Author's Note: So . . . uh . . . last week, I kind of told you all about how I was not doing so well. But I'm all better now. I don't want to tell all the details, but what I will say is that last week, I was worried that things were a certain way, but then I found out that things are not . . . that . . . way. So we're good. This chapter is a bit longer than the last one. It's still not very, very long because I'm keeping my novel as my main project. But I'm still uploading every week.

Also, for those of you who have read Disney Princesses: Extermination, please do not spoil what happens at the end in a review. A lot of people are going to be reading this story before Extermination, so no one tell them about THAT ENDING!

"You should really step aside, Namaari," Ariel cautioned.

Namaari didn't move. She just kept thinking about how she couldn't let Raya die and yet there wasn't any way out of this.

"Such a silly girl," Ariel commented. "How am I ever going to get through . . . to . . . her?" Ariel's face fell. She became uncertain and her eyes flickered with their natural blue. All around them, the dragons' eyes flickered with their natural colors. They clutched their heads, trying to use what little freewill they had regained.

Ariel alone saw Kahn appear and Ariel alone heard him ask, "Why do you second guess yourself, my queen?"

"I know what it's like to live without freedom. I know what it's like to be kept away from someone precious. Why do I have to kill Raya for being a free spirit?"

Raya and Namaari had no idea what was going on. They didn't know that Ariel was being manipulated or who she was talking to. One of the dragons limped toward them and forced out a single word. "RUN!"

"Let's go," Namaari said, turning to the exit.

Raya looked at her father. She didn't want to leave him, but she knew she couldn't stay any longer. If she gave him a chance to join her, he would take it; she didn't want her father to be in the same danger she would be in. Raya ran with Namaari, descending the steps as quickly as possible.

Kahn told Ariel, "I am aware that there are parallels between this and your father's actions. But what he did, he did to keep humans and merpeople apart. What you do, you do to untie people. Your father didn't know what was best for people, but you do. Our queen is superior, our queen knows best."

Ariel's eyes stopped flickering; as did the dragons'. "I suppose your right." Ariel turned to a few of the dragons and casually said, "Kill them."

By the time they saw dragons looking for them, Raya and Namaari were passed the bridge and leaving Fang. Raya would have curled up into a ball if she wasn't too busy running. Her father was at Ariel's mercy along with all the other chiefs.

"We need to get to Heart!" Namaari said. "You father was the only one that didn't kneel to Ariel; she'll be going to Heart to take the land by force. We have to warn them."

Raya said, "How are we going to stop her? She's too powerful. We need help."

In another world, a group of friends, royals, heroes were assembling in a room with a massive portal that looked like a white sky adorned with black stars.

Flames burst into existence, bringing with them three figures that emerged as the flames died away. M had teleported into the room with Merida and Phillip. "We dropped everything as soon as we heard," Merida said. "Where's Ariel?"

"She's somewhere in there," Snow White told her, gesturing to the portal. "There's another world on the other side."

"What happened?" Phillip asked.

Snow swallowed her embarrassment and told them, "I told Ariel about a water spirit that lives in the other world. She wanted to, at least, learn about it. She is a sea queen after all. But she told me and her husband that she would be back in a couple of days or less."

"That was two weeks ago," M, Snow's daughter, added. "Eric reached out to us about this and he's worried sick. All of New Atlantica is panicking about this."

Merida and Phillip looked around the room to see who else was with them. The only people there were Snow White, M, Merida, Phillip, Cinderella, Rapunzel, and Eugene.

"We're still missin a few of us," Merida stated.

"I hate to break it to you, but this is it," M replied drearily. "Anna, Elsa, Jack and the Guardians are busy with their own life threatening shenanigans, trying to find Mulan was impossible because she could be anywhere, and Belle wouldn't be any help where we're going."

Snow White added, "We can't wait for the others to be ready. Ariel needs our help now."

Rapunzel asked Phillip, "What about Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather? Can they help us?"

"I would have brought them with me if I knew where they were. My kingdom isn't the only one they visit."

"Well, if this is all we're gettin, what are we waitin for?" Merida said impatiently. "Let's go."

Merida approached the portal and instantly vanished when she touched it.

The others followed behind her, vanishing one after the other until only Snow White and M were left. Snow placed her hand on the portal . . . but nothing happened. Snow's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. She pressed her hand harder against the portal, but it did nothing.

"That's weird," M said, standing beside her mother. M placed her own hand on the portal, but it wouldn't work for her either.

"That's strange. Why would it work for everyone else, but not us?" Snow asked.

M shrugged. "Maybe it has a maximum occupancy limit."

"Hopefully they'll come back for us. I'm the one with the map and you're the most powerful one of us."

Snow paced back and forth, anxiously hopping one of them would come back through the portal to figure out why they hadn't come yet. But no one came back. "Can you teleport us to the other world?" Snow asked.

"No, I can't. I've already tried."

"Then they're alone in there."

Cinderella was the last one to wake up. The others were already on their feet and waiting for her. She wasn't groggy. After just a few seconds, she felt like she'd been awake for hours. "How long have I been asleep?" Cinderella asked, standing up.

"Not long, I think," Eugene answered uncertainly. "I was the first to wake up and the rest of you came to a few seconds later. I don't know how long I was out before that, though."

