Herman, the fire shrimp, is pacing back and forth, trying to think of ways to get back to Prince Ethan. He kept mumbling to himself plans until he falls onto the pile of rocks he once hid in with a groan.

"It's no use, I can't think of anythin'," Herman said as yelling in frustration and rolling around, then stops with a defeated sigh, laying his chin on his open palm, and his brows are furrowed hard. He taps a finger against his chin in thought, perking up when he finally came up with something,

"That's it! It's so simple, why haven't I thought of this before? All I ave' to do is follow my nose; I should know his scent by now.", he exclaims out loud, grinning ear fin to ear fin. Herman starts to sniff around, gasping and perking up when he finds Prince Ethan's scent,

"Found it! Now to follow it." He starts to follow his nose, stopping at the mouth of a big cave,

"Damn! I lost the scent here. How am I going to find Prince Ethan now..." A voice suddenly rings out, seemingly coming from deep in the cave.

"Prince Ethan? The Prince Ethan?!" Suddenly a tentacle lashes out towards the fire shrimp and wraps around him, pulling him into a muscular chest. Herman tries to look up from his squished against the chest, meeting a pair of large oval-shaped, obsidian eyes that shine slightly purple, and his gaze wanders down to a row of sharp teeth, that snaps him out of this stupor then he starts struggling.

"Hey, hey. Easy there, friend, I won't hurt ya. I'm sorry, I scared ya." The tentacle let's go of him, letting him get a good look at his 'attacker.' It was a young octopus merman, Herman takes in his strong jaw and chiseled face with a toned nose. The smaller merman blushes at the attractive octopus mer but shakes it away immediately, glaring at the innocent-looking merman with his arms crossed,

"Not goin' to hurt me!? You were the one who grabbed me out of nowhere!" Herman yelled, huffing. The octopus merman smiles shyly, indigo tentacles with small cyan dots curling into themselves,

"I'm sorry, I just got so excited. It's not every day you meet someone who knows the Prince Of Sturona." Herman brushes himself off, smirking,

"Yeah, I'm pretty tight with Princey. We were actually just on an adventure until we got separated.", he says proudly, although the last part was a grumble. The other merman beams, his tentacles forming an exclamation point,

"I think I saw the prince swim past my cave. Well, it looked more like a mer shaped blur and a big shark, but I'm pretty sure it was him." He jumps onto the other tentacled mer, clinging to his chest and saying urgently,

"Where did they go!?" The octopus merman blinks slowly, pointing past his cave, and the fire shrimp shot off in that direction until he heard the other mer loudly beg,

"Wait! Please let me come with you!". Herman skids to a stop, turning back towards the other, and after a second of staring, he sighs,

"Fine, but you better not get in my way." He squeals, snatching the fire shrimp up in a crushing hug full of tentacle and grinning wide, his sharp teeth on display,

"Thank you, thank you, thank you! I promise I won't be any trouble. Oh! I should properly introduce myself; my name is Jackson. It's nice to meet you." Jackson finally lets Herman go, rolling his eyes and allowing him to introduce himself too,

"The name's Herman. Well, lead the way, Jackson." The octopus merman nods excitedly, wavy shoulder-length deep brown hair floating around him sporadically and grabs the deep-sea prawn's arm, basically dragging him towards the direction of a possible reunion, mindlessly chatting along the way much to Herman's annoyance. Hopefully, they find Prince Ethan before someone else does.

it.