AN: Okay so sue me I wanted to brush this chapter off, edit and add a few things.
Ariel continued running as fast as she could, terrified out of her wits even as leaves and branches hit her face. The sun had already set by the time she stopped behind a tree to catch her breath. Only then did the magnitude of the harrowing events sink in.
Oh, those poor humans. Just yesterday, they were laughing and singing together, and talking about how much fun the county fair would be. Now they were probably dead - What horrible fate!
She slumped against the tree, burying her face in her hands.
Well she can't just sit there in the open, who knows what else may be out there? Ariel looked around finding herself in the darker part of the woods. And it was spooky but she had to find shelter for the night.
Creepy eyes seemed to peer out at her from the trees, bushes and other shadowy areas, plus the forest looked like it was closing in behind her. Some bats flew past her head, startling her and she rushed by. She turned a little and almost bumped her face against a small garden snake, but it still made her nervous, so she fled.
She then saw a dense thicket up ahead, she crawled inside atop a small hill and settled herself down on it. With the large branches and leaves, at least it'll make decent shelter for the moment. Tomorrow she'll decide what to do next.
The next morning, Ariel turned on her side from her spot on the hill, it wasn't much but the soft ground was comforting. Particularly moving up and down gently.
Wait! Moving?
She bolted upright. Sure enough, the so-called hill was moving up and down, like something was breathing.
And as though it already felt the ex-mermaid stir, whatever she was lying on raised itself to look at Ariel making her gasp a little. It looked like some large blue teddy bear with round yellow eyes and three clovers on its head.
Was it dangerous?
Ariel stared at it, it stared back. It blinked twice like she did.
Carefully, she pushed back a lock of her hair. It mimicked her movements with its paw. Then it suddenly just licked her with its big tongue.
Ariel wiped her face, giving a nervous smile. Well, that answered her silent question.
In the meantime, an hour later, a seagull and a crab had woken up from their spot up a tree and were trying to get a bearing of their surroundings.
"Well, we better check up on Arielle."
Scuttle yawned, stretching his wings. "Yep, think she got a goodnight…"
They looked down to see that she was gone again.
Sebastian sighed, "Somebody's got to nail that girl's fin – I mean legs to da floor."
The creature had followed Ariel through the forest for while eating a few fruits and graciously demonstrating with its own sounds to the little mermaid which ones were safe and which were not.
Hours afterwards, it retreated to a large cave where it yawned and crawled before falling into a deep sleep. There was word for what it did and what it was preparing for – the farming family explained it to her once. What was it hirbernorma? No, it was hibernating.
Either way, Ariel was walking through the wood again. She had picked up a fallen basket and was continuing to wander around when she came upon something in the grove.
It was a very large spiderweb, trapped on it was a small Iris blue creature with flowing white hair and wings. And sliding in for the kill was a red spider as big as a tennis ball.
"Help me please!" cried the pixie.
The spider approached. Ariel got closer and meant to reach for the struggling fairy but it warned, "No lady! The spider's venom is deadly!"
Thinking fast, the ex-mermaid took the basket she had with her, lifted its lid then caught the spider inside. With that, she threw the basket as far away as she possibly could. She then turned to the fairy and gently pulled away the web, freeing her.
"There you go, safe and sound." Ariel said to her.
"I owe you my life, lady," said the fairy, "I know that I'm small, but I promise that if I can do you a good turn in the future I will. Farewell!"
And it flew away, leaving Ariel to wonder.
Before dusk, Ariel settled down in a large tree-filled area to rest and eat a few of the fruit she'd picked from the trees. However, something seemed to keep moving in the surrounding environment.
She tensed a little. Every now and then she would hear a soft whoosh, and one of the fruits she'd picked was gone.
"Either I'm being followed… or someone's playing a big joke." She pondered.
This time Ariel decided to wait a little to see what she was up against. So, when the figure next suddenly grabbed her fruit, she turned and immediately pursued.
"Hey, stop! What're you doing? That's mine!"
It jumped on branches easily ahead of her while she was on the ground pushing away the lower ones. Until one actually hit her in the face
WHAM!
Knocking her onto the ground. Unexpectedly, figure stopped. It approached and Ariel finally got a good look at what had taken her food: it was a human but with wild ginger hair and beard, blue eyes and sporting a jungle garb.
He outstretched his hands towards her to show a half-eaten melon. "Sorry."
