Ready To Stand
I know, I know! It's been a while. But I guess during the holiday break I didn't feel like doing anything. But after being reunited with our pirate once again, I had to publish chapter four!
Hope you enjoy it ~
Chapter Four:
Part of That World
I managed to hold the ship upwards when the tidal wave hit, but I couldn't save some of the men who fell off. Not now, anyway. I kept my song strong, and guided the boat to the nearest remote island with one final push of waves. The worst of the storm seemed to pass, and I took this moment to see if I could save any lives that sank under the boat.
Swimming under, I could see two men trying to fight for the surface. I quickly went to them and told them to hold onto my tail with my hands. They both looked so shocked to see a mermaid with then, one gasped and began to choke, and the other tried to swim away.
There was nothing I could do for the man who swam away, but the man who choked on water I can help. I wrapped my arms under his, and pulled him to the surface. He gasped when he met the surface, and I moved him over to within the island's distance.
He didn't have time to register what happened before I dove back into the water, trying to find the other man, but I couldn't find him. I swam around and around, and was only able to see one other sailor, who was passed out. All I could do for him was pull him out of the water and put him on a drifting piece of wood, then sent a wave to glide him back to the ship, hoping that someone will spot him.
I went back, looking around, and then I swam deeper, and deeper until I saw a cloud of black ink. Oh no.
Plunging into the inky darkness, I reached out, trying to feel anything while swatting the ink away with my tail, hoping to thin out the black cloud. While waving it away, I spotted a white hand and immediately lunged for it, grabbing the man's wrist and began to swim back. As soon as I got out of the ink cloud, Something yanked me back. Looking down I saw a long black tentacle wrapped around the sailor's ankle.
Without letting him go, I reached down, and dug my nails into the tentacle, and immediately it unraveled and pulled away, shooting back into the black cloud.
With my hands under his arms, I swam up to the surface, pulling him up, and side swimming over to the beach that was near by. Once we got there, I slid him onto the sand, and laided next to him. The sand itched my scales and somewhat burnt from the sun. I ignored it, because the man I rescued was complete unconscious. I tapped his face, and smooshed his cheeks, hoping to wake him up. He was beginning to pale, which concerned me. Humans weren't usually that pale, right? But also, Humans don't breathe water, or breathe water and air like mermaids.
I pressed my hands on his chest, and flattened my palms down, trying to see if I can get him to spit out water. To my worry, it didn't work. Maybe I should breathe air into his mouth? Leaning over to him, I took his chin and inhaled.
And just when I was going to close my mouth over his, the man started to cough, spitting water into my face. Out of instinct, I pulled my self away and wiped my face furiously. I had water in my face all the time, but I never had someone spit it all over my face. Quite the difference.
"It's you," I heard through fits of coughs. I looked back at him, seeing the sailer conscious now, with colour slowly coming to his cheeks. My mouth gaped, not knowing what to say, or knowing what he'd do. Sailers, especially pirates, were quick to trap and or kill mermaids. But this man, who ever he was, with the missing hand, and the sparkling blue eyes and dark hair, was only looking at me with a curious stare.
"I-"
"CAPT'N! THAT YOU?!"
This man, the captain, turned at the familiar voice, and I took this moment to take my leave. I rolled over and slipped back into the ocean without so much as a splash as sound.
On the Jolly Roger...
"How much damages are to the Jolly Roger, Bones?" Killian asked his first mate.
"The Foremast needs work. Some sails need to be mended. We lost supplies, and the hull needs some care, Capt'n." Bones watched his friend closely, noticing how he looked out into the ocean.
"And the prisoner?"
"Safe, he was still in the brig when we searched the ship... But..." Bones trailed off.
Killian finally turned to him, "What is it?"
"He says that he lost the bean. That the water washed it out of his hand. We searched all over the sail, and stripped him down. He's telling the truth, sir."
