Aalto Calder - Crown Prince

"Are you even listening to me right now?!"

Aalto flinched, looking up lazily.

"Huh? No." He sighed, shifting in the throne so he was sitting in it sideways, his head hanging off the armrest.

"Aalto! You need to start paying more attention!" Proteus sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Look, you're one of the prince's! You need to act like it more. Stop fooling around."

"'Blah blah blah I'm so important blah blah boring politics.' That's all I heard from your mouth." Aalto smirked, tossing a grape from the fruit bowl next to his head at Proteus. It hit Proteus's head and bounced off.

Proteus clenched his fists, a vein appearing in his forehead. "Aalto... go to your room. Until you learn to act more mature."

Aalto sat up, frowning. "You're my brother. Not my father. You can't order me around."

"I am going to be king. And I am older. I very well can order you around."

"Ugh. Fine." Aalto got up from the throne, drifting past Proteus. "But I'm going because I want to. Not because you told me to."

Proteus rolled his eyes. "Whatever you say."

Aalto drifted through the halls of the palace, his tail flicking and leaving a trail of bubbles. Stupid Proteus. Always so high and mighty. Just because he was the oldest didn't mean he was that great.

Huffing to himself, Aalto opened the door to his room and moved inside. He sat down heavily his bed, silk sheets in a clam shaped frame, and pouted. Stupid Proteus. Stupid rules. Stupid everything.

Aalto let out a mix of a groan and screech, falling flat on his back.

Ugh. Everything hurts. He thought dimly, closing his eyes. What he needed was a break. A chance to get away.

Maybe even...

A wicked smile spread across Aalto's face. Yeah. That would show Proteus he couldn't order Aalto around.

Aalto got up and drifted to his window, peering outside. His room was three storeys up from the ground, and below were some guards drifting aimlessly. A few fish swam by his window.

He slid open the window, pushing himself out and swimming away from the palace, using his tail to propel himself forward quickly. He swam upwards, towards the light of the surface.

Aalto's plan? Running away.

And not just running away like how he always did as a child. No, running away for real.

Back then it would always just be to some inn in the city, or a friends house. Now? Now he was going to go somewhere he was especially not allowed.

The mortal world. The place filled with creatures known as "humans". Every merfolk when they were a child was told stories about them, depicting humans as cruel monsters. Mothers also frequently used them as a threat; "Do your work or the humans will come for you!".

Of course, once the child grew up it became less effective. After all, who would believe there would be such creatures who would kill merfolk on sight, or do worse things to them? Or that there would be creatures without a tail? No one. Definitely just a myth used to scare the kids into being good.

But Aalto didn't believe it. Sure, he knew there was a world above the ocean. A world filled with land-walkers. But Aalto seriously doubted any of them were harmful.

However, that didn't mean he couldn't freak out everyone by making them think he had run away to the land-walkers kingdom.

Aalto looked upwards. He was almost at the surface, and he could see the sun shining brightly when-

A cascade of swirling bubbles. A dark shape. Falling towards him.

What? It didn't look like any merfolk Aalto knew. Their body was weird and they didn't have a tail. Instead they had two things that looked ugly and useless. Frowning, Aalto swam up towards them, examining their face.

Their eyes were closed, bubbles slipping past their lips. Suddenly, in a flash of realisation, Aalto knew what they were.

A human. Something he had only heard about in tales. And if that was true, that meant that these... he glanced at the two things. Legs. Right.

Smiling to himself, Aalto took them in his arms. This would piss Proteus off even better then him running away! If Aalto showed up with a pet human...

Aalto laughed deviously as he imagined the chaos that would no doubt follow.

He was about to start swimming down when he remembered something from one of the descriptions about humans. They couldn't breathe underwater. And if they went too far down, the pressure would kill them.

Aalto look at the being in his hands. How weak and pathetic. Almost pitiful really. If he wanted to show them off, there was only one option. He leaned down, pressing his mouth to theirs, breathing air into their mouth. As he did so, he slid one of the pearl bracelets off his hand, moving it to theirs.

Wearing the bracelet, and after getting some of his breath, they would be able to breathe underwater as well as survive among the merfolk thanks to the bracelet.

This will be fun. Aalto thought as he swam down with them clutched tightly in his arms.

----------

Aalto sighed for the millionth time, watching their motionless form. How long had they been like that? So boring.

He groaned, rolling onto his back. He had brought them to his secret hideout, a cave set into an ocean cliff with a sandy bottom. Aalto had set them down on a rock ledge, and spent what felt like forever watching them. All they did was twitch occasionally.

Borringg.

He turned to face them again, drifting over to the ledge they lay on. He reached out and flicked their face gently. "Hey. Wake up."

Nothing.

"Hello-o?" He said into their ear.

Nada.

"Are all humans this... dull?" Aalto grumbled, swimming around them. "Or did I just get unlucky?"

"Wake up. Wake up. Wake up." Aalto mumbled, poking them in the cheek repeatedly.

His eyes lit up as he saw them stir, eyes opening. Aalto quickly drew himself up to his full height, hoping to scare them a bit.

"Greetings human! My name is Aalto Calder, prince of Atlantis. You have been lucky enough to be found by me!"

He grinned, arms crossed as he waited for their reaction. Surely any human would be shocked to see a piece of art like him.