She's a needer

A whirlwind

and not so logical

But she's an ocean in motion

and magical...

.

—The Girl I Left Behind

by Charlotte

-.-.-.-

When merfolk fell in love, they tended to love fiercely. They loved spontaneously, restlessly, and as ruthlessly as the winds in the eye of the storm.

Their tides of emotion were as moving and spirited as the sea itself.

And when King Triton's youngest daughter first laid eyes on Prince Eric, both handsome and musical, she wanted him immediately. She'd always carried a fascination for the mortal kind, for their inventions, and the more she watched him from her secret place on the ship's ladder while he played his flute, the more she was overwhelmed by her own curiosity and desires.

She let something akin to a giddy chuckle rise from her chest and the sound was short, soft, but it was striking.

The sea shantie the men were bellowing out faded when lightning struck the sky above their sails. They began to whisper headily amongst themselves in concern.

Ariel happened to catch her father's name being mentioned and she couldn't help but to laugh again at the frightened silly creatures huddled before her.

Another flash of lightning responded to her growing excitement.

And while his followers sprinted about, preparing the ship to brace the coming rain, Eric's eyes fell to the rolling waters below. "Oi, did anyone hear that?"

The elderly one with long grey hair gave the Prince a quizzical look. "Hear what, young Prince?"

Ariel shrieked with delight, causing the waves to rise and clash against the railing.

Eric turned around in surprise, straining his ears. "That!"

He knew they were not alone.

The elderly one clapped his hand over Eric's shoulder. "Forgive my old ears, young Prince, but I can hardly hear anything else over that bloody thunder!"

"It sounded like laughter, a woman laughing."

But before they could speak again, the ship rocked them off their feet entirely.

Their nightly lanterns swayed of their hooks and shattered upon the deck as barrels of oil and liquor rolled together, colliding, crashing open, and soon fire erupted up into an all-consuming blast!

Flames spread in several directions, winding around the ship like deadly serpents. Shocked, the sailors started to yell, giving orders from one to the next, and those who survived the aftermath leapt for whatever safety the waters had to offer them. Feeling that dreadful heat lapping at his own skin, Eric realized right away that the ship—the very ship his father, the late king had built especially in his honor—was far beyond repair now. That is was doomed to sink into the depths of this roaring sea, to a place utterly unknown.

He went to balance all his weight on the one railing still left standing upright, hands clasped tightly around a rope hanging alongside him. He could make out a small choir of worried voices. They were calling for him from somewhere not too far off. The thunder continued to pound against the clouds, which was not honestly helping Eric to calm his nerves. Though he summoned all the faith he could find, readying to take his only chance to jump from the deck.

The laughing returned and it distracted Eric once again. He lost his concentration, his footing, and his more of his confidence in getting out of the wreck alive. With his boots slipping from underneath him, he tumbled right down into the undercurrent, which tossed him around like a ragdoll.

On one good note, Eric had been taught the techniques to swim quite decently even as a child, so he forced his way back up to the surface. Behind his eyes reddening from the salt and beyond the streams of smoke, he thought he could make out the shape of a lifeboat waiting for him yet. And even if his throat was growing hoarse, he still tried to shout something at it. "Over here!"

"Row, men! Aye, I 'eard the Prince! That way!"

Though Eric had succeeded in gaining some form of attention, this merely reminded Eric of getting its attention.

Something else was still slashing nearby...there had to be. Eric could sense it was aware of him too. Wading around, he was actually catching glimpses of movement, a flash of red and green.

"Hello?" he addressed it directly, despite that his mind was warning him to just keep quiet.

The mysterious dark form under the distant water finally decided to approach him, stopping only a foot away this time. Eric swallowed.

In the light of fire, he noticed the crown of her head first, hair red as blood, slowly rising above the surface. The pair of bright blue eyes were followed by a fine nose and a flawless chin.

Her physical splendor rivaled the statues of the feminine angels that guarded his palace gates, regardless of fact that she obviously wasn't dressed as modestly as they were. She did not seem to care that her chest was only protected by seaweed and two seashells strapped together by a strange silver wiring. The oddest part of her was probably the live crab perched on her pale wet shoulder, much like a pet bird would do.

"...It was you all along?" Eric asked her softly, trying not to scare her off. "What were you doing out here?"

The maiden merely stared back at him, equally mesmerized. Then finally, she spoke. But the language spilling from her full shimmering lips was unlike any language he'd ever learned. It sounded ancient and exotic, like a cross between a dialect from the Orient and Olden Greek.

"Oh. You must not understand me," he pondered.

She hadn't responded with words after that...no, this time she suddenly used lyrics.

The very lyrics that his men had just been celebrating to.

"What do you do with drunken sailor...what do you with a drunken sailor...what do you with a drunken sailor...so ear-lye in the moooorn-ing..."

Her voice stunned him. Eric had no idea a voice like that could exist. Beautiful was even too weak of a word to describe it. It was...perfection.

He surrendered to her presence entirely. For a moment, he nearly had forgotten where he was, floating in the middle of the sea—with his ship on fire.

He shook his head to clear it of the growing temptation. "...Who are you?"

She chuckled sweetly, showing off her rows of little pointed teeth. Eric shuddered. She turned her cheek to him slightly, conversing with the crab in her mother tongue and the little creature clicked its claws in agreement before plopping off into the water, sinking below them.

That was certainly something one couldn't see every day.

Then the maiden eyed him deeply once more while the waves shifted in circles around them, carrying her closer until she was but an inch away.

Her cold webbed hands cradled his neck and without any further warning, Eric was pulled into her ravenous kiss.

When they touched, their chests and torsos coming together, with his fingers gripping her tightly in return on pure instinct, extra bolts of lightning clashed with the surrounding waves.

Her kiss took his breath away. Quite literally. For soon enough, Eric was feeling a sharp pinch in the base of his throat and he parted his mouth for air. But the air now was not helping him anymore, it was only making the throbbing feel worse.

Under the surface they went.

She coaxed him to stay close against her as they swam deeper through the currents.

But the water now was also feeling different to his skin, becoming soft and cool, and it was as if his body could resist the absorption.

Is this what drowning really feels like? Eric thought vaguely, fighting off the confusion the best he could.

And just as everything started to go black, a very powerful masculine voice filled his ears, a voice only a mighty god would have.

"Welcome home, young prince, to Atlantica."

King Triton had difficulty accepting Eric as a mortal, but what if Ariel encouraged the transformation to be reversed?

Slightly inspired by the closing scene with Philip in Pirates 4.