Chapter Three: I Love Him

The sky turned grey and murky as lighting and thunder roared behind the clouds inconveniently. There, the flags began to flap violently from the strong winds. This shocked everyone on board as one of the sailors on the crow's nest with a telescope cried, "A hurricane is coming! Stand fast! Secure the rigging'!"

There, all the sailors and Prince Thomas wasted no time to fasten the ropes as rain and hail began to pour heavily, with strong waves crashing the ships as the storm began to grow rapidly. As this occurred, the once calm sea began to shake and move violently as the ship was now in a vulnerable and unstable state. Prince Thomas and the sailors started to pull the rope with all their strength and might as Max began to bark frantically. Nearby, both Rosie and Gordon knew that was bad as they swam towards Ashima as Salty got blown away while commenting about how harsh the wind was.

Ashima watched in horror as some sailors almost drowned from the waves crashing while Prince Thomas sprinted to the steering wheel and began to turn it as hard as he could. Suddenly, one lightning struck the ship, which caused the ship to be set on fire. What's more unfortunate, they crashed into a giant sea rock as some sailors tumbled from the force impact. With that, the sailors wasted no time to pull out small boats for them to sail to safety as Prince Thomas aided Edward to safety as he wasn't the best swimmer. Before Prince Thomas could hop on, he heard a distress bark from his beloved canine friend as he cried out for his name.

With that, Prince Thomas took the risk of saving Max as he managed to save him, although all the dangerous obstacle courses occurred. Just before he could get off the burning ship, his foot stepped on a weak plank as he got stuck. Prince Thomas accidentally dropped Max there as the dog swam to the boat safely. As he hopped on, Max, along with Edward and the sailors, watched in horror as in a split second, the ship exploded from the gun powder as Prince Thomas plummeted to the ground as he went unconscious.

Ashima gasped as she raced to the rescue. After struggling to find him, she finally spotted the unconscious prince as he began to sink below the water. Ashima was horrified as she swam to his aid as she grabbed him, despite how heavy he was, as she immediately swam away from the sunken burning ship as she knew that she must find a shore to take Prince Thomas to safety. As she did so, Rosie, Gordon, and Salty followed her direction to make sure she was alright.

…

Dawn finally broke the sky at the sandy, rocky shore as the storm eventually died down, and the waves were calm once again. Ashima looked at the unconscious young man with massive concern on that shore as Salty flew in and arrived at the scene first. When he arrived, he opened Prince Thomas's left eye widely as Ashima asked worriedly, "Is… is he dead?"

"It's hard to say.", Salty replied as he went to Prince Thomas' barefoot to hear his heartbeat, not knowing he should listen to it from the chest, "I'm… I'm sorry, but I can't make a heartbeat."

However, Salty was wrong when Ashima noticed that the young man was breathing shallowly. There, she sighed in relief as she touched his face gently, making comments on how beautiful he was. With that, she sang in a gorgeous melody about what would it take to be a human and be with Prince Thomas. Rosie and Gordon arrived at the shore as she sang, looking exhausted from the long trip. When Gordon witnessed the interaction between Ashima and the human, he was mortified as his mouth dropped to the rock below as Salty closed his mouth again with a smile. Prince Thomas began to moan in agony as he regained his consciousness. He saw a beautiful young girl gazing at him with pure love as she sang to him when he looked up. He was mesmerised by her beauty and her voice, but before he could talk to her, he heard a familiar bark and a cry.

This startled Ashima as she dived back into the water. Max licked Prince Thomas as Edward helped him get up, saying how happy and relieved he was alive. However, Prince Thomas was determined to find the girl who rescued her as he fell for her voice. As he did so, Ashima watched at a distance on the rock as she sang again with waves crashing behind her. She knew for sure that she fell in love with Prince Thomas, and she was so desperate to be with him while Gordon was horrified about it. Ashima didn't know that Arry and Bert saw the whole thing and projected the situation as the mysterious figure began to laugh maniacally as her plan seemed to be so easy for the mermaid had fallen in love with the human prince. She was looking forward to getting something from Ashima and her father, King Shankar.

