King Nanuq stared into my eyes with a half-smile on his face. “Are you ready, mishka?”

 I said the only correct answer. "Yes."

 Evander’s last warning to me was why I had to go through with this. He could have told Attina everything. But he didn't. Not even to King Nanuq, though he has made a suggestion to him to keep me contained. Which is why two Arctic mermen were now guiding me into a cage.

 I appreciated my sisters' efforts to free me. But fate had decided yet again. It was time for me to remove myself from my beloved home. Hopefully then, it might have had a chance to heal.

 The guards shut the iron latch and then lifted me up on each side. Gently, they moved with their King before them. I was carried through the city, trying my best to ignore the judging stares of a people I could no longer claim. Each showed their disdain in creative ways. While some simply grimaced, some sang a song full of negative words about a princess that was more likely than not me. Some went so far as to throw rocks which warranted the soldiers' threatening censure. They were yelling all kinds of slurs, but the one that stuck out to me the most was "traitor".

 It was lucky for us to get by the tight crowd that parted as we passed. Finally we were out of the city. I gripped the bars of my cage, watching as its splendorous glow that doused the city, declaring its existence grew smaller and dimmer until I could no longer see it.

 I should have known this would be my only way out, a shameful way.

 “So, what are you going to do, Ariel?”

 My shoulders tensed as I heard the familiar voice right behind me. The worn but dignified dialect. I whipped around in the cage, soon gasping at him. “I don’t believe it.”

 Scuttle scratched at his snowy beard. “What? Do I not look as handsome as usual,” he chuckled.

 Instead of chuckling back, I frowned. “You’re not really here, are you?”

 “I’m as much here as you believe I am.”

 My shoulders hunched as I sank into myself. How could I believe anything when my mind kept reminding me it was not true?

 “Want to play a—?”

 “NO! No more games! I am tired of all the games.” My breaths gained weight. “I only want to sit here and wallow.”

 His head tilted empathetically. “I once knew a young pike who saw life as a game. The biggest game.”

 “That young pike was a fool. Too young to understand how terrible life could be. Or how real,” my eyes drew up to his soulful ones, “death could be.”

 “So, what is left?” he said.

 I held his gaze. “The truth.”

 He squinted. “What truth? What are you? Are you Ariel, the princess of Undersea or Ariel, the princess of the land above? Or are you Freja, the peasant lady with a little girl and a tree-mover for a family?”

 I folded my hands, pondering it. “I don’t know. I don’t think I am any of those things.”

 “Then you must not love your prince as you did when you saved his life.”

 “What do you mean? Of course I still love him.”

 “And you must not care for Clara as you did when you gave your life for her.”

 “But I do. That's not true.”

 “And you must not be same inquisitive, spirited, brilliant mermaid I poured my knowledge into until my last day alive.”

 Seeing his point, as striking as it was to my heart, I placed my hand on his spotted knuckles. “I still am.”

 “Then perhaps you are all those things... and more.”

 Scuttle surely had a way of making sense out of the conundrum in my head. “So, what game did you have in mind?” I said as I sat back with a sigh. “It shall be my very last one.”

 He stared silently at me for a moment. His flipped-back hair lifted a little in the dense, gray water. “Answer the riddle. A face to kiss, a face to miss. A soul to bury, A man to marry.”

 “Are these four individuals, or just two?”

 “That is for you to decide.”

 “A face to kiss, a face to miss,” I repeated the words. “A face to kiss— Eric.”

 “And to miss?”

 “Oh, I can’t say. There are so many.”

 “You have to guess. Just one.”

 I could not argue with his rules, so I forced myself to think of one face among all the others that I couldn't live with never seeing again. His name perched upon my mind. “Father.”

 “Correct.”

 “Correct? Wouldn't anything I say be correct.”

 “As long as it's true. And since I am your conscience personified, I will know if you are in fact telling the truth.”

 “Alright. What next?”

 “A soul to bury.”

 I took a moment to politely hesitate even though the answer is obvious. “Yours?”

 He nodded with a calm expression of acceptance. “Your last one, Ariel— a man to marry.”

 “Easy. Eric.”

 “You said his name already.”

 I began to feel a rising heat below me that started to singe the floor of the cage. I raised my tail and hovered. “You said I could choose how many individuals this is about.”

 “Only if it's true.”

 The heat climbed up through the bars of the cage's floor, reaching me. Scuttle, being a figment, remained unbothered by it. I, on the other hand, was uncomfortable. So I floated upward, grabbing the bars above me. I was now frustrated as well, growing more uncertain of my answer. “Then King Nanuq, because I am about to marry him anyway.”

 “Is he a man?”

 “Oh, what do you want me to say. If you know the answer, why won't you say it?”

