Chapter Seventeen
(Song in this chapter is "Fathoms Below" from the movie "The Little Mermaid".)
I had gone pretty far when I saw a familiar fish and crab ahead of me swimming in the same direction. These two, I knew I could trust.
"Sebastian, Flounder, wait!" I called out quickly swimming to them.
"Aralyne!" Flounder exclaimed swimming into my arms, "You're back!"
I gave him a quick hug then explained why I was there (leaving out the bit about Morgana turning me into a mermaid. I lied saying a friend was helping me get my memories back) and asked him and the crab if they would help me.
"Wild seahorses couldn't stop me!" Flounder said while Sebastian nodded.
As we swam towards Atlantica, we passed through a miniature kelp forest and Sebastian said, "I don't remember this much kelp when we came through here this morning."
A piece of kelp suddenly slapped my behind (do mermaids even have butts?) and I shoved it back, becoming suspicious. Kelp wasn't this thick or animal-like.
"Kelp, schmelp," said Flounder pretending to be brave, "I ain't afraid of these overgrown weeds." He began doing some underwater karate moves, destroying some kelp. "Hi-yah! Take that! And that!" When he hit one kelp, it didn't bust, and he tried again with the same result. We all looked up to see a bunch of sinister looking eels glaring down at us.
"Guys?" said Sebastian in a squeaky tone, "That ain't kelp!" The eels charged for us. "Go, go, go, go!" The three of us swam for our lives towards some sort of underwater rock tower. Sebastian stopped on a ledge and told Flounder and me, "Keep going!" Not wanting to leave the crab behind, I stopped, and watched him shove a boulder off the ledge towards the eels. Unfortunately, they dodged, and came after me and Flounder, leaving Sebastian alone.
The fish and I swam towards some sort of cavern. "This way. Quick!" I panted becoming tired from all of the exercise. Man I was out of shape! "Where's Sebastian?" I inquired when we ducked behind a column. The eels were searching for us, and I held Flounder close when they swam by, thankfully not finding us. Flounder suddenly hiccuped, grabbing the eels' attention, and he screamed as I shoved him away so we could continue fleeing for our lives, entering a cave. Flounder and I hit a dead end and he clutched onto my arms, keeping me from reaching back for Excalibur.
Suddenly, octopus arms reached down from a hole above us, and pulled the both of us out of the cavern.
"Now!" the octopus shouted and off to the side, I saw a Manta Ray and a sea turtle launch a blow fish across the ocean, hitting a column. That column broke, striking another, and it caused a domino effect until the last column landed in the hole right as the eels were trying to come out.
"Awesome!" Flounder exclaimed right as the Manta Ray, turtle, and the blow fish came to join us.
"They hurtin' for certain," said the Manta Ray, who introduced himself as Ray-Ray.
The turtle agreed and his name was Shelbow. The blow fish, Cheeks, just laughed.
As Flounder and I pulled away from Ink Spot, the octopus, I said, "Sebastian's still back there!"
"Follow me!" Flounder cried swimming away, and we did, with the other sea creatures speaking at once.
"Let's go."
"Right in your wake, kid."
I had forgotten, there was another entrance/exit to the cave and choked back a scream when the eels suddenly appeared before us, snarling.
When one got right in my face, Flounder slapped its face with his tail and demanded, "How do you like that?" The eel obviously didn't like that and went after him. Flounder took off, screaming.
"Flounder!" I cried, about to go after them, but then the rest of the eels surrounded us. As the eels inched closer, I pulled out Excalibur, ready to use it. Hearing my friend's scream, I saw Flounder return, still trying to dodge the eel chasing him.
"Hey! Flounder at twelve o'clock!" Ink Spot shouted.
"12:04, actually," Shelbow corrected.
"Flounder!" I shouted, keeping one eye on him and the other on the eels before us. I swiped at one of the eels that tried taking a bite out of Ray-Ray, and it backed off, hissing at me. Recalling when I spent time with Flounder the first time I was a mermaid, he showed me some swimming tricks. "Do the corkscrew!"
