After leaving Ursula, Ariel took Aquata to the mouth of the caves where she had spent many happy hours with Eric, wondering how she would retrieve the vial from her irritatingly self-sacrificing sister. Certainly, it seemed that she wouldn't give it up willingly, but Ariel was adamant that she be the one to face up to the consequences of her actions; she had encouraged Eric to speak openly to his mother and taken him to her father, and then she had let the humans carry him away without putting up any fight at all. Aquata could go home, tell the others what had happened, she needn't involve herself further.
'Aquata please!' she begged, exasperated and exhausted after what had been a stressful few days. 'This is my fault; all of this is my fault. It has to be me!'
Aquata shook her head, defiant. 'What kind of a sister would I be if I let you throw your life away like that? You heard what Ursula said! Once one of us takes this that's it!'
'I love him Aquata! I don't care what happens to me… so long as he's safe.'
Ariel hung her head. She owed Eric so much for what he had shown her, if she could give him the opportunity to piece his life together then that might go some way towards repaying his kindness. He deserved that chance.
Aquata's gaze softened to see her little sister so morose. 'I know you love him,' she replied, 'and clearly he loves you too. If we can get him back, who do you think he'd want to see? If anyone can help him it's you Ariel. He needs you.' It hurt to acknowledge it, but it was true. As a child she had prided herself in being the one Eric sought when he was afraid or uncertain, but she no longer held that role; Eric didn't even remember her. He deserved happiness, and if Ariel could provide him with that then she had no business in coming between them. If it took Ursula's possession of her to see both the boy she had loved so dearly and her sister happy, then so be it.
This at least seemed to have made Ariel stop and think. Perceiving that she had managed to convince her little sister to step down, Aquata removed the stopper from the vial, the pungent aroma of the concoction stinging the back of her throat. She wrinkled her nose in disgust.
'Aquata wait, let's think about this,' interrupted Ariel with some alarm.
'Ariel there isn't time!'
'That's just it though; time! We have to get this right.' Ariel paused, wracking her brain. 'Eric's only human at night. If we go now, we only have until sunrise to find him and get him out. We have to wait until morning, that way we'll have all day to find him and all night to help him escape whilst he's able to walk too. Unless of course you plan on carrying him? Or dragging him back to the sea perhaps?'
Admitting her sister's point and realising that all this may well be avoided were Eric to escape unaided and appear before sunrise, Aquata stoppered the vial once more.
'Sunrise then,' she conceded. 'We'd best hope that Dad doesn't find us before then.'
Ariel nodded solemnly, having neglected to factor the rest of their family into the equation. Would the King by now know all, or would their sisters have formulated some fabrication to buy them more time? If such were the case, then there could be no better use of that time than to find Eric and bring him home. The resulting mess could be traversed when it came; to consider the repercussions now would only result in a sleepless night, so limitless did they appear. They had more of a plan than they'd had at sunset and that would do for now. One step at a time.
Night now well advanced, the sisters opted to remain above the waves that they might be alerted to the rising of the sun without delay. Ariel, having seen Eric do so on countless occasions, lowered the sails from their lofty harbour and made herself comfy upon the sand. The fabric itself provided little warmth, and she and Aquata nestled close to one another beneath the stars, listening to the rush of the waves and realising that whatever happened tomorrow, their lives would never be the same again.
'Tell me about him,' implored Aquata. 'I hardly remember him at all; what's he like now?'
Ariel recalled the days she had spent with Eric to memory, from their initial unscripted meeting, to their dance beneath a starlit sky. As she and her sister grew drowsy, she told all; of Eric's initial excuses to hide the conditions of his life and of her discovery of him at the surface. Of her secret grotto and his willingness to further her knowledge of all that was hidden there—all that had been hidden there. Of shark chases and shipwrecks and flowers and fire. From these recollections shone Eric's kindness and courage. It wasn't until Aquata squeezed her tight that Ariel realised she was crying, and it wasn't until she raised her gaze that she realised Aquata was too. They both loved him, in their own way.
'He has to be okay,' whispered Ariel, her voice choked by emotion.
