It’s not like she actively hunted them or anything. She typically only devoured the nosy, or the naughty. Once in awhile, she might snack on a lone one in a mood, true.

 

For Alurel, part of it just made sense. She was big, and they and the humans--latter of which she did seek out--were small. It just felt like it was her right to enjoy herself at their expense sometimes. If it wasn’t then, why would she be so big? Why would the disparity exist?

 

She’d never dare speak such thoughts to another great mermaid though, and certainly not the king himself. They’d think her a monster, but Alurel knew in her mind that they were the ones with skewed perspectives. Their perspectives on the humans were especially wrong.

‘And I’ll show them, one day. One day soon~’

 

Alurel entered the central chamber of the cove, which she called her home. Sunbuds dotted the floor and lingered between indents in the rocks she used as shelves. She kept all kinds of things here, with the vast majority trinkets and baubles from the surface. Mementos, really, treasures, and she planned to add another one today.

 

Floating in the center of the cove chamber, Alurel began to lurch her throat. Something was coming up. She opened her mouth and spit into her hand the handsome pirate from earlier in the day: the one with the torn red trousers.

 

--==--==--==--

 

All mermaids of all sizes had a cavity in their body for storage. It was a few interchangeable names: among them, storage-stomach, or treasure-stomach. It allowed a mermaid to carry something or someone small with them hands free.

 

When Alurel had swallowed that pirate, she had done so with the intent of keeping him around for later. So, when he was gulped down, a handy valve near the bottom of her throat was opened, taking him into a stomach-like cavity that was bereft of acid.

 

However, that organ was not bereft of horror. It was still dark in there, wet. There was a pool of sea water for poor Barnaby the pirate to flounder in, and the walls had a bit of moistening slime to them. It was also near pitch-dark. Alurel kept only a single sunbud in her treasure-gut, and it was at the far other end of the cavity.

 

Barnaby saw it, and was almost tempted to go near it for comfort. Yes, its light only illuminated the rippling fleshy walls, but it was still light.

 

He was glad he didn’t. He was glad he was too frozen with shock to move. That’s because the scariest thing about where he was, was that he wasn’t alone there. Something else was in there with him, something that lived and moved.

 

It wasn’t just that sunbud either. He saw, briefly, dark-purple tentacles like those of an octopus. He saw them but a moment, in the distance. The moment he did, he knew it was best to stay still, stay safe, in the dark little fleshy corner he had plopped down towards.

 

It was a bumpy affair being in that cavity, as the contents of the storage-stomach moved when Alurel did. That meant the waist-high pool of salt-water tried to carry him away and around, sometimes succeeding. It meant he saw those dark tentacles here and there, as whatever creature they belonged to cried out in a shrill voice each time they, too, were disturbed.

 

Time went on till the entire cavity lurched. The walls were kneading in on the organ, trying to grab something. He heard a feminine yelp from where he last saw those tentacles, and released the strange stomach-walls had grabbed it.

 

But, they let her go. The walls kept, constricting, kept feeling around, and he worried the mermaid’s body was searching for him.

 

That was indeed the case.

 

Eventually, the cavity contracted the walls on his leg. He slipped free that one time, but Alurel had found him. She knew the general area, and the next clamp of the cavity walls snagged him.

 

In the meantime, that tentacled-woman he had barely seen and heard raced towards him. He turned away, not wanting to see whatever kind of monster it might be. She screamed as she approached.

 

The cavity squeezed him and jolted him upwards, towards the fleshy sphincter he had entered from. He felt slimy tentacles wiggling at his legs, trying to hold on. With frantic yells and some kicking, he successfully fended the limbs off.

 

Up he went on a familiar-feeling journey. His body was carted up the throat this time, and once more he was in that giant mermaid’s mouth.

‘Am I to be freed?’, he thought.

 

It would seem so, but it was a curse more than a gift. The mouth had a bit of salt water in it, but when the lips parted and she spat him out into her palm, water was all around him.

 

The pressure was painful, but he didn’t dare scream. He knew there was no air for him here. He would soon drown. Opening his mouth would only make it worse.

He looked up at the giant mermaid’s smiling visage, and choose to scream only internally.

 

--==--==--==--

 

“Ah there you are. You made me work a bit to get you out you naughty little thing.”

She rubbed her thumb against his naked chest.

 

“Don’t worry, I know you’re drowning in here. There is no need to speak. After all, you can’t even hear me clearly underwater, not like us seafolk. Soon, though, soon that may change.”

 

She licked her lips as she felt the contours of her abs with the tip of her thumb. The digit quickly moved to the man’s legs.

Alurel giggled.

 

“I always thought these limbs of your so funny: ‘legs’. Nifty little things too. The way they wiggle, the unique way you humans dance with them. I’ve seen your kind dance only a few times, on the decks of ships. There’s something endearing about those silly little bottom-arms. Yours are especially well kept: nice and strong.”

She sighed, then pinched the pirate’s legs between thumb and forefinger. With just a twist, she snapped them right off. The man screamed, salty water flooding his mouth. Alurel studied the little limbs while she swam towards one of the rocky shelves she had.

 

“They’ll make a fine addition to my collection.”

She dropped the legs there on the shelf among many others, most of which were clean down to the bone.

 

The man was bleeding from the stumps where his legs used to be. He had gone so long without air already, that death was near.

 

Alurel moved her thumb to his lower body, staunching the bleeding some. She swam towards another shelf of hers, chatting with him on the way.

 

“It’s funny, with those legs out of the way, the similarities humans and seafolk have seem all the more apparent. Our ‘top’ parts aren’t that different when the genders match. One day, others will see just close our kind can be together.”

The shelf was lined with little sharp jutting of rock from the floor: stalagmites. She pressed his lower torso against the pointed end of a free one. His screaming intensified, but only bubbles came out. His face was turning blue from lack of air, his body bruising and breaking from the ocean pressure. The pointed end of the stalagmite jutted out his back, blood flowing up from the wound wispy-like. He was thoroughly skewered by the stalagmite, twitching.

 

“Of course, you humans are rather fragile, especially to me. Short lived too. But, I think that just adds a certain charm to your way of living. Some of the prettiest flowers wilt, after all.”

 

Alurel swam backwards, taking in the view of the pirate’s place among other torsos skewered to the stalagmites on that shelf. The vast majority were skeletons, but the one nearest Barnaby still had a little bit of flesh to its bones. Just flakes of cartilage and bits of sinew, really, but something.

 

“You should feel honored.”, she said. The pirate entered the last stages of his death throes.

 

“I only take the most special humans down here to my home. I talk to them from time to time, even though they can’t listen or talk back. Don’t worry, I’m not ‘mad’ or anything silly~ It’s just comforting to pretend to have people to talk to sometimes. I’ve heard humans do it to, talking to mirrors and such.”

The pirate’s body bled out from the cracks in his form. The pressure was brutal, enough that his eyes jutted out on death. Alurel laughed.

 

“What a silly expression you have now. I like it.”

She turned around, floating in her central chamber and basking in the sites of her other treasures. There were priceless works of art, scavenged from ships that sunk: many times, she was the sinker. Crates of fruit, long decayed by the sea. Many such produce was something she never had the pleasure of tasting while it was dry.

 

She collected many things down here. The great mermaid found almost all parts of human culture neat.

 

“Yes, someday I’ll be able to bring people here, and they may last. Someday, the human world will be intertwined deeply with that of the sea. Oh I can just imagine it, a whole bunch of new people to meet, so much stories and culture to share.”

She smiled at the thought, lounging in a backwards float for a moment.

“It’ll be someday soon.”, she said, continuing to talk to no one in particular, save the collection of skeletons she had accrued.

 

“I think I found the perfect human this time, one who’ll really make my dreams come true. He’s handsome too. I really think he’ll pull through~”

 

She looked ahead at another shelf. That one was lined with another pile of skeletons. They were mostly intact though, and all bone.

 

“...Unlike the others thus far. Yes, my hopes are high. I just can’t wait till tomorrow.”

Alurel spun around, taking one more look at her new pirate memento.

 

“But, if I have to wait, I might as well keep myself busy. I do have to talk to a certain coven about plans, as well as to remind them to keep their mouths shut about any and all eels.”

 

Alurel started swimming to the exit. She took one last look in her chamber, facing some of its many human skeletons.

 

“So, I’ll see you all later my dear friends. I’m not sure how long I’ll be living in here. I’ll be a queen soon, after all~”

She left her cove, swimming out into the sea again.

 

“Very soon.”, she mused to herself.

Chapter 7: Witches

 

Alurel swam towards another location. It was one far enough away that the city of Atlantis was just barely in view. It was the “Grotto”, as all called it, and it was there the sea-witches lived and worked their magics.

 

Although their home was technically a grotto, it was a recess in the sea floor, rather than any mountain hole or other form of cave. Indeed, it was a large indent in the ground basically, complete with flat, somewhat elevated stone circles which the sea-witches used for their rituals and castings. A sea-witch had no quarters: they worked and rested out in the open, knowing no other seafolk would disturb them.

 

None but Alurel, at least.

 

She quite liked their home, as to a 500ft great mermaid like herself, it was not dissimilar from a wide bowl in the seafloor. It made it easy for her to look down at them.

 

And chastise them when need be.

 

The sea-witches felt the currents shift at the great mermaid’s arrival. Alurel had a dour expression on her face, which loomed above the coven. They curled their tentacles in anticipation of her wrath.

 

“Gather, hags.”, spoke Alurel. They obeyed, clustering on the main stone circle which was as wide to Alurel as a plate.

 

“I’ve heard you talked to the king about missing eels. Do you seek to tattle on me? Do you seek to sink our arrangement?”

Alurel batted her tail against the seafloor, kicking up some sand as well as making a jolting noise.

 

“N-no Alurel, please. We did not know it was you who ate them. I mean, that’s what we presumed you did to them-”

“You’re sure right I ate them!”, said Alurel. “And I’ll gobble you all up too if you ever snitch on me again.”

“F-forgive us Alurel. We didn’t know, we couldn’t know!”, said another one of the sea-witches.

 

Alurel was silent. She squinted at them, gently bobbing her tail. She took a good gander at their forms.

A sea-witch was a special kind of seafolk. They were actually octopuses from the waist down, usually with a purple color so dark it was near black. Other colors were heard of as well, such as lighter shades of purple, or even a dark red on rare occasion. Their human halves were typically pale or pink in skin-tone. Their hair was always always black or, rarely, white. This meant they had something of a ghastly look overall. Despite that, and their lack of natural eternal youth, they kept their skin fetching and bodies healthy as ever with their sea magics.

 

It was this same magic which earned them the trust of King Poseidon, and made them a target for Alurel.

 

Alurel watched them all cower in her gaze. Every sea-witch known was roughly human in size, so that meant they were also the size of game dice to a great mermaid like herself.

 

“You are all lucky I’m in a good mood.”, said Alurel. “Going forward, if any of your eels or reagents or whatever go missing, you come to *me* first, understood, hags?”

“Y-yes of course.” said one of the sea-witches. She had a slightly pink shade of pale for her svelte and fetching upper-body. Her raven hair stopped at her shoulders. Her octopus-half was dark-purple like most of the other sea-witches.

 

“Also, as an apology, you’ll set some eels out here tomorrow for me to feast on.”

 

“Of course.”, said that same sea-witch. Alurel knew her by name: Maris, the acting matron of the coven. She did not deign to speak it often, though.

 

“On that note.”, said Alurel, looming above them all in a leisurely float. “There’s something else you’ll have to do for me tomorrow. Aside from being on your best behavior, I’ll need you to help me weaponize dayshade. That’s right, I found another to harvest the plant, and I have a good feeling they’ll succeed this time. That means, the time to claim the Trident for myself is near.”

 

“Dayshade.”, muttered Maris. “You think you’ll actually manage to get some?” She spoke with a feared reverence for the plant.

 

“That’s right.”, said Alurel. Her teeth were flashed in a grin. “The dreaded dayshade, a plant that can be used to make a poison fatal to even the most powerful seafolk. This strength was balanced by the fact that it only grew on land, too deep for any seafolk to reach normally. But, I found the perfect, charming man who’ll get some for me.”

 

“No...”, muttered Maris.

 

“Yes.”, repeated Alurel. “That means you are gonna need to prepare to help me. I’m sure your knowledge can help you break it down to its poisonous form. You need to help me make a weapon that uses it. A dagger I think, big and fit enough for me to hold.”

 

“That is awfully short notice Alurel.”

The great mermaid furrowed her brow. Her smile faded.

 

“Do you dare to deny me?”

“N-no.”, said Maris. “We can do it.”

“Good.”, she said. “I’m sure your magic will make the tasks easier. There’s plenty of iron and other metal laying around from all the ships I’ve sunk over time. I’m sure you’ve scavenged a few for materials and reagents. Whatever you don’t have, I’m sure you can find. The day’s not nearly over yet, after all, and I probably won’t be back tomorrow till around the afternoon at the earliest.”

 

“Yes.”, said Maris. “We will work all night if we must.”

“As you shall.”, said Alurel. “The time has finally come for me to kill that stupid king, and claim what is mine.”

Maris started to speak. “We will do all we can to-”

“No!”, came an interruption. The voice was female, like the rest of the coven. It came from a thin sea-witch near the corner of the group.

 

“Be quiet Beatrice!” hush-shouted Maris.

 

“No!”, said Beatrice. “I will not take part in this. I refuse to kill our king.”

 

“Alurel please she doesn’t-”, began Maris.

 

It was too late though, Alurel had already swam up to the protesting sea-witch. Her face positively loomed, her lips flat in an unamused expression.

Beatrice began to shake.

 

Alurel spoke slowly, pelting the trembling sea-witch with the scent of her breath.

“Who do you think you are?”

 

Beatrice stumbled with her words.

 

“I-, I-, I don’t think this is right-Ahh!”

 

Alurel pursed her lips and inhaled. Beatrice screamed and flailed her tentacles to try and swim, but Alurel was too big, her very inhaling too strong. Her lower body slipped past Alurel’s lips.

 

“Maris, help!” she held out her hand, but the other sea-witches could only watch with sorrowful horror.

 

Alurel bit down, and Beatrice let out a scream. Her form floated back down to the stone, although her tentacles had been cut to stubs by the chomp of Alurel's teeth.

 

The great mermaid flashed her teeth, showing those limbs there. She chewed them with her mouth open, and swallowed.

 

“Mmmf, yummy.”, said Alurel. She leaned in closer and gave Beatrice’s body a lick with her tongue. The pinkish muscle could more then easily squish the Beatrice against the stone, and all present knew that.

 

“Maybe I should just eat the rest of you up right here.”, she said.

 

“No please!”, said Beatrice. “I’m sorry!”

 

Alurel giggled.

 

“You don’t like that idea, do you? See, those writhing little tentacles of yours can grow back, but your upper-body doesn’t. Not if I chomp it into bits, or gulp you down whole, now does it?”

 

Beatrice whimpered.

 

“T-that's right. P-please spare me.”

 

Maris chimed in.

 

“Please Alurel forgive her, she was just foolish-”

“Silence!”, shouted Alurel. “It’s clear you all need a reminder why you do what I say. It’s not just to protect yourselves like the sniveling, scheming hags you are. Well, tomorrow is very important to me, so if a reminder is needed, then I’ll help you out.

 

Alurel focused. She shifted her lips and her taut tummy pressed in and out. She found who she wanted in her treasure-gut. Her throat lurched as she brought them up all the way to her mouth.

 

She moved the tentacled morsel to the side of her cheek.

 

“Take a good luck everyone, and know that with just a chomp of my teeth, I can crush her brain like jelly.”

Alurel opened her mouth, and the other witches saw their matron. She looked a bit more disheveled than she should be, but was otherwise fine--in general. In terms of her actual current position, the raven-haired sea-witch was in a bit of a bind. Her entire body was positioned between the molars on the right side of Alurel’s mouth. It squished lightly from the pressure, and the sea-witch let out a cry of pain.

