Chapter 13:

The Mantis Queen

Elsa

Elsa trembled. Her heart pounded against her ribs, her breath coming in ragged gasps. The fire beside her that Ariel had started and Elsa had kept feeding cracked and popped. Its orange glow warmed Elsa’s right arm and right leg and her icy dress beaded with water, almost as if it was sweating.

Elsa tried to move, but her limbs betrayed her. Her chest tightened and her teeth clacked. The sight of Ariel being dragged out to sea by… by that monster kept replaying in her mind. Elsa had been so happy to see Ariel return. She hadn’t cared if Ariel had had fish for them to eat or not, she just wanted to lie next to her mermaid friend and hold her and fall asleep beside her. The terror on Ariel’s face, though, was imprinted behind Elsa’s eyelids and every time she closed her eyes it was that fear that she saw.

“Run!” Ariel had screamed. But how could Elsa run when she could barely even move?

I can’t lose her, Elsa thought. Not now, not like this.

Elsa managed to turn her head toward the fire. The flames danced around the kindling, reminding Elsa of the time the Duke of Weselton tried to impress her and Anna with his rather unorthodox dancing skills at Elsa’s coronation. She huffed through her nose in amusement at the thought, but as her fingers dug into the sand, she was brought back to reality. Ariel was gone.

Elsa blinked. Her blank stare settled beyond the fire as she listened as the tide washed up the beach. A gentle breeze rustled the leaves of the trees behind her and crickets chirped, singing their songs for the night. Something shifted beyond the fire and caught Elsa’s attention.

Beyond the flickering dance of firelight, a silhouette emerged, perched on hands with arms outstretched beneath it, its back curved like the crescent moon that was hanging high in the night sky. Long, thick locks cascaded around the creature's face and shoulders, their outlines softened by the dim glow. Something sharp protruded from its hair, resembling a tiara caught in the shadows. With a graceful motion, the creature began to move, gliding towards the tide, its lower half slithering through the sand just like a—

Mermaid!

That’s right! When Ariel had emerged from the sea, another mermaid had emerged with her. It had caught Elsa so off guard that she stumbled back and fallen down next to the fire where she currently sat on the beach.

Elsa managed to get to her feet. Her hands and her feet were soaked from her melting dress. She twirled her hand up over her head and her dress solidified into a new layer of ice, the water on her hands and feet crystallizing and falling away from her skin and melting in the sand beneath her. Elsa’s lips parted.

Magic.

Ice!

Ariel had shouted those words at Elsa before she had told her to run. The memory of Elsa fleeing Arendelle the night of her coronation and freezing the fjord as she ran across the water brought an idea to mind. Elsa could freeze the sea, trapping that monster in ice—and hopefully not Ariel, she thought.

“Ariel!” shouted the mermaid across the beach. She moved closer to the tide, her tail whipping behind her in the sand. She screamed, “Ariel!”

Elsa looked out at the sea. The surface rippled with the incoming tide, but otherwise was calm from what little Elsa could see. The crescent moon didn’t provide much light and the fire only provided enough of a glow to see a short way beyond the tide. Elsa stepped forward, unsure if she should approach the mermaid. However, she seemed to know Ariel and if she knew Ariel, then maybe she was friendly just like Ariel?

Elsa approached the mermaid. “I’m Elsa,” she said, patting her hand against her chest, “I’m Ariel’s friend. I think I know how to hel—”

The mermaid shrieked, scurrying away from Elsa. She moved further away from the light of the fire, almost disappearing into the darkness on the beach; however, her green eyes sparkled like emeralds in the faint glow of the flames. The mermaid hissed, “Stay away from me!”

Elsa froze. Though she could only make out the silhouette of the mermaid, she could see her eyes narrowing. Her teeth glimmered against the dim glow of the crackling flames, signaling to Elsa that she was bearing them as a sign of aggression.

Elsa’s chest tightened. She could easily freeze the mermaid if she was to charge at her, but Elsa didn’t want to resort to that. This mermaid knew Ariel which meant that she was either a friend of Ariel’s or—Elsa’s breath caught in her throat.

A sister!

“I won’t hurt you.” Elsa’s voice quavered. She took another step toward the mermaid.

“Stay back, human! You’ve done enough harm already,” the mermaid snarled, her eyes flashing with fury.

