#she’s painted waves in one arm. seaweed on the other. octopus tentacles around her neck like a necklace and bubbles on her face

[singer-smiles-101]

Aight y’all so here’s the deal. Saw a lot of people in the fandom were drawing the lovely @tulipsempai’s Iris, went, “ooh that looks fun I wanna try,” and got so into designing the outfit that I had to develop a whole concept behind it. The concept? Underwater themed masquerade. (because imposter = disguises = masquerade)

[yourdeepestfathoms]

Never Fathomed All The Fathoms

Word count: 5021

———————

The queen’s advisor. Having to hunt food. HOW INSULTING WAS THAT?!

Aragon stretched her wings and flipped her tail as she noticed a school of pilot fish following behind her. She smiled, trying to use this to mask her agitation, and banked upward into a loop with a big acrobatic twirl of a finish. The feeling of the open sea pushing past her brings a delicious rush, and she could almost feel her agitation ebbing away with the current. She checked her followers: the school tries to recreate her moves, but the individual fish all just end up bumping into each other. Silly scavengers.

She pulled at the woven bag hanging around her long neck, trying not to lose focus. Tomorrow was the hatching of the queen’s first ever pup, the kingdom’s next heir. Everyone was expected to bring a contribution for him or her—even the queen’s most trusted advisor. So that’s why she, Aragon of the Seahorses, was out there in the wild, looking for tribute.

She dove down to the nearby craggy red reefs and wispy seaweed. She swam through the coral stacked high in columns, canting and curving to avoid scratching against their knobby bodies. As she zoomed past, gooseneck barnacles close, and small fish and seahorses dart away anxiously. The pilot fish seem uneasy in the more cramped quarters, so they abandon her, opting to follow a nearby sea turtle, which seems oblivious to its new entourage. She shrugged and then took a pick from an empty shell pile in front of a crevasse. Such a pile would normally indicate an octopus lair, but she actually sees a moray eel staring out at her. It clicks its jaw in disapproval at her presence.

A brave slipper lobster climbs among stinging polyps and stares at her. Aragon circles it and scoops it up in her webbed talons. It waved an antenna in confused protest as she muzzled its claws. Even though she completely outmatched it, the thing still tries to fight back, tries to hold onto its short life. She almost felt a stab of empathy.

For a moment, Aragon stood anchored to the rough rock the reef was growing from, then vaulted herself upwards. She beat her wings, up and up and up, enjoying the warming sensation as the pressure changes. After a quick underwater scan, she broke the ocean’s surface. The dry, cold wind is a shock against her scales. But still, she twisted around and floated belly-up, letting the sunlight beat down on her soft underscales.

Leviathans came in all shapes and sizes and hues, but she never really knew where her rich gold came from. From horn-to-tail, she was a metallic yellow color that glinted like gemstones and ore in the lamplight down in the city. Spirals of aquamarine and emerald green and azure twirled here and there, but not even they could outmatch the burnished pelt her body bore. Nobody in the entire Sea Kingdom had her scales—her mother had told her she should be proud of her uniqueness, and she was, but sometimes she wished to be the same shades as everyone else. As childish as that was for an advisor.

Sighing, Aragon rolled back over and stared up at the bright blue expanse of the sky. She raised her claws up, looking at how sunlight filtered through the thin webbing between them. Even they were gold, though paler than the rest of her.

Lashing her thick, powerful tail, Aragon was about to retreat back into the coolness of the water when she noticed some driftwood and metal floating in the timid waves, and then an island in the near distance.

It was small, with a few palm trees swaying lightly in the wind and some overgrown grass. There was also a strange-looking rock lying in the sand that smelled a bit...off.

Aragon paddled towards the island, noticing more shrapnel and pieces of a wreckage either floating on the surface or lying at the bottom of the shallows. Her talons soon touched sand and she heaved herself up the island’s slope and onto the bay, realizing that the rock wasn’t even a rock at all. It was a human!

It was smaller than she expected a human to be, especially when the pup stories painted them as such dangers to Leviathans- cutting off their claws to use for soup, shaving off their scales for fancy clothes, removing their tongues for frying, using their blood for medicine. But this one didn’t seem to have plans to do any of that. In fact, it seemed...dead.

Aragon took a tentative step forward. The white sand sucks hungrily at her talons, but she pulls them free before she could sink down to her ankles. She craned her neck down, nudged the human with her hooked snout, then jumped back.