 

The sea-witches shouted out in near unison a variety of sentiments along the lines of ‘stop, no!’. Alurel bounced her teeth a bit, drawing out more screams. She was waiting to hear a particular sentiment in particular.

 

“We’ll do it, we’ll do everything you say as we have always done. Just please, keep Matron Ugsila safe.”, said Maris.

 

Alurel swished the revered sea-witch hard against her cheek, suckling.

 

“Mmmf, there we go. That’s what I like to hear. Still.”

 

She opened wide, her tongue shifted to put Ugsila back under her molars. One more nudge and just the witch’s tentacles were there.

 

Alurel chomped down, and all the sea-witches screamed.

 

Holding Ugsila under her tongue, she gulped what was left of those limbs down.

“Quit your complaining.”, Alurel said, after repositioning Ugsila to her cheek.

 

“Those will grow back by tomorrow. Consider that your punishment for this outburst. I said I’d keep her alive if you do everything I said, but I never said I won’t hurt her. I need ways of keeping you all in line, after all. Just remember, at any moment, I could move her from my treasure-stomach to my real one, where she’d flip and flop like the ugly little squid she is, till she’d die as an ugly puddle.”

Alurel swallowed Ugsila down, while the matron shouted out.

 

“Be safe, gals!”

 

Alurel smiled.

 

“Don’t worry though, I sent her back to my treasure-gut. I send some fish down there now and then to keep her fed. There’s water there too. Frankly, I think even that level of treatment is spoiling her, but I’m a generous sort I suppose.”

Alurel laughed.

 

“If you ever want your beloved coven leader out again, you’ll help me take my rightful place as queen.”

 

“Yes, Alurel.”, said Maris.

 

She and the others were still shaken from seeing their beloved leader treated so poorly. Though the matron wasn’t a literal mother, they held a very high level of respect for her.

 

“And one more thing.”, said Alurel. “Refresh your memories on everything about the Trident. Once I have it, I have an idea with it that might need your help too.”

“As you wish, Alurel.”

The great mermaid eyed the gathering of the sea-witches. They were huddled together for comfort. To entertain herself, she lunged at them, giggling. Her ruby-red-ish lips loomed in front of them all as she spoke again.

 

“Good, I’ll see you sea-hags tomorrow then. Have everything ready, I will not be so kind to another failure.”

 

“Of course Alurel, please forgive us. We’ll have the dagger, the eels, and all else that’s needed.”

 

Alurel smiled.

 

“Good.”

 

She swam off to her cove to rest and relax. Her paddling tail-fin sent a strong, disruptive current their way as a parting ‘gift’.

Chapter 8: Adoration

 

After visiting the sea-witches, the rest of Alurel’s yesterday had been spent uneventfully.

 

It was morning of a new day, and she had promised Ethan she’d meet him at her special island to pick up the flowers. She wouldn’t dare disappoint him or herself by missing since an eventful encounter.

 

Almost every day, Alurel was expected to help Atlantis by surveying parts of the sea. Her ‘job’ gave her the perfect cover to do as she pleased, as it was assumed as a great mermaid that she could handle gathering information for miles all by herself.

 

That’s why Alurel was surprised when, on her way towards the surface, she ran into a mermaid. It was a normal, little mermaid. One the size of a human. She recognized them from their blonde hair and blue tail. It was Orabelle, one of the more skilled mermaid surveyors.

 

Alurel swam over towards the little mermaid as the blonde being waved to her giant self.

 

“Hey Alurel.”, she said.

 

Alurel waited till she was close to say anything, close enough that her head loomed near the little merwoman.

 

“Orabelle.”, said Alurel. “What are you doing out here? This is my territory for surveying.”

 

“I know.”, said the blue-tailed mermaid. “I wanted to tell you, but couldn’t find you. King Poseidon was worried about you, he thought you felt bad about the ship and the eels the other day: not knowing what happened to them, that is. So, he sent me to help you survey the area as your partner for today. You know, to help you out, and help keep you company!”

 

“Aww.”, said Alurel in her normal, sweet voice. “That’s a very sweet thought of him, and you too.”

“Thanks.”, said Orabelle.

 

“But, I can’t have that. It could mess with my plans.”

 

“Plans? Alurel, what are you talking about?”

 

Alurel lunged forward, mouth open. She took Orabelle into her gob, with only the littler mermaid’s tail sticking out between her lips. It wiggled frantically, causing Alurel to let out a muffled giggle as it felt almost ticklish

 

She slurped Orabelle fully in with ease, and tasted the mermaid briefly.

 

“Alurel, w-what are you doing?!?”

 

The great mermaid swallowed, sighed.

 

“Ah, well, that’s one problem nipped in the bud. Sorry my little friend, but I can’t have someone tattling on what I do and don’t do. Actually, this kind of takes care of two issues at once. With you gone, the King will also view my territory as too dangerous for anyone but a great mermaid to navigate. That means I have even more space to myself here.”

Alurel laughed, flapping her tail fin towards the surface. One problem Orabelle didn’t solve was Alurel’s overall hunger. The little mermaid was but a tiny morsel, really.

Thankfully, on her way up, Alurel spotted a school of squid, swimming in unison. She quickly gulped them all down. Her throat sent them down to her digestive gut, where they rained down all over Orabelle.

 

“Oooh, you’re really squirming in there.”, mused Alurel moments later.

 

At her size and speed, she reached the island fast. Though it was early in the morning, she was surprised to see Ethan already there waiting on the cliff. He had a basket on his shoulder with white cloth covering it. Otherwise, he had the same outfit as before: a blue shirt and white trousers with brown boots. Although, the clothes did seem cleaner and much dryer this time around.

She swam up to her, her massive form looming above the clifftop as she took up a floating-standing posture. She wasted no time in chatting with the prince.

 

“Ethan! It is good to see you. Did you bring the flowers?”

“Alurel! I did indeed, and it’s a joy to see you again. I must admit, since yesterday I couldn’t stop thinking about-Whoa!”

 

The great mermaid pinched up her princely companion, bringing him up to her wall-sized face.

“Let’s see it!”

 

“Haha, eager are you. Here you go.”

He held out a bunch of them, then spoke.

 

“I found quite a few of them. It took a bit of walking. Like you said, they were sheltered by tall trees.”

“Did you take all of them?”, she asked.

 

“Oh no, I left some near the trees I found them in. I wouldn’t want to uproot them all.”

Alurel frowned a moment, though quickly fixed her expression.

 

“Well, it looks like you got plenty. My thanks Ethan, you have no idea how glad I am to see you.”

 

“And I you. Do you wish to take them.?” He held out his arm, holding the flowers, but pointed the limb towards her other hand.

 

“Ah, no, place them on my tongue actually.”

“But, won’t they put you to sleep if eaten? I thought you were gonna use them on-”

 

She giggled.

 

“Oh silly, they don’t work if eaten. They need to be refined first. Besides, I’m not actually going to *eat* them, I’m just going to swallow them. We merfolk actually have a separate, special stomach just for safekeeping. I plan to bring them there. Now, be a treat and place them for me, won’t you. Aaaaah~”

She stuck out her tongue, and Ethan gently set the flowers on its surface. She quickly gulped them down, focusing to get them into the proper storage-stomach of hers. She trusted Ugsila wouldn’t dare mess with them in there. Even if that sea-witch didn’t care for her own life, Ugsila was smart enough to know that she wouldn’t be the only sea-witch punished for such an act. The entire coven would be wiped out by Alurel’s fury.

 

Ethan spoke once more.

 

“You know, speaking of treats. I brought something else for you.”

 

“You did? *Welllll* lemme see it silly!”

 

He chuckled, taking something else out of that cloth-covered wicker basket of his. The spherical thing fit square in his palm, and had a golden-brown color to it. Squinting, Alurel noticed swirls of red at the top of the teeny-tiny thing--like indents. It smelled very sweet, though the exact odor wasn’t anything Alurel had smelled before.

 

“What is it? It smells lovely?”, she said.

“It’s a human desert: a pastry. More specifically it’s a cherry tart.”

 

“A cheery? It’s made with those?”

 

“Yes, and some softer bread dough. Have you heard of cherries?”

“I’ve heard of them, but never tried it. I’m excited.”

 

“Great, yeah I thought we might share-”

“Aaaaaah~~~”

She stuck her tongue out again, awaiting the treat. With a shrug, Ethan threw it onto her tongue.

 

The pastry was but a crumb to Alurel really, but her senses were very keen. Once on her tongue, she squished the treat against the roof of her mouth. It flattened there, squeezing out the richly sweet cheery flavor over her taste-buds, which spread farther as it mixed with her saliva. She swallowed it down after, her eyes closed from focusing her senses.

 

“How was it?”, asked the prince.

 

“Oh Ethan, it was wonderful. Thank you~”

 

She brought him to her lips for a kiss, which made his body warmer and limper in her hands.

 

“Thank you so much for coming. You must’ve gotten up early to beat me here.”

“Yes, you said morning so I wanted to be thorough. I got up when the sky was still dark actually.”

“What?”, said Alurel. “Then, how did you navigate here?”

“Why, I used a compass of course. There was also a bit of sun by the time I reached the boat. With it, I could find my way to the island with ease.”

“And your sailboat?”

“It’s settled near the beach. I tied It to a boulder with some rope, and set some stones on the deck of it for good measure. I just hiked up here and waited.”

“Oh Ethan, that is so very sweet of you.”

She gave him another kiss, then another. Ethan very much felt the effort he put in for this day was worth while.

 

“Why, you’re sweeter than that pastry of yours.”, said Alurel.

She sighed.

 

“Better yet, the day will soon come that there can be cherries shared with all under the sea, perhaps. At the very least, our people will be closer than ever soon. Your world, a part of mine; I don’t think it’d be as easy without you Ethan. I really appreciate it.”

Ethan smiled as she adjusted her hold of him to set him in down her right palm.

 

“Well, it was worth it just to see you smile Alurel. Plus, I know you’ll help The Afflelands with our own problems once your queen of the seas.”

“Oh don’t worry Ethan.”, she smiled wider. “You won’t need to worry about those problems ever again soon after I become queen.”

He chuckled. “That’s the spirit!”

There was silence. She eyed him heavily, noticing his blush. Her palm moved him closer to her lips. She gave him another all-encompassing kiss. It was slower this time, lips lingering over his entire puny little body.

“I appreciate you too Ethan.”

Ethan was blushed silly.

“A-and I you, lady Alurel.”

 

“Come lay back with me on the water, and let’s appreciate each other a bit more. That sounds nice, doesn’t it?”

 

“V-very.”, replied Ethan.

 

She moved back from the cliff, gently lowering into the waters till a point where only her human upper-half stuck out. Than, she slowly laid on her back, floating. Her light-purple hair fanned out some in the sea waters. Her tail pointed straight out and gently, subtly moved up and down to keep herself afloat. Well, it wasn’t exactly subtle far as smaller beings were concerned, but it was subtle and quiet enough.

 

Ethan was moved to her lips, where she gave another tender kiss. She set him above her upper red-ish lip.

“Kiss me.”, she said.

 

“I-I wouldn’t know where to start.”, said Ethan.

 

“Anywhere.”, she said. “Let’s explore my body together. I mean, of course I know it well but, I’m sure it’ll still be exciting for us both.”

Ethan moved up to the lip flesh in sight, and planted his own kiss upon it, then again and again. He squeezed it, hugged it, did as much as he could to get her to feel. There was just so very much of her, and so little of him by comparison. When she even slightly moved her lip, this was made clear. Minor twitches from her shifted the very ground beneath him; many would’ve knocked him over if he didn’t grab at her flesh for steadying himself.

 

Her fingers neared him again, delicately closing in to pinch him up. Even the prints of her finger tips were as walls to him, able to clamp him from either side in a gentle yet immobilizing hold. Up he went to the tip of her nose as she laid back.

 

She giggled, seeing him balance himself there.

 

“Take off your shirt.”, she said. Her voice boomed around him, even speaking near her gentlest.

 

“As you wish, Alurel. Although, if you wish to get even more intimate, I wouldn’t mind removing more.”

“No.”, she said. “Just your shirt. I want to see your chest.”

She giggled.

 

“Don’t worry,”, continued Alurel. “I’ll show you mine again soon. You humans like that too, don’t you?~”

 

His face was red. Shirt off, he bent in a curved rest around his neck.

 

“I certainly would.”, he said, chuckling softly.

Alurel squinted, eyeing his reasonably toned abs and pectorals. Her two front teeth teased at her lower lip. She pinched him up again and brought him to her lips.

 

Ethan braced himself for another smooch. Alurel practically purred for this one with the force of her “mmmmm~”. He felt the very tip of her tongue poke out to lap at the fair-skin of his bared chest.

 

It felt quite nice, if a bit forceful.

 

“A-a-alurel...”, he stammered.

 

She very slightly pursed her lips. With a calculated, pursed-lips inhale she sucked the rolled-up blue-shirt off of his neck and into her mouth, swallowing.

 

“A-alurel, my shirt...”

She softly laughed, her own cheeks blushing a little red now too.

 

“Come now, I’m sure a ‘prince’ has a room full of shirts to replace it with.”

 

He laughed softly.

 

“Well, not quite a room. Did you take that to that treasure-stomach you were talking about?”

 

“Why would I?”, said Alurel. “I can treasure you right here and now. I ate it, so I’d feel something like a little part of you within me. Now, kiss me some more while I prepare~”

 

Ethan briefly wondered as to what she meant by that, since if his shirt was in that strange storage-stomach, wouldn’t that be inside her either way? She seemed flushed when it happened, was she enjoying the idea of digesting his upper-garment?

 

He thought it strange, but he didn’t think of it long. She moved him down to her neck. The skin there was thinner. He could feel the blood pump nearby if he set his hands to the right spot. The throat beneath him jostled him up with every swallow of saliva from his giant mermaid companion.

 

Still, he did as he was told. He bent forward into that flesh, peppering it with tender kisses. He spread his arms out in the area, both to get a better hold, but also to try and convey a sense of hugging. Even still, her every swallow, no matter how shallow, jostled him.

 

She was so incredibly powerful, so very overwhelming of his senses.

 

Meanwhile, Alurel’s back shifted with delight as he teased her neck. She moved her hands towards her shell-bra. She didn’t undo the straps, but rather gently pushed against her breast flesh to slide the cupping shells down. This let the bra itself wiggle below her breasts, near her tummy. This way, it wouldn’t flow or sink away, yet her perky bosom was still bared new to the pleasant morning sea air.

 

She picked him up again, moved him over towards her left nipple. Ethan somehow managed to get even more flush in his cheeks.

 

She set him there on that pink circle. It was wider than he was.

 

“Enjoy.”, she said.

 

He obeyed, moving over to the nipple and hugging it. It was already growing stiffer before she had even set him down, but it quickly reached a full erectness. As such, the height of her nipple came close to dwarfing him.

 

The prince had to stand in order to press his hands against the top. He massaged the area, wrapped his legs about it best her could for stability. That done, he started pelting that sensitive pink flesh with kisses.

 

Alurel let out a curt little coo.

 

“Good, help please me.”, she said.

Alurel lifted her arms. One moved to her right breast, while the left moved won towards her fish tail. She had bent that part of her body so it was completely under the water. The hand there stirred, clearly moving even though Ethan couldn’t see exactly what was going on there. Did part of her scales retract, as he had thought?

 

He looked, too, toward her other right hand. It massaged her right breast gently. Then, he looked up to her face, best her could. Her saw her eyes near-closed, her lips twitching in expressions of delight.

 

“Alurel, if you trusted me to, and if you wished, I could help you... down there. I’m sure there is an even more sensitive area I could be.”

