Aquatic-Kingdom Hearts

Chapter 2: Reunited at Last; Dangerous Eyes Watching

Back at Port Royal

At Port Royal Cove

Not too far from Port Royal Cove, but to where no one took notice at, was where a small rocky watch island was stationed in the water. On the island, a broken top of a crow's nest lay halfway leaning in the air. And in the crow's nest, there actually lay in a nest, with a seagull sitting leisurely as he looked through the end of a spyglass, or telescope as they were often referred to. He was just humming to himself as he fooled around with the spyglass, often wearing it as a hat. It wasn't until he heard a familiar voice calling him out that he stopped.

"Scuttle!"

He immediately snapped to work as he took the spyglass and looked around. It didn't take him long as he just looked forward, and he saw two familiar people that he knew. It was none other than the Mermaid, Ariel, and her friend Flounder. He saw that they were pretty far away as he shouted, "Whoa! Mermaid and fish off the port bow!" What he didn't realize was that he was looking through the wrong lense, and that they were pretty close to him, about one foot from him. But he continued to shout out, as if they were distanced from him, "Ariel! Flounder! How you kids doing?" It was when he stopped looking from the spyglass; he jumped back in surprise as he saw that Ariel and Flounder were close to him, "Whoa. What a swim."

Ariel shook her head at her surface informant friend's behavior. But then she smiled as she pulled out her satchel, "Scuttle, look what we found.", and placed it on the rocky ground for Scuttle to investigate.

However, Flounder was going to the story on how they acquired the merchandise, "Yeah. Ya see, we were in this sunken ship, and it was really creepy.", he then snarled a bit as he tried to do an impression of the shark that attacked them, "And then there was this shark…"

"Human stuff, eh?", Scuttle asked, completely interested and not listening to Flounder. He took out an anchor with rope tied to it, "Hey, let me take a look at what you guys got.", and dropped it, with his foot stuck to it, and dropping like a rock along with the anchor. After shaking off his dizzy spell, Scuttle scuttled over to Ariel's satchel and dug around to see what was there. Ariel and Flounder looked with anxious excitement on what Scuttle would see first. It was then that Scuttle pulled himself out of the bag, and held up the fork. He looked at it with wonder as he stated, "Well, look at this.", he fiddled with it, acting like he was some kind of scholar as he admired the fork, "Wow, this is something. I mean this is very, very unusual."

"What?", Ariel asked now she was all excited now, "What is it, Scuttle?"

Scuttle held the fork high in the air, as if it was the Holy Grail or something, and answered, "It's a…dinglehopper."

Ariel and Flounder looked a little impressed by this, but didn't know what a dinglehopper actually was. The truth was, Scuttle knew things about the human world, but he didn't exactly know everything about the human world. Seeing that he was a creature of the sea and land, Ariel considered him an expert on the trinkets that she would collect from the sunken wreckage of ships. Though there were times he was right; most of the time, but some times he just misnamed everything.

Scuttle then flicked the fork in the air and caught it as he explained, "You see a dinglehopper was designed by humans…to straighten their hair out." He then held the fork in his hand as he stated, "Here, let me show you." He then took the fork and stuck it on the mesh of feathers on his head. He then twisted and pulled the fork a bit, like his hair was a plate of spaghetti. And finally, the hair released as his hair was a wild mess like Einstein as Scuttle smirked, "And violee! Ya got an aesthetically pleasing configuration of hair that humans go nuts over."

He then handed it back to Ariel as she looked at the 'dinglehopper' with much fascination, "A dinglehopper…wow." But then something clicked her memory as she put the fork back in her satchel. "Scuttle, there's something I was hoping you could tell me…", the seagull looked interested as Ariel found it, "Could you tell me, what this book is about?"

Scuttle took the book in his winged hands as he opened it to examine it. He opened it and saw the many photos inside; he full-heartedly chuckled as he answered, "Now this is something that you see everyday.", he then held the book up as Ariel and Flounder were giving him their undivided attention, "Dis here ain't a book…this…is a bonafide Family Photo Album."

Ariel raised an eyebrow as she asked, "A Photo Album?"