Nothing. The human didn’t move.

Aragon tilted her head in confusion. She got closer and sat down this time, eyeing the scrawny little thing. Why was it so thin? What were those weird yellow tentacles coming from its head? Where were its claws? WHY DIDN’T SHE KNOW ANY OF THIS?! She was TWENTY-FOUR. The QUEEN’S ADVISOR. She should KNOW THIS!!

Aragon set her bags aside so she wouldn’t be hindered by them. The lobster she had caught took this opportunity to escape, but she could hardly care. All her attention was on the human before her.

She dipped her head and nudged it again. When it doesn’t move, she buries her snout all the way under it and flipped it over onto its back. Soft, but pale facial features were turned up to her. There were no patches of fur on the chin or mouth like some pictures portrayed, but she still couldn’t tell if it was a male or female. Perhaps it was neither? Gender didn’t really matter to Leviathans- they could come in any form and could chance their sex if they wanted with a simple request to the Whale Gods; was it the same for humans?

Aragon extended one talon and poked the human’s stomach. This sparked no reaction, so she poked again, this time much harder and made sure to press down with more force.

A cough.

A spew of water.

Aragon lurched backwards so fast she stepped on her tail and tumbled to the ground. Her wings sprang outwards in surprise, sand blasting in all directions. For a terrifying moment she could only writhe on her back in the shifting, sucking sand, all four of her limbs flailing wildly in the air, but then she regained her footing and shot for the water instantly, scrambling awkwardly in terror from something not even half her size.

Pressed low to the sand, she watches the human alongside the lobster she had caught. It twitched its antenna and scuttled up the small slope leading to the bay, heard the hacking sounds the surface creature was making, then retreated again, burrowing itself under one of Aragon’s talons. It seemed it would rather take its chances with her than the scaleless thing writhing on the beach.

The human made pitiful noises as it coughed and tried to get up. When it opened its eyes, Aragon could see a flash of storm grey before they fluttered shut again and it flopped over, no longer moving.

A minute passed. And then five. And then ten. The human didn’t move.

Aragon slowly crept out of the water, feeling the lobster cling desperately to one of her claws for a few seconds before letting go, and hovered over the little thing. She poked it in the stomach like before, but it didn’t stir. She had to stoop her head low to press one of her ears to its chest, and her skull was bigger than its torso. She worried about crushing it if she accidentally fell forward.

Thump-thump-thump

A tiny heartbeat. Weak, but present.

The human was alive.

Aragon sat back on her haunches and tapped her chin. From the mess around this island, she assumed something had happened here and this human had been a part of it. However, she couldn’t smell the raw scent this one gave off anywhere else. Where was its pod?

Aragon waded back into the water and began searching the perimeter of the island. There, she spotted an arm sticking out from under some rubble, so she pushed it aside. Instantly, a foul wave of rot filled her nostrils and she reeled away in disgust.

The human’s skin was horribly white, wrinkled and peeling. Pale pink lied underneath- muscle, if their anatomy was anything like a Leviathans. Tendrils of brown waved lazily from its fractured skull. The red trench carved down the backside has become a home to curious minnows.

Aragon may not have known much about humans, but even she knew that this one was very, very dead.

A flash of gold caught her eye- the human was wearing a necklace. She carefully removed it and opened the hatch on the oval-shaped pendant (which was very difficult with how tiny it was in her claws). An image of the dead human and what appeared to be the one of the beach was revealed to her- they were smiling brightly and seemed to be hugging each other with only one arm. The one on the beach was holding up its free talon, sticking up two claws in some kind of gesture.

They knew each other. They were clearly close- kins, perhaps?

Aragon frowned when she realized that the poor human’s clutchmate was dead. It must be so sad and lonely...or maybe it didn’t even know yet?

She walked back up to the beach and found the human in the same exact spot as she left it. She looked down at it pitifully, occasionally glancing at the pendant in her talon. It was definitely the one in the photo. And that meant it was all alone.

Aragon’s tail thumped on the sand as she thought about her options, sending golden grains scattering through the air. A crab came out of the bay a few feet away thanks to the mini earthquake going off on the beach, clicking its claws in agitation. When it scuttled near the human, Aragon threw herself down on all fours over the body and roared fiercely, which was enough for the crab to keep its annoyance to itself.

How strange. Why was she so protective over this scaleless thing? Surely it could defend itself.

However, when she looked down at its stubby little claws and saw no fangs when she checked its mouth, she didn’t think it was in any position to defend.

