Return to the Sea: chapter 5

Melody and Felicity were carefully following the map they were given to venture to Atlantica to get the trident for Morgana. They were lying down on top of a whale to have a better look by sunlight, and get their faster by a bigger case of travel. The whale seemed to be having trouble though and sent the girls flying in the air from its spout and landing and sliding on the ice, then the map came with them, breaking in pieces on the ice next to them.

"Our carte!" Felicity looked in dismay. "It  is ruined!"

Melody took a piece that pointed North and sighed. "Now how are we gonna find out way to Atlantica?"

"HELP!" a sudden voice cried. The girls looked to the source to see a penguin mother in trouble. "Someone, please! Help! Oh, hold on, sweetie! We'll save you!"

"Help, Mama!" the penguin chick was trapped on a block of ice with a shark circling. "Hurry!"

A few other penguins came to help. The mother penguin tried to reach for her baby as she  was dangled, but couldn't reach him.

"Somebody help us!" the mother cried.

"Should we do something?" Felicity asked.

Suddenly, charging was heard.

"I think they got it." Melody heard another penguin coming with a walrus.

"Mightier than a hurricane, braver than a killer whale!" the penguin called, sticking to a glacier. He then fell and wielded the icicle like a sword. "Faster than a moray eel! It's the fearless adventurers..."

"Slash explorers." the walrus added.

The penguin went to help the other penguins. "Titanic Dip and his trusty sidekick, Dash!"

The walrus, Dash, saluted to show his services.

"Oh, no..." one penguin moaned.

"Not them!" the other added.

The penguin sat on the walrus as he was about to go down with the others to help the poor penguin chick. Dash stepped down and was starting to crush some of the penguins to make his way down and help the distressed mother. The young penguin didn't care if it was them or not, he just wanted   to be saved and reunited with his mother.

The top penguin swayed the others back and forth for Tip to reach and take the penguin chick. There   was shown to be a hammerhead shark under the water, which terrified to so-called brave penguin and he started to climb back up with Dash to avoid becoming a shark's dinner, which annoyed the baby penguin.

The top penguin let go of the others making them all fall, spring up the ice with the baby and he was now safe, high above from the shark. The penguin's mother hugged him as the others were starting to sink. Dash weighed them down, but the shark made them scared, springing the penguins up   onto a snowy cliff and getting stuck with him.

Suddenly the crack of the cliff smashed and crushed the shark, making a huge icy explosion and the baby penguin was lost from his mother again. Luckily when they popped up, they were right next to each other and shared another warm hug together. The mother penguin was scolding Tip and Dash for what they had done and weren't being heroes even if they wanted to help.

"Maybe they know where Atlantica is." Felicity guessed.

"Come on, let's go see." Melody gestured for the younger girl to follow her.

The girls swam from their spot and went to get with Tip and Dash. Melody and Felicity popped their heads out, surprising Tip and Dash.

"Excuse us." Melody spoke up.

Tip and Dash were scared of them and started to shiver instantly.

"You do not have to be scared of us," Felicity said softly. "We will not hurt you."

"Scared?" Tip scoffed. "Who said anythin' about bein' scared? Don't you know an evasive manoeuver when you see one?"

This made Melody and Felicity giggle a little.

"Hi, I'm Melody."

"And I am her new friend, Felicity."

The walrus got friendly with them. "This here's Tip, and I'm Dash."

"Excuse me, Mr. I Spill My Guts To Total Strangers," Tip scolded him. "You just blew our cover!"

"I was just trying to be friendly..." Dash said shyly.

"I don't think they can help us," Melody said to Felicity, then started to go off to find Atlantica themselves. "Guys, we really need to get going... So, if you could just tell us..."

"See?" Dash moaned. "Now, they're gonna leave, and it's all your fault!"

"My fault!?" Tip scoffed. "They-They-They..."

"Guys?" Felicity spoke up.

"They're probably allergic to blubber." Tip argued.

"Oh, yeah?" Dash got in his beak. "Well, maybe they don't like birds that can't fly!"

"Guys." Melody spoke up.

"Well, you can't fly either!" Tip argued.

"And you walk funny." Dash argued.

"Guys!" Melody and Felicity spoke up together this time.

Tip and Dash shut up and looked back at the young mermaids.

"Do either of you know how to get to Atlantica?" Melody finally asked.

"Oui, we do not have much time." Felicity added.

"Why do you wanna get to Atlantica?" Dash asked curiously.

"We have to get something that was stolen from a friend," Melody explained. "If we don't... We'll turn back into..." she hesitated what she was going to say next.

"A what?" Dash wanted to know. "Turn back into what?"

Melody gulped, then spoke shallowly. "Humans..."

