Chapter Two: Part of That World
Ashima began to panic while Rosie tried to comfort her best friend. Salty paid no attention to the distressful friend as he still focused on the "snarfblat" as he commented that it could potentially be used for planting something. However, Ashima looked at her red seagull friend as she apologised, explaining that she needed to go while thanking him for clarifying on what the objects were. There, she bid him farewell with a wave as she dove back into the sea as Rosie caught up with her. Salty felt pleased to help his friends as he hoped he could help them again.
As The Little Mermaid and her friend swam desperately to the palace, two sinister-looking moray eels named Arry and Bert watched the whole ordeal as their glowing yellow eyes that each had on one side project to someone with a malicious intention. She taunted by saying that Ashima should hurry before she missed a celebration for her father, King Shankar. There, she began to growl as she explained she once lived in the palace before being exiled and now practically wasting away. After moaning and groaning, she then instructed the two eels to watch the princess as she had a plan, rather a malicious one.
…
When Ashima and Rosie arrived back at the palace, she was greeted by her angry father at the throne room as he began to scold her for not attending the concert that Gordon had made to please his majesty and to show how talented his daughters were. As he told her off, he began to explain that he honestly didn't know what to do to his rebellious and carefree daughter as Gordon also scolded The Little Mermaid as he felt upset that the concert was ruined. Ashima tried to apologise to her father and Gordon, but she still got the same treatment, which upset her.
During this confrontation, Rosie heard the conversation at a distance, and she didn't like seeing her best friend in deep trouble with her temperamental father. Before things escalated, Rosie managed to summon her courage as she swam between Ashima and King Shankar and Gordon. There, she began to stammer by trying to make an excuse without exposing her secret on collecting human items by saying that a hungry shark chased them, and they swam to the surface to be greeted by a chattering seagull.
However, when Rosie mentioned the word "seagull", she realised her mistakes as she covered her mouth, "Did you say "surface"?", King Shankar shouted in rage, "Ashima, how many times do I have to explain? Going up to the surface is dangerous! You could off be swept away or taken by those barbarians! Those humans!"
Ashima felt hurt as she thought humans weren't that bad, yet she wanted to avoid exposing her secret. There, she huffed and cried, "Daddy! Nothing bad has happened to me!"
However, King Shankar didn't care about her explanation, "I don't care, Ashima! Do you think I want to see my youngest daughter being snared by some fish-eater's hook?"
"I'm sixteen years old! I'm not a child anymore!", Ashima defended herself.
King Shankar got even angrier, "Don't you take that tone of voice with me, young lady!", he scolded her inappropriate behaviour, "As long as I ruled the oceans, you'll obey my rules!"
Ashima clenched her fists as she glared at her father, "Ugh! You never listen to me! You never do!", she cried as she swam off, feeling frustrated and upset.
With Ashima leaving the scene, Rosie caught up to her as King Shankar let out a huge sigh, "Hmph, teenagers. They think they know everything. You give them an inch, and they swim all over you.", Gordon grumbled.
"Gordon? Do you think… do you think I was so hard on her?", King Shankar asked his royal crab advisor as he placed his trident next to his throne as he sat down miserably.
"Definitely not.", the crab replied as he folded his claws, "Why if Ashima was my daughter, I'd show her who's the boss. I'll scold her excuses and her other nonsense, and I'd keep her under tight control."
This sparked an idea for King Shankar as his eyes brightened with his big frown turned into a slight frown, "You're absolutely right, Gordon."
"Of course, I am!", Gordon boasted with a smirk.
"She needs constant supervision!", King Shankar exclaimed as he looked at Gordon, "And you'll be the one to supervise her."
This made Gordon's mouth drop in horror as he was shocked to give a role to supervise her constantly. He tried to explain that looking after her was hard enough, but before he could say anything else, King Shankar gave him a slight glare. With that, Gordon sighed in defeat as he obeyed The King's order, and he walked away, grumbling to himself with such annoyance. He felt undignified to be given a role as basically a babysitter as he much prefers to help The King or write symphonies than looking after his reckless daughter.