After a few more moments of thought, Aragon made up her mind: she would bring the human to the queen. The queen would know what to do- she always did. Plus, turning up with one of the scaleless surface fiends will definitely boost her popularity!

Aragon plucked off a golden scale from one of her palms and put it under the human’s not-forked, squishy pink tongue. Holding a Leviathan scale in the mouth was said to grant water breathing for 24 hours—or so the story goes. Hopefully it was true, as she didn’t know how else to transport the gill-less being to the Sea Kingdom hundreds of meters below the surface.

Carefully, using her teeth, she picked the human up by the weird coverings it wore over its pudgy little body. She placed it on her back, between her wings, and then realized it could easily slip off. She grabbed it again, gently cradling it with both talons as if it were a newborn pup. She looked around, picked up her bags, then dove into the water, holding the human close to her broad chest as she propelled herself forward with her tail. After a moment of swimming, she came to a forest of kelp and grabbed a talonful tying them together to make a sling she could wrap around her neck. She sets the human inside of it just in time before a voice called out to her.

“OHHH SEAHORSE!!!”

Aragon rolled her eyes, already knowing who it was. Only one Leviathan would blatantly use her Levia Title, despite her specific orders not to.

Levia Titles were something every Leviathan had. It would come after their real names, was based on something aquatic, and was used quite often, but she never really liked being called “Seahorse”. The only reason she had such a name was because her mother couldn’t think of anything else that was yellow in the ocean, apparently. Not that she HAD to be named after something yellow, but it just made sense with her coloring. At least, to her mother, that is.

After making sure the human couldn’t be seen in the sling, Aragon fluffed up her wings, swallowed her agitation, and turned to the female approaching her.

Boleyn of the Turtles was a perfect example of what the “ancient, original Leviathans” looked like. She had a long, elegant body with large fins sticking out from her head and ankles and back and tailtip. She was a dazzling emerald green color, with the fins being an even more beautiful shade of lime. However, in Aragon’s opinion, her appearance was completely ruined by her infuriating ego and obnoxiously loud voice.

“I was looking for you,” Boleyn said, floating in front of her. She coils up in the way she always does when she stops swimming, and Aragon wonders how that keeps her from drifting away. “Were you trying to get away from me or something?”

“Ah, looks like my plans were foiled,” Aragon sighed. “Back to the drawing board I guess.”

Boleyn deflects her annoyance easily and flicks her with her tail. The curve of her fins are edged with small, pointy spines that scratch uncomfortably against Aragon’s scales. She flapped her wings gently and moved backwards in the water away from the serpentine Leviathan.

“Did you catch anything?” Boleyn asked. “I found a few octopuses but I don’t know if the queen will enjoy them. Didn’t she say they were too oily last time or was that about squid?”

“It’s octopi,” Aragon corrected. “And it was the squid.”

“Oh! Good, good.” Boleyn said. “You didn’t answer my question, though.”

“Just some crustaceans.” Aragon answered. “Not my best catch.” She notices Boleyn eyeing her sling, so she folds her wings in front of her to try and hide it.

“Clearly,” Boleyn agreed. “Come on. We gotta head back before it’s dark.”

The two began to swim through the ocean, the sunlight filtering down from the surface lighting their way until that was smothered by the darkness when they went down deeper. By then, their natural night vision has kicked in, but glowing violet and pink jellyfish also light the path.

“So,” Boleyn started, slithering delicately through the water like a graceful sea snake. “Why don’t you tell me what you REALLY found out there?” Her long, catfish-whiskers are twitching sporadically. Aragon wonders if she could sense her catch.

“An orca.” Aragon answered.

Boleyn raised a brow at her. “An orca? Really?” Aragon bared her fangs at her, but she doesn’t falter. “Come on. Tell me!”

Aragon blew a stream of agitated bubbles from her nose, but spread her wings and was snagged by the current, halting her forward stroke. Boleyn whirled around excitedly and hovered in front of her.

“I found a human.” Aragon whispered.

“A HU—”

Boleyn nearly gave away Aragon’s surprise before she lunged forward and closed her webbed talons over her snout. A few nearby Leviathans turned their heads in confusion. She flared the golden fin running from the top of her head down her neck in agitation.

“Will you be quiet?” Aragon hissed. “I don’t want the whole ocean to know!”

Boleyn nodded, and Aragon slowly pulled her talons away.

