Chapter 1

First Sight

The sea breeze swept through the air as the celebration was about to begin. It was princess Melody's birthday and all of Atlantis was invited as merpeople and humans gathered on the beach where the large white tents began pouring out music to their guests.

"Do you think they will sing today?" Melody asked her mother. Ariel had begged and pleaded with her sisters to sing a special song for Melody today. "I think so dear, Aunt Attina was making sure all of your aunts attended today" she said with a reassuring smile.

Ariel looked to the sea and rushed into the water, her skirts getting wet from the salty sea. Mermaid and Merman's heads began popping out from the crystal waters and Ariel looked eagerly for her father and sisters.

She smiled brightly as she saw the old man's head pop from the water as his golden trident glimmered in the afternoon sun. "Daddy!" she yelled waving at him from the shoreline.

King Triton gave his warm and fatherly hug to his daughter as he cut through the sea like butter to get to her. "Are the others ready?" she whispered in his ear.

"Oh yes, Attina has them all prepared down below, there is one small problem though" he said gruffly.

"Oh no, don't let me guess" Ariel said with a sigh.

"I'm afraid so dear, we can't seem to find Arista" the king said.

Ariel rubbed her head with worry, she had been getting reports from her father and Flounder that Arista was becoming more wild each day. Nobody could seem to find her at times, almost as if she disappeared. Ariel almost wanted to smile at the thought, it wasn't too long ago that she herself was off running around having the whole kingdom search for her.

Down below Attina adjusted the orange crown upon her head while trying to corral her sisters together. "Alana please finish up Adella's hair! Aquata your pearls are over there, no Arista did not take them because they are right there! Andrina that is not funny!" she yelled at her sisters all scrambling about the decorative sea shells they were going to pop out of.

Alana finished Adella's hair, making sure she looked beautiful for all the merboys above. "Attina I'm sure she'll show up, she always does" she said trying to comfort her sister, her purple tail swishing behind her.

"The last time we sang in front of a crowd Arista showed up with moss and mud in her hair and who knows what on her face! When I become queen the first thing on my list is to have a chain wrapped around that girl's tail" Attina said huffing and crossing her arms.

"Well that's not for a while Attina so you might as well get used to it" Andrina snorted pushing the pink hair dressing on her blonde hair.

"Why doesn't father do anything about it?" Aquata asked positioning her blue tail elegantly in the large seashell. It was almost time for the performance to begin.

"You remember what happened last time father tried to do something about a certain someone running off?" Adella said pointing to the surface.

All of the girls sighed together, it was true, their father didn't say anything to Arista because of the fear of almost losing Ariel before. He was scared she would run off as Ariel did, and do something completely dangerous, maybe even worse than Ariel did.

The music began to play above the water and Attina rushed everyone to their places. She took one last long look at where Arista was supposed to be and sighed to the attendants to go ahead.

Not too farther away from her sisters, Arista's bright red tail whipped behind her as she swam like lightning to get to the performance. Beside her swam her best friend Sheller, his clumsy turtle body trying to keep up with the panicked mermaid.

"I can't believe I forgot!" she yelled at herself, her blonde hair in a wild frenzy "Today is Melody's birthday, and I promised Ariel I would be there!"

"I'm sure there is still time" Sheller's dopey voice said trying to comfort his friend.

"Attina is going to be so mad at me, this is the fourth time I've done this!" she said seeing the bright performance shells ahead.

"Actually it's the fifth" Sheller said.

"When this is over" she said to him with a playful smile "You are soup sir" and headed over to the sea shells right before they were about to hit the surface. She quickly positioned herself beside Aquata and tried to remember what song they were singing.

"Where were you?" Aquata whispered as the shell closed on top on them.

"I forgot I'm sorry!" Arista hissed.

"It's fine but really where were you?" she said.

"Does it matter? I'm here now" Arista said wanting to avoid the question at all cost.

She could hear the shell break the surface of the water as water dripped from the small opening of the shell.

"Break a fin" Arista said to Aquata as they both stifled a giggle before the shell opened to the large audience. Attina began with the opening and the sisters followed suite. Arista could see all of Atlantis had made it the party, it made her feel guilty that she had almost missed it.