…
As Gordon searched to find Ashima, he stumbled upon a small deep cave, far away from the palace, as he swore that he heard a voice that sounded familiar. There, he swam inside, and to his shock, he saw Ashima having a conversation with Rosie about humans. However, what shocked him the most was that the cave was filled with human objects from all ranges as he found these objects "dangerous" or "disgusting". Before Gordon could confront, Rosie asked Ashima a question, "Ashima, are you sure you're okay?"
"Oh Rosie.", Ashima sighed as she fidgeted the "dinglehopper", "If only I could make him understand. I don't see things the way he does, and I don't see how the world that makes such wonderful things… could be bad."
There, she placed the "dinglehopper" onto the middle part of the candelabra as she began to sing a song beautifully about longing to be part of the human world as she looked at some of her collections, including a music box that showed a human couple dancing. She wondered what was having a pair of legs would be like instead of having fish fins. Rosie thought that the human world sounded interesting, while Gordon was horrified. He thought it was bad enough for her to collect human items and explore somewhere far, but for her wanted to be a human, this made him somewhat concerned for her safety and The King's reaction. Ashima even swam up to the small hole at the top of the cave, reaching her arm out, symbolising her yearning to be on the surface rather than being trapped underwater.
After expressing everything by a song, Gordon accidentally exposed himself in front of Ashima and Rosie as Ashima cried in shock, "Gordon?"
"Ashima! What are you? Mad or something?", Gordon shouted, "How could you? What is all of these human objects?"
"It's err… it's just a collection I found in the ocean… that's all.", Ashima tried to cover the truth but ultimately failed.
"Oh, I see. Your collection, hmm.", Gordon sniffed before he yelled at her, "Just you wait until your father finds out about this place and your secret!"
"You're really not going to tell him, are you?", Rosie shook in fear and concern.
"Oh, please, Gordon! Don't tell him!", Ashima pleaded to the crab, "He would never understand!"
However, before Gordon could talk back, a silhouette of a giant ship passed by overhead, which made Ashima excited, "What do you suppose it is?", she asked Rosie as she and Rosie exited from the cave.
There, the two swam up to the surface as Gordon's mouth dropped, and he covered his face with his claws. He was horrified to see her going to the surface towards the ship as he knew humans ride on one, "Ashima. Ashima! Get back here! It's too dangerous!", he cried, but when he achieved nothing, he groaned as he swam up to get to them "Oh, the indignity."
Ashima, Rosie, and Gordon swam up, and by then, the ocean was much darker and gloomier. However, as they got closer to the surface, Ashima spotted magnificent glowing and flashing in all sorts of colours. It looked like many anemones dancing and performing a show to her eyes. However, with every flash, a faint muffled noise was produced, which to her ears, sounded like drums. This intrigued her as it made her swim faster to the surface. She wanted to know that those "flashing anemones" were and who was on board the ship.
…
Once she rose from the surface, her eyes widened in awe as what she saw was something unforgettable and truly unique. She witnessed many fireworks shooting out from the sailing ship under the full moon as she heard some faint cheering and singing. Both the fireworks and the full moon were reflected by the glistening clear blue ocean, which explained why she could see it underneath. She smiled from ear to ear there as Rosie and Gordon popped up not long after. As Ashima was fixated at the grand event, Gordon gave her a disapproved frown with a glare, "Ashima, what are you?", he asked her before he turned his attention to the event as he gasped in horror, "Jumping jellyfish!"
After his reaction, Ashima's curiosity got the better of her as she didn't waste a moment going towards the ship. There, she swam, and dove towards the event as Gordon realised what she was doing, "Ashima! Ashima! Please come back!", he called out her name, but to no avail.
Ashima got closer and closer until she arrived at her destination. The cheers and singing became much louder and clearer there, yet it wasn't enough for her as she needed to have a better look to see the humans and understand the situation. With that, she grabbed onto the ship as she managed to climb up with the strength of her hands until she saw a small hole. There, she lifted her head, where her eyes were only visible as she witnessed something tremendous. She saw a bunch of sailors doing a dance called "the hornpipe" as some clapped while a few played some instruments that she had seen before from sea creatures like the accordion or the violin.
