Before anything else, I want to thank Stone-Man85 for his help with part of this chapter, and for his patience with how long this took. Also slight spoilers from his wikia site, just as a warning.
Chapter 3: Truths Revealed & Plans Set in Motion pt. 2
North Pole
Ursula's New Lair (Mid Afternoon)
The sea witch simply sat in her ice throne, the cold flowing up her bottom through her body. To normal people, it would lead to freezer burn with prolonged exposed to such cold directly on the body. For Ursula though, the feeling of cold was overshadowed by a burning anger inside her. 'What is taking them so long,' she thought with a glare on her face, 'They should've been back before Eric and his little friends returned to their home!' The thought of the Sea-Blade Bearer, his mermaid future wife, and all their friends made her blood boil, "How is it possible," she asked herself out loud as she swam over to her cauldron, and waved her right arm to create two bubbles that rose up from it. The bubbles then showed an image of Eric and Ariel in their adventure attire in each bubble as Ursula glared at them, "How is it this surfing bum and his little tramp managed to ruin my plans time and again," she asked herself in anger. She removed the bubbles and brought up images of her past plots.
"I attempted to use the foolish love Triton's pretty little daughter had for a human to force Triton to hand over his trident," she said to herself as the bubbles formed images of Ariel in a heart before it was wrapped in Ursula's contract with the trident next to it. "But that foolish boy ruined that plan by making me drop the contract into the Kraken!"
She waved her hands again as the images disappeared and were replaced with images of the Atlantis, the Heart of Atlantis, and Rourke. "I had Jones use his crew to work with the human mercenary Rourke in order to gain the Third Heart of the Sea," Ursula said out loud before swiping the illusions away as images of Kida and Wally takes their place, "But he failed and the Seablade Bearer's added the princess of Atlantis and that Atlantean junk heap to his circle of friends!"
Ursula then angrily swiped her hand again for another set of images, this time of Olette, Frey, the Flameblade formally the Darkblade, the Huns, the Mandarin, and his heralds, "Most recently, I had my former apprentice Olette recruit my chosen bearer of the Darkblade, and resurrect the Mandarin in order to manipulate him into giving me the Heart of Atlantis!" Then all the images other than Olette and Seifer disappeared and were replaced with images of Stitch, and Ralph, "But not only was the Mandarin defeated by the Seablade Bearer, but Olette decided to become friends with that little tramp, my chosen bearer broke free of my control over him, their inner circle of friends grew again, and the group has grown even stronger thanks to this last plan!" Ursula was right to be frustrated, with every failure to gain the Three Hearts of the Sea, she made her enemies even stronger with new friends and powers such as Eric and Seifer's training with their blades, Ariel and Olette's water bending skills improving thanks to the Water Bending Masters, and Frey adding the Dagger of Time and Frey's new flying carpet to his arsenal.
She growled in frustration as she dispelled the images from her cauldron, "They may have stopped me so far," she said while making tight fists, "But my new plan won't fail like before! This time, I shall win, and become ruler of the seas," she yelled out in premature triumph before laughing to herself before stopping and folding her arms with an impatient glare on her face, "As soon as that slow poke Jones finally gets here-"
"Speak of the devil..."
Ursula stopped grumbling to herself and turned towards the evil voice coming from the doorway leading out of her cold lair. "And he shall appear," the voice finished revealed to be Jones as he walked in with Ratlin and Palifico, Jones' personal bodyguard behind him.
Despite the surprise Ursula felt from being caught by surprise by the return of Jones' crew, she turned to face them with her still annoyed expression. "It's about time you got back! You were supposed to be back before that surfing bum and his friends returned from Atlantis," Ursula said as she pointed out that Jones was late as she pointed to her cauldron as it formed an image of Eric's home with Eric outside enjoying the peace of the day. Thanks to Maccus and Koleniko hiding by the sea, Ursula was able to keep an eye on Eric's home without being suspected.
"You can thank the landlubbers who took their time delivering your precious item," Ratlin replied not caring if they kept the witch waiting or not.
"Aye, we be forced to wait three days for that blasted ship to arrive," Jones added as he disliked the witch's tone of voice she used to address him, "We might have been back sooner if we had attacked the ship as we usually do."
