Months passed, and then years and, although still unsure of himself and his surroundings, Eric began to very much come out of his shell. He would play with girls and laugh along with them, joining in with their make-believe as if he had never not been a part of it. Aquata still looked after him, and made sure that he was always included in their games, though it quite often made very little difference, for her sisters were always just as willing to let him join in, Ariel especially it had to be said. She had only been a baby when Eric first came to Atlantica, and so the opportunity for the two of them to interact hadn't often presented itself, Eric's unwillingness to speak and her inability to certainly not helping the matter in the slightest. But as the little mermaid had grown, and Eric had too in confidence, they had become the best of friends, and it was a rare sight now to see them apart.
Despite this overall acceptance of the boy however, Triton remained to be convinced that he would not grow to be a threat, and thus kept his distance, both physically and emotionally. Athena had tried to persuade him countless times to lift the curse that he had inflicted upon Eric before he'd taken his first breath under the waves, but to no avail, thus, the curse stuck, though the Queen was adamant that her husband would lift it in time. She simply wouldn't allow the alternative.
However, any hope the Queen had of this was shattered, swiftly and surely one afternoon in late summer, on a day that began like any other, a day that looked to promise only joy and happiness, but was to end a day that would be remember by the seven mermaid Princesses for all the wrong reasons.
Athena took such joy in watching her children play together, for it reminded her that although she and Triton may not be able to provide their little mermaid's with equal attention all the time, they always had each other. And Eric too of course, who was currently scouring the seabed for shells with his sisters whilst the King and Queen swam hand in hand above them. Each time one of the eight children found a particularly beautiful or unusual shell, they would call the others over, and a series of squeals would soon follow if the shell was found to be inhabited by a no doubt startled creature.
It was the wedding anniversary of Triton and Athena, and the Queen had said that rather than hold a feast, which always took place once the children were asleep, the two should spend the day with their family, and so, the ten of them were currently making the short journey to a nearby secluded pool, where the merfolk were able to enjoy the surface world without the threat of humans. The two used to go there all the time before they were married, in fact, it had been the place where Triton had asked Athena if she would marry him; and they had been with Attina, Alana and Aquata when they were very young, but not since. It was a place that had never failed to bring happiness, and that is exactly what Athena wanted from today, to share this place with the ones she loved most dearly, that being her husband and her children.
Soon enough she and Triton were sat above the waves, the warm afternoon wind toying with their hair as they watched that light of their lives playing together in the shallow waters, though in smaller groups now rather than all together as has been the case earlier. Alana was sat beside her mother, the Queen using strands of her daughter's hair to form tiny braids, before brushing them out with her slender fingers and starting over again with something new. Adella, Andrina and Attina were sat together at the edge of the pool, still engrossed in the shells they had found along the journey, and Aquata and Arista were swimming races against each other, asking their father to time how long it took them to swim once around the pools edge, only to immediately try and better it.
At the far end of the pool, where rock and salt water gave way to the green grass that had only today been seen by half of the family, sat Ariel and Eric, still only accumulating eight years between them, talking the language of children, a language that adults may often find difficult to follow.
Seeing the young boy staring up at where the grass gave way to clear blue skies made Athena's heart ache, for she realised that in the three years he had been with them, not once had he been given the chance to see the land, the place of his birth, and whereas it had been obvious that he had missed it terribly, to actually see him staring so longingly was what gave Athena chills. Again, she was forced to ask herself whether what she had done was right, whether the decision she had made on the boy's behalf had brought him more in the way of happiness or fear.
Kissing Alana and sitting her beside her father, Athena lowered herself into the lukewarm water of the pool, and made her way over to where her youngest daughter sat with the human-turn-merboy. The three-year-old noticed her mother's approach first and giggled, holding her arms out until Athena took her into her own, holding her close and kissing her nose. Eric too smiled up at his mother, before his gaze drifted back to the land of man, a land which must have looked so daunting from a child's perspective.
'Are you alright darling?' she asked softly, sitting herself beside the boy and brushing back his dark waves of hair.
Eric simply nodded, leaning into her gentle touches.
'Mummy! Can we go up there?" said Ariel, pointing up to the hills, her large blue eyes shining with anticipation. Eric too seemed more alert after hearing his younger sister's proposition, almost as though he had been contemplating asking the very same question.
Athena simply smiled kissing both her children in turn before answering. 'You know we can't darling, our home is down here, beneath the waves; only humans can go up there.'
'Because they have feet!'
'That's right, they have feet, and legs, so that they can walk on land, and we have tails so we can swim in the sea, that's why we each live were we do.'
'But some humans can swim,' pointed out Eric, remembering the many times that his mother and father had taken him to the sea, and he had watching the people of his father's kingdom swimming the surface, a skill that he, in his two short years above the waves, had never mastered.
'They can,'agreed Athena, 'but not all of them, and those who can wouldn't be able to live in the sea like us, they would…'
A sudden high pitched scream cut the conversation short, and all heads turned to edge of the pool to a sight which caused hearts to stop and eyes to widen in fear. Attina was thrashing around under a mass of thick black ropes, and behind her, preventing her from escaping to the safety of the water, stood a human male, his eyes hard and his stance menacing. Athena and Triton immediately looked to each other, both desperately seeking an answer as to how neither of them had noticed the man's approach.