Whilst Eric spent the night in unconscious ignorance of his situation, Ariel stole fitful bursts of sleep upon the sands to which she hoped to return him. She wondered what was left for him here, in a life divided between land and sea; the former had often seen him alone, and Ariel worried that the latter would henceforth be marred by the same hollow sensations of loneliness. Her advice, she perceived, may well have broken his relationship with his mother, however fractured it had been before. She didn't want that for him. She wanted to be there, to make certain that he always had someone to turn to and yet… As the eastern horizon began to glow with the first suggestion of the approaching dawn, Ariel knew what she had to do.
Beside her Aquata slept and, nestled within her slack fist, the vial that would turn one of them human, before twenty-four hours later turning them over to Ursula. It was this that Ariel realised as sunrise approached: it had to be her. Tentatively, she slid the vial from between her sister's fingers and, though Aquata stirred at the slight change, she did not wake. This Ariel was grateful for, for if she had she would certainly have done her utmost to reinstate possession.
No, determined Ariel, this was her mess to make right, she owed Eric as much, and she wouldn't allow her sister to rescue her at the cost of her own freedom.
The breeze was gentle and lifted tendrils of the little mermaid's crimson hair as she gazed thoughtfully out to sea. She had never felt as though she entirely belonged there; had been so different from her father and sister's that home had never been where she felt most herself. Trapped. That was how she had viewed herself. Up here though—she dug her fingers into the sand and filled her lungs with fresh sea air—something called to her. To be among those whose handiwork had once filled her grotto, who could satisfy her curiosity as Eric had begun to, that was where she longed to be.
She turned the vial over before her eyes, surveying the dark liquid inside. Would this really allow her that privilege—if only for twenty-four hours? To find Eric was her only aim, but thoughts of what she would see along the way fluttered at the edges of her subconscious. One final adventure. She couldn't think of a better way to spend her final day of freedom—if such it were to be. If only Eric could have been alongside her she might even have considered it perfect. He wouldn't be though, she reminded herself; for if he showed up before dawn then there would be no venturing among humans, and if he didn't than all enjoyment must be stolen by the possibility of his being in danger. This was not a time for light-hearted gallivanting. She had a job to do, and an important one at that.
She moved quietly over to where the rockpools met the sand, for a better view of the palace into which Eric had disappeared on the preceding night. The waves rolled in cool against her tail as they broke harmlessly upon the rocks. The sky turned purple, then pink, then orange, and still no sign of Eric. Ariel wondered whether he too was watching the ever-changing light, whether he had recovered at all from the evening before. Her heart ached at the memory.
When the topmost spire of the palace caught the preliminary rays of dawn Ariel glanced back to her still slumbering sister, only to have her attention drawn upwards. There, upon a high shelf, just where Eric had left them, stood the dancers whose melody had fuelled that magical night beneath the stars. How long ago that seemed now; how much had passed since. She had thought then that she would never be able to repay him, but perhaps now the chance presented itself. Perhaps if she were able to bring him home, to fill him in on those aspects of his life that he so desperately sought, and to give him the chance of speaking to his mother, perhaps that would go some way towards thanking him?
'I'm coming, Eric,' she promised, casting once last, hopeful look across the empty sand as the dancers, frozen in their eternal embrace, welcomed the dawn with a brightening glint.
The little mermaid removed the stopper and lifted the vial, grimacing as the smell stung the back of her throat. Then, with a deep breath to steel herself, she downed the putrid liquid in one.
For a brief, misleading moment, all was still. Then Ariel screamed. Her back arched in such a way as would have been painful, had it not been entirely dwarfed by the torturous splitting of her lower half. Every bone felt as though it were being shattered, every muscle torn apart, every nerve set alight.
Aquata, though the deepest sleeper of all her sisters, startled to alertness as her little sister's screams reverberated from the rocks around them, magnified by the enclosed space. Not one coherent thought passed through her mind as she scrambled to Ariel's side. Only two words stamped themselves upon her subconscious over and over; help her!
'Ariel!' she cried, holding her sister as best she could. She had no idea how to help her, she realised, no idea as to what was wrong. Then, as Ariel convulsed fitfully at her side, Aquata's eyes landed on the shards of glass upon the rocks, this being all that remained of the vial and its contents.
'Oh Neptune, Ariel what have you done!'
No explanation came but the screams that would surely haunt her for the rest of her life. Attina would know what to do, though Aquata, if anyone could comfort Ariel at this moment then it was her. Attina wasn't here though, and so, in a trembling voice that verged on tears, Aquata adopted the role of mother just this once, as she had been wont to do for Eric all those years ago.
