Chapter Six – Who Has Priority?
Eric tried to calm himself when he took Max out to the coast early the next morning. He didn't know what to think. There just seemed to be so much to question. So, somehow Ariel was posing as Lana who was supposed to be human and therefore acceptable in the minds of society. She had turned human to find him? The dog…did that dog used to be a fish? Okay. Eric took another deep breath in as he tried to get the information straight in his mind. Ariel was now Lana and he had found that out but she was pretending to be Lana and he was supposed to allow her to continue to pretend to him.
This was all strange to him.
There had to be some reason for this happening that he didn't understand. Was it so that Ariel could discover what being a human actually meant? Was that why he was supposed to act neutral towards her, because if he knew that she was really the girl that he loved he would do anything in his power to make it easier for her. He sighed before looking at the sheepdog.
"Sometimes, Max," he joked to his companion, "I wonder who has the easier life here, me or you." He saw Max turn back to him and panted before laughing and reaching out to ruffle up the fur on the top of the dog's head. It didn't really matter. He wasn't suddenly supposed to become a dog….right?
"You must think of me as an idiot," he told the dog who came bounding towards him and licked his cheeks, looking at him from underneath the large clumps of fur covering his eyes and wagging his tail. Eric pulled the dog to his chest and hugged him, holding him affectionately. "Max, you truly are that same sweet puppy," he joked to the dog.
Eric knelt down in the sand by the coast as he saw the sun start to rise even more and he put a hand on Max's back, looking at his friend. "So, what do I do? I have to keep pretending, right? How do I do that? I was never one for acting, I love adventure and I was always enchanted by those stories of mermaids which my mother told me, but acting…I don't know if I have too much of a personality in regular life to just develop a second."
Max whined and rubbed his head against Eric's chest. Eric sighed before picking up a stick and looked to Max who was extremely eager and tossed the stick. "Okay, boy, fetch," he said with a playful smile but his smile faded as he saw Lana there. Now that he knew the truth, it was as if he could see Ariel underneath that shell and a part of him was angry at getting played with so much. He understood why Ariel couldn't be here, she had been exposed as a mermaid, but Vanessa had hypnotized him and then she hadn't even been Vanessa but some sea witch octopus bit-something.
"Good morning," Ariel said as she watched him and Eric felt a little annoyed at the way she was appearing to study him. Still, she couldn't help it. She wasn't meaning to make him suffer like this. "It's a beautiful morning, isn't it?"
"Yes," Eric said before seeing Max start to play with the other dog. "….Lana," he sighed not knowing what would happen if he said her proper name but he didn't want to hurt her. How she had looked above the water when she had tried to tell him the truth, it showed that she was in great pain. "What are you doing here? You could have waited in the room?"
"I thought that I would help," Ariel told him and Eric raised an eyebrow. "I mean, I really want to help you and you want to create a better life for yourself, right?"
"I would prefer a life where there is harmony between the land and the sea," Eric told her and saw her watching him. He took a deep breath in, he didn't want to look at her for too long or he might do something which he would regret. "There are distant worlds out there. There are more people, more….species, I suppose, than just us. I want to be able to live on a world that bridges one community to another because of how loved people are."
"I think that's beautiful, Eric," Ariel said and he tried to look away from her. "I think that music can do that too. Music can leave marks on people for a long time and it conveys all types of emotions. I really do enjoy music."
Eric laughed as he thought of how beautiful her signing voice truly was. Remembering how she had saved his life and then stayed over him whilst singing to him and making sure that he was breathing, that set his soul on fire and made his heart beat passionately. "I'm not much of a singer," he joked and Ariel moved over to him. She took his hand and squeezed it. He squeezed back, his heart pumping loudly due to his desire to be as close to her as he could.
"I am sure that you could play beautiful music though, it just takes an appreciation and love for music to be able to start playing," she said and Eric looked at her. He smiled as he gazed into her eyes but then looked away.
"I promise you that if music made the lives of everyone easier, I would highly promote it. Ariel was an amazing singer, well I'm sure that she is still an amazing singer. I don't think she knows how highly I prize her. How I would do anything to be with her again. I don't think she realizes that."
Ariel paused as she stared at him. Part of her felt jealous that here he was, this prince who had captivated her heart, and he was talking about how passionately he felt for another woman. Then there was the logical side of her that knew he was talking about her, that he was reacting with passion for her. Ariel bowed her head sadly and looked into the much lighter sky. "I hope that you'll be able to find her. I hope she'll be able to stay with you."
Eric looked her over, "You truly wish for that to happen?"
