Episode 109: The Ocean Ruins

Nea, Lulu and their friends, with the help of a mermaid, swim to the depths of the ocean to find the ancient ruins and use the crystals to heal the water. 

Transcript

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Episode 9: The Ocean Ruins

Once upon a time in the land of Atheria, there was a princess Nea and a princess Lulu and they went on the most amazing adventures. They had just found both of the keepers of the Aquarian Crystals and now needed to find the inventor who could help them return them to the water temple. The keeper of the blue crystal was Prince Paul and the keeper of the purple crystal was a very smart and nice female ogre named O’Lah.  

Now, the inventor had told them that once they found the crystals, he knew of someone who could show them where to take them. Once all the party was together, Princess Nea, Princess Lulu, Prince Paul and O’Lah, and the inventor could see that both the keepers of the Aquarian Crystals were there, he shared that they would need to head to the edge of the water, to Tortura Cove. 

So the very next morning, they set out early - Princess Nea, Princess Lulu, Prince Paul, O’Lah, and the inventor – who happened to bring a very ornate walking stick with him. One with a large metal orb on the top of it. 

They hiked from Sparland Castle, across the plateau and off to Tortura Cove. As they were hiking towards the water. The inventor asked Princess Nea and Princess Lulu and the whole team if they'd ever met a mermaid before. To everyone’s surprise no one spoke up … except Prince Paul, who had in fact actually met a mermaid before, but he felt a little too embarrassed to speak up. But that story is for another time. 

Also, high above them, the hawk, Ryla, flew – keeping a close eye on the group. And Princess Nea and Princess Lulu started to feel like the bird was there to watch over them, to take care of them.  

When they got to the cove, where the water was calm, the inventor bent over and took out a metal key. He turned to the group and put his finger up to his lips.  

“Shhh.” He motioned. 

And then knocked the key against the metal orb of his walking stick. The metal clanking against metal made strong reverberating sound that he quickly dunked under the water. From below the water, the motion sent a cascade of ripples throughout the water – like a signal to the entire sea.  

And then the group waited. And then they waited some more. And once they were completely tired of waiting, they still waited. 

Until finally, out of the water came an older merman and young mermaid. The young mermaid with beautiful long hair and she had the most beautiful voice.  

The older merman reached out from the sea and shook the inventor’s hand.  

“It has been a long time, my friend.” He said. 

“Indeed it has.” Answered the inventor.  

“And what of Clara?” the merman asked. And to that the inventor’s face fell. 

“Oh! She is well, I’m sure.” He answered awkwardly. “But we are here because of them.” And said signaling the princesses, prince and the ogre.  

“I see. The time is coming fast upon us, is it not? And so soon. Which of you are the keepers?” 

The inventor nodded to Paul & O’Lah as if to say, “You can trust him.”  

They stepped forward. 

“And the crystals?” 

They pulled out their crystals, which were glowing quite powerfully, even in broad daylight.  

“Quite odd they would end up with land-dwellers, don’t you think?” and the merman looked up and made eye contact with the hawk flying in the air. “Do they know how to use them?” 

Before the inventor could answer, O’Lah jumped in – lifting her hand and creating a small wave of water appear. 

“That is good, but mere humans and ogres can’t reach the bottom of the sea on their own. Can you both them yet? Use them to manipulate space under the water and create for yourselves a way for us to lead you to the water temple? Or perhaps we have enchanted seaweed?” 

[Enchanted seaweed, by the way, is special seaweed in Atheria that allows air breathers to breath underwater, like a diver’s oxygen tank.] 

But to the merman’s comment, Prince Paul & O’Lah looked at each other, unsure. So he called them closer to the water. He began talking with them, this time in a low voice that Princess Nea & Princess Lulu couldn’t hear. Shortly thereafter both Prince Paul & O’Lah began stretching out their palms and shifting the water from the sea away from them and then closer. 

“And these two,” the merman looked up. “I assume they must go as well?”  

And the hawk, Ryla, from the air gave a loud cry of agreement.  

“And you, old friend?” he asked, addressing the inventor.  

“Not today, my work is done. These old bones have seen enough adventures for one lifetime. I never was one for the water.” 

“More interested in the dirt.” The merman responded with a wink.  

And with that Princess Nea & Princess Lulu stepped forward next to Prince Paul and O’Lah and the four of them began walking into the sea, where a bubble of air began to surrounded them until they were fully encased in air, walking and sometimes floating through the sea.  

When they were well on their way traveling under water, the merman turned to the group and introduced the young mermaid, “This, Princesses of Sparland, Prince Paul of Cedar Landing and O’Lah of …” 

“Ubbin” she answered bashfully.  