Scuttle nodded as he placed the book down, "Yep, ya see…humans, as they grow older, would begin to lose their memories. Memories that were deeply important to them." He then pointed to the book as he stated, "So…they invented a type of lense that would copy the image of a person, people, place, or the event that they wanted to remember. The image would appear on a piece of paper and they created a photo album, which is a huge collection of pictures, to remember their best moments."

Scuttle then gave the book back to Ariel as she looked at it with much understanding. She looked at the book for a moment; almost a little saddened as she held the book carefully now. Within the album she had found, were hundreds of memories that belonged to the family of the human that she saved six years ago. Now she wished more than ever to hopefully see the boy again; and when she did, she would give this back to him. If anything, memories of family were something that was more treasured than anything you could find in a sunken ship.

Flounder looked at the saddened look on Ariel's face, and asked a little concerned for her, "Ariel, are you okay?"

Ariel was a little surprised by Flounder's voice, and shook her head. She gave him a smile as she put the book back in the satchel, "Oh, it's nothing, Flounder." She then pulled out the pipe as she gave it to Scuttle, "Um, Scuttle, what do you call this?"

Scuttle's eyes nearly bulged out of his head as he stated, "Ah, this!" He then walked away from them for a moment, cradling the smoking pipe, "I haven't seen this in years. This is spectacular!", he then turned around and walked towards them as he presented the pipe once more, "a banded, bulbous…snarfblatt." Ariel and Flounder let out an awe as they let Scuttle explain the origin of the snarfblatt, "Ya see, the snarfblatt dates to prehistorical time when humans used to sit around…", and then he stared eye to eye with Ariel, "…and stare at each other all day." A small pause went for a while until Scuttle said, "It got very boring." He then shot up as he stated, "So they invented this snarfblatt, to play…."

"I'm gonna tram the water with your head, Thatch!"

Ariel and Flounder were nearly startled as they hid behind the rock. They had recognized that to be a human's voice as they peered over the rocks and saw five humans, sitting on strange shaped pieces of wood. From what Ariel saw the two who were arguing must have been the leaders. But when her eyes turned towards the human with the short and tussled black hair, she felt a strange twinge feeling in her heart. She had only seen this human only now, but she had felt like she had seen him before. It was then that she realized who that boy was, as she whispered, "It…it can't be…" but she shook her head, 'No…it's not possible…'

Eric flipped off Seifer as he shot back, "In your dreams, Cap head." Before long hand, Seifer had challenged Eric to a surf challenge. The challenge was simple: whoever got thrown off their boards while surfing was ultimately the loser. This had been going on long ever since either one could swim. For some reason Seifer had seen Eric as sort of a rival, so it was only logical to him that he'd challenge Eric constantly.

Ariel looked at the two as they swam towards the rising waves. She looked to Scuttle for answers as she asked, "Scuttle, what are they doing?"

Scuttle smirked from his place, not afraid of the humans as he answered, "Ah, it's pretty simple, Ariel. They're surfing."

Ariel looked to Flounder and he to her in confusion, as they looked to Scuttle and asked him together, "What's surfing?"

Scuttle looked at them as he asked, "You never heard of surfing?" He smirked as he pointed to the boys, "That's surfing. You see, surfing, is a sport that humans developed in order to train themselves to be Merfolk." Ariel looked to Scuttle in surprise as he explained to them that it had stemmed all the way back to Ancient Egypt as humans had discovered the existence of Merpeople. And ever since then, they discovered, that by riding the waves on boards, gave them the experience on par with the Merpeople. For centuries it had become a sport that humans had done. All the human had to do was find a piece of driftwood, or any flat board that floated on the water, find a huge wave, and ride it long enough than the others if they fall off. Ariel took it all in, and now much interested in this, watched the humans with much anticipation in this little challenge.

The two boys started out as they lay belly first on their boards, waiting for a wave to pop up. And it did as it came up from under them and carried them upward, becoming bigger and bigger. A few paddle strokes up the now big wave, and the boys jumped on to the boards with no problem in their surfing stances, and surfed the wave with the best of their skills. Eric was taking the lead as he rode the wave on the side, and with a little speed, he hang-ten jumped up the wave, into the air, and maneuvered back on the wave with no problem. Seifer was zig-zagging his way on the wave, and did a huge hang-ten jump and wave grind, and landed back on the wave, closing in on Eric.