A curt little, cutesy coo escaped her mouth again.

 

“Oh Ethan, my darling prince, how sweet of you to offer. I appreciate it but, mmf.” She shuddered with pleasure.

 

“-But, it is not a matter of trust or want. My genitals would crush you without mercy. It is too dangerous for someone small as you.”

 

She had known this from experience.

Ethan cocked his eyebrows. That didn’t sound entirely pleasant.

 

“You are where I want you.”, she continued. “Treat me as your queen, please me to the best of your abilities. That is what I desire.”

 

“I will.”, said Ethan. “I love you Alurel.”

“And I adore you, Ethan.”, replied Alurel. “Now, please me. Hug me. Rub your chest against my nipple. I want to feel you more.”

 

Ethan did as he was asked. With as best a hug around the nipple as he could manage, he shimmied his body up and down, grinding his toned front against the erogenous region. Though it was extra effortful on his part, he tensed those muscles best he could to try and provide a rigid texture punctuated by the slight indents of his anterior musculature.

 

He thought she must’ve enjoyed that, as her coos grew louder, more frequent. There were splashing noises from where her left hand was beneath the surface. As she ‘rubbed herself’ faster and faster, churning the water near, she also rubbed her right breast with an increasing vigor to match.

 

Her eyes were shut, her voice roaring out coos and moans of delight. Ethan could hear the beat of her heart as her arousal increased. He felt as though he might even be feeling its vibrations too, but it was hard to tell as her entire body moved from her own efforts and pleasures.

 

Ethan turned towards that other breast of hers. He saw how effortlessly she moved that entire, perky mound. With little effort she made those small hills knead and move to her touch. He, on the other hand, couldn’t even push her erect nipple all that much, let alone the breast on which he worked.

 

Still, he did his best. He loved her. He poured his energy into the nipple.

 

His eyes closed and his imagination came to life. He imagined a future together, with him sailing over to this island on a royal visit. She’d be queen then, both their kingdoms at peace. She’d set him on her lips, and they’d kiss each other best they could. They’d chat for hours about the excitements in their domains. They’d trade gifts from the sea and the land, much as he imagined everyone would once Alurel and he had their respective reforms.

His imagined future was a good one, and appealing too, with meetings like this abounding. He felt her nipple against his body now, and imagined feeling it more in the future, only getting better at pleasing his tender beloved, no matter how big she was in comparison to him.

 

Alurel was imagining things too, her eyes closed. She saw herself as queen at last. The kingdoms were united as she wished, and she imagined men just as handsome as Ethan crawling over her, alongside some beautiful women. They pampered every inch of her body best as their little hands and mouths could. They’d grind their bodies all over her, offering their efforts to her whims.

 

“We live for you, my queen.”, they’d say.

“We love you, my queen.”

 

Ethan was there too of course, in her fantasy, right at her nipple. He and the others would offer to throw themselves into her mouth or sex, if only it’d bring her a moment’s joy. The devotion excited her, thrilled her.

 

“Yes.”, she cried out aloud. “Yes.”

 

Her rubbings intensified. Her body was getting warmer. Her tail-fin started to splash faster. Her left hand pleased herself so fast, it practically worked up bubbles near the surface from the vigor of it.

 

“Yes, yes~ Aa~” She cooed, moaned, her ecstasy rising, waiting to burst.

 

“Y-yes.”, called out Ethan as well. He felt his own warmth rising. He had never achieved bliss without his hands in his own ‘area’ before, but it seemed it would come soon.

 

It was hard to hold on to her nipple with her body bucking as it did. Her moans rose in volume to the point they rocked his ears.

 

“Yes, yes. I-, mnnf, I am quee-nnf, Ah!”

 

Alurel suddenly sunk her body down below the surface at the moment of her orgasm. She wanted to feel the water all around her, the contact of the sea against as much of her skin as possible. Only her head poked out, and from a wide open maw she unleashed a blaring, powerful roar of a moan.

 

Pleasure wracked her entire form, which flailed just below the depths. Her tail-fin curled and her hands froze for a moment in a pleasurable spasm, before she quickly rubbed herself some more, summoning out every bit of orgasmic delight she could from the moment.

 

Ethan, meanwhile, found himself in more than a bit of a shock. Before his own delight was reached, he had suddenly been plunged underwater. Alurel had the good sense to to move her right hand to her left breast, holding him steady against her nipple in a press. Still, even if that kept him safe from her wild, disorienting movements, he still felt those bucks of her body shaking his own.

 

He also couldn’t quite breath in the water, and a part of him began to worry. She kept her body beneath for a good few seconds. It wasn’t just during that orgasm of hers itself, but she floated her form beneath the surface for a little of her post-climax relaxation as well.

 

Thankfully, Alurel resumed her float once more soon enough. She was once more laying on her back. Her left hand came up to rest on her tummy, and the seawater cleaned it of any fluids she may have expunged in her bliss. Her fish-half also seemed entirely its usual self, without any visible slit or sliding of scales.

 

She moved her right palm off of her left nipple and took a quick look at the prince.

 

Ethan was panting to catch his breath. His entire body was soaked with the cool waters. The sudden bodily shock of what occurred had took him out of his own pleasure: cut him off from any sort of climax of his own.

 

She smiled down at him, and the slight sting of that faded away from his mind.

 

“Ah, I’m sorry, I got carried away I suppose.”

 

“I-it’s alright.”, he said. “I am happy you were able to enjoy yourself.”

 

Her cheeks were blushed, and her body was very warm. Her heart beat more gentle now, though if he focused he felt as though he could still hear it.

 

“Thank you Ethan.”, she said. “This day will be very important to me, and I’m happy to have met you.”

 

“And I you, Alurel. Although, if you’d be so kind to help me, well, I... wasn’t able to quite finish my own pleasu-”

 

The great mermaid reached over to pinch him up with her left hand now. She set him atop her taut fair-skinned tummy, above her navel. The region of her body gently rose and fell beneath his feet in tune with her breaths. She spoke while shimmying her shell-bra back into place.

 

“Would you be so sweet as to rub my tummy a bit, I think I’d enjoy feeling your touch a bit more.”

 

“I-, yes of course.”, he said. “Making you happy makes me happy.”

She laid back, letting the sun treat her skin to its warm. Her after-glow was only slowly beginning to fade.

 

Ethan massaged his hands into the supple flesh of her taut and flat abdomen. Her stomach made noises now and then, grumbles, gurgles. They were cute in a way. He also heard a bit of a scuttling sound there.

 

“Oh, you ate before coming here I can see.”

Alurel giggled.

“I had some squid, yes.”

 

He heard something else though. It sounded almost human, female. It sounded like a scream, muffled by flesh so as to seem distant.

 

‘Help! Heeeeelp!’, he thought he had heard.

 

“Alurel, did you eat anyone.”

 

“What? What makes you say that?”, she asked.

 

“I just thought I heard a scream is all.”

 

Alurel laughed it off.

 

“Oh, well, I also managed to catch some birds believe it or not. They can be a bit noisy.”

“Birds? Really? That’s impressive that you caught some.”

 

“Well, I can reach rather high I suppose, both snatching them out of the sky or just jumping out of the water.”

“You jumping out of the water like a dolphin or something? I bet that is quite the sight to see, and quite the splash.”, said Ethan, chuckling.

He had known, of course, that Alurel had eaten people before. He witnessed her devour at least a dozen pirates. Still, he didn’t think her the type to eat what sounded like some poor woman. Her explanation make sense to him, as a large part of him wanted that to be the truth.

 

Yes, he believed her explanation thoroughly, and had no idea her stomach had been digesting a normal mermaid this whole time. He had no clue that a living, sapient person thrashed around against hundreds of squid with every buck of Alurel’s body, every movement of Alurel’s pleasure. He had no idea that the litter mermaid was burning, near death, in the acids of the gigantic mermaid he loved.

 

Alurel picked him up again, figuring she had spent enough time playing around. She still had much to take care of.

 

“Ah, you are going so soon?”, said Ethan.

 

She lifted him up to her lips, gave him one more kiss, then set him back atop the cliff. He would have preferred being brought to the beach, so he wouldn’t have to walk to his boat, but he felt it’d be a bit forward or rude to request as much. Besides, her kiss had such practical thoughts of logistics in the back of his mind.

 

“Yes, silly~.”, she replied. “I have to claim the Trident today. There’s much to be done. But, tomorrow morning, let’s meet again. You can be the first human to see me then, once I’m queen.”

Ethan chuckled, smiling. “I can’t wait to see it. Queen Alurel. Things will be much better for both our kingdoms once you take your throne.”

“Yes.”, said Alurel. She moved away from the cliff, sinking back into the waters.

 

“Much better.”, she said.

Chapter 9: Poison

 

Alurel sped down the depths. She was excited to finally have the keys to her plan, safe and sound within her storage-stomach. She tolerated no obstructions on her way back to the sea-witches’ grotto. A small group of normal merfolk moved by her once, and Alurel sped right into them, open maw. She gulped them all down without so much as a word.

 

Once she returned to that large grove in the seafloor, she was pleased to see the sea-witches had been at work. A great iron dagger was laid out on the largest, elevated circular stone platform that they were on just yesterday. It was that plate-sized area to Alurel where the sea-witches were easiest to talk to.

 

Also, to her pleasure, they had set out a pack of eels for her. The sea-witches tied them with seaweed, which they then magically affixed to the ground so the fish wouldn’t run away at the sight of Alurel’s open mouth. She quickly and greedily devoured the whole lot of them, swallowing them seaweed and all. The magic which tethered the cut seaweed to the ground couldn’t withstand the tug of Alurel’s physical strength, after all.

 

She turned to the sea-witches, who slightly bowed their heads to her while clustered together near the giant dagger.

 

Alurel swam forward, leaning in some to study them and the dagger.

 

“Mmm, good. It’s a bit crude, but it’s good enough for stabbing.”

“Forgive us.”, said Maris. “We had to used our magic to smelt some iron together. It is not elegant, but it is functional. It took us all night to make.”

Indeed, the blade of the giant dagger had visible marks where different chunks of iron were melded together. The handle was simple wood, made from ship flotsam by the look of it.

 

“You’re right, it’s not at all elegant.”, said Alurel. “But it is a temporary weapon, and will suffice.”

“So...”, said Maris solemnly. Her tentacles curled with nerves.

 

“You have the dayshade?”, she asked.

 

Alurel smiled.

 

“I do, and the time has come to finally make the weapon to kill Poseidon. The Trident will soon be mine.”

 

The great mermaid focused, her throat began to lurch as she brought up the dayshade. However, something else came out with the flowers.

 

It was Ugsila, the sea-witch matron had grabbed onto the flowers so as to get a look at the safety of her coven.

 

Alurel opened her mouth and pinched out Ugsila. She squeezed the seaperson between her fingers, causing visible pain which distressed the observing sea-witches below. Eventually, Ugsila released the spit-soaked dayshade, which was now, of course, also soaked by the ocean waters.

 

The great mermaid waved her hand in the direction of the dayshade bunches, and the ensuing force through the water had the flowers drift down towards Maris, who caught them in her hands. She moved Ugsila back to her face.

 

“You sneaky little hag, hitching a ride with the dayshade to get another look at your friends.”

“F-forgive me!”, said Ugsila. “I just wanted to see them again, safe and sound. There is not much to do inside you.”

“You’d dare defy me, you’re lucky your kind are so useful for me. Still, you must be punished.”

She moved Ugsila into her mouth and once more chomped the matron’s tentacles with her teeth. They had since regrown from yesterday.

That done, she swallow the sea-witch matron back down into her storage-stomach.

 

Alurel spoke, looking towards Maris and the others.

 

“You know, I always thought it unfair how your kind are innately skilled at magic. It doesn't make sense. We great mermaids are adept singers, athletes; we’re huge, with speed, strength, and keenness of senses unrivaled. Our beauty and lives are eternal, while you have only the latter unaided. We should be the ones good at magic, then we’d be true mistresses and masters of the sea.”

Maris thought it’d be unwise to point out the boons of the great mermaids which Alurel had herself already mentioned. Instead, she asked a question.

 

“We will work to refine the dayshade into a poisonous coating for the blade, but, if I may ask, when may we see Ugsila freed?”

Alurel sneered at her.

 

“You selfish hag: soon. Don’t worry, I’ll let her out once you help me with the Trident later. You did refresh yourselves on all your knowledge of the artifact, right?”

 

“Y-yes.”, said Maris.

 

Alurel smiled.

 

“Good. Now, how long will the flower ritual take.”

“Not long at all.”

“Then I shall observe.”

“As you wish, Alurel.”

 

The sea-witches followed Maris as she took the flowers towards a small stone bowl. There, she crushed them up to a powder. They brought the bowl to a much larger sea-stone cauldron. There, Maris stirred while the other witches used their tentacles to fetch and throw in a variety of other ingredients.

 

The stirring rod was pulled out by Maris, and it was sticky with a viscous green coating.

 

Her and the other witches heaved the cauldron over toward the giant dagger. Alurel watched them carefully as they chanted and moved their arms. The sea responded to their calls and wills, and a current reached into the cauldron to remove all the poisons green substance from that container.

 

With more chants and careful, dance-like movements, they worked the waters to carefully spread the green and sticky fluid over the surface of the iron dagger. Its once gray metal was now much greener, with the poisonous dayshade coating thoroughly applied and stuck to the surface. That wasn’t all or enough, though, but with one more powerful chant and clap of their hands the poisonous substance infused into the metal itself. It gave the metal a sickly green color.

 

“Is it done?”, asked Alurel.

 

“It is,” said the witches.

She reached down and took up the dagger. Smiling, she rotated it and studied its new green sheen.

 

“How long will the poison last?”

“A very long time without using it.”, said Maris.

 

“How long?”, Alurel asked again, sterner.

 

“In truth we do not know, likely over a hundred years. However, the poison depletes when used.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, there is enough to kill several great mermaid before the weapon's potency is depleted. Of that I am sure.”

“And you are sure it’ll work?” asked Alurel.

 

“Yes, we labored hard on this.”

 

Alurel flashed them all with a predatory grin.

“Well, then you won’t mind if I test it first, do you?”

Maris’s felt a lump in her throat. Her tentacles curled hard from nerves.

 

“W-w-what do you mean?”

“Well.”, said Alurel, brandishing the dagger. “It is said any sea-witch would gladly give her life for their matron. You *do* care for Ugsila, do you not?”

 

“P-please Alurel.”, said Maris. “It will work to kill Poseidon, I give you my word. I swear on the matron’s life.”

 

“This is a very important day for me.”, said Alurel. “I need to be sure. I can’t have this go wrong. I get only one stab at it.”

 

She giggled.

 

“So, hags, any volunteers?”

The sea-witches all huddled together, muttering sorrowful sentiments and noises.

 

Alurel rolled her eyes.

 

“Fine.”, she said. “I suppose I’ll just choose one”

She pointed the great dagger their way. All of them recoiled.

 

“How about... you! You seem to be the ugliest, I bet without your magic, you look the oldest too, sans that hag of a matron I bet.”

“No please!”, cried the chosen sea-witch.

 

“Guinemere!”, cried out Maris and some of the other sea-witches.

 

Alurel poked Guinemere with the tip of the dagger. At once, the sea-witch cried out in agony. Her skin began to dry, even deep under the sea. It changed color too, from its pale-ish hue to a dried and cracked, stony brown like a wilted flower. The flesh of her octopus-half fared similarly bad.

 

The sea-witches dry body chipped and broke away. The ocean carted the pieces away as they dissolved. She was not merely dead, but her entire body had withered and was gone.

 

The sea-witches quietly whimpered to themselves, heads hung low. Alurel laughed wildly.

 

“Yes!”, she said. “It works!”

She eyed the blade, and it wasn’t the least bit less-green. Its potency was hardly diminished from such a measly target.

