Boy and the Begining

February 16th, The Crown, Harry is currently Age 10…

Harry was pulled along so fast he was barely able to keep his watery breath.

Harry remembered a time when he had snuck into a waterpark while he had been in Spain, and had slid down an enclosed water slide.The sensation was familiar in the Pipe, but for the addition of the sensation of being dragged along with a condensed undertow.

He was just beginning to wonder if he was doomed to die in the thing when he was unceremoniously spat out.

He whirled for a moment in the darkish grey pool, before he caught himself.

Wherever he was, it was vast and appeared to be empty, with arched grey walls and a rounded floor of similar material. He then spied a light above his head and swam for it.

He peeked his eyes above the surface, careful to keep his gills in the water, relieved at first that there were spaces in this place that were fortunately filled with air that he could utilize when he wanted to give his gillyweed a supply a break; then he spied something that did not reassure him.

He appeared to be in a large amphitheater of some kind, though instead of a stage or battleground, a great pool of greenish water with islands of crystal platforms. On those platforms, squatted the largest, most monstrous looking crabs Harry had ever seen! They were hiss-gurgling at each other, apparently in a bad mood as their tree top sized claws clacked threateningly at each other (1).

Harry let out a soundless meep.

Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, the surrounding stands were filled with yelling crowds of aquatic based Abnormals, cheering and jeering the giant crabs on and had yet to notice the lone boy stuck in the battle zone.

Harry quickly dived back under.

He looked frantically around. There was nowhere for him to hide.

Perhaps he would be lucky and the giant crustaceans of potential doom would not notice him.

For a time, as muffled echoes of battle ricocheted above him, it seemed luck was with him, and he used the small window to catch his breath and apply his brain to how exactly he was going to get out of this mess.

But as hard as he tried to think of a way to get out of this, the only thing he could think of was to approach one of these people and tell them his problem. He wasn't keen on this plan as he remembered what had happened in that castle in Spain. He remembered the tone that the Kraken Shepherd had in her voice when she mentioned "Landwalker," with a sort of contempt. No, he was quite sure he classified as a Landwalker from her perspective, despite his present state, so that was not a good idea. Chances were high he would get eaten by something for his troubles, and that's if he made it passed the cranky monsters to even ask for help.

The only other way was to somehow find an exit, avoid the attention of anymore Abnormals that might be outside, and make his frantic way to the surface.

The later plan seemed to be his best bet, though he was uncertain how to go about that.

He was afraid to try the pipe again, in case he ended up somewhere worse, for all he knew he could end up in a stable full of sharks or something.

His contemplations were ended rather abruptly when the waters were suddenly filled with writhing fighting crab.

He yelped a long stream of bubbles as he began dodging flying claws.

After he got knocked by a stray leg for a third time in a row, Harry'd had enough, and for a moment, he lost his grip on sensible caution.

Ooo ooo ooo

Keto prided herself on centuries of quality when it came to producing her products. She had orchestrated some of the most infamous monsters on the planet, and was very fond of both her precious works of destructive art and the infamy they generated for her (1).

And like with any situation that held deadly monsters and board Supernaturals, this eventually led to The Games.

Great versus battles that the cream of her latest crops would provide the bored or disgruntled water dwellers while they cheered/jeered and laid bets of their most precious treasures, hoards, and the occasional first born.

She sighed. She missed the days when her babies could just lay waste to a few coastal villages. Damn those Wizards and forcing everyone to follow that damned statue of secrecy!

Still, at least she was still prosperous, even if a bit bored.

At the present moment, in one of the numerous arenas at the gathering of the annual Crown Aquatic Summit, the  gathering of the various water dwelling powers of the world, and her most lucrative customer base, she had decided to open up festivities with her latest generation of Carcinus. They were a particularly aggressive pair of males as well, and decedents from the original Carcinus Cancer that she had lent to Hera.

Luckily she'd been able to breed it before that meathead Hercules crushed her poor baby (2).

The latest generations though, were even stronger than their predecessor, and she felt confident that no single being, with the exception of a select few, could defeat them in battle.

The crowds loved it as well, as the bets and favors were flying fast and hard. Her slice of empire was going to feast well on the profits and favors obtained during this year's summit as many powerful and rich fools looking to burn a little something or other.

Keto smirked from her throne of volcanic rock and whale bone.

Then she froze and gasped along with everyone else as the two powerful sea monsters were suddenly lifted out of the water and sent flying directly towards the roof of the arena in a blaze of intense red light.

