Part of Your World (Disney Twisted Tales) - Liz Braswell Page 0,37

She's evil, right? Who knows why she does anything? To make more evil, maybe? Or maybe she just likes it here. Whatever is going on in her crazy head, we gotta take her down, that's what we gotta do. We'll eighty-six her, get your dad back, get the prince, and everyone lives happily ever after."

"I don't know about all of that," Ariel said with a smile. "I don't think I can be responsible for everyone's happily ever after." Even my own. Get the prince? It was an intriguing thought, but one for later. Duty-first. "...I think it would be difficult to, um, ; eighty-six' a princess and a sea witch, especially now that I've lost the element of surprise. Let's focus on getting my father back, and then see what else we can do afterward."

"You don't want the prmce anymore?" Jona asked curiously.

Ariel looked at her m surprise. Had the bird read her mind? "Excuse me?"

"The character of you really seemed to pine after the character of him in Eric's opera. La SirenettaJ' Jona said with a shrug. "And Great-Grandfather always told the storyr of the two of you, and you gave your voice away to win him...."

"It was a long time ago. I was young, he was handsome and exotic. I don't think—in reality—there's much of a possibility of a long-term relationship between a mermaid and a human."

It was so much easier to speak quickly first and then decide later if it was truth or lies. She was already losmg the thoughtfulness that came with being silent. Ariel scolded herself mentally.

"Better ease off," Scuttle said to his great-grandgull in what he probably thought was a helpful whisper. "She seems a little touchy. Still an open wound."

Ariel took a deep breath and stood up. "Well, I don't think I can go back to the castle right now. Everyone saw me rush out."

"What will you do?" Jona asked.

"While I'm waiting for things to die down a bit, I'll go see for myself what mess Ursula's rule over Tirulia has created. If Carlotta is right, it makes my task even more urgent. I can't have humans dying because of a prmcess I—however inadvertently—gave them. I need to go to town, where the people are, and listen to what they are saying."

"Absotively," Scuttle said. "Having a sea witch for a princess has got to have some bad, you know, reiterations."

"Repercussions, I think you mean, Great-Grandfather," Jona corrected politely. She stretched her wings. "I should go alert Flounder of your status change—regarding your voice." "Thank you, Jona," Ariel said warmly. "Please tell him to meet me m this cove four tides from now for an update. And make sure he fully understands not to tell anyone else at all yet." "Anyone?" Scuttle asked, surprised. "Not even old crabby-claws?"

"Especially not Sebastian. Not yet. I already feel bad enough getting ray voice back—and not my father. I can't bear the thought of explainmg that to him right now. Also, if everyone knows that I can talk again, it's just more pressure—to get me back, to have me stay and rule. It would be hard to escape and look for Father a second time."

"But you wouldn't be tellmg everyone, just Sebastian," Scuttle pomted out.

"Once Sebastian knows, the entire kingdom will hear about it within hours," Ariel said with a wan smile. "He's as bad as a guppy with gossip."

He made his way back from rehearsal to the castle with the uncomfortable feelmg that he was hidmg something.

It was not unlike the time he had caught his first really sizable branzino. The old fishermen on the docks had cheered when the eight-}-ear-old princeling ran home as fast as his little legs could carry him, holding his prize aloft.

But then, realizing he had a catch of serious merit, Eric was suddenly convinced that his mother and father, the king and queen, would yell at him for such plebeian pursuits and forbid him from cooking and eating the dinner he had gotten for himself like a real man.

He hid the fish under his shirt.

The branzino (known commonly as the wolf fish) had extra-sharp fins and spines and scales, all of which cut mto the boy's flesh as it struggled.

Little Eric arrived at the castle desperate and bleedmg. He went straight to the kitchens, where he collapsed mto a puddle of tears, cursing his own weakness.

(The king and queen, as any parent could guess, were delighted with the skill and determination their son had shown. They gave Eric a really solid