Elsa flinched. “Harm? I haven’t done anything.”

The mermaid reared back as if to lunge forward, but stopped. “Ariel wouldn’t have been here if it wasn’t for you!”

Elsa recoiled. Though the mermaid’s words hurt, was she correct in her accusation of their dire situation? If Elsa hadn’t accepted her cousin Rapunzel’s invitation to her birthday celebration to see the Floating Lights or if she had agreed to stay another night at Corona to avoid the storm that she had no way of knowing that was coming that night or if Ariel hadn’t cared enough to try and save at least one person from the sinking vessel, Ariel wouldn’t have been here tonight and wouldn’t have been dragged out to sea by whatever that creature was.

“Humans are a menace to the sea,” the mermaid growled. “Stay here on your piece of land and stay away from my sister!” The mermaid moved through the darkness and raced for the tide. She shouted Ariel’s name, but before she could finish, her voice trailed off under the sea.

Elsa stood on the beach, alone. Maybe Ariel being dragged out to sea was Elsa’s fault? That didn’t mean that Elsa had to stand back and do nothing, though. She looked out across the water. It was pitch black out there; not even the glow of the crescent moon allowed Elsa to see beyond the glow of the fire behind her.

The fire behind her…

The fire still danced and crackled behind her. Elsa turned to face the flames. She looked to the forest beyond the beach. She turned around and looked back out at the sea. Her eyes shifted back and forth as an idea came to mind.

Elsa clenched her fists and steeled her resolve. She may have been the Queen of Arendelle, but she was also the Snow Queen. Elsa pivoted on her right foot, twisting her body around in the sand. With a skip, she bounded off toward the forest.

“Hang on Ariel. I’m coming for you!”

# # #

Ariel

As the water swallowed Ariel whole, she struggled to get free from the Mantis Queen's grip. Ariel was stronger in the water than she was on land, but the Mantis Queen was a dominating force. As the Mantis Queen sank deeper in the sea holding onto Ariel, Ariel reared her tail back and beat it into the mantis shrimp part of the Mantis Queen’s body. After a few hard thumps, the Mantis Queen loosened her grip enough for Ariel to wriggle free from her arms. However, Ariel didn’t escape unscathed. As Ariel wriggled free from the grasp of her attacker, the queen turned her pincer-like hand upward and sliced Ariel above her belly button.

Blood oozed from the wound on Ariel’s abdomen. She pressed her hand into the wound to try and stop the bleeding as she swam away from the queen. Ariel’s first instinct was to head back to the island, but with Elsa and her sister being up there, Ariel didn’t want to put them in any more trouble than they were already in. She had lured the Mantis Queen to the island in a desperate attempt to try and flee the monster, but that hadn’t worked.

Ariel clenched her left fist—the one that wasn’t pressed into the wound on her abdomen—her nails digging into her palm. How could I so stupid? Her heart pounded with anger at herself. If I can be on land, why wouldn’t that thing be able to go on land, too? Ariel shook her head, biting down on her lip as she fought back the tears of pain and frustration.

Luckily, for Ariel, the wound on her abdomen wasn’t deep and the blood ceased from the wound. The pain was still there, though. Each time Ariel beat her tail to swim she had to use her abdomen muscles in unison with her tail muscles and every time pain radiated from the wound and had her wincing almost nonstop.

As Ariel moved away from the island, her pulse just wouldn’t let up. Her arms and her tail trembled. Ariel hadn’t been in a fight of this scale since Ursula all those years ago and even then, she had Eric with her to help take her down. Ariel was alone for this fight, though. She had tried getting Elsa involved by having her use her magic, but keeping Elsa safe was Ariel’s first priority and with Elsa having not understood Ariel’s cries for magic and ice, she found herself being relieved, that way Elsa could stay on land and out of the sea. When Ariel thought that she was far enough away from the queen, Ariel twisted in the water and peered back at the monster. The Mantis Queen was rampaging, thrashing, and making her way directly toward Ariel.

