pre style="word-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"Ariel gasped. "Can you do that?" The stories she had heard from her sisters about the Sea Witch were frightening, terrible. She made spells and evil deals with unsuspecting merfolk and at the end of every story, she gained a new soul as her slave.
"My dear, sweet child." Ursula tried to hide her smirk at the shocked look on the mermaid's face in her mirror. "That's what I do – it's what I live for! To help unfortunate merfolk, like yourself."
Ariel tried not to flinch as one of her painted red nails ran under her chin and one of those black tentacles brushed her fin as Ursula circled around her.
"Poor souls, with no one else to turn to!"
She swam up and Flotsam and Jetsam snaked around their mistress, her husky voice low and almost hypnotizing.
"I admit that in the past I was a nasty. They weren't kidding when they called me, well a witch. But you'll find that nowdays, I've mended all my ways. Repented, seen the light and made a switch!"
The eels circles one last time before leaving Ursula with a flourish as she floated back down towards the mesmerized mermaid.
"True? Yes!"
The eels returned to circling her again as she strutted over to what looked like a giant black claw growing out of the ground.
"And I fortunately know a little magic. It's a talent that I always have possessed."
With a wave of her arms the claw opened and pink steam rose up and whatever was inside cast an eerie glow on the witches face.
"And here lately, please don't laugh,"
She grinned and waggled a finger at the princess who was slowly swimming closer, curiosity overcoming her fear.
"I use it on behalf, of the miserable, lonely and depressed. (Pathetic)." Ursula had pulled up two merpeople made of the glowing pink steam and Ariel was too enthralled to hear the last part she had whispered to her laughing servants.
"Poor unfortunate souls! In pain, in need. This one longing to be thinner, that one wants to get the girl and do I help them?"
A snap of her fingers and the two figures were transformed, the scrawny bow was now a handsome man and the chubby girl was now slim, both were the way they wanted to be.
"Yes indeed!"
The two embraced each other and Ursula continued to strut and sing around the cauldron.
"Those poor unfortunate souls! So sad, so true. They come flocking to my cauldron crying 'Spells, Ursula please!' and do I help them? Yes I do. Now it's happened once or twice. Someone couldn't pay the price, and I'm afraid I had to rake 'em 'cross the coals."
Her hand clenched into a fist and the two dissolved in a tornado, scraggly little polyps in their place.
"Yes I've had the odd complaint, but on the whole I've been a saint. To those poor unfortunate souls!"
She grabbed one of the fluorescent curling seaweeds off the roof and loomed over the other polyps until they all began to quake and cry in fear again. Then with a sharp turn on her tentacle she wrapped the girl in the seaweed and pulled the retreating girls form close.
"Now, here's the deal." She began pulling Ariel over towards the cauldron, releasing the plant once her surprisingly strong hand had a hold of Ariel's arm, sharp maroon claws biting into the soft flesh. "I will make you a potion that will turn you into a human for three days?" A distracted look crossed her grimacing face as she tried to brush off a stray tentacle that had wrapped itself across her shoulder and chest. "Got that? Three days."
They had arrived at the terrible black claw which had sealed up again and leaning over it Ursula grabbed Ariel's chin with a tentacle as the girl had been unconsciously looking for a way out. "Now listen, this is important!" Three glowing yellow suns floated out between the cracks in the claws.
"Before the sun sets on the third day, you've got to get dear ol' princey to fall in love with you." A crown followed as the suns set and a heart, pulsing and beating red floated up in the center. "That is, he's got to kiss you. Not just any kiss – the kiss, of true love." The heart pulsed and it's shining red glow over powered the gold of the crown.
True love. I love him. True love…
"If he does kiss you before the sun sets on the third day." A girl skipping on beautiful golden legs replaced the crown and the heart. "You'll remain human, permanently, but – if he doesn't, you'll turn back into a mermaid."
The light faded as a sad looking blue mermaid replaced the girl before she was sucked back down and Ursula's grinning face filled her vision. "And - You belong to me."
"No Ariel!" The sound of Sebastian's voice snapped her out of her trace but he and Flounder were quickly silenced by the witch's eels and Ursula once again grabbed her chin bringing her attention back to her.
"Have we got a deal?"