Killian cursed, ran his fingers through his hair, holding the stump of a wrist to his chest. With the storm, he hadn't properly tended to it, and now it was bleeding once again, and stinging badly from the salt in the water. Now with the magical bean lost somewhere in the ocean, there was no way they could get to Neverland. Unless...
"Bones, you told me there is another Bean Stock. Is this true?"
Bones nodded, "Yes, but it is far up north... We we will be in Snow Queen territory, sir."
Killian's jaw gritted. The Snow Queen... She was nothing like the Evil Queen, Regina, but she was just as dangerous. The journey to the north would be traitorous, the winds would he harsh, and icebergs would be common, rising the steaks of accidently hitting one. He needed someone that knew the ocean better than he. He needed someone that had a little bit of magic.
That mermaid. The mermaid that saved him, and his crew.
Killian's hope was restored, and his trade mark smirk appeared. "Bones. Let's get to work. And after... we will be going mermaid hunting."
Under The Sea...
When I got to the Kingdom, everything was deathly quiet. I was terribly late. I swam into the castle, and straight into the Mess Hall, where the family would be for the feast.
Instead of a crowded room of merpeople, my father was there alone, hovering over the grandiose stone that was much like a throne.
"Father, I...I wasn't hung-"
"Save it, Ariel," his large tail unraveled itself as he pulled himself up from his throne. He did not look happy.
"How could you, Ariel? I told you never to go up to the surface."
"But, father, I had no choice...People were going to drown-"
"That is not my, nor your concern! Humans are not of our concern! You deliberately defied me, Ariel. And after what happened to your mother..." he had a look that was a mixture of pure anger, and pure disappointment, and pure sadness.
But for me, all I saw was a relentless father that was determined to keep me in a bubble, ignorant to the wonderful world that was above us. "Mother was killed by pirates father. Not all humans are pirates!"
"Oh? And those sea monkeys you saved weren't?"
I crossed my arms and furrowed my brows, "No, they weren't!"
His eyes narrowed, and his tone became lower, which made me alert, "Are you sure, daughter of mine? Because when I sent Sebastian to look for you, he found this around the storm..."
He reached from behind his throne and pulled out a black cloth. When he unfolded it, and let it float over to me, I grabbed it and looked. On it a white skull with cross bones, grinning up at me menacingly.
Something cold and hard dropped into my stomach. They were pirates. I saved pirates. I saved who may potentially be the people that killed my mother.
"You caused the storm..." I realized.
"I wanted to eliminate them... So they would not be a problem..." His face soften a bit I noticed, but I forced myself to look away.
"They weren't doing anything, I was watching them father. They were just sailing away," I tried to say, my voice soft.
"That, you do not know," I looked up as he crossed his arms. "And as for you watching humans...this will have to stop. I forbid you to ever rising to the surface ever again, Ariel."
"But, father-"
"And I had your little cove destroyed... I don't want any reminders of the humans. You are to never leave this kingdom. Do you hear me, Ariel?"
It was impossible to tell if a mermaid was crying. That is a known fact. But when my father told me that, the something cold and hard that was in my stomach before just completely frozen over. He destroyed my cove... He destroyed the things I collected, the things that I loved most in the world.
The thinga-ma-bobs, the doodads, the snappers, the moon-tickers. They all may be objects that were lost, of no importance to anyone else, but they were the world to me. My only connection, the closest thing I can be to being human. And it was destroyed, and a part of me was destroyed with it.
I couldn't say anything to him. My mouth was as dry as the desserts I've heard about. My throat was as swollen as a puffer fish, and soul was as cold as the icebergs in the north. I suddenly felt more alone than I had ever been in my life.
And I had to get away. I had to get away from this castle...This kingdom. From him. From my life. I don't want to be a mermaid anymore, I want to be free.
I hope that this chapter is good enough to get some reviews! I hardly got any last time around, and I guess that's why I was a little put off from writing more for a while. Ah well, I'm back now.
Happy Readings xoxo.
