Urchin's Story: TLM fic part 3

THE SECOND DAY

The next morning the Prince took Ariel on a tour of his kingdom, and I was left to loaf around the palace wondering how things were going. I found Sebastian in Ariel's room, and we sat around a while, not having much to talk about. I found the long note Ariel had written to me last night, laying on the desk, but I was still unable to read it. I stared at the squiggles and swirls and finally turned to Sebastian.

"Sebastian," I said. "Ariel wrote this to me last night, but I can't read it. Will you read it to me?"

He nodded and I plopped the paper down in front of him. He scuttled on top of it and read it aloud, hesitating at some parts, but I finally coaxed it all out of him. It said: "Urchin, what are you doing here? Did you come here just to find me? I'm so sorry about everything. I left my father and sisters without giving any explanation or even saying good-bye. I did the same to you. It was awful of me. I'm so sorry. Now you are here too and I have put you into danger as well because of my actions. I was rash and stupid to run away. I have hurt everyone I love and I would undo it all if I could, but I can't. Please forgive me." There were teardrops all over the paper where she had been crying last night. After Sebastian read it to me, we sat in silence for a long time. I wished we hadn't read it.

"So she does regret running away," I said at last.

"Well of course," Sebastian answered. "She misses her home and her family, just like every child that runs away from home. But other children can turn around and go home, and Ariel can't."

"But she would go back to the sea, if she could," I said, more to myself than to Sebastian. "If there was a way, she would undo this all and come home."

"What difference does it make now?" the crab answered sadly. "If she gets the kiss, she stays human forever, and if she doesn't, she belongs to the Sea Witch. Either way, she can never come home again."

I felt awful the rest of the day, waiting for Ariel and the Prince to return. I was anxious to know how it had gone, and whether they had kissed yet. I explored the castle but got in the way of the servants a lot, so then I wandered outside down the beach. Dark storm clouds had gathered over the sea and were rumbling ominously, turning the day to night. I was alone on the beach, the wind whipping at my hair and clothes. I stood in the surf for a long time, feeling the cool friendly water on my feet. On land I felt so heavy and tired and dried-out all the time. The humans called the dried-out feeling thirst, and I saw why they ate water out of cups now. I had to do it too. It felt cool and delicious to drink water, but at the same time made me miss the sea.

After a while I thought I saw tiny figures on the horizon, and as they approached I saw they were Ariel's six sisters swimming toward me. Every one of them had cut off their long hair, and it fell in jagged locks around their faces.

"Urchin," one of them called out to me. It was the eldest, Attina. "Urchin, it is you, isn't it? Where is our sister, Ariel? We were told she is staying in the human Prince's palace. We've waited out here all day, waiting for her to come out onto the beach and see us, but we haven't seen her at all." She sounded mournful and desperate, and the faces of all the sisters said the same. Their eyes were red and bleary, as if they'd been crying.

"The Prince is taking her on a tour of his kingdom," I answered, calling out from the shoreline. "You should be happy for her; he is already falling in love with her."

"But does she love him more than she loves us?" Attina asked sincerely. I couldn't answer; I didn't know. They had come into the shallow water, as close as to me as they could, and I waded out to meet them.

"She's made a deal with the Sea Witch," I told them. "She regrets it – she told me so. She says she is sorry for hurting all of her loved ones, including you. She says she would undo it all if she could. But the thing is, she can't. Her contract is binding. Either she will get the Prince to kiss her, and live as human forever, or she won't get the kiss, and then she will belong to Ursula."

"There is another way," Attina said resolutely. Her sisters watched in solemn silence as she produced something from her satchel: a long thin dagger, with a twisted silver handle. The thunderclouds were bursting overhead, and the sea grew agitated, the waves growing taller and sweeping against us. "My sisters and I too have made a deal with the Sea Witch," Attina continued. "We gave her our long hair, which we were all far too vain of, and in exchange she gave us this dagger. Urchin, we came to give it to Ariel, but instead we found you. Now we must entrust this task to you." She held out the dagger, and I took it carefully, staring at her in confusion. I didn't understand.

"You must plunge this dagger into the heart of the Prince," Attina said darkly, "and when you smear his red blood onto both yours and Ariel's feet, you will both get your tailfins back, and can return to the sea. You can both come home, and your contracts with the Witch will be broken."

I stared at the dagger in my hands. It was a way for Ariel to come home. Things could go back to normal, and we would forget any of this had ever happened. But could I kill the Prince? I had committed crimes before, but only trifling things that had never really hurt anyone. I wasn't sure if I could kill someone. But then I remembered how Ariel had said she regretted her actions, and would undo them and go home to the sea if she could. I could help her do that. And then I thought that maybe I could kill someone, if it was for her.

"We miss our sister," Attina continued miserably. "Our father is grief-stricken; look how he makes the sea and the sky grieve with him. We don't understand why she left us. We love her. We know she loves us too. If we hurt her in some way, we never meant to. If we could have her back again, we would make it up to her – for whatever it is we did." She paused on the verge of weeping. "Will you do this task for us?" she asked, her eyes red and beseeching. "Will you bring our sister home?"

"I will," I answered, and I stowed the dagger away into my coat pocket.