"Break out all the utensils," said Shelbow right as Flounder started spinning around just like a corkscrew. He weaved around the eels, as one continued to follow him, and I saw Sebastian hanging onto its tail for dear life. We all began cheering him on.
"Who the fish?"
"That's it."
"Go, Flounder! Go, go!"
The eels got twisted around into a knot, and they were unable to go after any of us.
"Yeah, mon, just like we planned it," said Sebastian releasing the eel's tail.
"Way to go, Flounder, you did it!" I exclaimed, returning Excalibur to its scabbard as we all swam over to him.
"We did it, mon," said Sebastian giving Flounder a high-five.
"We sure did," Flounder agreed.
As we began swimming away, out of the corner of my eye, I saw the knot of eels struggling to move, and hit a column. It suddenly teetered over, heading straight for the crab.
"Sebastian!" I screamed heading for him.
"Look out!" Flounder shouted.
Before the column could hit the crab, I got between it and him. I felt it strike my back, and I lost consciousness as I felt myself drifting to the ocean floor….
Ink Spot quickly swam over and caught Aralyne before she could hit the ground.
"Is she going to be okay?" Flounder asked full of concern.
"We need to get her to Atlantica! Quickly!" Sebastian exclaimed, and the six sea creatures swam her over to the underwater city as fast as possible.
Upon arriving, they took her straight to the palace to King Triton and Queen Athena.
"Aralyne!" said the Queen, recognizing the girl right away as she was set upon the floor.
"Sebastian, what is she doing here?!" Triton roared, "You know as well as I do, that she was the one that killed Ariel!"
"Your Majesty, please!" Sebastian quickly said, "She's searching for a charm for a potion to help get her memories back, which have been erased, and she got injured saving my life!"
"At least allow her the time to rest until she's better," Athena said placing a hand upon her husband's arm, "Don't forget we had taken her in once before."
"Very well," said Triton reluctantly, "but only to rest! She must be placed in the dungeon after that to await her trial!" He pulled Excalibur off her back and gave it to a sword fish. "Lock this up. I don't want her having any weapons."
Right as Triton was turning away to leave with the swordfish, Aralyne moaned and slowly came to.
"Oh, my back," I groaned opening my eyes. I found myself staring at a group of familiar seafolk and gasped in horror at the King of Atlantica.
"Aralyne, sweetie, it's okay. You're safe now," said Queen Athena who smiled warmly at me.
"I'm so sorry!" I said curling up on myself.
Triton, who was swimming away came to a halt and turned to me, but said nothing.
"You had an accident and got hit on the back," the crab said patting my hand with one of his claws, "Are you okay?"
The King and Queen glanced at each other, having some sort of silent exchange. When Triton nodded, Athena smiled at me once more and said, "You're in no danger here, I promise you."
I realized Excalibur was missing from my back and saw a swordfish take it away. Shooting a quick glance at Triton, I didn't bother asking for my sword. I needed him to trust me.
Morgana was watching Shiloh's progress through her magic bubble and muttered aloud, "That's right, Princess. Just a little further." She suddenly turned to the manta rays and commanded, "Cloak! Dagger! Go make sure Triton has a reason to have her executed, hmm?" The two manta rays left the lair and Morgana returned her attention to the magic bubble.
Near the Southern Isles, it was incredibly cloudy in the morning sky. Birds were flying and porpoises were swimming happily. From the fog a ship appeared crashing through the waves.
"I'll tell you a tale of the bottomless blue
And it's hey to the starboard, heave ho
Look out, lad, a mermaid be waitin' for you
In mysterious fathoms below."
"Isn't this great?" said Prince Hans in delight, "The salty sea air, the wind blowing in your face . . . a perfect day to be at sea!"
Grimsby, leaning over the side, replied sarcastically, "Oh yes . . . delightful . . . ."
"A fine strong wind and a following sea. King Triton must be in a friendly-type mood," said one sailor hauling up a net filled with fish onto the deck.
"King Triton?" Hans asked in curiosity.
