Ariel and Marina, the Two Little Mermaids
Rejected by the Sea
Disclaimer – I do not own any of the characters from the Little Mermaid. The Walt Disney adaptation is the property of the Walt Disney Company, the anime adaptation is the property of Toei Animation and both adaptations are based on the story by Hans Christian Anderson.
Summery – At the end of the Little Mermaid anime adaptation, Marina dissolved into sea foam with a heartbroken Fritz chasing after her, but what if Marina did not dissolve into sea foam? After Marina jumped from Prince Fjord's ship, for some reason she does not dissolve into sea foam and Fritz managed to save her before she drowned. However, her father, grandmother and sisters meet up with her, and since she's become human, Marina is effectively banished from her father's undersea kingdom's territorial waters along with Fritz, who's charged with looking out for her. Fortunately all is not lost for Marina since despite everything, her family still loves her and Marina ends up in the care of Prince Eric, for which she's grateful, but is unable to come out of her own misery. Meanwhile, Ariel, the youngest mermaid princess of the neighbouring undersea kingdom of Atlantica has an urge for adventure and a desire to see the human world, and soon, fate leads them both to meet one another when Ariel rescues Marina from drowning during a storm after she's blown overboard from the ship she was on, and this only serves to fuel the young mermaid's desire to become human, but all is not well, as Ursula, the Atlantican Sea Witch seeks to take advantage of the situation in a nefarious plot to seize control of the world's oceans, and so, as Ariel becomes human and seeks to win Marina's love, it's up to Fritz, Flounder, Sebastian, Scuttle and Marina's sisters to help out while trying to find a way to nullify Ursula's contract, and Fritz soon comes to realise that their only hope in stopping Ursula may lie with the Sea Witch that helped Marina transform into a human and Marina resolves that regardless of the outcome that she will protect Ariel, and should Ariel fail, then she'll deal with Ursula herself. With so many factors and a three-day time limit, can Ariel and Marina fall in love and more importantly, can Ursula be stopped?
It was a rather dull and grey overcast day out in the middle of the North Sea as three seagulls flew through the clouds, and the sun shone down on the sea through gaps in the clouds as a pod of dolphins leapt out from the water as they swam on the surface. The pod, itself, was about three-strong, soon stopped and poked their heads above the surface as they started to converse, and one of the seagulls that had been flying overhead came and landed on the water between them; not that they minded. In fact, they were quite okay with the bird's presence, but before the dolphins or the seagull could get too comfortable, a huge wooden ship suddenly broke through the layer of fog, causing the seagull to fly up into the air and the three dolphins all scattered and dived beneath the surface. However, as the ship passed by, the dolphins all poked their heads above the surface once again as they watched the ship go on its way.
"I'll tell you a tale of the bottomless blue, and it's hey to the starboard, heave ho," the ship's crew sang, as a few winced up a net full of fish from the water below, and others worked on the ship's masts, "Look out lad, a mermaid be waitin' for you, in mysterious fathoms below."
A sail raised up revealing a wooden carving of a mermaid that was situated at the very front of the ship, and on the deck behind the sail, Prince Eric, the prince of a small kingdom located in the country known as Denmark, had his hand on the rope that was attached to the sail's upper mast and he leaned against the banister in front of him.
"Isn't this great, the salty sea air?" he said before leaning back and closing his eyes briefly as the wind blew against his face and through his hair, "The wind blowing in your face?"
Beside him to his left, with his front paws up on the banister, was his English sheepdog and trusted companion, Max, who just barked in response to his master's question as the wind blew through his fur.
"Perfect day to be at sea?" Eric finished, as he turned to look at his number one manservant, as well as his confidant, Grimsby, who was leaning over the side of the ship, green in the face from seasickness.
"Oh yes, oh delightful," Grimsby replied sarcastically, as he raised his head to glare at Eric before he hurriedly threw his head over the side of the ship once again as he felt another wave of vomit coming up from the depths of his stomach.
"A fine strong wind and a followin' sea," a crew member who was tending to a rope that lead up into the ship's rigging said with just a hint of enthusiasm in his voice, and Eric went over to help him with his work, "King Triton must be in a friendly-type mood."
"King Triton?" Eric asked curiously, as he turned to regard the crewman.
"Why, ruler of the mer-people, lad," another crewman with his left eye closed and a dark brownish orange beard said, as he busily tended to the fish that had been caught in the net and was putting them into an open barrel as Eric turned his attention towards him, "Thought every good sailor knew about him."
"Mer-people," Grimsby, who had recovered from his seasickness, said, as he came up to where Eric was while fixing his hair and purple tie while Eric dropped to one knee and was seeing to Max, "Eric, pay no attention to this nautical nonsense."
"But it ain't nonsense, it's the truth," the crewman insisted, as he walked up to Grimsby with a fish in his hand and started waving it in Grimsby's face, and caused him to retreat as he advanced on him, "I'm tellin' you, down in the depths of the ocean they live… ooowww wo-wow!"
Unfortunately for the crewman, the fish he had in his hand was still alive and managed to wriggle itself free from his grasp due to its slippery scales, and it seemingly made a lunge for Grimsby before slapping him in the face a few times with its caudal fin, and managed to manoeuvre itself over the side of the ship, causing it to fall back into the sea.
"… Heave ho, mysterious fathoms below," the rest of the crew sang, as their song concluded.
"Oh darn, there goes one," the crewman said in dissatisfaction, as he turned and shot a glare in Grimsby's direction, clearly blaming him for the fish's escape.
"Oh, it's just one fish, nothing to worry about," Grimsby replied in his defence, as he glared back at the disgruntled crewman, and then, he turned his attention back to his charge before the crewman had the chance to think up of a reply, "Like I said, Eric, pay no attention to this mythological folklore. It's nothing more than a load of nautical nonsense."
"But, Grim, remember what I told you how I…?" Eric started to say, as he suddenly trailed off, and turned to stare at a woman standing at the very back of the ship, as she stood silently and stared out at the sea.
"Don't be ridiculous," Grimsby scoffed; shaking his head, as he also stared in the woman's direction, "Talking dolphins, and a mermaid that became human? Eric, I'm sure that it was nothing more than a hallucination brought on by the disorientation caused by the coldness of sea fog. Anyway, why did you bring Miss Marina anyway? Don't you know that it's bad luck to bring a woman aboard a vessel?"
"Now who's the one talking nonsense, eh, Grim?" Eric said with a somewhat smug smile, as he turned the tables on his confidant, "That's just a load of superstitious hogwash."
"Ah, touché," Grimsby replied, realising what Eric was doing, and knowing that he was right, but then, he cleared his throat as his expression became serious once again, "But seriously, why bring Miss Marina in the first place?"
"Well, Grim, ever since she started living with me, I've noticed that she doesn't really get out all that often," Eric replied with a rather somewhat sad sigh, as he started to pace round in circles, and turned to look at Marina, and could not help but frown as he recalled her situation, "In fact, she doesn't venture all that far beyond the palace walls unless I'm with her. In short, Grimsby, I brought her along to get her out and about. I don't want her being cooped up in the palace all day long."
"I see," Grimsby said with a sigh, as he had to admit that Eric did have a point.