Seifer was snaking his way at Eric; and like a serpent, he was going to strike at him with ease. That was Seifer's style, as well as his big muscle-bound buddy, Krad's style; they would surf up to unsuspecting or slow surfers, and knock them off their boards with sheer speed, like a bull hitting a bull fighter in the butt. And that was what Seifer was doing as he charged right at Eric. Ariel saw the whole thing; she knew he would get knocked off violently, and covered her mouth in worry.

But as Seifer was about to ram him, at the last second, Eric crouched over and held on to his board. Then as he surfed up the wave, Seifer charged at him, but then Eric and the board jumped up away from him, and did an incredible 360 in the air. The shock of seeing his rival doing such an impossible stunt, caused Seifer to lose sight of where he was going, and crashed into the cone of the wave. He was down and out as the wave past by with Eric landing on it again, and Seifer popping out of the water, and clinging to his board, but sneering at Eric like never before.

Frey saw his friend pulled out his stunt, and saw him surfing back over in his direction, "WHOA! That was...TOTALLY WICKED!"

Eric waved in and parked next to Frey as they smacked fists with each other in a friendly way, "Who's the man?"

"You are.", Frey answered while he gave Eric a high-five, "Dude, that Maverick was awesome."

As the two friends were celebrating their victory over the surfer bully, Seifer, Ariel looked at Eric with much amazement. She couldn't be sure if this was the boy that she had met before, but now she was just too enthralled at seeing him surf. He was so graceful and moved perfectly on the water; it was as if he was gliding or flying on the water instead of riding on it. She sighed as she leaned on the rock, forgetting about staying hidden, 'He's really amazing.'

Scuttle then took notice of Ariel's daydreaming, and didn't know why. So like always, he misinterpreted it, as he smirked and said to Ariel, "Yep, surfing's a lot like music: it needs to be carefully tuned out and played right, or it sounds bad and the only bad review is when you get hit by the wave you try to surf on…or straight into a seabed rock. When that happens, your bones either get broken or shattered."

Ariel's face suddenly went from daydreaming, to realization and shock. When Scuttle had mentioned the word 'music', something clicked in her memory. She groaned and cringed as she asked herself, "Music?"

Scuttle replied, "Yeah, you know…"

Ariel groaned as she grabbed her satchel and stated in a panicked tone, surprising both Flounder and Scuttle, "Oh my gosh! I forgot about the concert!", she slapped her forehead in realization. She also knew what would happen seeing that her father knew of her absence. She groaned to herself, "My father's gonna kill me."

Flounder paled as he asked, "The concert was today?" He knew how much a temper her father had; and if there was one thing in the ocean never tried to do, was one thing. You never get on Triton's bad side, unless you want the oceans to shake like an underwater earthquake.

She grabbed the snarfblatt from Scuttle's hand as she apologized, "I'm sorry, Scuttle, but I've gotta go." And with that, she and Flounder swam as she waved to him, "Goodbye, Scuttle!", and with that, the duo dived into the water and headed for home.

He did the same as he waved, "Come back anytime, Sweetie! Any time!"

The five teens were still amongst each other, even Seifer who had regained his board and was in hot argument with Eric. He was fuming on the fact that Eric had won and shouted, "You only won because you got lucky on the Maverick. It's not gonna happen again."

His buddy Krad jabbed in as he stated, "Yeah, you got lucky this time, Thatch!", Krad turned towards the girl as he asked for backup, "Ain't that right, Fuu?"

The girl now known as Fuu simply shrugged and spoke in a monotone voice, "Yeah."

Frey then half-smirked as he was feeling a little cocky for his buddy today. He crossed his arms as he stated, "Are you kidding me?", he then pointed to Eric as he boasted, "My main surfing man, Eric here, could surf circles, 360s, and tubes all around you guys." He then turned towards Eric to get a response, only to see him pointing as they realized that a huge wave was heading right for them.