…

For the past three days, both King Shankar and his six older daughters noticed something peculiar with Ashima's behaviour, from picking sea flower petals to humming a lovely tune to even giggling and smiling a lot. King Shankar was confused, yet he wondered what was up with Ashima's strange behaviour until one of her older sisters had figured out her behaviour as she said that Ashima was in love. When he was told from his daughter, he felt delighted as he wanted to know who Ashima was falling for, but Gordon didn't feel the same as he felt paranoid about keeping Ashima's crush a secret as he knew that one wrong move could be made the King explode in rage.

…

As Ashima picked sea flower petals, she decided to plan to see Prince Thomas again by getting Salty's help to take her to where he resided and get Rosie to splash water to capture the prince's attention. While planning, Gordon tried to gain her attention as the lovestruck mermaid couldn't care less about Gordon's words until he finally caught her attention. He explained to her that her home was under the sea as he began to sing to get Ashima to listen. It worked as when he sang, he captured many sea creatures' attention to see a catchy song while Ashima danced happily.

Unfortunately, Gordon's plan was proven unsuccessful as Ashima managed to swim off to her secret cave to meet up with Rosie as Gordon stopped the performance altogether, feeling overwhelmed with anxiety. He decided to meet King Shankar, debating if he should tell the truth. However, when King Shankar struck and conversation about Ashima's behaviour to Gordon, the crab couldn't hold the secret as he told the truth that not only Ashima has been seeing humans, but she collects human items, and she fell in love with one. This fumed King Shankar's temper as he immediately went off to find his daughter.

…

Meanwhile, Rosie had a special surprise for her best friend at the secret cave as Ashima kept pestering on the surprise. There, in the middle of the room, she saw a statue of Prince Thomas as she hugged Rosie, thanking her for the gift and telling her that she was the best. With that, Ashima looked at every detail and said that it matched Prince Thomas's looks. After that, she began to roleplay by pretending that Prince Thomas planned to run away with her to live happily ever after. Rosie smiled at her best friend as she was glad to make her happy.

However, King Shankar saw the whole ordeal lurking in the shadows as he growled angrily as Ashima spotted him. There, she let out a massive gasp of shock as both Gordon and Rosie hid, knowing King Shankar's temper. There, he began to shout at his daughter, explaining how dangerous humans were and that they couldn't be trusted. However, with every attempt Ashima made to defend Prince Thomas by saying that he could have died from drowning, King Shankar couldn't care less as he said it would be better off for him to drown.

Unfortunately, Ashima made one wrong move, which would set her father off, "Daddy! I love him!"

This mortified the King as he asked his daughter if she was out of her mind. There, he again explained how horrible humans were and said vile stuff about them. However, when Ashima explained that she didn't care and still loved him, King Shankar's trident began to glow brightly as he said that the only way to "fix" her was to destroy every collection she made, including the statue of Prince Thomas. With that, he swung his trident with all his might as he began blasting random human objects. Ashima cried and begged her father to stop, but he didn't listen to her.

After obliterating many objects, King Shankar paid attention to the statue as Ashima gasped, begging him not to blast it. However, King Shankar completely ignored his daughter's pleading as he fired the sculpture, causing the statue to crumble and break into millions of pieces. Once that was destroyed, Ashima's heart was shattered as she began to sob on the rock. Her father's anger was replaced with sorrow and regret, and he swam away, feeling terrible to destroy his daughter's happiness. Both Rosie and Gordon watched the King leave the scene with a frown as they turned their attention to the sad mermaid princess. Gordon attempted to apologise there, but Ashima told him and Rosie to leave her be. They obeyed as they swam off sadly, leaving poor Ashima alone with her ruined collections.

With The Little Mermaid grieving by herself, or she thought she was, Arry and Bert slowly came out of the shadows, looking at Ashima with an evil grin of satisfaction as they knew it was the right time to trick and lure her to their owner and master. There, they swam towards her as they began to taunt her in an eerily deep tone of voice as they said how this poor sweet innocent child's wish was crushed so soon as they faked pity on her. When Ashima heard two unfamiliar voices, she looked up and gasped to see two black and yellow stripy moray eels as she asked nervously, "W-who are you?"

The two eels replied that she shouldn't be afraid of them as they explained that they represent someone who can fix and solve any problem and even make wishes come true. They even acted like Ashima and Prince Thomas in love as they explained that she and Prince Thomas could be together forever. Ashima was visibly confused as she raised her eyebrow, "I-I don't understand. Who can help me?"