“A human,” Boleyn whispered. “Wow. What are you gonna do with it?”

“Show it to the queen.” Aragon answered. “Could be useful, right?”

“Yeah,” Boleyn nodded. “I’m coming! I wanna see her reaction to that! Maybe it’ll finally be the thing you need to become ruler!”

Aragon poked Boleyn in the neck. “Squid brain. Don’t say that so loud. Seymour is a wonderful queen.”

“Dolphin is regal and boring and all about whale politics. YOU are snappy and fun. You would make court SO much more entertaining!”

Aragon actually found herself smiling at the image of her in the grand crystal throne, wearing the shimmering glass crown. She quickly shook that away, though, and started swimming again.

“You incompetent jellyfish.” She said to Anne, who quickly followed after her.

“I speak only the truth!” Anne grinned at her.

Aragon’s wings felt like they had an extra current under them as she shot along through the water. She even found herself doing an excited twirl before she remembered the delicate cargo she was carrying. She gently touched the sling on her chest and felt the form of the human. Still there.

She and Boleyn reach the edge of a rift, and whatever conversation they were having on the way there dies down. They don’t go down into the spreading seafloor below, but instead travel along the edge of the small cliff to find a guideline to the city suspended over the rift. Slowly, from out of the depths comes into view the pulsing glow from the crystalline city.

Home.

As they approached the crystalline caves, Aragon noticed a faint glow, a dulled reflection from the Leviathans within. The city is constructed from giant interlocking blocks of shaped crystals, stacked in a seemingly haphazard pattern to form passageways, gathering caverns, and smaller shelters as needed. Pavilions and terraces, courtyards and gardens, rooms and walkways- it's all there in the sprawling complex of the Sea Kingdom. The city itself rests on a platform suspended over a geological rift, anchored on either side with dark crystal chains and balanced with gas ballasts arranged in the top portion of vaulted domes. However, down below, is a trench that houses the dens of several Leviathans on the upper cliffs, and then various shops and businesses further down, where glowing jellyfish and bioluminescent moss lit up each storefront. Maintaining the balance of the kingdom over the ravine is one of her jobs, although adjustments are rarely called for.

She and Boleyn follow the passageways, through the main marketplace: the Glitter Bazaar (named by the queen’s ward), toward the center of the city: the palace, a giant building not hollowed out from crystal like most of the rooms in the city but rather created from the negative space of the carefully fitted crystal surrounding it. Even the throne room’s giant and elaborately carved arches and columns are just illusions, decorative pieces sticking off from the neighboring rooms. It’s amazing that it’s all aligned so perfectly—but then, it helps that the original architects have worked on this design since its conception. The only thing Aragon doesn’t like about this room is how the walls were designed to absorb light, which keeps the room from getting too bright when it’s fully occupied by phosphorescent Leviathans but makes the space feel empty and dark when she’s there by herself.

On their way there, they catch the attention of a large, burly Leviathan, who swam up to meet them. Flames captured in sea glass orbs make her shiny, dark red scales crackle like hot embers, streaks of gold and bursts of orange and pops of crimson exploding all throughout her body. Her forearms were huge, tipped with thick, coal-black claws, and easily pulled her big body along. However, instead of back legs, she had a cluster of tentacles helping her swim. A few of them were grasping sharks and large fish, her tribute for the hatching day tomorrow. That, along with the natural warmth her scales gave off, gave away who exactly this was.

“Cleves!” Boleyn called gleefully, darting over to the much larger Leviathan.

“Hello, Boleyn,” Cleves of the Sharks said, smiling toothily. “And hello, Aragon.”

“Hello,” Aragon waves a talon.

“And where are you both off to?” Cleves asked, swimming alongside them.

“To see the queen,” Aragon answered.

“Wanna come?” Boleyn said. “Ari’s got BIG NEWS!” She says no more, however, because Aragon flicked her in the nose with her tail.

“Sure,” Cleves said cooly.

Aragon always liked Cleves, and not just because she was different when it came to color like she was. The Leviathan, a Lava Leviathan, to be exact, was always so mellow and relaxed no matter what happened. Plus, the heat she gave off was comforting and hard to not lean into.

The three of them glided smoothly under the front palace overhang and came to a halt inside of the throne room. There, atop the throne made of crystals, sat the queen of the Leviathans.