Wide-eyed and chest heaving, Ariel searched the sea, an idea coming to mind when her eyes settled on the seafloor. Ariel beat her tail in the water and descended as quickly as she could. Ariel flattened herself out in the soft mud of the seafloor. She twitched her tail in an attempt to get the queen’s attention. However, that proved unnecessary as the Mantis Queen was already staring down at Ariel, her teeth bared. The Mantis Queen reared back one of her massive spear-like claws readying an attack. Being part mantis shrimp, Ariel was aware of just how fast this creature must be. In the split of a second, Ariel whipped up two large handfuls of dirt and debris into the water, cloaking herself and with all of the strength that she could muster, Ariel darted out of the cloud and away from her attacker.

A loud pop! coursed through the sea as the Mantis Queen’s spear struck the area where Ariel had just been. The queen’s vicious strike caused a surge of bubbles to spread from the area and as the bubbles collapsed, the water around them boiled. One reason merfolk were always warned about the dangers of hunting mantis shrimp is because they can use their claws to strike with such speed and such force that it’ll cause the water around their strikes to boil which can seriously harm, if not fatally wound, any merfolk who isn’t careful.

Ariel shrieked from the shockwave of the strike and plummeted toward the seafloor, crashing into a pile of clam and conch shells. The clam shells didn’t hurt too much, but it was jagged, spired edges of the conch shells that had Ariel whimpering. Her chest, arms, and tail were covered in knicks and small cuts from where she landed in the pile of shells and fresh blood oozed from her wounds.

“I expected the princess of the sea to put up more of a fight,” mocked the Mantis Queen. The pincers at the end of her arms clicked and clacked. “Yet, her lies King Triton’s youngest daughter, weak and dying with no one to help her.” She shook her head and clicked her tongue. “What a pity.” The Mantis Queen bared her teeth again. “You should have stayed human.” The Mantis Queen dove at Ariel.

Weary and in pain, Ariel managed to lift herself from the pile of shells. She wrapped her finger around a conch and when the Mantis Queen snatched up Ariel with her arms, Ariel reared back, targeting the queen’s head with the shell. The Mantis Queen expected the attack, blocking it with her pincer hand, knocking the conch from Ariel’s grasp. The Mantis Queen closed her pincer around Ariel’s right forearm and Ariel screamed. Pain seared up her arm and all down her spine, causing her whole body to jerk and spasm.

The Mantis Queen leaned in toward Ariel. The long, thick antennae that protruded from the top of her scaly head flicked through Ariel’s floating red hair. Ariel lifted her left arm to swat away at the antennae, but the Mantis Queen used her other pincer hand to bat away Ariel’s arm.

Inches from Ariel’s face now, the Mantis Queen growled, “I’m going to flay you alive and feed you to what’s left of my babies.”

Tears welled in Ariel’s eyes. She struck her tail forward, but the gangly limbs from the queen’s mantis shrimp body grabbed hold of Ariel’s tail before she could deliver the blow. The Mantis Queen was just too strong for Ariel to fight alone. Her jaw trembled and her body shook as her final thoughts raced through her mind: rescuing Elsa from her sunken ship, swimming with her mother when she was just a child, eating an orange for the first time with Elsa, dancing with Eric on her wedding day, covering Elsa up in the seaweed blanket Ariel made for her, exploring sunken ships with Flounder, starting her first fire for Elsa…

Elsa!

Ariel couldn’t die today! She made a promise to Elsa to get her back home and back to her sister and Ariel had every intention of keeping that promise.

With the Mantis Queen’s face so close to Ariel’s, Ariel used the only tactic she could in this moment that had proven useful on her own sister. Ariel reared her head back and slammed her forehead into the Mantis Queen’s nose. The Mantis Queen recoiled from the attack, blood pouring from her face and dancing through Ariel’s red hair. The queen let loose of Ariel and Ariel lifted herself, clutching her wounded right arm. As she swam above the queen, Ariel spun in the water, smacking the queen in the face with her tailfin. Ariel pivoted and dove toward the seafloor and back to the pile of shells.

She let loose of her wounded arm and tried picking up a conch shell in her right hand. Her arm burned with pain and Ariel gasped. Though her grip wasn’t tight, she was able to pick up a conch in her right hand and she picked up another in her left. Brow furrowed and jaw clenched, Ariel turned her attention back to the Mantis Queen and darted after her.

