by S R Edwards
Chapter 5.
In Morgona’s cave something is stirring. Morgona has found Marina’s sister Coral and they have made a plan to get revenge on Ariel and her family. So Morgona makes a potion that will make Ariel fall unconscious for three days. She takes it to the surface and makes her way to the castle.
When she gets there she climbs up to Eric and Ariel’s window and opens it. Morgona walks in, over to the bed and puts the potion into Ariel’s glass of water. She then blows some dust into Ariel’s face, waits until she can hear her cough and then disappears out of sight off the balcony. Ariel wakes up and has a gulp of water and the potion! “Eric something...” She falls unconscious. Eric wakes up and looks at her. He chuckles to himself thinking that Ariel has simply fallen asleep mid sentence. Eric goes back to sleep.
Meanwhile Morgona swims into the main chamber of the cave to find Undertow and Coral arguing. She shouts at them both and tells Undertow to follow her to Atlantica. They head out and Coral calls them. “What should I do?”
“Just stay here and make yourself comfortable.” Morgona tells Undertow to wait behind a rock until she gives the signal, which is she puts her hands on her hips. He does as he is told.
Morgona makes her way up to the palace. When she gets there she knocks the guards out and swims into King Triton’s bedroom. He wakes up and she slams a tentacle against his mouth. “Now I want you to listen to me very carefully. Ariel is dead and you can’t save her! But I might be willing to make an offer. I will not harm your granddaughter if you give me the trident.” She slowly takes her tentacle away. “Oh alright.” He sighs. “Follow me.” He takes her to the throne room and takes the trident out of the stand. Then Sebastian comes out from behind the throne. “Your majesty what are you doing?” Morgona puts her hands on her hips and Undertow comes barging in. Sebastian looks at him. “I may be small but man am I gonna teach you some manners.” He snaps his pincers at Undertow, who with one big chomp of his giant jaws, kills Sebastian. “Guard seize them!” Three guards come swimming over and take Morgona away and King Triton takes his trident and makes sushi out of Undertow.
Back on land Eric is trying to wake Ariel up. Then he realises that she is unconscious. He picks her up and takes her out to sea. King Triton tells Flounder and Ariel’s sisters about how brave Sebastian was. Then he is told by a guard that there is a boat above Atlantica and should they attack. “No, I’ll go see for myself it might be Ariel.” He swims to the surface to find Ariel unconscious. He tells Eric to take her back to land and that when or if she wakes up to tell her that Sebastian has died. They part and Eric takes Ariel back to land and he tells Melody about Sebastian.
Three days pass and Ariel still hasn’t woken up but then on the night of the fourth day her eyes flicker and open. “Eric I think something is wrong.” She looks at him and smiles but he doesn’t smile back. “What’s the matter?” He takes her hand.
“Ariel, well Sebastian has died. He was killed four days ago by Morgona’s shark.”
“No it’s not true.” She bursts into tears and hugs him.
“I was told by your father. Now why would he lie about that?” Melody comes into the room. “Mom are you alright?”
“Yes I’m fine.” Ariel dries her eyes with the back of her hand. She hugs Melody and smiles. “Do you know about Sebastian?”
“Yes I really wanted to tell you.” Ariel lets go and runs out of the room. She goes down to the beach and falls to her knees. Then she hears. “Ariel are you ok? I was worried about you.” She looks up to see Flounder.
“Flounder is it true about Sebastian?”
“Yes everyone is sad about it especially your father.”
“Oh Flounder why him why did he have to go?”
“We’ll be ok without him I’m positive. I’ll see you later.”
“Bye Flounder tell my father I’m okay.” She strokes his head.
“I will.” They wave good bye and go back to their homes.
Eric and Ariel have an argument. Ariel moves all her things to a different room. She sleeps in that room for three weeks but on the last day of the third week she writes a note for Melody and puts it on her dresser. It reads; ‘Melody, I have gone to rejoin your grandfather in Atlantica. Your father has changed since we first met. I love you. Meet me at the pier at sunset. I need to talk to you from your mother xxx’ Ariel kisses her daughter and leaves the castle. She goes down to the beach and calls her father, who appears with great haste. “Ariel what is wrong?”
“Well daddy, you know me and Eric had an argument well I want to rejoin you in the ocean.” She says to him quickly. He looks her in the eye.
