𝕿𝖍𝖊 𝖘𝖙𝖔𝖗𝖞 𝖔𝖋 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖘𝖊𝖆 𝖘𝖍𝖊-𝖍𝖊𝖉𝖌𝖊𝖍𝖔𝖌

Near future

      In one modern and ultra-technologically advanced city, which once upon a time was still a small village. If you don’t take into account that there used to be a forest here, two builders lived and worked. Now they were working and building a new building next to the beach, almost close to the water. Two best friends. One was a man, a hefty fellow, who looked like a still young Sylvester Stallone. His friend was an anthropomorphic cat, one meter and five centimeters tall with blue fur. Despite the huge difference in size, he was physically strong and carried bags of cement, while his human friend was hammering the earth and stones with a large electric drill. — Why isn’t anything interesting happening? — the cat thought out loud. — What are you talking about? — the big man didn’t understand him. — Every day all we do is work and work. It's like we're living in Groundhog Day. We just work and work. We are building and building new houses. For some reason, nothing new appears in our lives. — What can you do? This is our life now. We work not for ourselves, but for the sake of others and for the sake of our descendants. In addition, the number of our races is becoming larger and larger every year. We are suffering from overpopulation and each of us needs more and more new houses. And preferably more floors. — It would be better for me not to be in this city. — the cat was indignant. — Really? And I like it here. Honest and kind people live here, prices are low, salaries are high, in general, a paradise for good people and real communists, which one could only dream of. Now, if we all gave up money so that everything was free, then life would become even much better. — the big man explained and laughed. While he was chatting, his electric drill drilled through a crack, which formed a huge hole in the ground. The man and the anthropomorphic cat managed to run away in time and almost fell there. Shining flashlights into the hole, to their surprise there was no aisle. They were so happy as if they had found some treasure.

***

      Calling the boss and the rest of the workers to the place where the hole had formed in the ground, they took several ropes with flashlights and went down. In appearance, everything even looked a little clichéd. Considering that some workers have watched many films about underground cities for a long time. But before that, the cave looked beautiful, shiny, and there were even small waterfalls with rivers. — I can not believe it! Did we really have that huge cave under our city all this time? It’s strange that our city hasn’t fallen under it for a long time due to the weight of the houses. — the boss thought. — So we built them conscientiously. Therefore, they will last even for millions of years and not only will they not fall apart, they will not even fall down somewhere. — explained the blue cat. Having gone even further, they emerged through a small tunnel into a huge open dungeon, where the ruins of a huge castle were found. The builders were shocked, but at the same time they liked what they found. They already thought that if they told someone about what they had found, no one would believe them. The boss left his workers underground to further inspect the caves, but for now they did not touch anything. He himself rose back to the surface to call some reporters or journalists. Construction workers entered the ruins of the palace and examined them. Some houses made of stone bricks were destroyed, some were only half destroyed or simply cracked, and some, fortunately, miraculously survived. — Wow. It looks like this palace was built a long time ago in the Middle Ages. There was no science then. — the big man explained. — But how did he end up underground? — the cat didn’t understand. The big man scratched his chin, thought for a moment, and proposed his theory: — I think this is due to the earthquake. They sometimes visit these lands once every hundred years. Most likely, the palace could not withstand one strong shaking and fell into the ground. Although some houses survived. And that's just the best case scenario. The worst would be if this castle repeated the fate of Atlantis. They went further and found a small pedestal with two statues in the center of the castle. These were probably monuments. One statue was apparently a king, who looked like a hedgehog, and the other was a queen, whom he was holding in his arms. The queen was a chipmunk. The monument itself also survived, but was already covered with dust and cobwebs. Looking down, they saw the inscription on the pedestal - In loving memory of King Sonic Acorn and his wife, Queen Sally Acorn, for the union between the two villages, which were eventually united into one kingdom. The blue cat scratched the back of his head, thinking about the names of the king and queen in whose honor those monuments were erected. — These names remind me of something. As if I had already heard them somewhere somewhere. — This is bullshit! Look over there! There's a she-hedgehog that looks like a mermaid! — his friend pointed his finger at another statue that was behind her. Having walked around the monument to the hedgehog and the chipmunk, they saw another monument, which was also covered in gray dust. However, the gold on it was clearly visible. Yes. If the monument of the king and queen was made of stone, then this statue with a pedestal was already made of pure gold. — Hey! I've seen this statue somewhere before. — said the cat, pointing his finger at her. — Did you see it on TV? — the big man asked jokingly. — No. When I was little and in school. History teacher Rozzeta Lyubovna sometimes gave us excursions. One day we were traveling abroad and when we were studying the writer Hans Barsuchan Anderson, we were shown near a bridge on the river exactly the same statue. A direct copy of this very statue. Only there everything was a little worse. Many hooligans often bullied her. They stuck chewing gum on her, sawed off her hands, put pirate clothes on her, and even shoved adult toys into her hands. — Ugh! — Yep! And do not say! It was terrible. I'm glad that at least this one is intact, despite the pile of dust. And most importantly, it is made of pure gold. The big man, looking at the statue and scratching his chin, took out a clean brush. — Let’s at least clean it a little from dirt and dust so that it looks beautifully made of pure gold and is clearly visible from everywhere. — Let's. — his friend agreed and took out the same brush.

