The Treasure of the Sea is the 5th Special Edition Series.
Description[]
Where is the music of the sea?
Thea Stilton and the Thea Sisters are needed to help another magical land. The music of the sea has disappeared from the depths of the enchanted Land of the Ocean! If it doesn't return soon, the kingdom will perish.
The mouselets and their friend Will Mystery travel to the underwater realm to search for the magical music. On their way, they swim through dangerous waters, reveal an ancient mystery, and encounter many hidden, fantastical creatures -- some friendlier than others. It's an aquatic adventure!
Plot[]
The story begins with the Thea Sisters gathered in Pamela and Colette's dorm after their summer vacations. The five are sharing their experiences and Paulina just finishes giving out souvenirs from Peru (six color-coded bracelets her sister Maria made for each of them, including Thea) when Thea enters with news from the Seven Roses Unit: another fantasy world is in danger, and the girls are to report as soon as possible to the Seven Roses Unit. A helicopter is to pick them up at 6AM the following day so they won't draw too much attention. The Thea Sisters accept the mission, and they begin packing their bags for the mission.
The following day, they're picked up by the Seven Roses Unit's chopper, which takes them to the Unit. Upon arriving at the Unit's iceberg, the group encounters turbulence in the form of an air front, which the helicopter's pilot maneuvers expertly in spite of and manages to land safely. Upon landing, the girls meet up with Will Mystery, who leads them to the Hall of the Seven Roses to explain the situation.
At the Hall of the Seven Roses, they meet up with Jack, head of the Unit's Undersea Research Laboratory, who is there because one of the undersea fantasy worlds is in danger: Aquamarina, the Land of the Sea. The Music of the Sea, the song powering the world, is no longer detectable, and it's up to them to discover the cause. Jack will follow them from the Unit via a computer with a new GPS system the Unit developed, and the information and data they gather in the mission will be downloaded and archived.
The girls go to dress up in the wet suits specially made for them, and the group quickly makes their way via Crystal Elevator to the Turquoise Grotto, where the link to Aquamarina is located. They dive into the water and follow the light, and soon they find themselves in Aquamarina, able to breathe and talk underwater.
Their first objective is to go to Pink Pearl Castle through the Diamond Current, and it doesn't take long to find it and follow it, discovering some fishes with faded scales as well as one giant underwater sea sponge of sorts. Colette tries touching the sponge's soft-looking structure, and as a result the sponge triggers its defense mechanism, ensnaring Colette in a thick pale yellow foam that begins to trap each member of the group one by one. Before they could be harmed (or even potentially digested) by the sea sponge's foam, two purple octopi save them from the foam with their ink. These octopi, however, are Starry Soldiers of Pink Pearl Castle and quickly seize the group as intruders and prisoners upon learning that they technically don't have permission to be there. The group manages to convince the two to let them swim on their own since they're heading to the same direction anyway, and the two dubiously agree.
They make it to the Pink Pearl Castle's entrance, and technically as unwelcome intruders, they have to swim through a precariously narrow passage lined with potentially deadly stinging coral to get into the castle. As they're about to make it to the end, a strong water current suddenly whips by, pushing Paulina directly onto a branch of coral, tearing a hole through her wet suit and causing her to fall into a coma, completely limp and unresponsive.
To cure Paulina, the Starry Soldiers lead the group into the castle to consult the Fairies of the Deep, the castle's healers who have the antidote to the stinging coral's venom. The soldiers explain to a fairy named Cora what happened, and she brings Paulina to the Healing Room. After a while of waiting, Paulina is successfully healed, a combination of the fairies' work and the Starry Soldiers having brought Paulina to them as quickly as they did. Cora asks the soldiers to let the girls go.
Will requests to see Queen Anemone, which turns out to be difficult to fulfill for a complicated reason: Not only is the Music of the Sea missing, but Queen Anemone is grieving the abrupt and mysterious disappearance of her betrothed Prince Nautilus. Nonetheless, Cora and her sister Phylla relay Will's request to the queen, and the queen decides to grant it, allowing the group to meet her. The group quickly explains their reason for being here and quickly learn that the Music of the Sea is played every night by the queen through the Sea Violin, which has been stolen. No one is completely sure who could've stolen it, but the queen suggests the group go past the Infinite Abyss to the Eel of Ages, whose Blue Pearl can give them answers. The fairies haven't been able to consult the Eel of Ages themselves due to a curse inflicted on the Infinite Abyss: any fairy who attempts to cross it will be instantly turned into a fish, and should a non-fairy stare into the Abyss, they will be pulled into its depths, never to be seen again. With this knowledge, the group is given a place to stay at Pink Pearl Castle where they rest up.
