Chapter 11
Ariel could finally sleep peacefully without breathing hard for she tried to stop crying. Her eyes were finally shut, but she slept dreamless, she had no happy memories to dream about as though they all suddenly vanished. Sometimes during the dark night, Ariel flick her eyes just to see something interest than watching her dull, colourless dreams. She gazes out through the window, no moon tonight to shine its light through the crystal surface to brighten the mood and the bottom surface. Then her eyes caught a few small purple flowers that grew around the sides of the window. The cool wavy, sea wind blow around the kingdom and blow off one of the purple flowers. Ariel watched It flew off lonely away from the other flowers and slowly sank down and landed on the side of her bed. She gently poured her hand underneath the flower and brought it closer to her face, it just made her feel a little bit better for once tonight. Seeing something so beautiful and that it's so close, even touching felt so lovely, it somehow made a small, special moment. Ariel slowly smiled at the little purple flower, feeling it's needs when it flew away from the other flowers by the sea wind.
At that moment, that perfect moment, Ariel thought of risky solation. She gazes back at the purple could leave and thought of it leaving the other flowers, by choice or not, maybe she could. Leaving Atlantica was hard to think about, but Ariel hated this place. But then Ariel thought to herself, "Where would I go? Where would I stay?" Then, Ariel thought of Eric, the flower reminded Ariel of the fun, lovely memories she had with Eric. They spend their days together, talking, exploring around the village, Ariel's favourite was the dancing and singing. She could go back into the sea and transform back into a mermaid, but it would be a risk to expose herself infront of the humans, even Eric. After, Ariel thought it's better than staying here.
Ariel rise up slowly trying not wake her sleepy sisters and picked up her small orange bag where she placed her human or usual stuff inside. She carefully placed the lonely, purple flower on the centre of her pillow and neatened the sheets on her bed nicely. After, Ariel quietly swam passed her sisters in the centre of the room, she stopped by the door as her hand reached out to move the hanging, purple seaweed to the side giving herself a gap to swim through. Before, she stared at her sisters, they all were sleeping peacefully like they've forgotten the music and love they remembered and pretend it never happened, yet they were all dreaming all of it. Ariel smiled shortly at her sleepy sisters one last time, and silently whispered, "I love you all. Goodbye"
After, Ariel silently swam out of her bed room and through the dark hallways scanning around quickly so no one will spot her, especially the guards or her father. She knew if she swam out through her bedroom window then the guards outside on control will spot her from swimming above. Ariel was close by the library but suddenly a small banging sound was heard echoed from the library room and Ariel quickly spotted a black figure lurking around in the room. Ariel quickly hidden herself just outside laying her back right into side wall. Breathing hard and fast, Ariel tried to breathe slowly and calmly before she took a quick peek around the coral corner and look through the dark room of the library, Ariel couldn't see the shadowy figure in the room anymore, but she noticed a small book facing downwards towards the floor. Then Ariel thought that the fallen book could have created that small banging noise. There she thought if anyone noticed the fallen book on the floor then they'll probably believed that someone is awake and search around the palace then they will spot Ariel missing from her bed. After a one, quick search around in the room Ariel dashed inside the library and quietly picked up the flat book. The front and back cover, and the pages of the book was mainly ripped around the corners, and they had old, dark green most covering all of the pages. Ariel was about to neatly place the book back on the top of the table with all the other books, but the rips and the moss got the better from her curiosity.
Her fingers gently turned over the pages as her eyes wonder through the pages looking at the words and images. There was a one page looks it has been ripped off from the book. Ariel continued wondered through the pages until she stopped when one page caught her eyes, this page was clearer without much moss and rips than the others. This was written about transformation like when Ariel could transform her tail into human legs when she's dries on land, however this pages talks more about how some mermaids could transform themselves into human whenever they wish. Ariel's eyes widen with thoughts and ideas, then she noticed at the bottom corner when something written but the bottom half of the writing was ripped. The only words Ariel could figure out from the top half of the written word was 'U' and 'R' and 'S' the another 'U' and 'L' and finally 'A,' there one letter that Ariel thought it could be a 'L' but she wouldn't know if it could be a 'b' or a 'd.'
Quickly, Ariel snapped out as she got her heads out of the clouds and returned back into the sea, she was about to leave before she decided to bring the small book along for, she was interested in reading more about it. She looked both ways in the dark hallway before swimming off, then she suddenly stopped when she remembered about Sebastian and the other sea creature who were part of the Catfish Club and are now prisons in the dungeons. Guilt began growing within Ariel as she felt horrible if she leaves and they don't get the chance to leave as well.
