Hey guys, so now we meet in another realm of my story... welcome! ^^
If you have read the other Disney series I wrote (which is ending soon), Tale As Old As Time, you will realize that TAOAT is a rendition of Beauty and The Beast. However, this story will not exactly be a rendition. Instead, this story will be sort of the second sequel of Little Mermaid (yeah, they got a prequel and sequel already... and now, another sequel).
Disclaimer: I do not own HM or Disney.
In any case, thanks for deciding to give this story a shot and I hope you will like it! ^^
The trident glowed, but not in the hand of the descendant of the King. A human. A male human.
Her blue eyes opened and the vision receded. A mermaid came in, "Princess Guinevere, your presence is needed in the Throne Room."
The mermaid nodded and followed the attendant towards the Throne Room, where an old merman with imposing figure and silvery hair due to his advanced age sat on the golden throne of Atlantica. The golden crown shone on his head; his was indeed the most majestic figure throughout the underwater kingdom. Gwen faced her grandfather and bowed politely, "What could I do for Your Majesty?"
"Tell me, granddaughter," the King began, "Have you had any vision for our kingdom?"
Gwen looked up, her deep blue eyes staring directly at the King's gray eyes, and said with a tone of conviction, "No."
"I would have informed the Throne if such vision does occur."
The King's face relaxed into a smile, "Ah, yes, of course… it is not that I do not trust you." He said, "It is just that… you have not been out for days."
"I will come out when I find a need for it." Gwen asserted calmly.
"Yes, yes," the old merman quickly responded, "Of course, you are like your late father that way."
Having none of the nostalgic atmosphere, Gwen bowed her head again. "It seems my presence here is no longer relevant."
The princess turned around and exited the Throne Room with no other word being uttered from her small mouth, leaving everyone she left behind—even the King himself—stunned momentarily by her cold detachment.
Allen gazed at the wall that separated his seaside castle from the sea. It was reasoned that the wall was some sort of breakwater, but Allen had always felt that there was more to the wall than being a breakwater.
It's way too close to the shore, he thought to himself.
"Why are you keep staring at the beach, son? There is nothing there."
Allen turned and found his mother walked calmly towards where he stood. Allen shrugged, "Of course there won't be anything, dear mother, for the wall separates us."
"I don't understand: the wall, never a voyage although it can be faster sometimes… I can swim, mother!"
The Princess Dowager stroke her son's dark red hair lovingly with an empathetic smile, "Oh, yes, I know you can swim very well." She said, "but your grandmother loves you too much that she cannot bear the thought of losing you after she lost your father."
Allen's mind flew towards his grandmother, the Queen Consort, who could be pleasant and unbelievably strict at the same time. Allen had heard about the deadly voyage that had claimed the lives of his father, Prince Eric Jr, as well as his aunt, Princess Melody. It happened when he himself was only four years old, so he didn't really know all the detail, but he knew that the wall was indeed built after the incident.
"It had been fourteen years since then, Mother," Allen complained, "Isn't it time to move on already?"
The Princess Dowager smiled understandingly at her son. Blood was hard to resist; after all, King Eric had always been known to be an avid mariner and, although this was concealed from Prince Allen as well as all the younger staff of the kingdom, Queen Ariel's mermaid lineage surely played a part in the Royal Family's affinity for the sea.
Even after decades had passed.
Neil decided to spend some time at the beach before going back to the castle for he was sure that the butler wouldn't even notice that he was gone for too long. Last year, he had found a large hole in the wall, big enough for an adult man like him to pass. Ever since then, Neil found himself spending his free time dipping his feet into the seawater. It was even better when he found an abandoned, but fully functional small rowboat stranded a few months ago. Neil stored the ship at a stranded shack nearby and when time was unbearably bad, he would just set off for a quick getaway to the sea. Rowing was a good exercise for his arms, too, anyway.
He felt completely at ease when he was near the sea but he wasn't sure why; it could be for the fact that there was nobody else (some time free of nagging and impossible orders), or it could also be the way the sound of waves crashing to the beach (or the wall, for that matter) seemed to have a calming effect in his ears.
Neil was walking to his secret spot when he found, much to his shock, that there was something stranded on the beach. He burst into a sprint on the sand, approaching the poor creature. It wasn't often that a sea animal could be stranded given the stretch of the wall that barricaded the castle from the sea, much less an unusual pink dolphin. To his best knowledge, pink dolphins only lived in a certain kingdom in East Asia, but that was the least of his concern at that time.
Neil bent down and checked for the dolphin's vitals—and much to his delight it was still alive although visibly distressed.
"We'll get you back to where you belong, okay?" Neil assured the dolphin gently, a side he showed much more often to animals rather than humans.
Neil tried to dig the sand around the dolphin to allow water to seep through, and after some time digging around the dolphin, there was enough water for the creature to swim back to the ocean. The pink dolphin suddenly raised its head and pecked his cheek, an action that elicited a small laugh from the usually gruff and taciturn servant boy. "Yeah, yeah, you're welcome."
Neil never told anyone since he thought it was strange himself, but sometimes he found animals to be easier to understand than humans.
Reine swam frantically to the surface. There was an unusually strong wave just now, and given Vivienne's notorious lack of sense of direction (ironically so, since she was a dolphin), she was gravely worried that she was lost, or even stranded on the beach.
Her annoying governess, Marissa, was against her decision to look for Vivienne ("King Troanes would be very much displeased with your conduct!"), but she had never cared much about her grandfather in the first place, so it was a harmless threat.
When Reine was about to reach the surface, she saw a figure swimming in high speed towards her, and when Reine recognized the pink figure she rushed to her and hugged her, "Viv! You are such a nuisance! What if you're stranded on the beach, you blank dolphin?!"
"As a matter of fact, I was," the pink dolphin admitted sheepishly, before quickly adding, "but someone saved me! A human—and a good-looking one at that! He is soooo dreamy~"
Reine raised her eyebrow, "Hey, don't tell me you're hitting on a human now?"
"I'm a dolphin—can't help it!"
Reine rolled her eyes but smiled, anyway. "Let's go back." She said, "and let's think what prank to trap Marissa with after this—she will sure give me a mouthful about this, so better make it worthwhile."
"We can always make a quick stop to the squiddies~"
The two friends giggled, and swam back to the deeper sea, where another kingdom lied waiting for them.
One vision. Two kingdoms. Four destinies.
This is where the story starts.
Thanks for reading!
Please rate and review! ^^
A/N: just as clarification yes, Allen is Ariel's grandson (both has red hair and blue eyes, if you notice), born from her son which is also Melody's little brother (Melody is the protagonist for the official sequel of Little Mermaid for those who are not familiar with it). Although this makes this story sort-of crossover with the real Disney franchise, I decided not to put it under crossover section because it will be too troublesome to find. Besides, the characters from Disney (Ariel and Eric) will make very little appearance, that much I can tell, so I guess this can be largely classified under HM AU, still.