She was big, but not bigger than Aragon or Cleves. She had wings like Aragon did, though, which were settled calmly against her back. Her scales were bluish grey that shimmered silver in the light. Thin, silky fins ran from her head and down her spine like gently swaying pieces of iridescent kelp. Her tail was shaped into that of a dolphin’s which was probably where her Levia Title came from in the first place. The strands of sapphires and opals she usually wore only added to her beauty, but were no match for the glass crown that glowed every color of the rainbow atop her head.

“Aragon,” Queen Seymour of the Dolphins said, “You’re back.”

Aragon swept out one wing in a bow. At each side, Cleves and Boleyn do the same, although Boleyn’s has an extra flare from the way her tail swishes excitedly, stirring the water around them.

“I am,” She said. “And I bring news.”

“Oh?” Seymour tilted her head.

From the side of the throne, a head pokes out. A small, light pink Leviathan with an underbelly the color of a shell’s interior clambered up the crystals, making Aragon wince when she scuffed a few delicate carvings with her claws, and settled in front of the queen. It was Howard of the Sirens, the queen’s ward, and the easiest way she could be described was: an overgrown axolotl. Short and stubby legs, frills at the side of her head, sorta blobby but endearing (at least to the queen). The fins that stretched out from her upper back and forearms were pretty with how they were colored in every shade of pink, but her face looked too much like a frog’s for Aragon’s taste. Not that Howard wasn’t cute, she was, just definitely not Aragon’s type as a ward.

“And what would that be?” Seymour asked curiously.

Aragon fluffed up her wings to show her importance and went to share the news, but Boleyn beat her to it.

“ARAGON FOUND A HUMAN!!”

Silence.

At least, for a moment, that is.

Whispers. Whispers moving to and fro with the water. Whispers bubbling throughout the throne room. Whispers of disbelief, of awe, of shock, of fear.

The guards and other noble Leviathans that had been in the throne room were frozen, the queen’s wings were stiff, Howard’s eyes were wide, and a small crowd had formed outside the front archway, spilling slightly into the room.

“A...human?” Seymour finally said. She places a protective talon on top of Howard’s head.

“Yes,” Aragon nodded. She held herself tall, barely able to suppress a smirk. What Boleyn had said about her being queen replayed in her mind. “I can show you.”

She carefully removed the human from her sling and pandemonium filled the room- guards lunging into defensive positions with their silver spears raised, nobles backing away against the wall, a pale green servant with a spiraling narwhal horn darting from the room, and several overlapping gasps and cries of shock. Even the queen, who was usually so calm and refined, looked stricken with fear by the appearance of an actual human.

“By the whales,” Cleves whispered. “Is it alive?”

“I think so,” Aragon said. “I found it washed up on a small island north of here. There weren’t any others.”

Seymour stepped down from her throne and Howard scampered after her. They both look at the human with morbid curiosity.

“Woah,” Howard murmured.

“Why did you bring it here?” Seymour asked.

“I thought you would want to see it.” Aragon answered.

“Hmm.” Jane tipped her snout at it. “I suppose we could do research on it.” She turned to one of her guards. “Fetch Parr.”

The guard nodded and swam out. He returned a few minutes later with Parr of the Reef, the queen’s best scientist.

She has a short face with long and smooth metallic horns on top of her head that sweep back from her nose and brow, as well as the neck frills that adorned both sides of her throat. Sail-like wings that start from her shoulders and extend all the way to the end of her extremely long tail move in a graceful rippling motion as she swims inside the throne room. Her scales are a deep azure that’s speckled with starbursts of cobalt and baby blue as if someone had crushed sapphires all over her.

She lands before them, folding her wings and curling her long tail close to her so she won’t hit anyone. Despite this, however, it still wags around like a spastic snake when she sees the human cupped delicately in Aragon’s talons.

“Oh wow!” She exclaimed, bouncing her back talons excitedly. “A real human! I mean, I’ve seen a few before, but always from afar and they’re in their ocean vessels. Never this close!”

She makes a grabbing motion with her front claws, reminding Aragon of just how young she was. She had only turned twelve, the age of adulthood for Leviathans, a few moons ago, yet she had been working as the royal scientist for quite some time now.

Parr took the human from Aragon and immediately began to inspect it. Her snout and claws poked just about everywhere on its body, absolutely amazed by having such a specimen. It made Aragon anxious.

“You have to let me keep the human in my lab,” Parr said to Seymour. Her tail is slapping loudly against the floor.