Before anyone could do anything, the wave got them, knocking them off their boards. They were all thrown underwater, as they regained consciousness and swam up before they ran out of air. Eric shook his head as he was the last still down there, seeing that his wave crash was a little more on his head than his back. As he regained his bearings and about to swim back up, something caught his eye in the water.

He spotted a familiar sight that he swore to himself that he might have been dreaming. 'It's her!', he thought as he saw her turn to his direction, 'It's the mermaid girl.' He saw her, holding a satchel of some kind, and accompanied by a yellow and blue fish. As he looked at her, he couldn't tear his eyes off of her now that he saw that like himself, she was sixteen and now a teenager. He thought she was pretty when he was ten, but now after six years, he saw that she was the most beautiful girl you would ever lay your eyes on, and counted on seeing such a girl as a blessing.

Ariel had heard the wave crash above, and stopped for a moment to see what had happened. It was only a few moments that she saw the humans swim back to the surface. And just when she was about to leave, she saw the black haired human staying there, and looking right at her. She nearly froze in her watery tracks as she realized that he wasn't just staring in space…he was really looking at her.

Eric was just frozen there, not sure of what to do. Should he swim over there to see her and greet her in a second attempt, or...Suddenly, he was pulled back up by his buddy, Frey. Ariel sighed in relief, and with that, swam away as fast as she could.

Eric was coughing up water as he groaned to himself, "Great. Another chance down the drain."

Frey looked at him confused as he asked, "What chance? What are you talking about?"

Eric shrugged as he and Frey swam back to their boards, "Oh, you wouldn't believe it." He decided to tell his buddy anyway, considering Frey, like everyone else he told, and said it as a usual thing you'd bring up in conversation, "I saw my mystery girl in the water. She was swimming out towards the Atlantic, along with a yellow fish." He then turned to Frey as he finally stated, "And I would have swum over to her and say some things, if it weren't for a meddling friend, whom shall remain anonymous."

Frey looked at his friend and thought he had made the whole thing up. He shook his head as he laughed, "Ha! That's a good one, Eric." And he paddled his way back to land as he shouted, "Let's get back on dry land before another killer wave kills us."

As Eric was following suit, Seifer shouted towards him, "Don't forget, Thatch. You and Asapin better be at the port for Coach Barkin's meeting."

Eric sighed as he remembered that; Coach Barkin always had his meeting at his boat house, which was actually a yacht. Whenever that happened, it usually meant a meeting and a training session in swimming at the ocean, with Barkin barking out orders. Eric shook his head at this dreadful thought, but then turned back to the ocean. He looked at it as he whispered to himself, "There's no doubt about it. That was her." He then smiled as he now knew that what he saw six years ago, wasn't a hallucination, "Someday…someday I'm gonna find her and talk to her."

Back in the Ocean

Ariel and Flounder were swimming as fast as they could to make it back to Atlantica. They would make it fast time if they could reach the East and West Water Current, the tube-like current chain that allowed fast travel between the East and West side of the Atlantic. Flounder couldn't help but look at Ariel, seeing that she was a little distraught. But it wasn't the concert that seemed to be on her mind. Back there, he caught a glimpse of Ariel looking at something that caused her to look in shock and surprise like that, and seem so nervous at the same time. He would have to ask her about it as they swam towards the Current's location. But little did the two know, they were being watched.

Coming out of the rocky cliffs and caves of the water, something had merged out of the seabed floor. Two human looking fellows that looked like pirates of some kind. But they didn't seem to be human as they also looked like they were part fish.

One of them was a man who was part hammerhead shark due to his gray skin, and also covered in barnacles. He wore black faded pants, black boots, a belt buckle across his chest, and had with him two battle axes that could cleaver a man in half. He had the head of a hammerhead shark, his right eye being normal while the left had migrated to the far end of his head. His teeth were also shark-like, with his lips stained red with blood presumably from biting himself. A set of crustacean-like legs spouted from his back. The fingers on his left hand also closely resembled crab legs.

