“Where do you think the Titanic’s lost sea chest of treasure is hiding?” Frederick asked, gliding low over the ocean floor where the sand rippled like brushed silk and the current hummed through coral branches.
King Maris of the Kingdom of Kaimana did not answer at once. The lantern shells lining the throne hall cast a steady pearl glow over stone pillars and carved reefwork. It was a gentle light. Frederick used to think it was beautiful. Lately, he wondered if anyone beyond their borders even noticed it.
“You’ve searched every ridge north of the kelp forests,” King Maris said. “What are you truly hunting?”
Frederick’s tail curled tighter. “Opportunity,” he replied.
He did not say the rest. He did not say that traders from the neighboring land of Nokauakau had laughed when they compared Kaimana’s pearl lanterns to their King Saewine’s golden towers. He did not say that once—years ago—Saewine’s sons had circled him and called him small.
But the memory rose anyway.
He had been six when he first saw Nokauakau. The towers had risen from the seabed like coiled suns, plated in gold so bright they made the water shimmer. Gems studded the arches. Even the guards’ armor flashed.
Frederick had hovered, breathless.
Two older seahorses had swum around him, their movements lazy with confidence.
“So this is Kaimana’s heir?” one had said.
“He looks lost already,” the other added.
Frederick remembered how hot his face felt. He remembered staring up at the towers and promising himself that one day he would build something brighter.
Now, in Kaimana’s softer hall, the promise still burned.
“The Titanic sank with jewels,” Frederick said. “If even one sea chest remains unfound, it should belong to us.”
King Maris descended from the throne. His scales bore faint scars from storms long past.
“Gold reflects light,” he said. “It does not create it.”
Frederick knew the saying. It was carved above the nursery pools. He also knew how easily light could be outshone.
“I don’t want our kingdom to feel… smaller,” he said.
King Maris regarded him carefully. “Smaller to whom?” he asked.
Frederick had no answer that did not sound foolish.
“Build what endures,” King Maris said at last. “Not what dazzles.”
Frederick bowed. But later that night, he scratched a message into a smooth shell and left it where the morning current would carry it to his father:
I will return with something worthy of Kaimana.
Then he swam north alone.
The farther he traveled, the harsher the ocean became. The water thinned with cold. Storms rolled overhead, their force pressing through the depths. Once, a shark shadow paced him until he wedged himself beneath a rock ledge and waited, heart hammering.
Still he pressed on. Each hardship felt like proof he was meant for something greater.
On the seventh day, a storm caught him broadside and flung him against an island shore. He struck sand hard and lay stunned.
When his vision cleared, he saw it.
A sea chest half-buried near the tide line. Rusted iron bands. Barnacles clinging to the corners. The lock thick and unbroken.
Frederick’s breath caught.
He had found it.
“Well, look at that,” a voice said.
Frederick whipped his head toward the voice.
Three pirates stood between him and the sea.
The tallest wore an eye patch and leaned lazily on a spear, as if bored. The second—a broad, square-shouldered sailor—kept adjusting the brim of a weather-beaten hat. The third, thin and sharp-faced, twirled a rope with theatrical flair.
“A prince with good timing,” the thin one said, grinning.
“That chest belongs to Kaimana,” Frederick said, trying to keep his voice level.
“Belongs to whoever digs it up,” the broad pirate said with a snort.
Frederick shifted his weight. “My father would compensate you generously,” he said.
“Hear that? Generously,” the thin pirate said, bowing.
The eye-patched captain stepped forward. Unlike the others, he did not grin. “We prefer certainty to generosity,” he said.
Frederick’s pulse quickened. “You don’t understand,” he said. “That treasure would secure my kingdom’s future.”
“Your future,” the captain corrected quietly.
The accuracy of it stung.
Frederick’s gaze flicked to the water. If he could reach it—
He lunged.
The rope snapped around his tail mid-stride. The thin pirate laughed in delight.
“Quick little heir,” he said.
Frederick twisted hard, slipping one loop free and nearly gaining the tide. Hope flared—then the broad pirate slammed him back into the sand.
The captain crouched beside him. “Tell us about Kaimana’s vault,” he said calmly. “How many guards. Where the coral walls thin.”
Frederick clenched his jaw.
The thin pirate leaned close, smiling. “You wanted to prove yourself, didn’t you?” he said. “Here’s your chance.”
The words felt like hooks.
Frederick said nothing.
The captain rose. “Tie him,” he commanded.
This time the knots were brutal. A heavy lead weight was lashed to Frederick’s tail.