“No!” Aragon suddenly yelped. Several eyes turned to her and she quickly stood up straight, regaining herself. “I mean- Parr, I know you’re the scientist, but I found it. I should keep it in my care.”

“She.” Parr corrected.

“What?”

“The human.” Parr said. “It’s a girl.”

A girl. Aragon repeated in her head. She had to clench her teeth together to keep from grinning giddily.

A girl. Just like...

Like that, the need to smile disappears. A deep sadness replaces it.

Don’t think. Don’t think about her. Don’t think about it.

“She’s young, too,” Parr went on. “Probably still a pup for humans. Well, not THAT young, but definitely not an adult.” She looked back at the queen. “I can figure out more if you let me keep her.”

“No.” Aragon stepped forward, shaking off her sadness. “I’m sorry, Parr, but I should keep her. I’ve imprinted on her already. Plus, she has MY scale helping her breathe underwater.”

Seymour looked at Aragon skeptically. “Are you sure you can...?”

Aragon knew what she was thinking about. She lashed her tail furiously, creating small whirlpools around her.

“I can take care of her just fine.” She growled.

Seymour studied her from talon-to-tail before nodding.

“Alright. Take her.” She said. “But know that this isn’t permanent. Humans don’t belong here. So don’t get attached.”

—

Aragon’s den was in the tallest crystal tower on the castle, a large room she had carved herself, with a terrace for a spectacular view of the kingdom and easy access to the ocean to swim. Violet and emerald and gold sea glass orbs were strung around the ceiling, glowing from the bioluminescent paste covering them. A large, bowl-shaped bed was at the far side, softened with bits of kelp and seaweed and other palpable materials. Beside it, a smaller one lays. This one had a jagged gold-and-green piece of an eggshell lying quietly in the bedding. Aragon approached it and picked it up carefully. She held it to her chest for a few moments, then gently set it on a shelf.

She took the human out of the sling and looked at her for a moment. She found herself running a delicate claw over the scaleless thing’s soft, fleshy face, twirling what must be fur on her head. It was messy and tangled- she must not groom herself. Silly little thing.

She set the human on the smaller bed after making sure the bedding was fluffed up and soft enough. Then, she climbed into her own bed, punched the nesting a few times, circled herself around twice, then flopped over. She watched the human from the edge of the nest.

“Are you awake?” She whispered like she had done with her egg years ago.

No answer.

“Do you have a name?”

Surely she did, but the human didn’t answer. Aragon leaned over and nearly squashed the poor thing with her head when she checked her heartbeat again.

Thump-thump-thump— it was still there.

She was still alive.

“You need a name,” Aragon mused out loud. She rests her chin on her talons, inspecting the human. “I’m sure you already have one, but you need a Leviathan name if you’re going to stay here.”

She flipped her tail back and forth, thinking.

“Orca.” She finally said, smiling. “I like Orca.”

The human actually stirs, twitching its little stubby claws and making a tiny noise that ripples in the water, but doesn’t wake up. Aragon leaned forward and gently licked her cheek to calm her.

“Sleep well, little one.” She whispered before curling up in her own bed.

—

Two hours later, Aragon can’t take it anymore. She snaps up, picks Orca up with her teeth, and lays her in her own bed. She curls her tail around the human’s body protectively, then resumes sleep.

This time, it comes peacefully.

[ericjuneau]

Reprise (Chapter 20) [Frozen/Tangled/The Little Mermaid]

CHAPTER 20: The Abyss

Elsa opened her eyes. Everything was dark and cold, but there was a feeling of encapsulation, like the pressure of a heavy blanket.

She groaned. "What happened?"

Cautiously, she lifted herself up, pushing against the spongy ground. But when she moved her legs, one didn't respond. Did she lose it in the fall? Was she an amputee? No, because no leg was missing. It had become one powerful leg, covered in ice-blue scales.

Elsa's jaw dropped. She wiggled her hips. The tail moved with it. Her knees had disappeared. Instead, the tail extended from her spine, making it flexible enough to touch her toes to her head. If she'd had toes. Where they should have been was a thin, fleshy swath of gossamer silk.

Next to her, Rapunzel groaned. She lay on her side, blanketed by the mass of hair surrounding her like a cocoon. She rose as if from a slumber. "Elsa? What is-"

She stopped as she made her own realizations about her body. Brushing away the hair revealed a pinkish-purple tail where her legs had been.

