Much of this chapter I came up with as I was typing it mainly because I normally write what I'm going to type, but then the whole Ursula thing popped into my head. Just tell me what you think. In this chapter, we'll explore one of Ariana's fatal flaws.
I DON'T OWN HARRY POTTER OR KINGDOM HEARTS! ONLY ARI AND HAZEL IN THIS CHAPTER!
Chapter Ten: Ursula the Sea-Witch
The eels led me up to a large whale, but then I realized that the whale was actually the skeleton of one with something draped over the top. I shivered. That thing was creepy.
They led me inside the whale, and I could see what looked like a cauldron made of coral in the center and a hole on the opposite side of the entrance. From there, a creature – oh, wait, a lady – emerged from the hole. The lady had light purple skin and a white shock of hair on her head. She had what looked like a navy dress on, but then I realized that she had tentacles instead of legs. The last thing I noticed was that she was fat.
"Oh, what do we have here?" the lady, who I assumed was Ursula, said.
"Er, hi," I responded nervously. "My name is Ariana, and these eels told me that you could help me find my friends."
"Oh, my poopsies-" Poopsies? "-were right. I can help you find your friends, all alone out there in the worlds. Those poor, unfortunate souls." She bowed her head.
"Wait, are you saying that-"
"Of course not! Now, finding your friends will take some powerful magic, but I can't do it on my own. I need the help of my trident." She grumbled a little. "The thing is, that King Triton took it a long time ago. I can't get it on my own or else I'll get killed."
I contemplated that. The king took Ursula's trident? King Triton didn't seem like the stealing type. Overprotective, yes. Thief, not so much.
"Come on, Ariana. Do you want to find your friends?"
I thought for another minute. I looked up and nodded. "Okay. I'll do it." Anything to help my friends. Ursula smiled.
I approached the palace from behind so I wouldn't be detected as easily. This was one of those times that I really wished that I had my mother's pendant. Strangely, though, I didn't see or meet anyone.
I reached the throne room with no trouble. King Triton was floating a few yards from his throne, his back to me. He was talking in an undertone to Sebastian the crab.
"Sebastian, I may have gone too far," the king said.
"No, Your Majesty," the crab replied.
"She shouldn't be with that Keybearer. That Keyblade always brings bad luck."
I tuned out everything else they said so I could focus. I swam to the throne and hid behind it, cursing inwardly to the bright colors I was wearing. I reached forward and grabbed the trident from its stand.
But at that moment, King Triton turned, and his face contorted with anger.
"What are you doing back here?" he roared. I cringed and gripped the trident tightly. An inky cloud of darkness appeared behind him. It dispersed, revealing
Ursula and her two eels.
Ursula held up her hand, an orb of darkness forming. That double-crosser!
"King Triton, Ursula's behind you!"
"As if I'll believe that!" He turned and got blasted by the dark orb. He flew through the water and into his throne.
"Daddy!" I heard Ariel shout. She swam through the hall and to her father's side.
Ursula took the trident from my hands that had gone limp from shock. I looked up in shock. How could I have let this happen?
The sea-witch cackled evilly, trident above her head. "The trident is mine at last! And I couldn't have done it without you my dear."
I narrowed my eyes at her and balled my hands into fists. "This isn't what I wanted, Ursula!"
"Why not? Aren't you tired of looking for your friends on every single world?" She paused. "Oh yes, we had a deal, didn't we? You'll see your friends again… in the deepest pits of darkness!"
The two eels swam around. "We cannot find the Keyhole," one said.
"The Keyhole is not here," the other continued.
"What?" Ursula shouted, obviously outraged. At least I held a small victory. She turned. "Why, we have company. I'm afraid you're a little late, handsome!" she said, her comment directed at Sora. The sea-witch giggled maniacally for a second, and then a black cloud appeared, obscuring her and the eels. When it vanished, the three of them were gone.
"Daddy!" Ariel shouted worriedly.