 “Because. The riddle is not for me.” As Scuttle's ghost began to ripple in the wave of heat that broiled the water, I knew something wasn't right. I had to wake up.

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 Opening my eyes, I saw King Nanuq hovering right by the side of my cage. The two soldiers now held me from above, having me dangle over the scorching mouth of a seamount. My eyes displayed my fear to him. “Wait! What are you doing?”

 King Nanuq's distant countenance turned surly as his cheek folded with a half-smile. “I promise it's nothing personal. I only mean to get something out of the stupid war.”

 “I don’t understand.”

 He pressed his forehead to the bars. “You are very beautiful, but I found a more rewarding proposal on the trip to your kingdom. A seawitch wants a princess dead. And you certainly look like the one she described.”

 I was stifled by the realization that he was referring to Ursula. “You want to marry Ursula?”

 With a strong grimace, he pushed off the cage, swaying me dangerously too much. “What?! No. What she proposed was a chance for me to gain more than my strip of the artic. I am going to help your father win his war, then I am going to take his kingdom from him by killing him. And with the witch’s help, I will conquer all seven seas.”

 “No,” I squealed as the heat rose.

 “It is good that you will not be missed. Otherwise your death would be awfully tragic.” He raised his hand as a gesture for his men to prepare to drop me. “Goodbye, princess Ar— what is that?”

 I turned my head to see the large body swimming straight for me. And it was not stopping. I gripped tighter to the bars above me and closed my eyes as I braced the following slam...

 My heart was jostled towards my throat, head whirling. My tail flailed uncontrollably. As we banged to the ground, I fell on my side and went dead still. I wasn’t in the seamount, I was on the ground near it. I peered upward from the side of my eye at the shadow of a huge merman throwing the men around.

 They tried to overwhelm him, but he was to fast, striking left and right. I closed my eyes again, not wanting to see the violence, and somewhat hopeful that my rescuer would succeed. I listened to the noises of the men shouting and grunting until there was only silence. Then I felt his shadow spread over my cage.

 I curled into myself, shivering. Not because I was afraid but because I felt I recognized him. “Father?” I whisper.

 “No.” The dense but younger voice of another familiar individual had me open my eyes.

 I sat up, tilting my head up at his smile. At the sight of his gentle cobalt eyes, my heart raced and my mind muddled. His fair hair glistened in the dancing light and shadow of deepwater. This had to be another ghost. “Arne? Is that really you?”

 “It is. It's me, Freja, flesh and all. Or should I say, Ariel?”

 I didn't know whether I should smile out of excitement or frown out of shame, so I gave him something in the middle. “But how?” Trying to make sense of it, I found my eyes trailing down his beautiful body until at last I found his tail. It was definitely real and definitely there.

 “I’ll explain later,” he said while rubbing the back of his neck.

 “You better.”

 Arne's focus dropped to the ground as he scanned for something. “I didn’t see a key on the soldiers. Have you seen it?”

 “Maybe King Nanuq had it.”

 Arne looked at me with a disappointing look of misunderstanding. “King Nanuq?”

 “Tell me you fought him, too.” But he could not tell me. The next thing I felt was another impact as I was soon lifted and thrown forward.

 I hear Arne shout. “NO!”

 It happened slowly to me. I was plummeting downward into the hot breath of the open mouth of the seamount, soon to reach a belly full of lava... then I stopped as if caught on something. I turned and saw Arne straining to keep me from falling in.

 We heard the laughter of the devious king. “Have fun falling in love.” He shot off and away from us.

 My whole body stiffened as I met Arne's gaze. His forehead creased with determination. The veins on his arm were showing. “You can’t hold me for long.”

 “Don’t. I can do this. I pull trees for a living.”

 “But now you have nothing to plant your feet into. And you have no feet to plant.”

 He grunted frustratedly, clearly agreeing with my point. “I'm sorry Ariel. For everything. For blaming you. You saved her life. Gro told me.”

 “Who’s Gro?”

 “The tree spirit you bargained with. She told me I'd find you in the sea. I searched for you for days.”

 “You did?” If I wasn't in water, my eyes would be spilling over.

 “If I could just get to you. I'd hold you, not this cage.”

 I made it easy for him by swimming upward to the front of the cage. “Here I am,” I said with a feeble grin and a pitiful laugh.

 His eyebrows sunk. He kept pulling. His head flipped back as he flipped his tail quickly.

 “You haven't worked out your tail enough to propel us both.”

 “I can still try. I have to.”

 Being bereft of belief, I had no encouragement left for him, so I remained silent instead. The man continued to pull with all his might, seeming to make some progress, but I could still feel the heat at my tail. I had never seen Arne turn such a furious shade of salmon. “Arne, Arne,” I repeated quietly. I knew fatigue was catching onto him. We were both decending. “Arne!”