The following day, the group sets out on their journey to the Eel of Ages. After passing through the Placid Lagoon they find themselves at the Infinite Abyss, and very quickly do they find that even looking over the edge can pull them in. Their course of action is to hold hands and swim across in single file, so in the scenario where someone looks down, the other people down the chain can keep them from falling. Despite this, however, Violet ends up looking down and being dragged into the Abyss with Colette, and Colette saves her by swimming against the pull of the Abyss.
Once they cross the Abyss, they make it to the Evergreen Plain, where the peaceful sea grass is home to fast constrictor sea snakes that quickly attack the group. The group is inconvenienced by the snakes at first, until Paulina realizes the snakes' deterrence to the flash in their wet suits' built-in cameras. Once everyone realizes it, they use their camera flashes to drive the snakes away.
After dealing with the snakes and soon a field of fast-growing seagrass, they finally make it to the three tall spikes marking the Eel of Ages' cave. The group enters the cave and meets the aforementioned ancient moray eel. The Eel of Ages asks the reason for their presence, and after explaining, the Eel of Ages explains that to consult the Blue Pearl, they have to prove themselves worthy by answering three difficult questions provided by her Mirror of Truth: what color the Golden Sunleaf's petals is, how many pink jellyfish are there in Aquamarina, and what the treasure held by the Sunrise Quarry nymphs is. With only the most minimal of hints given by the Eel of Ages, the group leaves the cave to answer the questions given.
For the first question, they head to the Forest of the Shallows west of the eel's cave. Upon arriving, they try to ask around about the Golden Sunleaf, but the pixies living in the forest are very shy and hide the moment the girls try to talk to them. Eventually, however, they find a patch of strange tomato-like fruits that some of the pixies were sleeping on, which blossom into bright orange flowers when exposed to sunlight. The first question is answered: the petals of the Golden Sunleaf are orange.
Since the group doesn't know where to find Aquamarina's only swarm of pink jellyfish, they decide to find a reference point they can use to orient themselves on the map Queen Anemone gave them, crossing an abyss (that isn't the Infinite Abyss) and going to shallower waters, where they stumble onto the swarm of pink jellyfish near some rock formations on the seabed. The group begin contemplating how they're supposed to count them, until Colette makes a comment on how the jellyfish look like dancers in organza gowns, which gives Paulina an idea: to count the jellyfish properly, the girls are to draw them into an improvised dance of sorts, which will draw the jellyfish in single file and lead them to a designated rock where Will and Thea will count them as they pass by. The tally totals to 103, the answer to the second question.
As for the third question, the group wanders for a bit without finding any sign of the Sunrise Quarry, let alone any sign of life or landmarks. At least until they find a couple of nautilus partners who are rebuilding their home from a hermit crab ransacking and destroying their house. Because the couple is very busy rebuilding their house so they can shelter themselves from the current, it takes Colette giving them her hair tie (which she advertises as something they can use either as binding material or for decoration) for them to disclose knowledge about the Sunrise Quarry and its whereabouts. The group is told to go in a certain direction and wait for the current (the same one they're racing against in their house building project) to take them directly to the quarry. One vague warning about the nymphs and a timely current later, the group finds themselves on a rocky plateau with mother-of-pearl, and right outside the Sunrise Quarry.
Very soon the group meets nymphs Maira and Halia, who tell them that the treasure they guard "is not for them to reveal" and that "their treasure only reveals itself to those who are worthy", which disheartens the group. They're invited to dinner, however, which they accept.
After the meal, Maira and another nymph Galene lead the group into one of their stone houses and present to them a mysterious golden loom with an unfinished piece of cloth strung to it. The Thea Sisters are given a string-less golden spool and are encouraged to weave with a thread they can't see nor feel. Even with tips from the nymphs like "free your mind and heart", the girls are unsuccessful until Pam takes her turn behind the loom. By thinking of something happy and weaving with her eyes closed, she successfully materializes a thread on the spool and uses it to weave a tapestry depicting the Thea Sisters' celebration of her birthday. The nymphs reveal that they have discovered the secret to the Loom of Happiness (which was a gift from Queen Anemone's grandmother as a sign of gratitude for providing the stones to make the Pink Pearl Castle) and the stones are vessels of positive emotions, just like the thread Pam was able to materialize. When woven together, the threads are capable of depicting the stories behind the wielder's emotions, and the reason the threads were able to manifest with Pam was because when she was behind the loom, she was thinking of her affection towards her friends, and that affection is what connects them to each other. This leads to the answer to the third question: the secret the Sunrise Quarry nymphs keep is friendship, the greatest treasure that can exist.