Marina, herself, had long blonde hair that almost went down to the back of her knees with two strands running down her front over her chest. However, both Eric and Grimsby found themselves agreeing that her eyes were indeed strange. Her irises were a deep sparkling turquoise colour, and whenever the light shone on her pupils, instead of appearing to be black, they appeared to be a deep dark aqua shade of blue. Anyway, Marina currently wore a light blue dress that covered her entire body and hid the fact that she was barefoot. She did not know why, but ever since she became human, she found herself taking a dislike to any kind of footwear and spent most of her time barefoot. Anyway, hanging from her neck was a white circular decoration that had no meaning whatsoever and was just purely for decoration, and it was tied in place by a string that looped round the back of her neck. However, in her hair, situated on the left side of her head near the top was a huge pink pearl hairpin that was surrounded by five white flower petals.
As both he and Grimsby continued to stare at Marina in wonder, Eric could not help but think back to when he and Marina first met, and in all honesty, he could easily say that he would not have believed it if he had not been there to see for himself. Like Grimsby had said, he could have easily dismissed it as a hallucination brought on by the disorientation that the cold air within sea fog could cause, if not for the fact that Marina, herself, existed. It had been six months ago since then…
Six months previously
Prince Eric was busy helping the ship's crewmen with their routine chores while the ship was currently sailing up between where the Atlantic Ocean met the English Channel while en route back to his kingdom in Denmark. He was on his way back from yet another failed marriage meeting to a princess of a kingdom located in the country known as Portugal, and like all the previous marriage meetings he had had in the past, it ended in failure as he had decided that he would not marry the princess. It was not the princess, herself, he figured. After all, he had nothing against her as a person, but for him, he wanted to marry for love, not for political gain or to secure some beneficial political alliance. He wanted to marry a girl that he would fall in love with and who would love him back for who he was and not because he was a prince, and upon observing the princess, he could honestly say that she did not really love him, and that she honestly did not want to marry him, and only went along with it out of a sense of obligation towards her parents.
Eric was fortunate in that regard. Both his parents had passed away in the past, and so, he was left as ruler of the Kingdom, though, the law explicitly stated that he could not legally inherit the title of King until he got married. Anyway, Eric found himself rather glad that neither of his parents were around, otherwise he was sure that he would have been forced into a loveless marriage long ago; not that his parents had been forceful people; oh no, quite the contrary; Eric's parents were, in fact, really nice and decent people before they died, and had both been kind and loving towards their son, and Eric remembered how his father had often taken him out to observe the commoners and see how they lived their lives so that he would not grow up to be spoiled and take everything he had for granted. No, Eric had learned all about the various different commoner lifestyles over the years and he knew the value of hard work. His parents had pretty much drilled those lessons into his mind before they died, and it was during one of those excursions that he found his passion for the sea, and despite being a prince, whenever he sailed, he often found himself helping the crew with their chores like now; he was busy using a rope to move a sail so that the wind would push the ship in the right direction, and he did this because he felt that as a passenger of the ship, then he felt that he had to do his bit and pull his own weight, but in truth, he had chosen to help out due to pure and utter boredom and needed something to pass the time, and had found that he actually quite enjoyed working round the ships he sailed on.
Anyway, despite his parents being nice people, they were still the King and Queen of their kingdom, and as such, being the rulers of a kingdom had its share of disadvantages, such as the responsibilities of dealing with foreign regions and maintaining ties between them. Eric was no fool. He knew the pressures of ruling a kingdom, and he was aware of the pressure that he was under to settle down and find a queen. Of course, the rules of his kingdom in regards to the Royal Family were not dictated by arranged marriages or restricted to social classes, and so, Eric knew that he had the freedom to marry whomever he wanted regardless of their status, but he knew that most people, especially those that made up the ranks of the nobility, were expecting him to marry a princess; probably to secure a political tie with another kingdom, and Eric knew that had his parents been alive, they would have probably pressured him to the point where he would agree to marry the next princess he met just to get them off his back. Of course, they wouldn't have forced him to marry, but the pressure to marry ASAP in order to preserve their familial line would have had them on his case constantly.
Luckily, though, Grimsby, who despite being his manservant had become somewhat of a pseudo guardian to him after his parents had died, respected his wishes enough that he mainly distanced himself from those marital affairs and only reminded Eric every now and then about the kingdom's desire to have him settle down, but fortunately he was not constantly on his back over it, since he knew that his charge was rather choosy and that he wanted to be sure that his wife would love him back for him being Eric the person and not Prince Eric. In short, Eric did not want a gold digger who only wanted to marry him for his status and he did not want to marry anyone who was only marrying him out of a sense of political obligation.
"Marina!" a voice that sounded like it belonged to a child came, sounding rather alarmed, and Eric was brought out of his thoughts and back to reality, "Hey, you big oafish barbarians, keep your hands off her!"
"Oh my gosh!" a voice that Eric recognised as belonging to one of the crewmen, "What witchery is this? A talking dolphin!"
Eric looked down near the back of the ship and saw that near the back of the ship, caught in a fishing net was what appeared to be a blue dolphin calf glaring up at two of the crewmen who were tending to a woman with long blonde hair and wearing a light blue dress, and even from this distance, he could see that she looked to be in her mid-to-late teens. Even from up in the rigging, Eric noticed that the woman was struggling, obviously frightened and the dolphin calf was flopping around angrily as he attempted to reprimand the crewmen for hassling the woman.
"What the… who are they?" he thought to himself, though, he had to admit that he was really astounded that the dolphin could actually talk.
He had heard rumours from others about talking animals, but in the past had just dismissed them as old wives tales told by drunks or people who were delusional, but as Eric watched the scene, much to his astonishment, he could clearly hear the dolphin cursing at the crewmen as they appeared to be manhandling the blonde-haired woman, whom he could honestly say that he had never met before and was curious as to how she came to be on board the ship. Was she a stowaway? That did seem plausible, but then how would the dolphin know her and why would he be shouting at the crewmen.
Thinking quickly, he jumped down from the rigging and onto the deck, somehow managing to land on his feet without suffering any injury whatsoever, and then, he sprinted towards the woman and the dolphin calf.
"What the heck is going on here?" one of the crewmen, holding the woman from behind said as he fought to restrain her, "Easy, miss, we're not going to hurt you."
"Leave her alone!" the dolphin shouted, as it glared dangerously at the crewmen, "Just leave her alone, she's done nothing to you!"
"Silence, demon dolphin!" one crewmen stated, as he came into view wielding a harpoon, clearly intending to use it to kill the "demon dolphin", "I don't know what the story is, but you ain't gonna bewitch this little girl with your sorcery any longer!"
The woman's eyes widened in alarm upon seeing the harpoon, and her struggling suddenly intensified, catching the two crewmen, who were trying to calm her down, off guard, and she managed to break free and ran between the dolphin and the crewman wielding the harpoon, and stood with her legs in a defensive stance, knees bent and with her arms spread out at her sides and gave the harpoon-wielding crewman a defiant stare.
"Huh, what is this, we're saving you from this evil creature's influence," the harpoon wielder said, as he gave the woman a confused stare.
