MineLantis
The King's Castle
The Castle. King Xavier's Castle. A place that symbolizes MineLantis' strength and pride. A place of beauty. Glory. Honor. It's architecture was nothing short of amazing and beautiful, besides the broken floor-to-ceiling windows, holes in the arched ceiling and the walls. Chains dangled down from the ceiling, with bright sea lanterns hanging at the bottom of the chains.
The sea lanterns' light gave off enough light for everyone to see where they were going. Copper beams went fron one side of the wall to the other just below the ceiling. Only, the copper wasn't its normal reddish-brown color. Instead, the color of the copper was a bright teal color, with rust visible on its surface.
As Daniel, Darron, Calvin, and Borris continued on their way down the corridor to King Xavier's Throne Room, Daniel took in the spectacular beauty of what the Castle had to offer. He did, however, wonder why the copper had aged and rusted. There were clear signs of a battle. The broken windows, the holes in the ceilng and walls. What happened to MineLantis? Was it once a thriving Kingdom up on land? Daniel could only theorize.
"Calvin," Daniel said, "what happened here? There's clear signs of a battle here. The damage to the wall surrounding the Kingdom, the destroyed buildings outside, the damage to the Castle. What was MineLantis like before ending up at the bottom of the ocean?"
"MineLantis has always been a Kingdom of the Sea, nothing more. Nothing less," Calvin responded as he glanced over at Borris and stared at him. Borris stared back at Calvin. Borris slightly shook his head, enough to make Calvin notice, but not Daniel or Darron. They were hiding something. What was it?
"I know this isn't my place to speak. Heck, I just found out about MineLantis this morning, but I'm just curious to know more. You and Borris saved our lives. You both appeared out of nowhere, almost as if you knew we were in grave danger. How is that possible?"
Calvin shrugged his shoulders as he looked back over his left shoulder and over at Daniel. "There's things we can't tell you. In order to preserve remaining hidden from the rest of the OverWorld, secrets must be kept."
Daniel crossed his arms and huffed and puffed. If one thing was certain it was that he didn't like secrets or even keeping secrets. In his defense, being more open about things was key to a good relationship with friends and other blockheads. That's one aspect he thought was extremely important while he ruled over the Kingdom of the Plains awhile back.
"I think Darron and I deserve to know more," Daniel mentioned, "its not like we're going to tell anyone else where MineLantis is located. That's now how I operate. Keeping secrets was never one of my things, but to protect the existence of MineLantis, I guess I'll have to adapt, now won't I?"
Borris and Calvin both turned around to face Daniel and Darron. Calvin sighed once more as he glanced down at the rotting oak wooden floor. He slowly shook his head from side to side and then scoffed. When he lifted his head to look back at Daniel, he responded to him.
"The King, ever since that fateful day, has forbade any MineLantians from ever talking about that day," Calvin began to explain. "He's not the only one who wishes to forget about what happened. If you were to aks anyone else here, you'd get the same answer I just gave you."
"MineLantis wasn't always an underwater Kingdom, was it?" Daniel asked as he stared over at Calvin and Borris. "MineLantis was never always beneath the surface, no. It was once a thriving Kingdom on land, wasn't it?" Daniel continued on to ask.
Calvin and Borris exhaled heavily. Why was Daniel being so persistent on talking about MineLantis' past? What was so important about MineLantis' past? Why was he insisting on trying to find out?
"You're not going to get the answers you seek. The questions and curiosity you have won't get you anywhere further," Calvin explained, "my apologies for being rude, but can we just not talk about this? Borris and I would like that very much."
Daniel raised his hands up into the air as he backed away from Calvin and Borris. He had just realized that he had overstepped his boundaries limit. By the facial expressions on their face, he knew that they were annoyed and somewhat upset.
"Whatever happened here must've been brutal," Daniel said, "and I apologize for being rude as well in advance to what I'm about to say. You can't hide the truth forever you know. Especially not from me. I'll find my answers sooner or later. Just you wait and see."
"We can't stop you from doing what you must," Calvin said, "more power to you. Just know I wish you luck with finding answers. It's not going to be easy."
Daniel grinned and sighed. "I like a difficult challenge every now and then," he responded.
Calvin and Borris looked at one another. Daniel and Darron too. There was an awkward silence amongst them. Interrupting the strange moment of silence was a loud and shouty voice. The shouting voice was coming from King Xavier's Throne Room. Everyone turned their heads to look over at the entryway into the Throne Room.
"Well don't just float around," King Xavier shouted, "come into the Throne Room," he continued.
Calvin and Borris both glanced over at Daniel and Darron. Their posture and seriousness was duly noted by Daniel and Darron both.
"Just let us do the talking, okay?" Calvin said as he turned around and swam over to the entryway to the Throne Room. Borris, Daniel, and Darron all followed him.
As they entered the Throne Room, Daniel began looking around at everything. This Throne Room was huge and big compared to Daniel's one.
Tall quartz support column lined the center aisle. Toward the bottom of the column were cages. The cages at the bottom of them were empty surprisingly, but why were they there in the first place? How are the cages supporting the column' significant weight? Shouldn't they crushed and flattened? How was something like that possible?
