The Kingdom of the Deep

An extract

As the boys stood still and looked about them, suddenly the sand beneath their feet began to move and quake.  They were standing on huge stingrays which emerged from the sand and began to pick up speed with the boys standing on their backs.  "Way to go!" shouted the boys in excitement as they zoomed through the waters. Then the stingrays flicked their wings: the boys went flying to the ocean bed.

          At that moment a huge octopus emerged from her lair.  She winked at the boys, beckoned with her arms, and called out in a deep husky voice, "Hallo my dears. Come and have a cuddle." 

          "No thanks," the boys replied politely, as they scrambled to their feet and began to run. 

          The octopus was fat and overweight, but hurried after them.  Waving her arms in the water she belched and sighed, "Come back!  Come back!  I only want a cuddle!"  She had nearly got them when three huge water turtles came swimming past.  "Hold onto our shells!" cried the turtles as the octopus stretched out her arms to grasp the boys. 

          With the boys holding on tight, the turtles swam gracefully up the coral reef.  Too late the octopus thrashed the water with her arms and spluttered angrily, "I only wanted a cuddle!"

         The turtles left the boys in a wide sandy valley strewn with massive rocks.  Wearily the boys lay down and rested their backs against a rock. 

          "Hallo!" cried a huge wheezing squid swaying out from behind the rock.  "How nice to see you boys.  Do let me give you just a little squeeze!" 

          "Oh no!  Not again!" grumbled the boys as they began to run. 

          "Come back! Come back! I only want a little squeeze!" wheezed the squid as she let loose a cloud of choking black ink which enveloped the boys.  

          The boys were stumbling in the dark when voices whispered in their ears, "Quick!  Quick!  Climb on our backs before she gets you." The boys clambered on the backs of the sea horses, which swiftly galloped through the waters leaving the squid gasping in anger, "I only wanted a little squeeze!" 

          The sea horses left the boys in a narrow valley of sand between jagged rocks.  They lay on their backs panting, gasping for breath: breathing through the waters was strangely possible but very hard work.  Looking up they could see far above great ships with tall masts and white sails sailing in bright sunshine across the ocean.  Then the skies began to darken.  The sun (though it was midday) was eclipsed.  Whirlwinds sucked in the sea.  Hail, rain and wind tore into the ships.  Forks of lightning split the sky.  Even at the bottom of the ocean the waters began to heave, seethe and whirl around the boys.  They grasped the rocks, holding on tight, and cried out in horror at the dreadful sights above them.

          Whirlwinds seized the ships and spun them round and round while forks of lightning split them in two from prow to stern.  Wind and waves sucked out the sailors who fell like peas shaken from a pod.  As they sank beneath the waves, mermen and mermaids swam up to meet them and, binding their arms with strong rope, pulled them down to the bottom of the ocean, each disappearing through a fissure in the rocks not far from the boys.  As sailors, mermen and mermaids disappeared, whirlwinds, hail, rain and lightning ceased.  The sun emerged, shining brightly on a still ocean strewn with the wreckage of the ships.  

          Pale and shaken the boys scrambled to their feet, cautiously crept to the fissure in the rocks and looked down at the village below.  Three mermaids (daughters of the King) swam past, the eldest wearing a band of gold across her brow, the second a band of silver, the youngest a band of brass. 

          The youngest was grumbling to herself, "It's not fair!  I always get the smallest ones." 

          A marriage ceremony was about to begin.  On his throne sat King Naroon, beside him a cold imperious mermaid Queen (to the boys she seemed vaguely familiar).  The three mermaids swam to their father and stood before him.

          Swiftly the mermaids and mermen sorted out the sailors into three sizes: small, medium and large.  King Naroon waved his arm impatiently.  The mermaid beside him smiled and laughed (a cruel laugh) as the large sailors were dragged before the daughter with the band of gold, the medium before the daughter with the band of silver and the small before the daughter with the band of brass ("Damn! Damn! Damn!" she muttered swishing her tail in anger. "I always get the little ones.").

          King Naroon raised his trident and cried, "I pronounce you husbands and wives."  At that moment the sailors turned into mermen, bands of metal sprang round their necks (gold for large, silver for medium and brass for small) and, unfamiliar with their tails, each fell upon his face.  The mermaid Queen clapped her hands and hissed, "I always enjoy that bit!" 

          As the boys looked on, pale and shaken, a shoal of angelfish swam past and whispered in their ears, "If a human (even a boy) marries a mermaid, he turns into a merman and has to live in the Kingdom of the Deep for ever." 

                   "Oh dear!" gasped Julius.  "Mum will be worried if we do not get home in time for tea."  He whispered to his brothers, "We had better get out of here."  As the boys turned to creep away mermen leapt, bound them with nets and gathering round poked them with the blunt ends of their tridents.  "They is rather small and bony. Won't Princess Liana grumble! But orders is orders.  All to be bound up and married." 

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