Flounder! Flounder!!" She whales in her loudest voice. She has been calling out to him for minutes now. They were being chased by a great white but then they split up to confuse the it and she had hidden in a small hole on the ocean grounds miters away from the ship wreck that she was treasure hunting in. She had no idea where her little Angelfish friend was and it scared her. This was all her fault. Flounder never wanted to come to this scary ship wreck, he followed her anyway because he didn't want his friend to go to such a dangerous place alone. Now look at what she'd caused. She swam all the way around the entire ship and found nothing. She kept singing his name using her siren voice to cover more ground but still, nothing. The sea was eerily calm and still. Anxiety and panic began to grow in her and the tips of her fins began to have a tingling sensation. She swam faster, darting around, checking every column, every rock, every coral, and then... she smelled it. A shiver went down her spine and her chest felt like there were rocks in them, time slowed down as she delved into the ship's hatch cove, following the metallic taste of the water inside the wrecked ship, and then she saw it. The shark did not get to Flounder. She felt like the water had turned poison in her throat as she stared at the red oozing from some kind of box at the furthest end of the wrecked compartment. Flounder was impaled by something shiny and had three pointy ends. Some kind of human object from the sunken ship. Flounder must have accidentally got his clumsy self impelled by it while he was swimming blindly away from the bully shark, Who apparently thought Flounder is too small of a prey to feast on. The little mermaid found herself removing the thing from her friend's body, it was as if she was in a trans. She stared at it for a moment and then suddenly ran it through her hair. She almost seemed crazed as she continued to run it through her hair multiple times it swift slow motions "Wake up Flounder, I think this is the best human artifact we've found yet. I think I'll call it a Dinglehopper, common let's go home" she put the Dinglehopper in the pouch around her waste with her other trinkets and with that Ariel began to swim away from the wreckage humming melodious tunes to herself while something watched from the shadows.
A long time ago, In a beautiful world under the sea, there lived mer-folk. The mer-people had torsos like you and me, fins on joints, large pitch black pupils that almost makes it seem like their eyes are nothing but deep black holes on their faces, fish tales that come in any colour on the spectrum and matching scales that contoured their humanoid skin. Although most mer-people seemed to lead happy lives in the ocean, out of fun and curiosity, teen mer-people liked to come up to the surface world, to see what the sun, clouds and humans looked like. Most mer-people seemed to enjoy the grace at which the birds glided through the sky. This act however became illegal and any mer-folk whose caught doing this, would be banished. The reason for this is that, 15 years ago the Queen of the mer-folk "Athena" was killed by human sailors, who sailed their ship into her and crushed her into the rocks by the shore. Her body was recovered before the humans ever came down from the ship but whether or not it was a deliberate act or not is not known to the mer-people. All that is certain is that it devastated the King of the Mer-folk "Triton" who then made the Law against mer-people surfacing.
King Triton had 7 daughters with 'Attina' being the eldest and next in line to the throne, and then Alana, Adella, Aquata, Arista, Adriana, and then the youngest Ariel. All very intelligent, beautiful and kind, but by far the loveliest of them all was known to be Ariel. Ariel was kind to her fellow mer-folk and grew up playing with the sardines and other mer-kids at the nursery. She was the princess everyone saw and loved as she did not behave at all like royalty. She was adventurous but well mannered and respectful to the elderly in the kingdom. Her free trusting spirit and her hunger for adventure did worry the king and her sisters but they were all powerless against Ariel's will power and stubbornness as she was good at escaping any surveillance her family puts her on. She hates feeling trapped. Perhaps the only thing that made the king have some semblance of peace of mind regarding Ariel was her powerful siren voice she alone had inherited from her mother. Of all her sisters, Ariel was the most like Queen Athena, Long Crimson hair, Caramel skin, sea blue-green purple shifting scales, tail and fins. Perhaps the most beautiful feature she inherited from her mother was her jellyfish hands. She calls it that because the parts of her hand from her elbow to her fingers are transparent and bioluminescent, a genetic condition that makes her one of the few mer-folk in the kingdom to be able to travel to the deepest trenches of the ocean with ease. Her voice is powerful enough to kill 50 whales, and compel the coldest of hearts. This of course isn't quite known to Ariel but is suspected by the king because of her uncanny similarities to her mother the Queen Athena in her youth was a war Angel, capable of mass destruction, hence the goddess she was named after.
King Triton's greatest wish is that there would not be a need for her to figure out the extent of her power.
"Sebastian, you do not need to follow me around like I am still but a mer-baby, I can take good care of myself now" Ariel says exasperatedly as she swam steadily organizing the trinkets in her column. It was filled with things she took from sunken ships all around Atlantica. She had even visited Atlantis the neighboring city where her mother was from and Mermaidia to collect human things that had fallen in those places as well. I guess you could say Ariel is a bit of a hoarder. "Of course Ariel, but you know I have too. You've been a bit of a collector ever since... Ever since the incident last year" Sebastian the Crab responded in a dead tone. There was silence at first then Ariel spoke "Sebastian don't you have an orchestra to prepare before my birthday ceremony this evening. You're still the King's court composer and not just my body guard are you not?" Ariel says in a teasing voice "of course princess, I just needed to check up on you this morning before I begin the final rehearsals and preparations this morning" Sebastian says his voice lightens up making Ariel chuckle "well thank you for greeting me Sebastian, I really appreciate it, but right now I need my privacy so would you please excuse me" Ariel says gracefully as she swam to an elevated section of her room and sat staring down at Sebastian. "Will do Princess, just make sure to not miss your birthday celebration, the king would not be happy. Have a good day" Sebastian says as he glided out of her large column. "Bye Sebastian" she called out but he was gone. 'Thank Poseidon' Ariel thought. She went from looking gleefully and free spirited, to eerily calm and grim. She then stared at the darkest part of her column and after some contemplation, decided to swim there, her bioluminescent hands lit up as she reached into the dark crack and pulled out her 'Dinglehopper'. She began to run it through her red hair humming to herself as she loved the way it felt when the pointy ends combed her ends softly. "Look at this stuff, isn't it neat" she says as she senses her Angelfish friend swimming in. "I don't think this is healthy Ariel" she heard Flounder state "I'm a girl who has everything flounder, of course this is healthy" Ariel replies assuming he was referring to the hoarding problem. "Ariel I..." "I want to see them Flounder, up close, I know it's illegal, but it's my birthday and I'm the only one in my family who hasn't seen them before. Well I and Adriana but she doesn't care for them at all and..." "Ariel!" Flounder's voice came cutting in "you have to move on from me.. I... I'm gone, I'm with the currents now, it has been a whole year Ari, I want you to get better" as if not acknowledging what he said Ariel swam around, dancing to her own melody "watch and you'll see, someday I'll be a part of that world" Ariel sang reaching up words as if to grab something. She did not even notice the yellow eyes staring at her from a distance that was disturbingly not so distant.
_Somewhere else; in the deepest parts of the ocean_
"Oh you poor poor unfortunate little soul, I can tell you and I will find our way to each other soon"