In the dungeons
Earlier at night, down at the bottom of the castle, underneath the rocky, coral floor of the sea surface where the palace guards jailed all the criminals in their cages. The hallways were dark and cold with small shell stuck on the ceiling that glows white light to bright the way for the guards and King Triton to lead Sebastian and the seas creatures who are the band from the Catfish Club. The guards slammed the cage door and putting up a large lock on with Sebastian and the band all locked in. Only Sebastian swam up to the coral door and through the holes on the door he stares up to red, angry eyes of King Triton as the King only stared down only with disappoint. After the guards have done with the door, they swam away quietly, and Triton followed them behind in a deep silence after he gave one last death stare at Sebastian.
"Your majestic! Please listen me!" Sebastian cried loudly but King Triton ignored his cries and continued swimming away slowly. Sebastian yelled, "I know you love Ariel. We all do. And I understand you don't want to lose her either, but…"
Suddenly, Triton stopped still and cold, he waved the swordfish guards to swim on while he swam back to cage and face back to Sebastian with the same red, angry eyes and his face stiff as a hard rock. Triton replied, "Sebastian, what can you possibly understand of losing your queen, checking over a kingdom, caring for seven daughters. And I gave you my trust to watch over them" his voice became low and dark like those empty cages and dark hallways in the dungeons, "But you broke that trust. So, you don't dare say you understand."
"I'm not judging your suffering my king" Sebastian said with his brave voice, "But your daughters are growing up, your majestic, soon they will be making their own decisions in life. And Ariel is just starting to learn more about life."
"Of course, you taught her to bring in and breaking the law behind my back!" Triton angrily shouted, "Along, with felling in love with a human!"
Triton ended his confutation as he was about to take off and leave the dungeon, but Sebastian quickly added, "My king, what your daughter has with this human, is what you had with Athena."
Triton suddenly stopped again but this time his anger wasn't painted on his face, but in a surprised look. Sebastian reminded Triton of the love he had with Queen Athena, not only Athene was his wife but his best friend who was close and understanding. Triton remembered all the happy times he had with Athene and his daughters years ago, then he soon remembered Athene's death because of the humans. He tightly shut his eyes and squeezed his fingers into the palm of his hands transforming them into hard fists. He took a deep breathe in and out before he swam off silently through the shadowy hallways and out of the dark dungeons. Sebastian watched King Triton slowly vanished in the dark shadows through the hallway, then he bended his head and shut his eyes feeling shameful for betraying his king while feeling compassion.
Hours a screamed echoed through the shadowy, blue coral hallways, "Let us out of here!" a stressed-out blueish-purple octopus who it was from the band, along with a dark green turtle, a blue ray, a light green blow-fish, and a red crab, Sebastian all of them locked in a small caged.
"Alright! Alright!" Sebastian shouted as he swam up and floated up in the spare space facing the band, "Calm down, man!"
"Calm down? Calm down?!" the octopus voice was shivering in a deep panic mood, "How can we calm down man? We are locked up in a dungeon! That is to design to freak us out!"
"Come on, man, this looks a lot worse than it is" Sebastian tried to reason with the others, "Look I'll talk to the king, convince him to release us and there I've fix it."
"Now, no offense, man" the blue ray replied, "But you had ten years to fix it…"
The turtle added along, "And this is where we end up…"
The octopus finished dramatically, "In jail!"
Honestly, Sebastian had no more words to answer back the band as they all gathered around and stared down at the small red crab, the ray started "This is how you're going to roll here, and we want you to...
The octopus optioned, "Slip through the bars!"
The turtle optioned, "Use your claws to pick the lock, man!"
"And open that door!" The blow-fish excitedly finished.
The ray added, "Solid!"
"Liquid!" the octopus added after the ray thinking of solid, liquid and gas, they all look at him in them wield stares, the octopus said, "Just kidding."
"No, bad plan!" Sebastian lifted him higher and waved his claws negatively, he added, "If we break out of here, there ain't no coming back, man! We'll be fugitives!" However, the band stared back at the small crab nodding their heads as they agree that that's what they would have to do if they want to escape. "But what about Ariel? You're just going to leave that poor child behind?"
"Pull back. Pull back" the turtle commented, "Now, we all liked that child, but she's got herself into more trouble because of seeing that human. That ain't our fault man."
"Yeah but, didn't she find music first?" reminded the blow-fish.
"That squeaky dolphin created the cub" smiled the ray.
"Exactly!" Sebastian shouted, "She's just a child! You think that poor, weak, innocent child can anything now by herself?"
