Deep below the ocean's glistening blue surface, where the water is as clear as glass, dwell the Mer people. The Mer King's castle is at the center of the Mer kingdom and is a magnificent sight to behold. The roofs are covered in black, shimmering mussels that open and close as the gently wafting currents glide over them. The walls are made of thriving corals and the windows glow a soft amber.
The Mer King Hiram's wife died some time ago, leaving him, his confidante, Leroy, and his daughter, Rachel to occupy the castle. However, the three of them were rarely lonely. King Hiram had Leroy and the the Princess Rachel had the company of her five very close friends, Santana, Brittany, Mercedes, Tina, and Sugar. Their beautiful, long flowing hair that trailed proudly behind them as they swam was envied throughout the kingdom.
Besides her friends, Rachel had the company of a marvelous marble statue which she found on the ocean floor some time ago. It beheld the image of a beautiful girl posed proudly with her chin held high and a bright, confident smile upon her face. Rachel would often study this figure and wonder at the beauty of the girl. Often she would caress the marble with her fingertips and wonder at the cool stone. She pondered the girl's legs and envied her ability to dance beneath the sun.
Rachel couldn't wait until her twentieth birthday. On that day, she would be allowed to swim to the surface and observe the world up there. All of her friends, because they were older, have already made the trip. They spoke of a beautiful sky pocked with bright lights throughout. They said it was breathtaking, but still they were eager to return happily home under the sea, because nothing in the surface world could compare to their kingdom in the ocean.
Rachel couldn't wait to witness the sky and the stars for herself, but most of all she looked forward to seeing humankind and their peculiar boats and ships she had heard so much about.
"What about humans? Did you see any?" Rachel asked all her friends upon their return.
None of them did, and they were grateful for it. "The humans find our tails grotesque! If they saw us, they would kill us without hesitation! Humans fear that which they do not understand," they would remark. Rachel remained unwavered.
When they day of her twentieth birthday finally came, her father and Leroy adorned her hair with pearls and colorful flowers. She was left alone to make her slow way up to the surface of the sea.
When Rachel emerged with her head exposed to air, she gasped. Her eyes beheld the sky. It seemed to expand infinitely in every direction just as the ocean does. It glimmered with the stars and big, full moon that illuminated the glassy surface around her.
As she floated along, mesmerized by the sky, she hear loud explosions and music. Such music! Rachel swam as fast as her tail would carry her until she reached a grand ship. It was bigger than any of the sunken ships she had seen before. Suddenly, a loud sound erupted from the ship and bright lights illuminated the sky. Rachel dove under the surface in fear of the sound and lights, but rose again when they beauty of the fireworks drove her up. She heard the sounds of cheering with the music and the fireworks were persistent in the sky. The little mermaid could just barely make out some men and woman dancing on board. "Happy Birthday to the Princess!" she heard repeated over and over.
Rachel swam around the ship, eager to see more of the people within, but stopped when she caught sight of a beautiful blonde girl sitting upon the edge of the ship. She drew forth such beautiful sounds from a violin perched upon her shoulder with graceful fingers. Rachel watched in awe and wondered, briefly, why the girl looked so eerily familiar.
All at once the rain and thunder began. Lightning and winds wracked the waves. The swells grew higher and higher until the ship was tossing violently from side to side. She heard the people aboard the ship screaming in panic and shouting orders to one another.
With a sickening snapping sound, the grand ship broke in two. Rachel swam gracefully, avoiding the debris as she searched the waters for the blonde girl. She found her. She was clinging to a broken piece of wood, but was slipping in and out of consciousness. She would surely have drowned if Rachel had not raised her above the surface with all of her might. The girl struggled against her as she held her, and Rachel found that humming a soft melody in her ear calmed her immediately.
And so the little Mermaid held the girl above the water and hummed quietly into her ear as the cries of the people died down, as all the remnants of the shipwreck disappeared, as the sun came up. Rachel was exhausted, but when she saw a beach on the horizon, she knew that she had to get the beautiful girl in her arms there as fast as she could.
