Meanwhile in the Verdenshav Kingdom, sailing over the crystal waters of the sea, on board a fine vessel that was managed by the kingdoms best fishermen, a young prince called Gray stood at the railing and lifting his face to the sea air. His dark hair brushed by the wind and his smile pointed toward the dolphins who playfully jumped from the tide.

"Isn't this perfection Lahar?" The young man said to a slightly-older, and more practical looking fellow. "Out on the open sea, surrounded by nothing but water."

"Oh yes it's simply delightful." Lahar responded sarcastically, his face green with sea-sickness.

"There's nothing like it Lahar. Here I am feeling the salt on my skin and the wind in my, miles from the shore and seeing the sun rise over the ocean horizon."

"And here I am about to heave-ho!" Lahar gagged before throwing up over the side of the ship.

Gray chuckled to himself. Lahar had been a loyal manservant to the prince for years, ever since his father had passed away. He was very strict, firm, and unbending in his beliefs. Taking his job as the prince's guardian and tutor very seriously, but he was not without a kind heart and he cared for Gray very deeply. In fact it was under Lahar's guidance that Gray was able to recover from the loss of his family and grow into the handsome, honorable, and caring young man that he was now. Unfortunately the years had also caused Gray to develop a mischievous and roguish streak. One that his servant wished that he would control.

"Your highness, haven't you had enough sea-faring for the day?" Lahar asked. "You've got to get back to court and take up your father's crown."

Gray rolled his eyes upon hearing this. Oh Heaven, not this lecture again. Not on a perfect day at sea like this. Recently Lahar had done nothing but insist that he ascend his late father's throne and become the new king of the Verdenshav Kingdom. But that wasn't the life Gray wanted. Even as a boy, he had never felt at home in the castle. He felt that ship gliding on the ocean surface was where he belonged. Everything seemed more real there. In the tide's swift flow, where everything was wild and free. It was all he ever desired.

"I'm not ready for that yet Lahar." Gray said. "I'm not even the right age for it."

"Only one more week til your eighteenth birthday and then you'll have to-"

"Wear a crown on my head and be forced to wed."

"That'd not exactly how I would put it milord."

Gray just dismissed his guardian and went below deck to help the crew tie down the sail. They were all in a friendly type mood this morning, smiles on their faces, singing folk songs as they worked. It made the prince's frustration slowly become mellow. Then suddenly, his mellowness turned to intrigue when he heard a beautiful voice echoing a song from the waves

"What is that?" He asked, his eyes searching for where it came from. "Do you all hear that?"

"Hear what?" Lahar asked descending from the higher deck.

"I heard singing." He said. "A girl singing."

"You must be hearing things sire." Lahar concluded. "There is no woman on this ship. The sea air is making you unwell, I'm sure."

"Or maybe it's one of Gajeel's sisters." Said one of the sailors on the ship.

"Who?" The prince replied.

"Gajeel, King of the sea, ruler of the merfolk. Every sailor knows about him lad. He's got a sea-beauty for a wife and four fair younger sisters. His second sister is said to be the most lovely, and the best singer in all the world."

"King of the sea. Merfolk." Lahar scoffed. "Nothing but a silly superstition."

"Says you, ya landlubber. But mark me words, the merfolk are real and I wouldn't be surprised if one of them was nearby right now. Ready to steal a poor man's heart and then his mind."

"Indeed, the merfolk can be a merciless race." Another sailor added. "The king himself has the worst temper and he wouldn't bat an eye-lash and sending all of us to a watery grave."

"Really?" Gray inquired.

"Pay no attention to this nautical nonsense, Gray." Lahar said.

The second sailor frowned at the manservant's disbelief.

"But it ain't nonsense, it's the truth." He insisted, shaking a fish in Lahar's face. "I'm telling ya, they live down in the depths of the ocean!"

"Gah! Get that thing out of my face!"

