Discovery

Ch. 2

(12 years later)

Ariel was walking around in the magnificent ballroom. There were bouquets of flowers, bright-colored curtains and many clothed and neatly placed tables, and a small spot for a music group. Everything was in order, and everyone was working hard to get everything ready. But it appeared that no one had seen any sign of Melody yet. Ariel was starting to get a little worried. The party was in a few hours, and she hadn't seen her daughter anywhere.

"Melody," she called. "Melody?"

But no one answered. Ariel huffed irritably, turning to look somewhere else. Then a small plump woman came by carrying a load of towels. It Carlotta, their head maid. Ariel rushed over to her.

"Oh Carlotta, have you seen Melody?"

Carlotta shook her head. "Not since this morning Your Majesty."

Then she went off. Ariel sighed again. She started heading towards the kitchen. After walking for a while, she had come to the door. Ariel opened the door and walked in. Inside was a large many layered cake with pink and white icing. Next to it, standing on a ladder, was Louis. He was putting the candles on the cake. He turned as she walked in.

"Louis, Melody's not in here is she?"

Louis turned to face her. "No Your Highness."

Ariel sighed and shut the door behind her. Now she was really worried. She had looked all around the palace. She didn't know what she was gonna do. This wasn't the first time her daughter had disappeared out of no where. She had done it quite often. It wasn't that it bothered her, it was just it got a little annoying sometimes. There was nowhere else Melody could be. Or so she thought.

Sebastian was outside in the water, jumping from rock to rock, looking for Melody. He was starting to get irritated.

" 'Sebastian, you watch over her,' he says." Sebastian mumbled angrily.

He kept hopping along, hoping to find her. But so far he couldn't.

"I'm to old for dis. A crab my age should be retired, getting a tan, playing sea golf, sippin a tuna colada! Not babysitting another teenager."

"Hey Sebastian." called Scuttle, floating down towards him. "Whatcha doin?"

"Trying ta find a runaway princess." Sebastian said sarcastically.

Then suddenly, he heard slight laughter coming from behind him. He turned curiously. As he looked around a rock, he saw boy floating- yes, floating- in mid-air, just above the water. Sebastian moaned. It was Peter Pan. He was here, again. He knew all about his visits to Melody, but that didn't mean he wasn't a little untrustworthy. Friend or not, he was still a boy. And leaving Melody with a boy at her age was unacceptable. At least in his opinion.

"I swear Mel, if you try to scare me you're so gonna get it.". Peter called. "

Then he took off his hat and threw it on a rock, and dove into the water. Sebastian assumed they must have been playing underwater hide and seek again. He went to the end of the rock, and dived. As he fell onto the sea floor, he started walking along the wet sandy ground. He looked around, but saw nothing. It seemed to take him forever to even find her. He didn't know what he'd do if he didn't find her in time. Ariel would be upset, no doubt. But what would he do? What would he say? Sebastian kept searching, and couldn't find her anywhere. Then just as he was about to leave, he thought he heard something from behind him. He turned, and thought he saw something float by. He climbed up the rock, and looked around. There just ahead of him, was Melody. She was floating around, playing with a dolphin. Sebastian gasped.

"Melody!" he yelled, waving at her.

Melody appeared not to have heard him. She was just staring at the dolphin, watching its every move. Then after a second, it began to float towards the surface. Melody started to follow the dolphin, swimming up to the surface too. Sebastian grimiest slightly, and started to follow her. Melody was following the beautiful dolphins progress as it floated upward. She started to follow it up to the surface. She was starting to run out of air anyway. Soon enough her head flipped from the water, her bangs arching back for a moment before falling in their original place. As she took a gulp of air she swam to the nearest rock. She climbed on it, took off her backpack and opened it to examine her loot. Then she heard what sounded like gasping coming from behind her. Melody turned and saw Sebastian laying on the edge of the rock, gasping for air, and Scuttle on a rock next to him. Melody smiled at them.

"Hey Scuttle." Melody said happily. "Hey Sebastian. What's kickin'."

"Uh, what's kickin…" said Scuttle scratched his head. "Let see. Don't rush me…"

Sebastian laughed sarcastically. "Ha, you know perfectly well what's kicking, young lady."

"What do you mean?" Melody asked, looking in her bag.

"Oh, don't pretend you don't know." said Sebastian irritably.

Melody sighed as she continued to rummage in her bag. That was one of those things about Sebastian. He never really got to the point, you always had to guess what the problem was. And by the time he told you, he was already pissed off that you didn't already know, which of course made the situation much worse. She turned to face him.

"I really don-"

But from behind her, they all heard a light splash. Melody froze for a second, then smirked. She turned to face the other large rock behind them. Around it was small ripples floating out into the water. Melody giggled slightly as she slowly slid into the water and started floating towards the rock. When she got to it, she slowly started to climb it. She peeked over the edge and sat there for a moment. Then from around the rock, came Peter.

"Hey Pete." said Scuttle loudly.

"Scuttle be quiet!" he whispered. "Melody might hear you!"

"So?"

"So we're playing hide-and-seek. I can't let her find me."

"Too late for that buddy." said Melody playfully.

Peter froze, then looked up. "Come on!" he shouted at the sky. "Can't I get a break here?"

"No." Melody giggled. "So, that's sixteen for me. How about seventeen out of thirty-two?"

"That's it!" Peter shouted.

Without warning, Peter jumped at her. Melody tried to move, but it was too late. Now they were both wrestling each other as they started to fall down the rock. Sebastian moved out of the way just as they got to him. Melody managed to push Peter off of her. He tried to go again, but before he could do anything Melody cannonball back into the water, splashing everyone. A second later, Peter dove in after her, splashing Sebastian too. As Melody and Peter came back up, they both started laughing, and Sebastian just scowling at them.

