Ariel

Raging waves tossed the ship around as if it were nothing more than a piece of driftwood. The winds tore at the sails from every direction, threatening to rip them to shreds at any moment. Lightning flashed across the green tinged sky while thunder crashed as if Heaven had suddenly started to crumble. Soon the rain came; sheets of water, mixed with stinging bits of hail.

This was something that happened all too often in this stretch of the Ocean waters. Great hurricanes often sprung out of thin air, dashing many an unsuspecting and helpless ship along with all her passengers on the rocks beneath the cliff line. From her perch on the rocks, Ariel watched the crew in their desperate attempts to keep their ship upright. One member, the wheelmaster, in particular caught her eye. His dark curls were plastered with seawater, his clothes drenched through, and his lean, tanned arms strained as he fought to hold the wheel steady, a look of steady determination on his youthful face. Suddenly a large wave rose up over the hull of the ship and came crashing down over the deck with such force that he lost hold of the wheel and was cast into the dark waves below.

Ariel could see him still struggling to stay alive, but quickly losing. He fought to stay upright, but the rain beat against him and the waves tossed him around - his arms grew tired and he could barely stay up, gasping for air above the surface, and again thrust down by the waves. He soon lost consciousness and sank down, deep into the dark ocean. Ariel’s own body easily slid through the waves after him, and she caught him in her strong arms. His body was still warm, his heart still beat ever so faintly. Ariel was captivated by his features, and a tendril of regret trickled into her heart. She didn’t want him to die, she realized. She knew that once the sea claimed a soul, they were forever bound to it. Yet in that brief moment, before she could think too much, she darted towards the shore, his body still in her arms. She emerged from the water, the storm now beginning to die, and laid him gently on the sandy beach. He lay, lifeless for what seemed like years. She watched, half submerged in the water, knowing she should leave. Her heart beat fast, wondering, hoping perhaps that he would wake. Suddenly the man started to cough, and rolling over, expelled the water from his lungs. Ariel froze in a mix of excitement and trepidation, realizing she had just saved someone who should rightly have died, and scared of the consequences.

He saw her. A strange creature, illuminated by the moonlight that had started to filter through the remaining storm clouds. He had never anything like her (for her knew it was female). Her face was covered in shining blue scales, her hair like green seaweed, and her eyes deeper than the darkest oceans. He felt that he should be afraid, but after his near death experience, he couldn’t feel fear. He tried to speak, ask her who she was. But she darted away into the waters, gone in an instant, so fast he couldn’t even be certain she was there to begin with. He was filled with a sudden urge to follow, to solve this mystery, but he was too weak to move, and he fell back on to the sands.

Ariel knew she had broken the rules. She feared what might happen, but she couldn’t bring herself to be sorry. She swam down, deeper and deeper into the ocean until she reached a reef, slipping into the opening and into the hollowed out cave. She hid there for several days, the fish her only company. But she knew she couldn’t hide from her actions foever. Eventually she came out of her hiding spot, and went home. Her father was there - waiting. She knew he would be. You don’t disobey the Ocean’s rules without Her guardian Triton, guardian and lieutenant of the Ocean, knowing. He was angry. She could tell, but his face was impassive, as if chiseled from stone.

“Do you realize what you have done?”

Ariel remained silent. There was not much she could say to help her case. In fact she still could not justify to herself why she had done it.

Her father crossed his massive forearms. “I thought I raised you better than this. You know the rules! Never take from the Ocean what she has claimed! There is only one thing you can do now. You must return what you stole.”

“But I - ” Ariel tried to speak, but Triton cut her off.

“No arguements! You will do as I say, for the consquences of these actions will be much worse if you do not. I am giving you a chance to fix this. Do not fail, for if you do, even I can not save you from the Ocean’s wrath. Go and fix this now.”

Ariel choked back her tears - or what might have been tears if she could cry. She turned away and left the way she came. She knew there was only one way to fix what she had done, despite everything in her straining to avoid it. She went to Ursula. Ursula, the sorcoress of the sea, the one with the power to help her as nobody else could.

Ursula gave her what she asked. She took only her voice in payment, promising that Ariel could reclaim it when her task was accomplished. Alluring beauty for her voice - not too much to ask. For after all, if Ariel did not fulfill her task, she would not exist to have a voice. She would be nothing more than foam on the Ocean’s surface.

Ariel swam to the beach on which she had left him. He was there. He had come every day since that night, hoping to catch another glimpse of the creature he believed to be his savior. Nobody had believed him when he stumbled back to civilization. They could hardly believe he was alive, and attributed his wild story of a mergirl to be just a dream from his near death drowning.

The moon was beginning to wane that night, but it cast a bright enough light over the waves that he immediately saw her as she rose from the waters. She looked different than before. Her hair was no longer like seaweed, but a deep beautiful red that cascaded down over her bare skin and into the waters where it floated in long tendrils. Her skin was the softest of blues, her lips full and tempting. He knew it was her from her eyes, those same deep blue eyes that had stared from him out of her previously scaled face. He followed her. How could he not? Her smile teased him, her whole being was one of mystery and a promise of something so beautiful and wonderful, he only had to follow and it would all be his. With each step he took into the waters, she drifted slightly back. He wanted her, he needed her - he couldn’t describe it, but his whole being ached to touch her, embrace her. The water lapped at his knees, then to his waist, his chest, his neck. He stopped for a second. In the back of his mind there was a voice yelling for him to go back before it was too late. But he could see her, just a step away, beckoning with her hand, that mysterious and playful smile on her lips. He pushed away any doubts, as he took one last step into the ocean, and his entire body was completely submerged in the water as he reached out and met this beautiful creatures embrace with his own.

He barely noticed as Ariel softly pulled him deeper. He was too caught up in her gaze. Ariel’s heart burned with sorrow and pain. She had never felt this before for anyone. She had guided countless souls down into the ocean’s depths before, but never quite felt anything like sadness or remorse, and certainly not to this degree - it was just what had to be done. She wanted to stop, let him live again, but she knew this was her responsibility - her job. Nothing would save him. Even if she let him go again, someone else would be sent to finish her task. The only thing she could do was make this as easy as possible, and he smiled as he brought his lips to hers and she let the icy waters flow from her mouth into him.