Gray chuckled again. He had heard this argument many times before. Every sailor and sea man in Verdenshav was convinced that merfolk existed. Lahar was absolutely certain they did not. As for Gray, he didn't know what to think. The sea held endless possibilities. You never know what could be out there.

Just then he heard the voice singing again, but it was getting farther away. In that moment, he found himself desperately wanting to know the maiden who owned such a voice.

"There it is again!" He declared.

"Please your majesty, we ought to get back to shore." Lahar said.

"Not while I'm captain! Now follow that voice! To the ends of the earth, if we have to."

"Aye-aye, Captain!" The crew saluted.

But if Gray could see to the bottom of the ocean, then he would know that it was no human maiden who had been singing. For you, fathoms below the ship, was the bustling kingdom of the merfolk. Here the merpeople and other sea creatures lived deep in a world all their own. A world presided over by the just and noble King Gajeel. Years ago, this kingdom had once been ruled over by his wise father Metalicana and his loving mother, but when Gajeel was fifteen, during the time of the great war, both his parents were killed by two human war ships that collided with them. Since then he had taken on, not only the responsibility of a monarch but also of raising his four sisters.

The oldest of the girls was Sherry, who loved romance, beauty, and dreamed of living happily ever after with her one true love. A pretty thing who had many mermen swimming after her, it took some time, but once she turned twenty she found her soulmate in the charming mer-solider Ren. The two were due to be married by next year.

His third sister Meredy, was the more shy and sensitive of the girls. A sweet sixteen year old, who loved to spend her days having polite conversation with her peers or being a supportive shoulder for them to cry on. However she was best known for her remarkable talent at playing the calliope. Yes there was no other who could play the instrument more divinely than her. When her fingers danced over the keys, the entire ocean was in harmony.

Chelia was his youngest sister and the most energetic and playful of the bunch. She was always looking for something fun to do. A game to play, an event to attend, a challenge to seek. She just refused to stay in one place for a long a time. She was also the fastest swimmer in the all the seven seas, faster than even the water horses which was impressive for one who was only fourteen.

Then there was Juvia, his second sister and the third royal child. Now all of his sisters were fair of face, but Juvia was the most beautiful of them all. Her hair was like waves of lavender blue, her white skin was as delicate and radiant as lilies of the valley, her cheeks were blooming roses, and her expressive eyes were as deep and blue as the sea itself. Now Gajeel loved all of his sisters with his whole heart and soul, but Juvia had always been his favorite because out all the sea princesses, she took the most after both their parents. She was spirited and passionate like their father, gentle and kind like their mother. She even inherited their late mother's lovely singing voice. It as clear as ice, as pure as water, whenever Juvia sang, the hearts of listeners would just melt.

Music was a very important subject to the mer people, just as important as it was to the people of Verdenshav. More important even, and nobody loved music more than Gajeel. So of course he spent his free time writing songs, making music, and teaching his sisters how to use their gifts along with his advisor and the court composer, Panther Lily the sea-cat. Lily could teach even a tone-deaf bird to sing with sheer perfection and he successfully turned Juvia into the fairest and most harmonious singer that ever lived. And Juvia loved to sing. She truly did, but that wasn't her only passion in life.

For as long as she could remember, Juvia had always been curious about the world above the waves, longing to see what it was like. To gaze upon the sun and the sky, the moon and the stars. To see the trees, the grass, the clouds, the birds, the land animals, and of course the humans. In all of the sea, there was no other mermaid more fascinated with what lay beyond the ocean surface. Sadly though, this made all merfolk excluding her family, view her as an odd ball. A misfit. Someone who could barely be called one of them because they didn't understand her hobby.