Cinderella knew for a fact that they couldn't have been out overnight. Her spells cast with her magic wand would break at the stroke of twelve. She had previously used a spell to change her formal clothes into more adventure friendly attire and it was still intact. Her outfit was sparkling and was either blue or white depending on the lighting. She, as usual, had gloves and a black choker around her neck. But this outfit was far less poufy. Her shoulder straps were more traditional in shape. Her skirt was thin, passed just below her knees, and had a large split in the front. Instead of a hairband, her hair was held together by a ribbon. Her shoes weren't made out of glass, but had a few glass beads as decoration on the sides. Cinderella had changed her outfit to be an identical copy of what she wore when her and her friends had their war against the Enchantress.

Cinderella looked around, expecting something to be behind them. "I realize I haven't been on as many magical adventures as most of you, but isn't a magic portal supposed to have two sides?"

"I can't wrap muh head around it either," Merida chimed in. "We just got dropped off here with no way back."

Cinderella quickly noticed that the other side of the portal wasn't the only thing missing. "Where are Snow and M?"

"No clue," Eugene replied. "I don't know if they even made it through the portal in one piece."

"A little less grim, honey," Rapunzel requested, patting him on the shoulder.

"How can I not be grim?! Ariel is missing, the only people who know anything about this world aren't here, and we have no way back home!"

Cinderella felt prompted to be the group's emotional rock. She almost lost her mind on their last dangerous adventure. This time, she was determined to stay strong. "We'll find a way back, Eugene."

"Does that magic wand have any spells that can bring us back? We can't be gone long. We have a six month old daughter at home and we left her with Lance!"

Cinderella knew her wand couldn't do that. But she was determined to stay hopeful. She knew she would return home to her husband. "We all have family back home. We'll find a way back to them when the time comes. For now, we should focus on finding Ariel."

Phillip pointed to the side and said, "Fortunately, that portal brought us to civilization." The group was standing on the other side of the bridge to the beautiful land of Heart. "Snow White told us Ariel was looking for a water spirit. Maybe they'll know something about it."

Raya and Namaari were halfway to Heart on a row boat, sailing in uncomfortable silence. "You should get some sleep," Namaari said. "I'll keep us moving."

Raya kept rowing. "You first. I don't think I can sleep right now," said Raya who was worried sick about her father.

"Yeah . . . neither can I," said Namaari who had just seen her mother submit to a tyrant.

They were both shaken, not just because of their parents. They had just watched Ariel bend all those dragons to her will and take over most of Kumandra in a single night. And there was yet another something bothering Raya. "Namaari?"

"Yes?"

"You . . . You told Ariel that I would help her; that I wanted the same thing she wanted."

"I was trying to save you," Namaari said dismissively.

"I know. It's just . . . Ariel could hear our thoughts, so . . . you knew she would have known if you were lying."

Namaari fell silent. She kept rowing without looking at Raya.

"Is that really what you think of me?" Raya asked somewhat aggressively, somewhat sadly.

Namaari pulled her ores out of the water, threw her hands into the air, and shouted, "Well, isn't this what you wanted?! One land where everyone hast to get with the program?!"

"No, this is not what I wanted!" Raya insisted. "I wanted us to come together peacefully!"

"Oh, really? You thought everyone would go along with your vision peacefully? This is what turning Kumandra into one land looks like, Raya!"

"You know I wouldn't have done any of this to unite Kumandra!" Raya shouted. "I wasn't going to use force!"

"Raya, have you even thought about this beyond imagining everyone holding hands under a rainbow?! If Kumandra unites, then all the people inside it will be subject to whatever rule the one council decides for them. No one will be able to just leave one land they don't like and go somewhere they can feel at home. They will be FORCED to live the way their one land tells them to live. You've been talking so much about getting the chiefs to agree with you. What about everyone else?"

Raya replied, "I'll tell you about everyone else! When the chiefs decide to go to war, it's everyone else that gets hurt! If everyone were united, no one would have to worry about what the other lands want to do to them!"

"No, they'll be too busy worrying about what their own leaders will tell them to do," Namaari shot back.

"Those leaders are going to be you and me someday!"

"They don't know you like I do! They don't trust you!"

"They will."

"STOP LIVING IN A FAIRY TALE!" Namaari roared.

"Stop saying things are fine the way they are! People are still afraid of each other! That's not fine!"

"I never said it was! Why do you think I'm against peace and friendship and happiness?! Do you think I sit around, figuring out how I can keep everyone terrified and miserable?!"

"You seem to think I want everyone to be miserable," Raya mumbled.

Raya and Namaari glared at each other resentfully. "You know what?"

"What?" Raya growled.

"I actually do feel tired."

Author's Note: Incase anyone's curious about how long this story is going to be, Raya and the Strange Visitors is probably going to be my shortest fanfiction so far. I have almost the whole thing planned out and it shouldn't take long. It might be around 20,000 words-ish? Maybe less. Disney Princesses: Extermination was over 100,000 words and my two other fanfics (Miraculous Contempt and Star Wars: The Unending) were close to 50,000 words each. But I sort of see this story as more of a side story in the Disney Princesses Saga. Speaking of which, if you haven't read Disney Princesses: Extermination, you should if you like Disney Princesses. I'll give you a heads up that the first chapter might come across as too fluffy and pointless at first, but then it turns into a action-packed fantasy epic.

Thank you for reading. Please follow and review.