Rachel swam against the current all the way to the shore. Once there, she let the waves wash them up to the beach. When she turned the girl over to let the sun bathe her face, her breath stopped in her throat. She recognized the face almost immediately. This girl was the one depicted in her beloved marble statue! She stroked her cheek and marveled at how warm and soft it was, a stark contrast to the replica under the sea. On instinct, Rachel bent down and placed a soft, lingering kiss upon the girl's cheek. The girl's eyes fluttered open briefly. Startled, Rachel dove back into the water and watched her from behind a rock.
The blonde girl lay still on the beach, eyes closed again, the water lapping at her legs and the torn shreds of her pants. A group of girls giggling and playing along the beach came across her body. One of them with long brown hair knelt down and gently shook the blonde awake.
The Mermaid looked on in sadness as the blonde hobbled away in the arms of the stranger.
Rachel took a long time swimming back to her father's castle. All the while she thought back on the beautiful girl she held in her arms all night. The first thing she did once she arrived home was press her lips upon the cheek of her marble statue. It was cold and hard and her heart ached at the loss of warmth.
Everyday for the better part of a month, Rachel would swim to the beach where she left the blonde hoping to catch just one last glimpse of her. Everyday, she would return home sadder than she was the day before.
One day, Rachel's five friends finally asked her what was troubling her. She told them of her first night under the sky, she told them of the storm and the shipwreck, she told them of the girl whose life she saved. "She had hair the color of light that shines through our amber windows, her skin was as smooth as marble but warm and soft, her lips were as pink as coral, and her eyes, I only saw them briefly but they were beautiful! They looked like the sea and the sand, when waves crash upon the beach and the sand mixes in with seawater, her eyes are the color of that instant when the sand is suspended in the green wave."
Because her friends loved her so, they asked all around the kingdom if anyone had any knowledge of such a human. Soon, someone spoke up. He said that he knew of such a creature. It was Princess Quinn of a kingdom nearby.
As soon as Rachel heard the news, she swam with all of the speed she could muster until she reached a castle that loomed over the sea. It was a beautiful castle with a brightness that rivaled the sun itself. It had golden roofs adorned with gilded angels. Music emanated from it in every direction, but there was one melody she instantly recognized.
There, perched upon a window facing the sea, she saw Princess Quinn playing her violin. She looked exactly as she did the first time Rachel saw her upon the edge of the ship. She was playing the melody that Rachel hummed in her ear that night at sea. Her heart swelled with joy and she swam happily under the surface before coming back up to watch her beloved Quinn.
Quinn stopped playing the melody abruptly and looked longingly out to sea. She stared at the water on the horizon with a look of sorrow in her eyes, before turning away from the window and disappearing into the castle.
Rachel was elated. She swam home gleefully and greeted her friends who were waiting for her. It had been so long since they had seen her so happy. The princess thanked them for what they did for her.
That evening, Rachel sat alone with Leroy who was plaiting her long dark hair in preparation for a ball. "Leroy, do humans die like we do?" she asked.
"They do. They scarcely live to be a hundred, but they have something called 'souls' and these souls live for eternity after the body is dead," he answered.
"Don't Mer people have souls?"
"No, dear, we do not. We live for three hundred joyful years. When we die, our bodies become the seafoam that adorns the crest of each wave."
Rachel thought of Quinn and how she would like to spend eternity with her rather than as seafoam upon the beach. "I would rather have a soul," she said aloud.
"There is a way for Merpeople to gain a soul," Leroy said quietly. "You must become the object of affection for a human. You must be more important to this human than life itself. He must love you so deeply that he is eager to share his life and all eternity with you. Then your souls would unite and you would know human bliss. But I'm afraid that can never happen, Rachel."
"Why? Why couldn't it happen, Leroy?" Rachel asked in a mild panic.
"Because humans hate the very thing that makes us Merpeople. They are disgusted by our tails."
Rachel contemplated her glimmering scales sadly, cursing that which she had previously regarded as her most precious gift.
"Don't fret, child! You have three hundred more years to fill with joy here with your friends and family! And when you are done, you can rest peacefully as part of the ocean."