Seeing Sebastian and Flounder reminded her of home and an interesting thought crossed her mind that caused her to furrow her brow. "If I become human, I'll never be with my father or sisters again…"
"That's right!" Ursula gasped with an exaggerated pensive look on her face. "Buuuut, you'll have your man." She chuckled darkly. "Life's full of tough choices innit?" she jeered lying back on the claw. "Oh! But there is one more thing, we haven't discussed the subject of payment! You can't get something for nothing you know!"
Oh that look on her shocked little face! Hmhmhm!
Even though this witch and her magic scared her she a touch of desperation colored her voice at the thought of the chance being taken away. "But I don't have-"
"I'm not asking much." A thick black tentacle cut off her sentence. "Just a token really, a trifle! You'll never even miss it. What I want from you is…your voice."
The way it came out, the way that red nail insisted on touching her chin again, it felt…sinister. Ariel gingerly touched her throat. "My voice?"
"You've got it sweetcakes. No more talking, singing, zip." She listed off the stipulations on her fingers and ended it with a pop of her lips.
Her hand was still on her throat as she thought more about the deal. "But without my voice, how can I-"
"You'll have your looks! Your pretty face! And don't underestimate the importance of, body language! Ha!"
Come on girly, take the deal already, I know you will! Your little friends, I know they're here but we wouldn't want Daddy walking in on our little party now would we?
"The men up there don't like a lot of blabber. They think a girl who gossips is a bore. Yes, on land it's much preferred for ladies not to say a word and after all dear, what is idle prattle for?" She crawled up the side of the cave and with a wave of her hand a clam shell on the wall flew open. Inside it was filled with shelves of strange shaped bottles and different potions and ingredients with eyes.
"Come on they're not all that impressed with conversation. True gentlemen avoid it when they can. But they dote and swoon and fawn, on a lady who's withdrawn! It's she who holds her tongue who gets her man!"
She began pulling things off the shelves, bottles of all different shapes and sizes floated past Ariel and the black claw opened with a creak. The bottles were pulled down disappearing into the bubbling smoking cauldron in an explosive cloud of white steam as they began to mix and churn together with the witch's magic. The last ingredient was a tongue Ursula pulled out of a small pot and the mixture turned from white to red in a fizzle of sparks.
"Come on you poor unfortunate soul! Go ahead! Make your choice! I'm a very busy woman and I haven't got all day it won't cost much! Just your voice!"
A picture of Eric hovered smiling over the pot and Ariel couldn't help but smile until Ursula's face cut through the dream. The mix smelt sickly sweet, Ursula's song kept growing louder and louder and when she pulled a passing jellyfish down, throwing it into the brew it exploded with an even louder thunder clap and torrent of blue sparks.
"You poor unfortunate soul. It's sad, but true. If you want to cross a bridge my sweet you've got to pay the toll." Another mushroom cloud of steam then Ursula was behind her, and a glowing golden contact floated in front of her.
I hereby grant unto Ursula the Witch of the Sea…one voice…..for all eternity. Signed,
"Take a gulp and take a breath and go ahead and sign the scroll!"
A golden pen made of a fishes bones appeared in front of her.
"Flotsam, jetsam now I've got her boys. The boss is on a roll!" She swam up in an excited flurry of spinning tentacles.
"This poor."
A hand was extended, but her face was sneering in challenge.
"Un-"
"He's a human, you can't be together!" Ariel scowled.
"Fooortunate"
Those eyes challenged her like her father's did and her mouth was set in a thin line as her mind followed her heart.
"Soul."
Ariel quickly snatched up the pen, and looking away as she signed her name and sealed her fate on that glowing golden contract. Everything was spinning but Ariel felt no regret when the pen and contract were snatched out of her hands and into the witch's. She felt no remorse over her decision even as Ursula grinned wickedly and bent over the simmering cauldron already beginning to chant her spell.
"Paluga, sarruga, come winds of the Caspian Sea!" A blue tornado of swirling magic rose up and spun, faster and faster around them. "Now rings us glossitis and max laryngitis, la voce to me!" A pair of wicked, glowing green hands now emerged from the cauldron, hooked like talons and prepared to strike.
"Now. Sing."
One clear note, the moment Ariel opened her mouth and started to sing Eric's song her throat started to glow and a warm tingle settled in her neck and traveled down to her tail. Green wisps flurried around her and the hands started coming towards the clear sound of her voice.
"Keep singing!"
As if I could stop.
