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The L i t t l e Mermaid
written by oathk33p3r
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Disclaimer: I own neither The Little Mermaid nor Kingdom Hearts. However, there will be several moments in this parody that are completely original.
In the first chapter, I said this will end with a tragedy. However, that will depend on how the story keeps going. Also, I'm really sorry for not updating! I'm terrible at motivating myself. Sorry if this chapter seems rather chopped, rushed and short. Thank you to those who kept reading and supporting me.
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It was past sunset, Kairi was sure of that. The dancing lights above her head had turned into waltzing, dark swirls. She never swam this close to the surface after sunset before.
The moon. Yes, that was the source of these waltzing swirls that moved with the small ripples and waves of the water. After a few more flicks of her tail, she interrupted the moonlight's dance as she broke through the surface of the ocean. After scanning her surroundings a few times, she found a crumbled structure looming in the distance. Good, the nest must be near…
Kairi immediately knew when she had entered the witch's lair. Years and years of million ingredients and fumes from the witch's potions had stained the water. Without warning, the water had turned from a tolerable, cool temperature to freezing. It was as if icy snakes were slithering against her bare skin. She was able to feel every one of her pores burn as the mix of ancient potions diffused in and out of her flesh.
The pain and stench was so unbearable that she even considered turning back, but before she knew it, Kairi was inside the witch's nest. To her surprise, it was much warmer, and the invisible snakes and stinging chemicals were gone. It was almost as if she was inside a bubble that protected her and everything in it from the toxic environment.
After rounding one last corner, Kairi was face to face with the sea witch.
She was beautiful.
There had been rumors that the witch was thousands of years old and that she had three tails instead of one. But the woman in front of her looked not much older than her and had the fairest skin she had ever seen on a mermaid. Blond, nearly white strands of hair floated around her angelic face and covered her bare breasts. Her tail was long and shimmered like flakes of gold dust in the night light. But her voice sounded like broken shells scraping across rock and hinted that a fragile, old woman was hiding behind that smooth skin.
"Why, a visitor. And not just a visitor—it's one of the seven princesses," the sea witch rasped.
She threw the last bit of fish skeleton into an empty giant clam before heading over towards Kairi.
"Why have you come?" she asked.
Kairi lifted her chin a bit higher and pushed her shoulder slightly back. After gulping in one last ounce of confidence, she answered.
"I want to become human."
The sea witch arched a brow. Her sky-like eyes twinkled with amusement.
"A human? Princess, I've been granting wishes of countless merpeople for nearly three thousand years, and I've never come across a little mermaid like yourself demanding for something as extraordinary as this. I'm sorry, but I'm afraid I don't want to do this for you."
Kairi's face fell as the witch turned her back on her and returned to her clam cauldron. She instantly swam after her and reached for the witch's youthful hand.
"Oh, good witch. Please try to change your mind! I must become human!" Kairi cried. "You see, I have fallen in love with a human, and I'm willing to do absolutely anything to be by his side," she confessed.
"In love with a human?" the witch repeated.
"Yes," Kairi replied, looking defiant.
The witch fingered the edge of her cauldron and thoughtfully looked into the bubbling, crimson material.
"How far are you willing to go?" she asked slowly.
"As far as I can."
The witch gave a slight smile and glanced at Kairi.
"Well, the princess is aware that I look forward to compensations, am I right? I'm expecting something very valuable that can compare to this sort of wish."
The little mermaid's confidence faltered for a moment.
"But ma'am, all I have is my soul and my tail…"
Sounds of drowning of seagulls echoed throughout the abandoned octopus's nest as the witch bent over and laughed.
"Oh, you have much more than that, Princess. In fact, you have exactly what I want right now."
Kairi's eyes widened in surprise.
"What can it possibly be?"
"You're using it right now," the witch rasped.
Kairi blinked, confused. And then she slowly wrapped her fingers around her neck.
"I don't suppose you're referring to my voice?"
"That's precisely what I'm referring to."
"But—"
"Look princess. I'm powerful. I've turned fish into gold, sea stars into mermaids. But never have I tested my magic beyond the surface of this water world. Your request comes with a high price, and it is up to you if you want to take it or not."
Suddenly, Kairi narrowed her eyes.
"How exactly do you remain so beautiful and young?"
The witch smiled and revealed a row of pearly white set of teeth.
"Little mermaids like you always have something worthy to take," she merely said. "So do you wish to trade?"
Kairi wondered how many other mermaids like herself have lost a part of them for something greater. She wondered whose blue eyes the witch was looking through, whose fair skin she was covering herself with, whose hair was floating around the beautiful face.
But those mermaids must have thought their sacrifices were worth it, and turning into a human was definitely worth the sacrifice.
"Yes," Kairi finally answered.
The witch silently took out an empty, glass vile and dipped it into the now-blue liquid steaming in the cauldron. She closed the top with a cork and held the vile in front of Kairi's eyes to see.
"this potion will turn your tail into legs, gills into lungs, and let you walk on land. However, there is a certain condition: it expires in three days. Once those three days are up, you will return to the sea not as a mermaid, but as sea foam."
