My name is Melody Currant. I am eighteen years old and the Crown Princess of the oceanside kingdom Visus. I also happen to be half mermaid. Yeah. That's pretty much the biggest secret I have. Can you see why it's so secret? I mean, people would go nuts if they knew. I can't tell anyone, except for those I trust. You wouldn't think that Rapunzel Soles would fall under that category, would you? Neither did I.
I did not want to take the day-long trip to Corona. Yes, it was a beautiful kingdom, and yes, I had been there plenty of times before, but those were trips where I wandered around the kingdom while my parents did their business with King Sansone and Queen Marisol. This was a lot different. I was going to meet—and hopefully befriend—Eldora, the Lost Princess. Or, as she was known now, Rapunzel. This was someone who had had minimal human interaction throughout her life, or so the rumors said anyways, and it was kind of intimidating to be the first interaction she had with someone her own age.
"Mom, do I really have to go?" I asked, nibbling on my scrambled eggs on toast. My father sighed. It annoyed me a little, but I didn't really blame him. I had been asking this question constantly for nearly a week. My mother gave him a look that said Eric, leave her alone. I knew this, because after eighteen years of life, this look was quite familiar to me. It was only a matter of who was giving it. Before I was twelve, when the wall between the kingdom and the sea was still up, it was Father giving it. After the wall was down, however, the look almost always was from Mother. She reached her hand across the table and set it over mine.
"Yes, Melody, please go. For me? Goodness knows how hard it is to make real friends when you're royalty, much less when you're royalty that has been missing for the last eighteen years. Look, we're only going to be there for three days. It can easily be less if you want it to be… or more." She smiled mischievously. As if I didn't know what she was doing? I shook my head and aggravatedly took a bite of my eggs and toast. I watched my parents, out of the corner of my eye, exchange another one of their looks that I knew so well. This was the one that said What are we going to do with her?
After I finished eating, I tried to go out to the water, to see my aunts and cousins for maybe a little while before I had to get in a carriage and sit there, bored as a starfish on the beach, and just about as close to dying. But, to my great displeasure, Carlotta caught me by the wrist.
"Melody, dear, you must get ready for the trip!" she said cheerily. Unfortunately enough, Carlotta's sweet disposition made it that much harder to hate her for making me do every thing that I didn't want to do.
"No, Carlotta, please—"
"Don't you 'please' me, Melody. You know the routine." She kept her firm grasp on my wrist, which I struggled to pull away from. I hated this. I just wanted to spend a few stupid minutes in the water with my fins before I had to be without them for three days.
"Carlotta, seriously, please?"I stopped actively struggling and stood rooted to my spot. "I just want to get in the water for a little bit. Pretty please? I won't even sing the song." She looked at me skeptically. "Okay, so I probably will sing the song. But it's as simple as singing the other one and I'll be right as rain! Plus, we're not leaving until one o'clock and it's barely ten." Carlotta sighedin defeat and let go of my wrist. "Yes!" I shouted. I kissed her on the cheek and ran out the great glass doors, stripping off my clothes as I went. Oh, what the scandal. The Princess Melody stripping on the beach. I scoffed. Like none of them had heard it before.
I grabbed my shells from behind my favorite cluster of rocks and ran into the water, putting them on under my shirt. Before I had even gotten ankle deep in the water, the fin incantation started to fall from my lips.
"Land may be my home"
It was up to my knees now.
"It may be divine"
Now my waist.
"Now a different form"
I felt the cold, comforting tingling in my toes.
"The ocean, It is mine"
The skin on my legs became scaled, and they slowly merged together.
"Yes it is mine"
I watched as my long, slender, coral colored tail materialized in front of me and I was about to dive under the water when an irritating little voice that I knew to belong to an irritating little crab started scolding me.
"Melody, child," Sebastian said, perching on my shoulder, "You know that you should be getting ready to meet Princess Eldora." I rolled my eyes and flipped onto my back.
"I think her name is Rapunzel, Sebastian…" I mumbled.
"You think her name is Rapunzel? Child, if you don't know everything there is to know about the girl you should be in the palace getting ready and asking these questions?"
"Oh my god," I said exasperatedly. "Okay, you know what, Sebastian?" I sped towards the shore, and when I finally lay down on the warm sand the leg incantation fell from my lips, hurried and bored, sung with a much greater reluctance than usual.
"In the sea I float
It may be divine
Now for my true form
Breath of the land is mine
Yes it is mine."
My legs were back, and I stood up onto them with an attitude as I flung Sebastian off of my shoulder.
"Damn crab…" I mumbled bitterly. "Why can't he just let me do what I want? Like letting me swim for half an hour would have been such a tragedy?" I stormed into the palace and into my bedroom, stripping my swimming pants and shells—I would have to replace those in their usual spot when we got back from Corona—and put on the dress that Carlotta must have laid on my bed. It was one of the ones I preferred. As much as I hated going places, I loved the clothes I got to wear while I did. They were so much less bulky and more comfortable than my stuffy, poufy, simply aggravating 'proper' princess dresses. It was made entirely of soft cotton, and while the skirt was a nice, sunset orange, the torso and quarter-length sleeves were a soft, golden yellow. While I had a feeling that I was going to be laced into a corset soon, but I wasn't going to let that get me too down.
I clutched the fabric of my skirt as I sat down on my bed, extremely nervous. My mother walked in and must had seen the tensity in my face, as she smiled kindly and sat down next to me.
"Mel," she said, putting her arm around me. "This isn't going to be that bad. I promise." She stood up, pulling me with her, and started lacing me into the corset that I knew was coming. It looked lovely when I looked in the mirror, and Mother didn't feel the need to lace it to the point of being unable to breathe. It was much more pleasant when she did it. I pulled my hair back into a ponytail and settled my small golden ring of a tiara on my head. I reached down to my vanity, my fingers searching for my locket, when I remembered, again. It was gone. That horrible Flynn Rider had stolen it. He was so handsome, it was such a shame that he was going to be executed when he was found. But stealing three pieces of jewelry from the royal family, especially one that could, oh, maybe reveal the secret of Atlantica to everyone in the world? It was pretty much the biggest no-no anyone could think of.
"We'll find it, Melody." My mother said. She had always been so optimistic about things like this. Now I could only hope against hope that her optimism was set in the right place.
"I just feel so… naked… without it." That locket had been around my neck for every day of my life since I found it when I was twelve years old. My mother smiled sympathetically. Her flaming red bangs fell into her face as she smiled weakly and leaned into my face. "I'll tell you what. We'll see if we can escape for Atlantica for a few days after the trip, yeah? Just you and me." I smiled and slipped on my shoes, a little more willingly than I would have just one hour before.
A/N: So? Liek it? H8 it? no1curr? It'll pick up soon enough, I promise. Just want to get the introductions out of the way first :) The Fin/Leg Incantations were written by me, so no stealy without credit-y. I should also mention that this story was inspired by An After Tale by Cheixx. Cheixx, if you see this, UPDATE SOON! :P I've been drowning myself in Sherlock fic lately. Why did I read 'Alone On the Water'. Why.