Disclaimer: I do not own any of the original The Little Mermaid or The Little Mermaid II characters. I do, however own characters of my own creation such as Christella.
GIANT thanks to my beta dazzeling diamond, you go girl!
Also, great big thanks to storywriter92, for reading and reviewing, keep it up!
Last Time: And, again, it finished and Triton was gone.
Chapter 4:
That night, Christella dreamt. It was a strange dream, vivid and surreal but it did not meander and focused only on two voices.
The first was a female voice, gruff but melodic and a male voice that was soft and persuasive. Christella saw only vague shadows as the conversation she had 'intruded' on continued.
"… it's fool-proof. I swear on my life," said the female voice as the shadow of a webbed hand swiftly darted in and out of the darkness in a wild gesture. Christella realized they were in an alley.
"But there are those less than fools you know my… foolish friend," countered the male voice.
"How dare you!" screeched the female. There was a flicker of a speeding webbed and clawed hand, bent on destruction.
It was met with a thump accompanied by a half whimper, half growl.
"You may have right of power, but in the current situation, I believe it is I who is more… advantaged, shall we say, in this situation."
This was acknowledged by no more than a menacing hiss. "Good," confirmed the male voice. "Things shall go as we…" This was followed by a more menacing hiss.
"We are being watched," he murmured in a low voice, almost to low for Christella to catch.
There was the swirl of two cloaks as the hooded figures emerged from the darkness. One had a perfectly beautiful blood red tail that glimmered in this small amount of light.
The other had a sickly green and ill-formed tail. The merperson was having some trouble actually swimming.
Suddenly the dream dissolved into blackness and strangely, unlike most dreams, Christella could remember it perfectly.
The palace was quieter than usual in the days that followed the funeral. The usual bustle was slowed. Many a time Christella had found herself wandering around the palace aimlessly and others seemed to be doing the same.
But slowly, almost impossibly, thing began to run normally. Ariel had dragged herself out of her sorrow and resolved to be her old happy self.
A week after the funeral, the wills of Triton and Aquatta were read. When the day came, Ariel, Melody, Christella, Arista, Adella and a few other important looking people were ushered into a small office-like library to be greeted by the Royal Keeper of the Wills.
He was a frail, grey-haired merman, with a bright orange tail that contradicted the rest of his appearance so sharply, it made him look older than he actually was.
He began to slowly read the wills in a frail voice that possessed an inner thread of warmth.
"I, King Triton, in my last will and testament declare the following. The order of leadership of my six daughters shall be as follows; Aquatta, Ariel, Andrina, Alana, Attina and then to Arista and Adella if they are married, as mermaids who are unmarried may not become Queen as is declared by the Official Law. They will then be followed by the next in line for the title of King/Queen."
The frail merman was racked by a great hacking cough and then continued. "I leave 400 000 gold clams, to be divided equally among the following charities, The Society Assisting Orphans, the Assistants of the Elderly, the Research Laboratory of Deadly Poisons and the Charity for Water Demons. Aside from any donated money, my wealth shall be divided equally between my six daughters…"
Christella's attention began to wander. She looked across at Melody who, although, was staring intently at the frail merman, she was clearly deep in her own thoughts.
Both Christella and Melody started when the merman said, "…and to my two granddaughters, Melody and Christella I leave two necklaces, which are enclosed."
The merman coughed again and handed a pink diamond set in gold to Melody and a blue diamond set in gold to Christella.
They were each half of a broken heart, and they fitted together seamlessly. The sisters looked at each other. They smiled, they were very different people. But, like the necklace, they belonged together.
The next day, the sisters decided to go out to the city, just the two of them. "But, we don't want anyone to recognize us," said Melody playfully, "So… How 'bout we paint each others tails!"
Melody had always been trying to give Christella a 'makeover' on land. Christella had always refused. "Oh, alright," said Christella with a smile. "But only because it's a disguise."
Melody relished in her task, and painted Christella's tail a bright pink. She managed to get Christella to wear a shell top in the palest shade of yellow.
She also managed to convince Christella to wear her hair in something that resembled a beehive. Melody stood back and smiled at the end result.
Christella looked in the mirror, and was genuinely surprised that she looked actually was very pretty in this seemingly ridiculous get up.
"Right, let's go!" said Melody excitedly, "Ah, ah, ah," Christella scolded, wagging her finger. "My turn!" Melody looked aghast, thinking of what horror her sister would put her in.
With painstaking care, Christella painted her sister's tail a pale shade of blue and dressed her in a pale pink shell top.
She unbound Melody's hair from one of its unusual styles and let it float free. Somehow this made Melody look younger, more innocent.
"Now you look like the oldest!" Melody joked. Christella smiled, it was the perfect disguise.
They had no trouble sneaking out of the palace; nobody recognized them so there were no problems.
Christella noticed that Melody was getting more and more excited as they moved towards the market place in the city.
Melody loved to shop and she had been cooped up for a long time. She had brought 50 gold clams with her, Christella brought only ten.
Christella was saving the share of her grandfather's wealth that Ariel had given her, though she didn't know what for or why.
The first thing Melody saw that she fell in love with was a shell top coated in mother of pearl. "Six gold clams?" she exclaimed, marvelling at the low price.
"Oh, it may be pricy miss, but it's worth every bronze clam," said the stall holder with a hopeful smile. Melody smiled, she was rich, very rich.
"Here," Melody said, and handed him six golden clams from her purse. "Thank you miss!" exclaimed the stall holder.
He carefully wrapped Melody's purchase in a light material made of seaweed fibres. Melody beamed again and placed the top in her shopping bag with her purse.
Melody turned to look at her sister. Christella was frozen; fear was coursing through her body. There before her was merman with a blood-red tail and a handsome face.
Melody followed her sister's gaze to the mysterious merman, but beside him, was the most gorgeous merman she had ever seen.
The merman with a blood red tail, known as Darcy, looked across at his friend who was staring at two pretty mermaids, one older than the other, probably sisters.
The merman called by some 'Black Manta' and by even less Ray, looked up to see two mermaids, but he only had eyes for one, the older of the two with a bright pink tail. She was the most beautiful mermaid he had ever seen.
The mermaid next to him tore her gaze from Ray to see at what he was staring at with so much intensity. She saw two mermaids, one of which, one with a bright pink tail, Ray was staring at as if she was the love of his life.
She felt the hot, bubbling jealousy. That mermaid would pay…
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