The sensation changed, the tingling had stopped only to be replaced with a burning scratchy feeling in her throat yet somehow her voice remained clear. The hands shrunk down, one tendril circled around her waist as the other paused before her mouth. The burning pain, it felt like her vocal chords were being torn out but she couldn't stop singing. Her back arched as the magic finally entered her, a slimy, smoky yet solid feeling pulling at the burning knot in her neck.
Then it was gone, but the noise was not. The sound of her singing remained even though Ariel had snapped her mouth closed as soon as that terrible pain had had left. Clutched between two green claws was a small glowing orb.
My voice.
Ariel watched holding onto her still throbbing neck as the orb was drawn back to Ursula who held out her shell necklace licking her lips in anticipation. Once it was drawn into the necklace Ursula began to laugh. Ariel had a second to try and comprehend the sinister tone before she was surrounded by a glowing bubble.
The burning in her neck was nothing in comparison to this. Her back arched painfully as her lungs and ribs rearranged themselves. If her voice hadn't been taken, it would have been lost as she screamed from the pain. Her skin itched and burned as the fine layer of almost invisible scratchy scales that was mermaid skin dissolved into her torso and was replaced with soft skin and hair.
It felt like her spine was going to crack it was arched so far back and her tail! A burning hot knife was being drawn down the center of her larges limb cutting through bone and scales while Ursula's laughter echoed in the background. Finally her tail split, it felt like an electric shock was going through each half, now everything, all the way down to the ends of where her fin would have been was raw with new nerves. She tried to open her eyes but for the first time ever the salt burned them and everything was fuzzy, black and gold.
Her ears and nose were suddenly filled with water instead of the witch's maniacal laughter and the pressure of being down so deep began to build and squeeze. New lungs began to burn as she struggled to swim with a new lower half.
Up, up! Air!
Sebastian and Flounder quickly got over their shock and moved to help Ariel to the surface. Out through a hole in the roof of the skeleton, Ariel could see the bright light of day at the surface. Every kick sent waves up pain up her new legs but the burning need for oxygen was worse.
Up, up! Air! The surface! I'm so close!
With one final push she rocketed up from the dark depths into the sun. A deep breath relieved the pressure in her lungs and head and she collapsed back down into the water relying on Flounder to keep her afloat. Sebastian noticed the girls eyelids droop as she struggled to keep her head above water and knew there was no time to waste. The odd pair began dragging the newly human princess to shore and despite everything that she had just gone through, Ariel couldn't have been happier./pre
"My dear, sweet child." Ursula tried to hide her smirk at the shocked look on the mermaid's face in her mirror. "That's what I do – it's what I live for! To help unfortunate merfolk, like yourself."
Ariel tried not to flinch as one of her painted red nails ran under her chin and one of those black tentacles brushed her fin as Ursula circled around her.
"Poor souls, with no one else to turn to!"
She swam up and Flotsam and Jetsam snaked around their mistress, her husky voice low and almost hypnotizing.
"I admit that in the past I was a nasty. They weren't kidding when they called me, well a witch. But you'll find that nowdays, I've mended all my ways. Repented, seen the light and made a switch!"
The eels circles one last time before leaving Ursula with a flourish as she floated back down towards the mesmerized mermaid.
"True? Yes!"
The eels returned to circling her again as she strutted over to what looked like a giant black claw growing out of the ground.
"And I fortunately know a little magic. It's a talent that I always have possessed."
With a wave of her arms the claw opened and pink steam rose up and whatever was inside cast an eerie glow on the witches face.
"And here lately, please don't laugh,"
She grinned and waggled a finger at the princess who was slowly swimming closer, curiosity overcoming her fear.
"I use it on behalf, of the miserable, lonely and depressed. (Pathetic)." Ursula had pulled up two merpeople made of the glowing pink steam and Ariel was too enthralled to hear the last part she had whispered to her laughing servants.
"Poor unfortunate souls! In pain, in need. This one longing to be thinner, that one wants to get the girl and do I help them?"
A snap of her fingers and the two figures were transformed, the scrawny bow was now a handsome man and the chubby girl was now slim, both were the way they wanted to be.
"Yes indeed!"
The two embraced each other and Ursula continued to strut and sing around the cauldron.
"Those poor unfortunate souls! So sad, so true. They come flocking to my cauldron crying 'Spells, Ursula please!' and do I help them? Yes I do. Now it's happened once or twice. Someone couldn't pay the price, and I'm afraid I had to rake 'em 'cross the coals."
Her hand clenched into a fist and the two dissolved in a tornado, scraggly little polyps in their place.