“Please,” he heard himself say. The word felt strange.
The broad pirate hesitated a fraction of a second—then looked away.
“Overboard,” the captain ordered.
Frederick was dragged to the plank.
He kicked once, twice—and then the ocean swallowed him whole.
The weight dragged him down with merciless speed. The light above shrank to a pale coin. He fought the ropes, panic shredding his breath. The seafloor struck him hard enough to rattle his teeth.
He pulled again and again until his muscles trembled. Nothing gave.
A diamond drifted down beside him, spinning lazily before settling in the sand.
For a long moment, Frederick could only stare.
He had chased brightness all his life. Now it flickered inches from his face, unreachable.
Cold seeped inward. His thoughts slowed.
He saw Nokauakau’s towers. He saw himself small beneath them. He saw the moment he decided gold would fix everything.
It had not.
He imagined Kaimana’s pearl lanterns glowing steadily in the hall.
Frederick closed his eyes.
A flash of warm color cut through the dark.
“Don’t drift,” a voice said sharply.
Frederick forced his eyes open. A red-orange seahorse hovered above him, movements quick and precise.
“My name is Naia,” she said.
She pressed a shard of shell to the rope and sawed carefully. The fibers frayed.
“You’re heavier than you look,” she muttered once, bracing herself against the current as the weight finally dropped.
Frederick almost smiled despite himself.
The final knot loosened. He rose in a rush of water, lungs burning.
Naia steadied him as they reached clearer current.
Frederick glanced back toward the diamond below. It gleamed faintly.
“That nearly killed me,” he said.
Naia studied him, not the diamond. “Why were you down there alone?” she asked.
Frederick hesitated. The old answer—for glory—felt hollow.
“I was tired of standing beneath someone else’s towers,” he admitted.
Naia’s expression shifted—just slightly. Not pity. Something closer to recognition.
“Small compared to who?” she questioned.
“Everyone who shines louder,” he said.
Naia gave a short, breathy laugh. “Louder isn’t the same as brighter,” she said.
Frederick followed her gaze as sunlight filtered down in long beams, catching coral edges and fish scales in quiet brilliance.
He had swum past this light for years without seeing it.
“I don’t know the way home,” he said.
Naia nodded once. “Then we’ll find it,” she said.
They traveled south through gentler water. Frederick swam more slowly now—not from weakness, but from thought. He told her about Nokauakau. About the laughter. About promising himself he would outshine it.
Naia listened without interrupting.
“And if you had found the chest?” she asked eventually.
Frederick considered. “I would have built something taller,” he said. “Brighter.”
“And then what?” she asked. “When would it have been enough?”
He had no answer.
They passed a reef where tiny lantern fish pulsed softly in the shade. Their light was faint, but together it made the cavern glow.
Frederick slowed, watching.
Not dazzling. Not loud.
Just steady.
He felt something settle in his chest.
When Kaimana’s towers finally appeared, Frederick’s heart thudded—not with ambition, but with relief. The pearl lanterns glowed like familiar stars.
King Maris swam forward at once. He did not scold. He did not question. He simply pressed his snout gently against Frederick’s forehead.
Frederick swallowed hard. “I was wrong,” he said quietly.
King Maris’s eyes shone. “You are home,” the king declared.
Frederick turned to Naia. “She brought me back,” he said.
Naia bowed with reverence. “My father is King Saewine of Nokauakau,” she said.
The old sting flickered—and faded.
Frederick looked at her, remembering her bracing against the current, muttering about his weight, refusing to let him drift. Gold towers had never done that.
“I used to think I needed to outshine your father,” Frederick said. “Now I think I needed to see more clearly.”
Naia smiled. The lantern shells along the hall walls glowed steadily around them.
Their light had never been small.
Somewhere far below, a diamond still rested on the ocean floor.
It would glitter alone for a very long time.
Frederick did not miss it.
Copyright 2020, 2026 Jennifer Waters
Pen Jen's Inkwell Podcast version:
“Where do you think the Titanic’s lost sea chest of treasure is hiding?” Frederick said, swimming along the ocean floor.
The blue-green seahorse had scoured the ocean for years, wondering who had acquired the chest, and if he could find it.
“I’m not sure, Son, but if it’s around here anywhere, I’m sure you’d know,” King Maris said, sitting on his throne.
The British ocean liner Titanic sank into the North Atlantic Ocean on April 15, 1912, with precious jewels and diamonds, and no one had been able to locate all of its rumored treasure: gold rings, earrings, broaches, necklaces, pocket watches, and cuff links.