With the Mantis Queen still squirming and thrashing from her broken nose, Ariel now had the advantage of a surprise attack. She reared her left arm back and as she approached the queen, the queen whipped herself around, crashing the tailfin of her mantis shrimp body into Ariel, sending Ariel plummeting back to the seafloor. Both conch shells drifted through the water and sank out of reach of the mermaid. Dazed and weak, Ariel watched as the Mantis Queen hovered over her, blood still oozing from her face.

“You should have swum away when you had the chance,” the Mantis Queen snarled. She descended upon Ariel.

The Mantis Queen sank fast over Ariel and just as she was about to land on top of her, something crashed into the Mantis Queen causing her to land beside Ariel instead. Mud and debris plumed up around Ariel and Ariel managed to lift herself from the seafloor with her left arm and swim out of the dirt cloud. Just outside of the cloud of dirt and debris floated Ariel’s savior.

“Attina!” Ariel cried. She swam for her sister and wrapped her up in her arms, crying out at the pain that shot up her right arm.

Attina broke away from the hug and examined her sister’s sliced arm. Ariel winced when Attina ran her fingers over the wound. Attina’s eyes ran over the rest of her sister’s body, noticing the cut on her abdomen and the other small cuts across her chest and tail from the conch shells.

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“She’s really done a number on you, Ariel.”

Ariel’s right arm trembled. Her teeth clattered. She did her best to smile through the pain, though.

Ariel’s voice wavered. “I’ve had worse wrestling with minnows.”

Attina gave Ariel a doubtful look, her eyes filled with concern.

“Okay, maybe it’s a bit worse than that,” Ariel admitted, her breath hitching in her throat.

“We have to go!” said Attina. Attina grabbed Ariel’s left hand and nodded over her shoulder. “Come on. Through the forest!”

The Mantis Queen rose from the seafloor and blocked the mermaids’ escape. She reared back both of her spear-like claws, and Ariel shouted, “Dive!”

Ariel and Attina dove for the seafloor as both claws shot through the water, narrowly missing both mermaids. Bubbles cavitated at the points of impact and the water boiled around them. A shock wave radiated out in all directions and forced Ariel and Attina into the mud, both mermaids groaning upon impact.

Pain seared its way through Ariel’s body from her abdomen and her right arm. Her tail beat against the seafloor and a cloud of dirt and debris lifted around her and Attina. Attina lifted herself from the mud and also beat her tail into the seafloor. More and more dirt clouded around them and Attina reached for a rock.

Ariel spotted one of the conch shells she had acquired earlier and reached for it. “We surprise her,” commanded Attina. “Dart up and out of the cloud and strike her on either side.”

Ariel only nodded. Attina stared up into the cloud and as the water shifted above them, she shouted, “Now!”

Ariel and Attina darted up and out of the cloud of dirt and debris. The Mantis Queen flinched when both mermaids ejected from the cloud. Ariel struck the queen in her abdomen with her conch and Attina struck her just above her breasts with the rock. The Mantis Queen roared in pain. Blood spewed from the points of impact and Ariel and Attina darted off in opposite directions. The Mantis Queen locked onto Ariel and followed her. Ariel beat her tail, doing her best to ignore the pain in her abdomen. When she looked back, the Mantis Queen was racing after her. Meanwhile, Attina disappeared into the kelp forest.

Ariel dove and darted out of the way of the Mantis Queen’s clutches, narrowly avoiding her pincer hands. Ariel passed under the queen’s mantis shrimp body. The queen reared her tailfin up for a strike, and wide-eyed, Ariel dodged. Though she avoided the strike, the currents that shifted through the water around the queen’s tailfin sent Ariel hurtling through the sea. When she righted herself, the Mantis Queen’s tail came crashing through the water and struck Ariel in her chest, knocking every bit of breath from her body as she crashed into the seafloor. A cloud of dirt blossomed around Ariel upon impact.

Ariel wheezed, her gills doing all the work they could to resupply her with a fresh breath. The ground around her shook and when she opened her eyes, the Mantis Queen was standing over her, her mantis shrimp limbs dug into the seafloor around Ariel. The Mantis Queen’s upper lip curled as she peered down at Ariel. Her nose was crooked on her face and whisps of blood still oozed from the lacerations Ariel and Attina had delivered.

“You thought you could escape from Scyllari, the Mantis Queen? Pathetic mermaid.”