"It was too risky," Ursula explained still annoyed, "If Thatch found out you attacked a ship, he and his friends may suspect we're up to something if they knew what was on the ship," Ursula said as she wanted to keep her plan a secret so that by the time her plan was complete, it would be too late for Wielders of Destiny to interfere. "You didn't leave anything behind that would lead to those kiddies knowing you were there did you," Ursula demanded to know if they had left clues behind.
This earned a laugh from Palifico, "You can ask Oglivey and Penrod when the captain feels generous," Palifico explained while Ratlin chuckled as well as they knew that would be a long time before that happened.
Ursula directed her glare at Jones for an answer. Jones simply gave her his trademark glare, "I'll ask the smelly rats when I return to the ship. In the meantime," Jones pulled out the orb used to hold the small bag that Penrod and Oglivey stole from the museum, "I do a great many things for you witch, but if you think you can send me to do you personal shopping for something as pointless as a little bag, than you are sorely mistaken," Jones said with clear anger in his voice as he saw Ursula's recent arrand as a waste of time and then tossed the orb to her.
"YOU FOOL," Ursula yelled in horror as she grabbed the orb to prevent it from hitting the icy floor. She turned her attention to Jones after ensuring the contents of the orb was safe, "If anything happened to this, all that time you spent waiting for that ship would've been wasted," Ursula yelled at Jones for almost ruining one of the key items in her new plan.
"What? Are you gonna try and trade that little bag for Triton's Trident," Jones mockingly joked at what he thought was Ursula's new plan as the other two members of his crew laughed at that.
"Hardly and it's what in the bag that matters," Ursula said with disdain for Jones' mockery. Then she held the orb before them, "This is bag of beans," the witch of the seas began to explain as she held it up over her head, "will allow me to gain control a force so powerful, nothing will stop me. Not Triton, the Seablade Bearer, and not even Atlantis," she said triumphantly as her laugh echoed out of her lair and a evil winter wind howled outside. She stopped though when she noticed that Jones and his crew had dead panned expressions at Ursula's premature victory laugh.
"Beans... You sent me and me crew to Port Royal, made me wait for three days for that blasted ship to arrive, deal with two smelly crewmates, and damaged to my ship," Jones began to say as he went over all that happened during his errand as his anger began to rise more and more, "All that... just to do... your GROCERY SHOPPING," he yelled in rage as his eyes burn with anger as his tentacles moved around to show his anger at Ursula. To some, it was like watching a volcano erupt in human form.
"These are not just any beans," Ursula answered despite hiding the feeling of fear from Jones' anger, "These are the beans in King Erik's tomb, the hero of the Great Giant War centuries ago!" She held the orb before Jones and his crew members, "With these, I will bring the giants of Giant's Land down here and use them to force Triton to practically hand over his trident," she explained revealing her intention to use the power of the giants against her lifelong enemy.
"Ye plan to bring those monsters down here," Jones exclaimed in further anger and shock, "I saw what those greedy creatures are capable of before I commanded the Flying Dutchman! What makes you think you can control them without the crown, let alone use them against Thatch, his friends, and that old king," Jones demanded to know how the witch planned to keep the man eating Giant in check.
"I already have that taken care of. As for Thatch, that's because this time," Ursula said as she went to her cabinet, "By the time the surfing bum and his little tramp find out what I'm up to, it will be too late to stop it," she explained as pulled out potions in order to prepare for her new plan. "Soon Triton and all he loves will be groveling for mercy before me and my new army," she finished as she swam below to continue preparing for new plan.
Jones and his crew just watched her as she swam to the basement of her icy lair. Palifico looked at his captain, "Why are we still going along with this witch and her doomed plans captain," he asked him not liking how he had to keep putting up with Ursula and her arrogance, "All we're doing is wasting time when we should be attacking ships."
"Aye, I too tire of the witch and her pointless plots. But she has her uses," Jones answered, "Even if this plan is insane," he finished before turning his head to look at Ratlin, "Go and see if the two smelly rats are ready to be untied from the ship," he ordered Ratlin before going through the icy hallway back to his ship, "As soon as we help finish with the witch's insane plan, we're staying as far away from Port Royal as we can until we know the giants are not a problem for me"
Ratlin and Palifico looked down the hallway as their captain ventured deeper down the hall, "The captain has never considered running from something," Ratlin admitted as he never knew the captain to be intimidated by anything, "Normally the ones we go after are doing the running."