 

The sea-witches didn’t look at Alurel, and she noticed.

 

“Raise your heads, hags. You should be happy. Once I have the Trident, you need only help me with one more thing before I let your matron out.”

Maris spoke, her throat a tad sore from sorrow.

 

“And what thing is that?”

“Oh, you will see. It’ll be a fun surprise for you. But, don’t worry, once it is done, I will let your matron out. You will all have the reunion you desire.”

With a bat of her tail, Alurel started to float upwards and away. Her smile was wide.

 

“That, I promise you.”

 

She swam off.

Chapter 10: Regicide

 

Alurel had the weapon to kill a great merfolk in hand. She was thrilled, but she also had a bit of a problem. She needed to get King Poseidon alone. She elected to return to her home to think of ways to do that.

 

It was on her way back to her home that she paused, shocked at a curious sight. It was King Poseidon, swimming with his back turned towards the entrance of the cove. The Trident was clutched in his left hand.

 

“No.”, she said quietly to herself. “Why is he here? He’ll discover my chamber.”

The thought occurred to her of Poseidon finding her collections of human bones and other knickknacks of the land-world. He’d know at once that she had been going to the surface, violating his decrees.

 

Her frown turned to a smile. She begin to think that, on the other hand, he was alone. No matter the reason for coming to her home, he would be isolated.

This wasn’t a threat to her plans; it was a lucky little gift.

 

He disappeared into the entrance on the underwater mountain. She swam in after him, darting through the short sunbud-lined hall to her more well-lit central chamber.

 

There he was, back turned, looking up at all the things and bones she had gathered.

 

“What in the-Argh!”

 

Alurel hadn’t stopped swimming. She had dashed right towards him, dagger pointed out, and stabbed him clear in the back.

“This pain, w-what is this?!?”

 

His skin began to crack and dry, starting at the wound and spreading out. He turned around to see Alurel’s face.

 

“It is done, Poseidon.”, she said.

 

She pulled the knife out from his back, not wanting to risk him pulling it out and having it in his hands.

 

“It’s done? What do you mean? What have you done Alurel?”

“Dayshade.”, she said proudly. “It’s infused into the blade. Your wound is fatal, Poseidon.”

 

“B-but why? Why do that. Why do all... this horror?”

He pointed to the impaled torsos on the stalagmites. The pirate from the other day had lost even more of his flesh, though his eyes still bulged a bit silly. It made Alurel giggle to see it again.

“Ah, do you like my collection?”

 

Poseidon felt weak, his arms went limper as the withered spread as tones of sickly brown, like a dying flower on land.

 

“You and Orabelle hadn’t returned with your survey report. I was worried something happened to you two. I checked where you usually swam, then came here, just to see if you were ok.”

 

Alurel laughed.

 

“Poseidon, my sweet silly king. You don’t have to worry about Orabelle anymore, and I’m more than ok. I’ll be the new queen. The Trident is at last mine.”

 

She watched it fall from his withering hands. It drifted to the floor of the cove.

 

“Is that why you’ve done this? You’ve killed me so you could talk to the humans, sample their baubles and stories?”

“Oh I’m going to do more than that. Their world will be part of ours growing forward: my world. The undersea kingdom is mine. You are king no longer!”

She swam towards the Trident.

 

Poseidon’s body was near entirely withered away. Bits of him already started to float off, dissolving into the nearby waters.

 

“Stop, Alurel. It’s too powerful. You won’t know how to wield such power.”

 

She laughed, taking it into her hands and smiling as she felt its sea-magic fall into her sway.

 

“I know *exactly* how to wield this.”, she said. She pointed the dagger his direction. “Unlike you, you silly, old, dried-out merman.”

 

Poseidon was dying. His arms were mostly gone. The poison reached up to his head. With his last bit of strength, he spoke.

 

“A-A-Alurel...”

 

“No.”, said Alurel. “More like a *washed-away* merman. Enjoy having the first look at the sea’s new queen before you die.”

She dashed the Trident to the side, following her instincts and trying to use it. Poseidon was near-lifeless, what was left of his body was flaking away.

 

Alurel’s gesture swirled a current around the great merman’s dying form, just at the moment of his death. It hastened the dispersion of his wilting body into the ocean. Once that little torrent finished, he was but brown, wilted flakes of merman that quickly dissolved in the sea.

Poseidon was dead, and Alurel was alight with joy. The Trident was hers. She felt its power as she clutched its shaft tightly with her left hand. Her green-irised eyes twinkled with wonder and delight.

 

“Finally.”, she said. “It’s finally mine!”

 

She raised the Trident upwards, willing a little whirlpool to swarm around with her at the center, safe. The swirling currents knocked all the ‘treasures’ she pilfered from the surface off their shelves, sending it crashing and thrashing around. The skeletons bumped into one another, cracking and snapping. Bony little limbs fanned out. Crates of cargo cracked with soaked fruits spilling to the floor.

 

Alurel didn’t care. All that was trash now, especially compared to what she’d soon have. She’d have access to all the surface did soon.

 

‘Very soon.’, thought Alurel.

She ended the whirlpool and swam out of her cove. Once outside the entrance, she tested the Trident further.

 

Closing her eyes and focusing, she felt she could move her awareness through the seas. She expanded this awareness all the way to the surface, where, focusing, she managed to conjure up a small little rain cloud, trickling down over a small area.

 

“Yes!”, she said.

 

She dispersed it with a thought, then looked forward at a large undersea boulder nearby. She pointed at it with the Trident, and willed the waters to swarm the large rock. She willed the pressure to mount, and saw the rock crack, then crush beneath the focused might of the sea.

 

“Yes!”, she shouted.

 

Alurel looked at the dagger in her other hand. She set it on the ground, then used the Trident’s magic to levitate it in a bubble of current. Focusing, that current began to squeeze in on the dagger. She pointed the Trident at it and blasted it with lightning.

 

The focused sea pressure crushed it while the Trident’s blast completed obliterating it. The weapon was no more, and Alurel wouldn’t have to worry about it being used against her.

She had the Trident’s power now. It was all the weapon she needed.

She started swimming back towards the witches grotto. They had to help her with one more task. Along the way, she spotted a lone surveying little merman, a rare sight in the area.

 

He saw her, shocked to see her wielding the Trident. She didn’t want to seen by anyone of Atlantis, not yet at least.

 

So, she tested the power of the Trident once more. Pointing the prongs the way of the comparatively tiny merman, she focused and sent forth a beam of lightning his way. It zapped him to the point that his body exploded in a flash of light and gore.

 

“Yes!!!” rejoiced Alurel. “Such power, soon to be completely and thoroughly mine.”

 

She zapped a few random parts of the seafloor, reveling further as the Trident’s power could scorch even underwater.

“Just one more little step before then.”

Chapter 11: Ritual

 

The sea-witches were on the large stone-circle in their grotto, waiting where Alurel had left them. They passed the time mourning for Guinemere, who sadly left no remains for them to respect in any fashion.

 

Alurel came back into view. They all looked up at the great mermaid, who now held the Trident in her hands.

 

Maris frowned. On the one hand, this was what she had wanted, in a way, as it met things were on track to get their matron back. On the other hand, some part of her wanted Alurel to have failed, to have been killed. She wanted that woman to have fallen on the dagger, perhaps.

This was cause she knew such power in the hands of someone like Alurel would be bad news for the sea.

But, hope carried her on. Hope for that promised reunion with Ugsila. Her kind would survive, she thought, even under the queendom of someone like Alurel.

 

“Behold.”, said the great mermaid. “I’ve returned, with the Trident in my hands.”

 

“I had felt a shift in the magic of the sea, and thought you would.”, said Maris. She looked up with awe at that gigantic pronged artifact. The other sea-witches did as well. It was truly a powerful thing to behold. Its glow shined light upon them.

 

“Of course I would return. You’d be fools to ever doubt me. Now then, it’s time for that one more task I asked, one that needs you to work with the Trident itself.”

 

Maris nodded. “Yes, what would you have us do.”

“I want you to unlock the Trident. I don’t simply want to wield it, I want to wield its power. I want its power within me, completely mine. I want to hold the vast magic of sea and storm within me, make it part of me. When I hold the Trident, I feel a connection to this power, but only when I hold it. Surely you witches can open this bond can you not? Exploit it somehow, to let its power flood into me.”

 

Maris gasped, among many of the other sea-witches. What Alurel had suggested had never been considered before. It seemed greatly offensive to even suggest, but she held her tongue on that point.

 

“A-alurel.”, began Maris. “I... I do think that will be possible. But, we must warn you. The Trident embodies the full power of the storm and sea, including the deepest, darkest recesses of the ocean depths. The parts where no citizen of Atlantis has ever swam. Not even we practice whatever magics those areas could hold-”

“Enough!” shouted Alurel. She clanked the Trident against the sea floor, near the stone circle. A roar of current swirled around the great mermaid a moment before dispersing.

 

“You dare try to warn me? To suggest my command is flawed?”

 

She sneered.

 

“I was experimenting with the Trident earlier, I know what magics it could potentially hold. I am merely tapping into something great when I wield it now, but I want it all, and all within me. Its power will bend to my will. I will rule eternal, and I won’t make the mistakes Poseidon did. I won’t have *my* power be locked up in some artifact that any great mermaid could swipe. It will be within me. I will be that power. I will be the very power of the oceans and storm.”

 

Maris nervously gulped.

 

“V-very well Alurel, of course. We will do as you say, yes. If you would please lay the Trident onto the stone circle, best you can. We will begin the ritual.”

 

“Good.”, said Alurel. She lowered the Trident down. “But don’t you hags dare try anything against my wishes with it. I could squeeze my treasure-stomach enough to crush your matron. I could bring her into my throat and send her to my digestive stomach, or maybe just bring her up to my teeth for some chewing.”

Maris shivered at the mere suggestions.

“Of course not Alurel, we wouldn’t dare! None of us could even wield the Trident. It is much too big, and meant for a great merfolk. Also, the ritual will require you to hold your hand against it, and preserve a physical connection.”

Alurel was satisfied by that answer. She rested her fingers around the shaft of the artifact, near its forked head.

 

The sea-witches spread out around the Trident. They followed the lead of Maris, and all of them briefly touched the object.

 

They could feel great magic within the glowing artifact, the magic swirling and radiant in its form. They could see the bond the artifact would do with Alurel at the great mermaid’s touch. Indeed, it provided a connection to the magic within itself, but only a connection. It let magic be pulled, but only in comparative trickles. The vast majority of the Trident’s magic laid still when not in use.

 

Maris spoke.

“I must say Alurel, this is unexplored waters to us, so-to-speak. We can open the connection between you and the Trident so you can draw up all its power. The Trident will become but a catalyst after. We will do our best, but this has never been done before. We can’t promise-”

“You *will* succeed.”, spoke Alurel. “You care to see your matron again, right?”

 

“O-of course.”, said Maris.

The witches released their touch from the Trident, then began chanting. They were still able to feel the artifact’s magic without touch, and waved their hands in dance-like gestures to move the magic around within. It was an intense thing to do, requiring all their focus and skill. However, together, they began to broaden the bond between the Trident and Alurel, whose fingers curled around the artifact still.

 

The channel of magic from the Trident to Alurel began to grow and widen. The sea-witches were working to push the magic within the Trident towards Alurel, which expanded the bond.

 

“Yes!”, spoke Alurel. “I can feel its power flowing into me.”

Her voice sounded different, with a radiant timbre. Her body begin to gently glow a subtle golden light as the Trident’s own illumination began to fade.

 

“Yes! It’s working! Keep going hags!”

 

The sea-witches obeyed. The bond widened as more magic flooded through it, pushing against the limits of the bond. That channel of magic from the Trident grew bigger till eventually the rules of it broke.

 

Alurel felt the intense magic in the artifact. Better still, she felt like she could call upon it all, take it all in. She didn’t hesitate. Once the sea-witches had made it possible, she pulled all the Trident’s magic into her body.

 

Alurel’s 500ft foot form buckled.

“I-I-It’s a flood!”, she said. “An immense flood of power!”

 

Her voice roared with a radiant timbre now. Her body shined near-blindingly bright for a moment. She curled her head back and let out a coo of utter delight.

“It feels... so good... so right~”

 

The roar of light settled. The Trident was dim. She lifted it off the circle. Even with its glow gone, its golden sheen was still splendid.

That glow was now Alurel’s, it belonged to her, as did all the power the Trident held. She closed her eyes and focused.

 

“Alurel, a-are you alright? Did it work?” asked Maris. She hoped it did, so she could see her matron again.

 

“Silence.”, said Alurel. Her voice retained a radiant, divine timbre to it, even though her glow had calmed.

Focusing, she felt her awareness vastly expanded. She could know, with just a thought, what was going on at the far reaches of the sea. Focusing, she saw waters on the other side of the planet without actually ‘seeing’. Focusing still, her mind then plunged the deepest recesses of the ocean. The next moment, with her power, she felt Atlantis without touching it with her physical form.

That was just her awareness. She felt so, so much more power within her. It was constant. She felt like a true mistress of sea and storm magic.

She opened her eyes, and the sea-witches saw they now shined a visible golden light. Her irises were still green, but her eyes now glowed with that light-golden hue like much of the rest of her body.

 

“It worked.”, said Alurel. “This is amazing. This power, it’s on the level of divinity.”

Indeed, her voice had a godly thoom to it.

 

Alurel wiggled her finger and bisected one of the stone towers further ahead in the grotto. Just a wiggle, and she had made a current far away so fierce it could cut through stone.

 

“W-we are pleased to see it worked, queen Alurel.”

 

They bowed their heads.

 

“If we could humbly request, as you promised, we would like our matron back.”

Alurel looked to them, smiling.

“Ah, of course you do. Very well. I’m tired of feeling her scuttle about in my treasure-stomach anyway.”

Alurel pivoted her body in the water so her face was before the coven. Her throat lurched, and she spat out Ugsila. The raven-haired and tall sea-witch moved to embrace the other sea-witches in a hug.

 

“Ah, it is good to be back.”, say Ugsila.

 

“It is good to have you back, our matron.”, said Maris.

 

Alurel leaned back up, looming over them with her whole body once more. She watched them as they exchanged sentiments and hugs. Eventually, the sight bored her past the point of tolerance.

 

The sea-witches felt their bodies tingle. It was subtle at first, but quickly turned to a shocking pain. It became difficult for them to move. They let out surprised cries of agony.

Maris turned to Alurel, who had her left and free fist clenched. She grinned down at them.

“That’s enough of that.”, said the great mermaid.

 

The sea-witches had an idea of what was coming. A few of them tried to swim away, darting in various directions to try and split up. It was hard and slow to move with the electricity rocking their forms though.

“Ah, you’re not going anywhere.”, said Alurel.

She twirled her finger and currents encircled the area around her and the ritual circle. Ugsila and the other sea-witches who tried to flee ran into the moving waters, only to be pushed right back in. Alurel had surrounded them with a series of currents that moved in a sphere, keeping them all stuck near her.

“You monster!”, said Maris. “After all we have done for you, you’d seek to betray us.”

Alurel giggled. All the sea-witches moved and huddled together, since there was no point in running.

“Think, now. Now that the power of the Trident is within me, is *mine*, you aren’t needed anymore.”

“So because we aren’t needed, you’ll kill us? Betray us?”

Alurel laughed.

 

“You dumb hag, there are other reasons. Now that I have innate mastery over sea magic, well, that means the only other people who can use sea-magic are you witches. You’re also the only other ones who know how to weaponize Dayshade. Of course, your powers, and even the poison of Dayshade, are nothing to me now. I can feel your so called ‘mastery’ of sea-magic, the bond is so very weak compared to the magic within me now, which roils at my merest though.”

 

She wiggled her finger and spun Maris around in a little whirlpool for a few seconds, just for fun.

