Under the Sea

Chapter Sixteen

A Worried Friend:

The day of the First Task had finally arrived and for one young mermaid, it was as nerve wracking as it could possibly be. Ariel woke up on edge, hoping Harry wouldn't get hurt too badly during this task. It was only the first one after all-maybe it wouldn't be too bad.

Then again, the way he talked about dragons as he called them, maybe Ariel should be hoping that Harry didn't end up dead rather than merely unharmed. Rather morbid but it was a possibility-one she really would like to avoid if possible. Sighing, Ariel looked at her sisters sleeping peacefully, unaware of the turmoil happening in their youngest sister's life, and quietly swam out of their room. She wasn't in the mood to be interrogated by her sisters again. Well, she doubted she'd ever actually be in the mood to be interrogated by her sisters.

Oh how she wished she could watch the task—at least then she could root Harry on and provide some support that he would desperately need. On the other hand, at least she didn't have to deal with the possibility of seeing Harry get hurt.

He was a good friend; Ariel didn't think she could handle Harry getting hurt and not being able to do anything about it. It just pained her to know nothing in relation to the task Harry was about to face.

"Princess?" a voice called out and Ariel turned to see one of the younger guards swimming toward her. "Is everything alright?"

"I"m fine Thomas," Ariel told him, inwardly making a face at being called 'princess' by one of her sister's old playmates and former suitor. "Just got up early for a quick swim around the castle. I'll return to my room when I've finished."

"If you're sure," Thomas said, swimming away and Ariel let out the breath she didn't know she was holding. How could she get through the day? Well, hiding in her grotto was a possibility but then her father would send out a search party for her. She didn't want to worry him like that. Plus that would probably lead to the discovery of said grotto and that was something Ariel really didn't want to have happen; unsure of her father's reaction would be if he found out that his youngest daughter had developed a fascination with the monsters that had killed her mother.

His words, not her's. After meeting Harry, Ariel knew that not all the humans were monsters. One, at least, was kind and friendly-and about to be killed by a giant beast!

Wait, what was that noise? A strange but faint sound had broken her from her inner thoughts and had brought Ariel back to the present. Following the sound turned out to be tricker than she had thought but to Ariel's surprise her search brought her to the kitchens.

"Chef?" Ariel called out, hoping the elderly cook would be able to know where the noise was coming from, and heard a grunt and an odd scurrying noise coming from one of the pantries. Opening it up, she gasped upon seeing the chef's young aid scrambling to hide a device almost similar to the one in her father's office except this one didn't seem to show the person's face. Ariel couldn't help but wonder how she'd gotten it.

"Forgive me Princess. I'll get this cleaned up soon enough," the aid bowed, trying in her gesture to hide the device.

"What is that?" Ariel asked, ignoring the aid's welcome and pointing to said device and the young girl paled. Ariel tried to give her a calming smile. "You're not in trouble."

"My father gave it to me," the aid said after a few minutes of awkward silence as Ariel silently cursed to herself about the fact that there was no way she could have promised that the aid wasn't in trouble. Should the device find its way to Ariel's father, the aid might very well find herself in a load of trouble. "My family lives in the Black Lake and I've missed them so since travel to and from there is forbidden. I mean no offense to the King of course but communication has been difficult."