The World Above

Chapter II

Urchin smiled at the princess and, ignoring the formalities associated with his position as ambassador, ran over to her and spun her around, "It's so wonderful to see you again!"

Ariel's musical laughter rang through the hallways as she happily embraced her friend, "The feeling is mutual Urchin."

The merman-turned-human finally released her and bowed to Prince Eric, "Sorry for stealing away your fiancée like that, your highness. I'm Urchin, an old friend of Princess Ariel and the newly appointed Ambassador from Atlantica."

"No problem Urchin, Ariel seems rather pleased to see you and whatever makes Ariel happy is fine by me. Unfortunately, as much as I would love to eavesdrop on your reunion, I believe I have a visitor of my own to attend to." Eric bowed slightly to Urchin before giving Ariel a kiss on her forehead, "I'll be back shortly."

Ariel and Urchin watched as Eric and Grimsby made their way towards the main hall where Eric's guest awaited. After a few moments they turned to each other and grinned as Ariel looped her arm through Urchin's, "Care to escort me to the library, Ambassador?"

"But of course, princess."

They made the short walk to the palace library in relative silence. The bumped into Carlotta just outside the doors and, after brief introductions were made, Ariel requested tea and cakes to be delivered to the reading room and then led Urchin inside where they took seats before the fireplace. "So, tell me Urchin, where did you disappear to? What have you been doing? You haven't been associated with that horrid Lobster Mobster again, have you?"

Urchin chuckled, "No no, I don't associate with those types anymore. I wanted to attempt to find my family, so I went hunting for them. I didn't tell you because I knew you wouldn't want me to go alone and you had your responsibilities to be concerned about."

"I understand, I suppose. Did you find any of your family?"

"No, it appears they've all vanished. I returned to Atlantica about a month ago. I went to the palace to speak with you and your father informed me that you were living in the human world and were engaged to a human

prince. At first I thought it must've been an arranged marriage..."

Ariel laughed, "Urchin, why is it you always jump to that conclusion?"

"Hey, that time with Prince Thor was your father's fault. He really shouldn't have said it like that. Anyway, as I was saying... I thought it must be an arranged marriage so I requested a position in the palace that would allow me to come see you. When King Triton learned that I'd spent the last year traveling the seven seas and their respective kingdoms and that I had no biased against the humans, he decided I would make a good ambassador."

"And, do you still think it's an arranged marriage?"

Urchin smiled, "No, I can see you love Prince Eric and he certainly feels the same. I have got to ask though, how did all this happen? How did you manage to become a human?"

Ariel happily told the story of her first encounter with Eric and the subsequent deal with Ursula, the sea witch, and finally her father's gracious gift of her humanity. "My question, Urchin, is how did YOU become human?"

The Ambassador waved a dismissive hand, "It's not nearly as exciting a story as your's, your father merely used his trident to create this bracelet," here he lifted her sleeve enough to show Ariel a gold bracelet with a large sapphire which sat around his wrist, "when I need to be human, I merely press the gem. The sapphire will turn aquamarine and I'll revert to a merman, when I want to change back, I merely press it again."

The red-haired princess immediately grabbed her friend's wrist and pushed the gem. Just as Urchin had explained, the gem changed color and the human before her reverted to a merman. Excited, she pressed the gem again causing the opposite effect. This continued for several minutes until Urchin finally snapped, "Ariel, it's not a toy! Stop pushing my button!"

"Oh, I'm sorry Urchin, it's just so interesting, I've never seen anything like it. It'd have been wonderful to have this when I first became a human... it even clothes you. Me, I had to swim from the depths of the ocean to the surface on only a partial breath and then, once I got to the shore, I had to dress in a torn sail and some rope."

"I'm sure you looked wonderful in that sail and rope though." Urchin replied with a smirk.

Ariel promptly smacked him in the shoulder and was about to fling a witty retort at him when Eric's voice interrupted from the doorway, "She was stunning, I assure you."

"Eric! How long have you been standing there?" Ariel asked, blushing so furiously her face came dangerously close to matching the color of her hair.