Unaware to Sebastian and the band, outside of their cage before Ariel was swimming through the hallways of the dungeons searching for Sebastian and the other sea creatures. She heard they quite loud voices and followed it and found their cage, Ariel first hide herself around the corner in case there were any guards guarding the cage. Ariel noticed that there was a large lock on the cage's door, she looked around for anything that could clue her for how to brake the lock and open the cage. Then, she spotted some large rocks at the bottom of the coral floor by her tail and that second Ariel thought of an idea. Ariel carefully lifted a large, heavy rock but she manged to hold it. Quickly, rushed towards the door before the heaviness could crack her strength of holding it and will drop it. Perfectly timing, Ariel used a bit more strength with her arms to raise the rock higher when she swam closer to the door then she clashed it down directing at the lock. Breaking the lock apart and shocking Sebastian and the others in the cage not only from the large, bang sound but to unexpectedly see Ariel.
Ariel flicked her wavy, red fringe back from blocking her view as she opened the door and said, "Come on guys, let's go."
The sea creature nodded with excitement as they about to swam right out of the cage before Sebastian blocked them to swimming out to freedom. "No!" Sebastian shouted then he turned to face Ariel, "If we leave Atlantica, it will break your father's heart."
"I hate more than you do" Ariel answered, "But I can't stay here any longer."
The band tried quietly swim around Sebastian to the door, not before Sebastian grabbed the coral door and slammed it back to lock them back inside the cage, "I shall not allow you to follow this nonsense."
Annoyed, Ariel grabbed the open opened it, "I'm leaving with or without you."
Angered, Sebastian grabbed the door again and slammed it back harder and louder to close the cage, "No one is leaving!" he yelled unaware that he pulled himself out of eth cage through the small holes of the coral door.
"Look Sebastian, I know daddy was hurt and I don't want to hunt him even more" Ariel calmly said, "But he's not going to listen, and without music, laughter, happiness or love, this place just doesn't feel like home."
Sebastian gave a stick stare at Ariel like Triton did the same to him, but Ariel gently said, "Look you could stay if you wish, but I'm leaving. Goodbye." Sebastian watched Ariel waved goodbye to him as she swam herself back through the shadowy hallways. When Ariel disappeared form Sebastian's sight then his strict stares and stiff face slowly disappeared into a small frown on his red face.
Behind Sebastian was the band still inside their cage, and the octopus asked, "Uh, can we leave now?"
Out of the Palace
The night was dark and cooler than it was inside the castle, Ariel could feel her skin and her scales shivering the cold sea wind blowing through ocean. She thought of reaching to the surface and stay up there for tonight, however the night tire her out and there are some deadly creatures of the sea outside the kingdom during the night. After escaping out of the palace Ariel needed somewhere to sleep in, so she swam to only small place she knows. The Catfish Club was broken and was fallen apart, however the huge rocky tunnels that lead to the club was still stable after the club was blasted apart by King Triton's powerful trident. Ariel successfully found a perfect spot where she could comfortable sleep on and there were long, dark green seaweed waving up in the high sea air which would cover the sight of her. However, when Ariel rested herself down by the side of a rock as she was near a tall rocky cliff, a small smiled frowned on her face, she hated leaving the only home she ever knows, but Ariel keeps reminding herself that it never felt like home to her. Ariel tried to think about her future if she decides to live up above the surface on the dry land with Eric, but the thought of leaving Atlantica keeps on troubling Ariel in her mind. Then, Ariel thought of that book she picked up in the library that caught her interest, she took the book out of her small, orange bag and quickly open up any page as anything she sees or reads will increase her interest.
The small pages had some clean spaces in the centre, so Ariel could read could them and recognized that this is book is filled with spells and potions she has never seen before. Most of the words in the pages were written in some ancient language that Ariel couldn't even understand herself, luckily there was some short notes based lined out from the paragraphs which were written in ink easy to read and Ariel believed possibly someone else had read this book. Ariel found it disturbing that some of the pages had some written disgusting ingredients, such as tongue of a blue whale, a pair of eyes from a tiger shark. Ariel horribly frowned at these ingredients and some of these spells; some of them were about poisons, or creating a dead thing back to life, or formed from ugly to beauty. Ariel thought to herself, "Who would have kept this book?" even if the book is old, and ripped, and covered in green moss, Ariel wondered who read this type of book all about doing the most terrible things. Then, her eyes were attracted back to the page about transformation, Ariel ignored the disgusting ingredients and read through the paragraphs about turning yourself into another form of something or someone else. The next page has its bottom half ripped apart, Ariel continued reading from the top half which continued explaining about transformation but there was the same ink written words next to the paragraph on the right side of the page. It was a short list each written underneath each other but all had a line crossed across them; shark, eel, snake, whale. All except one, which was at the bottom of the list just above the ripped edge of the page, and the word had a circle drawn around it, 'octopus.'