The other one was a a pufferfish-like human covered halfway in barnacles, but still showed evidence of being half-pufferfish. He wore brown faded pants, black boots, and a light brown sash belt. Half of his face was like that of a pufferfish, with a great swollen amber eye and a spiny cheek which slowly inflated and deflated with his breathing. He wore a brown bandanna and cloak which was tied around his neck, and also a very large round earring in his left ear. He had on him a variety of different weapons such as a knife, axe and a sword.

The two of them looked at the little mermaid with much sinister interest. The Hammerhead's left eye and the pufferfish's right eye both glowed yellow for a while. The reflection of Ariel and Flounder danced in their glowing eyes, as they almost began to merge together to form a crystal ball of some kind. Little did anyone know, that these two were spying for someone else.

Elsewhere

The place was dark and eerie, as it gave itself the look of a haunted underwater cavern. The deep cavern ways glowed with an eerie mixture of purple and red as the cavern walls looked like the inside of a ribcage. There were human or Merfolk skull lanterns lighting up some places and seaweed clinging at the roof. And in the center of the main chamber of wherever this place was, an eerie cauldron with teeth sticking out of the opening, held a crystal bubble that showed Ariel and Flounder swimming back to Atlantica.

And then an eerie calm feminine voice cooed out, "Yes, hurry home, Princess." The voice had come from a giant conch shell that was suspended from the ground. In it, a shadow loomed in with two sharp eyes looking that the bubble as the voice sarcastically stated, "We wouldn't want to miss old Daddy's celebration, now would we?" The very sound of that celebration; the day that she was banished from her role as council member of Atlantica's council by her own brother, Triton, made her gag with revulsion. She sneered as she scoffed the celebration, "Ha! Celebration, indeed. Oh, Bah!"

The figure then reached out for a clam plate, full of still living shrimp as they looked at the terrified hand. The voice spoke once more as it grabbed one of the squirming shrimp, "In my day, we had fantastical feasts...", the hand lifted the terrified and pleading shrimp to a vicious looking mouth as it finished saying, "…when I, the great Sea Witch, Ursula, lived in the palace.", and then threw the shrimp into her mouth with sickening chomping sounds and a gulp.

The voice then said in a depressed tone as she slid out of the shadows, "And now, look at me…wasted away to practically nothing." She was revealed to be from her waist up, an obese purple-skinned, white-hair, mole under her lip, that stuck up, a snail shell necklace around her neck and purple hermit crab shell earings, female human and from the waist down she has the tentacles of a black octopus. She slunked over a she complained with venomous murder in her voice, "Banished, exiled, and pratically starving." She then slid out of her conch lounge chair as she complained, "While my brother, his daughters, and their flimsy fish folk celebrate."

She then slithered on over to the crystal ball as her fists curled up as she sneered, "Well, once I get my hands on the three Hearts of the Sea, I'll give them all; human and merfolk alike, something to celebrate." She turned towards the crystal and shouted, "Maccus! Koleniko!" The two fish-humanoids nearly shook out of their boots from Ursula's rant, as she ordered, "I want you to contact your captain. Tell him it's urgent for him to be here. And I want you two to keep an extra close watch on Triton's pretty little daughter."

She snickered and smiled evilly as her tentacles curled devilishly as she looked at the innocent Ariel with much scheming in mind, "She may be the key to Triton's undoing."

Back at Port Royal

Near the Cove's Beach

Near the Cove's beach was a small neighborhood that was nestled to where the town and the beach were stationed in. It was located in a lush area, but the house in the neighborhood was near the sandy beach. The house in general, was a Victorian house so to speak, which had been redesigned to be built on the beach, with it included a wooden back patio for beach-going. Victorian houses were built in the US and Canada and were much popularized in the Victorian era. This house was three stories high with a rounded tower, a wraparound porch and there was great attention paid to detail. This house had curved glass windows in the tower. The features shown on the house were the rounded tower, a verandah or roof opened porch, bay windows and dormers. And this was the house that Eric was living in, as he ran up to it, placed his board next to the wooden patio, and walked on inside.

Eric looked around the house, and even though he had moved in with his uncle, he still couldn't get over the mess. Even though the living room was still clean and neat with the couch, the lounge chairs, and the coffee table and other household fixtures, some parts of the place was boxed up with ancient civilization relics from his Uncle Milo's department. Eric sighed as he asked himself, "Is this what they mean by bringing their work home with them."

