Chapter 2
"Hah!" a younger merman exclaimed proudly. "You're it now!"
A yellow and blue tang followed after him, laughing happily. "Not for long!"
The two chased each other around the coral, laughing and joking at one another until the young princess nearly zips past them! She stops suddenly and turns around to see her two best friends.
"Flounder! Urchin!" she exclaims excitedly.
"Hi Ariel!" both say in unison.
"I just finished talking with Daddy," Ariel explained, getting straight to the point.
Urchin and Flounder exchange a curious expression. "Why were you talking with him so early?" the merman asked.
"Yeah Ariel," the small fish agreed. "Usually your father talks to you later in the day, especially after you've gone through a shipwreck, or got attacked by a shark, or caused trouble with Ursula, or—"
"I think I understand Flounder," Ariel answered, effectively hushing the guppy. "But Daddy wants me to go to another kingdom for a peace negotiation."
"That's cool!" Urchin exclaimed. "When do you leave?"
"In one week," Ariel answered, her earlier smile slowly dissipating. "But I'll be gone for over a month."
Urchin and Flounder both slumped where they floated in the clear ocean water.
"That long?" Flounder said sadly. "What about all our adventures?"
Ariel grinned reassuringly. "I'll still be able to write to you. Dolphin-mail of course. It'll be over before you know it."
"I hope so," Urchin muttered, quite loudly too, earning a confused look from his red-headed friend. Realizing what he just said, the merteen quickly tried to save himself. "I just meant that I hope you're back soon so we can have adventures again!"
The young princess rolled her eyes and placed a hand on her friend's shoulder. "I'm sure I will be Urchin. We still have a week to have the best adventures possible!"
The merteen smiled. "Yeah, let's get started!" He was calm but still sad that his friend was leaving.
The three friends swam off to find a new adventure. It didn't take long until the small group came across a whale pod—a killer whale pod to be exact. A younger whale looked below him, seeing the tang and two merteens swimming and playing, swam towards them. He made a happy sound, catching their attention. The mermaid beamed at the sight of the killer whale swimming toward them. The merman even recognized him.
"Spot!" Ariel exclaimed.
She swam, meeting him in the middle and giving the whale the best hug she could. Spot nudged her happily, wanting to play. Flounder and Urchin swam over to say hi to their friend.
"Hi Spot," Flounder greeted. "Remember me?"
Spot made another happy sound, nodding his big head. Flounder was spinning from the current it made and landed in Urchin's arms.
The young merman laughed. "I think he said yes." He turned to the whale. "Hi Spot. I'm Urchin. I'm friends with Ariel and Flounder."
Spot smiled and turned around, his tail now under a confused Urchin as Spot brought his tail up, launching Urchin up through the ocean waves and back down again. Urchin screamed with excitement at the game. He was laughing when he was with his friends again.
"That was so fun!" Urchin exclaimed excitedly. Spot agreed with him, nodding his head and making happy bellows.
Ariel giggled at her friends and had them hurry along to find someone. All three followed her to a cave not far from the Seaweed Forest. There was yelling inside the cave when the small group hid behind a coral wall. Before long, a young manta comes sullenly out of the cave. Ariel whispers to him and he looks up. With a smile on his face, he follows Ariel and her friends to another adventure.
"Hi Ariel," Little Evil said. "What are we doing today?"
Ariel giggled. "Something we'll never forget. But I want all of my friends there to have fun." The small, but growing group continued on.
Ariel gathered all of her friends, just like she said she would. Little Evil, Gabriella, Ollie, Lucky, Simon, even all her sisters! Others were there as well, especially from neighboring kingdoms. Pearl even showed up for the fun. But for some strange reason, Ariel most excited that Urchin was still around as her friend. She saw him every day yes, but something between the two had changed. It was even in his smile when he glanced at Ariel before greeting everyone. Ariel brushed it off as she went to greet the entire ocean.
"Welcome everyone to my Good Luck celebration!" Ariel began. "I will be leaving in one week to another kingdom for a peace negotiation for my father. I will be gone for a month and wish to spend my week with all of my amazing friends."