“Still, I might as well be safe rather than sorry, right?”

 

“You are a liar, a betrayer!”, cried Maris.

“Monster!”, cried another sea-witch.

“Foul, cruel monster!”, said Ugsila.

 

“Silence!”, said Alurel. She used her powers to make her voice bellow even more. Hearing her voice echo that much amused her, and she giggled.

 

“I didn’t lie, you did see Ugsila again right? You had your hugs and your words. That’s very generous of me.”

“Monster.”, whispered Maris. Alurel raised her finger and the shock coursing through Maris intensified in its agony.

 

“You think I care for your opinions? Hags?”, she laughed.

 

“You know, there’s something more you can give me before your end, I think. I can feel your feeble innate magical potential. Some sea-magic resides within you all. I think I’ll take it. That’s better than letting it go to waste.”

“No, You can’t.”, said Ugsila.

 

“Watch me!”, said Alurel.

 

The great mermaid leaned in closer. She intensified the shocks to the point none of them could move. She pursed her lips, and inhaled. She sucked in tot their bodies, but the very magic in their tinier beings. It flooded into her mouth as streams of subtly-glowing pale-white light. She felt it fill her body, absorbed as mere trickles compared to the flood of magic she possessed now thanks to the Trident.

As the magic was sucked out of the sea-witches thus, their magic no longer kept their forms youthful. Their stark raven hair was now white. Their skin no longer had any luster, but was now wrinkled. They were still healthy, of course, but their old age was very apparent now.

 

Alurel giggled as they writhed in their ‘true’ forms before the might of her shocks.

 

“I always knew you were old hags beneath all that magic of yours, but to see it for myself like this is another matter. You poor and unfortunate, dumb little hags.”

She laughed, then waved her hand and canceled the magical shocks wracking their bodies. The sea-witches caught their breaths, zapped to exhaustion and tapped empty of their magical powers.

 

“You know, I think I’ll be even more generous. One more reward as thanks for your help. You can all die together, as one loyal coven. You’ll have one more reunion, churned to chum in my stomach.”

She leaned back down towards the sea-witches and licked her lips.

 

“N-no.”, stammered Ugsila.

 

Alurel opened her mouth before them, wiggling her tongue to invite them in. She didn’t inhale or anything, nor lunge at them. Rather, she simply focused and worked the waters with her new powers. She made a current, irresistible to the sea-witches, which brought them all into her mouth.

She didn’t care to savor them much in there. She did, however, chew down on one. She cut off not just the tentacles of that sea-witch, but also a chunk of their middle body. She felt the taste of their blood, but they still lived and squirmed.

She thought that wounded sea-witch be something else for them to fuss about in her stomach, and the thought amused her.

 

She swallowed them down.

 

Alurel’s body now glowed on the inside with a golden light, gently. This meant the witches saw the inside of her mouth even with lips shut, and they saw the slick flesh of the throat bringing them down. They trashed their tentacles thrash against Alurel’s throat muscles in vain; all it managed was making their devourer giggle.

 

They plopped into the stomach, which was also lit. They could see the digested remnants of past meals. They saw the bones of merfolk among them, and of course the eels they had fed her earlier.

 

Within there, a single churn knocked them all over. They were at Alurel’s mercy. They always were, even before she obtained such power.

 

Alurel drummed her fingers against her stomach, as she often did after eating a nice meal. She liked the idea of teasing her food like that. It often made them flutter about more, and the sea-witches were no exception. There were trashing about in there, scuttling around.

 

The great mermaid sighed.

 

“Wonderful, everything is turning out just wonderful.”

She looked down to her stomach as she spoke.

 

“Now, it’s time to introduce Atlantis to its new queen.”

Chapter 12: Edict

 

Alurel swam off and away towards the shiny underwater city of Atlantis. She wanted all seafolk to be in it, so on the way she flexed her powers to send a message throughout the deeps. No matter where any seafolk was, they’d hear her sweet and radiant voice.

 

“Hello, all seafolk please return to Atlantis. I have an announcement to make, and a very important one too.”

 

Whether they heeded the message was up to them.

 

It wasn’t long for her to reach the city, especially now with the power she held. She swam faster than she ever did before. Along the way, her massive body had bumped into a lone, normal-sized mermaid heeding her call. They were knocked aside by Alurel’s fast form so fast and with enough force that they perished from the impact.

 

Alurel hovered outside the front of the city, facing that great palace in the distance. Seafolk in that area noticed her wielding the Trident instead of King Poseidon. She floated just in front of the city, her light-purple hair flowed about her shoulders. She was glowing.

They had quite a few questions.

 

Alurel spoke, and in doing so willed her voice to carry throughout not just Atlantis, but throughout the very seas.

 

“People of Atlantis, people of the seas. I bear heavy news. Poseidon is dead.”

Gasps echoed across the city. Many wailed. Others unable to see her glowing form, Trident in hand, shouted ‘liar.’

 

She let that transgression slide.

 

“We were on a joint trip near the surface.”, she continued, her voice echoing through the waters. “There, humans allied with the sea-witches killed him. In his dying breath, he bequeathed me the Trident, and named me the new queen of the seas.”

Many doubted, but how could they deny the events? Her power was real. Those who saw her could see as much, and all of Atlantis could hear her even if on the other side of the city.

 

“Fear not, I have taken care of the sea-witches. I was such a worthy vessel for the Trident’s power, that its power now longer rests in it, but in me. What I hold now in my hands is nothing more than an ornament now, one cumbersome to hold, so I will transform it.”

Alurel focused on the Trident. It was golden, not water, but it was meant for the seafolk. It was meant for the sea. She found herself able to morph it. It was malleable to her will. She shrunk it, reshaped it. It became a golden tiara, with its three prongs still present and jutting upwards.

She put it on her head.

 

“I’ve transformed it into a tiara, a crown. Yes, the Trident Crown will serve as a symbol of my eternal reign. The three prongs will represent the potency of my will, my might, and my love. Do not be angry at the humans though, my seafolk, for Poseidon was not. He knew they were just uninformed. They need guidance, and unlike him I will offer it.”

 

The people gasped throughout the city some more. Some still doubted her, so she devised a way to show her power. She made currents and bubbles in the shape of her form, and speckled them throughout the city for all to see. They mimicked her gestures. It was a novelty, but one only someone with great power could do: someone who held the power of the Trident.

She held it all within her.

 

“I will spend the rest of the day exploring my new powers further. Then, tomorrow, I will unite the kingdoms of land and sea, and guide everyone into a better future~”

 

She smiled, the thought pleased her. Some people who could see her cheered, and she sensed clapping in the waters farther than her normal vision could see. It all seemed to be working out.

 

“I’m not sure what could happen though, but I will keep you all safe. Behold my power.”

Her last three words roared through the waters. With a wave of her hand, the entire city of Atlantis was encapsulated in a protective water-bubble. Those near the edge who were curious tried to push against it, but found themselves unable to pass through. Current gently nudged them back.

 

“This should keep you all safe no matter what happens. Currents may sift through it to keep the water moving and fresh, of course. Yes, water can pass through. In fact, any seafolk should be able to enter, but none will be able to leave till I will the bubble gone.”

Alurel started floating upwards. She spread out her arms.

 

“Trust in your new queen everyone. Tomorrow will be a very, very important day.”

 

‘Yet another, wonderful and important day.’, thought Alurel.

 

‘Very soon.’

 

She smiled, dissolved those current magical-water-based mimics of her body in the city, then swam away. She swam to a deep and empty part of the ocean.

 

There, she practiced her powers. She explored what they offered, and what she could really do. When done with that, she rested.

 

Tomorrow was a very important day for her, after all.

Chapter 13: Queen

 

Alurel hadn’t forgotten about her meeting with Ethan. She had said she’d meet again in the morning yesterday. She was excited to tell him the news, to let him bask the sight of the new queen.

 

With her practice and time, her familiarity with her powers increased to the point they were near second-nature to her. She could swim faster than ever, and felt like she didn’t even need to swim. Rather than move through currents, she could just will mighty currents to move her.

 

In this way, she was at the island, leaning against the clifftop early in the morning, when the sun rise neared its completion.

 

Ethan was already there of course, ever diligent and devoted. He had his basket with him again, with another white cloth on it. He had on a clean white shirt and white trousers this time. He still wore his brown boots. His head looked at her form, angling upwards, speechless.

“Alurel, y-you’re glowing.”

“Yes.” she said. And she saw his shock widen at hearing her new voice.

 

“W-what happened. Did you get the Trident? You seem so different.”

“Of course I did.”, she said. She pointed to her golden, three-pronged tiara that she wore on her head. “It’s right there. I didn’t need it for long, so I turned it into a little tiara, a crown. I’ve finally done it Ethan, I’m queen of the seas.”

“That’s fantastic.”, he said. “B-but without the Trident, how will you wield the powers of the-”

“The power of the Trident is mine now. I took it. It belongs to me, within me. I am the power of the seas and storm.”

“I-I see.” He looked to her light-purple hair, which was now much thicker with soft tapered ends.

 

“W-what did you do to your hair? It looks like the tentacles of a sea anemone.”

She giggled.

“Oh Ethan, you silly man, that’s exactly what I based my new hair on. Do you like it?”

Her ‘hair’ wiggled by her will, and he shivered slightly.

 

“I, well, it might take some getting used to, but like everything about you, I can see myself loving it with only a bit of time. Your new glow accentuates your beauty.”

She smiled. “Say, what’s in the basket.”

“Oh, I brought you another gift.”

He reached in and pulled out a colorful collection of flowers. He held them up to her, and she leaned in to see and sniff them.

 

“It’s a bundle of flowers, a bouquet. I figured you might like it. They are all from land, so you might’ve not seen them.”

She smiled, taking another inhale of their floral scent. He had to steady himself against the ground to avoid moving with that gust of wind.

 

“Oh Ethan.”, she said, staring at him with her golden-glowing, green-irised eyes. “They are lovely. It’s a very thoughtful gift. I just can’t wait to see flowers like that more often.”

 

She reached out and gently patted his head, as gentle as she could. With the powers she had, she found it easier to be gentle if she saw fit. Her very ability to control her body had improved--a great and impressive deal, in fact.

 

“It’s thanks to this my plan finally worked. I can finally unite the kingdoms of land, and of sea.”

 

She moved her other hand near, holding out the pad of her finger. He placed the bouquet there, and she brought it up, gave it one look, then tossed it over her shoulder.

“Hey Alurel, why’d you throw them like that?”

She laughed.

 

“So they might sink. Perhaps some fish will see them along the way; it’ll be a hint of what’s to come.”

 

“Ah,”, he said. “You mean like diplomacy, trade?”

“Oh, much more than that.”, she said. “Don’t you see Ethan, I’ll be bringing the land into the waters. All the humans, yourself included, will be part of my new queendom.”

“What? Alurel, that’s not what was discussed. You, you are going to drown The Afflelands?”

 

She giggled.

 

“No silly, not just those Afflelands of yours. I’m going to bring the whole land-world into the sea!”

 

Ethan was shocked, he moved away from her fingers.

 

“That’s not what I thought you meant, all that talk about our world being part of yours.”

“Yes.”, said Alurel. That new radiant ‘tint’ to her voice began to disturb him. “Your would will become a literal part of my world: my queendom.”

She smiled

 

“Don’t worry though, I’ll oversee everyone as the world’s new queen. The one queen: there are no other kings, princes, or princesses now. There are no other rulers. I’ll be able to change everyone to live under the water: to breathe and talk there like we seafolk. I’ve been practicing changing things, like my hair! And you, Ethan...”

She moved her finger down from his head to the tip of his back, pressing and rubbing there carefully.

 

“You will have a high ranking place in my coming harem as a reward for all your help.”

 

“H-h-harem!” He was shocked yet again, too much to move from that finger which dwarfed his form.

 

“What do you mean harem? I love you Alurel, I thought we would be together, the two of us!”

 

“Oh silly Ethan, of course you love me. I’m beautiful and sweet. In time, everyone in my new sea queendom will love me, their new queen. But, you can’t expect me to just be satisfied with one man right? One measly person? That’d be so selfish of you.”

“Selfish?!?!?” He pushed himself away from the finger.

 

“This, this isn’t what I expected. This isn’t what I wanted. You played with my heart! I thought our kingdoms would just trade with one another, we’d meet at the island, share tales of our successes. But you, you want to drown us all! To end life on land as we know it. You’re a monster, a monster!”

 

Alurel frowned.

 

“Now don’t be so short-sighted Ethan: so unimaginative. I know you’re just a human, so it might be hard to picture yourself under the sea, but I think you’ll enjoy it. You’ll enjoy being part of my queendom. Although, I’m not sure I’ll change people to be immortal: human lives being so short makes them special in a way, and it makes my own eternal life feel even more special, don’t you think?”

“No!”, he shouted. “I don’t want to be a part of your new world. I don’t want to be a part of you at all. You stay away from me, and you stay away from the Afflelands.”

 

Her turned to run down the cliff back towards the beach. He didn’t get far till he heard a great swish through the air, and he felt something wrap itself around his torso, holding him stopped. It was wet, rubbery.

 

He looked down to see the tip of dark-green tentacle wrapped around his body. He turned to see it got way thicker as a limb, and seemed to come from Alurel. Her felt suckers from it pressing against his chest through his shirt.

 

“W-what is this?”

 

Alurel giggled.

 

“The sea-witches had one good quality to them I think. Tentacles are rather handy. I can swim with them about as fast of my fins, but they are oh so more versatile. More flexible.”

She lifted him up towards her chest. Another tentacle moved in, patting his head while he tried in vain to push it away.

 

“I replaced my fish half with these nifty tentacles, not unlike a sea-witch. Now, I can hold things better, interact better. Why, it’s even better than you humans can. You can’t exactly grab anything with your feet can you? Not well I’d imagine. In any case, I’m much more than a great mermaid now. I’m my own sort of being, unique and special.”

“B-but how?”

She giggled.

“I’ve been practicing my new powers Ethan. They afford me a lot of flexibility. I experimented almost all night. I was studying some of the deeper creatures of the sea and how they are. They can be a lot more flexible, though only I have the power to transform myself like this.”

She giggled, then continued.

 

“You’ve been rude to me, ungrateful, but I know you’re just being silly Ethan. You can still be a part of my queendom. In fact, have you every heard of how angler fish mate Ethan?”

“A-angler fish?”

“Yes, I’m sure some might’ve washed up on your shores. They are a very deep-dwelling fish, down where sunbuds don’t grow as much, and the sun doesn’t reach. They have sharp jutting teeth, and glowing little nubs at the end of flesh that curves down from their foreheads. I think they try and lure in other fish with the light, then gobble them up. They look kind of funny to me, actually, but some find them scary. I find them tasty~”

“W-what do you mean? What about angler fish? Why does it matter how they mate?”

 

“Well, when a male and female angler fish want to mate, the male swims up to the female and fuses into her. His fins, eyes, stomach: they all wither away to uselessness, because once fused she provides that for him in exchange for companionship. He literally gives up everything for her, and becomes a part of her. They say they even share the same blood at that point.”

 

Ethan shivered in her tentacular grip. She patted her head with a finger of hers. He couldn't resist it, held so tight by her tentacle.

 

“I-i-is that what you’re gonna do to me? Mate with me like that.”

Alurel burst into laughter.

 

“Me? Mate at all? Let alone with you?”

She kept laughing.

“Oh you are so silly Ethan. No, I’ve no interest in that. I just think it’s oddly romantic, don’t you? Doesn't that sort of thing sound nice? I only brought it up so you’d have an idea of what I’m going to do to you.”

 

“Wait, what?”

 

She lifted him up to her mouth. As she spoke, her breath enveloped him. He could see her maw was lit by a golden glow. Her glow persisted inside her body.