“My sister isn’t pathetic!”

Scyllari turned around, her limbs stabbing into the seafloor around Ariel. Ariel maneuvered her way between the Mantis Queen’s limbs and shot up in time to see Attina wielding the octopus that had inked Ariel earlier, the same octopus Attina had dismembered in the forest.

Attina gripped the body of the octopus between her right arm and the side of her chest and aimed it at Scyllari. She squeezed the octopus’s corpse as tight as she could and ejected an ink bomb in the Mantis Queen’s face. Scyllari flinched and choked out a strangled scream as a cloud of ink engulfed her.

Ariel’s jaw fell open and she cheered through her pain. “Attina, that was amazing!”

Attina released the octopus and it sank to the seafloor. “Grab a weapon! Let’s finish her while she’s blinded.”

Ariel and Attina scoured the seafloor for anything they could use as a weapon. Attina found the other conch shell Ariel had wielded earlier and Ariel found a few barnacle-encrusted clamshells. She picked up the two largest ones, her right hand still weakened, but able to hold a shell. Together, the sisters ascended toward Scyllari who was still struggling amidst the cloud of ink and as they made their way up, that’s when Ariel noticed the surface changing.

The surface of the sea crystallized over, the dim glow of the hanging crescent moon above fading away. The sound of crackling ice reverberated through the water, and the sea beneath the surface became pitch black, except for the green hue of Ariel’s dark-sea vision.

Ariel’s mouth fell open in a wide smile.

Elsa!

Through the ice, illuminated by an orange glow, Ariel saw the silhouette of a figure running atop the frozen surface. Her cheeks prickled with heat.

She came to help me after all!

“What is that?” shouted Attina.

“Elsa!” Ariel cheered.

As Ariel and Attina came up on Scyllari, the Mantis Queen fanned the ink cloud away from her. Her eyes nearly bulged out of her head when Attina struck her in the chin with the conch. Ariel dug her barnacle-encrusted clamshells into the mantis shrimp part of Scyllari’s body and sliced the shells through her tough exoskeleton. Blood plumed from Scyllari’s mouth, though the exoskeleton proved to be much thicker than Ariel had anticipated. Though she managed to slice into it, it didn’t seem to faze Scyllari one bit.

From the west, through the kelp forest came another threat. Ariel’s eyes widened and she groaned. Oh, come on!

“Sharks!” Ariel cried out, pointing in their direction.

Three massive, white-bellied sharks emerged from the kelp forest. They must have smelled all the blood in the water. As blood mixed with the water from Scyllari’s busted-open chin, the sharks darted at her.

Attina shrieked, moving out of the way. Ariel sank to the seafloor, wanting to stay out of sight of the vicious predators. Attina joined her and grabbed Ariel’s arm. Ariel stifled a cry as Attina examined the wound.

“Good, you’re not bleeding anymore.”

“Let’s stay low to the ground,” winced Ariel. “Maybe the shark will finish her off?”

Ariel and Attina stared at the battle raging on above them. Scyllari launched one of her spear-like claws at one of the sharks, piercing it clean through its gills. The shark died immediately. When she brought her claw back, the shark’s body whipped off her claw and sank at a distance.

The other two sharks flanked the Mantis Queen, but she whipped around in the water, knocking one unconscious with her massive, mantis shrimp tail and then piercing the other behind its dorsal fin with her spear-like claw. The shark flailed about on her claw and Scyllari brought her other claw up and jabbed it through the shark, ahead of its dorsal fin. Scyllari yanked her claws in opposite directions and the shark split apart, blood exploding from the torn apart fish and its entrails sinking over the sisters below.

Scyllari directed her attention at Ariel and Attina and dove toward them. “Swim!” shouted Attina.

Ariel and Attina took off in opposite directions and instead of following Ariel like she expected, Scyllari darted after Attina. Attina raced for the surface. When she reached the layer of ice blocking her way, she beat her fists into the ice. Ariel pursued the Mantis Queen. As Scyllari barreled toward Attina, Ariel shouted for her sister to move out of the way!

# # #

Elsa

The surface of the sea solidified with ice with each step that Elsa took running across the sea. She carried a torch in her left hand that she crafted from a dead tree branch she had pulled from the forest beyond the beach. The flames whipped above the Snow Queen providing enough light for her to see where she was going, though where exactly she was supposed to be going, she wasn’t sure. What was even the plan?