“I just don’t want to be like Uncle Makai who lost his kingdom because he ran out of treasure,” Frederick said.
“Son, he lost his soul before he ever lost his treasure,” King Maris said, reminding his only child that character mattered.
King Maris had ruled the Kingdom of Kaimana; his father, King Llyr, ruled before him; and next in line was Frederick.
According to oceanic legend, a sea chest with millions of dollars of treasure from the Titanic was still missing.
For at least a century, pearls, diamonds, rubies, emeralds, and gold and silver coins from the British ocean liner have tossed in the sea waves. However, no one had captured the fortune to make it their own.
“I can’t imagine running the kingdom without having more treasure than our neighboring kingdoms,” Frederick said. “You’re a greater king than the rich King Saewine of the Kingdom of Nokauakau, and I will not be overshadowed by him or his sons. How could you let me be prey to thieves and enemies? I’ll outdo you, Dad, and stock up on wealth.”
“Frederick, we have so much wealth! Instead of looking for more treasure, don’t squander what we have,” the King said.
“I know you think we have enough gold and silver, but what if we run out and need more?” Frederick said.
“If I’m the next king, then we will need more wealth than what we have now, so I can build my own kingdom,” he added. “It will be a bigger kingdom than yours, or King Saewine, and it will last forever. I hope one day a statue is made of me.”
He rubbed up against the large monuments of his father with Poseidon, “God of the Sea,” also known as Earth-Shaker. The gold and silver monuments erected by his father stood tall on the ocean basin and towered over the average seahorse.
“Find a bride as your princess and start a family. Forget about trying to amass more riches that will rust,” the King said. “Then, your mother and I would be prouder of you than if you found any hidden sea chest. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. What good is it for you to gain the whole ocean and lose your soul?”
“Yeah, Dad, but you’ll see that I was right when I make you richer than any king in the ocean,” Frederick said.
Later that night, when the ocean had grown dark, Frederick set out on an expedition without his father’s consent.
“Dear Father, I’m going to find the hidden sea chest. Be back soon. Yours truly, Your Son,” he wrote on a seashell.
When King Maris found the note in the ocean sunlight, he wept tears of remorse, believing his son was lost. “If we ever see our son again, it will be a miracle,” King Maris said to his wife, Queen Maris. “I hope he returns . . .”
After weeks of swimming past sharks in the fierce ocean waves, Frederick washed ashore on an unknown island. When he opened his eyes, he found himself lying next to a sea chest of treasure, guarded by pirates with sharp swords.
“Ahoy! Shiver me timbers! Is this the treasure that you’ve been looking for?” the pirate with an eye patch said. “Aren’t your hearties coming for you? Are you trying to hornswaggle us? You must have a bounty on your head!”
“I told my father that I would recover the sea chest for Kaimana,” Frederick said, breathing heavily on the sand.
“Aye, aye! I’m an old salt and seadog! You’re a scallywag. Why did you think it would be so easy to find the treasure?” the pirate said, now placing a knife at Frederick’s throat. “You can visit Davy Jones’ Locker at the bottom of the sea.”
“Please let me go. Just let me back in the ocean. I want to go home to my father. He’ll be worried,” Frederick said.
“Yo ho ho! Oh, sink me, now you want to go back to your daddy, do you?” the pirate grumbled, singing a chantey song. “You’re a son of a biscuit eater! Are you three sheets to the wind? For trying to run a rig on me, you’re walkin’ the plank. If you survive, then you can find your way home to your daddy and your little kingdom and booty!”
The band of pirates wrapped Frederick up in ropes attached to a lead weight, took him out on their ship, and bounced him off the plank. Frederick sank to the bottom of the ocean, faster than any sea chest would have sunk.
“Lad, take that ‘er loot with you!” the pirate yelled at Frederick, tossing a large, shiny diamond to the ocean floor with the seahorse. “Dead men tell no tales! Batten down the hatches, sailors! And get me a clap of thunder! Yo ho ho!”
“How am I going to get out of these ropes?” Frederick said, burping one bubble after another. He slowly watched the shiny diamond as it dropped next to his nose on the bottom of the ocean. “So close, but so far away,” Frederick said, considering his fate. “I guess a diamond can’t really help me now.”
Wrestling in the ropes attached to the lead weight only made Frederick more tired and certain of his demise.
“If I die here, Father and Mother will never forgive me. I told them that I was going to bring back a treasure,” he said.