However, the woman just shook her head and continued to glare at the crewmen, and a look of disgust materialised on her face, much to the confusion of the crewmen.
"Don't worry about me, Marina," the dolphin said from behind her, "You just get out of here."
However, the woman, Marina, turned back to look at the dolphin and her look softened somewhat as she flashed the dolphin a friendly smile, and shook her head, causing the dolphin's eyes to widen in alarm, and the three watching crewmen became even more confused.
"Huh, what do you mean you won't go?" the dolphin said in a stunned tone, "Marina…"
"What's going on here?" Eric suddenly spoke up, having seen enough.
"Oh, Prince Eric, sorry, we didn't see you there," one of the crewmen said, as he turned to regard the prince with a look of surprise.
"Never mind that, what's going on?" Eric demanded, as he glared at the three crewmen.
"Well, Your Highness… er, well… um," one of the crewmen started to say, and found that he could not find the right words to use due to Eric's intense glare making him nervous.
"You know that we were fishin', right?" a fourth crewman said, as he walked up behind Eric, and Eric nodded as he turned his attention towards him, "Well, when we brought da nets up, dere was dis dolphin along wi' dis woman."
Eric frowned as the crewman pointed at both the dolphin and the woman as he mentioned them.
"Well, we went to help the girl, but then, the dolphin started shouting at us," one of the other crewmen replied, finally finding the confidence to speak.
"They were manhandling her," the dolphin spoke up in its own defence, as it glared at the crewmen.
"We were rescuing her," one of the other crewmen shot back with a contemptuous glare, "What the heck have you done to her, you demon? You've bewitched her."
The woman shook her head while glaring at the man who had spoken, and Eric knew that the crewmen had got it wrong.
"That's a lie!" the dolphin shouted, as it glared up at the crewmen, "We were on our way to the nearest land mass before we got caught in your nets!"
"Alright, alright, enough!" Eric declared with a glare of his own that silenced all parties, and then, he turned his attention towards the dolphin.
"What's your name?" he asked simply, as he let out a sigh to calm himself down.
"My name?" the dolphin said, sounding confused, obviously being taken aback by the prince's calm tone, but after a brief few seconds, decided to answer truthfully, "Fritz, Your Highness, my name is Fritz, and that is my friend, Marina."
Present
Yes, that had been what had happened. While on the way back, the crew had decided to do a spot of fishing, and Marina and her dolphin friend, Fritz, had ended up getting tangled up in the fishing nets, and the crew had mistaken Fritz for a demon that had bewitched Marina and all because Fritz could speak, they had mistaken him for a demon. However, Eric could see the truth. He knew that Fritz was no demon. He had just been looking out for his friend and had mistakenly believed that the crewmen were manhandling Marina, and Marina had come to the same conclusion.
Anyway, after Eric had gotten the misunderstanding cleared up, he had asked Fritz to tell him their story, since he had to admit that it was not every day that fisherman pulled up dolphins along with human girls, and it soon became apparent that Marina was a mute, in other words, she could not speak, and Fritz, after much debate had finally decided to tell him their story, though, it had taken a pleading look from Marina before he relented, but in any case, Fritz had explained that Marina was originally a mermaid and the youngest of six princesses that lived in the Undersea Kingdom, Mediterranea, and who he had convinced to go to the surface when she was not supposed to… well, from what Fritz had said, Marina had always wanted to go to the surface, but was too young, but she wanted to see it for herself, since her sisters had all gone up to the surface and told her stories of their excursions. Anyway, Fritz had convinced Marina to sneak out from the Merman Palace one night, and Marina had rescued a prince from a storm and dragged him to shore. However, for Marina, it had been love at first sight, and from what Fritz had said; both he and Marina had discovered a statue of the Prince earlier that day before they had snuck out from the Merman Palace after the ship transporting it had been sunk in a storm that had come the previous night.
Anyway, regardless, Marina had fallen in love and stayed with the Prince till morning until a group of humans from a nearby building had come and discovered the prince, but the prince had not seen Marina, since she had been forced to retreat due to the other humans, though Marina had told Fritz that the reason she left him was because she felt that him seeing her tail would have caused him to become frightened. In any case, from what Fritz had said, both he and Marina had been caught while on the way back and taken back to the Merman Palace, and he would have been punished for aiding Marina in her "escape", since Marina's father had come to view him as a bad influence on his daughter, but Marina's grandmother, the Mer-King's mother, had heard his story of how Marina had saved the Prince and had decided to award Marina with the pearl hairpin that she had in her hair. From what Eric understood, it acted as a pass of sorts that enabled those who wore it to come and go from the Merman Palace whenever they pleased, and only those that wore it were allowed to go to the surface. In any case, because of that, Marina and Fritz had both escaped punishment, but Marina was infatuated with the Prince, and so, she had gone to see the local sea witch, whose name was so terrifying… at least according to Fritz that no one in Mediterranea dared speak it aloud and just addressed her as the Sea Witch. However, Eric had managed to get the name from Fritz, Devillia Del Ray, who was a cross between a human sorceress and a devil ray fish. In any case, Marina had gone to Devillia's domain seeking her help, and Devillia had agreed to help her, but at an awfully harsh price.
The price was that the Prince had to reciprocate her love, and if not, then on the sunrise of the day after his wedding to another woman, Marina's heart would break and she would dissolve into sea foam, and so, Devillia had given Marina a potion that would transform her into a human, and took her voice from her as payment, but told Marina that she had to take the potion before sunrise the following day, otherwise the potion would lose its effect, and also, since Marina would become human, it meant that she would no longer be able to see her father, grandmother, sisters or even Fritz again, and yet, despite knowing all this, she went through with it anyway, and she had spent a full month living with the Prince, and they had become close, but according to Fritz, the Prince's parents were not too happy about Marina's presence in their son's life. He did not know the full story, but he did know that the Prince's parents wanted him to marry a princess that they had chosen for him, and Marina had confided in Fritz… since Marina tended to move her lips whenever she wanted to communicate, and Fritz, as it turned out, just so happened to be a phenomenal lip-reader despite his young age; anyway, Marina had confided in Fritz that the Prince confessed to her that he did not want to marry the Princess and that he only wanted to marry the girl who had found him after he had believed that he had been washed ashore after that storm.
In truth, it was Marina who had saved him, but since she had been forced to retreat, the Prince had not seen her, and so, the Prince had mistakenly believed that he had been washed ashore, and the girl who had discovered him had black hair, but since he could not find her, and he also believed that he would never meet her again, the Prince had decided that he would marry Marina instead, whom he had dubbed, Princess Mermaid, since Marina was incapable of telling him her name and he had found her by the river that was close to the sea. However, in any case, Eric learned from Fritz that the Prince's parents had somehow managed to trick him into going to the Princess's kingdom, and as it turned out, the princess in question turned out, as if by some cruel twist of fate, the princess was in fact the same girl who had found him after Marina had dragged him ashore, and so, having found his girl, the Prince had effectively cast Marina aside, which Eric found himself infuriated by.
"I can't believe that uncaring bastard," he thought to himself, feeling rather infuriated at the Prince for his disregard for Marina's feelings, "He builds up that poor girl's hopes and dreams, only to shatter them and cast her aside as if she no longer matters to him once he finds his dream girl… no, that's just not right."