"Hey, Eric!", Eric turned and saw his Uncle Milo walking down the stairs with a briefcase and papers. Milo padded his nephew's shoulder with his freehand as he asked, "Glad to see you came home a lot faster. So how was your day?"

Eric shrugged, "Um, I guess it wasn't all that bad."

Milo placed his briefcase on the coffee table as he proceeded to stuff his papers in, but turned to ask, "You don't sound too happy, Eric. What happened?"

Eric sighed as he leaned on the stairway's walk post, "Oh, it wasn't anything too bad. I just got knocked off my surfboard is all." He saw his uncle chuckle at that as he sat down, using a pair of oversized glasses to look at something. Then Eric scratched the back of his head as he took a deep breath, and asked his uncle, "Uncle Milo…do you think I'm crazy?"

Milo turned away from his paperwork, and looked at Eric with the glasses still on his head. They gave his eyes a huge magnified look, making him look a little crazy as he asked with a raised eyebrow, "My favorite nephew? Crazy?", he scoffed that notion as he asked, "Where would you get an idea like that?"

Eric sighed as he leaned on the coffee table, "Uh, I don't know. It's been six years now; I'm sixteen years old now, no longer a kid, but I still believe in something like mermaids."

Milo took off his binacu-glasses as he looked to his nephew with his regular glasses, "Oh, come on, Eric. It's not that strange to believe in something that no one believes exists." In the past six years, ever since Eric had told him of the mermaid that saved his life, his nephew had been going to the museum and libraries of Port Royal to find anything he could about Merpeople. Their legends, myths, stories; anything that was concrete enough to even show some signs of truth in them.

Milo packed his suitcase to get ready for work at the museum as he padded his nephew's shoulder, "Don't forget what your grandpa said: In every Myth and Legend, there is always Truth." He then took his suitcase as he went for the door, "Now, I've gotta get to work now. Dinner's in the fridge; it's leftover pizza from Sunday.", and with that, he was out the door, and heading for work.

Eric shook his head with a smile as he walked up the stairs to his room. It was the first door in the hallway upstairs as he turned the knob, and opened the door. As he stepped in, he was glomped on by a shaggy dog around the size of a golden retriever and its fur was colored white with grey spots. It was none other than Max as he was overjoyed to see his master as he licked at his face.

Eric smirked at this as he scratched the back of his dog's head playfully, "Hey, Max. How ya been today, boy?" Max just jumped around, excited to see his master again. Eric could relate on that, seeing as how Max always missed him when he was gone for the whole day. Eric walked over to his closet to get his jeans, shirt and jacket ready for the night. He looked around his room. It was a simple design for his room; his bed was in the middle next to the left side of his room. His desk was on the right side with a computer and printer on top of it. At the end of the room was a circular window, big enough for a person to get out with no need to squeeze through. There were a few lounge chairs in the corner to where the window was, along with a TV, DVD Player, and a PS2 connected to it. The walls were covered in posters about great surfing tournaments, and a few maps of the world's greatest surfing points.

Eric got on his jeans with his wetsuit still underneath. He walked over to his desk and sat down at the chair, with Max coming over and resting his head on Eric's lap. Eric scratched Max's head playfully as he turned to where he was looking; it was a picture of the mermaid that had saved her six years ago, only it was her as a ten year old girl. Eric pulled out a plain sheet of paper, a mechanical pencil, and leaned over his desk and started to draw. After a few minutes, Eric had drawn a black and white picture of the same mermaid, now a young woman. He then posted it next to the one of her as a ten year old girl. He leaned in on his chair as he and Max looked at the two pictures. Eric looked at the pictures, both with fascination, and a little depressed. He figured that even though he told himself that he would see her again, he knew that it was easier said than done.

Max looked up to Eric and seemed to whimper, almost sensing on what his master was thinking about. Eric noticed Max's depression, and smiled at him, petting him gently. He took comfort in someone caring about him, like his uncle did, and said to Max, "I know, Max. I know." He then looked at the picture of the mysterious mermaid, and said to it hopefully, "I hope I can see you again."