The two evil eel brothers replied that a certain sea witch named Daisy could help her become a human as she has extraordinary powers. However, when they mentioned the word "sea witch", Ashima immediately felt dread and shiver down her spines and her fins as she didn't like the idea of getting her problems fixed by a sea witch. With that, she thought to herself out loud before she cried at them, telling them to leave as she dropped back to the rock to proceed with her feeling of sorrow. Arry and Bert looked at each other with a smirk and raised an eyebrow as they explained that it was only a suggestion. There, they swam off as Bert knocked the face statue of Prince Thomas to Ashima as they calculated their action.

When the face statue landed next to her with a slight tapping noise, Ashima lifted her head as she sniffed her remaining tears. There, she looked down and saw the face statue as she gently picked it up, looking at the face of her true love while touching its face. As she gazed at the face statue, she began to think if she should seek help from Daisy or forget about it. She wanted to be a human and know and be with Prince Thomas, but her father told her that sea witches could never be trusted. In the end, after thinking for a moment, her heart won over her brain as she cried, "Wait!"

Arry and Bert froze from her call as they turned their direction towards her, asking what she had to say while giving a fake, insincere smile.

…

Meanwhile, Rosie and Gordon felt sorry for Ashima outside the cave, "Poor Ashima." Rosie sighed sadly.

"I-I didn't mean to tell. It was an accident.", Gordon tried to explain to the rosy-red fish with such honesty and guilt.

Before continuing their conversation, they both spotted Ashima swimming past them as she followed the two moray eels' direction. This got Gordon's mouth wide in shock as he asked her, "Ashima, where are you going, and what are you doing with them?"

"I'm going to see Daisy.", Ashima responded as she continued her way to visit her.

Gordon screamed like a girl when she mentioned her name as he explained that she's a demon, a monster and that her father taught her that sea witches are wicked and evil. However, Ashima retorted by saying he could have easily dobbed her in to prevent her from seeking help from Daisy. She ultimately defeated Gordon as he and Rosie immediately swam after her to make sure she wasn't in danger and that hopefully, she could change her mind.

…

After travelling for what felt like forever, they arrived at a gloomy, dark section of the sea, where it was filled with underwater geysers and sharp dagger-like rocks, giving an unpleasant vibe to any visitor. In the middle of this dark place was a giant skeleton of an unknown predator fish with spines protruding on its back as the mouth was the entrance. The mouth glowed in a pinkish-red shade, making it look like the skeleton was alive. Once Ashima got close to the entrance with Arry and Bert, she gasped under her breath as she gulped. Just seeing this was terrifying and unsettling, yet with the two eels' persuasion, she bit her lip as she mustered up her courage to go inside the mouth.

While travelling inside the skeleton, Ashima noticed dead kelps with dirty yellow eyes and a big frown. She didn't realise that's she was in "The Garden of Souls" as she swore, she heard voices from them, telling her that this would be her biggest mistake and regret she would ever make in her entire life. One of them even gripped Ashima's wrist as she gasped in horror, trying to set herself free before she finally succeeded. As Ashima looked at the "dead kelps", she heard a welcoming yet calculated and charming voice of a woman, "Come in. Come in, my child!"

There, she turned her head to see what looked like a dressing and a potion room as red and purple seaweed hung from the top, and at the end was a giant seashell, and she noticed bubbles were produced there. With that, Ashima swam closer with caution as something, more like someone, came out of the same literally as she continued to speak, "We mustn't lurk in doorways. It's very rude. One might question your bringing, my dear."

When the figure came out, Ashima gasped in both awe and shock as right in front of her was a light green skin sea witch with green tentacles resembling an octopus, and she had blondish brown long hair. She wore red seashell earrings with a dramatic blue eyeshadow with long eyelashes and bright red lipstick. The most prominent feature was a golden swirl seashell necklace around her neck. With her revealing herself, she walked and swam to the vanity with such sass as she struck a conversation to gain Ashima's trust. As she sat on the chair and did her hair and her lips, she spoke like a teenager, who liked hot boys while trying to sound mature and sincere, "Now, then. You're here because you have a thing for this human. This… prince fellow. Not that I blame you as he's a quite a catch.", she chuckled before she cleared her throat, "Well angelfish, the solution to your problem is simple. The only way to be with this prince is to be a human yourself."

Ashima gasped before she asked nervously, "C-can you do that?"