The human man haunted her dreams every time she closed her eyes, and though she knew it was wrong, Ariel longed to be with him in a passion hotter, more intense, and more desperate than anything she'd ever before experienced. She was the unexpecting fish floating along upon her merry way until she got snared in the octopus' legs, but unlike that unfortunate fish, Ariel knew that that which was drawing her was meant for her. The man was her destiny, and she was his.
Every time she closed her eyes, she saw him again, standing upon his ship and looking more beautiful than anything she'd ever saw before. Scuttle said the humans had another word for it, that men were not considered beautiful. They were . . . handsome. She didn't quite understand what that meant or how it got along with one's hands, but that's what Scuttle said and Scuttle was always right about the humans.
Oh, how she envied the bird his ability to fly amongst their people and get to know them in such intimate ways! He knew everything there was to know about humans while she knew so little and craved information about them more than she craved food, water, or any of the other things her body had to have to live. She wanted to be a human. By all rights, she should have been born on land, but she had been stuck with a tail instead!
It didn't matter, Ariel assured herself as she began to drift off to sleep to dream of her Prince yet again. It didn't matter what she looked like or where she lived or had been born. They would be together. One day, when he was standing upon his ship, looking so big, tall, brave, and handsome, he would see her. Their eyes would lock, and he would know what she already knew: that they were each other's destinies and belonged together.
He would call to her, and she would go to him. He would pick her up in his strong, humans arms and lift her out of the ocean and into his arms and heart. He would be amazed by her tail, but they would find a way, some magic way, to give her legs. Then they would dance together on his ship, dance and love and spend hours just talking as he taught her about his world.
And when the sun began to sank below the horizon, Ariel knew her father was looking for her. Her green eyes cast worried looks all around the water. She could feel his worry radiating as the ocean churned, but she didn't want to leave her Prince.
"Ariel," the man of her dreams asked, leaning forward, caressing her cheek, and gazing at her in concern, "what's wrong?"
"My Father . . . " she replied, looking downcast. "He must be so worried about me!"
"Is that all?" he questioned in surprise.
"Yes," Ariel answered, looking at him in confusion. How could her father being afraid for her well being be such a small thing to him?
He smiled, and in the flash of his radiant smile, all her worries vanished. She knew it would be okay for he loved her as much as she loved him and they would be together as was destined for them. "Then we just have to let him know you're all right." Her Prince took her hand and led her over to the ship's railing. They looked at each other, and Ariel sighed. She was in love! Then, hand in hand, they dove over the ship's railing.
When the water cleared and Ariel could see again, she gasped in astonishment. Her Prince had a tail! She gazed at him in shock. "I . . . How do you have a tail?!"
He cupped her face in his wonderfully human hands and told her, with an adoring smile, "Your love gives me what I need. I can be whatever I want just as you can be whatever you want."
Ariel felt her tail moving in the water beneath her, looked down, and gasped a second time at the sight of it. "So . . . " She raised questioning eyes to her love's enchanting, dark orbs. " . . . we can be merpeople or humans?"
"Yes!" He smiled broadly.
"But . . . I want to be a human . . . "
"Don't you want to see your father?"
"Of course!"
"Then we'll see him and your family. You can introduce me, and then, after every one knows you're okay and we're together, you can come back up here with me to my world."
Ariel looked at him suspiciously. Something was wrong. He shouldn't have a tail, but her dream mind was too accepting, especially when he swam closer to her and pressed his lips to hers. A heat hotter than anything she'd ever felt before spread through Ariel's body from his kiss, and her head was spinning merrily when he let her go.
She followed him, still holding to his hand, as her Prince led her to her home and into her family's palace where her father was sitting on his throne. "Ah, my boy, I'm glad to see you!" Triton beamed as he waved at her Prince. "It's about time you found my daughter! You two are meant to be together!"
"We know that, sir," her Prince answered her father, "and we're so happy and in so much love! Ariel's the best thing that's ever happened to me!"
"Of course she is!" Triton was now floating in the water before Ariel and her love. He reached out and tweaked his daughter's cheek. "She's the best thing that's ever happened to all of us, and now she shall have her fondest dream!" As Triton raised his hands, horns blew, and trumpets sounded. The castle transformed in a blink of an eye.
