Part of Your World (Twisted Tales)(76)

“Scuttle?” she called.

“Ariel! Look, everyone, it’s my friend Ariel!”

An inelegant but enthusiastic tumbling mess of a bird thrust his body over the edge of the dune, letting gravity drag him toward her, opening and closing his wings in more of a controlled fall than an actual flight. The sand was soft and Scuttle wasn’t going that fast; Ariel wasn’t too concerned. When he finally came to a stop, she knelt down to stroke his head—pulling her hand back at the last moment when she saw several fish tails sticking out of his beak.

“Sorry,” he said, smacking them back in and down his gullet. “Sorry, Ariel. But they were already dead. But I don’t like you seeing that.”

“Uh, thanks.”

“Jona—she’s a first-rate great-grandgull, that one. She’s been bringing me a feast. Everyone else was just stuffing their own gullets. Not her. She thought of her great-grandfather first.” He preened his chest feathers and wings to remove any lingering fishy oil. “What’s up? You got a lead you need me to check out, or something?”

“No, I just came here to see how you were doing.” She scratched him under his chin, but was distracted by his words.

“Awww, that’s great, Ariel. That’s really nice. I appreciate that.”

“Scuttle, what ‘feast’? What are the gulls ‘stuffing their gullets’ with? What’s going on?”

“Oh, you don’t know? All the fishing humans are going crazy! Worse than us, if you can believe it! At least that’s what they say. Piles of fish for the taking.”

Ariel took this in, trying to figure out what it meant. Piles of dead fish? That seemed unusual, even for humans. Surely with everything else going on with Ursula, it wasn’t a coincidence.

“What are they—I mean, the humans—doing with the piles?”

“I dunno. Not guarding them very well, I gotta say. You getting any closer to finding your dad? Jona told me all about the carriage and Ursula and everything.”

“Nothing yet,” Ariel said slowly. “I think I want to go see what’s going on before I meet Eric. Where is Jona? I’d like to get her help.”

Scuttle turned over his shoulder and squawked. Someone else squawked back.

“My boy here says he saw her out over the water—away from the docks. I’ll bet she was looking for you.”

“All right—if I miss her and she comes back here, tell her to meet me back in town.”

“Will do, Ariel,” Scuttle said, giving her a salute. She turned to go. “And…Ariel? Thanks for…thanks for just coming to visit. Not just ’cause you’re the Queen of the Sea and all important and everything. I missed you, Ariel. It was hard…those years…when you didn’t come to the surface anymore. I mean, I completely understand why. You had every reason. But…I still missed you.”

“Oh, Scuttle, I’m so sorry….” She nuzzled his beak with her nose, closing her eyes. “As soon as I get my father back on his throne, I’ll have way more time to visit.”

Scuttle looked delighted—and a little surprised. “So you’re just gonna…come up now? To the Dry World? To stay? Or visit a lot? I mean, after whatever happens with your dad?”

Ariel paused. Once it was all over, of course she would go back to hanging out with her friends, old and new, in the world beyond the sea. But…how would she do it without the trident? Would her father help her? Even if she successfully rescued him, his views on the matter certainly wouldn’t have improved by years of imprisonment. What if he refused? What if he didn’t let her go?

I’ll just have to find a way on my own.

But…another part of her pointed out, that was how this whole thing started in the first place. Her father had refused to let her go, so she found another way, and it led to him being captured and her losing her voice and Tirulia gaining a tyrant. She squinched her face up at the conflicting thoughts.

Deal with it later, Ariel, she ordered all the voices, wrapping her headscarf tightly around her face and neck once again. She would get the job done first—find her father, defeat Ursula, set everything right. Then she could work on the happily ever afters.

She had just reached the edge of town when Jona wheeled down out of the sky to perch on a rock nearby.

“I was looking for you,” the gull said. “Be careful. There are a lot of shiny buttons walking around. I think you’re a persona non grata here.”

She tried not to look proud of the words she used, but failed badly.

“Shiny button—oh. Soldiers. Yes. That’s why I…Wait, how did you recognize me?”

She had to push the headscarf fully out of her face to see the gull clearly at all.

“I can spot half a sardine carcass sticking out of a flowerpot a quarter mile away,” Jona answered. “I’m a gull.”

Ariel smiled.

She carefully clambered up the rock next to the bird. Climbing things was still a tricky proposition; you hurt if you fell in this world, where everything was heavy and hard and inclined to falling. A very light breeze tickled her forehead as she stood on her tiptoes get a good view of the town….

…which brought with it one of the most revolting odors she had ever smelled. Bodies, rotting flesh. Death and decay in staggering amounts.