But Queen Levy understood her interests. She was probably the only mermaid who did. Levy was an intelligent, wise, devoted, and equally lovely lady who was Gajeel's childhood friend and eventually became his wife. As children, the two had often swam up to the surface to observe and learn about it. Gajeel didn't pay much attention, but Levy memorized every detail and shared her knowledge with her own kind. Unfortunately, after the former king and queen had passed, Gajeel passed a law forbidding children from ever going to the surface, all mermaids and mermen had to wait until their seventeenth year and they were forbidden to ever make contact with humans. This upset Levy, but she understood her husband's reasons and accepted them.

Juvia spent her time waiting for her seventeenth birthday by listening to Levy's stories about the land and the humans, taking each word to heart and picturing it in her mind. Then she would add what she learned to her special garden that she kept in her private grotto. She made the garden round and planted flowers that were red so it would look like the sun which she had heard so much about. She planted white flowers to resemble the moon and used shells to make the stars. How she loved that garden. It was closest thing she could get to surface before she reached the proper age and it was the only thing that could make the wait bearable.

But as the years went by, Juvia's wait became harder to bear. Especially as her fellow mer people continued to look down on her and even go as to mock her behind her back.

"She is so strange." They would say between whispers.

"I hear she actually tries to make her garden look like that infernal sun."

"I know she's the royal princess, but could you really tell? There's nothing regal about her."

"What a disgrace she must be to her family."

"Why can't she be more like her sisters and her brother? They're perfectly content down here and they don't waste their time being interested in unimportant things like the upper world."

Juvia tried not to let it get to her, she couldn't help but feel so alone at times. She didn't have any friends, and often found herself spending more and more time alone in her garden, waiting and longing for her seventeenth birthday.

At long last, on this very day, the wait was over. Her seventeenth birthday had finally arrived and she was so happy that she woke up with a song in her heart. In fact it was her singing that Gray had heard earlier. She just couldn't help herself. She was finally going to realize her greatest dream.

"Oh Sherry I can hardly believe it. I'm actually going to the surface today." She said as her oldest sister combed her hair.

"If you ask me little sister you're wasting your time wanting to go up there." Sherry told her. "There's nothing really amusing to see."

"What about the sun?" Juvia asked. "It's a huge light that reaches out to almost everywhere in the world. You have to admit that is interesting."

"Yes it is interesting but it's also hot and it can burn you if you're in it's view for too long. And then there are those humans who are just impossible. Always spying on us and trying to catch us with hooks as if we were fish."

"Well you've actually seen them. I haven't, and I've always been curious about what they look like."

"Well I saw one once." Chelia said. "They're not so very ugly."

"How did you see one?" Sherry asked. "You're younger than Juvia, you couldn't have possibly gone to the surface."

"Oh I didn't see him from the surface. He was underwater."

"What did he look like?" Juvia asked.

"Well his skin was very white and his eyes were open very wide but he didn't seem to be looking at anything. He was just floating face down, quite still. He wasn't frolicking or looking for food or anything."

"That's because he was dead." Sherry said.

"Dead?" Juvia inquired.

"Men cannot live in our world nor we in theirs." Sherry said. "We are just too different."

"Well I still want to go up there see them. I want to see everything there is on the land."

"But aren't you a little afraid?" Meredy asked her. "That world can be so dangerous. I hear that they have this red flower called fire which hurts whatever it touches and it can destroy so much. Then there are hooks and nets and knives and spears. If you ever got caught by one of those it would be the end of you."

"That does sound frightening." Juvia admitted. "But there must be more to the world above then just things to fear. Oh it's so exciting? I just can't wait to go.

"Oh yes you can." Sherry said. "First we have to give you our present."

Meredy then brought forth a lovely wreath of white lillies in which every flower left was like half a pearl, and Sherry placed it upon Juvia's head.

"We made it ourselves." Meredy said. "Happy Birthday Juvia."

"Oh it's beautiful." Juvia said. "Thank you."

"And don't forget to see Gajeel before you go." Sherry reminded. "And don't forget about the concert tonight."

"I won't."

Juvia then hugged her sisters and with a swish of her tail, she swam off to meet with her brother.