"What are you?"
"I man."
She raised an eyebrow, "Can humans . . . fly?"
"I no fly, jump good."
He jumps high up to prove his point making Ariel gasp with delight. Then he fell back down and stopped just a few inches from the ground and laded softly on one foot.
"Oh," Ariel clapped. "That was amazing!" Then she remembered, "You think you can show me the out of the wood, I've got to find shelter for the night."
"I show you tribe, tribe show you way out."
Ariel climbed on his back and the wild man jumped from spot to branch until they reached an area full of trees each with large holes at the top.
Carefully she climbed down off his back just as he started making barking sounds then a howl. As if in answer to a doorbell, a vast number of apes hopped down from different corners of the trees and stood staring at Ariel curiously. They were all white furred, had blue faces hands and feet, pink noses and reached up to Ariel's elbows.
"Wow, there's' so many!" she exclaimed as one jumped on her getting a giggle out of the redhead, "But how'd you manage?"
"They raise me," explained the wild man, "They say long ago, I was other tribe. They say I stray from tribe and so, I became new member of tribe. And as you see, all tribe jump good! So I jump good!"
"Ariel!"
They all turned in surprise to see Scuttle with Sebastian on his back flying towards them.
"Scuttle! Sebastian, you found me!"
"Yes, we've been following you for days." said Sebastian.
"And we lost sight of ya back in the trees over there." added Scuttle, pointing behind him to emphasize his point.
Ariel introduced them, "These are my friends Sebastian and Scuttle."
"Friends!" the wild man said grabbing the three of them in a bone-crushing hug.
Sure, the past event two days ago still frightens Ariel; but she wasn't giving up, she was determined to see more of the surface world – if only as a way of honoring the human family who'd been so kind to her.
Of course Sebastian was still irked and worried about what Ariel had done. His first thought was to rush off and tell the sea king immediately, but they're already miles from the ocean. Right now, their best option was to travel until they find one.
And so the ape tribe guided the travelers to the edge of the forest where they continued wandering in hopes of reaching the ocean somehow.
Nearly two months had gone by and the leaves had from green to varying shades of brown, yellow, red and orange.
On this particular evening, Scuttle landed at the edge of a small waterfall under a log. At the same time, Ariel and Sebastian emerged from the water, having soaked in the water just enough for health's sake.
Carefully, the mermaid slipped her clothes and the black shoes she'd been given back on.
Sebastian got up, "We're all under a lot a pressure up here," he said. "I say that the sooner we find shelter for the night the better. . ."
It was then that Ariel felt/heard some rhythmic rumble beat by them. She looked to her left curiously, ignoring her temporary guardian. "What do you suppose?"
She began walking to where it was coming from.
"Arielle?" Sebastian inquired, "Arielle!"
And he rushed after her. He could hardly believe that after everything that had happened, the ex-mermaid was wandering off again!
Except Ariel grabbed him and put him in her front pocket when he called out to her, which meant she wanted to make sure this time wasn't an unpleasant surprise. Scuttle followed closely behind, sharing her curiosity.
The closer the mermaid princess walked towards it, the louder the music became and she was soon joining a number of individuals in bright clothing also following the sound.
"Arielle," Sebastian said, demanding an explanation. "What are you-" A steady musical beat cut him off. He turned around and gasped in shock. "Jumping jellyfish!"
The sight left the ex-mermaid breathless. Up ahead of her was a large crowd of youngsters – humans and other strange creatures that appeared to be having a party; beyond was a huge stage with even larger stereo boxes, surrounding it were steel railings holding more of the sound boxes. Red/pink lights, green screens, yellow and green ropes, and bubbles lit up the night sky in bright colors, illuminating the dark treetops.
It certainly brought back cheerful memories regarding the underground music club Sebastian and his band had run nearly two years ago.
The next thing Sebastian knew, Ariel was already weaving through the crowd happily, wanting to join in the recreation.
She approached a girl with violet buns and a red visor. "Hey, what's going on?"
The girl said with a welcome grin, "Oh, hang around, girl, they keep playing this rave so we can party all night long!"
Ariel liked the sound of that but Sebastian didn't.
"I do not know what a rave is, but I do know music," Sebastian grumbled to the mermaid princess, "And this is certainly NOT music!"