"Why, ruler of the merpeople, lad," explained a second sailor pulling a fish out of the net, "Thought every good sailor knew about him."
"Merpeople!" Grimsby scoffed at them, "Hans, pay no attention to this nautical nonsense."
"But it ain't nonsense, it's the truth!" the second sailor snapped, waving the fish in Grimsby's face, "I'm tellin' you, down in the depths o' the ocean they live." The fish in his hand flopped away and landed back in the ocean, relieved.
"Heave. ho. Heave, ho. In mysterious fathoms below."
Now free, the fish swam away.
I swam right towards a sunken ship, a bag dangling from my shoulder. I stared at the ruins in wonder, excited to figure out its secrets along with finding the charm. The mermaid princesses said this would be a good place to find it.
From a distance, I heard Flounder call out, "Aralyne, wait for me…."
"Flounder, hurry up!" I said a bit impatiently.
He finally caught up to me and said, "You know I can't swim that fast."
"There it is," I said ignoring his statement, "Isn't it fantastic?"
"Yeah . . . sure . . ." he said disinterestedly, "it - it's great. Now let's get outta here."
"You're not getting cold fins now, are you?" I teased.
"Who, me?" he replied, "No way. It's just, it, err . . . it looks - damp in there. Yeah. And I think I may be coming down with something. Yeah, I've got this cough." He coughed unconvincingly and I rolled my eyes at him.
"All right. I'm going inside. You can just stay here and - watch for sharks," I suggested then swam into the sunken ship through a porthole.
"Okay. Yeah - you go," he said agreeing at first, but then realized what I said and added, "I'll stay and - what? Sharks! Aralyne!" He tried to fit through the porthole, but got stuck. "Aralyne . . . I can't . . . I mean – Aralyne, help!"
"Oh, Flounder," I said laughing.
He then whispered to me, "Aralyne, do you really think there might be sharks around here?"
"Flounder, don't be such a guppy."
"I'm not a guppy," he protested as I grabbed his fins and pulled him through the porthole. We then swam through the ship. "This is great - I mean, I really love this. Excitement, adventure, danger lurking around every corn-" he saw a skull, and screamed, crashed into a pillar causing a cave in and swam frantically away, knocking me over. "Aralyne!
"Oh, are you okay?" I inquired hugging him.
"Yeah sure, no problem, I'm okay . . . ." he replied, shaking in my arms. Releasing him, I continued to swim through the ship, keeping an eye out for the charm. "What was that?" Flounder suddenly asked, warily looking around, "Did you hear something?" I ignored his questions sure that it was nothing. "Aralyne . . ." he said sounding like he was ready to cry.
"Flounder, will you relax. Nothing is going to happen," I said.
A split second later, I heard Flounder scream and turned to see a shark looming behind him. "Run! Run! We're gonna die!"
The shark chased us all around the ship. My bag got caught by a piece of wood and floated off my shoulder. I couldn't leave it behind! Turning around, I retrieved my bag right as the shark almost got us. We then headed for a porthole. After quickly shoving Flounder through, I swam out, and the shark crashed through the wall as if it didn't exist. We swam all around, dodging the shark and Flounder got knocked silly when he swam right into a mast. As he drifted down to the floor, I dove after him and caught him near an anchor. The shark headed straight for us, and I dodged at the last second. The shark got trapped in the anchor's hole and glared at us.
Now himself once more, Flounder chided the shark, "You big bully," then blew a raspberry. The shark snapped at him and he swam away scared.
As we headed away from the sunken ship, I laughed and said, "Flounder, you really are a guppy."
"I am not."
We returned to Atlantica and entered the palace in silence. The tension between me and Triton was thick. Once there, he began to reprimand me in the throne room with my Athena and the princesses watching.
"I don't trust you going about my kingdom without one of my guards watching you. You are confined to the palace, Aralyne," he said, "I'll have my subjects look for the charm.
Confined to the palace?! But I didn't do anything! I muttered back angrily, "Why don't you just lock me in jail?"
