Chapter 7

Ellie came out dressed as a vet and slowly walked up to her step-grandmother and her cat Lucifer. She took a deep breath and tried to calm her nerves as she faced her. She didn't have her father's bravery when it came to this because she was all alone. She kept remembering her mother's favorite saying, 'Have courage and be kind,' so that was what she was going to try to do now.

"Good morning Lady Tremaine, you said you wished for me to talk to your cat Lucifer," Ellie asked gently, keeping her head up but not looking Lady Tremaine directly in the eyes.

"Yes my dear, as I said, I've only ever known my maid to have that ability, I've never seen anyone else have it. It was rumored her daughter did, but, sadly, her only child died on the boat crash with her." Ellie winced at this and Tremaine continued, "Funny how you and my maid's daughter have the same name, and you look like what I would guess her daughter would look like."

Ellie swallowed and looked at the cat, "If…If you will allow, I will tell you what your cat is saying…"

"You don't need to pretend any more child, I know it's you, Ellie Charming," she gave a coy smile as she looked down at Ellie and Ellie shivered in fear.

"Pl…Please do…don't say anything…Please…H…He doesn't know who I am…Please…"

"My dear, why would I tell him that you are the only surviving heir to the kingdom. If you were to leave his captivity, you would come back to our kingdom and I would no longer be its queen. So as y could see, I do not benefit from revealing who you are. However, I doubt Captain Bucks would ever let you leave his captivity because you make him so much money and he is a greedy man. Besides that, if he were to think about letting you go, I would simply pay him to keep you here and treat you as I did your mother…It's really too bad your mother had to die and couldn't be here to help you, she really was a great maid."

Ellie's eyes burned with tears, "She wasn't your maid she was your slave! She was only lucky to get out of your captivity thanks to my father! And don't you ever speak ill of my parents again! They are ten times the person you will ever be and that is why our kingdom loves them and not you!"

Lady Tremaine raised her hand up to slap Ellie's face and Eric, who happened to be standing nearby saw and grabbed her wrist, "I wouldn't do that if I were you."

"Unhand me! I am a queen and you are just a cabin boy, you have no right to grab me," she billowed, losing some of her poise.

Eric frowned at her, "Madam, the Charmings were good friends of mine and my kingdom and I grieved their loss. I will not stand by and watch as you harm their only child. Now if you have a task for her or I to do, then I suggest you make that request, if not, I suggest you move on the view the other exhibits."

Tremaine frowned at Eric, " I don't know who you think you are but I am a queen now, and if you are in fact a royal, I would watch your step here on this island, or didn't you know?" Eric looked confused and Ellie sighed, "I figured as much since this is the first time I've seen you here. You see, cabin boy, while there are a lot of rich elect here, there are also those of us here who have been denied what we were due, those of us who were screwed out of our happy endings by you 'heroes' as they call you. You will find you do not have very many friends here."

Eric frowned, "I don't care who is here, I will not allow you to treat Ellie this way! She is a good kid and she doesn't deserve this hard life and I won't let you make it worse on her!"

Bucks walked up with a smile, "Prince Eric, are you giving Queen Tremaine a hard time? I could punish you, you know…"

Ellie looked down again, her body posture begged Eric not to say anything. Eric looked mad and his eyes told the story but he also knew how badly Ellie didn't want to have her secret outted so he kept his mouth shut. Lady Tremaine saw this and smiled. "Well Captain Bucks I must say you seem to have a handle on your help. I love the improvement though," she smiled and squeezed the muscled arm of Eric and his frown stayed in place. "If I may have a word with you privetly…" Ellie looked nervous and Bucks smiled at Tremaine and walked off with her.

"Eric, if she tells him that I'm a Charming, it will be all over for me…" She looked worried and Eric hugged her.

"Don't worry Ellie, like Tremaine said, it does her no good to out your secret because then it's obvious you are the proper heir to the throne and she will lose it. I'm sure there is nothing to worry about and everything will be fine. You had better go wherever your 'show' is and I should 'get to work' before we both get in trouble. Don't worry about it though Ellie, I will be around watching out for you. I won't let any harm come to you, I promise. I knew your mother and father, I use to play with you father in sword fighting competitions between the kingdoms. Your father and I were always neck and neck and we made a great team. I came to your parents wedding too, it was beautiful, and you are the mirror image of them, you look just like your mother, but you have your father's eyes." He smiled at her and she smiled weakly back at him.

