Hey everyone! I know it's been awhile since I've posted anything especially any completely new stories. This idea sorta bit me and wouldn't be satisfied until it was written. So many many many thanks to the lovely JarJarBlinx1 (my beloved writing buddy) for agreeing to write this with me. Check out her page. She's amazing! Enjoy!

Also a huge thanks to tumblr user emmagracenguyen for letting us use her beautiful art for our cover.

Intro inspired by Carl Sandberg's poem 'Young Sea'

The sea is never still. It pounds on the shore restless as a young heart. The sea is young. One could hear it laughing, reckless. They love the sea, those who ride beneath its waves and know they will die under the salt of it. Their fate is sealed but none resent it. It's their home. They love the sea and never desire to leave.

Santoff Clausen was abuzz with activity. Its citizens swam through the great city, its spires reached for the surface from the ocean floor. All manner of fish and marine life made their way through the intricate web of unmarked roads. Alongside them were the merfolk who inhabited the city under the rule of the great King of the Seas, North.

No matter who you asked in the city, they would all say what a wonderful and generous king North was. His rulings were always fair, he kept morale high, and protected his people and all the seven seas safe from any dangers. No one ever desired to leave their safe haven in the northern seas. Except one.

Up on the surface there lie a lone merman. He'd dragged his upper half up onto a sheet of ice floating in the sea, his shimmering blue tail blending with the icy water it floated in. Blue eyes seemed to perfectly reflect the sky they stared at. Pale arms padded his head against the hard ice, a dreamy smile on his lips until he had to blow a tuft of white hair from his face. He let out a sigh of longing as he watched a few birds fly up above.

He couldn't hold back a chuckle at the snore he heard nearby. The teen turned to look up with another laugh. He let himself slide back into the water, silently making his way to the nearby ice patch. Upon the ice lay a tiny, pudgy penguin sound asleep and making the most atrocious snoring noises.

With a flick of his finger, ice formed into a ramp on the other side of the floating chunk. The teen gave a mischievous grin before tipping the chunk of ice up, sending the sleeping penguin sliding towards the water and launching him off the ramp he'd made. "Wake up, Sandy!"

The penguin blinked sleepily before giving out a loud squawk, his wings flapping helplessly as he plunked down into the water. His head peeked up through the surface, giving the merman a glare. "There are better ways to say you're lonely and want some company, your majesty."

"Better, maybe. But not nearly as much fun." His eyes shone with mirth. "Who says I'm lonely? You know me. I just came to enjoy the view." Jack leaned his chin against his hand and stared towards the sky again. His smile grew when he finally saw what he'd been waiting for all day. "There! Sandy, what are those ones called? They pass this area everyday around this time, and it always looks like they're bickering with each other." Jack laughed and pointed up at the small flock of dragons overhead, each one hardly bigger than the pudgy penguin he helped back onto the ice.

"Those are called 'whirly birds.' They scream really loud and blow fire everywhere and melt all this lovely ice." Sandy hopped up on the ice and fluttered his wings, his head shaking off drops of water from his beak. "They also steal fish!"

Jack gave him a deadpan look. "You eat fish too. Do I judge you?" His gaze was drawn again to the flock, and he laughed when he saw two of them knock against each other while they tried to fly. "It is a shame about the ice though."

"Oh yes, a big shame! Those silly whirly birds! Don't go near them or they'll burn your lovely tale."

"Like they could. I'd freeze their mouths shut before they could try. Besides, they're so tiny! Just like a certain bird I know." With a grin, he poked the penguin's pudgy stomach. Jack looked up again when he heard a splash close by and saw one of the little dragons struggling in the water. It was clearly the smaller one who'd been fighting in the flock, and it tugged at Jack's heart to see him like that. Before Sandy could even warn him not to, the teen had already swam over and helped the dragon onto a patch of ice. "There, there little whirly bird. It's never fun being the smallest in the family is it? Too easy a target to get picked on." He tried to pat it on the head but quickly retracted his hand when it snapped its jaws at him.

"Nasty little whirly bird! Don't bite his majesty!" Sandy bopped the dragon on the head, earning a surprised hiccup from the creature.

A small head broke through the water's surface. A little orca calf swam up to Jack and nuzzled his cheek. "You were gone for so long and I missed you and it's scary being alone!" The calf, named Tooth for the little nubs she had that were technically teeth, swam around Jack's tail excitedly at the sight of the little dragon. "What's that? You know your father won't like that!"

