"Do you want to change the scenery? I know an island not far from here, perhaps you'll like it."
Jim shrugged. "I don't see why not."
"Leave those items here, no need to bring them," Ariel commanded. Her command left the male puzzled, as the items were the ones she was interested in the most. However, he did as she said.
"Which direction is the island?" Jim asked.
"You'll know soon enough."
With that, the mermaid grabbed the human by the wrist, and jumped into the water with him. Of course, the male was taken by surprise. Other than the fact that she did it out of the blue, swimming was not one of his skills.
Ariel's fins paddled through the water seamlessly, while Jim was desperately trying to keep up by paddling his feet. While panicking, he tried his best to keep his head above the water. It wasn't a vain effort, but Jim found himself swallowing some seawaters.
What seemed to be an eternity, which only lasted for around twenty seconds, the two reached an island filled with nothing but some palm trees. The other side of the island was visible if seen carefully through the trees, since it was a very small island.
Jim crawled his way to the dry sands, coughing out some water, and laid himself under the sun. Afterwards, he heard laughter.
"Hahaha… Oops?"
Jim looked down at the mermaid, smiling playfully.
"You will never do that again," he giggled, "mermaid."
Ariel turned grumpy in a playful way. "Oh, really now, human? I don't see that happening anytime… soon."
He turned around to the content of the island behind him. "This island will keep me alive for a few weeks, I think."
"And I can make you feel alive for a few minutes," Ariel snapped a finger. "If you'd let me teach you how to swim."
"You're telling me that swimming can be fun?" Jim fixed his hair, "I'm not sure if it's as fun as… you know, flying."
She found herself a little cornered with the conversation, not having something that could be used a great comeback. But then, a light bulb appeared.
"You can fly if you have your solar surfer around. But to swim, you just need your feet! Come on, Jim! Sure, I'm a mermaid, but I can still teach you a thing or two about swimming. Besides… we swim, not walk."
Her explanation did convince the boy a little, and it was enough. "Fine, but later. Not today."
"Alright!"
Jim halted the conversation by squeezing multiple spots on his shirt to dry it. He didn't have the bravery to strip himself off in front of the mermaid, so he thought it'd be wiser just to do it while it's on. While doing so, he looked at the island, and spotted objects at the other side of the island. There were a bench, a small table, and a canopy.
"Oh no…" he turned around. "This is a private island, isn't it?"
"What do you mean by private island?" Ariel asked, surely not familiar with the term.
"It's an island owned by a certain person or group of people, we're not allowed to be here without authority."
"Oh, well, it wouldn't hurt if we borrow a piece of it for a while, right?" She gestured to the 'amount' of area that they used. Not seeing himself swimming again anytime soon, Jim forced himself to agree for now.
"Oh well, I guess you're right, although this is not the first time I've ever been here without authority," the boy smirked.
"You swam your way?"
"No, I landed here with my surfer. And since I was thirsty, I grabbed one of the coconuts and drank its water. Pure rotten luck, the owner of the island happened to be on the island as well, and I was caught in the act," Jim made body gestures of the activities in his story, enhancing the interest of the mermaid.
"What happens next?"
"Well, I ran as fast as I could. Next thing I knew, I was being shot at. The owner of the island couldn't chill, even after yelling at him on my way to calm down. But he didn't stop, so neither did I. I kept running, and reached my surfer that I parked…" Jim turned to his right to see the spot where he left his surfer in the story. "Right there. Once again, pure rotten luck, the engine wouldn't start right away. It took five or six kickstarts before I could escape."
"That's very close. The owner sounds crazy."
"I know, right? My surfer had a hole on its sail thanks to his mindless shooting. Ever since that moment, I swear I wouldn't step a foot on his island once again. But here I am, doing it again, with you," he pointed a finger at her.
"I have no foot, Jim. And I'm in the water," Ariel playfully smirked. "And I have no intention of taking you with me when the owner spots us."
"OH, you lil' sly evil," he splashed some water at her. "Mermaid."
Instead of avoiding the water, Ariel accepted it 'gracefully'. "Thank you."
He let out a big scoff. "Yeah, yeah. Have you ever had the same experience?"
Ariel pondered for a second. "The one thing I've done in the past but would never do again?"
"Mhm, anything?"
"… This one is pretty recent. Maybe a month or two ago. I was with Flounder, searching for men made," she thought of a word, and shrugged. "Souvenirs, I guess. I saw a shipwreck, but it was sat in a feeding ground of the sharks."