"Be careful Eric, you've already made him too mad, you can't keep doing it. Bucks needs you alive, sure, but alive doesn't mean without pain. He will make it to where you can't stand if you are not careful…"

"I'll be careful Ellie, don't worry. And don't let Tremaine get to you, she's just a big bully, she can't hurt you here, not while Ariel and I are around, and Sabastian seems to have taken a liking to you and tries to protect you too," Eric smiled and Ellie actually did too.

"Alright Eric, I'll see you at lunch time, I hope," she smiled warmly at him, he was starting to seem like a big brother to her and she liked that.

Ellie went off to do her show of talking to animals and Eric went about his job of cleaning the area. He was halfway though the morning and was beginning to feel the sting on his back from the whip marks. In the morning sun he was starting to sweat and that sweat was stinging the cuts, but he ignored it, he could do this. As he continued along, he noticed a new exhibit that hadn't been out that morning, a giant seashell. As he walked closer he saw a very frustrated and sick looking King Triton.

Eric walked over to him and was surprised when his collar didn't shock him but figured it had to do with the fact that it was only Triton and not Ariel. Slowly he came to the front of him and frowned at what he saw, Triton was perched on the seashell and holding the plastic triton and next to him there was a sign that read "Take your picture with King Triton."

Eric bowed humbly when he faced Triton and then looked at him, "Your majesty, what's wrong? You look sick, are you alright?"

Triton looked like he could argue but he looked too tired to fight so he sighed and tried to lift his hand to wipe his brow but his hand dropped halfway there, looking too tired to even do that. "That stupid human has me out here in this hot sun taking pictures with any human that wants to take a picture with me and this stupid fake triton!" He sighed, "I'm tired and weak, the water in this shell is slowly evaporating and I'm drying out, it's not good for a merperson to be out of water this long."

Eric took a second look at King Triton and could see his tail looked very dry. Eric decided to act fast and ran to the hose that was close to the station and carried it over to Triton and began to spray down his tail. Triton sighed in relief and then all of a sudden Eric cried out and dropped the hose. Triton's brow furrowed in confusion. Bucks walked up with a frown.

"I didn't tell you to spray my main attraction," Bucks said with a frown.

"He was drying out, much longer and you wouldn't have had a main attraction," Eric grunted. "There was no water left in that sea shell you had him in and he was very weak. He needed to get water or he wouldn't have made it."

Bucks frowned but slowly the shocking stopped and Eric sighed in relief. "Fine, I will excuse it this one time but don't step out of line again. Now I have other things to do, so you need to get back to work, I will check on you later."

Bucks walked off and slowly Eric stood up and dusted himself off only to find Triton staring at him, "What," Eric asked.

"You saved me by putting water on my tail. You knew if you were caught by that horrible human you would face punishment, but you still did it. I can't figure you out. First you risked yourself to save Sabastian and now you tried to save me," Triton said.

Eric shrugged, "Not all humans are bad your majesty, just like people believe merpeople are bad and selfish and only care about their own kind, but you daughter saved my life during a shipwreck in a storm. I care about others and I don't like seeing others suffer. Don't forget that you are not the only one who is a captive here."

Triton paused to think about this and maybe for the first time thought about what Eric must be going through. Eric wasn't useful for anything like he was or Ariel, he couldn't be put in a show. It was obvious that that horrible human that had captured them was making life very hard for Eric, and Ariel had told him that Eric was a prince. Triton frowned, he couldn't understand why another human would treat their own kind in such a way.

"I'm sorry human for treating you so bad," Triton finally said.

"It's okay your majesty, you've had a rough experience with humans so it's hard for you to trust humans. I don't blame you," Eric said with a smile.

"Well thank you for helping me Prince Eric," Triton said finally calling Eric by his name. "And one more thing, you can call me Triton, you don't have to call me your majesty, we are both royals."

Eric sighed, "Not here, I'm afraid, here, only you are a royal. I hope you have a better day King Triton, I need to get back to work before they find me not working and I get punished again. I'll see you around."

"Be careful," Triton finally said as Eric left.