Back in Atlantica

The Royal Palace

Flounder was waiting by the throne room's door as he was waiting for Ariel to be done. When they had arrived back to Atlantica, and back to the palace, they had already missed the concert, and knew that Triton wasn't going to like this. They were going try to sneak their way back in, hoping not to get caught. Unfortunately they had gotten caught by one of the Mer-guards and Ariel was summoned forth by her father. Now all Flounder could do was watch the scolding, and there wasn't a thing he could do to help.

Triton was sitting at his throne, which was a very stylized shell shaped throne with a crown on top of it, and two Greek like torch stands beside it. Sebastian was floating right beside the Sea King's left as he too as fuming at this. Ariel was the only one standing in front of them, with her arms behind her as she tried her best to apologize. But Triton wasn't making it easy as he was still scolding her as he asked her, "I just don't know what we're going to do with you, young lady."

Ariel looked to her father with a pleading smile as she did her best to apologize, "Daddy, I'm sorry. I just forgot that the concert was today. You've got to…"

But Triton interrupted her apology as he ignored it and pointed out, "As a result of your careless behavior…"

Sebastian shot out as he hung on to Triton's crown, "Careless and reckless behavior!" However, Sebastian noticed Triton was glaring back at him; giving him a 'Stay out of it' look. Sebastian disappeared behind the king in order to let the king continue.

Turning his attention back to his daughter, Triton berated, "…the entire celebration was, uh…", he stopped, trying to think of something to say, when someone else said it.

Sebastian popped out from the king's beard, somehow, and finished, "Well, it was ruined!", he then swam up to Ariel as he went on, "That's all! It was completely destroyed." Ariel just crossed her arms and half smirked as Sebastian went on in a dramatic way, "This was to be the pinnacle of my distinguished career."

Then Ariel sort of felt a little ashamed of her actions today, but then felt even worse as Sebastian frantically shouted to her, "NOW THANKS TO YOU, I AM THE LAUGHING STOCK OF THE ENTIRE SEA KINGDOM!" It was then that Ariel's head slunked down in shame; Flounder saw this, and just couldn't let this go on.

Without even thinking first, he swam up to a surprised Sebastian, and retorted, "But it wasn't her fault!" But then Flounder shrunk back a little, as he saw Triton lifting an eyebrow in his presence. But Flounder wasn't about to stop there, as he continued, but slightly stuttered a little, "Uh, well…uh, first, uh, the shark chased us.", he smiled at that as he nodded, "Yeah, yeah. And we tried…but we couldn't…", he continued, ignoring the King and Sebastian, looking at each other in uncertainty about this story, and back to Flounder as he continued, "and he was like GNARL! And…and we were like…WHOA!", he then sighed in relief, "And then we were safe.", and then he did the most absent-minded thing ever as he continued, "But then this seagull came, and it was, 'This is this…and that it is that…', and then…", Flounder stopped as he and Ariel gasped at what was just said.

Triton shot up after hearing that, as he asked, "Seagull?" Flounder, in fear of what he had just said, swam right behind Ariel in an attempt to hide from Triton. As Flounder hid, Ariel looked to her father with a pleading smile as Triton shot up from his throne as he swam to his daughter, looking quite angry at the time, "You went up to the surface again, didn't you? DIDN'T YOU?"

All Ariel could do at that remark, was innocently smiled and shrugged, "Nothing…happened."

Triton just sighed with exasperation as he placed a hand over his face, rubbing his temples in frustration. This was a conversation that had been going on between them for the past six years now. He then looked to Ariel as he scolded once more, "Oh, Ariel, how many times must we go through this?" He then turned his back for a moment as he stated, "You could have been seen by one of those barbarians!", and then turned back towards Ariel and said one word full of such venom, "By…by one of those…HUMANS!"

Ariel then stood up tall as she defended the humans, particualry one human on he rmind, "Daddy, they're not barbarians!"

Triton ignored her as he continued, completely ignoring what she just said, "They are dangerous and destructive." He then swam up to her, and cupped her chin while he looked at her with much concern, "Do you think I want to see my youngest daughter snared by some fish-eater's hook?"