“Are you sure about this Ariel?”
“Positive.”
“Alright here we go.” He waves the trident and Ariel hugs him.
“Oh daddy could you come with me to meet Melody sun set tomorrow?”
“Alright Ariel, Now let’s get home and have some rest.” He puts his arm around her.
“Daddy don’t tell my sisters I want it to be a surprise. I’m going to see Flounder I’ll be back later.” She swims off.
When Ariel reaches Flounders, she hears scatting from inside. She chuckles quietly and puts on a deep voice. “Hey will you keep it down!” Flounder comes out and starts to say something. “I’m so sor...Ariel?” She smiles at him and then Ray-Ray comes to the door. “Hey Red how are you? Wanna join us?”
“Sorry guys got to go home catch you later!” she swims away.
Ariel goes into her old room and slowly makes her way to the bed. She slips under the covers and falls asleep. In the morning she wakes up to see her sisters crowded round her bed. “Hi!”
“What are you doing here?” Aquata asks, poking Ariel just to make sure she is real. “Hey is that the right way to greet your sister?” Ariel replies slapping Aquata’s finger away. She yawns. “I’ll see you later.” She gets out of bed and swims off. “Attina what’s the matter?” Ariel sits down next to her.
“You can’t be here you have a family on land.” She looks at Ariel, Ariel smiles.
“But I have family and friends in the sea too.”
“I know.” She sighs. “It just doesn’t feel right.”
“I know.” Ariel hugs Attina. She gets up and swims out of the room. “Morning Daddy.” She says as she swims into him. “See you later.”
“Just like old times, good morning Ariel, where are you going?” He chuckles.
“I’m going to Flounder’s.” She kisses him and then heads towards Flounder’s home.
When Ariel gets to the cave she shouts. “Flounder are you there?” She swims into it and just as she gets past a small rock, Flounder pops out of a passage way. “Boo!” Ariel jumps and screams. “Flounder you nearly gave me a heart attack!” She hugs him. “Come on lets go on an adventure.” She drags him out of the cave.
“Ariel aren’t we a little too old for that kind of thing now?”
“No come on, or are you getting cold fins already?”
“Ok we’ll go for half an hour and that’s it.” She stares at him with a smug look on her face. “Oh alright.” Ariel holds up two fingers. “Two hours.”
“Come on lets go, hey we could get Ray-Ray and Ink Spot.” She swims off.
“Ariel wait for me!” Flounder swims frantically to catch up with her. “Where are we going anyway?” Ariel smiles at him.
“Where the sharks live.” He shivers and starts to swim off. “You’re not getting cold fins now are you?” She grabs his tail and drags him towards the wreck of Eric’s ship. “May be if I take him something from here may be just maybe he will realise how much he has changed.” They swim over to the ship.
Meanwhile at the castle Melody has woken up and found the note. She takes it into her father’s room. “Dad wake up mom’s gone look!” She thrusts the letter into his face. He takes it off her and reads it.”Good ridden I say.” Melody slaps him. “Dad that’s not nice she’s my mother!” She storms out of the room
and into her own. She gets dressed and puts on her locket. Melody takes the boat out to sea.
Soon she runs into Tip and Dash arguing again. “Fish breath!” Dash shouts. Tip shouts back. “Blubber boy!” Melody shouts at them both.
“Guys hey guys!” they stop and look at her.
“Oh hi Melody can you tell this pile of blubber to stop hogging the chair!”
“Tip stop it, anyway have you seen my mother because she said she had come back to the sea.” She looks at the both the Dash bursts out.
“Wait yes I saw her and that fish heading for the ship wrecks.”
“Thanks I’ll catch you later bye.” She rows off. “Wait, where are the ship wrecks?”
“Three minutes away from Atlantica, go south!”
“Ok, thanks Dash, Tip no bickering!” She rows off really fast and reaches her destination in no time. Melody grabs a rock out of the bottom of the boat and throws it into the sea, she does this again and again.
Meanwhile Ariel and Flounder are checking out one of the rooms, when Flounder jumps. “What was that?” He swims over to a rock that landed on deck.
