Poor Unfortunate Soul (An OUAT Fanfiction)

3: A Seaworthy Bargain

Enchanted Forest

Prince Eric sat at the window again, overlooking the Channel. From his room he could see the rock on which one of his father's ships discovered him. His three friends were dead. How had he been the only survivor?
His father—once he had gotten over his worry for his son's survival—had questioned him closely about how he had ended up there.

"Am I to understand," King Theodore said, when Eric had told everything he knew, "That you lost consciousness while sinking in the water, and then somehow miraculously floated back to the surface to be washed up onto the rock where we found you? When every other man in the boat was dashed against the rocks and perished?"

Eric knew how improbable it might sound, but how could he convince his father that this was the unvarnished truth? "Yes, you may understand that," Eric replied, "If you refuse to hear the part where I describe the pale girl with the streaming hair who was in the act of swimming toward me when I blacked out."

"Ah yes," King Theodore retorted, "the deep-sea woman; tell me again! What did her eyes look like?"

"Like pale-green sea glass," Eric's voice softened as he spoke of it.

"And her hair?"

Eric frowned, "Some strange color; I couldn't tell because it was all behind her and my vision darkened. I would know it if I saw it again."

"And her face?"

Eric wistfully began staring at the Channel again. "She was terrified," he whispered.

"That Channel is too dangerous for any subject of mine," King Theodore stated. "It is good that we need no longer worry about patrolling it any longer. Queen Regina will be coming tomorrow, and we will have an agreement signed by the following day. No more boating accidents, no more watching the waters and waiting for an invasion, and we have the goodwill and protection of the Queen!"

"Father," Eric stood and faced the king, "please don't do this! When I was on that rock, I was in full view of the naval garrison of Queen Regina's knights, and not one of them answered my cries for help. Turning the Channel over to her would be a grave mistake!"

"Since when are you so concerned about the affairs of this country?" King Theodore stormed. "I stand by my own decision, and I believe it would be best for both our kingdoms. You can just forget about any more boating jaunts; and if your girl is still out there—if she is not a hallucination—she can bear the consequences for trespassing herself!" King Theodore swept out of the room.

Eric threw himself on the chair at the window again. Would he ever find the girl who saved his life, or did she exist only in his mind and heart?

>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Deep below the waters of the Channel, in a secret grotto within the cliffs below the royal palace, Ariel was dreaming again; this time, she was not dreaming about herself.

She had saved someone; she, Ariel, had actually been there to aid someone in continuing to live when they had lost all hope. She thought about his clear, searching eyes, begging to be saved; his dark, thick hair framing his face, contrasting in the water. His lips—Ariel licked her own. She had given him breath from her own gills, since she knew humans couldn't filter breath from the sea like merpeople could. She had left him on the rock; had he even seen her? Did he even know how close he had come to death? Would he ever wonder who had saved him?

Her imagination traveled forward in time to the day when she could be human. 

She would find him, wherever he might be, and he might not recognize her at first.