Elsa came to a stop, but the surface of the sea continued to turn to ice. The stress the freezing enacted on the solidifying water caused popping and cracking to echo out around Elsa. Surely Ariel was somewhere nearby? Maybe she ran too far and Ariel was closer to the beach? Elsa clenched her right hand. She spun on the balls of her feet ready to head back toward the island.

The soles of Elsa’s feet picked up on vibrations reverberating through the ice. Elsa crouched down holding the torch close to the surface. A pair of hands beat at the ice from underneath and a dark, reddish hair floated beneath the surface. Elsa gasped, happily.

“Ariel!” she shouted. Elsa stuck her hand to the surface of the ice hoping Ariel would see her.

The mermaid darted off in a black blur and then she was gone. Holding the torch to the surface, something else raced toward the ice. Elsa’s eyes widened and she dove forward.

The surface of the frozen sea shattered behind Elsa and sea spray shot into the air, landing all around her. Water narrowly missed the flames, though the torch flickered, threatening to go out anyways.

Elsa sat up on her rear, heart pounding in her ears. She outstretched the torch where the ice was shattered, the monster that had grabbed Ariel off of the beach rested atop the surface. The hair on Elsa’s arms and neck stood straight up. Fear threatened to keep her still, but there was no time to be scared! Elsa had to be brave. This creature took her friend, took Ariel—you took my little mermaid!

Elsa got to her feet and summoned a pillar of ice to form around her torch. The torch stood high in the air, its flames dancing as if to cheer Elsa on, illuminating the area around her. Brow furrowed and teeth clenched, Elsa clapped her hands together. Snow and ice formed around her hands and when she pulled them apart, ice stretched from fingertip-to-fingertip, crackling between her palms. Elsa reared her left hand behind her head like she was about to throw a ball and when she threw her arm forward, a thin, needle-sharp icicle launched from the icy strands of magic crackling from her fingertips and balling in the center of her palm. The icicle impaled the creature’s massive, monstrous body and she screamed out in pain. Elsa threw her right hand forward, but being left-handed the icicle missed its target, crashing into the icy surface of the sea behind the creature and shattering.

When the creature locked eyes with Elsa, she roared, “A witch comes to aid the mermaids?”

Elsa narrowed her eyes at the insult and ground her teeth together. The creature attempted to stand on the ice, but it proved difficult for her massive body with those scrawny, spider-like legs. The creature couldn’t hold herself up and fell on top of the surface, the ice cracking around her.

As Elsa reared her left hand back to launch another attack at the monster, Ariel leapt through the hole where the monster had crashed through the ice. Elsa spotted her, tracking Ariel as she hit the ice, slid across the surface, and crashed into the monster. Elsa’s eyebrows shot clear up her forehead. She raced toward the two, a need deep inside of her to protect Ariel!

As the monster righted herself on the ice, Elsa dropped the icicle and launched a beam of ice from both hands at the creature, walls of ice forming around the monster, imprisoning her. As Elsa ran to Ariel, she dropped to her knees and slid the rest of the way to her mermaid friend. She held out her hands and braced for impact as she slid into the icy wall. Elsa quickly turned around and scanned Ariel.

Though the glow of her torch was fainter where she was now, she could still see Ariel. Her pulse raced as she noticed every laceration on Ariel’s body. “You’re hurt!”

Ariel attempted a smile. “No,” she breathed, “I’m Ariel. Remember?”

Elsa knew Ariel was trying to elicit some sort of a positive response from her joke, but seeing her mermaid all cut up and injured, Elsa couldn’t satisfy Ariel with a response like that. She wrapped her arms around Ariel and held her.

“Oh, that’s nice,” Ariel muttered.

The ice wall behind Elsa cracked as the monster rammed into it. Ice from the top of the wall fell around Elsa and Ariel, shattering around them. Ariel wrapped Elsa up in her arms and flipped over, using her body to shield Elsa from the falling ice. Without hesitation, Elsa lifted her right arm up past Ariel’s body and formed a shield of ice around the two. “I’ve got you!” Elsa assured Ariel.

