1 Three Years Later

Everyone knows the tale of the little mermaid- how a young mermaid traded in her beautiful voice for a pair of human legs through a risky deal, all in the name of love. After undergoing many hardships, this little mermaid eventually managed to live happily ever after with her human prince. But what if this had not been the end of the story? What if Ariel had never found her happily ever after? What if Ursula had won over Prince Eric before Ariel even got a chance?

Three years had passed since Ursula, disguised as a human princess, had stolen Eric away. Ariel was now the voiceless princess of Atlantis. Her father, Triton, had been killed by the same sea witch that had taken her happiness from her. Now, Ariel's eldest sister, Attina, was the queen of the broken kingdom.

As hard as Attina tried to prevent chaos from raging across the seas, she was never successful. Ursula, who had the human prince wrapped around her finger thanks to her evil powers, was raging war against the sea. The humans had been ordered to send down fiery balls of fire and smoke down into the sea. They were tossing out poison into the ocean by the second. Worst of all, Ursula and her sister Morgana were using their magic to prevent the seven sisters of the sea, along with their subjects, from leaving the borders of Eric's country's borders, meaning nobody could leave the small, hazardous waters that surrounded the human kingdom.

Every day, as her sisters tried to make up a plan to fight back against Ursula, Ariel hid within the caverns far away from the castle. She knew this entire thing was her fault. Why had she been so stupid to trust the sea witch?

Today, like every other day, Ariel swam all the way to her group of caverns near the edge of Atlantis and sat there, weeping. That was when something caught her eye. A glittering piece of stone lay a few feet away from her tail. Ariel scooped up the turquoise gem. It looked so familiar...

That was when Ariel realized- it was a piece of her father's old trident! Ursula had shattered the merfolk king's trident after she had killed him, and the pieces had went flying across the sea. And Ariel had found one of those pieces.

She held it up in her hand, and held it close to her face. It was almost like she could hear her father's voice... No, wait. She really could hear his voice.

Frowning, Ariel held the gemstone up to her ear. From there, she could make out a small sound. A woman, singing in a beautiful voice that lit up Ariel's eyes. It was a voice she hadn't heard in such a long time.

'Mom?' she thought to herself. It was her mother, there was no question about it. But how was this happening? Ariel listened even closer as the gem sang to her in her mother's voice. It sang to Ariel in an ancient mermaid language, one which Ariel barely understood. When the song was over, Ariel knew what she had to do. The gemstone had been waiting for her all these years, waiting for somebody to help save Atlantis. The stone spoke of a man- a human man- who owned something that could defeat Ursula for good.

Ariel thought about telling her sisters so that they could all go, but she decided against it. It was too risky, for the safety of Atlantis. Besides, it wasn't like they would believe her, after all the trouble she had put the entire kingdom through.

With only one goal in her heart, Ariel began swimming upwards, onto the shore, where she would find the man who could help save her kingdom- a pirate that went by the name of Captain Hook.

Ariel had a secret. A secret that nobody else knew about.

When Ursula had taken over Eric's mind and had thrown Ariel back into the ocean with nothing, the young mermaid had discovered something. Ursula hadn't taken Ariel's legs away.

Ursula still ahd Ariel's voice, meaning Ariel could still stand in the human world. As bad as Ursula was, she kept her deals. And the deal had been that Ariel could have her legs as long as Ursula had Ariel's voice.

So Ariel rose up to the surface, and winced as the painful transformation of her tails into legs began. Soon, Her magnificent green tail had been replaced with a pair of human legs.

Ariel stood up, and immediately fell down. It had been three years since she had been on land, and it would take a little getting used to.

Unfortunately, Ariel wasn't given any time to get used to her legs, for the prince's guards, who had been patrolling the beach on behalf of Ursula's orders, saw Ariel and began to walk towards her.

Ariel dragged herself up, and began to run. It took a few seconds, but soon, she was running. And it felt great.

The guards eventually grew tired of chasing her, and went back to their usual duties. Ariel wandered into a tavern near the edge of the kingdom, and looked around in amazement. Then she shook her head, and told herself that she needed to concentrate.

She stared at the turquoise gemstone in her hand. It was gleaming brightly, and Ariel was half convinced that the glow meant that this man- Captain Hook- was near. She looked around the tavern, full of unknown objects and noisy humans.

She awkwardly took a seat on one of the chairs, and kept her ears open for any signs that could help her.

It didn't take long. One of the male humans, who was talking loudly with a bunch of other humans, suddenly got up and yelled, "To Captain Hook! The mightiest pirate in all the seven seas!"

Ariel craned her neck to see this 'Captain Hook', and was quite surprised when she laid her eyes on him. She had been expecting an old, ugly man, but instead, she saw a young man with a hunger for adventure in his eyes. One could even say that he was quite handsome.

Ariel didn't want to approach the man right away, especially since she couldn't talk and since he was surrounded by so many people. So she decided to follow him.

Night came, and Ariel was now back in the ocean, swimming around a large ship docked near the beach. She circled it, and saw many curious things- at the head of the ship was a wooden mermaid carved onto the great vessel. Its sails were pitch black, and the humans who saw it quickly walked away, after pointing and whispering in hushed voices.

Right before dawn, the pirate crew finally set sail. The sudden lurching of the ship woke Ariel, who had been sleeping right under the ship. She held onto one of the ropes dangling over the ship's edge, expecting a fast voyage across the sea.

What she didn't expect was for the ship to start rising up into the air like magic.

Ariel hung onto the piece of rope for dear life, as the ship began flying across the sky.

"Ahoy, mates!" the man called Captain Hook yelled. "Grab more pixie dust! We reach Neverland at dawn!"