Chapter 5 - Under the sea
Over the next few days, Arron's brothers started noticing some, well, behavioural changes in their youngest companion.
"Arron, buddy" the oldest brother Antony called through the closed door. "Time to come out dude, you've been in there all morning!" He said. When Arron swam out the door of the brothers bedroom, he was humming a tune to himself, and continued humming as he sat down in front of his vanity and began fussing with his hair.
He took a flower from the wall and swam out the door, bumping into Tritannia.
"Oh, morning mom" he said as he placed the flower in her hair and swam off lazily, doing little twirls as he went. All six of the brothers gathered in the doorway behind their mother.
"Ooh, he's got it bad." Sad Averil, the 2nd youngest. Tritannia looked at her sons in confusion.
"What? What has he got?" She asked.
"Isn't it obvious, Mom?" Said Alex, the 3rd oldest. "Arron's in love." All the brothers made cooing noises and imitated kissing sounds as Tritannia took the flower out of her hair and looked at it, turning it over in her hands.
"Arron?" She muttered to herself. "In love?"
Stella was pacing back and forth in the palace gardens.
"The queen must never know.." She said to herself. "But it's gonna be hard keeping something like dis a secret for long…" She was so lost in thought that she didn't notice the yellow flower petals falling around her until one landed on her head. She looked up to find Arron perched on a rock, playing the 'loves me, loves me not' game with the flower petals.
"She loves me!" Arron exclaimed, hugging the last petal to his chest. "I knew it!" Stella was getting increasingly tired of Arron's childish behaviour. She expected more from a future king of the sea.
"Arron, would you stop that?" She called up at him. Arron completely ignored her and began making frivolous arrangements to meet his princess again.
"I'll swim up to her castle tonight, Sienna knows where she lives! then Flora will splash around to get her attention, and then-"
"Down here is your home!" Stella yelled at Arron. Stella was tired of this. She knew this was all just a silly crush. Inter-species relationships were sure to not work out, and the boy was still so young! How could he possibly know about love? Still, she thought he needed a little reminder about where his true heritage lies…
Arron finally shut up, taken aback by such a big sound coming from such a small creature.
"Arron, will you please get your head out of the clouds and back in da water where it belongs!" He looked down at the crab.
"I'm sorry Stella, its just that-" Stella held up a claw to silence him. "Arron, de human world, it's a mess. Life under da sea, is better then anything day got up there."
The seaweed is always greener
In somebody else's lake
You dream about going up there
But that is a big mistake
Just look at the world around you
Right here on the ocean floor
Such wonderful things surround you
What more is you lookin' for?
Under the sea
Under the sea
Buddy it's better
Down where it's wetter
Take it from me
Up on the shore they work all day
Out in the sun they slave away
While we devotin'
Full time to floatin'!
Under the sea
Down here all the fish is happy
As off through the waves they roll
The fish on the land ain't happy
They sad 'cause they in the bowl
But fish in the bowl is lucky
They in for a worser fate
One day when the boss get hungry
Guess who's gon' be on the plate?
Under the sea
Under the sea
Nobody beat us
Fry us and eat us
In fricassee
We what the land folks loves to cook
Under the sea we off the hook
We got no troubles
Life is the bubbles
Under the sea (Under the sea)
Under the sea (Under the sea)
Since life is sweet here
We got the beat here
Naturally (Naturally)
Even the sturgeon an' the ray
They get the urge 'n' start to play
We got the spirit
You got to hear it
Under the sea
The newt play the flute
The carp play the harp
The plaice play the bass
And they soundin' sharp
The bass play the brass
The chub play the tub
The fluke is the duke of soul
(Yeah)
The ray he can play
The lings on the strings
The trout rockin' out
The blackfish she sings
The smelt and the sprat
They know where it's at
An' oh that blowfish blow!
Yeah, under the sea (Under the sea)
Under the sea (Under the sea)
When the sardine
Begin the beguine
It's music to me (It's music to me)
What do they got? A lot of sand
We got a hot crustacean band!
Each little clam here
Know how to jam here
Under the sea
Each little slug here
Cuttin' a rug here
Under the sea
Each little snail here
Know how to wail here
That's why it's hotter
Under the water
Ya we in luck here
Down in the muck here
Under the sea!
Stella and all the other fish turned to face Arron, but there was no Arron there. "Arron?" Said Stella, defeated as all the other fish swam off. "Oh…" She said in defeat. "Somebody has got to nail that boys fins to de floor…" Stella was just about to go find the little prince, when one of the queens seahorses came swimming at full speed up to the crustacean.
"Stella!" puffed the little seahorse. "The queen has requested your presence immediately… something about Arron!" Stella put her claws to her mouth in shock.
"Agh! She knows!"
Stella scuttled into the throne room where the queen sat talking to herself.
"Now, now" Said the queen, twirling the flower Arron had given her. "Who could the lucky mermaid be? Oh, I hope she's pretty…" Just then she saw a shaking Stella walking very slowly into the room."Ah, Stella" The crab felt a huge gulp in her throat.
"Yes, your majesty?" She replied.
"Yes, I was hoping to talk to you about Arron" Stella was shaking violently.
"Arron?" Said Stella, playing the dumb card.
"In love?" Said the queen. Stella just stood there, smiling innocently. "I've noticed him day-dreaming, singing to himself. You haven't noticed?" She asked. The crab smiled nervously in response, her heart skipping three beats at a time with every second. "Stella, I know you've been keeping something from me…" Stella gulped.
"Keeping something?" A small clicking sound was heard as the crabs knees knocked against each other. Stella covered her shaking limbs and put on a fake smile.