Rapunzel sprang up. In air, she would have come back down, but in water, she stayed floating. Her yellow hair unraveled behind her. "We're mermaids!" She swayed her tail back and forth.

Ariel swam towards them. She was a mermaid too, wearing a bra made from lavender clams. "How do you feel?"

"Bizarre," Elsa said. "What happened? The last thing I remember is jumping off the bridge."

"I transformed us mid-fall into mermaids."

"You can do that?" Rapunzel asked, pulling away the hair gathered in her face.

Ariel nodded. "Here, I found these for you." She handed them each a brassiere made of clamshells much like her own. Rapunzel's was lilac-colored, like her tail. Elsa's matched her chiffon hair.

Rapunzel secured her bra under her dress and discarded her human garb. The support was comfortable and the stronger covering soothed her sensitive areas. "All the mermaids I've seen in paintings are nude," she said.

"Sure. If you like getting slapped in the face with a bag of fat every time you turn," Ariel said.

"That makes sense-pfft." Hair had floated into her mouth. "Now if I could only see."

"Here, I can help." Ariel swam behind her and unraveled the wispy mass. She snatched handfuls of hair and began winding them together, forming a complicated braid. "You can't grow up a mermaid without knowing how to do hair. It's a mermaid fashion to have it long and flowing."

"Doesn't the water make it hard to shape?" Rapunzel asked.

Ariel shrugged. "It's the fashion. My sisters know more than me. They spend hours putting in accessories and decorations. But at least this'll help you blend in."

"Blend in?" Elsa asked.

"Until we figure out what to do. We should stay down here for a while. Arcius needs to recover and I don't think he can find us. If he could, he would have come after us already."

"We did blind him, at least temporarily. That means he might not have any idea where we are. I think it's a good idea to stay. At least until we figure out what to do." Her hair done, Rapunzel turned to look at it. The plait whipped behind her like a streamer.

Rapunzel started to rotate upside down from the motion. She wiggled her tail and flailed her arms. Nothing happened.

Elsa pushed herself upward to help. She remained still, then floated to the sand like a leaf.

Ariel collapsed in a fit of giggles. "You can't act as if your two legs are tied together. It's like a wave. Here, watch me." She positioned herself horizontally. "Swish and flick. Swish and flick."

They both tried. Rapunzel bunching up her tail to herself and extending it, resulting in no forward movement. Elsa found herself moving backwards.

When Ariel could stop herself from laughing, she helped her friends correct their mobility. After a time of wiggling, writhing, and piteous cries for help, they started to understand. Elsa thought of it as a ululation--an unwinding of the body from slow to quick, like a whip. Rapunzel imagined rolling hills, following their motion one after another. Regardless, an half-hour's teaching and they were able to keep up with Ariel. Then they let loose, exploring movement in a three-dimensional space.

"Whee!" Rapunzel said as she dive-bombed the two of them.

Elsa and Ariel floated out of the way. Rapunzel arched up from her swoop, kicking up a cloud of sand.

"Look at this." Elsa raised her arms and looped in a vertical ring until she got dizzy.

"Watch this!" Rapunzel threw her hair behind her and swam in a slow spiral wave. The hair followed in the same spiral, creating a unique trail behind her.

Elsa laughed. "How about this?" She kicked backwards, then bumped against a rock. "Ow. Is this all the lighter it gets?"

"We're in the Abyss now," Ariel said. "Unfortunately, we landed right in it. It's very deep. And there's a big flow monster that stops anyone from climbing out. The people here... well, I guess it's like the crummier parts of a town."

"Then maybe it's time to get out of here?" Rapunzel said, looking up at the strange plant that had been following them like a spotlight.

Ariel picked up her trident and led the way out of the crèche, into darker areas lined with rock formations and porous coral. Rapunzel hummed, creating a soft light from her hair that helped ward off some of the darkness.

Ariel noticed Elsa looking around nervously, like everything was going to attack her. She remembered feeling the same way the first time she was here. It seemed silly now that she was older, although she wouldn't have gone near this place without the trident.

A school of tiny fish shaped like bees with angler antenna passed by. They peered at Elsa, then scuttled off in fear. Seaweed hands reached for them. Elsa and Rapunzel swam a little higher, brushing against a giant pink anemone shaped like a flower. Ariel pulled them away before the fronds reached for them.

"It's okay, we're almost there," Ariel said. She gestured above, where a ribbon of bluer water could be seen. "Just need to get behind this ridge. And once we get there, I can-"

Ariel peeked out over the edge. Something felt off about this area. Too empty. Too warm.

