-Mid-century of the 1800s; Southern Denmark in the summer-
Just off the coast, in the cloak of the night, a ship just had exploded viciously. In the treacherous waters, a young woman was swimming, searching furiously for someone she only had seen barely 15 minutes ago. This woman is actually a mermaid, a reported mythical creature by the humans from the mainland. Fiery red hair, bright blue eyes, pale tan skin, only clad in a lovely purple bra of seashells, and a sea green tail with darker green fins. Her name is Ariel, or more formally known as Princess Ariel of Atlantica.
Ariel swam as she upturned her head around, looking near the exploding ship as debris was falling and floating through the waters when she heard something, gasped silently when she saw him. Prince Eric, floating halfway visible, laying upon a piece of driftwood, unconscious. Eric is of Denmark, a human man, with black hair, tanned fair skin, light blue eyes, clad in a white shirt, blue trousers, and barefoot as he had lost his black boots in the wreck.
Suddenly, Eric lost his balance, dropped back into the sea, causing Ariel to swim and dive underwater, finding Eric within seconds, catching him by the waist under his arms, hauling him upwards with furious swipes of her tail helping her to get Eric up, when a piece of the ship crashed into the sea near the duo, and Ariel yelped in pain when the piece actually drew out a deep cut into the side of her tail as it passed her by on the way down.
Ariel made it to the surface, but she knew she was in big trouble now as the wound is bleeding, bound to attract sharks sooner or later, and turned to focus on Eric, turning him slightly as Ariel could swim sideways and backwards to head to the mainland's shores. Now, merpeople and humans are similar yet different. They have the upper bodies, but at the waist, the difference is obviously there as humans has the legs and feet while merpeople has the tails and fins. Humans can swim like merpeople, but humans can't breathe underwater like merpeople does. Yet merpeople can still be hurt and injured like humans, hence the blood of merpeople is pretty much the same, just a brighter red.
Barely five minutes later, Ariel screamed when she recognized not one, but two shark fins circling her and Eric, and she tried to splash her tail, scaring the sharks off as she knew that sharks can't stand noise like that, but the blood of Ariel's wound was too great, tempting the sharks to swim closer and tighter, and Ariel didn't want to see Eric eaten by those sharks, or herself either, imagining how her father would react if he heard that his youngest daughter has been killed by sharks.
She had to wake Eric up somehow. She called out to him, hovering close to his ears, "Eric, wake up! Please, wake up!". Deep in the darkness of his mind, Eric could barely make out a voice talking, calling him, sounding desperate. In his mind's eye, Eric kept walking to the voice, the sound becoming louder and louder until he woke up in reality, blearily opening his eyes, then widening his eyes as a slight wave hit him in the face, and he coughed up, hearing a female voice speak, "Sorry, Eric! Are you okay?".
He looked around, facing the most beautiful girl he has ever seen, her wavy fiery red hair with wide, fearful bright blue eyes, then he blinked, "What just happened?". The girl smiled in relief, then frowned, "Your ship came into fire. You were saving your animal. I saved you.". Eric froze as memories came back to him. "Oh, my god! Grimsby, the crew, Max!".
The girl sighed, "I don't know where they are, but they were in a tiny boat.". Then she screamed as she pushed Eric a few feet away, splashing her tail at a shark who had hovered behind Eric. "Leave him alone! You won't have Eric!". She shouted with a determined look. The shark snarled as he went back to circling around with his buddy. Eric paddled his hands in the water as his eyes widened so big like dinner plates, "You're, you're a mermaid?". The beautiful mermaid looked at him, her eyes frightened, lowering a arm into the water, and nodded silently.
Eric now is able to see half of her as he was straddling the water himself, and then widened his eyes, calling out, "Shark behind you!". The mermaid gasped in horror as she dived down, causing the shark to miss her, earning Eric to see the mermaid's tail and fins, fully enforcing him to realize that the stories were true, then he blinked in surprise as the mermaid surfaced next to him, grimacing in pain, "My tail, it's getting worse.". Eric frowned in confusion, dunked his head down into the water, closing his eyes, then opening them, seeing a bright red wound, streams of blood leaking out in the mermaid's side of her tail. He coughed in surprise, then surfaced, breathing for fresh air.
"We better get your tail out of the water so the sharks won't get you.". Eric spoke out worriedly, and the mermaid nodded, "Okay, but how can we do that?". Eric blinked, and looked around again, making out a distant ship on fire, half sinking into the water, pieces of driftwood and etc floating around, then he widened his eyes as he saw a nearby floating piece of medium-size driftwood, and he called out, "Follow me!". He swam furiously with the mermaid following him as she splashed and shouted at the sharks, finally reaching the floating newfound raft, and Eric asked, "Can you get up there?".
The mermaid spoke nothing, then dived, then surfaced, climbing into the raft expertly, with Eric at the edge as the mermaid curled up softly, panting softly as her tail still bled badly, and Eric took off his shirt, "Here, take it, wrap it around your tail so it won't bleed as bad anymore.". Ariel mentally blushed as she saw the bare chest, then nodded. She wrapped it quickly and firmly as Eric then pushed the edge, moving the raft forward, propelling with his legs. "I know a place that anyone barely goes. You know of the lagoon?".
"Oh, yes. I often go there to search for human stuff.". The mermaid nodded happily as she realized that Eric is taking her to a safe place. Eric chuckled warmly, "Really?". The mermaid smiled, "I'd always been curious of your world ever since I was little. Human stuff is the closest I could have as I couldn't walk, dance, or run like you.".
Eric blinked, "Wait, so how come I haven't seen any of you?". The mermaid sheepishly chuckled, "Daddy had forbidden all merpeople to go to the surface, but I always go no matter what. This is the closest I had ever been to a human!". Eric gasped, "Wait, you were on the ship?". The mermaid giggled, "You were amazing, playing that snarfblatt and playing with your animal!".
Eric stared at her softly as he tried to make what she was speaking of, then smiled, "Oh, you mean, my flute and my dog?". The mermaid blinked in confusion, "Wait, is that what you call it, the white tiny thing you were playing, a flute?". Eric nodded, "Yes.". The mermaid groaned, "I knew Scuttle is a bit scatterbrained, but I should have known that he was wrong about the names of the human stuff.".
Eric tilted his head curiously, "Scuttle?". The mermaid grinned, "He's a seagull, one of my dear friends. Oh, my gosh, Flounder and Sebastian! I hope they are okay!". She frowned as she glanced back at the dark depths of the sea behind Eric, and Eric grabbed her hand softly as he stopped briefly, "Hey, it's gonna be alright. Are they your friends too?".
The mermaid nodded, "Flounder is a fish and Sebastian is a crab. You're right. They're probably safe under the sea.". Eric nodded, and blinked, "Oh, I am so impolite! I never asked for your name.". The mermaid giggled gently, "My name is Ariel.". Eric smiled, repeated Ariel's name softly, then spoke happily, "I like it, it's kinda pretty.". Ariel smiled brightly, then gestured with a shake of her head backwards, "Are we going to the lagoon or what?". Eric laughed as he resumed pushing the raft, agreeing with Ariel, all the more curious to get to know his new friend better once they're on safe ground from hunting sharks or worse.