The nymphs let them stay at the quarry for the night, and the next day, the group returns to the Cave of the Eel of Ages to finish their quest. They give the Eel of Ages the answers to the three questions, and as promised, the eel consults the Blue Pearl, which projects a series of images that the eel interprets for the group. As it turns out, the Sea Violin was stolen but the Blue Pearl doesn't reveal who stole it, only that the culprit is at the Moving Dune, a region in the northeast. The culprit is to be eyed closely, because there is some sort of mystery surrounding him. No details are given about the mystery, only that there is a mystery of sorts. With that, the group leaves the cave.
Outside, Will and Paulina deduce that they'll have to cross back over the Infinite Abyss and cross the Windy Channel to reach the Moving Dune. On their way to the Windy Channel, they find a school of faded fish, a mark of the world slowly disappearing in the absence of the Music of the Sea. Soon, however, they find themselves quickly swept up by the Windy Channel and find themselves completely helpless in the channel's dangerously strong current. They are forced to ask help from a pod of dolphins passing by, and the dolphins are more than happy to help them get out of the current.
After making it to the other side of the Windy Channel, the group thanks the dolphins for their help and ask for directions to the Moving Dune. The dolphins point in the direction of the dunes but explain that they'll have to cross the Black Claw Cove to make it to the dunes. Said cove is home to the pirate crew called the Black Claw Crew, a group notorious for robbing travelers and are not to be trifled with. As there's no other way to the Moving Dunes, the group proceeds regardless with a potential suspect for their thief in the Black Claw Crew.
It doesn't take long for them to find the Black Claw Cove and the Black Claw Crew's angler-driven ship the Claw of the Deep. To investigate whether or not the Black Claw Crew stole the Sea Violin, Will and Thea decide to go into the cove to investigate. Almost immediately they're jumped and captured by three pirate crustaceans, and meet with Black Claw Crew leader Captain Aragosa. Aragosa declares Will and Thea their prisoners, and before the two are imprisoned, they explain themselves and that they're here to find the Sea Violin. Aragosa originally perceives the Sea Violin as worthless (meaning she clearly doesn't have it), until she realizes its significance to the world and that she can potentially get a lot of money from Queen Anemone if she finds it and demands a large ransom from the queen. With that new plan in place, she locks Will and Thea in the crew's underground dungeon.
Meanwhile, the Thea Sisters begin to grow impatient with how long Will and Thea are taking to return. They decide they'll go down to the cove to search for the two, but they're rather lost with how to distract the pirates and get them to leave the cove so they can safely search for Will and Thea in the cove, just in case they were captured and taken as prisoners (which they were). The girls quickly find the pod of dolphins who saved them from the Windy Channel coming over to check on them, and Colette asks them for help with their situation. The dolphins are more than happy to help and quickly spin a story about a ship that recently sunk near the Windy Channel with loads of pirate-alluring treasure in its cargo. Crabby and Shelly (two out of the three pirates from earlier who are hidden in the sand) are in fact allured by the prospect of treasure and quickly tell Aragosa, who rallies the Black Claw Crew to set off on their ship to find the fictional shipwreck the dolphins were talking about. This leaves the cove open for the Thea Sisters to go in and find Will and Thea.
It doesn't take long for the Thea Sisters to find the entrance to the pirates' prison, the prison cells, and soon Will and Thea. The girls set out to find a key, and they're suddenly given directions to the prison cells' master key by a prisoner named the Golden Fish, who is a fish with golden scales. (The reason he was kept prisoner by the crew was because his scales are only golden until someone touches them, and the pirates imprisoned the fish in the hopes that they'll eventually find a way to steal his golden scales without them becoming useless ordinary scales.) Moved by the Golden Fish's story, the girls free him along with Will and Thea, and they soon find out after telling their story that the Golden Fish lives in the Moving Dune and can lead them there.
The group heads to the Moving Dune, and they soon learn about and meet the residing (and shell-hoarding) lord of the Moving Dunes, the Cobalt Hermit Crab. The group introduces themselves to the hermit crab, and the crab offers a possible boon in return for freeing his friend the Golden Fish from the Black Claw Crew. Thea simply asks him if he possibly has an idea who could be the thief in the Moving Dunes that stole the Sea Violin, and the hermit crab quickly admits to know who the thief of the Sea Violin is. It's him. The Cobalt Hermit Crab stole the Sea Violin.