Palifico nodded in agreement, "If these giants scare the captain," Palifico said as he started down the hallway, "Than Heaven help the poor souls that meet them."
Ratlin nodded as he followed after them intending to follow his captain's orders.
The Next Day at 10am (Saturday)
The Shore of the Thatch Residence
Before Eric's home by the beach, the ocean waves continue their daily routine of the tide going in and out twice a day, every day. However, a good distance away from it, the surface of the water was broken by the slow ascent of blonde hair. It was Arista's head with only her eyes sticking out and she was making sure it was safe to climb on to land. After seeing that the coast was clear, she rose up so her head was above the water, and looked at the bracelet she took from Aquata's dresser. "Aquata used this before to pick up Ariel and she didn't change when she came home," Arista says as she puts the bracelet around her right wrist but stops before attaching the chain together. She looked at the bracelet with hesitation going through her mind at what she was about to do. "But what if I wear this too long and become like the humans on land," she asks herself in fear at becoming like the humans she was taught to fear all her life. The fear went through her like a heavy shower mistaken for a storm out of the blue. "Just find Ariel, convince her to come home, and keep her there until all of us can convince her to stay. No problem," she said to herself to give her the confidence to do it. "Here," she starts and then, "goes," she says just as she attaches the chain around her wrist, closes her eyes and cringes in fear of what she was doing.
A few seconds pass... and nothing happens.
A nervous Arista opened one eye half expecting a flash of light, an intense pain, or a feeling of change in her, but nothing happened. She opened the other eye as she looked at the bracelet which just sat on her right wrist before shooting the bracelet with a glare. "What's wrong with this thing," she asked out loud as she shook it to work, "Don't tell me I burrowed the wrong one and I have to swim back home to find it," she stopped waving her arm, and looked at the bracelet a second time. "Come and work alrea-"
Suddenly Arista sunk beneath the water like a rock. "What's happening? Why am I suddenly-" she started to ask herself but she suddenly held her neck as she realized that she couldn't breathe. It was as if having water enter her mouth was making it hard to breathe. As if on instinct, she closed her mouth, and held what ever air she had left by puffing her cheeks. 'What's happening to me? It's as if the sea is turning against me,' she thought in fear as to why she was struggling in her home. She looked at her tail only for eyes to shoot wide open in shock. There thrashing out of control in the water instead of her tail, were two human legs and feet surrounded by bubbles made from her fast movements in the water. 'My- My tail! The bracelet! It-,' she thought in panic as she realized the bracelet worked, but she was running out of air, and a burning pain in her chest was growing. Arista manages to see through the bubbles to see the bracelet, grabs it with her left hand, and pulls it off. In a flash of light in her shade of red, her tail returned, and she took a huge deep breath in that her mermaid gained from the water around her.
With her eyes closed, Arista began to take deep breaths in order to calm herself down from near death experience. She was holding the bracelet in her left while her right hand was holding her chest where the pain was before, "Note to self, never use the bracelet in the ocean," she said as she finished taking deep breaths. "How can Ariel stand being in a form that turns her home against her," Arista said out loud as she started to swim for the beach.
Arista managed to swim herself close to the shore, 'Let's try this again,' she thought as she slapped on her bracelet. The water around her glowed golden for only a moment, as she made her way to shore. Once she had made her way, she crawled up there like a baby would. She sighed, as she took a deep breath, "Okay, Arista. This is your first steps on human legs. It can't be that hard. Ariel does it all the time."
She wobbly stood on her newfound legs, as they shook back and forth. She reached down and grabbed her knees on instinct in order to keep them steady. 'How does Ariel stand being on these things? It's like trying to swim with two tails,' Arista thought as she let go and slowly stood up straight with her arms slightly out for balance. "Okay, I've got this. I've got this," she told herself despite having a nervous expression from how awkward this was for her as she looked down at her new limbs that were now still new to her, "All right," she said as her nervous expression changed into a confident smile from keeping her balance. Then she looked to the side where the sight of Eric's home was in view. She slowly turned her body to walk over to the house by the sea, 'Okay, now to get Ariel and-' she started to think, only for her legs to start shacking again, her feet raising up, and down in the sand from the lack of control. "Whoaoooaaa! Easy, easy," she said as he arms began to flair up and down and her smile became a look of shock, "I've got this, I've got thIIISSSSS!" Finally she lost her balance and fell backwards with her legs in the air.