“Oh Flounder it’s just a stone.” Ariel chuckles. Then another stone hits him on the head. He looks up to see a boat. “Ariel I think Melody has found us.” Ariel looks up and swims after Flounder, who has started to swim for the surface. When they reach the surface Melody is in the boat. “It’s about time I’ve been sat ages.” Flounder rubs his head. “Yeah it suddenly hit me that it might be you.” He smiles at her and Ariel smiles too. “Melody I need to ask you something.”
“What?” Ariel takes Melody’s hand in hers.
“Do you want to join me or do you want to stay on land?”
“I need to stay on land mom I can’t leave Dad.”
“I understand.” Ariel kisses her on the forehead. “I love you.”
“I love you too mom.” They part and go their separate ways.
“Oh Melody take this with you.” She hands Melody the photo she has found and disappears beneath the waves. Melody looks at the photo. It is of her father when he was a young boy with his parents, Grimsby, and Max. She laughs and rows back home.
As Ariel and Flounder are swimming back to Atlantica Ariel says. “Flounder can you feel something in the water?”
“Nope, why?” He looks at her and then his face washes with fear. “Are you ok Ariel?”
“I don’t feel too good...” Ariel falls unconscious. Flounder starts to swim faster to Atlantica but he hits something hard and knocks himself out. “Oh no!” He sinks to the bottom of the sea next to Ariel.
Meanwhile Melody has made it back to the beach. She pulls the boat ashore and goes back to the palace. Melody runs up to the bedroom. “Dad I’ve just spoken to mom she told me to give you this.” She hands Eric the photo.
“Where did she get it?” He looks at the photo and looks at Melody.
“I don’t know she didn’t say.”
“Oh, ok.” He puts the photo down on the bed side table. Eric looks up at her. “What did your mother say?”
“She asked me if I wanted to join her or if I wanted to stay on land with you.”
“And what did you choose”? He stands up.
“I...” She pauses and looks out of the window. “I chose to stay with you.” She smiles at him. “I’m needed here, see you later.” She walks out of the room.
Back in the sea around the area where Ariel and Flounder are laying, the sea begins to boil. Melody, who is sat on the beach sees the bubbles coming from the water and runs to the boat. She rows out to where the bubbles are. The boat rocks and capsizes. Melody is thrown into the sea. She gets to the surface gasping for air. She decides to swim to Atlantica to tell her grandfather about it. She starts to swim towards Atlantica. She takes a deep breath and goes under water. Attina is looking for Ariel when she spots Melody. They swim back to the surface. “Melody have you seen your mother?”
“No but I know something is wrong look over there.” She points in the direction of the bubbles. “Oh, no. Melody go home and stay there. I’ll go tell your grandfather about it.” Melody swims off and Attina swims back to Atlantica. “Daddy, daddy!” She swims up to one of the soldiers. He comes to attention and salutes her. “Have you seen my father?”
“No ma’am.”
“Get me together some men and meet me in my father’s thrown room in ten minutes.”
“Yes ma’am.” She swims off into the palace.
“Daddy, Ariel’s in trouble again and we have to help her.” She cries at him.
“Alright lead the way Attina.” They both swim to the ship wrecks but when they get there Ariel and Flounder are nowhere to be seen. “Oh, no where are they Melody said they were here.” Attina shouts.
Meanwhile Ariel wakes up in a strange room. “Where am I? Flounder are you there?” She looks around frantically. “Ow, what the...” She looks down at her hands, which are bound together. She hears a groan, she looks in that direction. Ariel sees Flounder and wriggles over to him. “Flounder are you ok?” Flounder groans again and his eyes open. “I’m too old for this. Are you alright?” Flounder looks at her.
“Yeah I’m fine are you ok?”
“I’ll be fine. Where are we?” Ariel looks down at him.
“I wish I knew.” They both hear a laugh and then Coral comes out of nowhere.
“Ariel, how nice of you to join the world of the living.” She pushes her over.
“What do you want with me?” Ariel asks her, she lies helplessly on the floor.
“I want revenge, your daughter killed my sister so I will kill you. After all we have to play fair.” She snarls and grabs Ariel. She takes her out of the room.
“Ariel!” Flounder shouts after her. Coral closes the door, takes something out of the cupboard and turns around. She smiles at Ariel. “Don’t worry it will be a slow and painful death. I’ll make sure you are somewhere where people can find you. Oh and I’ll let the fish go.” Ariel struggles in her grasp.