"Yes I've had the odd complaint, but on the whole I've been a saint. To those poor unfortunate souls!"
She grabbed one of the fluorescent curling seaweeds off the roof and loomed over the other polyps until they all began to quake and cry in fear again. Then with a sharp turn on her tentacle she wrapped the girl in the seaweed and pulled the retreating girls form close.
"Now, here's the deal." She began pulling Ariel over towards the cauldron, releasing the plant once her surprisingly strong hand had a hold of Ariel's arm, sharp maroon claws biting into the soft flesh. "I will make you a potion that will turn you into a human for three days?" A distracted look crossed her grimacing face as she tried to brush off a stray tentacle that had wrapped itself across her shoulder and chest. "Got that? Three days."
They had arrived at the terrible black claw which had sealed up again and leaning over it Ursula grabbed Ariel's chin with a tentacle as the girl had been unconsciously looking for a way out. "Now listen, this is important!" Three glowing yellow suns floated out between the cracks in the claws.
"Before the sun sets on the third day, you've got to get dear ol' princey to fall in love with you." A crown followed as the suns set and a heart, pulsing and beating red floated up in the center. "That is, he's got to kiss you. Not just any kiss – the kiss, of true love." The heart pulsed and it's shining red glow over powered the gold of the crown.
True love. I love him. True love…
"If he does kiss you before the sun sets on the third day." A girl skipping on beautiful golden legs replaced the crown and the heart. "You'll remain human, permanently, but – if he doesn't, you'll turn back into a mermaid."
The light faded as a sad looking blue mermaid replaced the girl before she was sucked back down and Ursula's grinning face filled her vision. "And - You belong to me."
"No Ariel!" The sound of Sebastian's voice snapped her out of her trace but he and Flounder were quickly silenced by the witch's eels and Ursula once again grabbed her chin bringing her attention back to her.
"Have we got a deal?"
Seeing Sebastian and Flounder reminded her of home and an interesting thought crossed her mind that caused her to furrow her brow. "If I become human, I'll never be with my father or sisters again…"
"That's right!" Ursula gasped with an exaggerated pensive look on her face. "Buuuut, you'll have your man." She chuckled darkly. "Life's full of tough choices innit?" she jeered lying back on the claw. "Oh! But there is one more thing, we haven't discussed the subject of payment! You can't get something for nothing you know!"
Oh that look on her shocked little face! Hmhmhm!
Even though this witch and her magic scared her she a touch of desperation colored her voice at the thought of the chance being taken away. "But I don't have-"
"I'm not asking much." A thick black tentacle cut off her sentence. "Just a token really, a trifle! You'll never even miss it. What I want from you is…your voice."
The way it came out, the way that red nail insisted on touching her chin again, it felt…sinister. Ariel gingerly touched her throat. "My voice?"
"You've got it sweetcakes. No more talking, singing, zip." She listed off the stipulations on her fingers and ended it with a pop of her lips.
Her hand was still on her throat as she thought more about the deal. "But without my voice, how can I-"
"You'll have your looks! Your pretty face! And don't underestimate the importance of, body language! Ha!"
Come on girly, take the deal already, I know you will! Your little friends, I know they're here but we wouldn't want Daddy walking in on our little party now would we?
"The men up there don't like a lot of blabber. They think a girl who gossips is a bore. Yes, on land it's much preferred for ladies not to say a word and after all dear, what is idle prattle for?" She crawled up the side of the cave and with a wave of her hand a clam shell on the wall flew open. Inside it was filled with shelves of strange shaped bottles and different potions and ingredients with eyes.
"Come on they're not all that impressed with conversation. True gentlemen avoid it when they can. But they dote and swoon and fawn, on a lady who's withdrawn! It's she who holds her tongue who gets her man!"
She began pulling things off the shelves, bottles of all different shapes and sizes floated past Ariel and the black claw opened with a creak. The bottles were pulled down disappearing into the bubbling smoking cauldron in an explosive cloud of white steam as they began to mix and churn together with the witch's magic. The last ingredient was a tongue Ursula pulled out of a small pot and the mixture turned from white to red in a fizzle of sparks.
"Come on you poor unfortunate soul! Go ahead! Make your choice! I'm a very busy woman and I haven't got all day it won't cost much! Just your voice!"