Ariel nodded. She saw him smile and was just glad that he showed this commitment to the other version of herself. She felt sad and as if he were rejecting her and that led to her feeling confused by the whole series of events but at least he was happy and he had her on his mind. She could work with this.
ArErArEr
Triton stared at the crab beside him. After what had happened that night with the prince who was a so-called ally to them, for him not to have Ariel under constant guard was pulling his heart in numerous ways. There was a sharp stabbing wound against his chest but he had to remember his duties as king. Hopefully those fish eating monsters hadn't killed his youngest daughter or had her imprisoned in one of their labs.
"Sebastian, are you truly saying that we don't have a location of Ariel's whereabouts," the king said and the crab turned to him. He looked very meekly into the ruler's eyes. "Because I will wage war on those perfect humans if I even suspect for a moment that they are serving her for dinner."
"I don't think…that extreme…your Majesty," Sebastian said but as Triton turned to him he realized that that was probably one of the last things which he should have said. Triton watched him. "I only feel that she is being smart and capable and …."
"And she has gone back to him?" Triton asked and Sebastian nodded. "The man who betrayed us. The man who allowed others to know of the existence of -"
"Well, he did stop Ursula, you know….when he drove that boat from the ship's graveyard into her and it caused her to lose her powers. We all thought that he would die when that happened."
Triton's eyes showed a flash of fury as Sebastian told him that information, "It would have been better had he died!" he yelled out and the crab looked at him weakly. "That man is the reason as to why society will be ruined. Ariel's stupid infatuation with him has brought him to disrespect the powers of the sea."
"Could it be that you are misjudging the human just a little," Sebastian tried to reason with him but Triton's anger only grew more intense. He stared in front of him and tried to monitor his breathing. Sebastian looked him over wishing that he could just disappear.
"Can you guarantee that Ariel is not in some lab somewhere?" he asked the crab and Sebastian opened his mouth wanting to stand up for the independently-minded princess. However, he knew that he did not have absolute certainty that this wouldn't have happened. Triton looked at him, his anger deepening from the fact that Sebastian hadn't answered him. "Do you have a location for him?"
"I think that we can possibly get you that information but I doubt that that man, despite him being human, really intended any danger to us or to her. I think that there might be degrees of…uh…character, Your Majesty but…" Sebastian squeaked as he saw the rage that Triton was showing and brought his claws over his head in an attempt to hide from the man he revered. "I will get you that information right away."
Triton let his fingers tap on the arm of his throne. That boy was an idiot. It was because of him that the tides were turning and that they were turning with a ruthless hostility. He had been the one who had brought land and sea together. He had lured his precious Ariel in with human tricks. If he had only been a merman he would have permitted this to happen but it was all his fault. The endangerment on the merfolk's world was all as a result of his actions.
ArErArEr
Eric had been able to earn enough money to get them something for dinner and he had decided to try to rely on more vegetables rather than seafood or meat. Ariel was part fish but he didn't really know what that meant. There were a lot of stories about mermaids not wanting to eat fish as they considered them family and yes, that yellow fish that Ariel had been with would be considered that. However, when you truly studied fish, you learned that there were big fish who ate smaller fish.
Eric sighed as he sat up in the bed that night, he would have to figure this out. He didn't even know how he would be able to do it as directly asking her would expose the fact that he knew the truth about her. Eric sighed before looking to the side, the yellow dog was still sleeping but Max. "Max, buddy?" Eric asked as he looked around before hearing the sounds of a thunderstorm. Max was a big softy and he sometimes got terrified by loud sounds.
"Are you hiding, Max? Come on, it's okay, you can come sleep with me."
There was no response inside the room but Eric heard a loud and long howl from outside of the room. He quickly grabbed a lantern and made sure it was lit before bolting in the direction of where he could hear Max's voice.
As Eric raced out of the room, he was surprised to see that there was a pathway lit up by the moon ahead of him and at the end of the pathway was someone who looked like an arm guard at the end of the beach with Max in his arms. It wasn't until Eric rushed further that he realized this guard wasn't standing on the beach, he was in the water.
"Max!" Eric yelled, his lungs hurting him. He grabbed to a piece of sharp driftwood. "Get your hands off of my dog!"
End of Chapter Six
Thank you for reading, reviews are appreciated
I've actually started a new method of which fics to update. One of the three things I'm going to be looking for are number of reviews on the latest chapter (this came when I found out one of my fics had 500 views and zero reviews on its latest chapter) so if you like certain fics and want to see them updated please leave a review, it really is appreciated
Thank you to the reviewers of Chapter Five
Marati2011, Purple Majestic