Spectators unfroze as the giant crustaceans, singed along the edges and knocked out cold began falling from the large dent they had made in the roof and directly towards the stands.

People dived towards the waters; some cast shimmering shields of aquatic energy and others ran or crawled up walls to avoid the falling bodies.

Keto also unfroze and uncoiled her large frilled snake-like body, the upper humanoid half raising and all four of her long triple joined muscular arms in the air and screeching in rage at both the defeat of her babies, and the interruption of the festivities (3).

Later, with the haphazard crowds in the waters of the fighting zone, it was difficult to find who the culprit had been. But when she did, she was going to make whoever it was pay dearly!

Ooo ooo ooo

Harry thought he would never get out of their alive!

He had not wanted to use the Extremity Explosion, but like last time, he had been to discombobulated to think straight, seeing how he was about to either get crushed or eaten at any moment and had just reacted.

Luckily for him, when the spectators fled the falling carcasses, enough of them had jumped into the waters that he was able to quickly disappear amongst the throng and was soon shown out by a group of armored men with froglike legs and sharks for heads who seemed to be some form of security (4).

He hastily grabbed onto the trailing rim of an overweight mermaid's tail when he overheard her tell her equally overweight friend that they might as well head back to the reception room, now that the festivities were over.

Of course, he got a wallop upside the head with her clam shell purse calling him a bottom feeding leech for some reason when she finally noticed his clinging form before he swam off quickly upon their arrival to the Reception Hall.

He was swooped up just as quickly by the kraken shepherd, and never was he more relieved to see the intimidating chatterbox.

"There you are! I was beginning to worry that you got lost in the shuffle somehow! Come on, we got to get you registered…you know, I never caught your name?" she suddenly asked as she dragged him towards another of those frog shark men, though this armored individual was sitting behind a raised desk, seeing people one at a time.

When Harry's turn in the queue came he was unceremoniously pushed forward and the guard chirred out in boredom, "name, species, and specs please."

Harry bit his lip. This was awkward.

The man finally focused on him when Harry didn't say anything, narrowing slanted round dark eyes and barked out the demand again.

Harry grimaced and touched his throat and then his mouth and shook his head.

"Oh! your mute!" the Shepard said out loud in realization, and rather uncomfortably loud in Harry's opinion as they were attracting stares, he flushed.

The man behind the counter huffed a few annoyed bubbles.

"Fine then, just nod or shake your head for yes and no all right? "

Harry nodded, relieved that the…whatever he was, at least competent at his job.

"Since you can't tell me your name, you'll be designated "Guest 369" for your stay." Harry nodded, not planning to stay long, so they could call him what they liked. The man wrote it down.

"Now as for your species, you look like a Gillman, but in the off chance I am wrong, we'll call you a species unknown," Harry nodded and he wrote it down (5).

"Now as for specs, you breathe through gills but is that a permanent thing or can it appear and reappear when you're in and out of water?"

Since Harry figured that was actually technically true, he again nodded his head.

"Hmmm…Halfling then," the man wrote a few more things down (6).

Finally after one or two more things that had to do with food and water temperature, he was given a plain looking shell on a chain with odd squally marks on it.

"There, Room 42, next to your loud companion, NEXT!"

Harry nodded a hasty thank you and swam off to let other impatient people be registered.

He pulled the shell on, thinking it was better to help him blend in.

Luckily, his new friend, after apologizing for not realizing his handicap sooner (not that he would've gotten a chance to really) drew him to a circular section of round knobless doors and archways.

He watched as she laid her shell against the door and it sunk inwards; retiring to her own quarters after wishing him a cheerful rest period.

He tried it on the left hand door and was pleased that it appeared to be the correct one as he sank through as if it were air.

He was beyond relieved when he discovered that his room had a non-water section of breathable air.

Just in time to. His latest dose of Gillyweed had just worn off and he was looking forward to breathing normally again.

He crawled onto a simple chaise lounge that was perched on a small shelf of pale marble at the edge of a pool and fell deeply asleep, utterly exhausted from his experience.

Ooo ooo ooo

February 17th, The Crown, Visitor's Quarters…

He woke up to shrieking.

"By the First Beast!" a distinctly female high pitched chitter-like nails on a chalkboard voice exclaimed.

Harry fell off the chaise and onto the hard marble floor with a painful thump.

He groaned and sluggishly pulled himself upward, groaning, looking around for the source of the noise.

His eyes landed on Mung, whose upper torso was sticking out of the water. It looked like she had paid him a surprise visit.