"That's funny...where are the flow monsters?" She scanned the seascape waiting for one of them to rise out and create a sucking vortex. But nothing happened. She couldn't even find their habitats. She swam to the middle of the clearing and looked around. Maybe they died?

Elsa and Rapunzel swam to her. "So... can we just go up?"

"I guess," Ariel said. It had been two years since she was last here. Maybe monsters had moved on, or-

A large shadow covered the ground. The three of them turned. A giant, pallid octopus rose behind them. One of its tentacles dropped like a falling tower.

"Look out!" Ariel said.

The three of them scattered. The tentacle landed on Rapunzel's hair. She jolted forward. Another tentacle wrapped around her, pinning her arms.

"Help!" She thrashed as much as she could, but only succeeded in wiggling the tip of her tail.

Ariel aimed her trident, then realized she didn't want to risk hitting Rapunzel. Instead she fired lightning at its body. White scorch marks appeared. It burbled in pain, but didn't release Rapunzel.

The octopus spurted forward, dragging tentacles as thick as trees. Its single gigantic eye darted back and forth, tracking their movements.

"Take this!" Elsa thrust her hands. Instead of shooting out frost, ice enveloped her hands. She tried again. The ice thickened and crystals spiked up. Something about the water was interfering. Ice couldn't travel like it could in air.

"Help me!" Rapunzel said as the octopus waved her back and forth.

"If I can't freeze you, I can punch you." Elsa swam up to the octopus's bulbous head and thrashed its head with her ice fists. The amorphous head swayed like a sack of grains. Its skin was too thick to damage, evolved from the underwater pressure.

Elsa dodged an incoming tentacle and swam up to the octopus's central eye. The oily inkspot pivoted to her. Elsa shoved her fist into the gooshy vitreous. The octopus uttered a monstrous groan and squeezed its eye shut.

"Ha-ha!" Elsa raised her arms in triumph.

A tentacle slapped itself across the eye. Elsa couldn't position her awkward tail in time to evade. One of the suckers scooped her up by her back, then wrapped around her. "Let go!" Elsa pounded on it with her ice fists.

Ariel dove and leapt as the arms collapsed around her. She was in her element, performing aquabatics few mermaids could. One tentacle swept at her. She leapt over it and spiraled underneath the next.

How was she going to get her friends free? She could shoot it all day, but it would only make it madder. Elsa had even punched it in the eye. Any normal creature would have run away after that. With its thick skin, living in so little light, it must have-

That was it. Ariel stopped dodging and floated into vacant water. "Here I am!" she shouted. "Catch me!"

"What are you doing?" Elsa asked, neck craned back.

The octopus shot out a limb. Ariel kept her arms pinned to her sides, trident pointed down. The tentacle slithered like a snake, gluing her in its clutch.

"Gotcha!" Ariel said. Both Elsa and Rapunzel looked at her quizzically.

A bright beam of light shot downward, splashing against the rock floor. The beam grew wider and thicker. Ariel started to rise up, as did the tentacle trapping her. The octopus, keeping its grip, began rising too. Ariel led the way, with the octopus along for the ride. Elsa and Rapunzel hung at the bottom with the other limbs.

Like a meteor in reverse, they rose past the craggy rock formations of the crevice. Finally, they burst out of the canyon into blue light. The octopus screamed. It covered its cycloptic eye with two free arms. Elsa and Rapunzel struggled free.

Ariel readied her trident, in case it retaliated, but the octopus turned around. With one great push, it sank bank into the chasm.

Elsa and Rapunzel came up to Ariel's side. "I hope he isn't hurt," Rapunzel said.

"I hope he is," Elsa said. "Then he'll think twice before coming back."

"I hope all gargantuans are confined to the ocean's bottom. All the nastiest monsters I've read about live in the sea," Rapunzel said.

Ariel laughed, waving it off. "I've dealt with worse. And that was without the trident. Sharks, bad luck creatures, the red tide, octopans, alligators, seaclops, howling hairfish, dinosaurs-"

"Okay, okay, I get the picture," Rapunzel laughed. "Being a mermaid isn't as magical and wondrous as the fairy tales make it out to be."

Elsa grimaced. "I don't know if you remember, but fairy tales usually have monsters, witches, curses, magic spells. All of which we've experienced." She swam forward. "You don't need to tell me about fairy tales. We're in one."