Chapter Five: Kiss The Girl
The evening went by, and Ashima was getting ready for dinner with Prince Thomas as she had a nice warm bubble bath as she enjoyed blowing the bubbles as a lovely yet temperamental woman named Elizabeth as she assisted her helped her find a beautiful gown to wear, so she looked polished and elegant. While this occurred, Gordon was escaping many near-death situations as he knew that he would regret helping Ashima and begged that it would be all over to not to suffer anymore. What didn't help either was that Elizabeth's husband, the chef named Etienne, as when he was preparing for the feast, he spotted the blue crab as he attempted to chop him and serve him as seafood, which was Gordon's worst nightmare. Luckily for the blue crab, Elizabeth used a bucket of water to control her husband's sanity and temper.
…
At the dining room, Prince Thomas was gazing at the dusk sky at the window as Edward tried to talk sense into the young daydreaming prince, "Oh, Thomas. Please be reasonable. Nice young ladies don't… swim around and rescue people in the middle of the ocean and then… flutter off into oblivion, like some…"
Before Edward could finish his sentence, Prince Thomas spoke about his belief without any doubt as he continued to look at the window, "I'm telling you, Edward. She was real! I'm going to find this girl, and I'm going to marry her!"
However, before the two could continue debating, Elizabeth stepped in and led Ashima in. She looked stunning with a pink gown with lovely patterns that only royalty wore with fine pink royal slippers and a pair of pearl earrings. She even wore her hair half down with a bun was done at the back. When Prince Thomas and Edward spotted her, Prince Thomas was in awe of her beauty and mysterious yet clumsy personality that Edward encouraged him to give her a nice compliment. He did so as Edward led her to the dining chair and helped her sit on it.
Once they were all settled, they began to feast. Although some of the food options were somewhat questionable for Ashima, but all she cared about was seeing and being Prince Thomas and nothing more. There, they decided to strike the conversation on the mute girl as they knew she understood at least what their saying, yet she needed to work on her body language. While chatting, Ashima smiled at Prince Thomas lovingly as she used the "dinglehopper" to comb her hair. This made Prince Thomas pause from drinking as he raised his eyebrow, completely dumbfounded by her actions. Edward was also stunned as Ashima blushed a delicate shade of red, feeling embarrassed by her movement as she immediately placed the "dinglehopper" back on the table and acted as nothing had happened.
However, they brushed it off as Edward lit his pipe for a smoke. Ashima was astonished to see it as she remembered what Salty had told her. She snatched off the pipe there as Edward was stunned by her action. She began to blow it, hoping to make noises, but this resulted in Edward being covered by soot. Prince Thomas began to laugh hard as he thought it was the hilarious thing he had ever witnessed. Elizabeth was surprised to see the young prince laughing as she commented that this was her first-time seeing Prince Thomas smiling in the past few weeks, and Edward couldn't agree more, despite focusing more on wiping his face as he gave Ashima a raised eyebrow. Ashima felt like she got somewhere when she made Prince Thomas happy as she smiled.
When they went back to enjoying their feast, Edward suggested to Prince Thomas to take Ashima on tour around the kingdom so not only she could get familiar with the place and feel welcomed, but for him to do something active. Prince Thomas tried to brush off the idea until Edward pointed out that it's always good to get distracted and try something new. Prince Thomas sighed before he looked at Ashima and asked her if she would like to tour. Ashima nodded vigorously as she leaned on the table, giving Prince Thomas such gleaming eyes. Prince Thomas was pleased about it as everything was settled for the next day, which would be the second day for Ashima to be a human.
…
Meanwhile, dark filled the sea palace as King Shankar sent a search party to find his missing daughter, but no matter how far or deep they searched, they found nothing. This made King Shankar feel terrible as he felt a massive amount of guilt, sorrow, and regret after he wrecked his daughter's collection. There, he sat on his throne, looking miserable, asking himself of his past actions, and he prayed that his daughter would return home safe and soundly.
…
The next day, Prince Thomas took Ashima to all sorts of places around the town by horse carriage, and she wore a lovely pink dress with a giant bow tied behind her hair. There, they both participated in fun activities like dancing and exploring. They both enjoyed every moment, and slowly but surely, they began to fall for each other, yet they didn't kiss. During this time, Rosie would follow them by water and kept asking Gordon if they had kissed yet, but every question led to the same answer, and the answer was no. Rosie and Gordon were worried as they knew that tomorrow, at sunset, Ashima would be a mermaid again and will be owned by Daisy as her collection.