"So," she stated in her ear bleeding accented voice that Harry determined must be what her voice sounded like outside of the water, "the Registrar was right, you are a Halfling then? Or perhaps wandering water elemental that had developed the ability to take on a more proper form for water?"

Harry let out a mental sigh of relief. He didn't quite grasp what she meant, but at least she didn't suspect him of being a human of the non-water variety.

After a moment, he just nodded, not able to come up with anything else, and even if he had, he would not be able to tell her. He had a feeling English would either not be understood, or if it was, would reveal him for the Landwalker he was.

"Well, you should have said…oh, right, well, come on then, we better hurry if we want to get good seats for the summit meeting. I hear it's going to be quite interesting this year. Scuttle-swim is that some of the big names will be in attendance this year, not just their representatives, so hurry it up limp weed."

With that, she dived under the water, fortunately, which left Harry enough time to grab a mouth full of Gillyweed.

This time, he stuck close to Mung and held onto a bit of her trailing body armor as they were sucked through another pipe and spat out into a huge cavern that was slowly filling with people and creatures.

It was a rather impressive setup, the place was the size of several football stadiums.

According to Mung, it was the central building that was in the center of the bustling underwater metropolis. It was a rotunda that had slightly sloping walls with a funnel-shaped room which they had entered and was lined with various sized clam-shaped seats arranged in concentric patterns from floor to ceiling, which soared over a hundred meters high.

The center of the vast chamber was dominated by a podium used by what Harry assumed were for speakers. Everything was made of gleaming opalescent materials that reflected luminescent blue moss that circled the seats and walls in intricate symbols and signs that Harry had no idea the meaning of. The podium itself was an eye catching number of polished lava rock of dark rainbows tipped in silver webbing with a glowing silver circle. Mung explained that the podium had magic imbued into it that allowed for the speaker to be heard by everyone in the room, and translate for the various languages that existed among the Denizens (Denizens was what Harry was learning the underwater Abnormals referred to themselves collectively). When a person wished to address the rest they were able to detach their seat from its magically connected berth and move out into the open space of the chamber on a magically automated path to connect to the pavilion so they can say their piece.

They spent an hour wait watching the various different peoples take their seats a spectacle in and of itself for Harry..

In fact, in the row just above his head, he had witnessed what looked like a female teenager with beautiful ash colored hair and pale green skin with prominent blood red vein-like markings all over that gave her a rather sinister appearance. She wore flowing green skirts that moved lazily in the waters around them and settled around long shapely legs giving a hint of greenish fin and overlong webbed toes.

"That's a Rusalka," Mung explained, noticing the direction of his curious gaze, "one of the various sub-groups of the Water Demons. Her kind likes to go up onto land and lure Landwalkers to their doom upon occasion, usually territory encroaches. They can change their looks enough to walk among them for a short time, but tend to not do enough of a job of it, as they have been reputed among the Landwalkers of their regions to be restless spirits," she snickered. Harry turned his gaze away when the Rusalka turned glowing acid green eyes, and nothing else, in their direction suspiciously (7).

Mung pointed to another person, three seats down and to the left that had long hair with green skin and long finger nails wearing some sort pouch around the front of his upper torso.

"That's a Qalupalik, they wear an amautiit (which is a form of pouch that active parents wear to carry their children) so that they can take babies and children that they find alone and parentless. They convert the children they find into one of their own through prolonged contact with their skin and auras. It's how they reproduce. Rumour has it that they are not averse to taking Landwalker children," She wrinkled her nose (8).

Harry moved a little closer to Mung.

Noticing this, she laughed, "no worries, looks like he is already occupied," she pointed to the bulge that moved around in said pouch, "they never take more than one child or two infants at most."

She spent the rest of the time explaining various beings that were seated around them.

"Oh, there is a group of Naiads, a sub-group of Nymphs who live in streams, wells, brooks and other small bodies of water. They prefer no adornments whatsoever. It's rumored that Poseidon enjoys their company a fair bit. You never see the males though; they are kept well protected by their females." (9)

Then she pointed at another group, "…that's a group of Feux Follets," these were vaguely humanoid tiny balls of glowing lights of various colors, "they are magical constructions that were created by ancient Water Elementals many millennia ago and eventually figured out how to breed themselves and became a species all their own. They are favored among a wide variety of the Denizens and I am told among other land and sky dwelling beings, though they go by different names above water. They are used for sending messages or memorizing victims, and displaying events that they witness. The ones you see here are those representing groups or powerful individuals who can't make the summit, so they send the Feux Follets so nothing important is missed."(10)

That was how they wiled away the hour, and by the time it was ready to start, Harry had learned of over 30 different water Abnormals, both individuals and species.