Kairi gasped.
"But how—"
The witch shushed her by lightly touching her lips.
"However, if the human you are indeed in love with returns those same feelings to you, I will return your voice and you will remain a human forever."
"That must mean all those mermaids did not return…" Kairi thought as she looked at the witch's delicate, youthful features.
"I accept your compromise, ma'am," Kairi said firmly.
The witch placed the vile on Kairi's outstretched palm.
"I want you to closer your eyes, Princess," she then said. "and sing."
Kairi's heart thumped slightly faster as she shut her eyes. She hummed her mother's lullaby, trying not to think that this might be the last time she would be able to sing it."
The witch placed her hands on either side of Kairi's face and pressed her lips against Kairi's.
And she sucked out every word, every sound, every song Kairi had ever made in her lifetime.
"You really do have a lovely voice, the witch said as she tested out her most recent trade. What was once broken shells rattling against jagged rocks was now replaced with hushed tidal waves.
The little mermaid tried to dodge any feelings of regret and headed towards the exit of the nest without turning back, the vile tucked into a tight fist.
By the time Kairi made her way towards the shore, the black sky started turning a deep blue. There was a line of light peeking from the edge of the ocean. As she dragged herself out of the water and settled herself between a pair of gigantic rocks, a flood of worries overwhelmed her. She hadn't considered her home, her sisters, her father, her life. What if she couldn't find the human at all? Was it really possible to make someone, human or fish, fall in love within three days?
Then she thought about how she had fallen in love with the human after one glance. Maybe it wasn't so impossible.
Kairi shook her thoughts away and pulled off the cork from the vile. The blue substance inside reflected her worried, silent face.
Without taking another breath, she swallowed the potion in one gulp.
At first, Kairi only felt a slightly tingling sensation as the potion slid down her throat. Then without warning, she was hit by an excruciating pain.
Each of her shining scales cracked and peeled off of her tail. She started growing bones where she never had bones before and flesh crawled over them, covering those bones. It was a painful process—so painful that Kairi lost consciousness within a few minutes.
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"Miss? Hello?"
Kairi felt heavy, crushed, and breathing was never so difficult. The soft sand beneath her seemed to press against her so hard that it made her head spin.
Someone grabbed her shoulder and then roll her onto her back. Her new lungs were able to function properly for the first time she had them.
Kairi stirred awake, responding to the distant voice.
But the owner of the voice wasn't distant at all.
"Thank goodness, you're alive. Do you think you can get up?"
It was a male human dressed in the strangest things Kairi had ever seen. But at the moment, she was too nauseas to laugh out loud, and her body felt like it was on fire.
Kairi weakly shook her head in response and shut her eyes again. She instantly reopened them as the human bent down and propped her up.
It was around noon. The tide was out and several seagulls nearby were poking into the wet sand with their beaks.
Kairi glanced at the human next to her. He looked flustered for some odd reason and wiped his forehead with the back of his hands. Then he took off the strange, colorful thing he was wearing and draped it over where Kairi's tail was supposed to be.
And then everything cleared.
The little mermaid's eyes dilated three times their usual size as she threw off the piece of cloth and looked at her legs for the first time.
Instead of a blue, powerful tail, she now had a pair of thin, weak legs—human legs. Despite the agony she just experienced a few hours before, she was smiling from ear to ear as the human beside her only grew a deeper shade of crimson.
He coughed nervously.
"Miss, should I go get you a towel?"
Kairi looked over. She had forgotten about him. She wasn't sure why he was trying so hard to cover her beautiful legs.
She ignored his question and instead, proceeded to stand up. At least, attempted to.
For seventeen years, the ocean had carried Kairi wherever she went. All she had to do was use her tail to maneuver. On land, her legs were the only support she had.
Therefore, she immediately fell before she was able to plant both feet to the ground.
"I think you're too weak to walk," the human said.
Kairi tried again, and this time managed to stand up straight, despite swaying forward and backwards for a while. She clapped her hands and shouted in delight.
But the excited scream never left her lips.
Pieces of the night before came to Kairi one by one, and each scene made her smile drop lower and lower until tears brimmed the edge of her eyes. She quickly wiped them away before they splashed onto the floor. She couldn't cry, not when had only three days to find the Human. She wasn't going to regret her decision.
"Miss, may I help you?" asked a soft voice.
Kairi fully faced the human for the first time and slightly nodded. She allowed him to cover her naked body with his ridiculous coat and escort her to the building looming over the forest by the sea.
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Author's Notes:
The sea witch doesn't have a name, but I imagined her as Namine while writing this.
Also, for those who couldn't understand my vague writing, the sea witch basically trades young mermaids' beauty in exchange for whatever they want. But she makes the conditions near to impossible so that she can keep their beauty/youth forever. Logically, it would be impossible for a mute foreigner to find someone they only saw once within three days and make him fall in love with her.
But that's what makes fiction that much better.
Who's the human that saves Kairi? Hmm