Up on the ceiling were many, many holes that ranged in size from small to big. There were three floor-to-ceiling windows behind King Xavier's throne chair. One of the windows was fully smashed, while the two other ones were severely cracked. This was more damage that Daniel had noticed. He again made note of his findings.
"My King," Calvin said in a semi-loud voice as he bowed down before King Xavier. Darron, Daniel, and Borris all bowed briefly as well. Once they four of them stopped bowing, they all looked back up at King Xavier. "We've returned to ask a favor of you," Calvin stated.
King Xavier began tapping his chin with his hand, still making perfect eye-contact with the four of them. There were two guards. They were standing on each side of him. The guards' armor was shiny and bright. The armor they were wearing was made out of gold, except for their helmets and boots. The boots and helmets were made out of emeralds. One guard held his trident in his right hand, while the other held his in his left hand.
"What's the favor?" King Xavier asked Calvin. "Is this about the Sirens again?"
Calvin briefly looked around at Daniel, Darron, and Borris. After he did that, he glanced back over to King Xavier. How did he know that? Everyone wondered, especially Calvin, as to how he knew what they were going to tell King Xavier. That was a bit odd.
"Uh--uh yeah," Calvin stuttered back, "how'd you know?"
King Xavier faintly smiled back down at Calvin.
"I have eyes and ears everywhere," he answered, "having eyes and dears everywhere is key to our continued existence. If we didn't have eyes and ears everywhere, how would we know when a threat is imminent?"
As Calvin and King Xavier continued talking back and forth, Daniel and Darron stood in complete silence. Borris was standing on Calvin's left, while Darron and Daniel stood to his right. As Daniel continued staring at the King, he noticed something wasn't quite right about King Xavier. As he continued thinking mentally and silently to himself, he saw what had seemed like shiny scales on the King's arms and legs. Because he was wearing white gloves over his hands, Daniel couldn't tell if there were scales on his hands. Slowly, however, he began connecting the dots as to what was going on.
Then it hit him. This was no King. Those weren't guards. Instead, these were imposters disguised as the fake King and two guards. If they were impersonating their false identities, than where was the real King Xavier and guards?
"The favor we came here with was to ask you to lend us some support," Calvin explained.
"Support for...what?" King Xavier responded.
"A battle," Calvin answered, "I know we're asking a lot of you, but is there anything you can do?"
King Xavier looked over at a small pile of broken quartz that were on the floor. He tapped his chin in the process of doing that. When he glanced back at everyone else, he stopped tapping his chin.
"I don't see why we can't help you all," King Xavier responded, "consider your request approved. I'll give you all the help you guys need. But in return, all I ask is that you finish them off for good. Think you can do that?"
Everyone nodded their heads all together, acknowledging King Xavier's response. He looked down at the four of them and smiled faintly.
"We won't let you down, my King," Calvin responded as he turned around and began swimming back down the center aisle and towards the doorway leading back out into the hallway. Daniel, Darron, and Borris all followed close behind him. They all left the Throne Room in a hurry. Time was precious and short supplied. Daniel, Darron, Borris, and Calvin all knew that time was quickly running out.
None of them knew when the Sirens would strike again. It could happen anywhere and at any time. King Xavier and his two guards waited for the four of them to be out of sight. And once they were, King Xavier turned around to look at his two guards. He sighed.
"That wasn't as hard as I thought it was," he told his two guards, "I can't believe we fooled those suckers with these diguises. They bout our illusion. How about that?"
As he began shaking his head back and forth, he began turning back into his true form...a Siren. But the Siren that was impersonating King Xavier was named Maureen. She was a female Siren. The other Sirens that were accompanying her were named Beth and Trixie.
"Oh boy, am I glad that that's over," Trixie mentioned.
"Me too," Beth said, "I didn't know how much longer I could hold that form."
"Well thankfully you didn't have to," Maureen stated. "We had those fools suckered."
Daniel, Darron, Calvin, and Borris were all standing up against the cobblestone wall. They overheard everything that was being said. From "being fooled" and to revealing themselves. Daniel looked over at Borris, Darron, and Calvin.
"What's going on?" Daniel asked.
"From the sounds of it, Sirens had somehow managed to infiltrate MineLantis undetected, but how? I'm not sure. What I do know is that we need to be ready."
"Ready for what?" Darron asked.
"For an attack on MineLantis," Calvin whispered back to Daniel, "we must hurry, but first we need to make a quick pitstop downstairs. In the Treasury Room, there's an ancient and powerful trident. Forged by the hands of our ancestors before us, it still remains valuable to the Kingdom. To sum things up, if that trident falls into the Sirens' hands, MineLantis is doomed."
Why's that?" Daniel questioned.
Calvin turned around to look over at Daniel. He was frowning noticeably.
"Because if they do get ahold of that Trident, they'll command the sea. Not only will they have complete control of the ocean, but they'll also order animals to do what they want them to. They'll practically be unstoppable."
"Then why are we standing around then?" Daniel questioned, "let's go fight for MineLantis and defeat those pesky Sirens. For MineLantis, for the OverWorld. We can do it! I know we can."