Jack rolled his eyes but gave the calf an affectionate hug. "Since when have I cared what father thinks?" He rested his chin back on his arms, observing the dragon who had yet to fly off. "And it's called a whirly bird. Isn't he fascinating? Sandy says they scream really loud and blow fire. I think this one is the runt of the pack." The little dragon had ceased its nervous pacing as it adjusted to the new company, its gaze turning curious towards the teen.

"It's ugly, isn't it? Not pretty like my parents or your tail," Tooth whispered, nudging the dragon with her nose.

"I think it's beautiful. And look at its little wings! It's amazing it can fly with such little things." He reached out to touch the dragon and this time didn't get warned away. "Oh! It almost feels like fish scales! But much harder and rough." The more he pet, the more the dragon got comfortable and tried to curl up against him. Jealous, Tooth squirted the dragon with water and nuzzled against Jack. The whirly bird scrubbed furiously at its face, trying to get the water off. It hissed at the orca before turning and flying off to catch up with the flock. The merman's lips fell into a frown. "Awww. Why'd you have to do that, Tooth? Now he'll never trust us again." Tooth made a little squeak of sadness and nuzzled under his chin.

"It'll come back. Little, nasty whirly birds like it here because of yummy fish." Sandy flapped his wings. "That whirly bird will come back. Always stealing my fish."

Jack sighed, but shrugged his shoulders. "Oh well. I guess it was never meant to be." He jumped all of a sudden and shouted, "Ow!" Reaching beneath the waves, he pulled back an angry looking little gray and blue crab who still had one claw clamped onto Jack's tail. "Well, well. If it isn't the Royal babysitter."

The crab snapped its free claw at the prince. "Shut yer trap, mate. Ya know well that ain't ma job! Yer father's furious ya didn't show up to trainin'." He finally released his grip on the tail and hopped onto the ice to stare the prince in the eye. "Do ya know what he'll say when he finds ye've been up here again? And ye've missed another trainin'? I swear ya've miss more sessions then ya haven't."

"So you're not the royal babysitter but you've come to retrieve me? Sure sounds like a babysitter to me." He could barely contain his smile. There were few things he enjoyed as much as annoying the crab. "I should make you a name tag. It'll say 'E. Aster: Royal Babysitter.'" If the crab could change its pigment it surely would have turned red with anger. Instead, he settled for pinching the prince on his pert little nose.

"You're no fun, Aster!" Tooth squirted the crab with water and clicked with laughter. Jack rubbed his nose but laughed at the crab too.

"Ye betta get yer tail back to the castle before he gets even angrier." Aster pointed a claw at the darkening sky, the first sign of a storm coming. He then scuttled off the edge of the ice and started his way back to Santoff Clausen.

"See ya next time, bud. And stop falling asleep out in the middle of the ocean. Some day something a lot meaner than me is gonna catch you out here." Jack sighed but pushed off the ice and followed the crab down after giving a last wave to Sandy.

Sandy's muffled squawk of indignation was muffled by the waves. Tooth swam around Jack, tickling his belly with her dorsal fin. "I got so distracted by the whirly bird that I forgot to tell you something veeeeeeery important."

"What was it, Tooth?" He playfully pushed her away so she'd stop tickling him.

"I found a wreck! And there's a carved whirly bird on it!"

Jack quickly clamped her mouth shut, hissing, "Shhhhhh!" He gestured over his shoulder at the grumpy crab only a few meters in front of them. Aster was talking back at the two, going on and on about all the trainings Jack had missed and how upset his father was going to be. He was so busy talking, really to himself, that he didn't notice the merman and orca falling behind and then darting off in the other direction. "So where is it? Show me, show me!"

Tooth nodded and led Jack to an area of angry, jagged icicles jutting up out of the sea. There was a ship trapped in the ice, a huge hole in the bottom flooding half of it. "Here it is!"

The merman carefully ran his hands over the carved dragon at the crest of the ship. "This looks like a whirly bird for sure but not like the ones we saw. This was much much bigger. Could you imagine if this one had wings?! It would be able to fly for ages without getting tired! I wonder if there's one that looks like this out there." The prince ducked inside the jagged hole in the hull of the ship. "Look at all this stuff, Tooth! These two-legs must have seen tons of whirly birds!" He darted around the cabin excitedly. After prying open a chest in the corner, his jaw nearly dropped. "Whoa."

