Ariel: What Really Happened

Chapter 6

~Ariel~

Shock coursed through Ariel like a lightning bolt. Her heart thumped. As she wondered what to do. Should she push him onto the rocks, and leave him? Maybe she should pull him to shore? But it was such a long way... She could always leave him there...

As soon as the thought popped into her head, she dismissed it. If she left him there, he would drown, and there was no way she could have that on her conscience. She quickly got rid of pushing him onto the rocks-what if a wave washed him away? Ariel would never be able to sleep again, unless she knew what happened.

She had no choice other than to pull him ashore.

She wrapped her skinny arms around the poor boy, and dragged him onto a piece of shattered wood from the hull if Lucky Lucy II. She then draped his arms over it, so he was less likely to fall off.

The waves grabbed at her from all sides, and rain soaked into her already drenched hair. Her jade green tail fanned up and down, propelling her forward as adrenaline cpursed through her veins. She was doing everything in her power to keep him on the board, but Ariel knew that the power surge couldn't last forever.

They were relatively far out, and she was only eighty percent sure that she was heading in the right direction. 

--- 

^Eric^

Darkness consumed him, and his thoughts swirled randomly. Eric tried to grab one, but it wasn't working.

Colors, thoughts, ideas, hopes and dreams collected into one giant vortex, sucking in information, then spitting it out in random spots.

He willed his eyelids to open, but it wasn't working. And he felt cold... So cold. A shiver coursed down his spine.

A train of thought bulldozed through his mind, pushing through the dark film.

Arms. They were wrapped around his chest, and something rough pressed against his stomach. The arms were thin, and frail. But whose? 

-----

~Ariel~

The adrenaline was starting to flush out her system, and her tail was flicking feebly. She could see a long, dark strip of land coming closer.

Eric, who was still unconscious, upchucked a barrage of saltwater, and onto Ariel.

"Ew," she grumbled. "That's so disgusting."

He stirred feebly, and Ariel immediately regretted speaking. His eyelids popped open, and Ariel coughed nervously.

His green flecked eyes focused on her, and widened in alarm.

"The contrast between the dark brown irises and the whites of his eyes is beautiful," Ariel thought.

Then she shook her head at her stupidity, making water fly into Eric's face.

Oh. Right. Eric.

He stared. "Who are you?"

She picked her brain, trying to think of an appropriate response. "A figment of your imagination," she finally said.

He furrowed his brows.

Ariel responded in a soothing tone "You're going insane... And now you're sleepy... Verrryyy sleepy..." then she began to sing him a lullaby, one her mother had sung whenever Ariel got nightmares.

He nodded absently, and collapsed onto the board. She secured her arms around him more tightly, and eyed him bemusedly, not really able to believe that it had actually worked.

Suddenly, something brushed against her tail. Ariel bit her lip, and her eyes doubled in size.

A small part of her hoped it was sand, but a larger, more reasonable part knew that it wasn't.

She gradually worked up the guts to look down. Her eyes grazed the surface of the water, and she had to shove her fist in her mouth to keep from screaming.

A long, slimy eagle ray glided through the water below her, almost entirely unaware of the strange duo in the water above. When it's slimy, white spotted back brushed the tip of Ariel's tail, she recoiled in disgust. She also was careful about keeping Eric's feet away from it's lethal barbed tail.

When it passed, Ariel continued to swim.

Finally, she felt sand grate against her tail, and exhaustion settled into her limbs like a disease. She pulled Eric higher, so he was mostly out of the sinking tide.

Ariel lay in the shallows, painting. Her almost crimson colored hair fanned out around her head, like a sea urchin.

Her hair held a unique color, something her mother never ceased to comment on, when she took the time to be around her daughters. It was due to a strange, impromptu flood of red tide when Athelia, her mother, was pregnant with Ariel. While both survived, Ariel's hair would permanently be a unique shade of red.

When her heart stopped racing around inside her chest, she adjusted top, and slowly swam away. 

---

^Eric^

Eric's eyes gradually slid open, crusty and fuzzy with sand. He coughed and hacked, feeling as if he had not only gotten sand in his eyes, but like he inhaled a couple pounds of it as well.

His hair was stiff with salt, and his stomach was sore and bruised. A large hunk of driftwood lay next to him, looming and unwanted. Eric flipped it over, and it read "Lucky Lucy II."

A wave of terror surged through Eric, and his heart rate began to triple. Was Salmon alright? Had anyone made it back alive?

Then, suddenly, his situation hit him in the face. He was lying on a beach, coated in sand, shipwrecked.

He studied the long stretch of sand, dotted with dark navy and rich purple shells. The white sand swirled around in the passing wind, and a couple large black rocks jutted up from the ground. A long pier stretched into the ocean, and Eric struggled to remember who he was. Where was he?

All he could remember was his name, and the beautiful girl with a scarlet mane of hair,paired with a lyrical voice.