The creature pounded its massive tail down on top of the ice shielding them. Elsa lifted her other hand up past Ariel’s body and shot more ice from her left hand. As Ariel tried to keep herself propped up by her hands, her right arm trembled and Ariel cried out in pain as it slipped out from under her. Ariel landed on top of Elsa, their faces mere centimeters from one another. Elsa trembled at the warm breath cascading across her lips from Ariel’s mouth. Lifting her head even a smidge would allow her to kiss the mermaid.

Focus.

There was no time to be thinking of those beautiful, red, wet lips and what they would feel like pressed against Elsa’s thin, cool—

Focus, Elsa!

Elsa focused on the magic raging from her hands.

“Are you okay?” Ariel shouted over the whirring of the beams of ice shooting from Elsa’s hands. Her voice quavered.

“Me? I should be asking you that!” Elsa’s eyes shifted to Ariel’s right arm.

Ariel lifted her arm and firmly planted her hand against the icy surface. Though her arm trembled, Ariel managed to lift herself off of Elsa’s chest. Elsa desperately wanted to feel the swell of Ariel’s breasts pressed against her again.

“I’ll be okay,” Ariel grimaced.

Though it was much darker under the icy shield, the faintest of glows from the torch allowed Elsa to gaze up into Ariel’s ocean-blue eyes. “I’m not going to let anything else happen to you,” she promised.

Gazing right back down at Elsa, Ariel’s left eyebrow cocked ever-so-slightly.

Elsa’s heart fluttered in her chest.

The monster outside their protective layer of ice continued her relentless assault, pounding savagely on the shield above them. Elsa gritted her teeth, her eyes narrowing with fierce determination as she focused just past Ariel’s left shoulder. With a primal growl, she summoned a surge of magic from deep within. The ice shield trembled, then cracked, erupting with a barrage of deadly spikes. Blood splattered across the icy barrier, painting it crimson, as the monster recoiled, her agonizing screams echoing across the frozen surface of the sea.

The surface of the icy sea rumbled around Elsa and Ariel as the creature made her way back to the hole in the ice and fell through.

As Elsa locked eyes with Ariel once again—captivated by the depths of her gaze—a shiver ran down her spine, intensified by the sight of Ariel's red hair, now beginning to freeze, forming a delicate frame around their faces. In that frozen moment, they existed in their own secluded world, shielded from the chaos around them.

Elsa's heart quickened, its rhythm echoing in her ears like the pounding of waves against the shore. Her gaze flickered between Ariel's crimson lips and the depths of her ocean-blue eyes, each glance igniting a spark of longing within her.

Ariel's lower lip quivered, a silent testament to the turmoil raging within her. "My sister's down there," she whispered, her voice barely above a breath. Yet, beneath the surface of her words lay a current of fierce determination. "I have to protect her!"

Knowing the feeling of needing to protect a sister, Elsa set her jaw and nodded. “Go get her!”

Elsa ceased her magic and forced the icy shield to melt around them. Blood and water pooled around Elsa and Ariel and Ariel rolled over Elsa’s thigh and perched herself at the edge of the hole. Elsa sat up, her drenched hair stained red from the monster’s blood, and pivoted on her rear in Ariel’s direction. Ariel stared down into the sea and then back to Elsa. She dug her nails into the icy surface of the sea and slid her way toward Elsa, landing between her legs. Ariel wrapped her left hand around the back of Elsa’s neck and pressed her lips into Elsa’s.

A white-hot, fiery heat like she had never before experienced blossomed forth from Elsa’s lips and turned her frigid body into a burning furnace. Her cheeks blazed with heat as her eyes fluttered shut and her shoulders laxed. Elsa ran her right hand up Ariel’s side, over the strap of her clamshell bra, and around the gills on her neck, her fingers dancing through the mermaid’s frozen hair.

Ariel groaned into Elsa’s lips and when Ariel pulled away, Elsa pulled Ariel back into another kiss. Elsa moaned into Ariel’s lips and though she wanted to keep kissing Ariel, Ariel needed to get to her sister. It took every ounce of willpower for Elsa to pull her lips from Ariel’s, but she did. A string of saliva bridged their lips, proof that their kiss happened. Elsa’s eyes fluttered open to find Ariel gazing at her, those seductive, half-lidded eyes making Elsa weak. Elsa’s chest heaved and her heart raced. Elsa sank her teeth into her bottom lip wanting—no needing!—to taste Ariel again.