He shook his head as he calmed down, knowing that mulling over it would not help matters. As for him and Marina, he knew that he could marry Marina himself, and they had definitely spent long enough in each other's company for a relationship to develop, but despite everything, to him, Marina came across as nothing more than a little sister. Sure, he did care for her, but he was not in love with her and he made no secret of this. He had told Marina that he was not in love with her, since he did not want to build her hopes up like that other prince had done, and Marina, surprisingly, felt the same way. She did indeed grow to care for Eric, but the feelings she had towards him were similar to the love she had for her sisters. In other words, Marina only saw Eric as an older brother figure; nothing more. That had relived Eric since he had anticipated Marina suffering from a broken heart.
Anyway, after the Prince's wedding, Marina had been waiting for the sunrise that would signal her demise, but then her sisters had emerged, and along with Fritz, who had told them of the situation, and they had presented her with a magical knife that they had gotten from Devillia in exchange for their long hair and told her that her only hope was to plunge the knife into the Prince's heart and kill him, and when his blood touched her feet, she would become a mermaid again, but unfortunately, despite everything, Marina still loved the Prince and could not bring herself to kill him, and so, she elected to turn into sea foam, and she then cast the knife back into the sea and jumped off the ship, but as sunrise came, for some reason or other, Marina had not transformed into sea foam, and Fritz had saved her from drowning, though, it had been quite a struggle for the small calf to keep Marina's body above the surface, and if that was not enough, Marina's family had come to the surface, and her father had effectively banished her from Mediterranea's territorial waters, as per the law of Mediterranea, and Fritz had been charged with looking after her, but Fritz had assured Eric that despite everything, Marina's family still loved her and he had to admit that he had seen Marina's sisters come to visit her. After all, the law stated that Marina's banishment was mandatory, but there was nothing in the law against visiting those who were banished, and so, with that in mind, Marina's father had allowed his daughters to abuse any loopholes in the law that they could find in regards to Marina.
"Gotta admit, as farfetched as it sounds, even if I hadn't seen Marina's sisters, I would still find myself believing it," he said aloud, causing Grimsby to turn and give him a sceptical look.
Of course, Grimsby had also been on that trip, but unfortunately, on the way back, he had taken seriously ill and had been confided to his cabin, and so, he had not seen Fritz and believed that the whole story was nothing more than a hallucination, and as for Fritz, Eric had released him back into the sea and he had followed the ship back to Denmark where he continued to meet with Marina on the shoreline just outside his castle. It was the only area that Marina went to unsupervised outside the castle, otherwise, whenever she left, Eric was always with her.
Not that far from where Eric and Grimsby were, Marina tilted her head slightly as she listened in on their conversation and a small smile etched itself onto the edges of her mouth, as she knew that Eric was thinking about how they had first met. She had to admit that it seemed bizarre. She was not even supposed to be alive, let alone human. She remembered how she had tried to kill the Prince that she had fallen in love with, and how, despite everything, she just could not bring herself to go through with it. Despite casting her aside in favour of the Black-Haired Girl, Marina realised that she still loved the Prince, whom she had come to know as Fjord, but still called him the Prince due to her believing that it was not proper for her to address him by his given name. Anyway, despite knowing that failure to kill Fjord would result in her death, she had decided to spare him and accept her fate, and had cast the knife back into the sea. She reasoned that if she dissolved into sea foam, then whenever Fjord was at sea, she could always be round him and find some way to be of service to him. Despite him choosing the Black-Haired Girl over her, Marina could honestly say that she now understood what true love was.
True love meant putting your lover's desires ahead of one's own. Marina had learned that, and as she hesitated while standing over Fjord, she had come to realise that despite not being able to be with him, she still wanted him to be happy, even if it meant that she could not share in that happiness. There was a saying that if you truly loved someone, then you had to be willing to set them free, and if they did not come back, then it was never meant to be. Marina could now honestly say that she understood the meaning of that. There was really no point in pursuing a relationship with Fjord if he clearly did not reciprocate her feelings. She could not force him to love her, and she knew that pursuing someone that clearly did not love her back and trying to force them to love her would inevitably lead to disaster, since the resulting relationship would be anything but healthy.
In any case, Marina had jumped off the back of the ship, though, she could have sworn that she had heard Fjord calling out to her, but that had not mattered to her. There was nothing he could have done to help her anyway. The moment he had married the Black-Haired Girl, her fate had been sealed. There was nothing he could have done to prevent it. It was too late for her. She remembered floating on the surface of the sea as she awaited the sunrise that would dissolve her into sea foam as she thought about everything she had gone through and everything she had given up in the process, and she could honestly say without a shadow of a doubt, that she had come to regret it. She had thrown everything she had away in the pursuit of love and in the end; it had all been for naught, since the man she loved had chosen another over her. It was true when Devillia had told her that love made people blind.
She felt as if she had dived headfirst into the shallow end of a swimming pool without any thought as to the consequences of such an action. When she first laid eyes on Fjord, she was instantly in love, though, to be fair, she had gained a fascination for the human world beforehand after hearing her sisters' stories of their excursions to the surface. Their stories had fascinated her and she had wanted to go up and see the surface world for herself, to see if it was as good as her sisters had all claimed. However, that night, when Fritz had convinced her to sneak out and go to the surface, seeing fireworks and the ship that Fjord was on, and seeing Fjord in person and remembering that the statue she and Fritz had found earlier that day on that sunken ship was in Fjord's likeness, she was instantly taken in by how beautiful and handsome Fjord was, and it only served to fuel her desire to experience what life was like on the surface.
However, unfortunately, Devillia had conjured up a storm that caused Fjord's ship to sink, and she had rescued him from drowning and dragged him to shore, and as she stayed with him and watched over his unconscious form, all the while begging him to wake up and not die, her feelings for him grew, but the following morning, she had been forced to retreat as a group of humans, led by the Black-Haired Girl that Fjord was now married to, came and found him. Nonetheless, Marina had come to the decision that she would become human so she could be with him, and she had effectively thrown all caution to the wind. Later, after she had been awarded with her Pearl Hairpin after her grandmother had heard the story of how she had saved Fjord from drowning, she had gone to Devillia's domain to seek her help, and she had, at least in her own mind, rather stupidly agreed to the deal despite Devillia's warnings about the consequences. However, she did briefly hesitate when Devillia informed her that she would be taking her voice away from her as payment for the deal, but quickly regained her resolve, and Devillia took her voice from her as payment.
"You know, it would be rather easy to blame the Prince," she thought to herself, still refusing to use Fjord's name when she referred to him, as she shook her head, "But that's wrong. It's not his fault."