 “What!”

 His eyes widened at mine. And I saw myself in them. I knew in that moment that I had to decide what my fate would be. Did I want him to drop me or not? Did I want to make him watch another woman he loved die when he had a chance to save me? I realized that to Arne, I am not the worst thing in his life, but his redemption. His hope. So, give him hope, already! “I love you.”

 Something seemed to start off in his brain. He needed no further words from me. Arne pulled the cage towards his chest with one arm, and he started pulling at the latch with his other. In three jerks, the bolts loosened, and the latch of the cage was flung forth.

 I swam through the opening, wrapping my arms around his neck, his hand freed the heavy iron cage, letting it go down into the hole. I caressed his face, reminding him to float up even though he was tired. With his arm around me he ascended slowly.

 Then I heard a rumble below us. “Faster, Arne!”

 The seamount erupted forth mounds of molten rock. Arne tried to move faster, but he wasn't fast enough. Remembering I had a tail of my own, I helped in propelling us up as the hot stuff shot us faster like powder in a gun.

...

 I felt the kind sun lick my skin. Through my eyelids, I could tell there was light waiting for me. My chest lifted and fell, taking in the salty air. With a stretch running up my arms a down my tail, my eyes opened.

 I turned my head urgently, trying to find Arne. I found him, alright. Spotted the pale and perky rear of him just as he pulled up his britches. The muscles on his darling back glistened in the sunlight. I briskly looked the other way, feeling an onset of blood rushing to my cheeks.

 I waited for him to walk over to me and kneel beside me. Even as his shadow enveloped me, I did not look at him. Not until I felt his fingers slide up my bear arm. For, he had never seen me like this— topless with only clams for a covering.

 “Ariel.”

 The way he said my name made my skin burn. I dared to meet his amorous gaze. And with my own eyes, I let him know that the words I had said in the water, I meant completely.

 His fingers tightened gently around my arm. He hoisted half of me onto his lap, then dipped down and pressed his lips against mine.

 His arms embraced me, pressing me against him. One hand slipped underneath my wet hair, moving my head further into his kiss, further into his overwhelming attack.

 I threw my arm over his shoulder and his neck lowered as his lips pulled at mine. More gently, they brushed against my cheek and down the side of my neck. He was making up for missed time.

 I felt the safest I had ever felt. Safer than with Eric. As he bestowed his love upon me, I knew that I couldn't live without him. And that made me cry. Tears streamed right into our lips. He continued to kiss me, but I slowly pushed away.

 “Ariel?”

 “What are we doing? This can never work. My legs aren't coming back. Ever.”

 “We’ll find a way.”

 “There is no way. And besides, I've lied to you all this time.”

 “I don’t care. I told you I understand you.”

 “How do you understand? Where did you get your tail from?”

 Arne took hold of my hand. “I have never told anyone this. Not even my wife. You know how I told you that I come from a long line of tree-movers?”

 “Yes.”

 “That was on my mors side. But my fa was a mermaid.”

 “Merman.”

 “Right.”

 Suddenly, my mind was piecing things together. The way that Arne was unbothered by my singing, the page I’d kept in my vile, the story Ursula told. I gasped once everything made sense. “Your father was the one in the drawing.”

 “Yes. He fell in love with my mor at this coast.”

 “And in order to be with her, he made a deal with a witch.”

 “How did you know?”

 “She told me. The witch, Ursula. She said he gave up his strength for legs.”

 “That’s right. That's why for all the years I knew him, he was weak and feeble. Nothing like the drawing.” He squinted at me. “Where did you get the drawing from?”

 “I found it in the castle library.”

 “The day we went?”

 “No, not the— oh! Oh, no. Arne.”

 “What is it?”

 “I never told you. I am...” I scooted down from his lap and rolled over on my side. “I am married. To the man who killed your wife. The man that is going to war against my father, King Poseidon.” After saying the truth, I needed to see his expression, but I was two afraid to look.

 His hand lowered around me, turning me at the waist so I could look at him. “It seems you are... a princess twice over.”

 It was surprising to me just how forgiving Arne was behaving. “I don’t understand. You are not angry with me?”

 “I can’t be. I cannot blame you for falling for him. He's a charming man. You didn't know much about humans at all. But you took a chance because you believed we could be good. You put your faith in us, and God knows we don't deserve that. I see it as a reason to love you more.” Arne pulled me in close for another kiss. “I let you go once. I shall not make that mistake again.”

 “But...the war. We're practically doomed.”

 The side of his hand swiped the hair off my face before he tapped my chin with his finger. “No.”

 “No?”

 A grin turned up on his face. “You and I are going to stop this war from happening.”

 “How?”

 “I don’t know yet. We will figure it out. And we will do it together from now on.”