Gabriella, well technically Ollie, spoke up. "Why is the king not going this time?"
Ariel caught herself off-guard. "I'm not really sure. He said that I was to go in his place. I'm not really sure why though. But we are going to have some fun before I leave!"
The fun began. Ariel started the party with singing a beautiful song. It was the same song she sang to defeat Evil Manta when he tried to control Atlantic. All sea creatures sang along, dancing to the rhythm.
During the whole event, Urchin was smiling dreamily at his friend. He never even noticed what he was doing until a small, red crab crept up beside him. Urchin sighed subconsciously.
The crab grinned knowingly. "She is beautiful, is she not?" he asked in his thick Caribbean accent.
The merman jumped at the question, quickly recomposing himself. "I don't know what you're talking about Sebastian." He crossed his arms over his chest.
"Even I can see dat you're in love wit de princess." The wise crab raised a brow.
Urchin sighed in defeat. "So what if I do? She's the princess!" The young merman gestured toward the energetic red-head playing with her friends. "I can't ask for her hand. It's not like I could just go up to her and say 'Hey Ariel marry me?' and then we're together. Even I know it doesn't work like that."
Sebastian grinned at the boy. "You're forgetting one ting mon. The king tinks of you as his own son." Urchin looked at the royal advisor. "He wouldn't mind at all."
"But I'm not even old enough." Urchin reminded the crustacean. "She's only fifteen."
"True. We don't know how old you are, but dat won't stop anyting." The crab gave a broad grin. "She likes you. I know it." He patted Urchin on the shoulder and scurried off.
Urchin sat and watched his first and closest friend as she had fun with every creature under the sea. He began to smile again, thinking of her as queen of Atlantica. He pictured her wearing the crown and sitting in her father's throne, wisely leading the seven seas. But he mostly saw her going through all seven seas to keep peace and stop trouble before it started.
Then Urchin saw someone beside her, aiding her in her quest: himself. He smiled even more at the thought of being next to her when she becomes queen. He had helped her on many occasions—whenever an adventure went wrong anyway. He had even 'borrowed' the trident to free her from an octopus' cave in Shark Canyon. That's when Triton had accepted him.
"Sebastian's right," the merteen said to himself. "I've got nothing to worry about."
"Who's got nothing to worry about?" a voice said from behind the merteen.
Urchin quickly spun around to find Ariel floating behind him with a bright smile. He turned back around to hide his blush. "No one has anything to worry about because of you." He mentally slapped himself.
Ariel giggled. "Thanks Urchin. Now, why are you up here alone instead of having fun with your friends?"
Urchin barely glanced at the young princess. "I just wanted to watch for a while."
The mergirl rolled her eyes. "Not anymore," she said, grabbing his hand and causing Urchin's heart to race. "You're coming with me. We're going to play a great game of Coral Search."
The merteen's heart was racing too fast for him to answer. So he just nodded in agreement. Ariel took him to the coral field nearby and hid with everyone else.
"Spot is searching this time," she quickly clarified.
Urchin was more focused on trying to breathe normally and slow his heartbeat. He was literally one inch from Ariel's face.
She's so beautiful. The merteen thought to himself. Maybe Triton would be okay if I asked. But I'll ask to be sure.
While Urchin debated with himself, Ariel caught him staring intensely at her. "Are you okay Urchin?" she whispered to her friend. "You look a little pale."
The boy came out of his thoughts. "Yeah, I'm okay." He tried to bring up his tough look, failing miserably as he lost balance from hitting the coral and falling on top of Ariel, his tail not moving fast enough.
Ariel grunted when her back hit the sandy bottom. Urchin noticed he was now on top of her, his hands in the sand on either side of the princess as she moved to lean on her elbows. She looked up to find Urchin staring at her, their faces inches apart.
"A-are you okay A-Ariel?" Urchin asked, his voice shaky.
The mergirl in question blinked. "Yes," she slowly answered. A small grin began to appear on her features. "Are you okay?"
Urchin slowly nodded. Neither moved for a long time. No one had found them yet as they forgot all about the game. Both merteens were frozen where they were, neither ever being in this kind of predicament. Urchin finally dared to move as he leaned closer to the princess and gently kissed her cheek. When he backed away he saw the shock on the young girl's face.