***

      While our friends, like archaeologists, were clearing the statue of dust and dirt, after which it seemed absolutely clean around it, the cat accidentally touched the slab with the inscription on the pedestal of the statue. — Oh! I almost broke it, I need to fix it. — he said to himself and tried to push the sign back. His friend looked closer and noticed that there was an open hole near that stove. The thought occurred to him that perhaps this was a hiding place. — Stop! Don't put it back. Let's do the opposite first, let's take it off. — he suggested and they carefully pulled the slab out of the pedestal. The big man's thought turned out to be true. It really was not just a monument, but rather a hiding place. Inside were some things that could be used in apartments. A lot of different old things from watches to pearls collected into beads. However, among the things, a book wrapped in a bundle stood out clearly. An old note was also attached to it - a message to the future for our descendants. Open and read only in case of my death. After reading the note itself and unwrapping the package, a book with a gray binding caught their gaze. Instead of a beautiful cover on the top left side there was an inscription - The Diary of Amy Rose. — Exactly! That's her! — said the cat. — Well, I think so. Either this is just a coincidence, or in that fairy tale from Anderson, his little mermaid was also named Amy Rose. — “She probably wrote this diary for a reason, but left it as some kind of message to us.” — the big man thought, looking at the title of the book. — What do you think, friend? Would she like us or anyone else to find her diary in the future and read it? — If we don’t look into it ourselves, we won’t know the truth. — the cat explained to him and the big man, sitting down with him on one of the nearest boulders, as if on a bench, opened the diary, beginning to read it out loud: — I still remember all these days and nights as if they happened yesterday.” Many people living on land thought that there was love, but there were no mermaids. However, I knew perfectly well that it was the other way around. There was no love, but there were mermaids. Because I was her myself once. We mermaids all lived together and probably still live at the bottom of the sea in a large and crystal palace. There is just one nuance. When one of ours turns fifteen years old, she is allowed to leave the sea for one day or one night and see how people live on land. — Yep, yep, in Hans’s fairy tale almost everything was described the same way. I remember it very well. — the cat added, accidentally interrupting his friend. — Sorry, continue! His friend continued reading the diary: — At the same time, there were large and strict conditions. We were forbidden to be seen or have contact with people. I had many sisters and many friends, each of them was fifteen years old. Each of them visited land and then returned without leaving a trace for humanity. None of the people knew about them, saw them or heard about them. I knew that we were forbidden to come close to people or try to talk to them, but for some reason, personally, they all seemed nice and interesting to me. I believed that when I turned fifteen, I would swim to land and do the opposite. Maybe I'll even try to talk to one of them. And so, one day I also turned fifteen years old, dear diary. — the big man looked closely to see that the last line of the address to the diary itself had been crossed out. And another small entry appeared below. — Dear readers, if you found this book and are reading, then you will learn a story about mermaids that you may not believe in. However, I assure you that we exist. We are simply forbidden to appear before your eyes and ears. Only I was lucky to once make contact with you. If you are reading it, I urge you! Do not take this story as fiction! Try to understand it and rethink your life in comparison with us. The big man and the cat were intrigued and turned the page, continuing to read.