That much was true, she had to admit. It would be easy to pin all the blame on Fjord and she could have someone that she could verbally rant and rave over in her mind, but despite her regret over becoming human, she still loved Fjord and her love for him was able to make her see the truth as clear as day. She could not bring herself to blame him, and thinking it over; she had long since come to the realisation that the blame clearly and solely rested with her. It was her own fault that she was in the fix she was in. She had seen Fjord and fallen in love with him. It was not like he had told her to become human, and in fact, he had no idea that Marina even existed until he found her on the riverbank the day after she had become human, and she had to admit that had had been a rather painful experience as, in addition to feeling as if someone was strangling her, it also felt like someone had been cutting her tail in two with a sword right down the middle and she knew that that had been her legs forming. Anyway, since she was rendered mute, she found herself unable to communicate with Fjord. Heck, she found herself to be illiterate, since she had no idea how to write, and during her month-long stay, she had found it rather difficult to adjust to life on land, but she did not care, since she had Fjord with her and in her mind, that was all that mattered.
She had to admit that it was rather stupid and selfish of her. She had been told that she would never be able to see her family again, and still, she had agreed without any ounce of hesitation whatsoever, as if her family did not really matter to her anymore, though, she loved her family very much, but at the time, she had been thinking of Fjord and had figured that it was a price worth paying, under the assumption that her family would automatically understand. She never even considered their own feelings on the issue and had just assumed that they would accept it. The possibility of her family objecting to her decision had not even entered her head. It disgusted her whenever she thought back to that faithful day, but she had to admit that at the time, all she cared about with being with Fjord and nothing else mattered; not even Fritz, despite his countless protests. She had only been thinking about herself and herself alone.
Another thing that she had disregarded was the possibility of Fjord loving another and despite Devillia warning her of the consequences, she still agreed, though, she had to admit that she was a bit uneasy when Devillia had told her, but she also had to admit that it was more the fear of becoming sea foam rather than the possibility of Fjord loving someone else that caused her unease. Like with her family's possible objections, the possibility of Fjord falling in love with another woman had not entered Marina's head. She had been so blinded by her love for Fjord that she had just assumed that he would fall for her automatically and that would be that. She never gave an ounce of thought to what reality was really like. She believed that everything would be okay, and even when Fjord told her that he wanted to marry the Black-Haired Girl that he believed rescued him from the storm when his parents wanted him to marry a princess from a neighbouring kingdom known as the Suomi Kingdom, he had told her that he believed that he would never see her again, and in that case, he would marry her instead, and it had given Marina hope as she continued to live in her own little world.
Unfortunately, though, fate, as it turned out, proved to be a cruel mistress, since Fjord's parents were not too happy over their son's decision to marry her instead of the princess that they had chosen for him, and so, Fjord had been tricked into boarding a ship bound for the Suomi Kingdom when he was told that his mother had fallen ill, but it was just a trick, and Fjord had brought her along, and so, they were forcibly separated, and then, Fjord had elected to go to the Suomi Kingdom and tell the Princess to her face that he had no desire to marry her, but unfortunately, fate had once again proven just how cruel she could be when it turned out that the Suomi Princess and the Hlack-Haired Girl that found him on the shore both turned out to be one and the same. Marina had eventually been released, since it had no longer been necessary to imprison her, and she remembered an excited Fjord bursting into the room and rather excitedly telling her that he had found the Black-Haired Girl, and that she was, in fact, the Suomi Princess, and it was then that Marina's delusion had shattered, just like the mirror she had dropped when Fjord announced his intention to marry the Suomi Princess.
That had been a big wake-up to Marina, and she had taken it like a slap in the face. It was as if reality, itself, had had enough of her living out her fantasies and had slapped her in the face, and she soon found herself in a dire situation, since she knew that if Fjord married the Suomi Princess, she would dissolve into sea foam, and at first, she had been scared and frightened as the reality of the situation suddenly dawned on her. However, she had informed Fritz, who in turn informed her sisters, who had gone to Devillia to ask her to save their sister, and Devillia had given them a magical knife in exchange for their long hair, and for her to avoid her fate, she had to plunge the knife into Fjord's heart, and once his blood touched her feet, she would become a mermaid again, but she could not bring herself to do it, and upon experiencing her epiphany, she no longer feared her fate, but instead, chose to embrace it, though, she did regret that she would not be able to meet with her sisters.
"However, I guess fate has deemed that I haven't been punished enough," she thought feeling somewhat embittered, as she remembered how when the sun rose, instead of dissolving into sea foam like Devillia had said, she continued to float on the surface, and she also remembered hearing Fritz's heartbroken and panicked cries as he came after her and if not for him, she was sure that she would have drowned.
That had been a bit of a shock. Despite what Devillia had told her, she had not dissolved into sea foam and had almost drowned; not that she objected to that. In fact, despite her surprise, she decided that she would be content in drowning, since she believed that she deserved it for the heartache and sorrow that she believed she had put her family and Fritz through, though, she could not understand why she did not become sea foam. Was it possible that Devillia had lied? However, she then remembering just who Devillia was and she found that extremely unlikely. Devillia was a sea witch, and any deal made with her came at a hefty cost and the consequences for failure were always extremely harsh. It made no sense for Devillia to lie to her. What possible motive could she have for lying to her, and with that in mind, Marina figured that it had to be something else.
Perhaps the sea, itself, had interpreted her transformation from mermaid to human as an unpardonable act of treason and it had rejected her. Maybe the sea did not want Marina inhabiting it in any shape or form, even if it was just as harmless foam. She found herself wondering if her failure to dissolve was a punishment by the sea for her "betrayal". She had been a mermaid after all, and an inhabitant of the sea, but she had become human and elected to live on land. Perhaps the sea was punishing her for her preference to land. If she had drowned, then she had no doubt that the sea would have eventually deposited her dead body on a nearby shoreline since she knew that she would have eventually ended up being washed ashore, provided that the marine life did not eat away at her beforehand, but she doubted the sea would have let them feast on her corpse. Maybe that's why Fritz had successfully managed to rescue her. However, afterwards she had met up with her father, grandmother and sisters…
Six months previously
Fritz had just brought Marina back to the surface after she failed to dissolve into sea foam and was feeling rather heartbroken.
"Oh, Marina," he cried in a broken-hearted tone, "Why, why didn't you do it? Why didn't you kill the Prince?"
"I couldn't," Marina mouthed simply; despite moving her lips, no sound came.
However, since Fritz could not see Marina's face, he had no idea what she had just said. Marina was currently on the surface of the sea lying on top of Fritz's small body, though, Marina was so big in comparison to the dolphin calf that Fritz found himself constantly adjusting his position so that Marina would not fall off. However, seeing her friend constantly struggling to keep her above the water, Marina felt her heart break, and tears started to well up in her eyes.
"Please, Fritz, just let me die," she begged silently, feeling rather frustrated that Fritz could not hear her, "I'm not worth it."
She found herself rather accepting towards the possibility of her own death, whether by dissolving into sea foam or drowning, it did not matter to her. She felt that she deserved to die after everything she put her family and Fritz through. She had been so foolish, blind and lovesick that she had effectively shut herself off from reality, and she had also went on unfounded assumptions that everything would be okay. She had been so selfish in her pursuit of Fjord that no one had mattered to her; not her grandmother, not her father, not her sisters and most definitely, not Fritz. She had just assumed that they would understand and accept the situation, and despite Fritz expressing that he did not want her to become a human, she had assumed that he would eventually grow to accept it, but seeing Fritz now, it was clear to Marina that he never did come to accept her choice, and in fact, it had torn him apart on the inside
"Why, why do you even bother?" she mused silently, as she thought about her relationship with the young dolphin calf, "Even after everything I put you through, you still remain loyal to me, why? I'm not worthy of such loyalty."
