Hello everyone! Remember at my last story (Two are Better than One) where I said I had more works-in-progress that I'm making myself finish? Here's one of them! Well, part of one of them anyway lol. Normally my rule is that I will not post anything that isn't completely written on my end. However, because of another story I want to get done by Christmas (such a long time away, I know, but ya never know when writer's block will hit), I am only posting the first half of this story online. I promise, promise, promise I will finish it...I hate leaving projects half-done, so rest assured this story will have a good, happy ending just like we all want! So I hope this can hold you over until I get my other projects finished and I can come back to this one.

This story is based on Disney's The Little Mermaid, with some changes to put my own unique spin on the story. All disclaimers apply, obviously lol. Thank so much for reading and God Bless!

Prologue

The summer current cocooned his scales in warmth and his grandmaman's smooth voice tried to lull him into a peaceful slumber, but Gajeel pinched his arm fins in a desperate attempt to stay awake. His side shook with his grandmaman's quiet laughter.

"Now, now...I know what you are trying to do, but it will not work. Even a young merprince needs his sleep."

"But I don't wanna go to bed," he flopped onto his stomach and flailed his tail. "I want to keep practicing with Dada!"

He heard his grandmother chuckle again and her cool hand brushed away the hair floating into his face. "I know, my love, but if you don't sleep, then how will you be able to train tomorrow?"

Gajeel growled and puffed his cheeks. He hated bedtime; bedtime was for fries, not seven year old mermen already training with a spear. Well, technically a practice spear, but the specific details didn't matter.

With a punch to his sea sponge pillow, Gajeel desperately tried to block out the calming song and wracked his brain for something...anything...that would help him stay up longer. An idea bloomed to life and with a smile he abruptly sat up in bed.

"Can you tell me a bedtime story?"

His grandmother raised a delicate, graying eyefin. "Are you asking just so you can stall again?"

Gajeel folded his hands and pleaded, "Just one story? And then I promise I'll go right to sleep, honest!"

"Hmm," Grandmaman murmured, drawing him close until he sat on her silvery tail, "I suppose one story will not hurt. What would you like to hear today?"

Gajeel tucked his head under her chin and played with her long, pale hair. "Can you tell me the story about the surface world?"

Grandmaman pinched his cheek, making him laugh. "I knew you were just trying to distract me!"

He squirmed in her arms, shocked again that she had figured out his plan so easily. "But please? It's been forever since you last told me!"

"And by forever, I can only assume you mean a few days ago."

Gajeel lifted his head and clasped his hands once more. He even jutted out his bottom lip and tried to make his eyes as big as possible. A rush of bubbles escaped his grandmother's lips as she sighed and rolled her eyes before drawing him back onto her lap. He made himself comfortable, marvaling once again at her beautiful, silver-purple tail. She was the most beautiful mermaid in all of Ishgar, so beautiful that she made his granddada fall in love with her at first sight.

His grandmother began to speak, pulling him out of his thoughts. "The surface world is a wonderful, fascinating place. Up there, they do not simply have small plants that flow with the currents, but plants called trees that grow taller than our castle."

"No way," Gajeel breathed.

"Yes! They are so large that the humans cannot even climb to the top. They use those trees to make their buildings and many, many other things. And they do not have large areas of water like our ocean."

"What do they have?"

His grandmother placed him on his bed and he didn't even protest when she drew his heavy shark-leather blankets up to his chin.

"They have bodies of water called lakes and rivers. The rivers flow over the land," her pale hands traced a graceful path through the water, "and run into low areas where it collects. That is how they get lakes. They can be small or so large that fish can even swim in them."

Gajeel's eyes widened. His grandmother never lied to him before, but he still couldn't imagine how a world could possibly be that dry and empty.

Perhaps it was the warm water, or his grandmother's soothing hand on his forehead, but Gajeel finally found the courage to ask the question that had always been on his mind. "Maman, have you ever been to the surface world?"

His grandmother was quiet for a long moment, her lips pulled into a small frown. With a sigh, she resumed stroking his head. "...yes. Only…once…when I was young and before I met your granddada." Her mouth opened, then closed again as if the words were hard for her to force out of her mouth. "I spent an entire day on the hot sand. Until a human saw me and I escaped back into the water."
Gajeel gasped and bolted upright. "Did he try to kill you!?"

She shook her head with another sigh and gently pushed him on the shoulder. "No."

"But Dada says…"

"Are there nice merfolk?" she asked in a hard tone, making him blink in confusion.

"...yeah? You're nice, and Sue and Sol..."

"And are there mean merfolk?"

Gajeel crossed his arms, thinking back to earlier that day when Totomaru stole his favorite shell and wouldn't give it back.

His mother chuckled and smoothed the scales above his eyes. "Humans are exactly the same. There are some nice ones, like the one I met, and there are some who are not as nice."

"But Dada says if they see us they'll chop off our fins and put us in soup."

His grandmother bent her tail next to his bed, looking him straight in the eye. "Though I do not agree with everything your father says, he is wisely cautious; as should you also be. The humans…" she paused, resting her elbow on his pillow. "They have a hard time trusting things that are different from them."

"But we're not much different," Gajeel protested, turning to his side.

His grandmother brushed back his hair, her fingers trailing the fins along the outside of his ears. "But we are different enough and that would make anyone a little scared."

He blinked, his eyes growing heavy. "I still want to see one."

"Perhaps you will, when you are older."

"Will you come with me?" he asked, forcing his eyes open.

His grandmother smiled brilliantly, her blunted white teeth shining. "Of course!"

He sighed, his eyes drifting closed. "I hope we find a nice one. And I hope she'll want to be my friend."

"She?" Her hand rested on his cheek and he nodded.

"A girl might be nicer and might not think that I'm scary."

"You are not scary, you just take after your father's dark coloring instead of my daughter's. But it is nothing to be ashamed of! I am sure when you finally find a human, she will think you are the most handsome merman she has ever seen."

Gajeel smiled into his pillow, his foggy mind barely registering his grandmother's whispered good-sundown. His dreams were filled with the surface world, of sandy beaches, a bright sunset, and a figure walking down the beach toward him.

He sighed, nestling deeper into his sea kelp. One day...one day, he would meet a human. He would make sure of that.