Once upon a time, there was a little kingdom by the sea. It was a very nice place to live. Thanks to the king, everything ran smoother than butter. There were no robberies, street fights, or overpriced goods. Everyone greeted each other in the streets and there were very few quarrels. It was a seemingly perfect kingdom.

However, if you asked the prince (the king's younger brother), what he thought of the kingdom, he would have very little to say. The prince didn't like people, and preferred to stay in his room with his books and maps. From an early age, the prince had always loved to study the sea. He loved to learn about the strange creatures that lived beneath the reach of the fishermen's nets. Sometimes, he would spend weeks researching one particular breed of fish.

One day, the prince decided to go down to the seaside to see if there were any interesting fish for him to study. He put on a heavy wool cloak (it was a cold day), some less than princely clothes, and grabbed a sketchbook, an underwater periscope, and a few books on rare fish. The prince crept out of the castle without his older brother noticing. His brother the king did not approve of the prince's over-studiousness. He was all for learning, but wanted his little brother to not always be locked up in his room with books. The king wanted his brother to meet people, and to have friends.

At the beach, the prince found a small rowboat on the shore, probably left by a small-business fisherman. He put all of his books inside and shoved the boat into the water. He began rowing as far out to sea as possible past the fishing buoys. Once the prince was sure that the water below him was deep enough and far away enough from the kingdom, he opened his sketchbook and put the periscope under the water.

After waiting for about two hours, the prince had only seen a few guppies, a large squid, countless herring, and what he thought to be a very small whale; perhaps it was a lost dolphin? He leaned in closer to the water to put the periscope down further. Something knocked against it and he almost lost his grip on the boat and the periscope. Once he regained his balance, the prince attempted to put the periscope in just a little further to try and see what had almost caused him to fall into the ocean. The prince felt a slight tapping on the side of the scope, next to the glass, then a sliding as something moved up the periscope. It slid around to the front of the scope, and the prince could faintly make out a slight shadow under the water. At the scope's glass, a large blue-green eye appeared, making the prince cry out in shock. The eye was not round and gaping like any other fish's he had seen; the eye was large and glassy and looking right at him.

Sorry it's so short...Hopefully, there will be more next chapter.