 

“That’s right, I know you’re just being a silly sour sort right now Ethan, but I’m so nice I’ll still let you be a part of me.”

 

She opened wide.

“No!”, he shouted. “No, no I don’t want this.”

 

“Oh but I know you’ll enjoy it. Don’t resist my generosity, it’ll be better for you that way.”

She opened wide again after stopping to talk. The tentacle with Ethan slid into her mouth, and only the tentacle slid back out. She fondled his chest with her tongue, just a bit, before swallowing him down.

 

“No, don’t eat me. Don’t!”, shouted Ethan. In such little time, his expectations, his entire life had been flipped around.

 

His body, too, was flipped around. He headed down Alurel’s throat head first. The golden-glow of her inner body illuminated the fleshy surroundings of her throat. He saw the slime, the rippling flesh as it squeezed him down. He felt her heart beat; he heard her gut grumble.

Her throat tugged him to a turn. A fleshy gate of sorts waited for him, taking him into a chamber. It was lit in there like the rest of her body of course, and there was a single strange plant that emitted its own source of light. The fleshy ground lightly shifted, and was covered in a layer of salt-water up near his waist.

 

“No, I don’t want to be eaten. No!”

 

For whatever reason, despite what she had said, he thought that was to be his fate. The cavity certainly looked like a stomach.

 

Then, the wall shifted near him. The flesh quivered, and out from it shot red-pinkish tentacles, pinker than the walls of the cavity itself. These were thin, slimy. He recoiled at their touch, but they wrapped about his arms and legs with ease. They pulled him against the wall, where the flesh began to suck him in. It shifted and grew around him.

 

“No, it feels... slimy. No!”

As the flesh of the wall spread around him, some smaller tentacles came out. These appendages were tipped with needles. They jabbed into his chest and a side of his body. One stabbed into the side of his neck and, another, the opposite shoulder. They pumped him with something. It stung, and his body began to change. His skin grew a tad greener. Her felt a sharp pain in his neck. The skin there teared into parallel slits.

 

“What is happening. No! Get me out of your stomach!”, he shouted.

 

Across from him, the opposite wall began to twitch. A circular lump formed there, pressing out on the wall until the red flesh of it shifted away. He saw a green-irised eye formed there, roughly the same size as the normal ones Alurel had socketed into her head.

 

It blinked at him. Then he heard Alurel’s voice.

 

“You can hear me in there, I know it. My voice is powerful enough to reach through my flesh. Now, stop being so silly! I’m not going to eat you. This isn’t my normal stomach. It’s my treasure-stomach that I told you about before. You’ll be one of my best treasures, and I will treasure you forever~”

 

“No. Stop, what are you doing to me. I don’t wanna be like the angler fish.”

 

“Oh that was just an example, to get the idea across. This is so much better than their fate. You’ll like.”

 

“What did you do to my neck?”

 

“Those are gills, just a modification to your body. One of many I’m making even now.”

 

“No!”

 

He felt some stinging fluid squelched out onto him as he was stuck in the weird flesh encasement of the cavity walls. He felt his clothes melt off him, dissolve.

 

“W-what did you do?”, he asked.

 

“I just got rid of your clothes silly. You won’t need them anymore, so I went and digested those. You won’t need some other things too, like your legs.”

The fleshy wall full sucked in his legs. He screamed as he felt those limbs ‘open’, and then realized soon after he couldn’t feel them at all.

“You don’t need your arms either.”

His arms were sucked in similarly.

 

“And some other parts: you don’t need those either.”

 

His entire body was consumed by the flesh around him. Only his head was poking out, and even that sunk into the wall just a little bit..

 

“Alurel... no. This is... this is horror...”

 

His eyes rolled around. Words filled him as his body was overwhelmed with sensations. A look of intense pain and pleasure coated his face, and little more than that face of his poked out the fleshy wall he was grafted and suffused into.

 

Alurel saw Ethan with her inner eye. She giggled, finding him looking a tad dopey.

 

“There we go.”, she said. “Much better, quieter too. To think I had to let the people I liked rot to bones in my cove before. Now, I can preserve them forever~”

 

On the outside, Alurel shrugged her shoulders and raised her arms in a big stretch.

 

“Now, I think it’s time to talk to the leaders of this Afflelands, along with every other surface kingdom on this planet.”

 

Alurel worked her tentacles to swim away from the island. She swam due south-west.

 

That was the direction of the coast of The Afflelands.

Chapter 14: Will

 

The Afflelands was a rich country. It had a strong and well maintained navy. The people loved their fish, after all, so boating was a strong suit to them in all its forms.

 

As luck would have it, their navy was out that day on a drill when they saw Alurel’s massive form approaching. However, no drill could have prepared them for such a sight: a 500ft tall woman of the sea. They couldn’t see her entire lower body as she swam over, but they knew it had tentacles: big ones. They saw her strange, purple anemone hair, and the large golden tiara atop her head.

The green-irised being was glowing a gentle golden hue, and she was heading their way.

 

There was debate on the ships whether or not to fire. She was monstrous in height after all, and despite her beauty none could deny the tentacles and thick, appendage-like hair were befitting a monster. So massive was she that her very movements kicked up powerful waves that lapped at their ships. It was a tempting instinct to just start firing.

 

However, once she got reasonably close to the forces, close enough to reach out with one of her tentacles, she stopped moving.

 

And she began to speak.

 

“Don’t shoot me, little humans.”, she said. “I come bringing good news.”

The people on the ships were educated, but upon hearing her radiant voice, they thought her some kind of god. They held their fire from a mixture of curiosity and the notion of not wishing divine wrath upon themselves.

 

The sun had finished rising; the sky now a clear blue. Alurel raised her hand and that quickly changed. White clouds now filled much of the sky across the entire globe. They were thin enough to let most of the sun through still. Every land-dweller everywhere looked up in awe as the sky shifted like that.

 

Alurel smiled. She was at last close enough to see a real human settlement, and it was beautiful. She wasn’t so close to touch it, yet, and her keen senses meant she wasn’t that near to the coast. She wanted to still be able to float in the waters, rather than having to scuttle across the beach. Yet, she saw the Afflelands very well.

 

She could still see the sprawling of wooden docks and small seaside homes by the shore. She saw past that to the structures of wood and brick and stone, crowded together. Store fronts and houses were topped with colorful roofs of varying shapes. The cobblestone and dirt roads teemed with human life. There, people went about their day till she showed up. Squinting with her powerful vision, she could even see the great stone castle that Afflelands king lived in, and where Ethan once lived.

 

‘It’s mine.’, she thought. ‘All mine~’

 

She spoke, and used her powers to convey her words from the seas themselves, and from the clouds she had scattered across the planet’s sky. Projecting her voice across the world like this was among the merest of her her powers. It impressed everyone all the same. She had the sweet voice of a woman with the radiant timbre of a god atop it, and the godly volume and reach to back up claims of divine power.

 

“Greetings humans. I must say, The Afflelands look even more lovely in person than I imagined. To think I had to wait this long to see them for myself. Well, no longer. Soon all of the sea will see land-culture.”

 

She paused a moment, smiling wider. Her tentacles idly shifted as she spoke, kicking up little waves to rock any nearby ships.

 

“I am Alurel, queen of Atlantis, queen of the seas, and the queen of all of you. I bring a message of welcoming into my underwater world. You are all being granted ‘citizenship’, as you say, into my queendom in the watery depths. By my powers, the ocean will be your new home. You and everything you know will be submerged, and you will be changed by my fantastic powers, and live as part of my new world.”

People over the world began to grew nervous.

 

“There is no point in resistance, my powers, my being is so very, very far above you even now. All your monarchies are revoked, your rulers illegitimate. There is only me now, Alurel, your one eternal queen. I can sense you all, vaguely, beneath my clouds and near my waters. You humans are diverse in your buildings and appearance much like the fish of the sea, it’s really marvelous. Now, simply bow in submission and gratitude: surrender, and await my waters to carry you down to a new home under my care and control~”

 

She waited, smiling. With her powerful senses spread beneath the clouds and near the seas, she sensed panic erupting across settlements across the globe. She could literally see that going on in that shore-side capital city of the Afflelands.

 

There was some order in the chaos there, emerging slowly but steadily. Men in fancy clothes talked with others. Nods were exchanged. Ships began to sail from docks, hastily loaded with men in uniforms.

 

A great horn sounded from the shores of the Afflelands. The ships before Alurel’s 500ft form turned their sides to her bulk and fired.

 

It seemed her call for a universal surrender had been rejected. Only some nomadic tribes had the good sense to bow to her voice as far as her vague senses could tell.

 

“Very well.”, she said across the globe. “I can have a bit of fun first, showing you my power. Besides, I have had nothing to eat yet this morning.”

 

The Afflelands ships fired volleys of cannon balls. Most reached only at her dark-green octopus half, yet a scant few landed against her taut, fair-skinned tummy.

 

She giggled.

 

“That tickles, sillies~”.

 

She raised one massive tentacle around an offending ship. The limb’s suckers made for easy, inescapable gripping. People onboard brandished their swords and struck at her flesh, but they couldn't even scrape, let alone cut her limb.

Alurel squeezed, completely crushing the ship in half. The sailors fell into the waters, where a swipe of her tentacle took them up. People were gripped to the suckers, stuck like fish in a trap.

 

She stretched the long limb to her smiling face. As cannon-fire continued to futilely pelt her, she opened wide and slipped the limb in. Everyone stuck to it was sucked off, swallowed.

 

She slid the tentacle out with a pop of her lips.

“Mmmf, yummy as always. You humans always were a treat. Soon, you’ll all be my treasures.”

 

The ships kept attacking her, although they began to build some distance, sailing back towards the shores of the Afflelands.

 

“Where are you going? I’m still hungry~”

Their speed was pathetic in comparison to her, especially when she could will the sea winds to blow them back her way. She did just that and simply swam a little forward. Her very movements were an attack, as the undulations of her tentacles kicked up ship-tilting waves.

 

She reached out towards the battalion of ships with her four front tentacles. Each limb found a prize to coil around. Unlike before, she didn’t crush the vessels: she lifted them out of the sea itself.

 

She brought the limbs up to her mouth, balancing her form with her back tentacles in the waters to float still. She passed one vessel from a tentacle to her hands. She held it like a toy ship, bringing it real close to her eyes. Brave sailors threw harpoons at those green-irised orbs, but they simply bounced off of her. She was impervious to mortal weapons.

Her face was all they could see.

“Oh wow, look at you all. So brave, so handsome.”

Her tongue slipped out of her lips.

“So delicious~”

She snapped the ship in half, making a deep crack down the hole to bend the vessel at. She titled it over her open mouth and shook it.

 

Crew-members held onto masts, shrouds, or just anything built into the ship for dear life. They witnessed their fellow sailors fall from the ship into that great yawning, salivating maw. Each shake made their finger holds looser, each shake prompted more of them to at least lose their holds and plummet to their dooms. She could swallow with her mouth open, as they witnessed she did when her mouth was full of the humans and cargo crates that plummeted from the wounded vessel. Yet, she waited till her mouth was full, usually.

 

A couple more shakes and everyone on that ship was in her gob. Her lips sealed, but they could still see thanks to that golden glow which permeated her very flesh. They were scarcely savored: a quick suckle and they were swallowed down whole and wriggling.

“Ah, lovely.”, she said. She moved a tentacle with another ship to her mouth.

“More~”

 

This time, she cracked the ship in half with her free front tentacle. Since those limbs were more flexible than her arms or a single finger, it was about as easy to shake the people out. She devoured the second vessel as such, then repeated for the third and the fourth.

 

Alurel treated the ships not as enemy combatants, but as meal baskets: as treats hiding in shells she could crack with ease. Occasionally, the people she sloppily shook out would miss her mouth. Some fell against her body and down to the waters, dying outright or under the crashing waves her massive body made when her tentacles shifted.

 

Others landed on the thick strands of her purple ‘hair’, which was actually tendrils much like a sea-anemone. They quickly learned the hair tendrils were not just for appearance. Tiny needles stung the sailors on contact while holding them stuck to the head-appendages. The needles injected a toxin into their bodies. It was painful, and paralyzed their body while starting digestive processes. They couldn’t even scream as it numbed their forms from moving.

Alurel could of course feel with her ‘hair’, and she knew when they had caught prey. They were opposable appendages as well to her, and she stretched the tendrils into her mouth to suck off the stuck, softening humans. She was, of course, immune to her own ‘hair’’s sting after all. It was hardly a mercy for the people to be removed from the appendages, though, as the toxin still coursed through their veins while they were swallowed down.

 

Her stomach was growing packed with humanity. The sailors clambered over one another as they landed. Her digestive stomach was lit, leaving nothing to the imagination. The humans weren’t alone, as the scent alone would reveal. It smelled like acid, but also fish.

 

Deep-black and purple sea creatures occupied her stomach. There were dissolving carcasses of large, tentacled squid with skin as black as ink. There were eels long as three men laying side by side scattered among the stomach. All sorts of fanged and ferocious, almost alien looking fish and sea-creatures were there. She had feasted while she practiced her powers in the deepest recesses of the ocean.

 

The creatures were all in various stages of dissolvement like any food would be. Most were dead, yet a scant few resilient ones were merely heavily wounded by Alurel’s persistent stomach acids. They were harmless to the sailors in the sense of not being able to physically attack. Still, some of them and some of the dead fish had toxic spines of their own, which still stung on contact.

 

As the sailors were thrashed about with every turn of the digestive muck they were in, many stumbled into said stingers despite any effort to stay away. They had the agony of deep-sea toxins added to the omnipresent burning from Alurel’s relentless and effective acids.

 

Finishing that fourth ship, Alurel crushed it in her tentacular grip before tossing it aside like all the others. She noticed the remaining ships in the navy moving away from her. They were retreating, though firing at her with their ships’ back-cannons all the while.

 

She giggled.

 

“Hey, where are you sillies all going?”, she said.

 

“You should be sailing towards your queen, not away~”

She slowly swam towards them, toying with them. She reached out with one of her front tentacles and shadowed a couple of vessels beneath the limbs. Rather than grab them, she merely slapped them below the deaths. Their hulls were cracked and they promptly sank.

Alurel laughed, and continued leisurely swimming after the ships. It was about halfway till they got to shore that they turned around. Alurel easily saw why, many more ships were just launched from the docks of the Afflelands’s coastal capital.

 

Her glowing eyes widened, as did her smile.

“Oh I see, you were gathering more of your friends. Well, if you get to double your efforts, it’s only fair I get to, don’t you think?”

Alurel stretched her arms to the side. Her glow briefly intensified as her body began to slowly expand. Before the eyes of the freshly reinforced navy, she grew. Her tentacles, her arms, every bit of her stretched up and out in proportion. That clay-beige shell bra on her chest started to strain, than the seaweed bands snapped entirely. It fell into the seas with a great big splash, her naked chest was entirely bared.

She finished at double her old size, now a good 1000ft or so.

 

“There.”, she said. “I think this is fair now, don’t you?”

She giggled as the ships sailed towards her, firing all sorts of long range cannonballs her way. They couldn’t crest past her octopus half anymore in their shots.

 

“I always knew I was meant to rule over the smaller folk. I mean, it’s obvious that my sheer scale made me better than others, right? But now, now I have more than that. I have power. Power beyond your imagination. Let me demonstrate just a small sample.”

She pointed her finger at one of the front-most vessels. A beam of lightning surged from her digit to strike the ship. It exploded at the sight of impact, and caught fire from the fury of the lightning-like blast. Wooden shrapnel exploded out from it to pelt nearby ships, and what was left of her target quickly sunk into the sea.

 

She giggled.

 

The sailors grew more concerned, but the honor of their country steadied their fears enough to keep fighting, even as she eyed them with a hungry gaze.

 

“You know.”, she said. “Doubling in size made my stomach get twice the room it had before.”