Ariel frowned at that child comment as she pulled away and angrily stated, "I'm sixteen years old, Daddy. I'm not a child anymore!"

Triton shouted back while pointing his finger at her and sternly looked at her, "Don't you take that tone of voice with me, young lady!" Ariel tried to talk back, but he kept going with it, "As long as you live under my ocean, you'll obey my rules!"

Ariel sighed as she tried in desperation to reach to her stubborn and headstrong father, "But if you would just listen…"

"NOT ANOHTER WORD!", Triton shouted back, making Ariel and Flounder jump back as the castle shook with his thunderous voice, "AND I AM NEVER….NEVER TO HEAR OF YOU GOING TO THE SURFACE AGAIN!" And then he turned to face her as he shouted, "IS THAT CLEAR!"

Ariel gasped, and wondered if her father realized just how cruel his words were. She started to shake with rage, but then it turned to sadness as her lower lip quivered slightly. A terrible silence hung in the room, while father and daughter stared at each other unblinkingly. The words hovered in the air like a poisonous fume, a foul odor given off by the emotions churning inside of her. Triton simply folded his arms across his chest, and intensified his glare.

Finally, Ariel broke down and turned away. She simply had to get out of the castle room, and she knew of such a place. With one last stare at her father, she turned and swam out of there with a silent and blind fury. Flounder, unable of what to do, followed after her. In seconds, she was swimming as fast as she could, where nobody could see the tears streaming from her eyes.

After she had left, Triton had calmed down a little as he swam back to his throne and sat down. He then looked back to where he had seen his daughter swimming off and felt a twinge of regret of what he had just done. He knew he shouldn't have been so harsh to her like that.

Sebastian, on the other hand, was taking the side of the King as he huffed, "Hmph! Teenagers; they think they know everything.", he then pointed to Triton as he stated, "You give them an inch, they swim all over you."

Triton then looked a little concerned about it, as he turned towards Sebastian and asked him, "Do you, uh…think I was too hard on her?" In truth, Triton saw a lot of himself in Ariel; the fact that her being as headstrong just like him was proof enough of that. And that was what made him so concern for her, because that could get her into a lot of trouble.

Sebastian raised his eyebrow and just spoke out his mind, "Definitely not! Why if Ariel was my daughter, I'd show her who was boss." He then went on as Triton was thinking about something, "None of this flitting to the surface, and other such nonsense. No, sir. I'd keep her under tight control"

Triton scratched his chin in thought for a moment. He was always worried about his daughter and needed someone to keep an eye out for her and to protect her. But he felt that tight control wasn't the best answer, until it clicked in his head. He smiled at Sebastian as he stated, "You're absolutely right, Sebastian."

Not changing his facial expression, Sebastian nodded, "Of course."

Triton then explained to him, "Ariel just needs constant supervision." He explained that he needed someone to watch over her; a guardian or bodyguard as it were. Someone who would under tight circumstances keep her out of trouble. And if she was in it, that person would get her out of it.

Sebastian nodded as he stated, "All the time."

And then he was poked in the stomach by Triton as he stated, "And you…are just the crab to do it."

Sebastian nodded at that absentmindedly, but then the realization sunk in as he went bug eyed.

Later On

Sebastian was walking or crawling down the hallways of the might palace. He was currently sulking to himself on what had just happened. He had been handpicked by King Triton, to play as babysitter to his majesty's youngest teenage daughter. He mumbled and complained to himself as he crawled his way in search for Ariel, "How did I get myself into these situations." He threw his claws in the air as he whined, "I should be writing and composing symphonies. Not tagging along after some headstrong teenager."

Then, as if he had magically summoned an opportunity, he noticed Ariel and Flounder meeting at the outside of the palace. He had no need to hide, considering he was small enough not to be noticed, and saw that Ariel was trying her best not to be spotted. After she made sure they were clear, she and Flounder swam off towards the West of the kingdom, and West of the Atlantic.

Sebastian raised an eyebrow as he asked himself, "What is that girl up to?" used his claws to paddle himself up and after them.

Next Chapter: Talking for the First Time; Part of Your World