"About Arron?" Said the queen. Stella just stood there and smiled until, like the crab she was, finally cracked. She grabbed the queens long flowing hair and cried into it.
"I TRIED TO STOP HIM!" She wailed, not noticing the extremely confused look on the queens face.
"I told him to stay away from humans! Day are bad, day are trouble! Day-" Stella was suddenly interrupted by the queens bubbling anger
"Humans? WHAT ABOUT HUMANS!" Stella froze. 'Oh crap…' she thought to herself. She had just given away Arron's secret. That kid was never gonna forgive her after this.
"Humans?" Said Stella, still trying to play the dumb card. "Who said anything about humans? Ha ha…" The queens usually delicate hand suddenly grabbed the crab and pulled her closer.
"Stella" said the queen "Tell me everything…"
Arron and Flora swam to their secret cave, Flora determined to show something to Arron.
"Flora, what's this all about?" The fish had a cheeky grin on her face.
"You'll see" She said as she led Arron into the cave.
"Come on, why did you have to drag me away from Stella's catchy ass song…" He stopped in his tracks. He put his hands to his mouth as Flora jumped in front of him with a big "Ta daa!" Right before him, in his very own cave, was Erica's wedding dress that fell off the ship the other night.
"Oh my gosh…" Arron grabbed his fish friend and pulled her into a tight hug. "Oh Flora, you're the best!" Arron swam up to the dress, Flora beaming that she was able to cheer up her friend. "Why Erica…" Arron said in a silly voice. "Run away with you? This all so, so sudden…" Arron and Flora burst out laughing, but the fish was the first to stop when she saw Tritannia's furious face in the doorway. "Flora, what is i-" Arron's heart fell to the bottom of his stomach as he saw his mother's fuming face coming towards him. "Mom, I-" Tritannia put up a hand to silence him.
"Arron, I consider myself to be a reasonable mermaid." She started with a surprisingly calm tone. Maybe this won't be so bad, thought Arron, though he really knew he was screwed. "I set certain rules" Said Tritannia, her voice getting louder. Yep, thought Arron. Totally screwed. "And I expect those rules to be obeyed!" Arron couldn't say anything. He was backed up against the wall, literally. His mother was pointing her glowing trident at his neck.
"Is it true that you saved a human from drowning?" Tritannia asked, now clearly fuming. "Mom, I-… I had too." The queen's face turned red.
"Arron, how could you-"
"She would have died!" He argued back. "One less human to worry about!" Arron was disgusted.
"You don't even know her!" He snapped back. Tritannia scoffed.
"Know her, I don't have to know her, they're all the same! Spineless, heartless savages incapable of any feeling-" Arron couldn't help it… he just blurted it out, his emotions bubbling up… "But mom, I love her!" Tritannia froze.
"No…" She breathed.
"Have you lost your senses completely?" Arron just turned away, folding his arms across his chest. "She's a human, you're a merman!" Arron just looked down.
"I don't care…" Tritannia's trident glowed in her hands.
"So help me, Arron, I am going to get through to you" Arron slowly turned his head around, feeling the heat of the tridents glow. "And if this is the only way, so be it!" Tritannia raised her trident, and began to destroy every single one of Arron's human treasures in the cave. The little merman, Flora and Stella watched in horror as Arron's life-long collection was slowly destroyed.
"No, mom, stop it!" Cried Arron, but it was no use. By the time the last treasure was destroyed, Tritannia aimed for Erica's dress. Arron knew what was coming next and tried desperately to get his mother to stop, but to no avail. "Mom, noooooooo!" In the next second, the only thing that remained was a scrap of singed, white fabric.
Tritannia finally took a deep breath, and a sudden pang of guilt came over her. Had that been a bit too much? She turned to her distraught son.
"I hate you." He said as he flung himself into a corner, his face in his hands. Tritannia gave her son an apologetic look, and then turned to leave. Stella and Flora cautiously swam up to the prince. "Just get out…" Arron whispered.
"Arron…" Said Stella, but he persisted.
"I said get out!" Stella and Flora sadly left the little merman to his own emotions.
From the darkness, Flotsa and Jeena spotted their moment right then and there. They nodded and smiled to each other, then swam up to the distraught prince.
"Poor child…" Said Flotsa.
"Poor sweet child…" Said Jeena. "He has a very serious problem…" Arron looked up to find two black eels staring at him.
"W-who are you?" He asked cautiously.
"Don't be afraid" said Jeena. "We represent someone who can help you." She said, coiling herself around the prince.
"What?" Replied Arron, as Flotsa coiled herself around him with her sister. The prince backed away, he was clearly uncomfortable.
"Ursilis has great power…" hissed Flotsa.
"The sea demon?" He said in shock. Every young merman and mermaid was told at an early age never to toil with the sea demon, so Arron was terrified at the mention of the name.
"Just imagine" Said Flotsa "You and your princess. Together, forever." The eels said in unison. Arron looked down.
"That's… I couldn't possibly…no. No, get out of here! Leave me alone!" Flotsa and Jeena smiled at each other. They knew that their plan couldn't fail. The boy was too stupid to see through it.
"Suit yourself" They said. As they turned to leave, Jeena used her tail to flick the piece of fabric to Arron. "It was only a suggestion." Flotsa little merman looked down at what was left of his memory of Erica. That little piece of fabric was all the little merman needed to make up his mind. What did he have now? He was most definitely grounded for a year, his mother would make sure of it. His brothers would never look at him the same way again. And there was no way he would ever have a chance to see Erica again.
"Wait!" He called after the eels. The eels smiled.
"Yeeeeees?" Arron couldn't believe he was doing this…