Suddenly, Ariel's eyes caught a glimpse of a dark figure shadowed on the side of the rocky cliff. Ariel quickly got up and looked through the long, wavy, green seaweed where she spotted a small, fats, dark figure swimming around the area like it was searching for something. Ariel dropped the book down and slowly swam around the bottom half of the seaweed, so she could still hide herself in case it could be one of the swordfish guards from the palace. The seaweed began to shiver coldly like how Ariel has a cold shiver down her back, as she crept forwards and peeked her head out from the side of the wavy seaweeds and looked up. But there was nothing there.
Ariel slowly breathe in and out to clam herself as she grew a small smile. She started to swim backwards but she could turn around Ariel touched something hard with smooth skin. Ariel screamed in a deep shock and swam away in terror and her eyes were widen in surprise when she noticed it was small dolphin. It was Flounder in the same shock and screamed loud as he swam away fast and rushed into the small forest of seaweed. Ariel rolled her eyes for how scared and dramatic he can be, but she grew a wide smile for she was happy to see him again after his banishment.
Ariel swam to the side of the seaweeds and shouted, "Flounder! I's me, Ariel! Come out, you big guppy!"
"First, I'm not a big guppy!" Flounder replied while still hiding in the huge pile of wavy seaweed, "Second, I do I know it's really Ariel!"
Ariel rolled her eyes again and huffed as she bended her arms and laid her hands on the side of her waist, "Flounder! Do you actually think that another mermaid, who looks exactly like me, with the exactly the same voice, and with the exactly same name."
There was no answer which gave Ariel hope that he was thinking it over, until he replied, "There could be a small chance."
Ariel laid her hands on the side of her head and shock her head side to side, feeling hilarious annoyed, "Oh my… Come on, Flounder!" then Ariel smirked as she thought of a plan, "I don't want to leave you here with the big-bad sharks to find you!"
"No! Wait!" Flounder screamed as he rushed out through the forest of seaweed and jumped into Ariel.
Ariel wrapped her arms around Flounder tight as she missed her dearest friend as it did come to Ariel before that she will never see him again. "I'm so happy to see you. But what are you even doing here?"
Ariel lets Flounder go a bit to see his face, Flounder answered, "Well I was going to leave, but I felt guilt without saying goodbye."
Ariel smiled as she was blissed to see her best friend again. They rest down by where Ariel was resting as Ariel explains how she wants to leave Atlantica and stay above the surface on dry land with Eric. Flounder didn't slightly agree but he understood where Ariel was coming from. After, Ariel showed Founder the book she found in the library before she swam off, Flounder had the same, horrid reaction as Ariel when they both looked through the pages of the book. Ariel explains of the words she found by the corner, they both spelled it out "U, R, S, U, L, A."
"Ursula?" Ariel named the mysterious puzzled from the words.
Floundered looked puzzled as much as Ariel, "I think there was story about that name."
"There is" Ariel quickly replied, "Sebastian told me and my sisters that someone caused herself to be a mermaid anymore. He said something more monstrous. That used to give me the creeps when I was little. It used to keep us away from anything dark or creepy without of eth kingdom."
"You think she's real?" Flounder asked.
Ariel answered while staring at the book, "Don't know" then she looked back on the same page where it decides about free-will of transformation, where the person decides when to transform themselves. That moment, Ariel thought of an idea.
"Maybe. If she was real…" Ariel tried to talk out loud to Flounder as she was trying to explain it to herself, "Maybe, I could see if I could do something like."
"Okay first, where would she be if she was real?" Flounder asked.
Ariel paused for a quick second before she answered, "Sebastian told us she lived in the deep dark parts, I know where but I don't know if it's right."
"What? The right place? Or, the right idea to go there?" Flounder questioned.
"Flounder, think of it like a shop" Ariel said, "You go in to explore and if you don't like what they're selling, then you can leave."
"But what I'm worried about if what happens if we can't leave" Flounder asked with a cold shiver in his voice.
"She might not be evil you know."
"Tell that to the stories."
"Flounder look. I don't want to stay in Alantica forever, but if I want to stay above the surface, I can't risk shocking everyone on the first day to know what I am, not yet anyway. But this, could be a small opportunity. Just, let's give a try." Ariel said but Flounder went silent as he was still not too sure about, then Ariel added, "And, just to even, I gave you a chance about setting up the Catfish Club."
Flounder nodded side to side for Ariel was right, "Alright, let's try it."
Ariel smiled as she hugged Flounder again tight but soft. After, Ariel placed the book in her orange bag and they both set off in search for the mysterious "Ursula."
So, so, so sorry for taking so long! But I finally finished this chapter