“O’Lah of Ubbin. This is Princess Blu of Allaymia. And she is well versed in these parts of the sea and will lead you to the Aquarian Temple. There are many matters we still must attend to if we are going to heal Atheria and I must depart. You all will be safe in her care.” 

Princess Blu … of Allaymia? The spear-fighter? Nea thought, remembering Tuck’s words at Cedar Landing. But it couldn’t be. That was human, with legs, this was a mermaid with a fin.  

Before she could ask, the mermaid spoke up, “The Aquarian Ruins – where we need to go to is very, very far down near the bottom of the Torturian Sea, past a beautiful reef, then through a dark cavern.”  

And the group floated and hiked all the way down to the bottom of the sea past a wonderfully beautiful reef with lots of coral to dark cavern. But when they got to it, there was a very, very big fish in the way. And Princess Blu swam on over to the fish and asked him if he would move.  

She said, “Doo-doo-doo-do-do-doo.” She was speaking fish. And the fish spoke back, “Doo-do-doo-doo-do-doo-do-doo.”  

And then Blu turned to the group and said, “Oh, no. The big huge fish is sick and can’t move because his stomach aches – he’s sore because he got hit there by another angry fish.” 

“Is there any way that we can heal it.” Lulu asked. 

To that, Nea replied, “Let’s try the blue crystal again? Like we did for Darius? But we’d need something to infuse it with.” 

“I’ve heard that certain types of coral can help sore muscles,” O’Lah replied. 

“Yes,” Princess Blu agreed, “Pink coral. A bit further out but there’s some in the reef I took you through.” 

And with that she quickly swam back to the reef searching for pink coral. When she got back with the coral, they broke it into small little pieces and rubbed it together, so it was very, very small bits and pieces. And then Paul pulled out his blue crystal and began rubbing the small bits with some water to make it creamy.  

They rubbed the cream over the fish’s body, and when they did, the fish immediately started smiling because it stopped his stomach from aching and went, “Doo-doo-doo-doo,” which was fish for, “I feel so much better. Thank you so, so much.”  

And then he swam away.  

And the five adventurers went through the deep, dark cavern and when they got to the other side, they found themselves in this beautiful little cave where a small opening allowed the sun to shine down through the water.  

And inside this area there were a bunch of ruins.  

[Now ruins are old stone pieces left over from an old building like a castle or a temple or some old structure a long, long time ago.] 

“This,” said Princess Blu, “Is the water temple. It’s a little rough down here, but this is where we’re supposed to take the crystals.” 

As the group looked around, the ruinous temple was overgrown by seaweed and sea flowers all around the walls of the temple. 

“There is supposed to be tablet,” O’Lah said, digging through the sea flora on the wall. “I read it in a book. A place where the crystals are supposed to go.” 

So everyone started looking around the temple for a tablet. What they didn’t notice is that the crystals in O’Lah and Prince Paul’s pockets were actually growing brighter and brighter.  

As they pulled down the overgrown seaweed and sea-flowers looking for a tablet, they did see plenty of interesting symbols and shapes because even though temple was very worn down, certain parts of it were maintained and had the adventurers been better versed in the crystals and the temple, they would’ve noticed that this temple had engravings of other elements as well on each of the four walls. 

Then Princess Nea froze. And looked down at her feet. Right in the middle of the temple, underneath some large overgrowth of flora and sea mold, a large engraving of what looked like water but with two spots etched out. Two spots for the keepers of the crystal to stand.  

So O’Lah and Paul came over, and as they pulled out their crystals they shined even brighter than before. And once they stepped on the small etching in the ground, their crystals began to burn, to warm up and float away from them, just right in front of them though. 

And all of a sudden from the base of the temple and through the crystals came a bright blue and purple light, shooting from the floor through the ceiling of the temple, up into the sky. Big beautiful beams of blue and purple. And as this happened, they noticed that even the water around them seemed to get brighter, to get shiner – like it was healing. And the walls of the temple began to get brighter, cracks went away, the sea weed and overgrown sea flowers disappeared and you could see that all the engravings around the temple were ornate and beautiful. 

They all stood there for a minute, amazed while the blue and purple light continued to purify the water and restore the temple around them. 

When the light subsided and the crystals began to float back to O’Lah and Prince Paul, the adventurers all gave each other big hugs and swam out of the cavern and back to the mainland. 

And they thanked Princess Blu for her help and for showing them where the water temple was and for translating what the big fish had to say. 

And when they got back to Sparland, everybody was celebrating because the water was cleaner and clearer now. Everyone could clean their clothes and do dishes and all their regular things.  

Prince Paul and O’Lah though, kept their crystals very, very safe and very, very protected because even though they had begun to restore the water temple, nobody knew what they might need the crystals for next. 

The end.