Atlantia nodded in satisfaction. The mer slaves were doing just fine, even better now that the Emperor decided to give the slaves extra food. Sure, it was mostly rotten food, leftovers from the ever moving Sharkanians who could not make up their mind in where to live. The empire was thriving at its best, and Empress Orluiowa and the entire Dark Empire couldn't possibly be happier. It also happened to be the Name Day of Empress Orluiowa and Atlantia, named after two of their four aunts.
Ursula, Morgana, Eli, and Nok were enthusiastic and brimming with ideas for gifts. Yes, the reserved sisters Atlantia and Orluiowa never celebrated their birthdays. They chose not to, deciding the good thriving in their Empire was enough of a celebration.
"Do you think a new spear would be ok?", Morgana asked.
"She has thousands. Perhaps new armor. The one she wears is starting to wear down." Ursula said.
"Which piece? That lady is armed to the teeth. Literally. I saw her take out this arched bone thing from behind her teeth.", exclaimed Eli.
"The arm piece connected to her collarbone. We could make it out of bone and carve out some sweet design.", Ursula said, laughing.
"This is why we don't procrastinate.", Morgana said.
"We look for a good bone piece? It should be made of a whale and decorated with Puffer fish spikes." , suggested Eli.
"Sounds good." Ursula turned around, heading out towards the back exit of the Empire.
As the trio swam to the location of the puffer fish, which was higher up in the reefs, they devised a plan to catch a fish. It was simple.
"I'll catch the fish and you guys can inflate him."
Ursula said.
"Wouldn't it be easier to inflate the fish and then catch him? Those things get stressed out pretty fast." Morgana said.
"I told you. He'll see us and puff up, he will get scared, and it will be impossible to catch him." Ursula scowled.
"But the fish could die from all the stress-", Morgana argued.
"Do I get any say in this?", Eli asked.
"No.", Ursula said as she ignored Morgana and swam towards the puffer fish. The fish, of course, inflated and stabbed Ursula's arm. Ursula scowled in annoyance.
"I told you!" Both Morgana and Ursula exclaimed in unison.
Eli sighed at the two sisters and swam towards Ursula to help her.
"No, I got this.", Ursula scowled, waving him off.
Eli glared at her stubbornness. Then he grinned as she struggled to take it off. Eli swam towards both of them, a flirty grin on his face.
"I told you!", Ursula spat, " I DONT need he-"
Ursula froze as Eli puckered his mouth and leaned forward. The puffer fish inflated as a Eli blew into the fish, and the fish deflated.
Morgana began cackling.
"I cannot believe you just kissed a puffer fish!" Gasped Ursula, shocked.
"Yup.", Eli said, wiping his mouth. "Now it's your turn, love. Pucker up!" Eli spun Ursula in a circle and grinned, when Ursula snapped out of her daze and punched his gut.
Eli held his gut as he let go of a Ursula, letting her float off balance. As the bubbles around Ursula began to still, she laughed, saying,
"Pucker that!?"
Morgana laughed, hard, catching the fish carefully as he began to float down. Eli smiled weakly as he limped behind them towards deeper waters for whale bones.
"I found one!", called Morgana.
Ursula and Eli swam down to Morgana, who was holding a perfectly smooth and sturdy whale bone the size of a shark. Without wasting any time, the three friends dug out the large whale bone and set to carving it, using tools they stole from the Empire's armory. They shaved the edges and cut the bone smooth, carving out a small hollow space for her arm, and then set on making the shoulder and collarbone part. They did this by heating the bone up and then carefully bending it and cutting the bone on the inside for the shoulder place and the collarbone.
"We need something to bind the whole thing together!", Morgana said, her face.
"Let's get some squid skin!", Ursula said.
"They are difficult to catch and expensive.", Morgana said warily.
"That's why we will catch it. We have Atlantia's best guard.", Ursula said.
Eli scratched the back of his head.
"I've never caught a squid before..."
"There's a first for everything, isn't there?", Ursula smirked.
Eli held his spear steady, hoping a squid would miraculously pop out. As luck would have it, just that happened.
Eli threw the spear, and it hit the squid right through his head. Eli victoriously swam towards Ursula holding the squid.
Ursula inspected the squid, then said,
"Perfect. Now we just have to skin it and merge its pen with the bone pieces, and fill in the hollow spaces with the skin, carve designs, and put in the spikes." Ursula said cheerfully.
"Sounds easier than it is." Eli said, observing all the tools and things laid out on the sand. He shrugged, and got to work, dismembering the fish, and Ursula the squid, while Morgana carved the designs.
Eli saved the puffer fish's liver and eyes, which was loaded with poison and could be used for potions and weapons. Ursula stripped the flesh off the squid, and set on extracting its pen, which was bendy and flexible and was to be used for the elbow, neck and shoulder. Morgana finished the design, which was several dark strands that resembled tentacles.
Ursula merged the pen and bone, which she did by slathering on a concoction used to melt the faces of prisoners as a way of extracting information, for the bone, heating it up and pushing the pen against the bone. She shoved a hooked bone piece into little holes to help make the merging sturdier. Ursula struggled with the last one, breaking her nail and cursing, but got the hooked piece in perfectly.