Fritz had been her closest friend for a long time, though, she had to admit that when they first met, Fritz had been rather mean to her. She had been minding her own business and her mind had wondered as she had been swimming rather carelessly, and she had bumped into Fritz by accident, though, at the time, Fritz did not like mer-people very much and thought that they were just a species of stuck-up snobs that swam around acting as if they owned the ocean, and he had ranted and raved at Marina, causing her to cry, but afterwards, he had been guilt-tripped into apologising, since Marina did indeed apologise for bumping into him, but Fritz had been so infuriated that a mer-person had bumped into him that he had not been listening when Marina had apologised. However, once he had been forced to apologise, he soon came to realise that Marina was nothing like he envisioned and their friendship took off from there.
Since then, they had gotten pretty close. Since Marina could not go up to the surface, since she had not come of age, she had passed her time playing with Fritz and they played many games together, though, thinking back, Marina realised that those games were very childish, but they did help relieve her boredom, though, her desire to see the surface world for herself persisted, and she and Fritz would often explore sunken ships that Devillia sank whenever she had decided to conjure up a storm, like the ship that contained the statue of Fjord. Her sisters often teased her about her friendship with Fritz, claiming that if she continued to hang out with him, then she would not get a Pearl Hairpin, which often caused Marina to panic, but then her sisters would burst out in laughter, letting her know that they were just teasing her, though, it was no secret that her father had viewed Fritz as a bad influence on her, but put up with Fritz; that is, until Fritz had convinced her to sneak out that night. The original intention had been just a quick excursion to the surface and they would return before anyone knew they were gone, but due to the storm and Marina staying with Fjord, they had been caught, and Marina remembered her father telling her that she was not to play with Fritz again, but then, her grandmother had intervened, having heard the story from the Sea-Bottom Police Patrol Leader that Fritz had told during his interrogation about how Marina had saved Fjord and how she had decided to give Marina her Pearl Hairpin and so, the Mer-King had, albiet, rather reluctantly, rescinded his order.
However, it was afterwards that she had gone to see Devillia, and Fritz had reluctantly gone with her, though, he had originally threatened to tell the Mer-King if she did not back down, but Marina told him that if he did tell her father, then she would never speak to him again and that had caused him to back down, and he did save her from Devillia's magically mutated polyps and a giant clam that had tried to devour her, and he decided that if she was not going to listen to him, then he would accompany her, and though he was locked out when Marina and Devillia met, he had heard their entire conversation, and was heartbroken when Marina emerged without her voice and also confessed that he did not want her to become a human, and she had tried to provide him with some comfort.
However, when she thought about it and how determined she had been to become human, she had come to realise that despite her thoughts to the contrary and her attempts to comfort him, she had, at least in her mind, effectively abandoned Fritz; even refusing to let him accompany her to the Summer Palace where Fjord was located, claiming that it would only make their parting harder. However, as she thought about it, she had believed that she had effectively blown Fritz off as she remembered hearing him calling after her, and yet, she had ignored him. Now that she thought about it, it had come across as cold and uncaring. Of everyone she knew that had suffered because of her choice, Fritz suffered the most. He had come to visit her once at the Summer Palace, only to have stones thrown at him by a group of human boys, but Marina and Fjord had both come to his aid, and Fritz and Marina had a brief moment before Fritz left telling her that if she ever needed him then she was to hold her pearl hairpin up high and he would come to her, and the next time they met was after Fjord announced his marriage to the Suomi Princess, in which, she explained the situation and then Fritz had left to inform her sisters.
"I'm too good to die," she thought to herself bitterly, as she remembered what Fritz had said, "Since when is abandoning your friends and family for your own selfish desires considered good?"
She remembered how heartbroken Fritz has been when she had emerged from Devillia's home and how he confessed that he did not want her to become human. However, before she could continue down that train of thought, the sound of something emerging from the sea grabbed her attention, and her eyes widened in surprise when she saw her father, grandmother and sisters all emerge from the sea. Upon looking at her father, who had a stern, unreadable expression on his face, Marina could not help but lower her head in shame with her eyes gazing down at Fritz's blowhole as she averted her gaze. She could not look him in the eye; not after what she had done. She had become a human and turned her back on the sea. How could she possibly face her father after she had committed what could effectively be seen as an act of treason?
"Marina," he said in an unreadable tone, "Marina, look at me."
Marina shook her head as she clenched her eyes shut, fearful of what he was going to say or do to her, but if he was going to execute her, he might as well get it over with.
"So, I see that what I've been told is true, then," he said, his tone still neutral and unreadable, though, it seemed as if he had decided that let Marina continue to avert her gaze for the time being, "You have become a human, then?"
Marina only nodded in response.
"And you gave your voice to the Sea Witch as payment for her help," her grandmother added, though, her tone was not as unreadable as her son's; her tone sounded somewhat disappointed rather than furious, but to Marina, that did not matter.
She was sure that her father was furious with her and had come to either kill her or disown her. Since she was not going to turn into sea foam, and with Fritz being so determined to save her despite the way in which she had betrayed him, she figured that if she was going to die, might as well be by her father's hand. In any case, she nodded in response to her grandmother's statement.
"And I also understand that your sisters all went to the Sea Witch and traded their hair for a magical knife, which you didn't use in order to transform you back into a mermaid," her father went on, and Marina noticed all her sisters flinch at that out of the corner of her eye as their father shot them all a small, but brief glare.
"I'm sorry, my sisters," she thought miserably, unable to meet their combined gaze as she felt that she had betrayed them as well.
True, she had decided not to kill Fjord out of the love she still had for him, and decided that he should live and be happy, but in doing so, she had also betrayed her sisters, and once again, she felt as if she had turned her back on them; just like she had turned her back on her father, her grandmother and especially Fritz. All she could do now was hang her head in shame as she awaited her fate
"Marina, look at me," her father said, repeating his earlier statement in a more stern tone of voice, as he moved over to her and placed his right hand underneath her chin and gently raised his daughter's head till her eyes were fixed on his face.
Marina immediately tried to look away, but her father brought his left hand up behind her head and after grabbing a handful of her hair, he gently forced her to look at him, and after a few seconds of struggling, she noticed that her father was not glaring hatefully at her like she thought he was. Okay, he did have a bit of a glare, but it was nowhere near as intense as she believed it had been. Looking into her father's eyes she could see sorrow, sadness and disappointment all mixed into one, but there was no amount of hatred present in his gaze whatsoever and that surprised her.
"I won't lie to you," he said with a sigh, "It's true that I'm very angry with you."
Marina flinched at that, despite his tone sounding more disappointed than angry.
"You threw your whole life away in pursuit of that human," he went on, his tone still sounding disappointed, "And yet despite it being for naught, you turn down the only chance you had at escaping your fate."
Marina just nodded.
"I couldn't do it," was what her lips said, "I just couldn't bring myself to do it. His happiness is my happiness. Isn't that what true love is about?"
Fortunately, her father was just as good a lip-reader as Fritz was and understood her perfectly, and much to her surprise, he smiled.