He pulled out a book and settled on the floor of the ship to look through it. The pages were already starting to deteriorate in the ocean water, but that wasn't a problem for Jack. He carefully froze each page in a sheet of ice so thin it protected the paper while still letting him see the contents. Each page was filled with information of every known dragon to the two-legs. "Look! It's a thunderdrum! We have those guarding the treasury at home." Jack turned each page reverently, drinking in the new information.

Tooth clicked at one picture and hid behind Jack's shoulders. "That one looks scary. I wonder if they eat lovely whales like me."

"If it's as big as it looks it might." Jack snapped the book shut and grinned. "Let's go back to the palace and see what more we can learn." He readied himself to leave, gathering as much of the other dragon things he could find.

At the hole in the hull, a huge Scauldron glared at Jack and Tooth, licking its long fangs. Tooth squeaked, "Jack! Swim!" She swam away as the dragon charged at them.

Jack clung desperately to his treasured book and tried to swim after Tooth, summoning up a wall of thick ice to protect their retreat. The two sighed in relief when they made it safely out the other side of the ship. A loud crack from behind froze them in their tracks, and they turned to see the ice breaking as it was blasted from the other side. "Tooth!" Jack darted further back, dragging Tooth with him, just in time to see the dragon's head break through the hole it had made in the ice. It tried to snap at them but couldn't quite reach far enough.

"Jack, I'm scared," Tooth squealed, as the sound of a muffled horn reached them. The Scauldron's jaws snapped shut, and it gave Jack one last look before leaving. It jet through the water and crashed through the waves with a flurry of wings and water drops.

"It's okay. We're safe now." He gave the orca a gentle one armed hug.

"What was that noise? It made that scary scauldron go away!"

"I'm not sure, Tooth. Whatever it was surely didn't come from the ocean." He glanced up at the surface. "Was it two-legs, do you think? Or maybe there's another whirly bird up there?"

"Whatever it was, it sounded almost as scary as that one."

"Should we go see if it's up there?" Even though he was shaken from the encounter too, he couldn't help his curiosity.

"If it's bad, we can tell your father and he can get rid of it."

"Or if it's bad it could kill us." It didn't take much thinking before he shrugged. "Let's investigate." Jack swam towards the surface and some ice floating on it, planning to use it as cover. When he broke the surface to look out, his hair blended perfectly with ice, leaving him perfectly camouflaged.

A fleet of ships passed by, each one with a carved dragon as their masthead. The scauldron was on the deck of the first ship, dipping its head to be stroked by a teenage boy. Tooth squeaked and nudged Jack's neck. "What is that?"

"The two-leg?"

"It's so small."

"He looks almost my size. Are you saying I'm small?" He lifted an eyebrow at her.

"No. But without his lovely tail he looks funny. He probably can't swim like we can."

"No two-leg could swim like us. But he can walk. He can fly a whirly bird with those legs," he sighed jealously.

"Your father would kill us if we got closer…"

"He'd kill us for being up here at all. So why not go for it?" He gave a conspiratorial grin before slipping into the water again to get closer.

Tooth followed close behind and gave a squeak as Jack pulled himself up the bow of the ship. The Scauldron noticed him peeking and gave a small growl, but a pet from the boy had him practically purring. "You naughty dragon. You knew Gobber wanted to fit you for a saddle." The scauldron shook its head and nudged the boy playfully, earning a warm laugh from him.

Jack stared over the edge in fascination. Dragon? Is that its name? he thought to himself.

The boy looked out over the ocean, scanning the horizon. "Now where's your brother, huh? He's just as bad as you, constantly flying off."

All thoughts of curiosity fled his mind when Jack felt his newfound treasured book slip from his grasp and fall into the water with a loud splash. He quickly ducked down and pasted himself to the side of the boat, hoping the two-leg wouldn't care much about the noise.

The boy frowned at the noise and walked to the edge, looking down. "Huh, guess someone dropped something." A noise from the sky drew his attention again and he smiled. "Come on down, bud! Stop showing off!" The merman let out a sigh of relief, almost losing his grip and falling off. He looked up at the new dragon coming down and gasped. The night fury landed on top of the boy and licked his face profusely. "Hey, stop it! You know how hard it is to get that out! Dad will kill you for ruining another of my shirts."