Soon a group of fancier shell seats, these ones obvious by the fact that they were encrusted with gold, formed a loose ring around the central point were being filled by individuals that reeked to Harry's "Oh shit" internal sensor as scary-arsed important.

"Those are some of the most influential and powerful of us," Ming confirmed, "the ones that decided not to take the Long Sleep that some of the Old Ones did, or are otherwise unavailable."

Mung continued to whisper in his ear quietly, "the first on the right is Poseidon," she gestured to ripped man with skin as golden as the shells with curly hair and beard that seemed to be a shiny turquoise. He wore a crown circlet of silver on his head and fancy looking armor of diamonds. Harry knew of him of course. Poseidon is one of the twelve Olympian deities of the pantheon in Greek mythology, brother of Zeus, king of the gods. His main home is the ocean. Additionally he is referred to as "Earth-Shaker," many ancient humans attributing his role in causing earthquakes, and he has been called the "tamer of horses." Sure enough, Harry saw what appeared to be an etching of raging stallions with manes of foam rearing on his chest.

"He likes to change his hair and beard all the time, I hear. A bit of a drama fish if you ask me…anyway, the one next to him is the captain of the Flying Duchman." The next being was also male, though he looked like a rather unkempt ghost.

"Still likes to haunt the occasional Landwalker port and scare the mortal lives out of them from time to time, and the one next to him is IsIleana Cosanzeana. She is the current ruler of one of the most powerful families of Salt Water Fairies." Harry observed that Cosanzeana's eyes looked like the sun, her body was neither to thin nor to fat, but in the middle of proportions, and her garments were of some type of pinkish white flowers, "Pearls and gold flow out of her mouth when she sings. She is also said to use her power of white magic to heal or revive. She is one of the most powerful healers under water. She is greatly respected by everyone. Very few bar her path, even though she prefers to dwell in enchanted flower fields on land." (11)(12)

The next one was…Harry blinked.

It was a calmly seated cow. Unlike regular cows though, this one was built more lean and had pale tan scales under its shaggy golden tan hide. It also had three primly curled translucent horns on either side of its head.

"That is a Buwch Frech, it looks like a new Moa (queen) this year, the previous one must have retired finally." (13)

Next to the water cow(?) was Gong Gong who had a red mane with the tail of a serpent. Mung explained that he is often seen as destructive and is blamed for various cosmic catastrophes. Gong Gong had escaped nearly being killed or sent into exile due to his various antics, usually after losing a struggle with another major deity, or on the rare occasion when he butted noses with a territorial Dark or Light Lord. (14)

Next to him was curled an actual dragon, (Harry squealed internally), like the kind that Harry had seen in some of his more Asian oriented stories. It had a long snake like body and emerald colored scales. Mung said that his name was Ao Guang, a Dragon Lord. According to Mung he was actually much larger, but he was able to adjust his own size so that he didn't overwhelm the assembly. (15)

The next person was Dakuwaqa, who was a muscular man in a simple grey loin cloth with the upper body of a shark, a tiger shark by the looks of it. He was a shark god, and father to the race of Sharkrogs that provided the crew and security to the great city and was also the current ruler of it. He was apparently on good terms with Keto, who Harry vaguely recognized and was sitting in the next seat over from the shark god. Keto was well known as the mother of many monsters, both water and land. In her lap sat an ugly looking creature that Mung told him was her latest Grindy Low model Harry would later learn was a common pet amongst many of the Denizens, created by Keto, and something of a purse dog type of thing like what Harry had seen famous actresses on the occasional news article. Harry noted that said being looked vastly annoyed, and he hoped that it wasn't because of the giant lobster battle he had interrupted yesterday. (16) (17)

Eventually all the seats had filled and the summit was called to order.

What followed was what felt to be a half a day's worth of boredom.

At first, Harry had been rather interested in what might happen, after all these were beings from folklore and legends, hundreds, maybe even thousands of Abnormals all in one place of all different varieties! It was mind boggling to Harry's academic side.

Sadly for the boy though, it was all rather mundane chitter-chatter that talked about this upset and that territory and so on and so forth, Supernatural bureaucracy in its finest.