Days went by, and Frederick still struggled to break free of the ropes. He despaired until the point of death. As he was just about to give up hope, he thought he was having a vision, but then again maybe not.
“My name is Naia,” a gorgeous red-orange seahorse said, swimming in Frederick’s direction. “Let me save you . . .”
“Oh, well, I don’t need your help. I’m fine,” Frederick said, uncurling his tail and kicking it against the ocean’s sand.
“You don’t look fine to me,” Naia said, ignoring his protest and unraveling the ropes secured by the pirates.
“Thank you. I really do appreciate your help,” Frederick said in a soft voice. “I was searching for a sea chest.”
“A sea chest?” Naia said. “That old chest that sunk off the Titanic? It was just a drop in the ocean. Look at all the ocean’s beauty. It’s so colorful and brilliant. I can hardly believe how fortunate I am to swim in the ocean.”
“Yep, I know what you mean,” Frederick said, realizing just how beautiful Naia’s blue eyes were in the sunlight.
He glanced at the shiny diamond, realizing how little it now meant to him, especially compared to Naia’s eyes.
“Would you like to meet my mother and father?” Frederick said. “I haven’t been home for a while . . .”
“Of course, I would,” Naia said. “First, let me send word to my father that I will be gone for a few days.”
“Now run along and tell Father that I went on a trip with a friend,” Naia said to her friend Guppy. “I think this is true love. Tell him that I will send word if there is going to be a wedding. He would need to give me away . . .”
“I got a little lost, Naia,” Frederick said. “Thank you for helping me find my way home. My family misses me.”
Not giving the diamond another thought, Frederick swam off with Naia, grateful for someone who cared about his freedom.
After days of swimming in the ocean, Frederick and Naia had danced in the waves to more than one melody.
“Do you have a seahorse in mind to be your wife?” Naia said, trying to nudge Frederick into admitting he admired her.
“Oh, no, not really,” Frederick said, looking in the other direction. “I was trying to gather wealth first . . .”
“Well, then, maybe I should just swim back to my father and let you go on your way to your parents,” Naia said.
“No, don’t do that,” Frederick said. “I would miss you terribly, and I’d probably be lost again in no time.”
Despite Frederick’s protest, Naia swam off in the other direction, leaving Frederick at a complete loss. He swam in circles, crying and looking for his lost love that he might never ever be able to replace. When he finally found her in an ocean cavern with her friend Guppy, he was afraid she would not even speak to him.
“Please, I’m sorry,” Frederick said. “I didn’t mean to offend you. Now I know that love is more important than any lost treasure. I almost lost you, and you’re a greater treasure than silver or gold. Come meet my parents. They’ll love you.”
“I forgive you,” Naia said, wondering what it would take to help Frederick realize that she was in love with him.
By the time Frederick and Naia reached his father, he knew he would have to ask Naia to be his bride and princess. There was no way that he could risk losing the most valuable person that he had ever met on land or sea.
Otherwise, she would surely swim home, and he would never see her again, even though she had saved his life.
When the two seahorses swam to King Maris’ throne, the King and Queen were as speechless as could be at their son’s arrival.
“Son, I thought we would never see you again,” the King said, after many moments of silence. “We thought pirates killed you!”
“Father, I’ve returned with the greatest treasure of all, a love named Naia,” he said, brushing against her side.
“Naia, will you marry me and help me rule my father’s kingdom?” Frederick said, bowing before the seahorse.
A tear-filled Naia’s eye as she kissed him in front of his parents, knowing that she loved him more than anyone.
“It would make me happier than anything to be your wife,” Naia said. “In fact, my father, King Saewine, is the richest king in the ocean, and he would gladly give his treasure as my dowry. I knew when I saw you that it was true love.”
“Your father is King Saewine?” Frederick said, feeling foolish that he had tried to build a kingdom bigger than his.
“Why, yes? Have you heard of him?” Naia said, smiling with pride at her father’s good name in the ocean.
“Yes, we’ve heard of him,” King Maris said, looking at Frederick. “We will hold the wedding here!”
“I’m the richest seahorse in all the ocean!” Frederick said. “And it has nothing to do with that silly old sea chest!”
Ever since that day, Frederick and Naia were richer than any fish in the sea, bird in the sky, and living creature on the ground. Love had given them everything they needed, even if they never owned the treasure from the Titanic’s sunken chest.
Copyright 2020 Jennifer Waters
https://soundcloud.com/jen-waters/frederick-the-seahorse
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