Leonardo pacified little Raphael. "Your father was my closest friend when he was still alive. I hadn't been with you, but we can start now. I'm taking you to my palace."

            With tearful eyes, young ten-year old merman Raphael looked up to the face of the kind king. He wiped his tears, stood and held his extended hands. From then on, Raphael lived with the king inside his magical blue palace on the deepest of the sea and slept in a grand room with a soft and dry bed. Raphael lived in the underwater and magical blue palace where the sea water reached up to the waists of adult mermen. Mermen could breathe under the sea, but they could breathe better above on the sea surface where they could see the beautiful islands in the wide sea. Ordinary mermen would usually swim upwards to the sea surface and