However, now wasn’t the time for that.

Ariel didn’t speak, but her flushed cheeks and her own heaving chest said everything that she needed to say. Ariel looked back at the hole in the ice and then back to Elsa. Elsa grabbed Ariel’s right hand gently. Ariel winced. Elsa took another look at the wound on her forearm. Though it wasn’t bleeding, the cut went deep. “Come back to me,” Elsa murmured. Elsa rubbed Ariel’s hand against her cheek, cherishing every moment she could with her mermaid. “I’ll take care of you.”

Ariel’s throat bobbed. “I promise,” she whispered. Ariel turned around and then she was gone.

Alone on top of the surface of the sea, Elsa gripped her chest, her heart thumping away against her hand. She slid her hand up from her chest, over her chin, and pressed her fingers into her lips. They still tingled from where Ariel kissed her. They etched into a smile across her face as a shiver rippled down her spine.

# # #

Ariel

Ariel spotted Scyllari swimming west toward the kelp forest. Blood plumed out all around her. Attina was chasing after her with a conch shell in each hand. Ariel chased after her sister.

She’s fleeing, Ariel realized.

“What happened up there?” Attina asked when Ariel caught up with her. “She seems scared!”

“Elsa made the ice! She saved my life and then fought off Scyllari!”

“She—ice? Your human did that? How?”

“Elsa can wield magic!”

“What?” shouted Attina.

Ariel shrugged at Attina’s reaction.

“So, not only did you rescue another human and develop feelings for her, but you found a human witch?”

Ariel rolled her eyes. “She’s not a witch.”

“She wields magic, Ariel! She’s a witch.”

The faster Ariel swam, the more her abdomen ached from her wound. “Can you please just give Elsa a chance? She can help stop Scyllari!”

Scyllari descended into the kelp forest. The mermaids followed her. “I’m not befriending a human, Ariel!”

“You don’t have to be her friend! Just promise not to hurt her and promise not to tell Father about her!”

“Only if you promise not to tell Father about me and Andr—”

Scyllari suddenly appeared before the sisters, eliciting shrieks of terror from them. Attina pulled her right arm back, poised to strike, but before she could, the Mantis Queen jabbed her spear-like claw forward, piercing Attina's tail. Attina let out a bloodcurdling scream, her voice raw with agony. In a desperate move, Ariel grabbed hold of one of Scyllari’s antennae and yanked hard, tearing the appendage and a chunk of scalp from her head. Blood plumed from Scyllari’s wound, a bit of her skull showing through the torn flesh. Scyllari reeled back crying out in excruciating pain as she clutched at her torn-open head with her pincer hands. She yanked her claw from Attina’s tail, Attina’s blood mixing with Scyllari’s, creating a cloud of crimson around the three of them. She thrashed about before fleeing the kelp forest, away from the mermaids.

Attina convulsed next to Ariel, her pupils dilating as she gasped for breath.

“Attina!” cried Ariel. “Attina!”

Ignoring the pain shooting up her right arm, Ariel scooped up her sister in her arms. With determination, she darted out of the kelp forest, racing toward the surface. It was still frozen over and Ariel prayed to Poseidon that Elsa was still up there!

Blood poured from Attina’s gaping wound. Ariel beat her tail as fast as she could, pushing through her own pain, driven by the fear of losing her eldest sister.

Attina’s whole body shivered in Ariel’s arms. Ariel’s jaw trembled, tears mingling with the seawater around her. Reaching the hole in the ice, Ariel lifted her sister above the surface and onto the ice. She pulled herself out, eyes sweeping over Attina’s trembling body. Attina’s eyes were closed, her hands and tail twitching weakly. Blood pooled on the ice beneath her.

“Elsa!” Ariel screamed.

She quickly applied pressure to the wound. “Stay with me, Attina,” she cried, tears streaming down her cheeks. “Just stay with me!”

Elsa appeared suddenly on the other side of Attina, on her knees. “What happened?” she demanded.

Ariel’s breathing was erratic. “S-Scyllari! She stab—"

Attina’s tail twitched once more, then fell still. Ariel’s breath hitched. “No… no… no…”

Ariel shrieked, “Attina!”