Eli inserted the spikes into the hot bone, putting the spiked part facing toward the wrist.
Ursula cut the dark squid skin the right size, which was dark with indigo and cyan spots from its fleshy trunk, and merged it with bone. She mixed the ink with the dust of a kraken's body, and pressed the pasty mixture onto the whole armor part to preserve it for a long, long time.
The three friends stepped back to admire their handy work after they had peeled off the mixture and saved it.
They packed up the armor and carried it over to Nok's room, where he waited for them with a special bag made of dark scales individually pressed together, made by Nok. The four friends dumped the armor in the bag, and headed out to find the commander of the army.
Atlantia tried it on, hiding her excitement. It was impressive and fit perfectly. The squid skin was comfortable against her arm and shoulder, and she could easily move her neck, shoulder, and elbow thanks to the pen. The designs were beautiful as well, and Atlantia could just make out her name cleverly hidden behind the trailing tentacles. It was sturdy, but not too heavy. Her wrist could move freely and felt no discomfort. It wasn't shiny in the least, the bone could blend perfectly with its surroundings without drawing attention, and the tentacles perhaps could camouflage well with the plants. And the bag, well, it fit in perfectly with her body with no nuisance as most bags did, and could blend easily as well, not to mention it was beautiful.
Atlantia looked up at last and said,
"I appreciate it. These will work very well with my job as commander of the army. It is obvious how much work you four put into creating these. They're impressive and comfortable. They are also beautiful, the designs and spikes, the skin, the scale bag.... thank you. I have not received a gift since the one my father gifted me. I will guard them well. Or... they will guard themselves well."
Atlantia allowed the humor in her voice, being careful to not make it sound nice. She nodded at the four, and turned around and left.
As soon as she was out of sight, they turned around and fist bumped each other in victory.
"She loved it!" They all exclaimed.
She even made a joke... Nok said, his bubbles flurrying with energy.
The friends decided to head towards Biv's in celebration, except Nok, who had other duties. And soon enough, they were chugging turtle bombs and squid, biscuits and things they couldn't name. They were passing out in a corner with some other old cecaelia whose wife kicked him out, and he joined the fray, even in his clueless state.
"Well.... (Hiccup) looks like little princuss needs a ride back home! Let me assist you, yer purpleness.(Hiccup)", the cecaelia said, tripping towards Ursula. He crashed into the wall and smashed his head on Ursula's. Eli looked up from the other corner, standing up to go punch the guy, tripping over Morgana's passed out body.
"Listen here, mate.(Hiccup). The lady's mine. Get off her." Eli growled, his sight blurry.
"Surry mate, I smashed my (Hiccup) rump into a wall and smashed into yer lady.", the drunk guy slurred
"Aye. I gotchu mate. The pretty sassy (Hiccup) lady is mine some (Hiccup) day. Surry, but get off her, hm?" Eli slurred back.
Unfortunately, the guy understood, " pretty sassy" as Prissy, which was his wife's name.
"Listen here, mate. Don't ye go messin' round with my Prissy, she's MY lady. (Hiccup) come here mate and be a man!( Hiccup)." The guy pushed Ursula away and drew up his fists.
Unfortunately, Eli understood, "Prissy, she's my lady", as, pretty sassy, she's my lady.
"Curse you, she's mine! Pretty sassy lady, she mine...", Eli slurred angrily. He threw a punch at the drunken guy, who ducked too far and smacked his face against the ground.
Ursula looked up groggily and half-spat, half-slurred,
"Ain't I be NO ONES!(Hiccup)"
She turned around to leave, but smashed into the wall so hard she finally passed out.
"URSU(Hiccup)LA", Eli screamed.
He swam towards Ursula, pushing the guy out of the way, who in turn got to where Ursula was and pushed her out of the way, who in his drunken state thought it was his Prissy. Eli took the guy in his arms.
"Ursula! Ursula are you(Hiccup) ok? " Eli gasped.
"Well... terrible, my wife just done right kicked me out..." the guy slurred.
Eli only heard, "terrible".
"I'm so sorry Ursula!(Hiccup) I promise I will do anything to take away your(Hiccup) terribleness. I will do it because I(Hiccup) love you and I want to grow old with you and marry you and have lots of boys, we'll name them all Ursula and Eli. ", Eli began sobbing uncontrollably as he spoke of his dreams, confusing the guy, whom he just held tighter, looking into his forehead intensely.
"Do you love me too? I know you said no but we could get married tomorrow and run away, where we can looks at the stars and(Hiccup) have a little house with puffer fishes and your creepy eels. What do you say, Ursula, will you marry me?", Eli asked, thinking he was holding his breath where really he was hiccuping.
The guy was perplexed.
"Well...(Hiccup) ye see mate, I'm married...", he slurred.
"Didn't she(Hiccup) kick you out?" Eli asked, confused. Eli's vision cleared slightly, and he realized that he was holding a terrified guy at the verge of passing out. Eli let go of him, mortified and confused, when he leaned his head towards Ursula too far and hit his head on the same wall, and passed out above her head, which was facedown into the sand.