Not long after witnessing the dance, she spotted a funny-looking creature that looked like a fluffy sea urchin that made such a bizarre noise. She spotted a playful sheepdog named Max as he barked merrily to every crew member. Suddenly, Max paused for a moment as he let out a big sniff as his ears perked. This scent was foreign to him, and he got very curious to know what the smell was coming from. There, he put his nose down as he began to follow the source of the scent. As he headed towards Ashima, she gasped silently as she took cover by leaning her body against the ship next to the hole, hoping not to get caught.
Unfortunately, when she thought it was all over, she turned her head, and Max spotted her as he panted happily. There, he gave her a huge slobby lick on her right cheek as she groaned in disgust. Just before Max could interact more, he heard a cry, "Max! Come here, boy!"
With that, Max turned his attention to someone familiar with his tongue poking out happily as he ran to that person who called him while barking in response. Once Max was far from Ashima, she popped her head again to see what was going on, and more importantly, who called out that "fluffy sea urchin's" name. There, she spotted a handsome young man with delicate chocolate brown hair, a pair of dark earthy eyes, was wearing a dashing yet simple blue attire with a pair of black boots. He smiled happily as he played and received lots of puppy kisses from Max as he laughed.
Her eyes went wide in awe when she saw the man with her mouth agape. She had never seen someone so handsome and charming. She thought this human was particularly fascinating as she decided to observe him more and his interactions. However, as she did that, he heard a familiar voice yelling, "Hey there, mate! Quite a show, eh?"
Ashima gasped as she immediately gave a red seagull a harsh shush, "Salty, be quiet! They'll hear you!"
Salty chuckled as he gave her a thumbs-up, despite having no opposable thumb, "Oh, right! I gotcha, I gotcha! We're out to discover!"
However, Ashima grabbed his beak to shut his trap to prevent them from getting caught as they watched the young man, who was now playing the flute, as Max howled and barked to the noise. There, Ashima sighed happily as she whispered to Salty that she had never seen a human so close, let alone someone so handsome and dashing. However, Salty got confused as he thought she was talking about the dog. When Salty described how slobby and hairy the dog was, Ashima giggled as she explained that she was talking about the man playing the "snarfblat".
When Salty finally got it, a huge announcement was made by a polished looking man named Edward as he stepped in, clearing his throat. He thanked everyone for coming for Prince Thomas' birthday as he grandly said that he had a large present rather to show Prince Thomas. Ashima was astonished that the man was a prince. As she and Salty witnessed the whole thing, Thomas chuckled as he thanked him. There, Edward pointed a covered object for Prince Thomas to look at, and when two of the sailors removed the sheet, Prince Thomas was surprised as Max gave the object a snarl.
There, Edward presented a dashing pose stone statue of Prince Thomas, wearing an acceptable prince attire with a carved necklace with the letter "T" on it, and the figure was holding a sword and shield to make him look mighty and brave. Prince Thomas was disappointed as he rubbed his neck and tried to thank Edward without hurting his feeling, saying that his gift was something. Edward smiled proudly as he admitted it was supposed to be initially a wedding gift when Prince Thomas rejected the princess from a far neighbouring kingdom. Prince Thomas laughed and brushed it off as he didn't care about marriage, but instead, he yearned to explore every place he could. This concerned Edward as he explained that the kingdom was soon to look up to him as their ruler.
Prince Thomas laughed more as he sat and lay on the edge of the ship, right on top of Ashima and Salty as he looked at the distance, explaining that he would find the right girl, but he hadn't found the right one yet. When he mentioned it, Ashima blushed in a light shade of pink as she looked at the prince in awe as she slowly felt an emotion that she had never felt before and that feeling was love. As Edward and Prince and Thomas continued to talk about finding someone to marry, Prince Thomas had every belief that he would find the right girl as quick as lightning.