Sailor With a Heart of Fire || A DuckTales Story

A New Friend

Three more years had gone by, now Elliot was eight and Delilah was seven. This beautiful summer, Daisy decided to take the kids on a seaside vacation. So far, they were having a lot of fun, getting to see and swim in the ocean every day now. One day, however, Elliot was on his swim, when he saw something truly bewildering. As he turned to look at a nearby coral reef, he saw a girl talking to a few fish. But this girl was no ordinary girl; instead of having legs, her bottom half had been replaced by a sparkly crystal blue fish tail. Her feathers had a light blue tinge as well. Elliot gasped at the sight of her and accidentally inhaled a beak-full of saltwater. He quickly swam back up to the surface where he violently coughed it out, holding on to the edge of a nearby dock platform for support.

"Oh my goodness!" came a young girl's voice next to him. "Are you okay?"

Elliot looked to his right to see the face of the merduck girl he had seen a few moments ago. A face of long messy hair the same color as her feathers, a shiny royal blue seashell in it, and she had a scar starting from the right side of her chin that ended close to her beak.

"I uh...I think so," Elliot stammered.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you," the mergirl said shyly.

"Ah, it's okay," Elliot replied with a grin. "What's your name?"

"Valta," the mermaid answered.

"I'm Elliot. Nice to meet ya!"

The mergirl giggled a bit at Elliot's energetic voice. "You too," she said with a smile.

She shook Elliot's hand in hers.

"What are you doing here?" she asked.

"Well, I'm here with my sister and my mom," Elliot answered. "We're just here on a beachside vacation for a little....So yep. How 'bout you? Where do you come from?"

Valta's smile faded a little. Her eyes drifted to the water under the platform.

"A place I really don't want to be," she said. "I'm running away, and I'm not going back."

"Oh no," Elliot said quietly. "What happened?"

Valta sighed. She stroked her hair, revealing two scratches on her left arm. One on the side of her wrist, the other on her shoulder.

"My parents were...not always supportive," she began sadly. "They pushed their failed achievements on me, and forced me to do them, but I didn't want to. I was a little scared to stand up to them, until one day. When I did, they looked so angry. I didn't even wanna stick around for whatever trash they had to say to me. I just ran away. I'm hoping to get to my aunt and uncle's family soon, so I can live with them instead, but...I've run into a few setbacks; journeying, I've only found squids and sharks that want to eat me," she revealed yet another scar on her right arm, near the middle and the elbow, "and now, I've just found out that there's a big wall separating me from the part of the sea they're in, and I can't climb it because...you know, no legs."

"Oh no, I'm so sorry," said Elliot sympathetically.

"No, you don't have to apologize," Valta replied. "It's not your fault."

"I still wish there was something I could do," Elliot mumbled, avoiding Valta's eyes.

Suddenly, a fish swam near Elliot, probably one of the fish Valta was talking to earlier. It came up rather suddenly, and Elliot let out a small yelp causing him to let go of the platform and jump-fall back underwater. He quickly swam back up, treading to stay afloat. Valta giggled.

"That's just Bernard," she said. "He likes making new friends."

Elliot regained his composure and laughed a bit, the fish called Bernard seemingly smiling at him.

After that, Elliot and Valta swam around for a bit, and Valta would sometimes forget that Elliot couldn't talk or breathe underwater, but he didn't mind. He was really beginning to like Valta, he felt some sort of connection with her. The two swam around, looking at coral, seashells, and even playing with other fish.

"Hey, I have an idea!" Valta said at one point.

"What's that?" Elliot asked.

"Hold on to my shoulders."

"Uh...okay," Elliot stammered, doing so.

"This'll be fun," Valta said excitedly. "Hold your breath," she added hastily before diving underwater.

She swam around, carrying Elliot, until she paused at a rather deep place near the shore.

"Here goes nothing," she said to herself.

She started, and swam faster and faster as she kept going, until finally, she bolted above the surface, diving out like a dolphin with Elliot on her back. They both cheered before falling back under the sea. Unfortunately, the splash caused Elliot to lose his grip, and he fell hard into a small patch of coral.

"Elliot!" Valta cried.

She grabbed his hand and charged for the surface. There she rubbed his back, which had a few scratches on it, and they were starting to heal as she did.

"Elliot, are you okay?" she asked as she moved to see his face, which, much to her surprise, was invaded with a huge grin.

"THAT WAS AWESOME!" Elliot exclaimed. "I've never experienced anything like that before, it was so cool!"

Valta smiled and laughed a bit. "You're really sweet," she said.

Elliot's cheeks flushed a bright scarlett.

"Thanks," he replied. "You're really nice to me, y'know?"

"Why wouldn't I be nice to you?" said Valta.

"Eh, some people just aren't," Elliot said. "But you...I dunno, I feel like I can talk to you about certain things."

Valta's face became a little pink. Then the two locked eyes for a second, and felt something. There definitely was a connection between them; even in such a short time, they had become such great friends.

"Elliot!" Daisy called from afar. "It's time to go Honey!"

"Okay Mom, I'll be right there!" Elliot called back, then he turned to Valta. "Sorry, but I gotta go."

"Will I see you again?" Valta asked.

Elliot paused. The vacation was only temporary, would she see him again?

"I hope so," he answered. "At least one more time before our vacation is over, bye!"

"Bye!" Valta called as he swam to the shore.

Elliot couldn't sleep. He couldn't stop thinking about Valta, or her story, and how sad he thought it was. He wasn't sure what to make of this.

"There's gotta be something I can do," he whispered to himself.

He turned over onto his side and looked out the window. His eyes widened at what they landed on; towards the far left side of the beach, a gray rock wall, probably a good thirty or forty feet high.

"Is that the wall she was talking about?" he asked himself.

His eyes answered the question for him, moving down to the wall and coming to a half-fish girl with long messy hair, sleeping on a rock near the center of the wall, simply dipping the fins of her tail in the water. Elliot sat up in determination.

"I'm not just going to sleep while she's trying and failing to get to her family," he said. "I'm going to get her over that wall!"