The Little Sea Witch

~1~

The light from above never touched deep within the ocean. Even if it could, the light would never shine on an area filled with evil. It preferred to stay in places with a lighter tone, a happier aura, such as the magical kingdom, Atlantica.

That bright kingdom was ruled by the powerful King Triton. He had ruled over the seven seas along with his queen, Queen Athena, until her unfortunate death.

King Triton had struggled at first, taking care of his seven daughters, Aquata, Andrina, Arista, Attina, Adella, Alana, and Ariel. He also had to deal with ruling over, or rather, under, the sea all on his own, and had once even banned music from the kingdom.

But now Atlantica was full of music, laughter, and dance. It was filled with lights and sounds, sweets and tarts, banners and confetti, and merfolk of every color and shape imaginable. They were celebrating the sixteenth birthday of the king's youngest daughter, Ariel.

But that was far, far away from where a young merman was swimming. He was headed to the deepest, darkest parts of the ocean. And he was looking for someone. Someone who could help him. Someone with magic.

As he swam, two dark figures approached him from behind. They trailed after the merman at a distance, carful to keep out of sight. They followed him through dark seaweed, over the bones of a blue whale, and finally into a cave, dimly lit by perfectly aligned anglerfish leading all the way down both walls of the cavern.

As the merman continued onward, some strange creatures came into view. They looked almost like plants, brown and shriveled up, like raisins, with bright, glowing, yellow eyes. They were attached to the floor and stared up at the merman as he passed. They cryed out to him with strange looking mouths, but could not form any words.

A particularly courageous wrinkled plant wrapped itself around one of the young merman's wrists, but he yanked his hand away with a small yelp, and the now lifeless creature sank to the floor, dead. The merman swam out of reach of the others and attempted to ignored their echoing screams. If he wasn't careful, he could become one of them.

Soon after his encounter with the poor, unfortunate souls of other merpeople, the merman found himself at the end of the cave. Two eels swam out from behind him and laughed at his shock. They had been following him the whole time.

The cave had expanded into a dome room with a gigantic seashell in front of him. He could see some black tentacles peeking out of it. A voice emerged from within the shell.

"I was expecting you," the voice said in a smooth tone, then laughed. The laugh was low, as if the speaker hadn't opened their mouth, but let the noise rumble through their entire body up to their lips. "Thanks to Flotsam and Jetsam, that is."

The merman gulped as he watched the eels slither around the seashell. "I need a- a favor." There was that laugh again. He shivered even though the water was not cold.

"Don't they all?" The tentacles resting outside of the giant shell began to move and the huge form of a woman appeared. But she wasn't a normal human. She wasn't even a mermaid. She was a monster.

On the top half, she was mostly normal, excluding her grayish, purple skin. She had short, white hair that stood upright on the top of her head. She wore purple earings in the shape of diamonds, a seashell necklace, and lots of makeup, including a false beauty mark above her lips. The makeup only made her cruel face look nastier.

If you were only looking at the top half of her, you would think that she was wearing a sleeveless, black dress, but on the bottom half, the dress formed, around her large waist, into the eight legs of an octopus. She was a monster. No, she was the sea witch they called Ursula.

Grinning evily at the merman the sea witch said, "I don't do favors, hon, I do deals."

Ursula wandered over to a mirror that hung on the wall, Flotsam and Jetsam slithered after her, as she absentmindedly began applying bright red lipstick. "Tell me about yourself...?"

"Dylan."

"Tell me about yourself, Dylan. What are your hopes and dreams? Are they worth the risk?" She threw her head back and cackled, smearing some lipstick on her double chin.

"I- I want my father to appreciate me."

Ursula lifted an eyebrow as she removed the red mark from her face with a flat, scared looking fish. She popped it into her mouth once she had finish. While she chewed, with her mouth open, she asked, "Now why is that? Does he not realize that there is a handsome, strong-looking young merman in his family?"

Dylan shifted in the water, uncomfortably, as the eels laughed. "He just doesn't recognize me when I accomplish something. He's always too focused on his reputation to pay attention to something he didn't even want in the first place." Dylan clamped his mouth shut. He had already shared more than he should have with a stranger- a sea witch.

"He didn't want children?" Ursula inquired as she turned around to face him.

"No, he did. He just didn't want me." Dylan looked away. Why was he telling this to her? "All my other siblings are really smart, and I... I'm not. I'm an artist, but he doesn't like that. So he always ignores me and my art- paintings and drawings that I think are pretty good- but he wanted smart kids, not artistic ones."

"You remind me of someone I once knew..." Ursula's gaze shifted away from Dylan onto nothing in particular. They were both silent for a moment before the sea witch dismissed her thoughts and looked back at the merman.

"Well, let's get down to business, shall we?" She clasped her hands together and strode over to a crystal ball Dylan hadn't noticed when he had first entered. He followed her over to it. "I will give you what you want," Ursula waved her hand over the crystal ball and Dylan gulped longingly as he saw his father appear in the glass, sweeping Dylan up into a tight hug, laughing merrily. "But it comes with a small price."

Dylan tore his eyes away from the image in the ball and looked up at Ursula. She smirked at him. "Okay, so what's the catch?"

"For your father to finally appreciate you," she paused as Dylan twitched slightly. "You will have to give me your good hand."

Dylan looked down at his left hand. Not many people were left-handed, he could easily have her take his right hand. He held it up. Ursula smirked again. "The other one, dear."

The color drained from the merman's face. How could she know? Could she have been watching him through the crystal ball and knew which hand he used to paint with? "How will- how will I be able to continue my art?"

Ursula gestured down and Dylan looked once more at his father, eyes gleaming with pride, as he looked at a the painting of a dolphin Dylan had made for his father's birthday. Ursula spoke in his ear, "But is it worth it? You'll have your previous peices of artwork and," the sea witch laughed in the low way she had before. "You can always learn to paint with your right hand."

Dylan nodded. Out of the other deals he heard she had made with others, it seemed like a pretty good one. He squinted his eyes suspiciously at Ursula. "What else is there?"

Ursula smiled as she pulled a piece of shining gold paper out from behind her. "You will have three days to get your father to compliment your artwork. If he does, he will appreciate your skills for the rest of his life. But if not," she held the paper and a quill out to Dylan. "You will be mine. And your father, I expect, wouldn't miss you in the slightest."

Dylan looked at the paper, then his hands, and finally his father. He looked so pleased with his son. He looked so pleased with Dylan. "Do we have a deal?"

Dylan exhaled slowly. "Yes. We have a deal."