“Your sister killed herself, Melody is an innocent child. Now let me go!” Coral tightens her grip around Ariel’s arm. “If I let you go then everyone you love will die. But if that’s the way you want it then fair enough?”
“No, I’ll do it!” Then they hear Flounder behind the door.
“Ariel don’t do it, what would Sebastian say?”
“I’m sorry Flounder, I’ve got to do this for everyone and for Sebastian.”
“But Ariel...!” Coral buts in.
“Ok enough chit chat, say good bye.” She takes Ariel away and poisons her. “You’ll feel a little tingle right about now.” Ariel cringes and her tail turns to legs. “Alright I’ll see you later.”
Meanwhile Attina and King Triton are still trying to find Ariel and Flounder. A soldier swims up to them. “Sir we have found the fish.” He salutes King Triton.
“Thank you soldier.” He follows the soldier to where Flounder is. “Flounder where is Ariel?” He begs him. “What happened?”
“She’s done it again.” Flounder says to King Triton, he looks up at him. “She gave her life for all of us again.” He shakes his head. “I tried to but I couldn’t.” He breaks down to tears. “Double the search parties, search every beach within range.”
“Yes sir!”
“It’s alright Flounder we’ll find her.”
Ariel is in a lot of pain on the beach. She can’t move. She hears some-one shouting her. Then it stops and Scuttle lands next to her. “Hey there sweetie what are you doing?” Ariel glances at him and squints with pain. “Scuttle I need help.” He flies off and a few minutes later comes back with Eric in pursuit. “Ariel, what, what happened?” He picks her up. “Eric? AH! You’re safe now nothing else will happen to you or Melody.”
“Oh Ariel don’t talk like that. I...I love you and I’m sorry.” He hugs her. “Now tell me what happened?”
“It doesn’t matter. It’s all over. I think two deaths are better than eleven.” Ariel kiss
es his hand. “Good bye Eric I love you too.” She collapses in his arms.
“No, Ariel wake up please don’t leave me. I need you we all do.” He carries her back to the palace.
“Melody! Open the door!” He barges into the bedroom and puts Ariel’s body on the bed. “Dad what happened?” Melody runs over.
“I don’t know she just collapsed.” He clenches his fists.
“Urm, ah I know.” Melody runs out of the room and comes back with a pill.
“Where did you get that?” Eric asks snatching it from her.
“I got it ages ago at Morgona’s.”
“Ok.” Eric puts the pill in Ariel’s mouth. They wait for ten minutes but nothing happens. “Melody do you want to be left for a bit?” Eric puts his hand on her shoulder, she nods and he leaves the room. Melody lies next to Ariel. She sings to her. “The waves try to measure...” She sniffs. “The days that we treasure.” She puts her arms around Ariel and cries into her chest. Then she feels Ariel breathing. “Mom?” She sits up and rubs her eyes. “Mother, are you ok?” Ariel’s eyes shoot open.
“Melody what happened?” She hugs Melody.
“Dad, she’s awake!” Eric runs into the room then stops in his tracks.
“Ariel, are you real? You’re alive!” He runs up to her and gives her a big hug. “I was so worried about you.” He smiles at Melody and then Ariel sits bolt upright.
“Flounder oh no!” She gets off the bed but can’t walk.
“Mom, what about Flounder?” Melody looks at her mother.
“He was in a room. He tried to stop me, to stop her.”
“To stop who mom?”
“Coral, Marina’s sister.” Melody runs out of the room, out of the castle and onto the beach. “Grandfather!” She shouts at the top of her lungs.
“Yes Melody?” He comes up from the sea.
“We found Mom is Flounder ok?”
“Yes he’s fine why?”
“Because she keeps on asking about him.”
“She’s awake?”
“Yeah, I...Urm still had one of the antidote pills.”
“Oh, right.” He raises an eyebrow at her.
“Grandfather, mother keeps on mentioning someone called Coral.”
“Oh, right. Ok, well you better get back home.” They hug and say good bye. King Triton sends some soldiers to Coral’s home and she is taken away. Ariel makes a good but not full recovery. Apart from that the family live happily ever after but they all have one gap in their lives that can never be filled, or so they think.
“Hey, Mon why the long face child?”
“Sebastian?”