…
Luckily, Gordon and Rosie, along with Salty, found the perfect opportunity when Prince Thomas rowed Ashima to a lovely quiet lagoon where the willow trees were fresh and green as lilypads were scattered across the water and water plants thrived there under the full moon. During this time, Prince Thomas wanted to ask Ashima a question when Salty flew in and attempted to sing a romantic song, which made him sound like a dying bird as he did tell Gordon an idea on singing a love song. Prince Thomas covered his ears as he shooed the seagull before commenting that somebody should end his misery. This made Ashima frown as she knew Salty well, and when the seagull reported that his attempt failed, Gordon slapped his face as he felt like amateurs surrounded him. There, he whispered to every creature like the ducks, grasshoppers, fishes, frogs, turtles, crickets, and flamingos, and pelicans to prepare their instruments for the song. Once everything was prepared, Gordon began to sing with such charm as he tried to lighten the situation, encouraging Prince Thomas to kiss Ashima.
Slowly but surely, it worked for them to feel comfortable to be with each other as they smiled at each other, although they did feel a bit awkward like Ashima kept playing with her hair and Prince Thomas kept looking away. As Gordon kept singing, the other animals joined in harmony as not much had changed as there were such in a big pause of awkwardness, which made Ashima upset. However, an opportunity came when Prince Thomas spoke that he felt terrible for not knowing Ashima's name. There, he began to guess like Diana and Rachel. When Gordon heard that, he climbed onto a water plant and whispered to Prince Thomas' ear that her name was Ashima. This got him confused as he said her name with such confusion. However, when Ashima heard that, she nodded her head. Prince Thomas was surprised as he asked her if her name was Ashima.
Sure enough, she nodded as he admitted her name was pretty. With that movement, the performance continued, and it became much grander as Rosie and Salty joined by singing or making a fountain around the boat. Slowly but surely, there were some movements done as they began to lean to each other's face slowly as the creatures encouraged them to kiss, but before they came, something terrible happened as two familiar moray eels tipped the boat over, and they both high finned each other for they have sabotaged Gordon's plan.
Meanwhile, back in Daisy's lair, she sighed in relief after witnessing the event from her daggered seashell by sitting in her giant seashell, "Nice work, boys. That was a close one! Too close! The little princess thinks she's better than I thought!", she growled in frustration, "At this rate, he'll be kissing her by sunset for sure!"
However, as she thought, she immediately swam to the shelves. She shoved some potions she deemed useless out of anger and frustration until she collected three potions she needed, including a sphere ball with an orange butterfly trapped inside. There, she swam back to the daggered seashell as she threw the potions violently inside as her anger turned into a twisted ambition as she kept twitching her eyes and grinned her sharp teeth, "Well, it's time Daisy took matters into her own tentacles! Shankar's daughter will be mine, and then I'll make him write! I'll see him wriggle like a worm on a hook!"
With that, the daggered seashell glowed bright orange as she lifted her magic golden seashell and began to laugh maniacally as the transformation occurred on her. There, her sassy cruel voice changed into Ashima's lovely and gentle voice, yet she still laughed evilly as she turned herself into a beautiful woman as she changed her eyes into purple to make her look like someone that nobody couldn't resist. Once the transformation was completed, she swam to the surface and went to find Prince Thomas to ruin Ashima's chance.
…
Once she arrived onshore, she noticed Prince Thomas playing the flute with such content as he looked at the balcony window to see Ashima brushing her hair with an actual brush as Edward stepped in and suggested choosing her as his bride. Prince Thomas thought for a moment until he thought she was perfect for him as he gave her a loving smile and a happy sigh. However, when Edward left, Prince Thomas sighed again, but this time, it was a sigh of defeat as he looked at his silver flute with anguish and narrowed eyes as she tossed it into the sea below, feeling hopeless that he would find his true love.
Before he was about to storm off, he heard a familiar beautiful voice, which stopped his track. There, he turned around and leaned on the wall to see a mysterious young lady with blondish blonde hair, a pair of purple eyes and quite fair skin, wearing a green dress and a black cape. However, her golden seashell necklace that glowed in the darkness was the most capturing feature. She sang as she crossed the sandy shore with the waves gently crashing. This sparked Prince Thomas' curiosity as he squinted his eyes to have a better look at her.
When he looked at her, yellow smoke escaped from the glowing seashell necklace as he headed towards Prince Thomas. There, the yellow smoke of magic hit Prince Thomas's face as he was fallen under a spell with his eyes glowing like the dying sun. This made him forget everything about Ashima as he fell for the mysterious woman with the voice that he knew too well. He was convinced that she was the one who was saved from the terrible storm. He was now like a magnet to her as he wanted to be with her, and with the spell affecting him made him want to marry her immediately.
…
Dawn broke the lovely sky as the sea was peaceful and settled at the palace. Salty was very pleased with himself as he helped Prince Thomas fall in love with Ashima, yet he knew that this was Ashima's final chance to receive her true love's kiss from Prince Thomas. He flew with such joy as he headed to the window, screeching her name out loud. There, he flew into Ashima's room, where she slept peacefully on the silky fine bed with Gordon sleeping on the pillow as he snored, "Ashima! Ashima! Wake up! I just heard the news! Congratulations!"