"You followed Ariel onto land," the youngest, Andrina, mused aloud. She was staring at me, and I turned to look at her. "You made a deal with the Witch not because you wanted to, but just to follow her and find her and help her if she needed it. You must really love her."

I didn't know how to reply. I just stood and turned red.

"You would even help her gain the love of another man, if that's what she wants. You would help her do it even though it must hurt you so badly, and tear holes in your heart to see them together. You would suffer just to make her happy. That is true love," she finished, and fell silent. The sisters all stared at me, not as if they were expecting an answer, but as if they were really looking at me for the first time.

Attina put her hand on my shoulder and said, "You have our trust and our friendship, Urchin. You carry our sister's fate now. It is an awful burden to bear, but I see now it is rightfully yours and yours alone to bear, and we have faith in you."

Then the sisters bid me farewell, and disappeared into the dark surging waves, leaving me standing alone in the surf, and never saying a word. I stood there for a long time, watching the storm brew over me, and finally I turned back to the palace, feeling the weight of the dagger in my pocket.

...

Ariel and the Prince didn't return until late that night, and they entered the palace smiling and laughing, with Ariel on Eric's arm. I saw through the window as he picked her up and twirled her around in the air, both laughing, and Ariel looked the happiest I had seen her since I couldn't remember when.

Eric said they had had a very good time, and after that everyone retired to their rooms. I went to Ariel's room to find her, and I walked in on her brushing her long beautiful hair in front of her vanity mirror, smiling the biggest loveliest smile and practically glowing. She was in love; it was obvious.

She spotted me in the mirror and turned to greet me, happy to see me. I asked her if the Prince had kissed her yet, and she stopped smiling and shook her head "no." But then she scribbled something on a piece of paper, and Sebastian was sitting on her desk so he read it aloud for me. "Almost," the paper said.

Everyone went to bed except me. That is, I did go to bed, but not with the intention of sleeping. I lay awake for hours, waiting for the palace to go completely still and quiet. Finally I rose as quietly as I could and fished out the Witch's dagger from the pocket of my coat. I crept through the palace halls on the tips of my toes, which was a little tricky because I had never done it before. I was headed for the Prince's room. He didn't keep any guards outside his room; he thought it unnecessary because there were guards posted around the palace and he naturally trusted everyone already inside. He was mistaken.

On the way to his room I stopped at Ariel's, which was in the ladies' quarters. I stepped in just long enough to see her lying peacefully asleep, a sweet smile on her face. I wondered if she was dreaming about him. It made me angry to think about for some reason.

I continued down the halls and at last crept into the Prince's room, unseen and unstopped by anyone. He was lying asleep just as peacefully as Ariel. I stepped up to his bed and gripped the dagger in my hand. I was gripping it so tightly that my fingers hurt and my knuckles were white. I wrapped both my hands around the handle and lifted it into the air, poising it straight above his heart. My hands were trembling now, and I was sweating. The sweat dripped down my forehead and into my eyes, making them sting. That never happened in the sea; you didn't sweat down there. You were just always wet. But up here you were always making your own water, whether you were hot or in a hurry and it started dripping down you all over the place out or nowhere, or whether you were crying and it started coming out of your eyes. It was strange and bothersome. Now my hands were all wet, making the dagger slip between my palms. But I gripped it even tighter and prepared all my muscles to plunge the thing down into his chest. I could do it. I would do it. I would do it for Ariel, so that she could go home to her father and her sisters. No, that wasn't it at all, I realized. I would do it so that she could come home to me.

Then I stopped; I stepped back from the Prince and lowered the dagger. I stared at the peacefully slumbering Prince, wondering in bewilderment who I was really doing this for. For Ariel's father and sisters? No. I liked them and I sympathized with them, but they were not my family. For Ariel herself then, certainly. So she could go back to her home and her family, like she had said she wanted to. She had said herself that if she could undo what she had done, she would. I had a way to do just that, and that was what I was doing.

But no, I knew that wasn't true. I was doing this for myself alone – for my own selfishness and jealousy. I didn't want Ariel to leave my world forever. I couldn't imagine a world without her in it: without her spending time with me and cheering me up when I was down, without being able to stop in and see her when I needed her, or when she needed me. I wanted her to be part of my world, but the truth was, she wanted to be part of someone else's. I knew she loved her father and sisters, and I knew I was a dear friend to her, but I also knew she was in love with the Prince, and I hadn't seen her so happy in years as when she was with him. Ariel would be happier in this world than she had ever been under the sea, and if her father and sisters truly loved her they would accept this fact and be happy for her. And if I truly loved her, I would do the same.

I backed away from the Prince, ashamed of myself. I had been about to kill the person that Ariel cared most for in the world, more than she would ever care for me. After all, she had left me without saying good-bye, and she had left me for him.

I put the dagger back into my pocket and left the Prince to continue his innocent slumber. I walked through the dark halls back to my room, tossing the dagger away onto the floor, and collapsing onto the bed. My face felt wet and I wiped the water away, then realized it was coming from my eyes. It was warm and salty and it kept coming. I hated it, but it wouldn't stop. It went on for hours until I finally fell asleep. I felt miserable. My last conscious thought was, now I really knew what it felt like to be human, and it felt rotten.