"The trident…" King Triton said weakly. "We must get it back."
I looked away, guilt welling up in my chest. I felt horrible. My want to find my friends had made this happen. King Triton was hurt. The trident was gone.
I looked up. "I'll find it for you," I said. "This is my mess, and I'm going to clean it up." I turned my eyes to Hazel, Sora, Donald and Goofy. "You guys don't have to help me."
"What are you talking about?" Hazel asked.
"Of course we'll help you," Goofy continued
"Yeah," Donald agreed.
Sora held out his hand. "Come on, Ari, let's beat Ursula together."
I smiled and took his hand. "Okay." (1)
"Wait," Ariel said. "I'm coming with you. Ursula hurt my father, and I won't let her get away with it."
"No, Ariel," the king said. "I wouldn't bear it if she hurt you." He turned to us. "Ursula draws power from her cauldron. To defeat Ursula, you must strike her cauldron with magic. Sebastian will lead you there."
"Thank you," I said as we all turned and swam out of the palace.
Soon, we reached a cave that had holes that were billowing steam. "It's through here," Sebastian said as he took the lead. He led us out of the caves and into an open sea with a great cave in the distance. I recognized it immediately: It was a giant skeleton and Ursula's lair.
We reached the center of the giant skeleton. Sora swam inside ahead of us, and I was right behind him. Donald and Goofy followed with Hazel.
"Come out!" Donald shouted. "You can't run!"
"Your time has come!" Sebastian continued. He was on top of Donald's head.
Ursula the sea witch swam out of the hole in the wall and descended to the floor. She had an ugly grin on her purple face. The duck and crab screamed.
Immediately, I summoned Radiant Sky and threw every offensive spell I knew at it. Donald summoned his staff and cast the most powerful spells he knew. Hazel pulled her wand out of her holster and started jinxing the eels. Sora and Goofy summoned their respective weapons and attacked Ursula.
"Flipendo!" I shouted. Light blue light burst from Radiant Sky and hit the cauldron. Multi-colored light flowed from the cauldron and filled the cave. It stunned Ursula. Sora and Goofy took this to their advantage and struck the sea witch.
We proceeded like this for several minutes until Hazel jinxed the eels one last time with a stunning spell. When the light faded, there was only a small cloud of black and green, which quickly faded.
Ursula gasped, her eyes wide. "You'll pay for this!" She escaped through a tunnel.
"Let's go after her!" Goofy said, his shield on his back, looking raring for a battle.
"Yeah!" Donald agreed as he raised his staff high.
"Hey Sebastian," I called. "Would you know where Ursula is?"
The crab nodded. "She'd be in the deepest, darkest, and coldest place around here."
"Thanks," Hazel said.
"Good luck!"
Sora took the lead while I (again) took the rear. I wondered if it would always be like that. Gradually, the water grew even colder against my skin. I could feel my arms breaking out in goose bumps. It got so dark that Hazel pulled her wand out again and lit the tip with a whisper of "Lumos".
Soon, we reached a dark and cold open expanse of water. I saw Ursula, who had Triton's golden trident in hand. "You pathetic fools!" Ursula roared. "I rule the seas now!" The trident glowed for a second, and then I heard a rushing sound from below. I looked down and saw a black cloud billowing up from the depths. It swirled up around us. I couldn't see. Someone shouted my name. A pair of large hands shoved me through the water.
The water cleared. Sora was gone. But Ursula was there. She had grown so much that her face was six feet tall. She looked even more ugly up close. The trident had grown with her, and it was in her right hand.
"Now," Ursula said, her voice booming, "not only do I have the trident, but I also have the Heart of Magic!" There was that term again. Did Jafar make it up or not? I couldn't focus on that at the moment because Ursula held up one of her tentacles. Sora was wriggling in her grasp."
"Sora!" I shouted. The sea-witch was going to pay for tricking me and for taking Sora! "Hang on, Sora!"