 

With that, Alurel lunged towards the fleet, mouth agape. She took in a couple ships in one bite. Ships were cut in half by her teeth. At times, she had to briefly chew to crack bits of ships in her mouth. Even big as she was, she couldn’t yet swallow ships whole. However, she wasn’t throwing away any parts of the ship either. She knew her digestive system could handle dissolving away wood and metals.

 

The slamming of her teeth cut off any escape for those inside. She swallowed her prizes down with the salt-water they sailed in. Those already in her gut had to dodge swallowed cannons and entire heavy chunks of wood now. It also made the churns of her gut ever more dangerous and disorienting.

The ships desperately tried to shoot her face as it came down, then up, then down again while she lunged through their ranks. It mattered not, she was too fast, and the blows that landed out of pure chance did nothing to her. She was toying with them, like a predator with its prey.

 

She was also moving, though, steadily towards the shores of Afflelands's capital. Each dive of her body kicked up large waves which assaulted the shores and flooded the buildings closest to the seashore. Their problems were many as it was, but when she emerged in arms reach of the coast they only intensified.

 

Alurel smiled down at all the running, screaming people on land. Some were military, firing at her with cannons on the docks, but for the most part they were the normal people. Shop keepers, farmers on a trip to the docks, fishermen, artisans. These were some of the creators of the human culture Alurel found so endearing and cute.

 

She giggled.

 

“It’s adorable how you try to run. Human determination is really something. Perhaps that’s why you wriggle so much when I swallow you down.”

She reached out with her front four tentacles. They curled around entire shops and groups of people. They cleaved through homes, snatching the prizes within.

She brought it all up towards her upper body. Her tentacles slid into her mouth, sucked clean of their prizes. She cracked open buildings like shells and feasted on the living ‘meat’ within. Her tentacles cleaned entire seashore-near streets in their sweeps. They flattened about as many buildings as she picked up.

 

Some men rushed through the roads, armed with gunpowder arms. Before they even got off a shot, she slammed a tentacle down upon them and flattened them to paste.

 

Alurel even scuttled onto land a bit, at least feeling the sands of a shore, the wood of a dock, and the stones of a road beneath her bulk. She reached out towards one of the more inland homes with a tentacle, dripping water down to drench those beneath the limb.

 

She curled the appendage about a quaint and quirky steepled home. Brought to her mouth, she bit into it like one would a fruit, then sucked up the couple living inside along with much of their furniture. She saw some of the fancy, wooden chairs and such after the fact.

 

“Oooh, what clever humans you are. There’s still so much I’ve never seen. All these structures, all your tiny trinkets: so much of it has never been shipped in the cargo I used to sift through. You’ve no idea how exciting this is for me.”

As she ravaged the coast of the city, what few ships that escaped her earlier devourment fired at her posterior side. Her back-facing tentacles were enough to handle those few forces with a bit of flailing and slapping. None escaped her limbs, which were oddly precise.

 

“I can sense you even when my head is turned, you know.”, she said, reveling in her abilities. “It is my sea you sail on. I can sense the smallest flail of a flipper, to the biggest churn of the waves.”

Her voice echoed across the seas and clouds, as before.

 

“I can also sense all these wonderful ships, from across the world, coming out to meet me.”

She turned around and, indeed, in the distance was a massive gathering of seafaring vessels. There were thousands. All the navies of the world were heading over, having heard from her earlier proclamation that she was near the Afflelands. A cacophony of war-horns from different nations sounded out across the waters.

 

The nations of the world varied on the minutia of their interpretations of what she said and what she must be, but they all agreed she was a threat to humanity herself. Her attack on the Afflelands was seen as an attack on human societies everywhere, so they sailed, united, to try and stop her.

 

The Afflelands was thankfully close to many other countries on the planet, so travel time was not too much, and even more distant navies were on their way.

 

Alurel looked to them on the horizon, and laughed. She started swimming over. Her voice boomed around them.

 

“So much people. So many exciting ships. It’s like a sample from so many human cultures, just for me. I can’t wait to meet you all.”

The waves churned as she swam faster towards them. Although, as she approached, she slowly sunk into the water.

 

“I bet you’re excited, excited to think you can stop me. But you haven’t even seen a fraction of my true power, my true strength.”

She giggled, only her head above water.

 

“I suppose I’ll show it to you now, given the display you’ve offered to me in turn. Such thoughtful, silly humans~”

 

She dove under the water. No ships could see her now. For a moment, the sea was calm. They could hear a great shifting of water though, and it drew closer and closer to the mighty unified fleet of ships out on the ocean.

 

All aboard their vessels felt a great stirring of the sea. The water began to bubble under the central cluster of the fleet. Hundreds of ships were atop the shifting area of water.

 

Something was below them, something big.

Chapter 15: Might

 

“Brace yourselves! She is up to something!” shouted a captain of a ship. His was one of those unlucky hundreds above the oddly shifting waters.

Yet, all ships knew there was danger coming. The white clouds above them grew a little darker, thicker. Although, the sun still broke through.

 

Almost every ship began to shake. Something was coming up.

 

Massive waves roiled out from the epicenter of the circular disturbance. Countless tons of sea water rose up, then fell down in roiling, foaming crashes. It fell from a massive object, thousands of feet across.

 

It was Alurel’s head. She was rising from the waves, far, far bigger than she was before. She was on the order of miles in size now.

 

Entire ships found themselves lifted up by thick purple appendages. Some realized in horror what it was.

 

Her sea-anemone like hair. It was now as thick if not thicker than her tentacles once were.

 

A great noise accompanied Alurel’s reemergence from the sea. It was a loud vibration, more loud than all the war-horns of humanity put together.

 

“Aaaaaaaa~”

 

She had emerged mouth open, uttering a taunt which vibrated their bones.

Water raced towards her gaping maw. Ships tried with all their might to steer away from it, but the pull of the water was too strong. It rushed to fill the space her open mouth had made for it, and took dozens of ships up as it flooded into her gob.

 

More than a fleet’s worth of ships had passed her lips. She curled her tongue, sending them on tumble throughout the living cavern. The waves were made not only of the sea-water there, but also of her spittle. Droplets of it fell atop many a ship, sinking them from the force of it.

Many ships managed to navigate the waters of her mouth, as she was a little gentle with them on purpose. It was all for naught; all they managed was to last a little longer. Whether whole and intact or broken, trending water, all the ships and sailors were going to the same place.

 

Alurel sealed her lips, tilted her head, and gulped nosily. Dozens of ships passed from her illuminated mouth to her throat which glowed with that same golden hue.

 

As she had swallowed, many ships crashed into her ruby red-ish lips, bouncing off the flesh were some damages received. They were moments away from being sucked in themselves. She looked down, having something in store for them as well. Her mouth opened once more.

 

“Ahh~”

 

She released a sigh in their direction. Her sweet and humid breath ripped into the ships like a gale. It was enough to send many capsizing in the churning waters.

 

Giggling, her voice once more rocked their bodies. She pursed her lips and blew the few remaining, upright ships right over.

 

After that, she continued to rise. Slowly.

 

There were ships who were almost sucked in that didn't crash into her lips. They were by the left or right edges of her face, and were able to veer out of it.

 

Alurel, of course, would not them simply get away like that. Many crashed into her light-purple ‘hair’ tendrils, but there were those that didn’t. She simply stretched out those sea-anemone-like appendages to gather them up herself. At least a few ships could be held by each.

 

Since she grew, so too did those appendages on her head, and so too did their stingers. The needle-like main stingers on the limbs were now big enough to puncture through ships, catching and ‘sticking’ them with ease.

 

On top of that, the spear-thick stingers could now easily pierce through crewmen as well. Sailors found themselves impaled on the once-minute stingers. As they bled across the shafts of the needle-like things, they were still stung. Each stinger itself had little stingers on its shaft which also delivered the toxin. Thus, even impaled they were not spared from the painful, paralytic, digesting substance.

 

In fact, such Alurel had grown, the toxin only passed into them faster. Many sailors became un-impaled simply by their toxin-afflicted bodies slushing right off the big stingers.

 

Alurel turned her eyes to look at her ‘hair’ best she could.

“Look at your cute, delicious little ships. Come over here. Aaa~”

 

She moved the sea-anemone-like appendages into her mouth and sucked off the treats they had snagged. Ships were ripped right through by the stingers as the suction of her mouth pulled them deeper into her gob. Her tongue licked them right up and off her ‘hair’, and the tendrils left her mouth free of prey, though with a thin coating of her own saliva to dry away in the air.

Her emergence continued. Her shoulders rose up from the waters, and all the ships got an even better idea of just how massive she was: miles. Though the figure of her upper-body was still lithe, she was so big that her width stretched more than around a thousand ships side by side.

 

There was not much time to lament their position. Waves as tall if not taller than ships spread out from her body as it rose. Her perky breasts broached the surface soon after. Ships that couldn't’ escape in time found the water beneath them fading, giving way to the soft supple flesh of her bosom as it emerged beneath them.

 

The ships tumbled off her breasts, many crashing into her pink nipples before falling down hundreds of feet to heir doom.

 

The fleets were scrambling to try and sail away from her, many tossed under as she simply rose more out of the waters. They saw a navel that could swallow them all whole.

 

Entire fleets of ships found their vessels lurching up. Alurel had positioned her palms beneath scores of some ships. The waters sifted through her fingers, leaving the ships stranded on the skin of her hands in mere puddles of sea water.

 

Giggling down at the scores of ships, she brought her hands to her mouth, one at a time, then tipped them in.

 

The ships plummeted in a free fall into her mouth. She swallowed fast, taking them down. The journey down her illuminated throat was a rough one, and one filled with visions of slimy flesh, squeezing their vessels down with ease.

 

Entire fleets worth of ships were devoured. The ones that were intact sailed the churning waters of her stomach juices. Every shift of her body, however subtle, shifted that new, acidic ‘sea’ of theirs. The churns themselves whipped the area into an uproar. Towering waves of corrosive chyme capsized vessels dozens at a time.

 

Falling overboard was a death sentence, as sailors and broken ships were caught in veritable maelstroms whipped up from the activity. The waves kept their heads under the surface, where they choked and drowned on the acidic fluid as it worked to dissolve their bodies.

 

Alurel smacked her lips and let out a pleased “mmm~”. She reached up her arms for a stretch, followed by another booming, all encompassing sigh that echoed over the world.

It had only been a short while, but she had emerged from the sea much as she had liked. In the process, that simple movement for her wiped out a large swath of the navies just doing so. However, she was hardly done churning up tumult.

 

All of her upper-body and some of her lower, octopus-like body stuck out of the water. Her tentacles still dipped mostly beneath the waters. The idle wriggles of those appendages kicked up ferocious tidal waves that engulfed ships while heading on a path to ravage the coast of the Afflelands.

 

The very front of her form and those tentacles were all the navies had to shoot at. They, of course, didn’t leave even a scratch on her. They couldn’t before, when she was much smaller. Now, at a leviathanian scale, she defeated entire fleets with mere shifts of those limbs. Ships were cast out of the water as a tentacle rose below them. They sailed down the slope of the limb, crashing into the waves broken and beaten.

 

Alurel raised one of her frontwards tentacles high up and stretched it out.

“Aah, I truly am immense now aren’t I? Human ships were always delicate things, but now you so very fragile compared to me. It’s so cute! I can’t help but want to snatch you up.”

She giggled.

 

“How silly to think you could stand against me. You humans are like plankton now, atop the decks of your little ships. So very cute and small~”

 

She shadowed a swarm of fleets beneath the shadow of that tentacle, then brought it down for a slam. Scores of ships exploded on contact. Others were hit smack dab by the suckers lining the limb. They tightened, squeezing the ships to bits that way before relaxing and letting the debris fall.

 

Smirking, she began to wiggle and shift her tentacles through the waters. All the ships around her seemed smaller than the smallest fish to her now, and like such puny fish they were caught in the currents of her movements. They were whipped into the frenzy of crisscrossing waves she had made.

 

Without even moving anything other than her tentacles, she was destroying a vast swath of the ships sent to attack her. Those ships not crushed by the thrashing and flailing of her monolithic tentacles were torn apart by the fierce waves the limbs whipped up.

 

“It didn’t have to be this way. All you sailors could have stayed on land and bowed to me. Humans are stubborn though, that I know. Countless times a cargo ship has tried to resist me, back when I was smaller, when I lacked the power of the sea and storm itself. They’d fight to the dying breath at times to save cargo and companion. It was so endearing, but always pointless. I always won; I always win.”

She eyed a swath of ships sailing away from here. It was hundreds strong. She pointed her hand at them.

“Look at what I can do now. The powers I wield and deserve. The powers of a real queen!”

She wiggled her fingers and lightning surged forth. Each arc of the stuff blasted entire ships apart. She kept moving those digits in a cute little dance, pelting the fleet in a chaotic fashion. People were scorched to crisps. Burnt corpses and wood tore through the hulls of neighboring vessels that were soon blasted apart themselves.

 

“The sea answers my whims. It obeys me. I am its mistress!”, she shouted. “You try and resist me, but you are already sailing on my domain!”

 

She turned to the other side of her body. Another large swath of hundreds of ships lingered there. She twirled her finger in the air, and water began to swirl around those vessels. It spun faster and faster as a giant whirlpool, leading downwards.

The vessels tried to maintain their stability in the maelstrom, but it was too big, and too fast to last for long. Complicating matters further was the storm cloud she had whipped up right about the whirlpool. It released bolts of lightning to strike the more lucky or skilled pilots, whose ships had not yet capsized into the maelstrom’s center. Those that did, of course, where crushed by the spinning pressure and drowned if they survived.

 

She giggled as she watched it: her green-irised eyes tracked the movements of the ships, round and round. Eventually, she grew bored of it.

 

“You’re nothing but my meals, my toys. It’s the purpose of a subject to serve and entertain they queen right? Lest they are disposed of~”

She clenched her left hand into a fist. The whirlpool collapsed in on itself. All within it were crushed to bloody bits, their vessels smashed to splinters. That little storm cloud she made near was gone too.

 

She laughed, and it carried across the world via the sea and clouds much as her voice did. To her front, thousands more ships were sailing away from her, towards the coast of the Afflelands.

 

“Are you going back to coast? You think you can fair better there? Incorrect, but I think I will go there myself. You can accompany me, if you’d like.”

She started to move towards the fleets.

 

“In my stomach, that is.”

Giggling, she lifted her hand in an upwards gesture. Beneath all those ships, the very water began to rise up in a great column. The ships sunk into the shaped water, which was flowing up out of the sea and towards Alurel.

 

It reached towards her face, and she opened her mouth.

The torrent of sea-water flooded into her maw, and she drank it down along with all the ships in it. Those in her stomach who had managed to stay afloat thus far were in peril. A sudden surge of countless thousands of gallons flooded the living, lit chamber. The salt water rained from above as a flood, sinking all the ships already in her stomach while more plummeted down like deadly debris.

 

With all those ships swallowed down, there was now once again almost nothing between Alurel and the Afflelands capital.

 

She quickly swam back over.

 

Her earlier departure had given the people of that country some hope of normalcy returning. They thought the arrival unified navies, as she had implied, would have defeated her. However, seeing her colossal figure moving back over sunk hopes back down lower than ever.

 

Before she returned came massive waves. They inundated the already ravaged coastal region of the capital. As if that wasn’t enough, she giggled, speaking to them again.

 

“You sought to resist me, but failed. Why do you resist your queen? Come play with me. How about a bit of splashing~”

She moved one of her tentacles back, then pushed it forward through the depths. In this way, she pushed an extremely large wave straight towards the settlement.

 

While she laughed, the enormous tidal wave poured over the coastal region deeper into the city itself. Buildings were swept up in the waters. People were swirled around, drowning. The wave receded, as waves often did, and pulled many of the buildings and people and mess back out into towards the sea.