It only got interesting near the end when there was, what his friend whispered in his ear was an annual thing common to the summit, an overall vote as to whether the Earth should be flooded again (apparently it had been done before), as the Landwalkers tended to get to big for their feet and made things difficult for Denizens, so upon occasion they would orchestrate a little global drown.

Fortunately for the unknowing Landwalkers, the vote was more in favor of not flooding then flooding, thankfully for Harry's peace of mind. According to Mung though, the gap between the votes had been growing shorter every summit for the last century or so.

Finally the meeting was adjourned and Harry was relieved. Unfortunately his hopes of slipping away and trying to find a way out were nixed when Mung caught hold of his wrist and dragged him to some sort of giant room where the people who had attended the senate were chattering among themselves as what looked like stately half eel half men in cummerbunds were gliding around with serving trays full of unusual foods that Harry thought it best to avoid, as some of it wriggled. (18)

Harry stuck close to Mung as soon as he was trapped in the crowds, as many looked rather intimidating as well as important.

A few of the guests that Mung gossiped with cooed at her companion's adorableness, but otherwise eventually left him alone when they realized he couldn't do more than nod or shake his head.

It was as Mung was talking adamantly with a rather severe looking Mermaid with biceps the size of Harry's head that someone bumped into him and something heavy and mushy plopped into his hair.

"Oops! There goes my seaweed stuffed jellyfish snack, I do apologize young man."

Harry grimaced as he tried to get the sticky stuff from clinging to his follicles as he looked to the side, then upwards at the tall man that floated serenely within a hairs breath of him.

He was certainly tall, and one of the most human looking of the water based Abnormals yet. He was dressed in tight scaly looking grayish pants, barefooted with a golden brace on his lower legs and a sleeveless shirt of the same tightness and make over a lean chest with golden chains imbued with black pearls crisscrossing the front and back and a high open collar. His hair was long and hung loose under the cowl of a misty grayish green cloak that somehow managed to remain tightly close to his body and yet flare just enough to give him presence and room, and casting his angular features that were a pale shell white, in a bit of shadow.

"Lord Mage Waven!" the Mermaid and Mung exclaimed in unison, bowing their heads in politeness. Harry followed a second later, not really sure what this was about.

"It seems we have a rather young man attending the summit today," the man drawled, his dark navy eyes fixed on Harry's green intently.

"Oh yes!" Mung explained, "My friend here…I can't rightly remember his name now that I think of it," Harry snorted a few bubbles, knowing that the reason was mainly because she had neither asked for his name nor would he have been able to tell her even if she did ask of it, "he had a run in with my Kraken along the way, he's a Halfling from the fresh waters I think."

"Really?" the man mused, though his look never wavered from Harry, "well I hope you don't mind if I borrow him then? I have not meant many fresh water Halflings before."

"You Water Elementals are all academics," the Mermaid huffed, taking a bite from her own snack.

Mung chuckled as well, though a bit more politely and nodded, "Of course Lord Waven, just be aware though that my young friend here is unable to speak while in his proper form."

"That will not be a problem Shepard, I know of a place we can converse dryly, come along child," and Harry was unceremoniously grabbed and dragged along behind the man as they glided through the crowds until they were in a stretch of abandoned hallway, then he was dragged down even darker hallways and Harry suddenly became even more weary. The expression on the Water Elemental's face darkened with the setting.

Eventually they arrived in a sunken chamber that was doughnut shaped and at the very center was the truly odd thing. A small raised pedestal in the rough shape of an arch with raggedy-looking curtains that swayed in the current of their entrance. The center glowed with swirling dark reds and bruise colored lightening played in the boarders of the arch.

The Elemental whirled him around and snarled into Harry's face.

"I knew that it was only a matter of time before my magical cousins dwelling with the land walkers would try to poke their noses where they are not wanted," the Elemental snarled, shaking him, "but to think that they consider my kind so foolish as to not recognize the bastardized form of Gillyweed? And to take the form of a child!"

Harry sucked in a big gulp of water, freezing. If this stranger knew what Gillyweed was then he knew what Harry was!

He struggled, and with a growl he called up Flame. It didn't set the man's hands on fire, but it caused the water where he grasped Harry to boil around his hand, making him let go of Harry with a yelp of pain.

Harry raised his feet.

Extremity Explosion wasn't exactly as quick underwater, and lasted a shorter amount of time but it did the job of putting distance between them.

Unfortunately for Harry, that was mainly because of the force of the backlash, which he had forgotten in his reaction, and it sent him directly for the sinister looking arch.

Things went dark after that.