A picture of Eric hovered smiling over the pot and Ariel couldn't help but smile until Ursula's face cut through the dream. The mix smelt sickly sweet, Ursula's song kept growing louder and louder and when she pulled a passing jellyfish down, throwing it into the brew it exploded with an even louder thunder clap and torrent of blue sparks.
"You poor unfortunate soul. It's sad, but true. If you want to cross a bridge my sweet you've got to pay the toll." Another mushroom cloud of steam then Ursula was behind her, and a glowing golden contact floated in front of her.
I hereby grant unto Ursula the Witch of the Sea…one voice…..for all eternity. Signed,
"Take a gulp and take a breath and go ahead and sign the scroll!"
A golden pen made of a fishes bones appeared in front of her.
"Flotsam, jetsam now I've got her boys. The boss is on a roll!" She swam up in an excited flurry of spinning tentacles.
"This poor."
A hand was extended, but her face was sneering in challenge.
"Un-"
"He's a human, you can't be together!" Ariel scowled.
"Fooortunate"
Those eyes challenged her like her father's did and her mouth was set in a thin line as her mind followed her heart.
"Soul."
Ariel quickly snatched up the pen, and looking away as she signed her name and sealed her fate on that glowing golden contract. Everything was spinning but Ariel felt no regret when the pen and contract were snatched out of her hands and into the witch's. She felt no remorse over her decision even as Ursula grinned wickedly and bent over the simmering cauldron already beginning to chant her spell.
"Paluga, sarruga, come winds of the Caspian Sea!" A blue tornado of swirling magic rose up and spun, faster and faster around them. "Now rings us glossitis and max laryngitis, la voce to me!" A pair of wicked, glowing green hands now emerged from the cauldron, hooked like talons and prepared to strike.
"Now. Sing."
One clear note, the moment Ariel opened her mouth and started to sing Eric's song her throat started to glow and a warm tingle settled in her neck and traveled down to her tail. Green wisps flurried around her and the hands started coming towards the clear sound of her voice.
"Keep singing!"
As if I could stop.
The sensation changed, the tingling had stopped only to be replaced with a burning scratchy feeling in her throat yet somehow her voice remained clear. The hands shrunk down, one tendril circled around her waist as the other paused before her mouth. The burning pain, it felt like her vocal chords were being torn out but she couldn't stop singing. Her back arched as the magic finally entered her, a slimy, smoky yet solid feeling pulling at the burning knot in her neck.
Then it was gone, but the noise was not. The sound of her singing remained even though Ariel had snapped her mouth closed as soon as that terrible pain had had left. Clutched between two green claws was a small glowing orb.
My voice.
Ariel watched holding onto her still throbbing neck as the orb was drawn back to Ursula who held out her shell necklace licking her lips in anticipation. Once it was drawn into the necklace Ursula began to laugh. Ariel had a second to try and comprehend the sinister tone before she was surrounded by a glowing bubble.
The burning in her neck was nothing in comparison to this. Her back arched painfully as her lungs and ribs rearranged themselves. If her voice hadn't been taken, it would have been lost as she screamed from the pain. Her skin itched and burned as the fine layer of almost invisible scratchy scales that was mermaid skin dissolved into her torso and was replaced with soft skin and hair.
It felt like her spine was going to crack it was arched so far back and her tail! A burning hot knife was being drawn down the center of her larges limb cutting through bone and scales while Ursula's laughter echoed in the background. Finally her tail split, it felt like an electric shock was going through each half, now everything, all the way down to the ends of where her fin would have been was raw with new nerves. She tried to open her eyes but for the first time ever the salt burned them and everything was fuzzy, black and gold.
Her ears and nose were suddenly filled with water instead of the witch's maniacal laughter and the pressure of being down so deep began to build and squeeze. New lungs began to burn as she struggled to swim with a new lower half.
Up, up! Air!
Sebastian and Flounder quickly got over their shock and moved to help Ariel to the surface. Out through a hole in the roof of the skeleton, Ariel could see the bright light of day at the surface. Every kick sent waves up pain up her new legs but the burning need for oxygen was worse.
Up, up! Air! The surface! I'm so close!
With one final push she rocketed up from the dark depths into the sun. A deep breath relieved the pressure in her lungs and head and she collapsed back down into the water relying on Flounder to keep her afloat. Sebastian noticed the girls eyelids droop as she struggled to keep her head above water and knew there was no time to waste. The odd pair began dragging the newly human princess to shore and despite everything that she had just gone through, Ariel couldn't have been happier./pre