"Oh, Flounder, why can't you just tell me what this is all about?"
"You'll see! It's a surprise!"
Flounder dragged Ariel to her grotto, where he promised her a grand surprise. To Ariel's amazement, the life-size statue of Prince Eric that had sunken during the explosion of the ship was placed in the middle of the grotto. Ariel gasped.
"Oh, Flounder!" cried Ariel. "You're the best!" She hugged Flounder and swam over to the statue. "It even has his eyes!" She looked at the statue dreamily. "Why, Eric! Run away with you? Why, this is all so...so sudden!" She twirled around and laughed, until she noticed a dark figure standing in the shadow on her grotto's roof. She gasped. "Daddy!" said Ariel in fear. Flounder hid in an old suit of armor. Sebastian stood behind King Triton, cowering in fear, with a sad look in his eyes.
"I consider myself a reasonable merman," said King Triton. "I set certain rules, and I expect those rules to be obeyed! Is it true you rescued a human from drowning?"
"He would've died!" said Ariel, hiding behind her statue of Eric.
"One less human to worry about!" said King Triton.
"You don't even know him!" defended Ariel.
"'Know him'?" said Triton. "I don't have to 'know him'! They're all the same! Harpooning, fish-eating monsters, incapable of any feeling-"
"DADDY, I LOVE HIM!!"
Sebastian gasped in horror, and Flounder peaked out of his hiding spot with wide eyes.
"No..." whispered King Triton. "Have you lost your senses completely?" asked Triton. "He's a human! You're a mermaid!"
"I don't care!" said Ariel, arms wrapped around her statue of Prince Eric.
"So help me, Ariel, I am going to get through to you!" said Triton, raising his trident threateningly, and it began to glow. "And if this is the only way...so be it." With a wave of his trident, most of the human artifacts Ariel had rediscovered had been "re-destroyed", and with another wave, the remainder of the human objects were destroyed also. Ariel swam up to his trident in a desperate attempt to stop her father. But he had then looked at the statue in disgust and hatred, and Ariel knew what he planned to do.
"Daddy!" screamed Ariel. "No!!!"
With a final wave of his trident, King Triton destroyed the statue of Eric, leaving all of Ariel's grotto in ruins.
He turned away, thinking that what he had done was for the best. But then he looked at Ariel, as she threw herself into the rock in the middle of the grotto, and began to cry uncontrollably.
"Ariel?" asked Sebastian.
"Just go away..." said Ariel breathlessly.
"Ariel, I-"
"I said go away," said Ariel again, depressed, yet exasperated and angry with Sebastian.
With a gesture to Flounder, they both sadly left Ariel by herself.
Two creepy, familiar voices came to Ariel's ears, voices that she thinks she had heard sometime in a dream.
"Poor, ssssweet missssundersssstood child," said the first voice.
"She has a very sssserioussss problem, hasn't she?" said the second voice.
"Who will ease her woes and worries?"
"Who will help her follow her dreams?"
"Perhaps, we know ssssomeone who can help her," said both voices in unison.
Ariel turned around. Two eels were swimming eerily around her. "Who...Who are you?" asked Ariel.
"Don't be sssscared," said the first eel.
"We represent ssssomeone who can help you," said the second eel.
"Jusssst imagine," said the first eel, whose name was Flotsam.
"You and your princccce," said the second eel, whose name was Jetsam.
"Together," said both Flotsam and Jetsam in unison, "forever..."
"I don't understand...?" said Ariel.
"Urssssula," said Flotsam, "has great powerssss..."
"The...The Sea Witch?" asked Ariel. "Why, that's impossible, no! Get out of here! Leave me alone!" She swatted at the eels, and laid back down on her rock, and continued crying.
"Ssssuit yoursssself," said Flotsam.
"It wassss only a ssssuggesssstion," said Jetsam, and, with a flick of his tail, sent the statue's face of Prince Eric towards Ariel. She picked it up, and looked at it carefully, sadness filling her mind, fogging her thoughts.
"Wait," she told the eels.
"Yessss?" asked both the eels in unison.
~~~
Flounder and Sebastian waited outside the grotto for Ariel to come out at some point.
Flounder was crying. "Poor Ariel..."
"I didn't mean to tell him," said Sebastian. "It was an accident!"
The two of the noticed a shadow being cast over them. They looked up, and saw that it was Ariel, being led by two eels.
"Ariel?" asked Sebastian. "Ariel!"
He and Flounder swam up to Ariel and the eels.
"Ariel," said Sebastian. "What are you doing wit dis riff-raff?" He indicated the two eels when discussing "riff-raff".
"I'm going to see Ursula," said Ariel confidently.
Sebastian gasped. "Ariel, no!" shouted Sebastian, grabbing onto Ariel's tail in an attempt to keep her from going to Ursula. "She's a demon! She's a monster-"
"Why don't you go tell my father?" asked Ariel. "You're good at that!" And, with a flick of her tail, Sebastian was whirled off of her completely.
He stood there for a minute, shocked by what Ariel had just said and did to him. He then turned to Flounder, and said, "Come on!" And they both swam after Ariel and the eels.
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...
