After spending almost the entire day with Ariel, either rummaging through her collection or venturing out to find more items to add to her ever-growing collection, which most of the time would lead to a chase with sharks.
Now, he's not sure about the latter, but he has a feeling that the sharks weren't chasing Ariel to harm her, to Henry, it feels more like they just wanted to chase her back to Atlantis safely.
Considering the girl is the daughter of a demigod of the sea and the King of Atlantis whom all marine creatures bow to and respect also helped Henry confirm his suspicion.
By the time the sun starts to set and the birthday celebration is winding down, Ariel receives a call from her father, asking her to bring Henry along.
Soon, they arrived back at the throne field where this time, they were not alone. All the sisters of Ariel were surrounding King Triton along with a familiar crab.
Not only that, there were a few merfolk with shiny golden plates plastered on their upper bodies, holding what seems to be two pronged trident in their hands. No doubt, these are the soldiers of Atlantis.
Henry quickly noticed the tension in the atmosphere.
'All of these are not for me, is it?' Henry gulped his saliva. Slowly preparing to make his escape as soon as the merfolk soldiers made their move.
"Good, Ariel! You're here. And you too, Henry." Adella, one of the birthday twins today, swam towards Ariel with worry on her face, engulfing the redhead with a deep hug.
Ariel confusingly asked her, "Adella? What's going on? Why are we all here? And why are there so many…guards." While she spoke, her eyes gained a hint of discomfort as she eyed the still-like merfolk soldiers.
"Dad can explain it to you." Adella shook her head and gestured for King Triton behind her.
Ariel swam towards King Triton, leaving behind Adella and Henry near the throne doors.
The black-haired twin gained a seductive smirk on her lips as she eyed Henry, "I see you've been with Ariel all this time. Surely, a man like you has no…ill intentions to our sister, right?" Even though she sounds like a flirting purring cat, Henry could sense the hint of threat behind the obvious cover of her sultry tone.
Henry replied with a nod of his head, staying calm and uninterested with the mermaid's poor attempt, "Yes, Lady Adella."
All while murmuring under his breath, 'Sorry but Ariel is ten times more attractive than you. It's like all the average genes were given to her older sisters and the leftover good genes were reserved exactly just for her,'
Obviously, Henry didn't dare to say it out loud lest he wanted to get chased all over Atlantis. He's not sure how brutal the rules and laws in Atlantis are but they wouldn't be this prosperous if they were complacent and sloppy.
Adella, sensing the uninterest in Henry's tone raised a brow, clearly amused by Henry's lack of interest towards her, 'And here I thought men are supposed to be more attracted to people older than them…' Clearly, she was informed of Henry's true identity, a human friend of Ariel.
Unlike their father, Triton, who has witnessed rhe worst side of the humans. Her daughters were not. As a matter of fact, they've once been in Ariel's situation, getting fascinated by humans above the surface. But that was soon extinguished when they started to find their own merman lovers.
In the end, she could only pout and admit defeat, "Your loss." She murmured for the last time before swimming back to join her sisters.
Meanwhile, as Henry was busy chatting with the sister, Ariel was being filled in on what was going on outside Atlantis.
"Pirates? Again?" Ariel pouted, throwing a tantrum.
King Triton simply sighed, "We'll just let them pass above us. We can't risk you being caught, so you'll be staying here in the palace in the meantime until they're gone."
"Just stay for a while, okay Ariel?"
"Besides, you're always disappearing on us, going out to visit those dangerous sunken human ships."
Now that her sisters have spoken, Ariel could only pout and reluctantly agree, but then she seemed to remember something, "Wait, what about Henry? I don't think he'll like the idea of staying here in the palace."
King Triton caressed his mighty white beard, "Then he can leave on his own." Before Ariel could protest, King Triton continued, "And I'll be sending someone to guide him back to the shores of Arendelle safely."
That seemed to cease what Ariel was about to protest about. She quickly swam back to Henry, who was now awkwardly floating in the middle of the throne room.
When he saw her approach, he smiled, "So, what's up? Something happened?"
Ariel raised a brow, "What's up? What does that mean? Anyway, something came up and Dad said I had to hole myself up here in the palace. It's pirates, my father said. He wanted to let them sail past above while all mermaids and merfolks would stay clear of their way." Ariel then pointed to him, "Dad will bring someone with you to bring you back to Arendelle. You'll manage just fine on your own, right?"
Hearing the concern in her tone, Henry chuckled, "Oh please. I can take care of myself just fine. Even if their entire crew comes at me, it'll be them who'll get the short end of the stick."
Perhaps it was Henry's dazzling confidence or just his charm, but Ariel couldn't help but stare at his eyes, getting lost in their beauty.
Fortunately for her, she snapped out of it and with a blush, she bid him farewell, "O-Okay then. Take care of yourself…" Without waiting for his response, she immediately swam away. The last thing Henry saw was her face turning as red as her beautiful hair.
Just as Henry wondered who would be the one to escort him back to Arendelle, he heard a strained voice behind him, "Hey kid. Are you ready? Come on, stop gawking at the princess and let's leave."
