The Little Mermaid

Chapter 4

Romelle stood outside a doorway covered in hanging seaweed, "Lance, time for you to come out. You've been in there all morning!"

Lance emerged from his room, singing to himself as he swam by. Allura came out of nowhere, quirking an eyebrow up as she watched her brother.

"What's with him today?" Allura asked, the two mermaids following behind him to their father.

"Good morning, father!" Lance chirped, then swimming off with a fantasizing face.

Allura came to a realization, "Oh, he has it bad."

"What?" Alfor pressed, turning to his daughters. "What does he have?"

"Isn't it obvious? Lance is in love!" Romelle squealed.

Alfor raised his eyebrows up, "Lance? In love?"
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Coran paced back and forth on a rock outside, "Okay, so far so good. I'm sure King Alfor doesn't know. This isn't going to be easy keeping this secret for long."

Lance was plucking petals off of a yellow flower and mumbling to himself. "He loves me, he loves me not... He loves me! Yes, I knew it!"

Lance squealed holding up the flower with one remaining petal. He then held the flower close to his heart and laid across a rock, his back arching over it.

"Lance, stop talking like a mad merman." Coran deadpanned.

"I have to see him again." Lance perked up again. "Tonight! Pidge knows where he lives."

"No, Lance. Please. Get your head out of the clouds and back in the water where it belongs!" Coran ordered.

Lance ignored him, looking up to the surface, "I could swim up to the castle, and Hunk can splash around to get his attention and-"

"Lance!" Coran shouted, which made the merman whip his head to him. "Down here is your home! Listen to me, the human world is a mess. Life under the sea is better than anything that could be up there."

Lance furrowed his eyebrows, pouting as he turned away. Coran sighed, jumping to be in front of the merman and sitting across from him.

"The seaweed is always greener, in somebody else's lake. You dream about going up there, but that is a big mistake." The crab moved around. "Just look at the world around you, right here on the ocean floor.
Such wonderful things surround you! What more are you lookin' for? Under the sea! Under the sea!"
Fish swam around the two as Coran hopped on Lance's tail. "Darling it's better, down where it's wetter- take it from me! Up on the shore they work all day. Out in the sun they slave away. While we're devoting, Full time to floating! Under the sea!"

Coran hopped off his tail, floating to the other side of the area. A blue lobster popped up from behind four clams, hitting them as if they were a marimba. Coran had a go at it, then singing with the lobster.

"Down here all the fish is happy, as off through the waves they roll! The fish on the land ain't happy, they sad 'cause they in a bowl! But fish in the bowl aint lucky- They in for a worser fate. One day when the boss get hungry-"

"Guess who's gon' be on the plate?" A fat fish added.

Coran swam back in front of Lance, "Nobody beat us, fry us and eat us, in fricassee! We're what the land folks loves to cook, but under the sea we off the hook! We got no troubles, life is the bubbles! Under the sea! Since life is sweet here, we got the beat here naturally! Even the sturgeon an' the ray, they get the urge and start to play. We got the spirit, you got to hear it- under the sea!"