At the ball, hundreds of Merpeople descended upon the castle. All forms of sea creatures hovered around to hear the sweet music that emanated from within the walls. Rachel was happy for a moment as she sang the most sweetly of all. The Merpeople all cheered for her and she was glad to be reminded that hers was the best voice in all the kingdom. And yet, the void in her heart was not filled. She was reminded that holding Quinn and pressing her lips against warm skin would never again come to pass. "This is not joy," she thought to herself. "I cannot bear three hundred years of this agony." She snuck away to her quarters and sat forlornly beside her beloved statue. She cursed her tail. "If only there was a way to be rid of you!"
Suddenly, she remembered the sea witch Cassandra. "She is the most terrifying creature I have ever hear of, but surely she has the power to grant my wish!" As the party went on, she snuck out her window and swam directly to the place her father had always told her to avoid.
Along this path no seaweed or flowers grew. There was only a murky grey color that marked the death of everything that once grew there. She dodged creeping trees with fingers that clutched and tangled in her hair, she braved a strong whirlpool that threatened to bring her down to the abyss below, she tried her best to ignore the grinning skulls of perished sailors that lined the path. At last she was at the witch's castle. It was made of bones and a strange green hue emanated from the large, menacing windows.
Rachel swam inside tentatively.
"I know why you're here," came a booming voice.
Rachel's head snapped to the direction from which it came. There, standing over a large black cauldron, was the witch Cassandra. She was not the hideous creature that Rachel was led to believe, rather a beautiful blonde woman who stood tall and proud in long black dress. It wasn't until Rachel noticed that the dress was pulsating that she realized that the dress was not a dress at all. The witch was covered in black snakes that glided slowly over her body. The princess recoiled at the sight, but stayed put. She was still determined to have her wish granted.
"You're here because you want me to rid you of your graceful tail and replace it with two awkward stilts the humans call 'legs', all so a beautiful blonde princess will fall in love with you and your souls can spend eternity loving each other. "
Rachel only nodded.
"This wish is foolish and will likely bring you unbearable happiness and will definitely cause you excruciating pain. Do you still desire this?"
"I have not changed my mind."
"I can grant your wish with a potion. Once you drink this liquid, your tail will disappear after a painful transformation. You will gain legs, but each step will be as if you are standing on knives. Ever step. Can you endure this suffering."
"Yes, that pain cannot compare to that which I feel in my heart without Quinn in my arms."
"Once you have transformed, you will never again become a Mermaid. You will be leaving the sea and all of those dear to you forever. You will never return."
Rachel only hesitated slightly. "I will miss my father and Leroy, and all of my friends, but I am still more than willing."
"Remember this, Princess: If you do not gain the Princess's undying love, if you do not become all that she desires and do not consume all of her thoughts and dreams as true love commands, you will not gain the soul you seek. If she gives her heart to another and recites the vows of marriage to someone else, then on the sunrise after her wedding, your heart will break and you will die. You will become merely foam on the shore."
"Still I am willing," Rachel said resolutely.
"I require payment," the witch grinned menacingly. "You have the sweetest voice in all the sea. Give it to me!"
"But if I give you my voice, how will I charm the Princess?"
"Use your grace and beauty. And your eyes are very expressive, they will say all you need said. Do we have an agreement, Princess?"
"We do."
"Very well." The witch went about creating the potion. She filled the large black cauldron with snails, snakes, starfish and other strange ingredients until a plume of smoke billowed from it forming horrible shapes and visages. "If your Princess Quinn marries another, you will regain your voice so you will have it to confess all that you wish before your death at sunrise."
"I understand," Rachel said with a slight tremor in her voice.
"Then let it be so," the witch Cassandra said loudly. In an instant, Rachel's voice was a glowing ball of ethereal light that traveled from her throat to the hands of the witch.
With the glimmering flask of potion in her hand, Rachel swam back home. She did not enter the castle, for fear that her father would see her and beg her stay. Without voice she could only wave. So for a long moment, she waved at the castle, to no one in particular. She shed some tears for her father and Leroy, her friends Santana, Brittany, Mercedes, Tina, and Sugar. Rachel understood that she would never see them again and this wave was the only goodbye she could offer. With a heart both full of excitement and empty with reluctant sadness, she swam towards Princess Quinn's castle.