In only seconds, chaos had broken out among the remaining sisters, and Triton had propelled himself towards the man, knocking him into the sea, with few other options given that the Trident had remained in Atlantica at his wife's request. He worked fast to remove the nets, ordering the rest of his daughter's back into the ocean.
'Mummy!' cried Arista, swimming into her mother's arms and clinging to her fearfully.
Without saying a word, Athena, with Ariel in one arm and Arista in the other, swam to where the still waters of the pool gave way to the now tumultuous waves of the open ocean and helped her daughter's over the rocks to safety.
'Swim down,' she instructed them, 'stay together and wait for me and your father!'
The girls did as they were told, and only once six of the seven daughters were safe did Athena look back to her husband, who still fought to free Attina whilst protecting her from the frequent attempts by the human male to drag her away. Heart pounding in her chest, Athena sought to help him, before noticing that Eric hadn't moved an inch, seemingly completely frozen with fear; and for good reason. Descending the sloping hills were at least another twenty men, some with nets in their arms, some holding out swords, the blades of which glistened blindingly in the afternoon sun, and still Eric didn't move, his eyes fixed on the men.
Athena called out to him, swimming to his side and gripping his arm.
'Eric, go! Darling you need to get out of here!' she begged, finally managing to get the boys attention, his eyes locking with hers, breathing elevated.
However, before either could move, a sudden sharp pain exploded at the base of the Queen's tail, causing her to cry out, her head whipping round to examine the damage and the sight caused her skin to pale. One of the men had managed to drive his sword through the muscle, pinning her to the rocks unless she wanted to lose her ability to swim completely. In seconds she was caught in the arms of four more men, and swiftly lifted from the water.
Eric remained frozen with fear, his eyes now locked with those of a man he was sure he recognised, his dishevelled brown hair and sharp features flashing in his mind from a day years ago, a day he had shared with his mother and father in the Kingdom of his birth.
'Eric, go!' screamed Athena, bringing the young boys attention back to the current situation, and fuelling his retreat in the water. And with the relief of seeing him safe, the world fell into darkness and her body dropped limp into the arms of her captors.
Hearing his wife's scream, Triton turned his attention, having just managed to dispatch the human and free his eldest daughter, and the sight that greeted him caused the waves to rise high above the rocks, breaking on top of the human men in an attempt to wash them away and hence return Athena to the water where Triton could better protect her.
But to no avail.
Many of the men fell, but not all, and in less than a minute the Queen of the sea had disappeared over the hill, leaving Triton to call her name over and over again, the waters still crashing forcefully against land of man. The land that stolen a beloved wife and mother. A land that forgiveness would never fall upon, at least not from the sea.
'Where's mummy and daddy?' cried Andrina from the arms of her eldest sister, shortly after Eric had fallen from the rocks and into the sea, whereupon Aquata had rushed to his side a dragged him down to where she and her sisters waited.
There came no reply to Andrina's question, only sobs and cries filled the silence, and Eric's laboured breathing as he pressed himself against Aquata, wanting more than ever to hide himself away. It was his fault. His delayed reaction to the attack was the reason why he had now lost his new mother, the second mother he had lost in only three years, except this time he had to live with the knowledge that the loss would be mourned by many others, most notably those who now surrounded him; and if the King had escaped unharmed… Eric knew that he would once again have nobody, for there wasn't a chance that he would grant him forgiveness.
'It's okay Eric,' soothed Aquata, her voice thick with emotion, wavering at the concept of harm coming to one or both of her parents. The uncertainty of not knowing weighing down heavily upon the mermaid Princess, but still she forced herself to be calm, for the sake of Eric and for her sisters, many of who sat crying on the seabed, too afraid to search for their parents.
What seemed like hours had passed before Ariel cried out, swimming up to the great shock of her sisters and into her father's strong and protective arms? The other girls followed, surrounding the sea King, crying for him, asking of their mother's whereabouts, to which the King merely shook his head, his eyes hardening as they came to rest upon Eric. Anger swelled within him and his hand was around the boy's neck before he had time to think about what he was doing.
'You did this, your kind! I told Athena not to trust you, but she ignored me, and you repay her kindness with this!'
'Daddy, stop it!' cried Aquata, gripping her father's wrist in seeing Eric's struggle to draw breath, the fear in his eyes as he realised the King's intentions.
As Aquata rushed to aid him, her sisters followed, and the King was forced to throw Eric to the seabed with an angered cry, for his daughters had seen enough violence already today and he did not wish for them to see more. Although, his hatred for the boy had manifested itself given the recent loss of his wife to the humans, and he would not allow Eric to lead his daughters to the same end, not as long as he lived. But in seeing the love his daughter's had for their… brother… he knew that he could not kill him, and so devised another strategy to keep the human boy away.
He had told Athena that come the boys twelfth birthday he would be cursed to a human form between sunset and sunrise, but that sentence would begin today, and he need not remember his time as a part of this family either, it would only lead to him to ask questions when he was old enough to do so. Triton wouldn't allow that; he would protect his daughter's as he should have protected Athena, and to protect them, meant getting rid of the human boy, immediately.