"Yes, that is true," he said in a gentler tone, as his look softened somewhat, "I see that despite your misfortunate, you've learned what true love really is, and to tell you the truth, despite you forfeiting your chance to become a mermaid again, I'm quite glad that you haven't soiled your hands in blood. To have become a mermaid again, you would have to have taken that boy's blood on your hands, and I don't think I could live with the fact that my youngest daughter had become a murderer; even if it had been necessary."
Marina's eyes widened in confusion at hearing this. Sure, she understood what her father was saying, and in truth, even if she had no longer loved Fjord, she knew that she would have still been uncomfortable with the thought of killing him, since she had never killed anyone before. Heck, she did not fancy the idea of becoming a murderer herself. Thinking it over, she had to wonder what Fjord would have thought of her if she had done the deed. On the outlook, it seemed a case of "If I can't have you, no one can", and no matter how much she tried to reason out her motives, in the end, it all boiled down to cold-blooded murder, and it seemed especially unfair that someone had to die so that another can be spared. Those had been factors in her decision to spare Fjord. Even if she no longer loved him, she found herself coming to realise that she probably would have spared him anyway, since killing him would have meant that she was still just as selfish as she had been before, since she would have killed him for her own benefit, and she knew that her own selfishness was to blame for the entire situation in the first place, and it was only then that she had developed the courage to face her seemingly inevitable fate. However, she thought that her father would not have cared for any of that.
"You know, Marina," her sister with the strange brownish red hair said, as she moved closer, "Thinking it over, I have to agree. I don't think I could've lived with the fact that my little sister had blood on her hands and I don't think you would be able to either."
"Regatta," Marina thought, as she stared at her sister.
Of the six mermaid princesses, Regatta was the oldest. She had a golden starfish shaped jewel with a ruby-red orb in the centre on the centre of her forehead with the two upper diagonal prongs extending all the way to her hairline that marked her position as Crown Princess, and she wore her pearl hairpin on the left side of her head near the back. She had the same colour of eyes as Marina; in fact all the sisters had the same eye colour and all the sisters, sans Marina, had what appeared to be greyish purple eye shadow between their top eyelids and eyebrows.
"Yes, I know that it's surprising, but murder is still murder, regardless of the victim's species," Marina's father said with a stern stare, "Had you actually gone ahead and killed the Prince, it would have proved that you had learned nothing at all."
"I'm guessing that you left your Pearl Hairpin with him, haven't you, Marina?" her grandmother said, as she noticed that her pearl hairpin with missing, and Marina nodded in confirmation.
"Now then, as glad as I am that you spared the prince, the fact still remains that you are still human, and even I don't know why you didn't dissolve into sea foam," her father said in a serious tone and despite lacking any kind of anger, the seriousness was enough to cause Marina to shudder.
Present
Thinking back, Marina had been quite relieved that her family still loved her. It had been a bit of a surprise to learn that her family were glad that she did not kill Fjord and that she did not receive the hatred she believed her family held for her. In fact all of her sisters were glad that she spared Fjord, since none of them wanted to have a murderer in the family, and despite everything, they were proud of her for learning her lesson, though, she still believed that they should hate her for turning her back on them in the first place. They had given her a chance at redemption and she had blown it because of the price she would have had to have paid, and she still viewed it as a betrayal on her part. However, her family's lack of hatred did help ease her guilt somewhat despite what she thought.
Unfortunately, though, due to her actions and the fact that she could not return to the Merman Palace, her father had no choice, but to implement the law and banish her from Mediterranean Waters. The law was clear. Like she had anticipated, she had committed an act of treason according to the law, but since the kind of treason in question posed no threat to Mediterranea, itself, and had not caused anyone harm, she had escaped execution. Instead she had been banished from the Kingdom, much to Fritz's protests, but her father had charged Fritz with looking after her, effectively banishing him as well. However, despite her banishment, she had shared a goodbye hug with her father, grandmother and sisters and her father let her know that, despite everything, he still loved her, and as a going away present, her grandmother had given her a new pearl hairpin, which she had initially turned down due to her newly acquired status as an exile, but her grandmother insisted that she take it as a memento, taking advantage of a loophole in the law, in which, Marina's exile status would not come into effect until after she had left Mediterranean Waters, and there was nothing in the law that said that exiles had to hand back their pearl hairpins, and also, there was also nothing in the law that said that exiles were not allowed to be visited by their family and friends, which meant that Marina occasionally had visits from her sisters.
In any case, Marina and Fritz had both been escorted to Mediterranea's border with the neighbouring undersea kingdom, Atlantica, which King Triton ruled, and Marina had vague memories of actually visiting Atlantica along with her sisters and mother before she died. However, those memories were so vague that she could hardly remember them, and ever since the death of the Atlantican Queen, Athena, Triton had become so embittered by the loss of his wife, and not long afterwards, her own mother died, that Mediterranea had severed its ties with Atlantica, since she remembered that her mother had been an ambassador and had been good friends with Queen Athena, but after her death, Triton had banned music from the kingdom, and after her mother died, her father had wanted nothing more to do with Atlantica so long as Triton reminded in his embittered state.
Anyway, once in Atlantican Waters, Fritz and Marina were effectively on their own, and Fritz continued to struggle to keep Marina's head above the water, but after a few hours, they had gotten tangled in fishing nets and were taken aboard a ship en route back to a kingdom in a country that Marina now knew to be called Denmark. As it turned out, the ship belonged to the kingdom's prince, a man called Eric, and he had been on his way home from a failed marriage meeting. Needless to say, Marina felt that fate was taunting her by forcing yet another prince into her life, though, he did save Fritz's life when the crewmen were planning on killing him when they had mistaken him for a demon, and he did offer Marina a place to stay in his castle as his ward, and not having anywhere to go, she accepted.
Accepting Eric's invitation had turned out to be very beneficial for her, since unlike with Fjord, Marina found herself adapting to life on land far better than she ever did at Fjord's Summer Palace. Fjord did not know her story and had not realised that she was a mermaid, but since Fritz had told Eric their story and he believed them, he had helped her with adapting to life on land, and also, unlike Fjord, Eric had someone teach her how to write so she could communicate, and she found herself writing what she wanted to say, though, even now, many of her written sentences were riddled with spelling mistakes, but that did not matter, since despite the mistakes, the messages' meanings were clear and also, Eric would correct her mistakes.
Learning about Eric, she had come to learn that his parents had died, which effectively made him the ruler of his kingdom, but the law of his kingdom stated that he could not officially inherit the title of King until he married, and unfortunately for the Kingdom, Eric was rather choosey over the type of girl he wanted, and he wanted to marry for love. He wanted to marry a girl; not for wealth or status, or to form a political alliance, but he wanted to marry someone who would love him for him and not because he was a prince. He wanted someone who shared his passions for the sea, and Eric took a very active role while at sea, helping the crewmen with their chores instead of confining himself to his cabin. He was happy and knew how ordinary people lived their lives, unlike Fjord, who from what Marina could gather, had been quite sheltered and only left the Summer Palace to see to his royal duties, and while at sea, Marina had not seen him help any of the crewmen with their chores. Yes, Eric may be a prince like Fjord, but he was also remarkably different from Fjord.