"I can't do anything else!" he answered before getting swung around.
I summoned Radiant Sky and nearly started attacking the sea-witch, but Hazel grabbed my right wrist. "Ari, we have to think about this first. What's our strategy? But we have to remember that Ursula thinks she has you, not Sora."
"Wait," I said, "does Expelliarmus work on large things?"
"I already thought of that. Apparently, in this state, she's immune to that."
"I think our best strategy," Donald put in, "is to get behind her and hit her there while someone distracts. And then someone has to free Sora."
"I'll do that," I said immediately. I still felt really guilty for all that happened.
"I'll distract her!" Hazel shouted.
"Then that leaves you n' me, Donald," Goofy said.
"Ready," I said, ready to dash at a moment's notice, "go!"
[Third Person POV]
Hazel swam up and faced Ursula. "Hey, Ugly!" You can't get me!" The sea-witch glowered before she opened her mouth, and a stream of bubbles escaped it. Hazel blocked with a lazy Protego.
The brunette yawned. "I thought this would be tougher."
Meanwhile, Ari sank to where Sora was still wriggling in Ursula's grip. "OK, I'm gonna get you out of this. After all, I haven't paid you back for Agrabah." Sora nodded with a smile. It was getting hard for him to breath.
Ari struck out with Radiant Sky, making sure to hit the tentacle with the teeth. It wasn't a good enough attack. There had to be a better way. She didn't think she had enough energy for a magic attack: She was exhausted. Suddenly, an idea popped into her head. She smiled before drawing her purple tail to her chest and held her Keyblade behind her back, teeth out. She flipped through the water, repeatedly hitting the black tentacle.
Soon enough, it loosened up. Sora wrested his right arm out and summoned Three Wishes. He threw two Fira spells and a well-placed Blizzara before Ursula's tentacle turned into black ink and dissipated. Sora heard her yelp in pain.
"Thanks, Ari!" Sora said before swimming up to join Hazel.
Ari nodded before joining Donald and Goofy.
Ursula was getting tired of those pesky meddlers. "Get ready for this!" she shouted as she raised the trident – her trident. Bolts of lightning rained down in a circle around her. She smiled when she heard many grunts of pain.
[Ari's POV]
Pain coursed through my body. It felt like an eternity before it stopped. When it finally did, I floated there for a few seconds, breathing heavily. Donald quacked out a spell: "Heal!" Instantly, I felt residual pain vanish, and I felt a little bit stronger.
I raised my Keyblade and charged at the octopus-lady. I swung at her with everything I had, at the same time evading more of the lightning and some bubbles. Donald and Goofy did the same right by my side. Something inside me told me to remember to tell them "thank you"…
With one final spell from Hazel, Ursula groaned and hunched over as a cloud of darkness billowed up again, but this time, it just covered Ursula. She yelled in fury before she let go of the glowing trident. When she disappeared, a golden beam of light appeared. After a few seconds, it vanished, leaving behind the trident. Hazel swam over to it and grabbed it.
On the way back to the palace, Sora told me everything that I had missed while I had been – well, you know. I gasped when he told me about the shark when they had gone to the sunken ship. Finally, we reached the throne hall, where King Triton still sat on his throne, Ariel still by his side. Hazel handed his trident back.
"Your Highness," I said," I'm so sorry." I dispelled my Keyblade at that moment. Before reaching the palace, I didn't take any chances with the Heartless, but there hadn't been any. "I shouldn't have taken the trident."
"Please don't be angry with her," Sora said. I had told him why I had worked for Ursula. "She was lost and was looking for friends."
The king sighed. "It's my fault. I shouldn't have been angry with you. I should've asked you what you were doing, and I know how tempting Ursula's offers can be." He turned to Ariel. "You probably would've gone to visit Ursula if given the chance because I destroyed the crystal after I had lost my temper.
