Procedures and Successors

For such a large place, gossip travels around quickly in the ocean. Everyday gossip didn’t get very far; nobody in the South Pacific wanted to know if the North Pacific’s local fortune teller recently had an affair with a land-dwelling man. But the big news spread like wildfire, not that they had wildfires underwater.

So it was known in under an hour by every mermaid that lived underwater about the Indian Ocean’s current calamity.

“Princess Merle!” the violet haired mermaid messenger shouted, bowing deeply before the Antarctic Princess “I have urgent news from the Indian…!”

“No need, Primula” Princess Merle sighed, motioning to another mermaid with a winged helmet to her right “Nellie, here, just told me the news” she finished, her face looking as gloomy as it had since Primula entered the room. Primula blushed and swam out of the grand hall, sending a look of deep loathing at Nellie, who just smirked.

“Nellie, please don’t” Merle sighed, making Nellie’s face fall.

“Sorry, your highness” Nellie said, also making her way out of the room. Merle didn’t seem to care that her throne hall, usually filled with messengers, servants and other girls, laughing along with Merle herself, seemed to be filled with a melancholy and quiet atmosphere.

“Saffron…” Merle sighed inside her head “…we all warned you”. Images flashed inside her head of the late Orange Princess, and her human lover. They had all warned the girl that it would only lead to misery.

“And look where she is now” Merle continued to think glumly, getting up to look at herself in the mirrors lining the sides of the hall “dead”. Merle usually liked her reflection, but it was always better when Saffron would be looking back at her too, smiling and complimenting on how silky and curly Merle’s thistle-shaded hair was, and how mysterious and captivating her deep, almost black, indigo eyes were. Now those eyes were welling up with tears, still floating around in the water as Merle collapsed on the floor, sobbing.

“Suicide, Saffron!” Merle wailed, looking at herself through her fingers in the mirror, looking somewhat deranged “Suicide, of all things!”
“I heard that her will said that she wanted to be buried on land” a finely dressed mermaid said, a mere week after Saffron’s supposed suicide. The mermaid next to her nodded nonchalantly while twirling her golden blonde ringlets with her finger, pretending to be listening.

“Yukana! This is a meeting! Please pay attention!” another, orchid pink haired mermaid cried, eyeing the daydreaming Yukana. Yukana slowly turned her head to face the North Pacific princess, and merely nodded. June, the North Pacific princess, sighed irritably.

“Anyway, Aliss makes a fine point; she does want to be buried on land, in her husband’s house” June said, with unexpected authority for one of the youngest of the mermaid princesses. It had caused a bunch of sniggers at the beginning of the meeting from the other princesses, but they all took her seriously when they realised how hard the loss of June’s sister figure had been on her.

“Well, we’ll do what she wishes, right?” Merle asked, leaning on top of the table. June bit her lip.

“Well, I don’t know…!”

“Why shouldn’t we?” Merle shouted, cutting through June’s response.

“Merle, calm down…the problem is…that her husband was what led her to her death…” Kelia, a pale blue-haired mermaid, said grimly, grabbing Merle’s shoulder. Merle glared at June and sat down.

“Well, I’m sorry for having my own opinion!” Merle hissed quietly, making Kelia grip her shoulder tighter, sternly whispering “Sis…”

“Anyway…” June continued “Her husband’s constant isolation from her and his occasional mental abuse made her commit suicide. I say we should vote on the way she’ll be put to rest. All who say she should be buried on land stand up”

Sahori, the aqua tailed princess, Merle, Yukana and Kelia stood up.

“Why do you guys think that?” Aliss, the finely dressed green mermaid, sighed “The man did ignore and abuse her…we really should be buried in a prettier place”. June nodded in agreement. The other four stared them down, daring them to object to them, and the fact that they out number the other two. Aliss sighed and sat up straighter in her chair, while June glared and in took a sharp breath.

“Fine! We’ll all go up on land tomorrow for the funeral! Just honour Saffron twice as much as we do, making her stay in that man’s house!” June screamed, bolting out of the room. The remaining five stared after her, feeling slightly guilty, but knowing they did the right choice. All June would have wanted to do will be burying Saffron in her kingdom, keeping the woman all to herself.
The funeral, much to June annoyance, was a great success. Saffron’s husband was crying twice as hard as everyone else and was ranting about how he felt insanely guilty for her demise, redeeming himself in the princess’s eyes. His house wasn’t a dump like they all imagined it; it was a grand mansion with a beautiful garden in the back, with a small grotto for Saffron’s grave. They all got to meet Saffron’s friends from land, and they all had a wonderful time. Atleast, as wonderful as a funeral can get.