Eric chuckled as he approached and took a seat in the chair next to her, kissing her hand as he sat down, "Long enough to see your curiosity at it's best."

"That was nothing compared to some of the situations she's gotten herself, and others, into due to her curiousity." Urchin chimed in.

"Oh?" The prince asked curiously, even as his bride-to-be turned a darker shade of red and buried her face in her hands.

"There was the time she invited a sea monster home with her, or the time she hid an Orca whale in her room, or the time she rode a wild seahorse against her father's wishes and got lost, or the time she got kidnapped by gangsters, or..."

"That's quite enough Urchin, you can stop now."

"Aww, but Ariel, I haven't even gotten to the time you saved that human in the weird bubble contraption..."

"Urchin!"

Eric leaned forward in his chair, "Oh, so saving humans is a habit of hers is it? And here I was thinking I was special."

"You ARE special Eric! You can't possibly think that I..."

Ariel's defensive rant was cut short by both Eric and Urchin breaking out into racuous laughter.

"Men, whether on land or in the sea, are all insufferable idiots." Ariel responded as she stood from her seat, "If you'll both excuse me, I have no intention of sitting her and being embarrassed." With that she walked out of the room, head still held high.

Eric immediately stopped laughing and stood to chase after her but Urchin stopped him, "She's not really angry, she wants me to tell you about her exploits, she just doesn't want to be around to see your reaction to them."

"Are you sure? She certainly seemed angry." Eric responded, his voice heavy with concern.

"I'm positive. If Ariel were really mad, you'd know it... she's more terrifying than her father when she's really mad."

"So, what's this about Ariel saving a human other than me?"

"Oh, that's right, she rescued you too, didn't she? I remember Sebastian mentioning that to me at some point. I don't suggest repeating what I'm about you to King Triton, as far as I know he isn't aware of it and I'm not sure how he'd react."

"He really doesn't like humans, does he? I can't say I really blame him, after what Ariel told me earlier this afternoon."

"She told you? About Queen Athena?"

"Athena? Was that her mother's name?"

Urchin nodded, "Yes, I never knew her personally, I didn't live in Atlantica until after her passing but the citizens thought very highly of her. From what I gathered, Ariel is exactly like her. They even look alike. The Queen's death destroyed King Triton's happiness... he even went so far as to outlaw music from Atlantica entirely simply because it reminded him of her."

"He outlawed music?"

"It was outlawed for ten years. It was actually Ariel who got the law repealed."

"This sounds like a much more interesting story. Tell me what happened."

As Urchin went about telling Prince Eric about how Ariel restored music to Atlantica, Ariel herself was making her way through the hallways towards her bedroom. As she drew closer, she noticed a man standing outside her bedroom doors, he looked up as she approached, "Are you Princess Ariel?"

Ariel nodded, there was something very familiar about this man, though she couldn't quite place from where she may know him. He was tall and muscular and appeared to be older than Eric by about a decade or two. His dark brown hair was speckled with gray as was his short beard. He had dark eyes, so dark they almost appeared black and Ariel was stricken by the sense of emptiness that seemed to emanate from them.

"I'm Captain Lucas." The man stated, his voice cold.

"A pleasure, Captain. I don't mean to be rude, but what are you doing outside of my chambers?"

"Ah yes, your fiancé, Prince Eric, was going on and on about his beautiful bride-to-be and I just had to see you for myself. I'll let you go about your business. I do hope I'll get to see you again sometime soon." He bowed slightly and disappeared down the hallway.

Ariel watched her go with a sense of unease growing in the pit of her stomach. As soon as the Captain was out of sight she ran into her bedroom and bolted the door behind her. As she leaned back against the door she attempted to calm her suddenly racing heartbeat. Her panic made no sense, the Captain had done nothing to cause such a reaction. Sighing, she drew away from the door and went to the bed to lie down, hoping that a nap before dinner would calm her frazzled nerves. Little did she know that her dreams would only sharpen her terror.