THUMP
The next thing she knew, the mermaid princess was on her back with her left arm spread out in one direction, and her right arm was bent and pointing down in the sand. She lifted her head up to see her legs spread out in the sand and her feet pointing up to the sky, "These things are horrible! How does anyone stand them," Arista asked herself out loud in confusion and frustration. Then she took a deep breath before she used her arms to lift her upper body up, and then pushed herself up, so she was standing up again. Her legs still felt shaky, but she now had a better handle on them, at least standing up. 'Okay. Just keep calm Arista,' she told herself while maintaining her concentration, 'Just keep yourself like this long enough to find Ariel and bring her home for good.'
She looked around, and saw that she was all alone on the beach in the day with the sun illuminating everything while a few clouds sat in the sky. She sighed, "Okay, now I just need to go find Ariel and bring her home." As she took her newly strong steps, she stopped for a moment, as she looked down upon herself.
She had realized that even though she had her bikini shells still on her chest… she was wearing nothing but a mini skirt that ended just below her hips that was the same shade of red as her tail. She went wide eye, as she looked around to ensure nobody saw her. And sighed, as she remembered her sister was wearing strange garments that nearly covered everything on her.
Arista thought for a moment, and sighed, "I guess if I'm gonna blend in with the locals, I need some better clothing." But she looked around, "But where am I gonna find…"
She stopped as she heard giggling and laughing coming not too far from her. She carefully but unsteadily walked over to what appeared to be a big twisted down tree, blocking herself from whoever was giggling. She got on her knees to hide more, as she peeked up to what she was looking at. Apparently, it was a couple of teens, both boys and girls, undressing as some were making their way to the ocean, taking a dip. But much to Arista's surprise and shock… they were taking off their undergarments and putting no swimwear on.
"Of all the barbaric and seemingly unsensible acts," Arista whispered in shock. "They're swimming completely naked? How obscene can these humans be?"
But then she stopped as she saw a boy and a girl slowly strip down in front of one another, smiling towards one another. It confused Arista much, until they were down to their underwear, and slowly walked towards one another. They wrapped their arms around one another, and started kissing one another. Arista wanted to turn away, as she whispered, "Ugh. A human mating ritual? I'm disgusted, and appalled, and…" But the passion grew intense among the two, as they fell to the ground, both going all over each other, as Arista was in a trance to see such a display of physical love-making, '… and can't look away…'
But she snapped out of it, as she shook her head, pulling back down, "No! I have to snap out of this. I can't afford to get distracted by that… weird thing they're doing. I need to find clothes, and just find Ariel."
It was then she turned to see the boy's clothing hung up on roots, as she smirked, "And I know just where to find some." She quickly ran over that part, doing her best not to get noticed, and snatched the boy's clothing.
Far away from the couple doing it, she easily slipped on the shirt, and the pants, but managed to swipe a pair of red sandals. She stood as she was wearing her new attire; a pair of white button-up long-sleeved shirt that exposed her cleavage held by her red shell bikini, and the pants were barely holding to her hips, but did little to hide the fact she wore no underwear underneath.
She blinked, as she realized her outfit's sized conditions. "Maybe I should have grabbed the human girl's clothing instead. This just seems way… inappropriate," she said to herself as she felt the clothes feel loose. "Just another reason to get this over with as soon as I can," she told herself as she began to walk in the loose clothing.
With her new human disguise, the fifth daughter of Triton made her way to the Thatch residence. It was a struggle though due to her in inexperience with legs, let alone human clothing. For those watching, it was like watching a baby learn how to walk or a person learning to walk again after going through an operation that changed the lower half of the body somehow.
Her arms were raised up to where her shoulders were, but her forearms were facing ahead of her in case she fell down. Her legs were constantly shaking with each step as she struggled to keep her balance. "How does she use these things let alone stand them,' Arista asked herself as she struggles to walked towards the house and stops as the staircase, 'Okay, just up these... whatever they are and-' Suddenly a sound coming from the door and caused Arista to hide on the right side of the staircase out of fear and an instinct. She has a anxious expression shown by her wide eyes and her lips apart showing her clenching teeth, 'Oh no! I'm busted,' she thought in fear of being eaten by humans or worse.
