The sun was slowly sinking down through a sky of fire, a great gold disk slowly melting into a rippling, molten ocean. Its progress streaked the clouds in unearthly colours, and sent a blazing ribbon across the waves. It was a sunset made for walks on the beach, toes dipped into the surf, and kisses as the waves threw soft white spray.
All of these things would have been far less painful for Saleen to contemplate if it hadn’t been for the fact that the object of her desires was sailing off into that very same sunset, leaving her squatting in the surf, trapped like a goldfish in a bowl.
Of course, that’s what it was: a giant goldfish bowl, forged from elemental proof glass. It was the perfect blend of magically potent and ridiculous, the infuriating hallmark of the genie that must have made it. Only its walls separated her from the ocean, and the little black shadow of the ship as it began to disappear over the horizon, into that glorious golden haze.
She dropped her head, gazing blankly at the sand. Trapped under this bowl, humiliated not only by the genie, but by the whole troupe of little pets that seemed to follow her prize about. Trapped and humiliated, to add to the ultimate insult of being rejected. For a moment, her teeth flashed in a furious grimace. Aladdin! Who was he to reject her? He was pretty, but he was only a street-rat. Who was he to reject her, a beautiful, powerful elemental?
Of course, he at least wasn’t trapped under a fishbowl.
With a deep sight, Saleen stared out into the sunset once more. Night would be coming soon, and she would be left alone in the darkness. A trace of saltwater, only the tiniest fragment of the saltwater that swirled around her, brimmed up in her eyes.
“Land-dwelling wretches.”
She turned her gaze away, determined not to look at the ocean that she was separated from. She looked up at the land instead, a sight equally painful. It was the world that Aladdin belonged to, a world he had refused to sacrifice for her. She rested her head in her hands, gazing up at the darkening sands, the legs that she had temporarily adopted curled awkwardly beneath her.
A swish of the ocean caught her ear. A glint of purple reflected in the wretched glass caught her eye. She turned back to the ocean to find, glinting golden in the sunset, her saviour.
“Armond! My hero!”
He was silhouetted for a moment, as though posing, his mighty tentacles bulging and glistening. Then in one fluid movement, the bowl was gone, hurled away, and she was free to run forwards and bury herself in the soft flesh of her champion.
“How I’ve missed my little squiddums!” She rubbed her face against his, his huge eyes creasing in pleasure, both of them lost for a moment in the joy of reunion. Then the memory of betrayal became all too fresh, and Saleen pulled away, staring past Armond into the horizon. Far, far away, a single black speck on the face of the sun, the little ship shrank to nothing, and vanished.
“We’ll get ‘em next time, Armond!”
********
Down in the depths again, the coolness of the water against Saleen’s skin was comforting, as was being able to merge the halves of her tail back into one again. She leant back in the coiled clutches of Armond, his powerful tentacles now as delicate as feathers, gently repairing the damage that the days stresses had done to her hair.
“We could have done it, Armond.” She sighed, as he gently combed her hair from the roots. “We could have had Aladdin, if it hadn’t been for that stupid genie.”
Armond nodded sagely. In some ways, he was a reverse hairdresser: whilst others of his talents may have delighted in amusing clients with chatter and patter, he acted as a listener, a soft molluscan sponge for troubles. There were few problems that Armond felt unable to tackle with sympathy and a dye job.
“If it hadn’t been for you being so brave, I could still be under that horrible bowl! Why do they always have to interfere?”
Saleen frowned, and shifted on Armond.
“It’s the company he keeps, I know it! You saw how Aladdin was when it was just me and him. If his friends didn’t always stick their feet…paws…claws…tassels…vapour…whatever into the situation, he’d be ours! Well…mine, anyway. They drag him down. Especially that princess. What does she do to him? How does she keep him?”
Armond gave one of his multiple-armed shrugs.
“Treat ‘em mean, keep ‘em keen. It’s a perfectly good saying. Hasn’t she ever heard of it? Little hussy…and I know my huss.”
Saleen shifted. Armond, who was busy re-plaiting her voluminous braid, stretched to accommodate her.
“Well. Next time. Next time, it’ll be different. Take notes, Armond! Next time, we have to get the genie out of the way somehow. And that magic carpet. With them gone, none of the others can stand up to my power! I’ll have Aladdin eating out of my hand! And this time, I won’t let anyone steal my magical starfish.”
Saleen froze. Realisation dawned on her face.
“That’s it!”
She stood up abruptly, causing Armond to lose his grip. Her hair came free, waving and flickering around her head like a cloud of fire. She paid it no heed. Instead, she weaved through the waters of her grotto, past her dressing table, with its stacked and obscure products, and into another opening. She slid through, Armond trailing after her.
Inside this portion of the extensive grotto was a collection of sunken items. Crowded on the natural recesses of the rock were myriads of treasures, in both senses. Pieces of jewellery, the gold and silver untarnished by the enchanted water, winked from every rocky shelf. Everything that man might conceivably take to sea was here, from fine china to delicate cutlery sets, to beautiful dresses that floated ghost-like, preserved by the magic of the place.
Saleen passed all these treasures by, rummaging through the shelves for some other goal.
“Where did we put it, Armond? The other starfish? The one we made before?”
Armond looked up from what he was examining, the skull of some unnamed unfortunate, which was currently being used to model a tiara, and shrugged.
“Oh! You’re no help at all, you know that?” She swept the contents of the shelf to the floor with a tut. “Well, we’re not leaving until we find it.” She sighed, muttering under her breath. “Stupid enchinoderms. You tell them to stay put, and they just wander off on you.”
Her search of a pile of necklaces was interrupted by a tentacle tapping her on the shoulder, and Armond pointing her to a pile of objects distinctly out of place amongst her collection of luxuries. The pile consisted of the two wooden handles of a scroll, the paper melted away long ago, a single sandal, and a motionless metal beetle. Lying in the centre of this pile was a small, pink starfish.
“Good job, Armond.”
Saleen’s fingers closed around the starfish. She looked up, up at the surface of her watery world. Above her enchanted grotto winked innumerable openings, the light streaming down. Some were larger than others, and all showed a different scene: moonlight and stars, or blazing sun. Some looked out onto human faces, others onto empty rooms. Others still blinked into existence, as other slowly disappeared. Here in this place, she was truly underwater, under all the water in the world, looking up from every pool or puddle.
She grinned once more. Her loose hair whipped around her as she gazed up, up through the holes, into the light.
“Come, Armond. We’re going to be part of their world.”
Steam by StarsSlug
Author's Notes:
Another chapter that begins where an episode ends, I’m afraid. This one is set at the end of “Shark Treatment”, Saleen’s last episode. (Not saying much: she only got two.) Between this and “Plunder the sea”, Mechanikles also made his last official appearance.
Now that the nerdy continuity is out of the way, please enjoy. This one’s pure Saleen and Armond, and I hope I haven’t mangled them too badly.
Now that the nerdy continuity is out of the way, please enjoy. This one’s pure Saleen and Armond, and I hope I haven’t mangled them too badly.