Goofy piped up. "Oh yeah, the crystal! Why did you destroy it?"
"That crystal held the power to reveal the Keyhole. The Keyhole is dangerous. I had to keep you away from it at any cost."
"Daddy…" Ariel murmured.
"Key bearers, I have one more request: Seal the Keyhole. My trident also has the power to reveal the Keyhole. Will you do it?"
"Anything to make up for what I did," I said.
"Of course," Sora agreed. "That's why we had in mind from the start." Was it really? Well, I guessed that that was what Donald and Goofy wanted in addition to searching for their king.
"Where is the Keyhole, Daddy?" Ariel asked.
"You should know better than anyone Ariel," the king stated. "It's in your grotto."
"Really?" Goofy asked. "Come on, guys, let's go." Before leaving, King Triton gave his trident to his daughter.
I stayed in the rear again, but made sure to always stay close to someone who knew the way. It did not take us long to reach it, only five minutes. No Heartless appeared, and Sora told me that it was because Ursula was gone.
Ariel's grotto was concealed by a door0like rock, which Sora pulled open. It wasn't dark inside, like I originally thought it would. At the top of the cave, which was a long way up, I could see a disk of light. In the grotto, the walls were lined with natural rock shelves. Things I had not yet seen in Atlantica rested on those shelves: bottles, jewelry, boxes, vases, and an odd book or two.
Ariel held the trident, which started to glow with golden light. On one of the walls were a place and a smaller scaled indenture of the pointed end of the trident. The indent glowed. In the center of the grotto, a stream of bubbles flowed to the surface. From the bubbles, a Keyhole appeared, just floating in the air… er – water. My Keyblade seemed magnetized and was pulled to it. Soft purple light appeared at the tip and flowed into the Keyhole. I heard a click, and the Keyhole vanished. I had just locked my first world.
"Tell me, Sora," Ariel said. "Your world, what's it like?"
"Oh, about that… Sorry for lying to you."
The redhead giggled. "It's okay. Besides, if you can travel to other worlds, maybe I can, too. So many places I want to see… I know I'll get there someday. I'll find a way somehow. I'm sure of it!"
Behind me, I heard Sebastian speak up. "Well, if you find it, do me a favor and leave me out of it!"
"Oh! Before you go, I have something to give you, Ari. It's from my collection." Ariel opened a jewelry box and pulled something out of it. When she showed it to me, I realized it was a Keychain.
"Thanks, Ariel," I said as I took it in my hand. "Good-bye!"
After we said our farewells, we swam out of the grotto. Donald pulled a communicator out of Goofy's shell and talked for a few seconds. Again, I felt a tingling sensation all over my body, and at the same time, I felt a slight pulling on my fin. When I opened my eyes again, we were back in the Gummi ship. I was back to normal, and so was everyone else.
My hair was dripping like crazy, so I tilted my head forward, gathered my sopping hair, and wrung it all out. When I looked up, I saw Hazel doing the same thing. Sora was rubbing a towel through his hair, his brown, spiky locks barely drooping. Donald and Goofy were on the ground.
Donald sighed. "So… tired…" Goofy laughed, obviously exhausted.
Suddenly, I felt a pain in my shoulder. "Oh gosh! Cramp!"
Hazel started laughing until she yelped in pain. Sora did the exact same thing. Soon, everyone was groaning in pain.
"Donald," I groaned. "Is there a spell for getting rid of cramps?"
"No," said the duck miserably. "I wish there was."
Chip and Dale the chipmunks scampered up to us. "So, how was Atlantica?" Chip asked. The rest of us groaned as a response.
A/N: So, be sure you tell me what you think. And I really need to know if anyone likes this. I'm running a little low on motivation.
Did anyone see the new stuff for Dream Drop Distance? I gotta say, Bat Bat and Mew… something or other look a lot like Pokemon. And what did Riku do with his hair? Maybe his mother finally got to it.
1: Gotta have the cheesiness.