Soon, the little mermaid began dancing to the beat of the music in her own way – much to Sebastian's chagrin and Scuttle's content. A few boys asked her to dance to which she accepted, and a girl with red braids offered her some of the glowing green ropes, much to Ariel's excitement– this was so much fun!
Just then some bright spotlights lit up the center stage, making everyone to stop dancing.
Ariel paused and looked forwards curiously, what's next?
Emerging upwards slowly was the DJ, who wore dark round sunglasses and some odd-looking headphones
"Welcoooome, brothers and sisters!" he said in a rough, gravelly voice, "Can I get a kazaam?"
"KAZAAM!" the teens cried, Ariel cheered along with them excitedly.
"I, DJ Skybator am once again here to drop upon you all, the majestical, sounderific beats of… the Master!"
Ariel was about to vocally join in again but she looked confused when they said, "Aku…"
Frowning in confusion, she looked to Sebastian, who shared her dubiety. Ariel never heard the name but she wondered why it gave her an ominous feeling.
Up in the railings, Scuttle dropped his wings to his sides nervously, "This. . . .is not a good thing, right?"
"Skiz-yeah," the DJ continued, "Lend your ears, feast to the flavor, of the Aku-stic sound!"
He moved a record upon on the mixer, it scratched for a few seconds then a foreboding beat began.
Ariel just stared with one eyebrow raised.
"Just calmly back away, we don't want to draw attention to ourselves," the red crab whispered to her carefully. Maybe they could still leave before something bad happened.
But then something blew out of the sound boxes onto the audience including Ariel!
Up on the railings, Scuttle was almost blown away himself by the force. "Whoa! They're really trying to bring down the house here!"
The crowd of youngsters froze for a moment, then suddenly their eyes began to glow red, and sinister smiles appeared on their faces.
Sebastian, who had covered his ears the moment the beat blew against them, shook his head and complained, "Like I said, that IS not music!" he looked up to the mermaid princess, "Come Arielle, we must – Arielle? Arielle? Arielle!"
The mermaid princess' blue eyes had turned the same eerie blood-red glow as the others. She too danced along with the hypnotized teenagers in uncanny synchronization.
Before Sebastian or Scuttle could so much as formulate a plan, the bewitched adolescents started to move out in direction of a small town.
To make matters worse, the minute they arrived, all the teenagers began to trash and destroy everything in sight. Statues were wrecked, windows shattered, furniture thrown out the windows!
"Hey what's going down there?" Scuttle called then squawked upon seeing Ariel break a stain glass window with a crowbar. "Ariel, what are you doing?!"
"ARIELLE!" Sebastian scolded from his spot in her pocket, he pinched her, "Young lady, you look at me when I'm talking to you!"
But the entranced mermaid simply grabbed him and Scuttle, stuffing them into a cabinet and threw it down the stairs while they were up in one of the conjoined towers.
"Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow!"
The cabinet bounced downwards to the first floor and the two dazed sea creatures tumbled out.
Scuttle commented as he tried to steady himself, "Well, talking to her ain't working, we- we gotta try something else."
They followed close so they wouldn't lose sight of their princess again. Sebastian looked up and saw a bucket full of water being held on by some rope - and Ariel breaking a fountain right under it.
Reluctantly, the crab sighed, "Don't make me want to do this."
But since there seemed to be no stopping them, Sebastian grit his teeth, covered his eyes and grimly cut the rope with his claw.
At once the bucket dropped the cold water down on Ariel, drenching her completely. She slipped as her fin returned and she hit head on the soft wood of a barrel, knocking herself out.
The next morning, Ariel woke up with a head ache and her two friends looking at her anxiously.
"Oh, what happened?" she groaned, hand on her head.
Sebastian scurried up to her, "What happened was that you began to destroy every human object within your reach!"
"It was after that weirdo started playing that creepy music," Scuttle explained, "First you all got glowy-eyed, you started dancing and then you and the other humans marched all the way over here and started trashin' the place!"
He moved aside for Ariel to see how badly the teenagers had vandalized the small town overnight.
"I did?" Ariel felt herself grow used and guilty. She had wrecked a human dwelling and she didn't even remember it. How could she suddenly be so terrible at one point and then be herself the morning after?
"Now, child," Sebastian comforted her, "It's going to be alright."
"Let's just get outta here before something else happens." Scuttle advised.
Ariel nodded. They all gathered together and were once more on their way.
To be continued…