However, despite not being a victim of an arranged marriage like Fjord was, Eric was under pressure to find a wife and settle down, though, the laws of his kingdom were flexible in that Eric could practically marry anyone he chose regardless of their status, but the people of his kingdom, especially the nobility, were expecting him to choose a neighbouring kingdom's princess. Fortunately, they were not constantly hounding him and on his back. His confidant, Grimsby, in particular, respected his wishes and gave him his space, only bringing it up occasionally to remind him of the situation, and Marina knew that Eric could marry her if he chose, since there was no one in the way to object like Fjord's parents, who had insisted that he marry the Suomi Princess.
However, despite living together with Eric for the past six months, Marina just did not love him in that way. Sure, she cared for him and was thankful for everything he had done for her, but whenever she thought of Eric, he came across as something akin to an older brother, and she was relieved to learn that he felt the same way in that she was more like a little sister to him rather than a lover, and she had to hand it to Eric for his honesty. He had been the one who had come and told her that he did not wish to marry her, though, she could tell that he had been nervous and had obviously been anticipating a scene, but she had eased his fears in writing down that she felt the same way.
In truth, it was kind of like Fjord. He had told her that he had desired to marry the black-haired girl that found him on the shore, but he had given her a sense of hope when he said that since he did not know where she was, and figured that he would probably never meet her again, that he would rather marry her instead. That had filled her with hope, and in her own delusional little world, she was okay with that, but as it turned out, the Suomi Princess that Fjord's parents had chosen for him had turned out to be the Black-Haired Girl, and that had shattered her hope and woken her up to reality. Of course, as much as she wanted to be angry at Fjord, she found that she could not. After all, he had told her beforehand of his desire to marry the Black-Haired Girl and had only chosen to marry her because he could not find the Black-Haired Girl. He had told her that, and yet, she had completely ignored him, since she believed that he would never find her again. The possibility that he would find the black-haired girl never really entered her head, so when it turned out that the Suomi Princess was the Black-Haired Girl, it had come as quite a shock.
However, despite what Eric thought, Fjord had not been an "uncaring bastard" like he thought. In Marina's mind, he had just been rather stupid, and from the way he announced his marriage to her, it was clear that he still considered her a friend, though, Marina had to admit the irony of the situation. She had given up everything in the assumption that everything would turn out okay, without considering the possibility of something going wrong and had detached herself from reality, and the way Fjord had acted was the same. When he told her of his "good fortunate", the possibility that she had objections to his union with the Suomi Princess did not even enter his mind, just like the possibility of something going wrong never entering her own mind.
"Kind of ironic when you think about it," she thought to herself with a silent chuckle.
However, Eric had been quite forward with her and had told her that he would not marry her as the next best thing if he could not find his ideal girl, and while thinking about that, a thought just occurred to Marina. She had to wonder what would have happened if Fjord had succeeded in pushing past his parents' opposition to her, and they did marry, only for him to find the Black-Haired Girl. He did state that he only wanted to marry her because he could not find the black-haired girl. However, what would it have meant for her deal with Devillia if Fjord had married her, but discovered the Black-Haired Girl after their wedding?
Anyway, she was brought out of her thoughts as she noticed Eric and his dog, Max coming up behind her.
As for her relationship with Max, he absolutely adored her, unlike Fjord's cat, Jemmy, whom Marina quickly learned did not like her to say the least. Max, on the other hand, had grown quite fond of her, and she was the only one besides Eric that had gotten really close to him, and despite Marina being mute, she issued commands with her hands and he obeyed them as if they were coming from his master. That was something that Eric had noted, since Max usually was usually weary and shy round strangers. However, Marina had managed to set him at ease and even get him to follow her commands.
"Hey, are you okay?" Eric asked curiously, and Marina just nodded with a small smile on her face.
He then let out a smile of his own. In truth, he believed that Marina was a mermaid and he knew how she felt. He knew that she felt like she was being punished for her own stupidity. He had to admit that on the outlook, it did seem that Marina had no one to blame but herself for ending up in the situation she was in, but from the way Marina went around blaming herself, it was as if she believed that she had been some kind of heartless monster that had committed some unpardonable crime and that was not the case. Marina had just been stupid, nothing more, and he knew that when it came to Fritz, Marina's guilt only increased, and Eric knew that Fritz had not taken Marina's decision well, and in fact, it had torn him up on the inside, and Marina believed that she had cruelly abandoned him.
"That's not true," he thought to himself, knowing that it was pointless in trying to convince Marina otherwise, "I'll admit that it was stupid of you to go through with it, but you're not a heartless monster. You wouldn't be upset over it if you were."
"Fritz," Marina thought, as her mind wondered to her dolphin friend, "I'm so sorry for everything I've put you through. How can you still stomach me and go out of your way to help me. I abandoned you. I blew you off as if I didn't really need you anymore, and yet, you still stick by me, why?"
That much she believed to be the truth. She had ignored Fritz when he voiced his objections, and even though, one could argue that the reason it seemed that she had callously left him as he called out to her was due to her lack of a voice, she believed that she really had coldly and callously abandoned him. All their games in the past had been pretty childish, and upon earning the pearl hairpin, her days as a child were effectively over. Heck, she even stated as much in a song she had sang at her Coming-of-Age Ceremony, and she had to admit that the main reason she had hung around with Fritz was because she was bored, since she could not go to the surface and had been just passing time, but she had cared about Fritz, and before Fjord entered the picture, she had originally intended to take Fritz with her to the surface, but after Fjord entered the picture, all she thought about was him and everyone else ceased to matter to her. How Fritz could continue to stand by her and support her was a mystery. She would understand if he had abandoned her and left her to drown. In fact that's what she believed she deserved. Fritz would not abandon her in doing so, since, in her own mind, she had abandoned Fritz first.
Anyway, as Eric watched Marina, he nodded to himself as he resolved to help her realise that she was blowing her self-blame out of proportions. Sure, he did not wish to marry her, but he wanted her to be happy. The Mermaid rejected by the sea and forced to live on land as punishment for her stupidity. That was a bit much in Eric's opinion, and despite everything; her family and Fritz still loved her. Eric had met Marina's sisters a few times, and they still loved her despite everything, and were actually glad that Marina had spared the Prince, and Eric had to admit that, despite his anger over the Prince casting her aside in favour of his dream girl, he was glad as well, since like her sisters, he would probably be uncomfortable round her knowing that she had blood on her hands.
Author's Notes – My latest story and I've decided to try something different from anime for a chance (not entire true since this is a crossover involving an anime). As you know, this is a crossover between two adaptations of Hans Christian Anderson's The Little Mermaid and just so you know it's a femslash story between Marina and Ariel. Also in the anime adaptation, I know that the Sea Witch was not given a name, but I gave her one to differentiate her from Ursula and as for the Prince's name in the anime adaptation, according to Wikipedia, Fjord is his name, though I'm sure that was probably a mistake since Fritz did mention the Fjord River, but for the purposes of this fic, his name is Fjord and he'll feature in a later chapter along with his wife, Cecilia (her name according to Wikipedia).