The whole process couldn't have lasted more than thirty seconds, but for both she who had to endure it and she who could do nothing but watch in horrified bewilderment, it seemed to take an age. At length though, Ariel went limp and the assault on her body ceased.
'Ariel?' tried Aquata, heart pounding with fear. 'Ariel say something!'
At this Ariel roused herself from the cusp of consciousness, half-lidded eyes finding her sister leaning over her, her features etched with lines of worry.
'I'm okay,' she replied weakly, without being wholly convinced of the truthfulness of those words. 'Help me up.'
Her own arms trembled under the weight of her slight frame, but Aquata was able to sit her up with ease. Ariel's vision blurred dizzyingly, but when it at last returned, her laboured breaths caught at the sight which greeted her. Where mere moments ago had shone emerald scales, two legs stretched out upon the sand—two human legs! She lay her palm flat against the smooth skin and tears of a very different nature sprung to her eyes.
'I… I'm human,' she gasped. 'Aquata, I—ow!'
It was more the shock of her sister's hand against her arm than the sting of it which had caused Ariel to cry out. She raised a protective hand to the assaulted area and regarded her sister incredulously. Aquata trembled with barely suppressed fury, and her eyes pierced Ariel with admonishment.
'Why did you do that!' she demanded. 'I thought we agreed that I would be the one to go! What's Eric going to say when he realises that the one person he loves most isn't going to be around when he gets back; that she willingly threw her life away and that I did nothing to stop her?' Her tone was bordering on hysterical. 'How could you do that? You stupid, reckless, selfish—' Ariel was met at each word with her sister's clenched fists, the blows not delivered with any great amount of force, but her distress was clear enough.
Eventually, Ariel was able to catch Aquata's wrists, and held them tight to prevent any further assault. 'Aquata stop!'
She did and met her little sister's gaze with anguish.
Ariel noted the tears that clung to her lashes and regretted that she had been the cause. Those tears would change nothing though. 'It's done,' she stated firmly, wary that every second they spent arguing was one less second to find Eric. 'And I'm sorry, but I was never going to let you go in my place. This is on me!'
The fight left Aquata swiftly as she realised the truth of Ariel's words. There could be no changing what had already happened, only what happened next. She sighed dejectedly.
'You scared the life out of me,' she admitted. A series of deep breaths served to compose her and she continued in a calmer manner. 'What's your plan then? How are you going to find him?'
Ariel pursed her lips and testily flexed the muscles of her new legs. She wished that she had more time to relish the change, to appreciate this most impossible thing. Alas, the clock was ticking, and time was not on their side today.
'I don't know,' she admitted, bending her knees and pressing the soles of her feet into the sand. 'One step at a time, remember?' With the aid of the rocks behind her she inched her way upwards. 'So, the next step is to get into the palace. At least we know for certain that he was there.' With a deep breath and one final push, Ariel found herself standing. Despite their situation, despite her own impending doom, she couldn't help but laugh, grinning even as she fought for balance.
Had she only just arrived on the scene, Aquata could hardly have been more surprised to see her youngest sister standing upright before her. She must surely wake up soon, for this could only be some wild dream that she found herself trapped in.
'Okay,' she began, 'so… what? You're just going to walk in there—like that—and ask if they've seen a merman around?'
Ariel heard her sister's words distantly, the most part of her concentration taken up by the supposedly simple task of remaining on her feet. Eric had made it look so easy! Gathering her determination, she set about placing one foot in front of the other, striving to remember the particulars of Eric's movements when he had so often done the same; certainly, she had spent enough time studying the way his legs worked. Thus, she decided, it was simply a case of emulating what she had observed. Just one step and the rest would follow. Just… one… step…
The sand provided a soft landing, and Aquata pinched the bridge of her nose as her sister shot an accusatory look to her legs—as though they were entirely to blame.
'In your defence, Ursula said she'd turn you human, not that the legs she gave you would work,' mocked Aquata, keeping her tone light despite fearing deep down that the sea witch may actually have sabotaged their plans from the beginning. This was hopeless.
'They do work,' insisted Ariel indignantly, pushing herself up once again, 'they're just going to take some getting used to.'