Chapter 1
50,000 leagues into the Deep, Deep, Double Deep hole in the Loch.
(Just for all of us who aren’t familiar with that scale, it is a long way down. It’s cold and dark and there isn’t much down there except strange looking fish with bulging eyes and big teeth and of course the Merrow people who swim about with good vision and live quite happily there, except just recently there has been a shift in attention from what’s down on the bottom of the Dx4H to what was up on the surface. Seems all the ghost and spirit activity around the old jail had certain rulers of the underwater world puzzled at the response of the land people. They could not understand why the land people had not packed their bags and headed for the hills and away from the jail at the first signs of terror from apparitions from the other side. It was in the great hall that the Queen took council with the cities Mermen and Merwomen about the quandary they found themselves in.
Nuff said let’s begin................: GMB61 )
Cleodora turned and bowed to her Queen and then swam back to her position amongst the faithful after expressing her angst and sorrow at the death of the King. The Queen’s life partner and first love died by a terrible misadventure. A strange metal bed landed on his head and took his life. The bed came from the surface water area. Over the years several pieces of rubbish fell into the Dx4H and were used as furniture or tools to dig into the sea bottom for the luminous sand worms that were a delicacy down there.
These worms also made it possible to see around the bottom because they were put into lanterns and carried by the Merfolk as they swam around. It was very unfortunate that the King was where he was when the bed hit him because he was picking a bunch of red sea weed flowers for his wife. Subsequently, the anger felt by his loyal subjects boiled over into a heated discussion about how to even up the score with the rubbish dropping land people.
The widowed Queen, Zillath, was deeply saddened by the accident and before she retaliated went to the surface to observe the land people and their habits. This confused her even more because they all seemed so nice and friendly, not like the men who lived in there years before who were intent on causing as much sorrow to the inhabitants of the jail as was possible, even death. Queen Zillath had seen one land man in a boat catching fish and talking to a ghost dog and he seemed fine.
He was good to the dog and respected the water and fish he collected. How could these people be responsible for the death of her much loved husband? It was very confusing to poor Zillath who took some time out by sitting on a smooth rock step at the foot of the old jail. She was debating in her head whether to start a war of retribution or to postpone the endeavour for more negotiations between the land people. It was too much to sort out with one visit from the Queen so she returned to her home and loyal subjects with more news and a deeply troubled heart.
