A Big Mermaid #Wattys2014

Chapter 21 trading my hair for ariel my dear

Drained and heartbroken, Ariels father slumped tiredly onto his royal seat overlooking a grand hall. The once perfect sized seat swallowed his boney frame effortlessly. His poor, stubborn, selfish, wild, little Ariel.

"Father," Attina swam up to her father ecstatically, excitement evident on her beaming face. "I have more news!" The king gave her a hopeless glare, trembles shooting up his body like spasms. This was DEFFINATLY not the father Attina knew, the couragous warrior that always had hope. Events made people unrecognisable. Faith made people unrecognisable. Many people have been informing the gaurds that they have been hearing Ariels famous singing," She rushed, clinging onto his pale arm.

"Attina," the king grumbled in warning, failing to muster the energy to bellow. "Enough! Stop feeding me tell-tales-"

Suddenly, "lalalalalalaaa..."

Ariels singing.

***

"Oh isn't this dramatic," she cackled heartlessly, crooking her head to allow the sequence of terrifying, eccentric laughter to escape through her slanted, rotten teeth and lipless mouth consisting of sagging, peeling skin (from the amount of others body parts sewn on and then seized off) stretched tightly over decayed gums, halting at the tooth. Her devious plan was falling perfectly into place. Ariel was slowly turning into sea foam, stone had made sure of that! She had gotten Ariels mesmerising, enchanting voice and she knew her sisters would be open to a good trade.

"Oh it is SO easy to manipulate these weak minded, bighearted people!" she wheezed, the motion causing the skin to tighten across her gaunt cheekbones. The mask of other peoples features she had savagely sewn on ripped at the sides, threads running loose so it drooped a little. "When are these rascals going to arrive!" she hissed menacingly, grabbing a handful of stringy veins and a needle to perfect her handiwork.

***

Attina and her father foolishly, in their haze to reach Ariels voice, left the castle without guards or protection. However, sighting their father and sister leaving in a urgent daze, Ariels sisters hurriedly swam behind for help. They stilled to a weary halt outside the sea witches cave. King Triton tensed, knitting his eyebrows together in pure anger. "Don't tell me-" he took a fierce intake of breath, livid with burning rage. He swam forward, staff shielding his chest like a sword.

"You're not going alone father," Attina assured, casting a venemous look at the gaping entrance and the dark fog polluting its surroundings. "No Attina, this is my duty," he sternly ordered her "If I lose any of you too, how will I cope?" Arching his back, the king gave a reassuring wave to his daughters, before being swallowed by a heavy cloud of swirling, unpredictable mist. "Attina, what do you suggest we do?" Aquata nervously asked her sister, lips quivering as she stared at the hollow entrance leering at them as if filled with a sinister presence. Giving an uncertain sigh, she bravely declared "We go together, 7 heads are better than one. Keep behind father so he doesn't realise and send us back,"

Hesitating slightly, they huddled together and blindly plunged into the shadows. Once inside, a freezing chill wrapped around their bodies like a blanket of ice, clenching their skin with miniature icicles. Sharp, glinting stalactites and stalagmites extruded from the walls, scraping their skin and tails.

That's when they saw her. And father. Whilst Attina boldly strided beside her father, chin proudly tilted, the rest shrunk back. The sea witch seemed beautiful. Too beautiful. Fake. King Triton curled his slips in pure repulse, "Seems you've made an effort today," he gritted, grating his teeth together like a teeth-filer as repulsive memories of when he saw her hideous face behind the fakery scarred his mind. His jaw twitched, forcing the vomit from erupting out of his frowning lips.