But June disliked all of it.

“She was my big sister” she though angrily, hopping into one of the beds in the guest rooms of the mansion “Why do so many other people have to like her as well…sharing is so stupid!” the selfish thoughts continued until her sleep, melting into a strangely pleasant dream.

June was floating in nothingness. The area around her was composed of an endless ocean, and an endless sky. The world seemed so empty, but so full. In the middle, an orange orb floated above her, a dark orange haired girl sitting inside it, waiting for June to sit up.

“Saffron?” June asked, standing up to face the girl at eye level, and finding herself standing on the water.

“No…” the girl sighed. June noted that she looked incredibly different from her dear Saffron “I’m Sara… the new Orange Princess”

June blinked a couple of times. She knew this wasn’t only a dream, as she had given this kind of message to Yukana.

“Oh…when will you be born?” June asked, leaning in closer. Sara smiled and winked.

“As soon as you get back to the kingdom with Saffie’s pearl!”

June blinked, and the world of endless skies and seas dissolved into the mansion’s guest room.

“Yukana! Yukana!” June exclaimed, running over to the snoring girls bed. Yukana snapped awake instantly and sat up, albeit looking drowsy.

“June, what is it?” Yukana asked, rubbing her eyes.

“Sara! Sara needs her pearl!”

“Juney, dear, please make sense” Yukana yawned, looking slightly more awake than before. June sighed nosily and pulled Yukana out of bed.

“Yuka, you know the dream I gave you when Elena died and I replaced her?”

“Yes, I do”

“I just got one from Sara! Saffron’s replacement!”
“She’s just gorgeous, she really is” Merle sighed in delight, leaning against the windowsill. Sahori smiled at Merle and Kelia hung an arm around Merle’s shoulders.

“I know…Sara’s sweet” Kelia smiled. Sahori nodded, looking out over the garden, occupied by Sara, June and Yukana, playing underwater tag. Aliss was standing a bit away from the playing trio, smiling, but making sure her lacy dress wouldn’t get dirty from the sand Sara kept kicking up with her tail.

“She’s kinda dopey, though…” Sahori laughed “She’s asked me thirty times what a princess is…it’d be cute if she didn’t do it so much!”

“She’s not that dopey…you were just as bad, Hori!” Merle sighed. Down below, Sara was begging Aliss to join in, having no luck whatsoever. She then swam off to June and Yukana, teary eyed.

“Awww, she’s just the cutest!” Merle squealed. Sara looked up at her palace, noticing Sahori, Merle and Kelia. Her tears instantly disappeared and her face brightened up, as she waved madly, as to beckon them to play. June seemed to disapprove of her want of the inclusion of the older mermaids.

“She’s so selfish!” Sahori huffed, noticing June steer Sara away from the three.

“You’ll get used to it, Hori” Kelia sighed, smiling slightly as Aliss gave in and joined the game, as if to just piss June off.

“I’m tired, I’m going back to my room…” Merle sighed, turning around “It’s been a long day”

“I’ll come too, Merle-nee” Kelia chanted, joining her elder sister. Sahori snorted and sat on the windowsill.

“Fine, fine, just leave me all alone!” She called out jokingly, turning around to watch the now intense game of tag.
“Hime, are you well?” a deep and sultry voice asked. Sara turned to her fair-haired lover, nodding.

“I was just…thinking” she sighed.

“About what, my dear?” Gaito asked, looking less concerned than before.

“Them” Sara replied simply, sounding melancholy. Gaito’s brow furrowed.

“If you’re thinking of your fellow princesses, Hime, I say that there’s no need to waste time on…” Gaito started, but was cut off by Sara’s hand held up in front of his face.

“Not them…” Sara sighed, fleetingly thinking back to the memories that had just been playing in her head “The ones I’m thinking about are dead now”. Gaito looked confused at her vague responses.

“Dear Hime, don’t dwell in the past, live in the…”

“Gaito, please don’t…” Sara sighed sharply, sending a bit of a glare at Gaito “These people are…”

“I understand, Hime” Gaito said, standing up “I’ll leave you to it”. With that, he swiftly left the room. Sara stared after him, her eyes sliding out of focus, instead dwelling on the memory of her first birthday as a princess, all of the other princesses surrounding her with hugs, forgetting their differences and disagreements just for her.

“These people are…” Sara whispered, her voice breaking into a sob, tears rolling down her bronzed face “…my only friends”.