The hermit crab is very upfront and blunt about the fact that he stole the Sea Violin, but he refuses to explain his reasoning behind his theft besides his heart not wanting to hear the Music of the Sea. What's more is he does have the violin, but to the group's dismay, he destringed it and placed the four strings in four spread-out locations in Aquamarina to doubly (or perhaps quintuply) assure that the Music of the Sea will never be heard again. The group reminds him that the life and very state of existence of Aquamarina is tied to the Music of the Sea, and the hermit crab considers this and decides to make an agreement: if they can collect the four strings from where he hid each of them-- the cave of Saledor the sea dragon, the Sirens' Bay of the Emerald Sirens, the Sludge Pits of Calamario the giant squid, and the mouth of Colossus the Whale of the Deep-- he'll give them the body of the Sea Violin so they can return it to Queen Anemone. With no other choice, they accept the agreement. The Golden Fish, in a conversation the group has about why the hermit crab could've stolen the Sea Violin, tells them about how the Cobalt Hermit Crab suddenly appeared one day and began building his castle. Since they really have no possible leads in the hermit crab's motives, the group decides not to think too much about it for the time being and splits up into two groups to get the strings more efficiently.
Violet, Pam and Thea set off to collect the strings of Saledor the dragon and Calamario the squid. Their first stop is Saledor's cave, and as they approach they're greeted by a strange sound coming from a string instrument of sorts, and hostility and a jet of water from Saledor. After learning that Saledor was trying to play his violin with the string of the Sea Violin as a sort of performance enhancer (and failing miserably because the string very clearly doesn't belong on his ordinary not-magical violin), Violet is able to convince Saledor to part with the string by proving he can play the violin without needing the Sea Violin string and giving him a violin lesson on the spot. Happy he can play his violin and make music with it, Saledor gives them his string.
Next the three head north of the cave to the putrid Sludge Pits to meet Calamario, who already doesn't take kindly to their disturbing his peace and demands they get lost so he can return to his nap. The girls refuse to leave, and, upon seeing their courage, Calamario decides to let them have the string they want so much if they can beat one of his tentacles in a tug-of-war. At first it seems hopeless, with the three expending energy just to keep the tug-of-war at a standstill, but Thea suggests a strategy where they feign giving up and then pull with all their strength in one go once Calamario's guard is let down. This plan somehow works, and Calamario, though slightly grumpy at his loss, gives up his string.
The three head back to the Moving Dune, and around the same time they make it back, Paulina, Colette, Nicky and Will make it to Siren's Bay to get their first string. The Emerald Sirens direct them to their queen Esmeralda, who refuses to give up the string and expresses the string's value in a song, which the four don't hear since they covered their ears to protect themselves from the song's bewitching properties the moment Esmeralda started singing. Esmeralda decides to agree on a trade: if she gets one dance with Will, they can have the string. The four immediately sense a trap being put in place and are thus initially loath to agree to the "trade", but Nicky offers Will a pair of earplugs and suggests he put them on to protect himself from Esmeralda's singing if it ever comes to that. Will puts on the earplugs and agrees to Esmeralda's deal, but barely a few seconds in Esmeralda discovers the earplugs, pulls them out, and insists Will dance with her without the earplugs if he wants the string. Will agrees much to Paulina's dismay, and Esmeralda begins singing in Will's ear in an attempt to put him under her spell. Will almost succumbs to the song, but a glance at Paulina snaps him out of it. Angry that her scheme to kidnap Will failed, Esmeralda gives up her string.
The four quickly leave the Sirens' Bay and search for Colossus, which doesn't take too long. Very soon the four are consumed by the whale and end up in her mouth, where after recovering from being sucked into her mouth, they find the string stuck on the whale's uvula. They stack up on each others' shoulders to get the string, and they're subsequently sneezed (or perhaps vomited?) out through the whale's mouth and end up on the surface of the water for the very first time. The Fairies of the Warm Sea find them on the surface (which is their territory) and offers to take them back to the Moving Dunes, which the four accept and are taken back to Thea, Violet and Pam, who are waiting for them outside the Cobalt Hermit Crab's Seashell Palace.
With all four strings of the Sea Violin, the group enters the Seashell Palace to fulfill their end of the Cobalt Hermit Crab's deal and take the body of the violin. As promised, the hermit crab gives them the violin's body and tells them to leave before he changes his mind and takes it back. As the group leaves, the hermit crab expresses his foolishness for taking the Sea Violin and how the violin's music will bring him great unhappiness for a reason he doesn't elaborate on.