Alana was now singing her part as the crowd watched in awe as Arista's beautiful sister sang about the wonderful sea. Arista looked over the crowd once more, seeing her niece Melody dance to the song and as Ariel and Eric watched their daughter proudly.

Aquata's turn was coming up next and then it would be all on Arista. She began to think of the words she was supposed to say. "We what the land folks loves to cook. Under the sea we off the hook. We got no troubles, life is the bubbles, under the sea" she whispered to herself.

Arista looked to the horizon, she only wished she was out there again. She loved her sisters, and her family, but she need to be away on her own right now. As Arista's eye's focused on the horizon she spotted something in the distance.

It looked like a ship, but it had dark sails, and it's hull was jet black like the night sky. Arista tried to squint her eyes to get a better look, ignoring now that her turn was up.

"Arista!" Aquata hissed at her "It's your turn! Ah-ri-staaa!"

Suddenly, Arista spotted the flag whipping in the sea air and it sent shivers down her spine. There on the black flag, was a smiling skull with two swords behind it.

"Pirates" Arista whispered.

"What?" Aquata said becoming embarrassed from the stares coming from the crowd.

"Pirates!" Arista yelled and pointed to where the ship was. Suddenly the crowd turned and began screaming at the approaching ship.

"Everyone get down below!" Attina yelled at her sisters as the shells began sinking into the sea. As Eric saw the approaching ship he commanded his troops to send everyone back into the kingdom. He then grabbed Melody and Ariel to run inside the castle to wait until the ship passed.

King Triton was still getting his people together when he spotted Arista still above the surface. "Arista!" he yelled "Go down below where it's safe!"

Arista was entranced as she heard her father's words and quickly turned to him "I'm just going to get a better look! Don't worry I'll be careful!" and dashed towards the oncoming ship.

"Arista no!" Triton yelled but it was too late, his daughter was already leagues away heading for the pirate ship.

The king turned to his eldest daughter "Attina! Make sure everyone is safe and is heading for Atlantis!" Attina nodded and took up her leading command to the others to get them safe and away from the ship.

Arista leaped and bounded towards the ship, convinced that she would be fine as long as she stayed low towards the water. A nice little mountain of sea rocks the broke above the water were a ideal hiding place as Arista ducked beneath them from the approaching pirate ship.

She longingly looked up and examined the vessel as it slowly drifted by her. The ship had looked black from a distance, but she now saw it was a dark mahogany brown and it's sails a vibrant black that caught the light just right. Arista saw the shipmates, gruff and scruffy just like how she imagined them.

She could hear the salty singing of their pirate lore drift from the dock as they loaded various boxes and crates full of things Arista could only imagine. She wanted so badly to swim beside the ship, get a closer look at the pirates, maybe even catch ones attention.

"Arista" she heard behind her "Get over here this instance!" It was her father and she meekly swam over to his hiding spot among the rocks.

"Daddy do you see them!" Arista said excitingly.

"Yes I do" he said very darkly "And they are dangerous Arista. What possessed you to come out here!"

"Dad look at them! What harm could they do? We are all the way down here and they are up there" She said not understanding why he was so afraid.

"Arista look closely" he said "Look at the front of their ship and what do you see?"

Arista looked closely and noticed that the front of ship contained a carving of a girl, a girl with a tail very similar to Arista's.

"A mermaid?" she whispered.

"Exactly, they have nets, and could easily capture you and pin you up to the side of their boat just like that. They are cruel, vicious characters that would sell your tail without even thinking twice" Triton said quickly.

"But I don't understand, you were the one that decided humans are not dangerous to us" Arista said still looking at the ship.

"Some humans Arista, people like Eric and the others in his kingdom, they pose no threat to us. But pirates are a different story, and you must promise me you will not go near their ship" he said taking her by the shoulders to look at him.

Arista looked back at the ship once more and gave a deep sigh "I promise" she said crossing her tail fins together.

"Good, now lets get everyone back to enjoy the party now that the ship has passed" he said diving below the surface. Arista pulled herself on top of the rocks to watch the ship pass back into the horizon from where it came.

"Just once I want an adventure" she whispered to herself. It wasn't fair, it just wasn't. Ariel got her adventure, so why not Arista? Even Melody went off in the distance and had one. Arista felt stuck, stuck between the fear of her father and the longing of her heart.

"Just once" she said again and slowly dipped down into the sea, back to where people thought she belonged.