Jack pulled himself up so he could see again. He'd seen whirly birds fly; he'd been watching them for years. He'd never seen one fly so beautifully as this one. A soft "Wow" slipped from his lips before he realized.

Green eyes caught blue and widened. "Hey! There's someone hanging off the front of the ship!" He pushed the dragon off and ran to the edge. He froze, watching the other boy. "Hi."

The merman panicked and let go of the railing, hiding his getaway by covering the water surrounding the ship in ice. Tooth swam over, the book in her mouth. "Time to leave!" Jack took his book from her and the two hightailed it out of there.

"Was the two-leg scary?"

"I- not really? I think he saw me and I just sorta panicked."

"He saw you? Oh no, your father is going to kill us!"

"He can't know, Tooth. You have to promise not to tell him." He gave her a pleading look.

Tooth squeaked and swam circles around Jack. "I won't tell!"

"Good. Now let's go get a closer look at this book." Jack held it to his chest as the swam home, but he couldn't get the thoughts of what he saw on the boat out of his head.

"What are all those strange markings?" Tooth nosed at the pages, which were covered in drawings and runes.

"I don't know. Maybe it's some sort of secret code." He kept flipping through the book. "We've seen a couple of these down in Santoff Clausen. But all the ones that fly above the sea are still a mystery."

"What about that black whirly bird? I've never seen one before."

"Me either. It was beautiful. I've never seen one fly so gracefully." He had a dreamy look in his eyes. "And that two-leg. It was almost as if he could understand what they were saying."

"Ooooh, you like him, don't you?"

"Psssssht. Yeah right. I like the way he can talk to them." His eyes were still glued to the pages, drinking in every drawing he could.

"He has them, but you have me. And I'm much better!"

"I don't know about that, Tooth. They can fly…" he trailed off with a grin.

"I can fly! Just not in the sky."

"I'm just pulling your fin. There's only one like you, and you're mine." He gave her a tight squeeze.

Tooth squeaked and nuzzled happily against Jack. "Are you going to look for that two-leg again?"

"I don't know." The prince frowned. "I know I talk big and all but I can't go against my dad's orders by directly going to find him. If I revealed that merpeople exist I would be a traitor and put everyone in danger."

"You could stay in the water, or hide behind a rock! That way, he'd never see your tail, although it really is very lovely."

"Maybe. I wouldn't even know where to start looking for him. If we haven't run into each other before I don't see why that'd change now."

"Oh yeah...I can ask my mama! She knows everything about everything!"

"No, no, no. Thanks for trying to help but we can't risk word getting back to my dad. If we happen to run into him again then maybe we could see where they go?"

"Follow him? Why not ask Sandy? He won't tell your father."

"Great idea! Next time we see Sandy we'll ask him. Let's go try to find him tomorrow!" Jack quickly slammed the book shut and shoved it under the bed when he heard voices in the hall. Not moments later there was a loud booming knock and the door was flung open.

"Jack!" The angry merman crossed his bulging, tattooed arms over his chest. "What is this I hear about skipping training?"

"Hello to you too, Dad." The prince shrugged. "I skipped. Nothing to talk about."

"Yeah! We saw a big...never mind," Tooth clicked, slinking down under Jack's glare. "We just swam around a little."

"Just swam around a little? You should be training with your brothers!"

"Why does it matter anyway! No one takes me seriously there. I'm just the scrawny, runt of a prince compared to my brothers. Let them protect the kingdom without me."

North sighed, a frown showing through his thick white beard. "Jack, you have your magic. You know you could still hold your own against any of our warriors."

"I don't want to fight though. I know you want me to be strong. I know you want me to be able to defend myself so what happened to Mom doesn't happen to me too. But you're smothering me! I just want to be free to choose my life."

"Jack…" He moved across the room to pull the prince into his arms. All of his anger disappeared, and he rested his chin on Jack's head. "I only want for my family to be safe."

"I know, Dad. I know."

Hope you guys enjoyed the first chapter. No need to worry it won't get finished this time. We've just finished the last chapter so now all I need to do is find time to edit them all (sorry in advance for that).

Reviews are always welcome. I've missed you guys. And JarJar and I are open to any other story ideas if you guys feel like throwing them out. And my PM box is always open.