The Girl with the Green Tail

Chapter Thirteen: Ariel's Grotto Destroyed

"In love? My little Ariel?" a voice said, causing the sisters to swim out of the court, with Flounder trying to escape with them. "Just a minute there, Flounder."
"Who, me?" Flounder said, hiding his fear with confusion.
"You know Ariel just as well as anyone," said King Triton, towering over Flounder. "Who's the lucky merman?"
"Gee, I don't know!" Flounder said. "I didn't even know it was love until the second chorus!"
King Triton then turned to Sebastian, who was with him, giving Flounder an opportunity to escape. "Sebastian," he began, "who do you think?"
Sebastian broke. "I TRIED TO STOP HER, YOUR MAJESTY." he shouted. "I tell her, 'Ariel, you got to stay away from dose humans! Dey're noting but trouble!'"
"Humans?!" Triton interrupted. "WHAT ABOUT HUMANS?!!"
Sebastian slowly tried to float away. "Humans?" he said softly. He tried to play it off as a joke. "Ha, w-who said anyting about humans?" He swam out in a hurry.
"SEBASTIAN!" King Triton roared. "Have you been keeping secrets from me?! WHERE IS SHE?!!"

~~~

Ariel held a wand in her hands - dropped there by an unaware wizard long ago and Ariel had placed it in her collection - and twirled it around, thinking aloud. "Now, what did Scuttle call this one?" She began thinking of some names - all of which were basically nonsense - and said, "A diddywhomper? A thumbdoodle?" She sighed. "Well, whatever it is, Harry Potter held it in his own strong, beautiful human hands!!" She laughed to herself.
"THERE YOU ARE!!" roared a voice, causing Ariel to drop the lost wand and a wave of fear crashed over her.
"Daddy! I-" she stuttered.
King Triton looked around her grotto in bewilderment, Sebastian following cautiously behind him. "What is all this?!" demanded Triton.
"It's just my-"
"HUMAN JUNK!"
"No!" explained Ariel. "Treasures!" she said, showing him her collection.
Triton shoved them away in disgust, for he despised humans. "Is it true you rescued a human from drowning at the West Reef?!" Triton asked harshly.
"He would've died!" Ariel tried to explain.
"One less human to worry about!!"
"You don't even know him!" Ariel pleaded.
"Know him?! I don't have to know him! They're all the same!" Triton shouted. "Barbaric, fish-eating demons, with no capability of any feelings-"
"DADDY, I LOVE HIM!!" Ariel shouted.
Sebastian gasped loudly.
"No..." Triton said quietly. "Have you lost your senses completely? He's a human! You're a mermaid!"
"I don't care!" Ariel said.
"So help me, Ariel, I am going to get through to you!" King Triton raised his trident threateningly, and it began to glow. "And if this is the only way, so be it." He lifted his trident higher, and waved it around Ariel's grotto until all of her human items were destroyed.
"Daddy, no!" Ariel begged. "Stop it!"
But Triton was unrelenting. He destroyed every single human item in her grotto.
When it was done, he began to swim out, as Ariel sank to the bottom of her grotto and burst into tears.
Looking back, he began to regret what he had done. "I'm only trying to protect her..." he said to himself.
Flounder seemed to have heard everything from outside the grotto, and wanted to see if Ariel was alright. He swam in, to see Sebastian trying to comfort Ariel, who was crying on a rock that was at the bottom of her grotto.
"Ariel, I-" Sebastian began.
"Just go away." Ariel said, in between her crying.
"Ariel..." he said again.
"I said go away," Ariel said shortly, wanting to be alone.
As Flounder and Sebastian left, two voices came to Ariel's attention. Both voices were just above whispers, both shaky and raspy.
"Poor child," said one voice.
"Poor, ssssweet child," said the other.
"She has a very sssserious problem, hasn't she?" said the first voice.
"If only there was ssssomething we could do," said the second voice.
"But there is ssssomething," said the first voice.
Ariel looked up and saw two green eels swimming towards where she sat. "Who..." she stammered. "Who are you?" she asked, her voice still shaky from crying.
"Don't be frightened," the first eel said.
"We represent ssssomeone who can help you," said the second eel, swimming around Ariel.
"Jusssst imagine..." said the first eel.
"You and your wizard love," said the second eel.
"Together," the eels both said at once, in unison, "forever..."
Ariel was confused. "What... I don't understand..."
"Urssssula," said the first eel, "has great powerssss."
"The... The Sea Witch?" Ariel gasped. "No, I- That's impossible- No! Get out of here! Leave me alone!"
Both eels started swimming away. "Ssssuit yoursssself," said the first eel.
"It was only a ssssuggestion," said the second eel, and, flicking its tail, sent the remains of the fork - or the "dinglehopper" - towards Ariel.
"Wait..." Ariel said.
"Yessss?" said both eels in unison.

~~~

"Poor Ariel..." Flounder said.
"I didn't mean to tell him," Sebastian explained. "It was an accident."
They both stopped their discussion when they saw three figures swimming overhead. They looked up and saw Ariel swimming away with two teal-colored eels.
"Ariel?" Sebastian said. Ariel paid no attention to him. "Ariel!" Sebastian desperately shouted. He swam up to them, Flounder cautiously trailing behind. "Ariel, what are you doing wit dis riff-raff?!" Sebastian said, indicating the two eels.
"I'm going to see Ursula," she said, swimming past him.
Sebastian gasped. "Ariel, no! She's a demon! She's a monster-"
"Why don't you go tell my father?" Ariel said. "You're good at that."
Sebastian took a second to recover from the low blow from Ariel, before turning to Flounder. "Come on!" said Sebastian. "We've got to follow dem!"