Ursula

Escape

"NO ONE SHALL LEAVE THIS VILLAGE ALIVE!" A voice boomed out from their right. Turning, they saw a bare chested youth on a golden chariot pulled by two hippocampi. He had a crown of fire coral on top of his golden locks of hair. In his hand was a golden trident, glowing white at the tips. "YOU MUST DIE!" He aimed his trident again.

"NOOO!" Ursula cried. She shoved Marina to the side, mostly out of the tridents target, just as another beam of white hot light soared towards her. She tried to swim away, but couldn't move. The beam hit her straight in her chest. She blacked out.

She was in the most pain of her entire life. It was excruciating. She felt as if she was being tossed around in a whirlpool of fire and knives. Ursula couldn't remember anything, then it slowly started to come back to her. She fought to open her eyes. She heard a faint voice calling to her.

"Ursula! Ursula! Wake up! Please, Ursula! Please wake up!" Marina pleaded with the limp body in her arms. She was swimming forward, away from the wrecked village, but slowly, due to her the hit she took in her left tail fin and her sister's body in her arms. Ursula groaned. "Ursula! Are you okay? Wake up! Speak to me!" Marina cried, sobbing.

Ursula's forehead crinkled, then she slowly forced her eyelids open, blinking slowly as her eyes adjusted to the filtered light.

"Wha-what's going on?" Ursula asked.

Marina let out a long relieved sigh and tried to steady her breathing. "Ki-king-king Triton shot you with his trident!" Marina finally stammered.

"What?! How is that...even...possible...I guess the gold dust-y thing actually works..." Ursula frowned and shook her head as she eased herself out of sister's shaking arms. She steadied herself on her Marina, then simply lay back a bit and floated. "I-I should be dead."

"Don't even say that! You scared me so much. Withou-(hiccup/sob)-t you...No, don't mention that," Marina choked out.

Ursula shook her head again, then looked down over her body. No major injuries she could see, other than a few scratches and bruises on her arms. She stretched backwards, testing her back and chest. Fine. Leaning over, she checked her tail. One scale near her left hip was missing, but that was it. Seems like she was pretty lucky. She shook her whole body out, righted herself, then focused on the task ahead.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, just a small tear in my left tail fin," Marina answered with a slight frown.

"Okay then. In that case, we need to start moving. Mother and Father said to swim Ula, which, judging by the direction that we came from, should be more to our right. Come on Marina."

"Wait Ursula! What about Mother and Father?" Marina looked up with worry in her eyes.

"We have to go. Didn't you hear what they told us? They will meet us at Ula. Don't worry," Ursula said, tugging Marina forward.

"But-"

"No. We have to go now. King Triton will be looking for survivors soon, and we have to swim as far as we can before dark. Then we'll search for somewhere to spend the night, before continuing," Ursula took a deep breath and shook her head again, bringing a hand up to rub her forehead. There was a heavy pounding in her head, and her tail felt extremely stiff. She stretched, then tugged on Marina's wrist again.

"Okay," Marina said reluctantly. They took on a side by side position, holding hands in between them.

Ursula turned to look at her younger sister carefully. There was fear in her eyes, but there was also bravery and determination. She watched Marina bite her bottom lip, then frown and straighten herself. I love her so much. Ursula thought. I won't let anything happen to her. I must protect her. Following her sister's example, she straightened, and stuck her chest out. Nothing would happen to Marina. Not if she could help it.