Ariel pulled back with a gasp as she found herself suddenly wearing a wedding gown! She gazed down at the shimmering, white cloth in shock. "Father, I . . . I don't understand! What's going on?! How's this happening?!"
"It's your dream come true, Princess," Triton answered, reassuringly stroking her face. "You're to be married right away, so that you and your Prince may live wherever you choose."
"I want to be on land. I want to walk where the people walk and dance where they dance."
"I know, my dear," Triton assured her with a bright, fond smile, "but don't you want to be able to see your family whenever you choose?"
"Of course!"
He clapped his hands together. "Then it's settled! Sebastian!"
Again the scene whirled around Ariel, and this time she found herself standing beside her Prince in front of Sebastian. The castle was filled with guests, and all her sisters were crying. She gazed around her in wonder before Sebastian's voice pulled her back to the matter at hand. "Come on now, Princess! Dis is no time for your mind to be wonderin'!" the crab announced, urgently snapping his claws together. "Do you take this human boy to be your husband or no?"
"I . . . I do . . . Of course I do! I love him!" Ariel looked around her again, confusion pulling her full, red lips down into a pout and creasing her forehead. "But this is all happening so fast . . . "
"Dat's how real love happens, Princess. One minute ya ain't got it. The next minute -- boom! -- you done be fallen for it! I now pronounce you husband and wife!" He snapped a book closed, then pointed his claw at Ariel's love whose hand she continued to clutch throughout everything that had already happened and was continuing to transpire all around them. "You may kiss de bride, boy, but you be careful wit' her heart! You hurt her, you gonna answer to mon claws, capice?"
Her Prince nodded his handsome, dark head in respect to Sebastian before turning to face Ariel and pull her closer into his arms. "I would never hurt the woman I love," he vowed, gazing deeply into her eyes and making Ariel shiver deliciously inside. Then he lowered his lips to hers.
Fire again coursed throughout Ariel's every vein. She'd never felt so alive or dreamed of such intense feelings as those that were sweeping through her now! They seemed to kiss forever until something disturbed Ariel and she lifted her head. The palace was gone. Gone, too, were her father, Sebastian, her sisters, and all their people. She and her Prince were alone again but still under the water.
His hands treaded in her long, red hair. "What's wrong, my love?" he queried softly, his face and voice full of deep concern for her alone. "Aren't you happy here with me?"
She quickly reassured him, "Of course I am!" She frowned again, however, when her green eyes caught movement behind him. There was a dark tail. No, two dark tails flipping through the ocean currents . . . She peered closer, trying to get a closer look, but her Prince pulled her away.
He kissed her again and again. His mouth moved slowly from her mouth over to face and across her neck. She was lost to the passion and pleasure that built within her. Her love made her feel emotions stronger and more pleasurable than any she'd ever even dreamed of before. She was lost in a sea of pleasure, moaning as he suckled her neck and continued to move his way down.
As if from far away, Ariel became aware of her Prince's finger looping around the vine that strung her seashells together. For a fleeting moment, she thought that she should stop him, but then she remembered. They were married! This passion -- this wonderful, mind-boggling, heart-roaring passion was their right as husband and wife!
Their tails began to slide together as her Prince slowly removed her shells. He cupped her bared breasts into his hands and massaged them. If Ariel had been drowning in delight now, she thought for certain that she was about to explode from the sheer enormosity of the fire he stroked within her, making her hotter and hotter and hotter . . .
His mouth sank onto her breast. She threw her head back in delight. A scream of pleasure escaped her. Then, suddenly, her Prince was pulling away!
She gazed down at him, and horror filled her. His hands were clawing at his throat. His tail was gone, and his human legs had been returned in its place! She cried his name but could not hear herself for she knew not his real name. She swam to him, trying desperately to reach him, as his eyes, so full of panic and fear, filled her vision.