His brown eyes bulged already, very much already knowing where this was going. But he didn't interrupt her with questions. "But, I couldn't care less, though Flounder, of course, didn't agree to go. But he did anyway. So! We went to the wreck, and found… well not much, apart from the dinglehopper that I once showed you."
"Fork."
Ariel gave that smile that says 'yeah… but'. "Yeah… but it will always be dinglehopper for me."
"But don't use it to comb your hair again," he crossed his arms cockily.
"I won't, Sir Hawkins. OH, and a banded, bulbous snarfblatt."
He couldn't believe his ears initially, so he asked for repetition. "I'm sorry, what?"
Ariel bit her lips. Finding it hard to describe the item, she shook her hand as a gesture that said 'never mind'.
"I'll… show it to you one day."
"Okay, do continue."
"Anyway, I kept scouring around, until Flounder was found by a shark. Of course, we had to flee. But there was a close moment, where Flounder hit a mast and lost consciousness for a while and I nearly left my goodies behind because I dropped it."
Ariel placed her index and thumb fingers together, with only a gap that a bit of sand could fit. "I was this close to being eaten alive! Haha!"
Jim's reaction was completely the opposite of Ariel's added laugh. "So, you helped Flounder?"
"Yeah. And while doing so, we somehow managed to get the shark stuck on an anchor of the ship. So, that gave us plenty of time to flee. However, that wasn't the worst, though."
The boy couldn't fathom the fact that there's something worse than almost being eaten by a shark, as it was described in his expression that said 'what?!'
"When we were searching the ship, I actually forgot that I had a concert to attend. A musical concert. I was one of the singers, well, supposed to be one of the singers. But… I missed it. And of course, like any other father, he reprimanded me for my careless behavior."
Now that she had explained the reason why being eaten by a shark was not the worst thing, Jim mouthed an 'ohh' to acknowledge the story. He'd most likely prefer to face a shark rather than an angry Sarah Hawkins, though, in his mind, he found no differences between the two.
"Okay, I take it that you've stopped scouring around shipwrecks now?" Jim asked.
"Nope. I still do."
Jim sighed deeply. "Oh, whatever floats your boat, Ariel. Maybe I have to fix the question; what is the one thing you did in your past, but you wish you could undo it?"
"… It's the same question, isn't it—" she shook her head, "I guess, not really. But I'll think of one."
"You think of one, I'll grab a coconut for us," he stood on his feet and turned around to head towards the center of the island, where a small forest was lied.
"Thought you'd sworn you wouldn't do it again, Jim," she called.
"Oh to heck with it," he replied from a distance.
Seeing him disappearing into the small woods, she began her to process the archive in her brain. The question was rather similar, but she tried her best to not come up with the same answer. At one point, her eyebrows raised, as she came up with an answer. But, since the answer of the question could never be a positive one, Ariel curled a frown later.
A short while later, Jim returned with a gorgeous coconut, holed on the top to access its juice. He sat in front of the mermaid and showed off his discovery.
"Ladies first," he pushed the coconut to her.
"Thank you."
With a firm grip, she lifted the object and placed her lips on the opening. Her tongue was soon greeted by the fresh taste of the coconut water. She even hummed to the freshness of the taste. Jim found it odd that Ariel drank the coconut water right away without any hesitance.
"Oh, so good," she wiped her mouth with a hand, placing the coconut.
"You've had one before?" Jim asked, taking his sip of the coconut water.
"Yeah. I saw some humans doing it, and I 'borrowed' one from a nearby dock. It wasn't as good as this one, though."
"Define 'borrowed'."
"Jim, I didn't steal, okay? I returned it after I had a sip of it—several sips, but it wasn't much!"
"Haha… whatever, missy. You've thought of an answer?"
"Oh, yeah I have. It's um… my mother's death."
The answered shocked the male. He uncomfortably crossed his hands, pursing his lips for a short little while.
"O-Okay, I wouldn't touch that for now. Not that I do not want to listen to it, but I think it's best for you to… leave it for now. Okay?"
The mermaid bobbed her head. "I agree. But you know what, I think it's my turn to ask now."
He gave her a smile. "Shoot away."
"What's the one thing you want to experience before your life ends?" Ariel asked, laying her cheek on her fist. However, a thunderous sound sounded from afar. They both turned to the source of the noise, and spotted an old man, carrying a rifle while shooting it upwards.
"I'LL GET YA LIL' SCANDALOUS RATS!" He warned.
"Uhh… getting out of here alive?" Jim answered, turning to the mermaid.
"Sounds good."
With that, she took his hand and fled into the water.