She slowly looks above her to see the door open to reveal Eric and Kida walking out of the house in their casual attire with Max happily following them. "So Ariel said she would meet us at the festival," Kida asked as Eric locked the door behind him, "Does it have anything to do with where she went to yesterday?" When Ariel returned in the near evening, she was filled with excitement and happy again as if the meeting with her father never happened. When asked, she said she was getting something ready to make the festival even better for all of them. Eric and Kida asked what it was, but Ariel playfully said it was a surprise for everyone, and they would have to wait.
"Yes to all that. She said she'd meet us along with Frey's group at the festival when we get there," Eric said as he put his house key in his pocket, "But I'm still not sure what she has in mind. She said she wanted to keep it a surprise for all of us. Even though she looked excited enough to tell us anyway," he explained as they walked down the stairs unaware that Arista was by the stairs and listening to the whole thing.
'He's not even with her right now or knows where she is,' Arista thought in anger at her supposed bodyguard, 'He's supposed to be protecting her all times! What if her secret is exposed and she's captured by human cooks,' she thought seeing how poorly Eric was doing his job of watching over her younger sister.
"Well whatever it is," Eric said with a smile on his face, "I'm sure it will be a fun one," he finished showing he was looking forward to whatever Ariel was planning as Max happily barked and ran around in excitement.
"I agree," Kida said in a happy tone of voice looking forward for some time seeing more surface land customs with her friends and Frey, "So how far is it to the fair grounds," she asked still learning her way around Port Royal after being away for so long.
"Usually they have it in town," Eric explained as Max stopped barking after catching a familiar scent in the air, "But today's papers said that it was in the field outside of town due to the streets still being a mess from the sewer problems yesterday. It's not far from here though," he said as he pointed through the forest, "It's just through the woods and past Fort Rampart." With that the two teens started to make their way to the festival grounds on foot.
Arista looked from her hiding spot and saw the two teens leave, 'The fair grounds? Is that like the carnival from be-' Arista stops as she sees Max sniffing the air as he followed the familiar scent of the sea towards the mermaid girl, 'No, no, no,' she thought in dread at her being discovered as she quickly jumps back down from sight. Before she could attempt to move as Max was almost to the stair case.
"MAX! Come on boy!"
Max's attention turned to Eric's voice and he forgot the scent and happily ran in the direction of his master's voice. Arista sighed in relief at the strange creature's attention was away from her, 'That was close,' she thought before moving from her hiding spot to see Eric, Kida, and Max start walking towards the forest. 'I really don't want to go to a human festival,' Arista thought in fear of being discovered and put through human torture, 'But Ariel maybe in danger and I'm not going to risk my sister walking into some kind of human trap,' she thought as the fear of losing her sister was just as strong. 'All right,' she thought to steel herself as she lifted her right hand up and clenched it into a fist, 'I'm going after them,' she thought as she started to follow Eric and Kida's footprints, 'Hang on Ariel, I'm-'
"Whooaaa Ummphh," just as she started to walk, Arista fell face first into the sand due to her legs still feeling odd to use. With her arms and legs stretching out as far as they could, she lifted her head up to reveal an annoyed look covered by sand. She then spat some out of her mouth, "Stupid legs," she said as she picked herself up, and brushed the sand off of her. "All right," she said as she slowly stepped forward again, "Let's try this a-" after three steps, she fell over again in the same position. She once again lifted her head up and spat sand out, "gain," she said in annoyance. Despite the difficulty, Arista managed to get enough of a handle on her legs to begin following Ariel's friends to the festival to save her sister... After about two more falls into the sand.
Next Chapter: A Fun Time & to New Heights
I'm sorry again this took so long but there was a lot to do in this chapter. That and work and life became busy again. Now for chapter 2's little trivia, for those who noticed it, congrats. Those that didn't, better luck next time. The trivia was the two workers' names. Their last names are from John Musker and Ron Clements, the directors of the Little Mermaid and so many other Disney classics. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find a way to put a reference in the last two, but the next one will have plenty of room to put one or maybe two in. I hope you enjoyed the last two chapters.