His eyes widened and he quickly got up. "I'm so sorry Ariel!" he exclaimed in embarrassment. "I-I-I don't know what that was! I'm sorry!"
"Urchin," Ariel said calmly as she now floated next to her friend. "It's okay."
The young merman froze. "You're okay with it?"
The girl nodded with a chuckle. "It's okay." Then she leaned over and kissed his cheek in return. "You're a great friend Urchin."
Urchin began to smile. "Thanks Ariel." He now had a goofy grin on his features.
"Found them!" Both merteens spun around to find Adella shouting in victory. "I found them! I found them!"
Ariel rolled her eyes at her sister while Urchin huffed out of his mouth. "So much for a winning streak," Ariel grumbled sarcastically.
Urchin grinned at her. "I have to go speak with your father about something," he said, waving good-bye to his friend.
"I'll see you later Urchin," she called to him, waving in return.
The merboy smiled and swam as quickly as he could to the palace. He wanted to speak with Triton about his thoughts from earlier, hopefully in a subtle way. He didn't want to give away the fact that he was thinking of marrying Ariel himself.
It didn't take long for him to find the king as he was usually found in the throne room. Sebastian was handing him papers to sign when he came in. Sebastian looked up as he explained the next document to be signed.
"Dis is de agreement to be sent wit Ariel next week to Lerdois," he explained.
"This is the most important document for the next month," the king explained as he signed the paper. "Keep it in a very safe place Sebastian."
"Of course sire," Sebastian answered. "Now, you have a visitor."
Triton looked up and saw Urchin floating ten feet from him, the merboy's eyes lowered. The king smiled heartily. "You know Urchin, you can come see me anytime. And you don't need to be scared anymore. You are a son to me."
Urchin took a deep breath and looked up. "Sir, I was speaking with Sebastian earlier and he mentioned that Ariel may be proposed to while in Lerdois. Isn't she a bit young?" It was a lie, yes, but Urchin wanted to use the most subtle of ways to find out. He also saw the confused expression on the crab's face.
The question took Triton by surprise. He thought for a moment. "I suppose she is a bit young to be married." Urchin bit his lip nervously. "But I'm afraid I don't know how things work in Lerdois. They may allow marriage at age fifteen."
"But sir, even if she is going there, will she have to abide by their laws if that happens?" Urchin was beginning to press the matter without knowing it.
Triton was surprised by the merteen's concern over the matter. "Well, yes. But if she finds one law offensive, she may speak up. She isn't allowed to change it. Although, if she is proposed to while there, it will mean a union of two kingdoms. That means an even stronger peace."
Urchin began to slump a bit at the thought of losing his closest friend to another kingdom's rules. "Of course sir."
Triton began to notice something in Urchin's posture. "You're concerned for Ariel, aren't you Urchin?"
The merboy looked back up to the king, nodding. "Yes sir. She is my friend. I would miss her greatly if that were to happen." I also like her a lot.
Triton smiled warmly. "I promise to make sure she isn't taken from our home. I would miss my youngest daughter just as much as the rest of the kingdom."
"I know sir," Urchin agreed and began to leave. "I just wish that I could be the one to marry her," he muttered silently. He was out of the throne room when Triton finally turned to Sebastian.
"What's going on?" he asked curiously.
Sebastian grinned. "Urchin seems to be in love wit Ariel."
Triton studied the crab. "In love? With my daughter?" Sebastian nodded. "Well I'll be a sea-monkey's uncle," Triton said in disbelief as a grin crossed his lips. "I believe I should hear a little more about this, situation, eh Sebastian?"
The crab beamed. "I'll get right on it your majesty!" Sebastian answered happily and hurried out of the throne room.
Triton sat in his throne, pondering about all the times when Urchin saved his daughter in the past three years. Urchin even risked losing the trident to save her, had gone into battle to bring her home, fought many creatures and had even proved how brave he could be in all of that to the king himself.
"I believe Urchin is the right merman for Ariel," the king mused. "He is perfect for her."