Twisted Wonderland | Mickey's Print

40. The Merchant from the Depths

It had been a long time since Yuu had had one of those strange dreams that began with him visualizing the mirror in his room. He had almost forgotten about them.

The infinite-looking gray space was the same as the last few times, and this time he was also wearing a specific set of clothing: a white shirt unbuttoned at the collar, blue pants tied with a red cloth belt, and thick, black boots.

"Hey!" His sister called him with a notable combination of joy and confusion.

He assumed she was dressed just like him, as it happened on previous occasions, but as he turned around, he could see that this wasn't the case. "Hey. Oh, you look so pretty!"

Yukiko was dressed in a simple but nice blue dress whose skirt reached her ankles, along with black shoes. The white blouse, with long sleeves, was accompanied by a midnight-blue bodice. She also had her hair half up with a big, blue bow on her head. "You think so? Thanks, you don't look bad either," she responded just before frowning slightly with disappointment. "But I thought we were supposed to wear the same thing, I really wanted to see you in a dress too!"

"Well, looks like that's not happening this time," Yuu replied between laughs.

The dream images did not take long to arrive. The twins held hands as they found themselves surrounded by a stormy night in the middle of the ocean's surface. "What an intense storm..." Yuu shuddered.

"Look over there!" Yukiko pointed to one large boat sinking due to the chaos around.

"A storm is coming! Hold on tight!" The distant voice of a sailor shouted just before the ship caught fire and got further destroyed. In the midst of the chaos, they could see how a beautiful, young, red-haired girl came to the surface, holding a young man who seemed unconscious in her arms.

"She's saving him from the shipwreck," Yuu observed as he saw the girl fighting against the force of the waves to take him to a safe place.

"She's a mermaid!" Yukiko exclaimed with admiration when she saw her green, scaled tail sticking out of the water. "She's so beautiful...!"

Neither of them had any idea why, but somehow they knew the names of those people they had never seen: the mermaid was named Ariel, and the human, Eric.

After that, the images changed to a much calmer scenario: it dawned, the storm had subsided, and the girl was with the unconscious human on the shore of a beach.

"Look, he's breathing!" Ariel exclaimed, relieved, and she looked at him, dazzled. "He's so... attractive."

"Wow, she already fell in love at first sight," Yukiko commented, impressed.

"Understandable, he's actually kinda handsome," Yuu opined.

"Right? This girl has good taste. Wait, that guy's dressed just like you! See?"

Now that the young man was about to wake up, the beautiful mermaid began to sing to help him come to his senses, proving to have a wonderful voice that mesmerized even the twins. After the human started to open his eyes weakly, Ariel stopped singing and hurried to hide in the sea when it resounded the barking of a dog and a male voice calling the young man.

"Prince Eric!" Exclaimed with relief a kindly-looking older man, whom they recognized as Grimsby, as he helped him up.

"A girl rescued me... She had... The most beautiful voice!" The young man murmured, still dizzy from the accident and dazzled by his savior, of whom he could only remember her red hair and, of course, that distinctive voice. He wondered if he could find her again with just those clues.

"I see he fell too," Yuu commented.

The old man assumed he was just delirious from swallowing too much seawater and helped him walk back to the big castle over the cliff.