"You're it!" I yelled and touched Flounder's fin.
Flounder scowled but narrowed his eyes and swam after me. I laughed and swam as fast as I could.
"Ariel slow down!" he complained.
"I can't slow down Flounder. The point of the game is to stay away from whoever is it," I said and laughed.
"Well that's unfair. You're a mermaid. You're naturally faster," said Flounder and he pouted.
I rolled my eyes. "Well, what other game do you want to play?" I asked him.
He looked thoughtful then he smiled. "Let's play adventure."
"Adventure? I've never heard of it," I said.
"Well it's not so much as a game as it is me saying, let's go on an adventure," said Flounder.
"Where? There's nothing really here that is adventure worthy," I said.
"What if we go outside of Atlantica," said Flounder.
"Daddy told me to never leave Atlantica though," I said and frowned.
"Since when do you listen to your father?" asked Flounder.
"Since he finally listened to us and actually interacted with us and allowed music back into the Kingdom," I said and crossed my arms.
"All right fine. Be a guppy," said Flounder.
"What?" I asked.
"Be a guppy," repeated Flounder.
"All right Flounder. Let's go on our adventure. Then we'll see who the real guppy is," I sneered and Flounder smiled.
We swam to the border of Atlantica and looked around. No one was looking so we quickly left and swam around in the open water.
"So, where do you want to go?" I asked Flounder.
"I don't know. Let's swim around for a bit and maybe we'll find something," said Flounder.
Flounder and I swam for what seemed like hours. It was boring out here.
"Flounder, this isn't very fun," I yawned.
"Alright fine," sighed Flounder. We turned around and swam back towards Atlantica.
Suddenly a shadow passed over me. I looked up and saw what looked sort of like a whale…but the shape was wrong.
"What is that?" I asked.
Flounder looked up and darted behind me. "It looks big and scary."
"Now who's the guppy?" I asked. I rolled my eyes and swam towards the giant thing.
"Ariel no!" yelled Flounder.
"Oh come on Flounder. This is the adventure we've been waiting for," I said and continued to swim up to the thing.
I looked closely at it and I could tell that it wasn't a fish. I rose to the surface, something I had only done when I was little. I pushed my hair out of my face and saw a large boat with huge white sails.
I had seen a boat like this only once before. It killed my mother and caused everyone in Atlantica to be devastated, especially my father.
I knew that I should be afraid of it, and that I should swim away as fast as I can. But, the ship seemed to draw me to it. I swam towards it.
"Ariel stop, don't go any closer to it!" yelled Flounder.
I saw figures on the ship and I followed Flounder's advice and waded where I was.
"Flounder, there are merpeople on that ship!" I exclaimed.
"Ariel, I don't think those are merpeople," said Flounder and he swam up next to me.
"Then what are they?" I asked.
Flounder shrugged.
I saw one of them climb onto the boat's edge. I gasped when I saw him. It was a man but it looked like his fin was split into two.
Flounder screamed and started to swim away.
"Flounder wait!" I called and dove after him.
Flounder and I swam back to Atlantica. The entire way home I thought about the strange creatures on the ship.
The next day I decided to ask my father about the strange creatures.
"You saw a ship?" he demanded. He was yelling and his face was getting red.
"Nothing happened Daddy, I was very careful," I said.
"Ariel, your mother died because of one of those human creations," yelled my father.
"Human? What do they look like?" I asked.
"Like us until the fin. They have unnatural bodies," said the King. "Ariel I don't want you to ever go to the surface again. Do you understand?"
"Yes Daddy," I said. I swam away and decided to do more research on these…humans.
I tried to learn as much as I could from people in the Kingdom. But no one would talk to me about them or their world.
One day, Flounder and I were playing. I had decided to take a break from my research. Then we saw a sandbar ahead of us.
"Let's go and get some shells," I said.
Flounder and I swam up to the sandbar and picked up some of the pretty shells that we found. Then I looked up. I was only inches from being above the surface. I rose up and Flounder rose up with me.
"I know Daddy said I can't go to the surface, but the wind feels so good on my skin, I can also see how big the ocean really is," I said to Flounder.
"Hey, that's my shell!" yelled a voice.
We looked up and saw a seagull flying down towards us.
Suddenly it crash landed into the ocean.
"Are you alright?" I asked it.
"Perfectly fine. That's mine," he said and pointed to the pink shell I had picked up.
"Oh I'm sorry," I said and handed it to the seagull.
"Thank you," he said and took it.
"I'm Ariel, what's your name?" I asked the seagull.
"Scuttle," he said.
"You're a bird right?" I asked.
Scuttle nodded.
"Do you know anything about humans?" I asked eagerly.
"Of course I know about humans," said Scuttle.
I beamed and nearly shouted with excitement. "Can you tell me about them?" I asked.
"Of course, I happen to be a human expert," bragged Scuttle.
I asked Scuttle all of the questions I had so far and he answered every single one.
"Ariel, the Sun is going down, we have to go," said Flounder.
"Oh, alright," I said. I turned to Scuttle. "Can we meet here again tomorrow? I still have so many questions."
"Sure," said Scuttle.
"Thank you," I said.
"Anytime sweetie," he said then flew off.
"Oh Flounder isn't this great?" I asked him as we swam back to the Kingdom. "Humans are so interesting. They don't have fins but they have legs and feet."
"Yeah, listen Ariel, I don't think we should be looking into all of this stuff," said Flounder.
"Why not?" I asked.
"Because your father would kill you if he ever found out," said Flounder.
"If he ever found out," I said and laughed.
Flounder sighed. Once we got back to Atlantica, I went to bed and dreamed of humans. I even dreamed that I was a human and that I had legs and feet.
The next day, I woke up early and rushed towards the sandbank.
I met with Scuttle and he placed something in front of me.
"What's this?" I asked and picked up the sharp looking object.
"That is called a Shnizopper," said Scuttle. "The humans use it to cut their food."
I widened my eyes. "A Schnizopper."
"I got it for you," said Scuttle.
"Oh Scuttle, it's brilliant. Thank you!" I exclaimed.
The Schnizopper was only one of the many gifts Scuttle got me throughout the week. I saw him every day and he would give me new things that the humans used. I found an orange bag for me to keep everything but it filled up pretty quickly. I decided to have a hideout for all of the human devices. Flounder and I found a cave that I could store everything in. My collection grew and grew and so did my obsession with humans.
One day, when I went to see Scuttle he didn't have any human things for me.
"I have something better," said Scuttle. "A ship had sunk the other day not far from here. It is bound to be full of human things."
I couldn't contain my excitement. Scuttle led me to where the ship had gone under. Flounder and I dove under and the deeper we got the more I could see the ship.
"Oh Flounder isn't this exciting?" I asked.
"I don't know Ariel, this ship looks scary," he said.
"We'll only stay for a little bit. I want to see if I can find anything good," I said and swam towards the sunken ship.
We entered the ship and I swam towards the pretty things there. I found a weird looking contraption with a handle and bristles at the end of it. I put it in my bag and Flounder swam up to me with something that looked similar to a Schnizopper. But the end wasn't sharp, it was round. Flounder put it into my bag.
Once my bag was full I swam to the cave. I put my findings in it and looked around at all of my treasures. It was wonderful.