Gordon woke up as he gave Salty a grumpy frown, asking what the news with such annoyance as he yawned with Ashima waking up not long after, completely surprised by Salty's presence, "Right, as if you two didn't know, but… the whole is buzzing about the prince getting himself hitched this afternoon! You know, getting married!", Salty exclaimed as he rubbed Gordon's head playfully before turning his attention to Ashima, "I just wanted to wish you luck! I'll catch you later, and I wouldn't miss it!"
There, Salty flew off as Ashima's face brightened up. This was it. Prince Thomas was going to choose her as his bride, and with them getting married today, she will get her chance to kiss him to be human permanently. She was ecstatic that she did a twirl while holding Gordon as she pecked his cheek before fixing up her knotty hair and darted out of her room as she rushed downstairs with a big smile upon her lips. Gordon went after her to make sure all went well. Once Ashima was about to go another set of stairs, her eyes widened as her mouth dropped in horror for what she had witnessed was genuinely shocking, "Well um… Thomas. I-it appears that I was mistaken. This mystery maiden of yours does… in fact exist.", Edward spoke as he bowed and shook the woman's hand, "Congratulations, my dear."
Just seeing how the mysterious maiden laid her head on Prince Thomas' chest, who he's now wearing a charming, appropriate blue attire, made Ashima's heart slowly breaking as she hid behind the stone tower to see more on the situation as Gordon joined, looking just as horrified as Ashima, "We wish to be married as soon as possible.", Prince Thomas requested to Edward with a dry tone of voice, sounding almost like a zombie.
Edward was shocked by his request as he explained that it takes time before the wedding can become official, but Prince Thomas added that he wanted the wedding to commence this afternoon at sunset on a wedding ship. Knowing he couldn't disobey his royalty's order, Edward accepted his request as he assured him and the mysterious lady that he would get the wedding sorted as quick as possible. When Ashima heard everything, she began to breathe shallowly as she felt like she would collapse in tears. Prince Thomas chose that unknown woman out of all the women, let alone wanted to be married today. There, she hid as she looked up before the feeling of despair took over her as she ran down the hallway, covering her face with tears escaping her eyes.
As she ran off, feeling her heart was breaking even more, the mysterious lady watched Ashima leave the scene with a calm smile before she looked at Prince Thomas to have all-loving. Once Ashima was gone, the mysterious lady felt satisfied with her accomplishment as she turned her attention to her golden seashell necklace, making a quiet snickered noise. This mysterious lady knew she was getting closer to achieving her goal.
…
As sunset began to occur slowly, Ashima sat on the pier, wearing her casual outfit without a bow as she cried bitterly. She felt like all was lost. Both Rosie and Gordon were there, attempting to comfort her, but they knew that there was nothing they could do as within anytime now, she would become a mermaid again and will be owned by Daisy as her collection. However, all hope was not lost as Salty checked on the wedding ship to see what was going on in case anything fishy was occurring. Once Salty arrived at the scene, he flew to the porthole to see the mysterious lady, who was now wearing a white wedding gown as she began to sing that once her plan goes to her well, she will have not only Ashima, but she will rule the entire sea. What's more, when she looked herself into the vanity mirror, her reflection did not match her as it revealed something much more sinister, which made Salty gasp, "Oh no, it's the sea witch! I-I got to tell her!"
…
Back at the pier, Ashima was still sobbing as she had her head leaning against her knees when she, Rosie, and Gordon heard a distressful squawk, "Ashima! Ashima. I was flying… which of course I can fly… and I-I saw the watch… the witch watching a mirror, and she was singing and… this means that the prince is marrying the sea witch in disguise!", he stuttered.
However, Gordon was skeptical about this as he raised his eyebrow, knowing that Salty sometimes come up with something crazy, "Are you sure about this?"
"Have I ever been wrong? I mean when it's important.", Salty asked, to which Gordon knew he was telling the truth.
"We are you going to do?", Rosie cried as she looked at Ashima.
There, Ashima heard the voice echoing her mind, which belonged to Daisy before she looked at the setting sun. She knew that there was no time to waste as her feeling of anguish was switched to determination for, she knew that there might be a chance that she could save Prince Thomas and receive her true love's kiss. With that, she narrowed her eyes as she dove into the water to try and swim to the ship, but she wasn't a great swimmer as a human. Luckily, Gordon used his claw to cut the rope that carried barrels as Rosie instructed her to hope inside the barrel as she used the rope to move the barrel. With Rosie attempting to get to the ship with all her strength, Gordon instructed Salty to sabotage the wedding as he would fetch King Shankar. They all knew that there was no time to lose.