Prince Namor and Princess Mera are extending invitations to their pledging ritual.

In Atlantis, children who like each other, promise at the age of 11 to get married before the end of 7 years. This promise is always celebrated in a big way. And of course all of Atlantis is topsy turvy when a Prince and Princess are pledging themselves to each other.  Introduction continues below....

Prince Namor and Princess Mera have invited all their friends, and everybody has come from the near and the far islands.

All the water-ghostly tailor workshops in the vicinity were hopelessly overworked in order to fulfill all the special orders by the lively partygoers.

The water-caterpillars in the sea grass spinning workshops were hardly able to keep up spinning all the filigree threads that will make the airy tulles and fabrics for the girls' unique dresses.

It was almost impossible to bear the tension in the shell hair salons for all the excitement about the wonderful and very complicated hairstyles that were in the process of being made. Each girl wanted to look different and more beautiful than the other. As the piece de resistance each of them got a loosely worked in hair plait that was especially designed for each individual hairstyle.

It was Princess Mera's suggestion that it would be fun and quite special for all of them to wear a hairpiece to her party. Non of them had ever had anything like it before so they all showed off their exciting and beautiful hairstyles to each other.

After the hair dresser's they all crammed into the coral mirror hall in their beautiful dresses and with their beautiful hair, for the mermaid beautician. They all received a gorgeous festive make up. The guests' eyes and lips were dotted with gold and their cheeks got a mother-of-pearl shimmer on top of the blusher. This has been made by the lobsters in their oyster workshops, where they crush mother-of-pearl oysters in their pestle and mortars to the finest dust.

When all the work was done the mermaids sank exhausted into their shell chairs and looked happily and proudly upon their works of art.

Let's not forget about the armies of seahorses that made all the colorful nets that have been worked into all the special dresses. The jewelry that is worked into the nets they had to collect from different islands. The shells from Shell Island, the starfish from Starfish Island, the flowers from Lily Pad Island and the seahorses come from the seahorses' workshops. The rainbow fishes took on the job of coloring the net jewelry in their art galleries, because net will have golden shells and other lovely things sewn onto it.

The girls and boys admired each other and their chitchat could be heard all the way to the palace. All the children couldn't wait to see what the prince and princess would look like! What would they wear and what would their hair look like? The tension was high and they were so excited about going to the great party. The pledging ritual of a Prince and a Princess is such an unusual and big event that they all still couldn't believe it was really happening - and they couldn't believe how beautiful they all were. The air was tense enough to burst. Now the seahorse carriages stand waiting to take the party to the palace.

Get ready to dive into the exciting and mystical underwater world of Atlantis!

     Yours sincerely,
         Annette Himstedt