 

Alurel raised her hand and dashed it to the side in the air. The motion coincided with her flexing her powers to create another wave. This one traveled sideways along the coast and much of the settlement, washing away most of what survived her first wave.

 

“Come on, you sent your ships right? That must mean you wanted to get close to me in even just one sense.” I’ll bring you closer. Embrace your queen~”

 

She scuttled up to the shore. Her front tentacles stretched out and curled around entire chunks of the city. Buildings and streets were swept up by the limbs and moved towards her massive body. What stuff wasn’t rolled over by those limbs was brought up to the front of her form. She was so big, they couldn't even comprehend her up close. The surviving people were crushed against the somewhat rubbery skin of her octopus-like half.

“Yes.”, she said. “It’s so good to feel your culture up close. I want to feel more~”

Another tentacle went in and slammed over a few streets. It curled around some buildings, bringing them up to her naked chest where they were promptly smushed into. She cooed at the sensation.

“Ah, so that’s what it feels like to have entire buildings crumble against oneself. I never knew till now.”

She repeated the gesture, destroying the next tentacle-hold of buildings against her taut tummy instead.

 

“There is something I always wanted to try. A special building you humans have. A real, human castle. A true treasure of your culture.”

She spotted it. The castle of the Afflelands. It was were its king lived. She stretched a tentacle towards it, but it was just out of reach. With a pout, she let the limb sag and crush all in its shadow.

 

“I guess I have to get closer, don’t I?”

Using her tentacles, she once more scuttled onto land. Only this time, she was far, far bigger. Her massive form crushed all she moved over. Nothing could resist the bulk of her form. All left in her scuttling wake was flattened buildings, ruined stone streets, and the crushed remnants of humans.

 

She giggled.

“Land feels so funny beneath me, you know. It’s weird to think of how you humans spend all your time on it. I guess you won’t be for much longer.”

She was close enough to snag the castle with her hands, and did so. Leaning down, she scooped it up along with chunks of its very foundation.

 

She held it delicately in her palm. Inside was the king Ethan had told of her of, as well as numerous guards no doubt. They stayed huddled inside, not showing themselves, but they spoke somewhat close to a small coating of wetness on her hand: wetness from the sea. That let her pick up some words here and there, focusing, and thus able to realize the castle hold someone who thought themselves a king.

 

Of course, she didn’t consider him a king. The moment she had the Trident, she considered herself the only rightful ruler of any domain.

She leaned her head towards her hand.

 

“A castle. A whole castle. Once this structure might have been bigger than me, yet not I can hold it in my hand, as tiny as a little guppy.”

She giggled.

 

“I always wanted to treasure a castle. This is far more dour than the Atlantis palace though. Mostly bland stone. Still, there’s an appeal to having it in hand.”

Alurel raised it up towards her face.

“Now, to see what a castle taste like~”

Alurel cupped her palm to her open mouth and lapped the castle right up. She swallowed, quickly gulping it down. Those inside her stomach could see the entire fortification fall down into the chyme, already crumbled from the squeezes of her throat.

 

Alurel licked her lips. “Very stony flavor.”, she said, laughing.

She looked ahead, seeing hills and other such features of land far in the distance. Focusing, she could see more settlements far off. She could sense all those of the world beneath her clouds.

 

“It’s so tempting to move even more in-land, to see the sights you land-dwellers have to offer. But, there is no point to that.”

She turned around and scuttled back towards the sea. Her voice continued booming across the world.

“It’ll all be mine soon. Yes, don’t worry. Despite attacking me, I will let you join my undersea domain still.”

She reentered the sea. Up above, the clouds began to darken.

 

“I’ve had a lot of fun fighting you all, but I’m not here to kill you all. I plan to unit the land kingdom into mine, not destroy it.”

She waved her hand and the clouds darkened further. The light over the world began to grow darker.

 

“Yes, despite your rather rude treatment, I forgive you. I know it’s just cause you humans are so silly. You need guidance. You need a strong and loving queen to watch over you. Enjoy you. Treasure you. Some may think it overly magnanimous, but I forgive your attacks, yes, you will still join me. You will still get to live beneath the waters.”

She focused her powers. The clouds shifted darker once again.

 

“You will get to live beneath your new queen.”

The clouds were swirling. Thunder roared across the world. A storm was brewing.

Chapter 16: Love

 

The clouds were a heavy dark, and growing thicker still. The air grew humid. People have felt this sensation before. There would be a storm. Yet, this one was big. Bigger than most had ever felt, and it stretched across the globe.

 

“Come and embrace the waters I command. I’ve blessed them with my power.”

 

She wiggled her tentacles and commanded the waves to surge. The few vessels of the navies still intact were pulled underwater. Those who fell in the sea, or were simply splashed by the water, began to notice changes. Their skin tingled; it changed tones to grey, green, or bluer shades. Their necks began to hurt till slits completed forming. Gills. Their ears grew pointed, finned, and fins jutted from their elbows, shoulders, and backs. Their voices and ears would work in the seas now.

Sailors and those on the coast, hit by the waters, looked to their fingers to see fleshy webbings between them. Those unshod noticed the same between their toes.

 

“You’ll be changed into beings that can live underwater, who can live in my kingdom. Into people that can live among me~”

 

People noticed, and many began to flee the waves that lapped at their shores. Even a drop’s worth was enough to cause changes.

“Don’t worry those of you far inland. Even those of you who had never had the pleasure of seeing the ocean will join me. My rains will reach you. I command the storms and well as the sea. All of the water is mine to command, now become of the water, and become mine!”

 

She clapped her hands together. A great clamor of deafening thunder rang out from the dark-gray clouds stretched across the globe.

 

Rain began to pour.

 

The torrential precipitation was unrivaled, a new record. Streets flooded with it. Yet, all those touched by it too noticed changes.

 

People ran screaming in the streets all across the globe. They tried to cover themselves with umbrellas or coats. They fled inside their homes from the ‘cursed’ rains. However, all it took was a drop and the changes began. Once the changes started, they would finish.

 

“Enjoy your new bodies. They are better than the old. My mastery of the sea lets me change you all, adapt you all to your new and future home.”

Some people didn’t resist the changes though. These were, ironically, often very inland tribes, towns and the like. They and many other settlements looked upwards towards the rain, arms outstretched, and accepted what they viewed as a blessing.

 

“But do not weep for your mountains, your hills, your forests. I see the value in these things of land. I’ve tasted the succulent fruits you grow from the ground. All I mentioned and more will have a part of my new world as well. I’ll bring the very terrain of the land down with me. All the land has to offer will be mine.”

She made another gesture with her arms and the storm increased further. The wind whipped. Waves rose higher and higher as the rains fed the seas. The water level of the oceans began to rise. Coastal cities were flooded, then swept into the seas themselves.

 

As this went on, Alurel grew. She grew to twice her old size, than triple. She grew so large that she could see above her own storm. She could see through it, though, as the storm was an extension of the power. At this level of the storm’s ferocity, and at her level of power, she could make out many details of all her dark clouds covered.

“I myself will drag you down. I’ll hug you to the depths to make you mine faster~”, she said.

 

Proving the point, the absolute megalithic Alurel stretched tentacles towards the Afflelands. The limbs kept growing with her as she contained, but they also changed. Some of her suckers had turned to razor-lined mouths, and in-between them were green-irised eyes coated in a protected membrane. As the tentacle landed across thousands and thousands of people and scores of buildings, the sharp teeth of the mouth-suckers dug into the land. It gave her a better hold.

 

“I can see you beneath me. I can’t save you all, that’d be too much effort. But those of you walking between the suckers of my tentacles, alive, know that a great new world awaits you if only you can persevere longer.”

With her hold on the land, Alurel pushed downwards with her tentacles. She was shoving landscapes down towards the ocean. The entire country of the Afflelands quaked from the process, and the waters had an easier time of flooding the country’s lands.

 

“No.”, she said. “I can’t quite shove you down yet. I need to be bigger. Bigger.”

She closed her eyes, focusing. Her body shined bright as she called upon yet more of her power. Her entire tentacled form shot upwards even farther. She grew past the 100 mile mark. She grew so big she could see entire countries outright and laid out before her.

 

“Yes!”, she shouted. Her voice roared as loud if not louder than the storm she had weaved.

 

Said storm still raged on around her and around the planet. It only grew fiercer the bigger she was. Water levels were rising fast.

 

“Room. I need to make room for you all. The ocean isn’t deep enough for my new queendom. I’ll make it deeper.”

She clenched her fist and willed the sea to become deeper, to expand downwards. Fast moving currents swarmed the seafloors. She used the power of erosion to rub away the sand and rock. It dissolved, making more sea. She did this process to push the depth of the sea close to the planet’s vore core.

 

“Yes.”, she said. “It’s working, as I knew it would. Finally. Finally you are all mine!”

Everyone alive was touched by her waters by then. The level of the sea had risen to flood entire countries.

 

Giggling with glee, Alurel stretched her massive tentacles out across continents. She pushed down with all her might, crushing the land into the depths: her depths.

 

The deep layers of stratum the continents rested on were crushed and eroded away. She cared only for the very surface, which she pushed down beneath her rising waves.

 

Alurel’s laughter increased, she had never felt so jubilant. It reached a crescendo when she saw the tallest mountain on land at last fall beneath the waters.

 

She had done it. Her dream was done. All on land belonged to the sea now, and thus to her.

Chapter 17: Wet New World

 

Much time passed since what many called ‘The Great Sink’ or, as others called it, ‘Drowning Day’. Alurel preferred the latter term, as she considered the day a celebration.

 

The entire planet was undersea now. Entire continents existed beneath the salty depths. Humans no longer existed as they did before. They were called gilledfolk now, and looked like fishier versions of their old human forms. They were adapted to live in the new world.

Alurel’s world.

Alurel had given up the idea of being a queen, or even an empress. Now, she called herself what she knew she was: a god. She declared herself the divine rule of her domain.

 

Her eyes were everywhere. They were on rocks, the underwater mountains. They were in the caves of the sea as well as pretty much any terrain worth noting. They came in all sorts of sizes: large as buildings or even a few near big as mountains.

 

Those green-irised eyes glowed with her radiance. The looming eyes were the chief sources of light in her new world. Sunbuds were extinct. They were no longer needed, so Alurel did away with them. She liked the idea that people were dependent on her for light. They were dependent on her powers to warm the sea now, too, as the sun’s warmth didn’t reach well enough on its own.

 

The eyes watched over her people of course, which numbered in the billions: the original seafolk and the newest and most populous entry, the gilledfolk.

 

Of course, the eyes weren’t even needed to see. Alurel's consciousness sufficed the sea as much as the salt itself did. She was in every breath of water her people took, and in every current they swam in. She felt them, heard them, and even smelled them at all moments. There was no privacy and, if she willed it, she could kill any of them in an instant.

 

Anyone could be slain with a thought on her end. She could simply increase the water pressure around them, selectively, until they burst into red mist. Or, if hungry as she often was, she could simply digest them on the spot. The sea was an extension of her power and being. All in it belonged to her divine self.

 

Of course, Alurel herself was huge. She never stopped growing, though she did slow it down. Her tentacles spanned over the entire world. The thick, looming limbs served as borders of sorts between areas of her queendom. They were lined with her eyes too, of course, and those eyes were the biggest. The tentacles moved still of course, often to permit her people passage about without them needing to do the effortful task of swimming above the limbs’ bulks. Every motion of them sent ripples throughout the sea, though, and her people often dreaded when she moved her gigantic body about.

 

True to her word, she brought much of what the land had to offer down to her new world. The continents that used to be on land were all tugged down to the depths, but they were there and retained much of their hills and mountains.

 

There were trees underwater now, and many sprouted fruit. Entire underwater forests where the sea urchins and anemones were interspersed between berry bushes, flowers, and cherry trees. Of course, that life needed to be changed to adapt too. There were cherries, yes, but they were misshapen, bulbous: bigger and sweeter. That was fine, as Alurel enjoyed them just as well that way.

 

People lived in a variety of settlements. The seafolk expanded as the ocean became all encompassing about the world. The gilledfolk were actually able to rebuild some of the land cities underwater from the debris and wreckage resulting from the Drowning Day. New homes were always being built, too.

 

Of course, the most lauded, protected, and exclusive city was Atlantis itself. Alurel considered it her home, even though the city, now out of its protective bubble, rested beneath her rather than she in it. Its pearl-stone and golden edifices were the source of envy for the gilledfolk, who typically weren’t allowed to live there, even as that city expanded.

Every day, sacrifices were gathered from across the undersea globe and fed to Alurel near that city. It was a daily ritual of supremacy and indulgence. The offerings, mostly gilledfolk, were set upon a sleek black-stone ‘plate’ just outside Atlantis. It was so massive, that Alurel had to make it herself. She could change anything in her waters, after all.

 

Once many thousands of morsels stepped on it, she brought it up to her mouth. So large was Alurel that her open mouth was all the offerings could see. Her light still glowed bright, brighter than the shimmering Atlantis itself. They saw the light of her mouth and throat as she swallowed people whole en masse, every day.

 

Alurel didn’t actually need to eat anymore, but it was an indulgence she enjoyed.

 

The giant great merfolk were considered the elites of her society. They tended to her personally, massaging the expanse of her fair-skinned upper body and her many tentacles. They transformed to carry her eyes upon their bodies, which they considered a great honor.

 

The great mermaids also brought to Alurel the most beautiful people of her realm, two dozen twice a week, of which Alurel would select a subset of to toy with more intimately. It was another ritual of hers. Those chosen were worthy of joining her body much as Ethan did, and as many, many others had done since then.

 

They were gulped down whole, and Alurel’s body brought those lucky seafolk to her treasure stomach. They fused into the walls, absorbed, and became like pleasure batteries to her. Her treasure-stomach teemed with these living treasures of hers.

 

Though she devoured swaths of her own people, it mattered not. Her queendom was always growing in population and territory. The sea levels only ever rose. Alurel’s powers grew with her. In the Trident, the power only had so much space, but Alurel was a much more suitable wielder of such power than a rigid artifact. She could always expand her form after all.

 

Her power expanded to the point where she sensed not just everything about her own world’s ocean, but bits and tidbits of oceans far away. She sensed seas of other worlds. She was able to call to them, manipulate them subtly.

It always started slowly. She would whisper from the waters of these distant worlds, urging the mortals listening to increase her connection to their worlds in different ways. Sometimes, she had entire cults worshiping her name before she opened the first portal there. Other times, she was ignored, or even reviled.

 

It didn't matter, fast or slow, she inevitably built a strong enough connection to distant waters to open a portal. None could stop her once she sensed another world to dissolve into her queendom. With the portals, she reached in with tentacles of hers, helping to drag other worlds into her own.

 

One could tell when a new portal was opened, as her delighted invariably giggle echoed across her entire domain. It meant an expansion of her world: the planet essentially a giant sphere of water with some undersea ground as seafloor. The seas from other worlds flooded in, greatly expanding her domain.

 

It also meant more terrain, more features and more people. If the denizens of the claimed realms were already aquatic, they stayed as is. Otherwise, they were changed much as the humans were, though never exactly. They usually became more of the mortal gilledfolk which made up the most populous and expendable of her queendom’s citizens.

 

“Come welcome our new treasures!”, she would say as she finished engulfing another realm into her own.

 

With Alurel’s powers, she knew that one day all of existence would be hers. Every day that passed, she felt her powers growing. Her body always grew so that her tentacles could stretch across the globe. Her domain, too, grew with time.

 

There was always some new people to bring into her rule, to treasure. All in her domain, living or no, was a treasure to her.

 

Alurel viewed those not in her domain as simply those soon to be, and she always kept her powers scrying for any more treasures to collect.

 

Alurel did so love her collection.

 

Fin