Lightning struck just after Eric made his statement. Thunder rolled ominously throughout the skies. Dark clouds began to dominate the already dark setting of the night.
"Hurricane a'comin'!" shouted the pilot. "King Triton must be angry, indeed!"
Many crewmen began to work on steering towards the shore.
The wind blew Scuttle to and fro, and he could barely hold on to the rope that kept him stable. And he shouted, "Oh, the wind's on the move here!"
"Careful, Scuttle!" shouted Ariel in reply. The wind forced him to let go of the rope. "Ariel!!" said Scuttle.
"Scuttle!!" shouted Ariel.
On the ship, there was more struggling to get the ship to shore. However, in the midst of all the struggle, something dreadful happened.
"Look out!" shouted Prince Eric, pointing to the front of the ship.
With a huge bang, the ship crashed into an enormous rock, throwing all the men overboard, except for one.
Lightning struck the ship, setting the sails on fire. Ariel gasped. So that's a fire, she thought to herself.
As Eric was rounding up all the people he could find, pulling them up to the lifeboat he was in, he heard a faint barking. He looked up and saw Max the sheepdog, still on the boat, barking for help.
"Max!" shouted Eric. He jumped out of the lifeboat, and he swam with urgency to the ship. He climbed up the ladder that Ariel and Scuttle had been under, and into the ship. He found Max on a burning platform. "Jump, Max!" said Eric, holding out his arms for Max to jump into. "Come on! You can do it, Max!" With a jump of his hind legs, Max leapt off of the platform into Eric's arms. Eric ran with Max to the edge of the ship, but his foot got stuck in the floor. He accidentally tossed Max into the ocean. Max howled as he went down. He began to swim to the lifeboat, as any smart dog would do. (And don't go tellin' me that dogs ain't smart. I have a dog and I love her so much, you'll find it best not to insult the canine species in front of me.)
As Eric struggled to pull his foot out from the ship, a hissing noise came to his ear. He looked back, and noticed that the fire had spread to the chamber where all their gun powder and cannon powder was contained. The powder then exploded, causing the ship to erupt, and Eric was thrown into the water.
The people on the lifeboat gasped in horror, and so did Ariel. She swam around, looking for Prince Eric.
She saw him clinging to a broken piece of wood, unconscious. He slipped off the wood, into the water, and began to sink. But Ariel had reached under and grabbed him, and used all her strength to pull him to the shore.
~~~
"Is he...dead?" asked Ariel, looking over Eric's body with concern.
Scuttle was next to her, examining Eric's body with careless motions. "It's hard to say," said Scuttle. He put Eric's foot to his ear, and slowly put it down in sadness. "Oh..." said Scuttle sadly. "I can't make out a heartbeat..."
Slowly, Eric's chest began to rise and fall. Ariel looked hopefully at Eric's chest. "No, look!" exclaimed Ariel. "He's breathing! Oh, Scuttle, just look at him... He's so beautiful..."
She pushed Eric's pitch black hair from his face, revealing his closed eyes. And she began to sing to him in her sweet, melodic voice.
"What would I give to live where you are? What would I pay to stay here beside you? What would I do to see you, smiling at me?
Where would we walk? Where would we run, if we could stay all day in the sun? Just you and me, and I could be part of your world..."
Sebastian and Flounder had swam up to the shore just in time to see Ariel singing to the human.
Sebastian looked at her, and his mouth came wide open. Scuttle, who had flown beside them, closed Sebastian's mouth as he watched the scene.
Suddenly, a figure came bounding into Ariel's view. It was the creature she had seen on the ship, and it had come barking rapidly towards Ariel and Eric.
Ariel jumped into the sea in a hurry, just as Eric began to sit up, looking around frantically for the girl who had just saved his life.
"Prince Eric!" shouted Grimsby with eagerness, overjoyed to see his nephew again, in one piece and living. Grimsby helped Eric to his feet, and asked, "Are you okay?"
"A girl," said Eric, "rescued me... She pulled me right out of the surf... and she was... singing!" He began to look around in search of the girl he had seen. "She had the most... beautiful voice..." said Eric, as he fell against Grimsby limply, and Grimsby steadied Eric with his hands.
"I think you swallowed a little too much seawater," said Grimsby. "You've heard too many tall tales, my boy."
"No," said Eric, smiling. "This one was real..."
Grimsby rolled his eyes. "Sure it was," said Grimsby. "As real as a mermaid on the rocks."
Grimsby took Eric back to the palace where they lived, and Max barked eagerly to the water, hoping to see the girl again. Grimsby called for Max to follow, and he came to their side reluctantly.
"Let's just forget all dis ever happened," said Sebastian to Flounder. "De Sea King will never know! You won't tell him, I won't tell him! I will stay in one place!"
Ariel sat on a rock, watching her new love walk back to his home.
"Prince Eric..." whispered Ariel dreamily, watching him as he walked with his uncle.
As the wind blew in her hair, she began to sing.
"I don't know when, I don't know how, but I know something's starting right now... Watch and you'll see... Someday, I'll be..." Ariel lifted herself up onto the rock dramatically, as a wave crashed onto the rock she was on, creating a beautiful, yet dramatic, effect. "...part of your world!"
YOU ARE READING
The Voice, The Witch, and the Dark Lord
Fantasy[SEQUEL] Ever since Hermione's memory potion erased the memories of all the events that took place during the Triwizard Tournament, Ariel has lived a quiet life. She resumed her old passion of discovery, with Flounder by her side, and Scuttle to gi...