Raising his voice, he repeated his earlier statement, but added a bit more to it, "Aralyne, you are confined to the palace until you understand what you've done."
"What did I do?" I demanded, "Tell me, You're Highness.…"
"Aralyne, leave it alone!" Attina snapped at me.
"No," I replied, "I haven't done anything wrong! It was all Siren! Siren is the one that killed Ariel, not me!"
He looked stunned for a moment, but then shook his head and said, "This discussion is over."
"Just tell me!" I said as he began swimming away.
"I do not have to explain myself to you," he replied.
"I don't understand," I said swimming after him, "Why are you treating me this way?! Ariel was my friend! I would never hurt her!"
"I will not have a lying murder in my kingdom!" he roared at me.
I stared at him, hurt and said in a quieter tone, "I may not have spent much time with Ariel and Melody, but I know they wouldn't have wanted this!" I left the throne room, crying.
Since I was stuck in the palace, I went to the room I had to myself. Triton didn't trust me to sleep with his daughters anymore. I sure as hell wasn't going to stay here and wait until someone found the charm for me. I was going to go out and get it myself.
But why? I thought to myself, Why try and remain a mermaid? Triton thinks of you as a monster, so why should you stay? But where else was I to go? Back to Nesidy full of people lying to me and using me as a pawn for their own selfish reasons?
Once it was late enough and I was sure everyone had fallen asleep. I snuck out of my room and left the palace. I hadn't gotten far when Sebastian and Flounder appeared out of nowhere, blocking my path.
"Where do you think you're going, young lady?" the crab asked me.
"To go find the charm, on my own," I said, "Besides, I'm not even wanted here. King Triton had proved that much."
"If you run away from Atlantica," said Sebastian, "it will give the King a reason to lock you up."
"I'm sorry. I just stay here and be confined to the palace," I said.
The crab then said, "Listen, girl, I will not be responsible for losing you."
"I'm leaving!" I said trying to swim around him and Flounder.
"Nobody's leaving!" Sebastian cried, blocking the path once more.
"Look, Sebastian," I said trying to make him see this through my point of view, "as long as I'm here, I'm seen as a monster, and there's no way to change Triton's mind on that."
Sebastian began pacing and muttering to himself, "Ha! Oh, no, no, no." Gasp! "Never mind." He suddenly screamed and looked very excited about something.
"Are you okay?" I asked in alarm.
"Aralyne, you're right!" I smiled now that he understood what I was feeling. "I know just where to go!"
He motioned for me and Flounder to follow and we did, and by the time dawn arrived, we were well out of Atlantica and out of sight form it as well.
"Go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go!" Sebastian urged as we swam out in the middle of nowhere while Flounder was scatting. "Flounder, shh! Move it, move it, move it, mon."
"Flounder, please!" Sebastian hissed, but the fish continued scatting. "This way. Come on."
"Where are we going exactly?" Flounder inquired, no longer scatting.
"Don't worry, mon," said Sebastian.
"'Cause I got to go to the bathroom," Flounder said.
"Oh, Flounder," I said rolling my eyes.
Eventually, we went on in silence. For a while anyway.
"Are we there yet?" Flounder inquired.
"No," Sebastian replied.
"Are we there yet?"
"No."
"Are we there yet?"
"No."
"Are we there yet?"
"No."
"Are we there yet?"
"Yes. This is it," Sebastian finally said.
We were out in the middle of nowhere with large boulders surrounding the area. Flounder and I looked about the place skeptically.
"Are you sure?" Flounder asked.
"Yes," Sebastian said smugly.
"Are you sure?" Flounder repeated.
"Yes," said Sebastian.
I began asking the same question and he yelled out the same answer.
"Are you s –"
"Yes! It's perfect," Sebastian declared, before walking away to find a place to sleep.
"Well, it beats the palace," I muttered to myself then moved over towards the crab and added, "Sebastian, be honest. Are we lost?"
"No, this is fine," he said giving me a smile, "There's more to this place than meets the eye." He went off to sleep, and I found a spot and lay down.