"Woops." said Peter shrugging.

Melody giggled. "Sorry Sebastian." she said sweetly, swimming up to the rock.

Sebastian rolled his eyes. "Melody child, how many times do I have to tell you? It is expressly-"

"It is expressly forbidden for you ta be swimming beyond da safety of da sea wall." she said playfully, mimicking his voice, finger in the air. "Any such swimming is a reckless disregard of de rules, don't ya know?"

Sebastian frowned at her. "Stop dat." he said, folding his claws.

Peter laughed as Melody giggled. "Oh Sebastian, I can't help it. I just love the sea." and she dove back into the water.

"Hey!" Sebastian yelled, spitting out more water. "Come back here."

But it was no good. Melody had already disappeared into the big blue sea. Peter laughed at him, and Sebastian moaned.

"Ugh, you're just like…" his voice trailed off. "…like your mother…"

Peter looked at Sebastian. Not entirely. He thought to himself.

Meanwhile, Melody was swimming through the water, looking around for more shells. As she poked her head down by a rock, a small school of fish came by. As the group left, one of the fish came up to her. Melody smiled at him, he smiled back as he turned upside down too.

"Hi Melody." he giggled.

And he swam away. Melody looked after him for a second before looking back. On the ground she saw a neat looking shell sitting on the end of the rock. She turned right side up and swam to it. She picked it up and examined it for a minute before placing it in her bag. Just then, the dolphin she had been playing with earlier came up to her. In his mouth was another cool looking shell. Melody squinted at it for a moment before giving him the thumbs up. She held out her bag, and he dropped it in. Then he went up to her and snuggled in her chest. Melody kissed him on the nose before setting out to look for more shells. As she continued on, she came across a small tavern. When she went over it, she saw something glitter out the corner of her eye. She stopped and looked at the hole. Then she turned and looked down the large hole in the sea floor. For a moment she couldn't see anything. Then she saw something glitter again. Melody smiled for a second, then descended down the trench. When she came to the bottom, she reached her hand out and grabbed glittering object. Melody picked it up and saw she was holding a shiny, golden seashell, and at the end of it was what looked like a small gold chain. Melody assumed it must be a necklace of some sort. The shell part was covered in hard dirt. It must have been down here for years. Melody stared at it curiously, wondering why someone would want to through away something as pretty as this.

Morgana was hovering her hands over her magic shell-like stand. It was smoking slightly and static seemed to be coming from it.

"Oh yes. This time I'm sure I've got it right."

Undertow smirked. "Yeah, that's what you said the last time." he mumbled. "And I was sore for a week."

Morgana rolled her eyes. "Oh stop your clamping and stand still."

Undertow groaned. "Oh, this is gonna hurt."

Morgana swam around her stand and through her arms up. Suddenly large green, lightening like static started shooting everywhere. Then she shoot her arm forward and it shoot undertow. All of a sudden, he started change. His features and body becoming larger and larger.

"Yes," shrieked Morgana. "Yes."

Then, all of a sudden, a bright light flashed. Then Undertow shrunk down in less than a second. When the light fell, he was now turned into a shrimp. He sighed. Morgana huffed. Then she grabbed another bottle from the shelf and mixed it up with the rest of the stuff. But this time, Undertow turned into a sea snail. Time after time, Morgana kept adding more and more stuff to the potion. They turned him into all kinds of things, except his true form. Then finally, they ended up just turning him back into a small shark. He spun around for a moment before straightening up.

"Oh it's useless!" Morgana cried, falling onto her ice chair. "The magic of the trident is just too powerful for me to over come!"

Undertow rolled his eyes and muttered, "Bet Ursula could've done it."

Morgana sat up. "What…was that?" turned to him. "You said…"

"Nothing." said Undertow said quickly. "I'm just saying-"

But he was cut off as Morgana threw another bottle at him. He dodged it and it hit the wall, and it broke. He glared at Morgana.

"Stop criticizing me!" Morgana screamed, taking out a starfish from a jar. "That's all my mother ever did was criticize me. It was always 'Ursula this', or 'Ursula that' or, 'Morgana why can't you be more like your sister, URSULA!?'"

As she spoke, she threw the starfish at the wall. It hit the picture of Ursula in the forehead. Then Undertow went up to her.

"Well, it wasn't Ursula's fault I was miniaturized. It's yours!"

"It is not." said Morgana defensively.

"Your fault, that we had to hide out here, for twelve frostbitten years…"

"Is not-"

"Your fault we can never show our faces in polite society again." Undertow yelled.

Morgana went up in his face. "You're really pushing it small fry." she sneered.

They glared at each other for a moment, then the orb on Morgana's stand started to glow. They both turned to it curiously. Then they went up to see what was in it. As they got up close, they saw a picture of a girl sitting on a rock. They knew it was Melody because they had been watching her from the moment they got here. Behind her was her friend, Peter. They knew about him as well, since he came to see her practically everyday. Everything looked the same. But as they continued to watch, they saw Melody holding something in her hand. It was a small golden seashell on a thin chain.

"It's the locket!" they gasped.

Then Morgana started to cackle loudly. "Oh yes, this is the exact break in the ice I've been waiting for. Once Ariel's precious little daughter discovers the secrets of the locket, she's going to have lots of questions. And who will be there with all the answers?"

Undertow chuckled. "We will."

"Exactly. She may be the perfect key to Tritons undoing."

"And I'll get to be big again." Undertow said happily.

Morgana was now grinning evilly. "Finally, I'll be able to do what my sister never could."

"Really, really big again." Undertow yelled.

"Total domination of the sea." Morgana shrieked.

Now they both were dancing around and shouting with joy. They were so happy. Finally, after twelve long and hard years, they might finally have a chance at victory.