Part of your world

Pay The Toll

It was strange how just five days could change your whole perspective, Seb thought distantly as he was pulled further and further from the light of the ocean's surface.

Almost on instinct, Seb had opened their mouth to scream as the frozen water of the ocean engulfed him, panicking as it filled his mouth, sliding down their throat into his lungs; it was a sensation he had lived with all his life that now felt so dangerously forigen.

As Ursula pulled them closer to the ocean floor, the light from the surface dwindled further, the dark spot where the boat sat slowly fading away in the all encompassing darkness of the ocean floor.

As they finally hit the sand, Ursula released Seb from her vice-like grip, tossing him to the sand covered floor as if they weighed nothing.

Seb winced as the sand hit his exposed shoulders, roughly scratching against their skin, somewhat grateful for the coverage that Ninis blue dress provided, despite how suddenly uncomfortable it had become, the water saturating the soft fabric, making it cling wetly to his skin, seemingly making the cold of the ocean seep further into Sebs already shivering body.

Slowly dragging himself into a sitting position, Seb turned to face their aunt.

"You cheated," he spat out at the woman towering over them.

She just smirked, gripping his chin in one of her hands, jerking him roughly towards her, "I won" she replied, a dark glint in her eye.

"That's not fair" Seb practically screamed, "that wasn't part of our deal"

Ursula didn't respond other than rolling her eyes, leaning down to regain her grip on the blonde, her hand snagging the spaghetti strap of his dress causing him to hiss in pain as it dug sharply into his skin.

He wasn't entirely sure where the woman was dragging them to, but they could guess that it was nowhere good, as they tried halfheartedly to pull away from her grip, only succeeding in making the dress strap dig further into his shoulder.

They finally came to a stop once again they were in some sort of grove hidden within a cave, the water seemed impossibly even colder, Ursula practically flung Seb back to the floor, the blue dress strap finally snapping under the impossible weight of her grip.

For a moment, the two of them were still, Ursula towering over Seb, who simply lay where she had tossed them, unwilling to give her the satisfaction of putting up a fight, ignoring the way she seemed to be dissecting them with her eyes.

"You know, Sebastian, usually I would just transform you into some worthless little creature and watch you live out your days in this place, but you? You're far too good of a prize for that" she said slowly making her way towards them, "King Triton's precious youngest child, what a waste it would be to have you unrecognisable for him"

A lone piece of seaweed floated down from the ceiling of the cave, slowly wrapping itself around one of Sebs wrists, almost on instinct, Seb moved to yank his wrist away, but the thing only squeezed against his skin tighter.

"Perhaps" Ursula continued, as a second strand of seaweed wrapped itself around Sebs free wrist, "I should just keep you like this, a living exhibit for my trophy hall"

Seb frowned at that, trophy hall? They wondered distantly, their main focus still on pulling his wrists out of the bruising constraints, having completely forgone his decision to not give his aunt the satisfaction of a fight as panic built in his chest.

The woman didn't seem deterred by the fact that Seb was barely paying attention to her as she continued her monologue, "your father could even come to visit, let him see what's become of his precious child" she said, a third sliver of seaweed circled around the base of Sebs tail.