Chapter 11 - The Third Sunset

"Don't worry, Arron…" Flora huffed as she pulled on the ropes connected to the barrel with all her might. "We're gonna- we're gonna make it…" but Arron wasn't so sure, the sun was creeping closer and closer towards its setting point, and time was almost up...

Back at the Atlantican palace, Stella came swimming at full speed into the throne room. The Queen's face lit up at the sight of her missing secretary.

"Stella, my goodness! Where on earth have you been?! Are you alright? Where's Arron?" she shot one question after another.

"I'm so sorry your majesty" said Stella. "But there's no time to explain. But it all has to do with the sea sorcerer!" she said. The Queen's expression changed from one of urgency to one of horror. "Your son… your majesty, your son… he's a… he's a… human…" the Queen said nothing, only stayed where she was, taking too much in at once. "He traded his voice away, and something terrible is about to happen if we don't hurry!" she said frantically.

"His voice?" she said in disbelief. "He traded away his voice to become human?" she breathed. Stella looked down in remorse.

"I am so sorry your majesty. I tried to stop him, but he would have never ran away if it weren't for me. I owed it to him to help him."

Tritannia held up a hand.

"I believe many of us, including me, are equally to blame. If it weren't for you telling me what you did, I would have never realised that." Stella took in her Queen's words and nodded, thankful for her majetsy's understanding.

"Thank you, your highness." she said. "But Arron is in danger. We can save him! But you have to come with me now!" and so, the two swam for the surface, desperate to get there before it was too late...

Erica and her new suitor walked down the aisle of the ship's deck, and they stood before the minister.

"Dearly beloved…" the short, elderly man began. "Do you, Erica, take Vincent…" suddenly, Sienna came flying right into 'Vincent's' face, causing him to duck down as several birds flew over his head, Erica standing perfectly still the entire time, still hypnotised. A dozen or so starfish jumped onto the deck and flung themselves onto Vincent's face, causing him to scream.

"Get away from me ya slimy little…" he attempted to pry the starfish from his face, but tripped over a seal that had found its way onto the deck and began bouncing the disguised sorcerer up and down on its nose.

"To be your lawfully wedded…" said the priest, clearly oblivious to the commotion.

Wedding guests screamed and ran about the deck frantically in confusion, as the men tried to avoid being slapped in the face by fishes while the women held down their skirts as birds flew under them. Vincent managed to get off the seal and throw the starfish off his face, only to land in the huge wedding cake as he tripped. He growled in frustration as he realised whose doing this was. A pod of dolphins rose up to the side of the ship and blew water all over him, getting the cake off of him but leaving him dripping wet. Just then, Arron appeared as he pulled himself up onto the deck of the ship, his mouth agape as he saw his friends hard work take place in front of him.

Sienna was wrestling with Vincent as he tried to keep the bird away from him. The seagull pulled on the necklace around Vincent's neck as the sorcerer tried to throttle the bird and keep it at bay by tightening his fists around its neck. Arron saw what he was doing, and his face darkened. No one hurts his friends like that and gets away with it. Sienna may an idiot and clueless about pretty much everything, but she was one of the nicest, most loveable beings he'd ever met, and he was not about to let some ocotopus freak throttle the life out of her. Running up to the sea sorcerer in disguise, Arron threw a well deserved punch to the side of Vincent's head, and he stumbled back, releasing the bird and breaking off the chain of the shell necklace, shattering into a million pieces on the deck as it collided with the wood. The people on the ship turned to look at the glowing ball of light emitting from the broken shell. Erica snapped out of her trance and rubbed her eyes, the magic of Ursulis in control of her no more. She looked up to see Arron. Ursulis looked at the Prince in sheer anger, his eyes bloodshot and his anger livid.

The glowing ball of light floated into the air as it made its way closer and closer towards Arron's chest, knowing exactly where its rightful owner was. Arron, being the fifteen year old idiot that he was, stepped back from the pulsing light. He knew it was his voice, as he heard the song he had sung echoing from the glow. He stepped back further, not knowing what it would feel like when it came back to him. Would it be as painful as three days ago? He kept backing away until he felt the side of the ship against him, and he had no choice but to accept it. As the ball of light encircled itself around the boy and eventually set itself back in his throat, Arron's head fell backwards as he found that the sensation was warm and almost soothing, and a smile spread across his face as he touched his hand to his throat. He sighed as a long awaited, audible, sound escaped his lips. Erica looked in awe at the boy she knew to be completely mute.

"Arron?" she breathed.

"Erica!" Arron exclaimed, so glad that he could finally say the name of his Princess again. Finally, he felt complete. Maxine ran up to him, mewing happily and Arron picked up the cat and ran over to Erica.

"You can talk!" she said as the cat jumped out of Arron's arms and the two held hands. "Erica..." he started. "I- I wanted to tell you, but, I- I had to give something in order to be…"

"Erica, get away from him!" shouted Ursulis, his real voice shining through with no stolen one to disguise it.

Erica held a finger up to Arron's lips and whispered,

"It's okay." The two leaned in to kiss as the sun finally set.

"Erica, no!" Uruilis cried.

All of a sudden, Arron felt the pain of a thousand knives stabbing his legs and he fell to the floor and exclaimed in pain, the shirt on his back crumbling away into ash, and his trousers ripping apart as his tail and true form returned. Erica's eyes widened in confusion.

Ursulis started to cackle horribly as his true octopus body revealed itself to the horrified guests on the ship.

"You're too late..." he chuckled before ascending to a cackle. "YOU'RE TOO LATE!" he grabbed Arron roughly by the arm and leaped into the ocean, but not before yelling, "So long, sweetheart!" at Erica as he dove below the waves, Arron in tow.