Regardless, the group is given a ride on the Fairies of the Warm Sea's sea turtles and travel back to Pink Pearl Castle to return the Sea Violin to its rightful owner. Will returns the Sea Violin and its strings to Queen Anemone, who restrings the Sea Violin and plays the Music of the Sea, an intense melody of simultaneous sadness and happiness that brings a shimmer and glow back to the castle and its inhabitants. Such a renewal according to Anemone will slowly spread throughout Aquamarina, and thanks to the group's efforts, its decay and disappearing has been halted.
Queen Anemone asks about who stole the Sea Violin, and the Cobalt Hermit Crab suddenly bursts into Anemone's court before the group could say anything. The hermit crab requests that Anemone stop playing the violin because the sound of its music causes him inexplicable grief and despair, which the queen reminds him that she can't fulfill his request (as everyone knows). The hermit crab soon admits to the royal court that he stole the Sea Violin so he wouldn't hear its music again, confesses that he partially hoped the group would fail to collect the strings, and asks the queen for his forgiveness.
The queen asks the group if the hermit crab attempted to trick them after they fulfilled his end of the deal, to which the group testifies of the hermit crab's honesty in the midst of his sadness. The Cobalt Hermit Crab announces that he must leave before the song is played again, but the queen stops him and says she forgives him of his theft. She plants a kiss on his forehead, and suddenly a vortex of water and fairy dust encircle the hermit crab. When it clears, in the place of the hermit crab is a handsome prince that Queen Anemone immediately recognizes: Prince Nautilus, her fiance. The two reunite with an embrace, and Nautilus explains his mysterious disappearance.
Almost immediately after he proposed to Queen Anemone, Nautilus sought to travel across the Infinite Abyss for an unknown reason. He wound up looking down near the middle of the Abyss at the tug of a dark force from the deep, and he was dragged down. A nearby fish offered to help him and pull him back up, but by the time Nautilus made it back to the surface of the abyss, he had turned into the Cobalt Hermit Crab and lost his memory, the work of the Abyss's cursed magic. Though he had no idea why, hearing the Music of the Sea caused him a lot of grief, a grief he now knows is his subconsciously missing Queen Anemone. When Will's group went to his palace in the Moving Dunes, their determination to do the right thing touched him enough to go to the Pink Pearl Castle to attempt to make things right. When Anemone forgave him, the curse of the Infinite Abyss was broken.
With that explained, Nautilus and Anemone renew their engagement, and the group is invited to the royal wedding. They're led to the royal fairy wardrobe and are loaned outfits they can wear to the wedding, and their hair is even done up by the Fairies of the Deep. The group witnesses Anemone and Nautilus's wedding ceremony and vows, and participates in the wedding party, from dancing to being able to sample the dessert-only reception food, to raising a toast to Aquamarina.
Eventually the time comes for the group to leave Aquamarina, and Anemone lets them ride to the natural link to the real world on the Golden Sea Horses. For a moment the group gets to witness Aquamarina in its restored full beauty until they arrive at a stone bridge that leads up to the surface. With one last look, they leave Aquamarina and find a Seven Roses helicopter waiting for them up above. Will has the girls dropped off at Mouseford Academy while he returns to the Seven Roses Unit to look at the data their adventure has collected. Thea invites them on a walk at the beach, and as they enjoy the sun setting on the ocean, they listen to the Music of the Sea through the rustling of the waves, wondering what adventure they'll embark on next for the Seven Roses Unit.
Trivia[]
- It's inconsistent in the illustrations which arm Paulina was injured on. The impact shot where she's stung shows it's her left arm, the illustration depicting her in the Healing Room show her right arm bandaged, and the bandages as well as the alleged tear her wet suit has is never shown again in illustrations.
- Violet's wet suit is the most inconsistent in design among the girls' suits. Sometimes there are stripe designs on the insides of the pants, sometimes the stripes are on the outside, and sometimes they aren't there at all; and sometimes the stripes are thick and sometimes they're thin. Sometimes Violet's arms have stripes and sometimes (or rather most of the time) they don't, and sometimes her forearms have purple cuff designs and sometimes they don't. The most consistent detail is that her collar is a not-fully-zipped-up version of Nicky's collar and that there is a rim design on her shoulders that is most commonly colored purple.
- Queen Esmeralda of the Emerald Sirens shares a name with the Crystal Fairy Esmeralda from The Secret of the Crystal Fairies
- Even though the Sirens' Bay is closer to the Moving Dunes than the Cave of Saledor (which is separated from the dune by the Windy Channel), it takes all the time Will, Paulina, Colette and Nicky to make it to the Sirens' Bay for Violet, Thea and Pam to go to the Cave of Saledor, acquire his string, go to the Sludge Pits and get Calamario's string, and arrive back at the Moving Dunes.