THE LITTLE MERMAID: PART OF YOUR WORLD

SHIPWRECK TREASURE HUNT

I had used magic to get to the Caspian Sea. It wasn't all that hard. I just dived into Lake Erie and used a spell to transport myself there. Once I hit the water, my legs had become a merman tail, and I was on my way to Atlantica, or to wherever Ariel was.

Before the mission, I had made sure that I knew how to swim with a merman tail. I always was a strong swimmer, but I hadn't pursued it as an Olympic sport as immensely as my younger brother Liam did with track and field.

Swimming was the only activity I could do, gym wise, and it has never pained my heart at all. At three years old, I was diagnosed with a heart defect,  and, if left untreated, there was and still is a very strong possibility that I could die. All my life, I have had family members and close friends look after me, and keep me up on my feet. But that's another story for another time.

"Ariel, wait for me!"

I heard a small voice and knew I was in close proximity to Ariel, and her friend, Flounder.

Ariel had grown into a teenager since I had last seen her all those years ago. She still wore the same mermaid bikini top and tail, and her red hair had grown past her hips.

I had met Flounder a year ago when my father and I came to bring back music to Atlantica. He was a little fish with yellow on the majority of his body and bright blue stripes and blue gills. He had blue eyes, which widened whenever there was danger.

"Flounder, hurry up!" Ariel motioned with her hand as I sidled up to them. Ariel knew I was coming and was delighted that I had come from "a neighboring undersea kingdom" to join her and Flounder on this treasure hunt.

I had made that up, because I knew that her father, King Triton, still harbored an immense hatred of humans because of what happened to Athena, Ariel's mother, and his wife. Music had been brought back, but the rules about mermaids and humans keeping in contact were still put in place.

"You know I can't swim that fast." Flounder panted as he sidled up to us.

"Look, there it is. Isn't it fantastic?" Ariel grinned in excitement.

In his own adventures before Ahadi, Mufasa's father had passed and before passing the Scepter over to me, my father had been on many adventures with Ariel and Flounder.

I heard that they stopped an evil manta ray from dividing the Kingdom. This evil manta had made every sea creature turn against one another, but they stopped him by singing together in harmony.

They had befriended an undersea dragon named Simon, who had just wanted a friend or two, and he ended up becoming a friend of Atlantica after preventing some undersea thieves from stealing some gold and King Triton's magic trident.

They tried to get a bracelet charm off of Ariel, who was then afraid to come home because of his immense hatred of humans and "human stuff".

They met a magical grumpy blowfish who was annoyed and cast a curse on Ariel. Every time she laughed, there would be a powerful earthquake. That was resolved.

They even met a deaf mermaid named Gabriella and her octopus friend named Ollie, and went on an adventure to find a powerful starfish that made dreams come true.

"Yeah, sure—I-it's great. Now let's get out of here!" Flounder looked nervous and started to swim off, but Ariel caught him by the fins.

"Come on, I merely just got here!" I protested.

"You're not getting cold fins now, are you?" Ariel agreed as she glowered at Flounder before swimming to the sunken ship, with me alongside her.

"Who, me? No way!" Flounder flitted after us, still nervous. "It's uh, it's just damp in there, yeah. I think I could be coming down with something."