Stunned, Henry quickly turned around and saw no one, just the palace doors and two merfolk soldiers watching him in amusement.
"Are you two talking to me?" Henry asked the two soldiers. But before they could reply, he felt a sharp sting on his fish legs.
Although it didn't hurt him, the element of surprise multiplied the supposed pain, "What the?!"
Henry immediately looked down and saw a familiar red crab trying snap its pincers on his scaly tail. Judging from the lack of energy in the crab's pincers, Henry could tell the crab was not amused by being here.
Even though he guessed as to who the crab is, he still asked, "Who are you supposed to be?"
What he was not expecting however, was for his simple question to instantly rile the crab up, "What do you mean Who am I supposed to be? Have you been living deep inside a trench or what?" The crab puffed up his chest and smirked arrogantly, "My name is Sebastian! Atlantis's one and only great royal court composer! I've been performing concerts in my entire lifeetime and it's an offense to my long-standing career that a merman like you hasn't heard of me yet!"
Henry blandly stared at him bemused, "I'm not a merfolk though? Did King Triton not inform you?"
"What?" The crab blinked his eyes several times at him, as if he were speaking sinful lies in front of him.
He curtly pointed at his fish tail, "If you're not a merfolk, then I'm afraid you accidentally grew a fish tail."
Henry resisted a laugh, "Trust me. Bring me to the surface and I'll show you." his grip over the small pearl on his palm tightened.
Still in disbelief, Sebastian gave him a look that says 'We'll see'.
With that, they made their way up to the surface, with Sebastian leading the way to the shores of Arendelle. He had been there quite a few times.
———
Inside a dark and foul-smelling cave, a hideous face of a woman was brightly lit from a glass sphere where an unmistakable image of Henry swimming back up to the surface of the sea can be seen.
"Oh ho ho ho…Interesting…Interesting…"
With her purple and flabby face, along with her dirty white hair—the woman, also known as Ursula the Sea Witch once again found a source of amusement for her.
"Triton's youngest daughter, in love with a human…a prince one at that…" There was an evil giggle that emanated from her lips.
"But still…Triton is aware of the boy and yet, hasn't skewered him with his trident yet. But I can feel it…He wanted to but his love for Ariel is stopping him…" As she continued to murmur to herself, the image on the glass sphere changed with a flick of her wrist.
Soon, the image changed to a run-down ship with an ominous skull-themed flag slapping against the wind. Standing near the mast was a middle-aged man with a missing left eye, covered by a black eye-patch.
A pirate ship. And it seems to be a formidable one at that.
"Well, well, well. Would you look at that?" An evil grin crept up to her face as she continued, "I might just have use for all of you."
By the end of it, her evil laughter echoed across her dark cave, startling the small and balding marine creatures that she had been terrorizing for years.
———
"Get down, Henry. We must not be seen by humans!" As soon as they swam back near the shore of Arendelle, Sebastian immediately found a jagged rock protruding from the surface of the sea and hid behind it—gesturing for Henry to do the same.
Except, he didn't. Instead, Henry took one last look at the small pearl on his hand before tossing it to Sebastian.
"You can bring this back to King Triton," Henry told him as he had his head bowed down, watching his fish tail slowly but surely separate in half, and then followed by the disappearance of the red scales.
Soon enough, it didn't take long before the familiar feeling of his human legs was back, prompting a sigh of relief from him.
'Thank the heavens it's not permanent.'
On the other hand, the crab blinked several times as if in disbelief at seeing Henry's fish tail turn into human legs.
"W-Wait what?! A-A human!?" Similar to King Triton, Sebastian also possesses a slight fear of humans. He has heard tales about humans being barbarous.
Henry smirked, instead of answering, he simply waved his hand goodbye and swam towards the shore.
"What a funny guy." He murmured to himself as he arrived at the shore.
———
"Dad? Is something wrong?" While Ariel retreated to her room, Aquatta, the eldest daughter of Triton, noticed the look on her father's face and couldn't help but ask.
Her words snapped Triton out of it, with several blinks he answered with a massage on his temples, "Nothing you should be worried about, Aqua. Just make sure to stay inside the palace with your sisters and do not leave until I say so, understood?"
Aquatta, seemingly understanding the King's predicament, nodded her head and left. As the oldest of the siblings, she was the closest when it happened.
The scene of her mother's figure on the surface being crushed to death by the pirate ship. Followed by her father's anguished scream as the pirate ship, amidst their evil cackles, left the area without as much as a shred of guilt for what they did.
She was angry at the humans for what they did of course, but she's angrier towards her father for turning out to be the man he is now. When her mother died, he was ready to drown the entire continent, kill all the humans to avenge her.
But no. Just a few words from his father, Poseidon, the God of the Sea, her father abandoned everything and turned to lock himself and all of his children down in Atlantis, no longer daring to venture out on the surface like they always used to when she was a child.
He grew to hate humans to the bone and yet, unable to do anything to them just because of his father.
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[The original storyline of Little Mermaid might bore some of you guys so I decided to. Let's say, spice things up. *wink!*]