Then something snatched her tail! She pulled with all her might against the unseen force but could not break away. Laughter echoed as her Prince fell deeper and deeper into the murky depths of the ocean. Again she saw the tails from before, and this time she realized that they were the eels her father had always warned her from whence to stay away! Ariel screamed as she felt her Prince dying, but though she fought with all her might to break free, an immense force held her firmly in place.
"My dear, dear girl," crooned a husky, feminine voice, "don't you know anything? You can't have your Prince and your family too! You can't have both worlds! You'll have to choose!"
Her Prince was gone, and now Ariel found herself gazing down at her family, all of whom were plastered to the ocean bottom. She didn't know what was happening to them or understand what was happening to her herself, but she could tell that they were in pain. She watched in horror as her father raised a hand and cried out. "LET HER GO!" He threw his triton, but it shattered into a million pieces without ever coming close to the thing that held her.
"DADDY!" she screamed as Triton's face hit the ground. "DADDY, GET UP! YOU'VE GOT TO GET UP!" She fought harder to break away, but still the force holding her held her tight. Booming laughter echoed in Ariel's ears. Her Prince . . . her love . . . her family . . . They were all gone. She could feel her very world crumpling around her as she continued to fight and knew that it would all be for naught . . .
~*~*~*~
Ariel woke up screaming. "Ariel! Ariel! Geez, man, what lungs! Hush, gel! It's okay! You're home! You're safe!"
She blinked as she found herself gazing at Sebastian, who was using one pincher to click urgently at her and the other to cover one of his ears. "Geez, man, you sound just like your father!"
"I . . . I do?" Ariel asked in surprise. Though her heart was still pounding in her ears, she was beginning to understand that the events she had just felt like she had lived, from meeting her Prince all the way to every one she loved and all she held dear being destroyed, had only been a horrible nightmare. A really, really horrible nightmare, but a nightmare nonetheless.
"Yeah," one of Ariel's sisters prodded with an eager grin, "she does?"
Sebastian waved a pincer. "I didn't say that!"
"Yes, you did!" Another of her sisters giggled.
"No, I didn't, and if any of you Princesses say I did, I'll deny it one hundred percent!"
Laughter bubbled around the Princesses, all save Ariel. Then they looked at their little sister, saw the fear still written plainly over her face, and brought her close into their huddle. "It's okay, Ariel. It was just a nightmare."
Ariel nodded and swallowed her fear. It had been only a nightmare, but it had felt so heartbreakingly real! She hung her head as her sisters hugged her and fought back the tears that threatened to swell into her eyes from her heart. There was truth to her dream, and she was saddened to realize it and understand what she would have to give up to be with her Prince for the first time.
She looked around at her sisters reassuring her, nodded and muttered acceptable answers, before Sebastian announced that they should be getting ready to see their father. She was thankful when they swam away, but still her heart hung heavy as the facts of the dream weighed her spirit down. She had no choice. She would either have to give up her Prince and the love she knew they shared or abandon her family and all she'd ever known permanently to be with him.
Sebastian gazed intently up into Ariel's face. "You sure you okay, Princess?"
"I'm fine," Ariel answered brightly, forcing a smile that was sure to win him over. "I just want to get this meeting with Daddy done with so that I can go treasure hunting."
"Now, Ariel, what have I told you about dat, hmm? Dose humans -- Dey good for nothin' but de destruction of our world!"
"Not all humans are like that, Sebastian!"
"Yes, dey are, Princess, and one day you'll find dat out! Now get ready!" He scuttled away, huffing, puffing, and muttering to himself about Princesses.
Ariel wrapped her arms around herself as she watched him go and gave herself a tiny, reassuring hug. He was wrong. They were all wrong. She wasn't being silly, and humans were not all evil, wicked creatures. She suspected a few of them must be for even her own people had bad guys amongst them, but most humans were wonderful beings full of love, care, and the enjoyment of adventures and fantastic things far beyond anything her own people had down here below the surface!
Her Prince certainly wasn't like that! He was the love of her life and the most wonderful man ever! Ariel sighed. It was too bad her family would never get to know him, and an unfortunate fact that she'd have to give them and their world up forever in order to be with him. But she would. She would do whatever she had to do to get the man she loved, the adventures she deserved, and their very own happily ever after.
The End
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