Tip gasped, then looked a bit angry. "I knew there was something un-fishy about you two. Tough break, sisters! Drop us a line, let us know how it all turns out."

Dash stopped him, then smiled and looked to the girls. "We'll take you."

Felicity beamed suddenly. "You will, Tiret?"

"We will?" Tip glared at his friend.

"They're damsels in distress... It's our big chance..." Dash whispered to Tip.

Melody and Felicity looked very hopeful.

Tip glared at them and eventually gave in. "Oh, boy, I can't believe I'm  doin' this. Somebody stop me. All right then, we're in, on to Atlantica!"

Dash started to swim with Tip on top of him. Melody and Felicity swam after Dash to make their way to Atlantica. Eventually, the four of them made it to Atlantica while Morgana watched them in secret.

"That's right, Princess and blood-sucking spawn," Morgana chuckled darkly. "Just a little further... Cloak! Dagger!" she called for her stingrays. "Go make sure no one interfers with her return, hmm?"

The rays did as told and left Morgana's place.

Meanwhile, in another part of the ocean, Ariel, Sebastian, King Triton, and Cherry were still looking. There was even Ariel's adoptive younger brother, a former orphan merboy named Urchin. Ariel explained to Cherry who he was, his story, and why they hadn't met before.

"So, I'm an uncle?" Urchin sounded excited as he followed his family.

"Yes, yes, you're an uncle with a human niece, can we  please move on?" Cherry nearly struggled, very urgent about finding her daughter.
"Have you heard anything, Daddy?" Ariel asked Triton, looking away, then found something which eventually caught her eye. " W-We've been searching everywhere, but we'd...Flounder!" she dashed for the fish and hugged him tightly which made him squeak and quickly swim away from her.

"What a guppy." Cherry muttered.

There came an adult fish which resembled the smaller one.

"Sorry." Cherry and Ariel told the adult fish.

"Ariel and Cherry?" Flounder sounded delighted.

"Flounder!" Ariel rushed to reunite with the fish and hugged him close.

Triton and Sebastian smiled fondly at the scene.

"I guess you had a changed a bit..." Cherry remarked, seeing the younger fish.

"Yeah," Flounder smiled. "I'm a father of five now."

"Boy, you're sure not a guppy anymore." Ariel smiled.

"You can say that again." Flounder chuckled.

Suddenly, Flounder's five children went in the center to play. They were playing a game of catch with Sebastian as the ball.

"Children..." Flounder came like a real responsible adult he grew up  to be. "What did I say about playing Kick the Clam on the reef?"

"Sorry, Dad..." the guppies said softly.

"Kids..." Flounder shook his head, then came to the mermaid mothers. "I'm sorry about Melody and Felicity."

"Flounder, we really need your help." Ariel stated.

"Wild seahorses couldn't stop me." Flounder said with a smile to assure he'd help. "Urchin, help look after these little ones."

"Will do, Flounder." Urchin nodded.

With that, everyone swam off together to continue their search. Right as they left, Melody was swimming with Tip and Dash, not even noticing the others.

"Oh, it's so beautiful..." Melody sighed, then bumped against a blonde merboy.

"Oh, excuse us..." Felicity said softly, seeing the kerfuffle.

Melody and the merboy suddenly talked together, but got nervous. Felicity saw that he almost looked like the boy who wanted to dance with Melody at the party.

"Hi, I don't think I've seen you two around here," the boy smiled at the girls. "What are your names?"

"My friends usually call me Flick or  Fliss." Felicity stated.

"Nice names, my name's Alex," the boy smiled at her, then looked to Melody who looked like a shy school girl. "What about you? What's your name?"

"I'm Mel...Mel..." the black-haired girl struggled to say her name.

"Hey, guys!" Alex saw his friends come next to him. "Meet Mel-Mel and Flick!"

"Hi!" the mermaid with a flower in her hair greeted.

"Hey, you wanna hang out with us?" the black-haired merboy asked friendly.

Melody and Felicity looked very happy that they had friends who actually wanted to hang out with them. However, Tip killed the moment.

"All right, all right, break it up!" Tip swam in front of the girls angrily. "Break it up!  Nuthin' to see here. Move along. All right, Miss Popularity and Miss Show-Boat. We had a previous agreement, remember?"

"Maybe we'll catch you later!" Alex waved to the girls as Tip dragged them away.

Melody smiled bashfully to him, then kept going with Tip and Felicity.

"This is what happens when you bring country fish to the big city." Tip muttered.

Felicity, Melody, Tip, and Dash got a good view of the place they were in. It looked very fancy and formal. More than Melody had ever dreamed off. As the group saw merpeople setting up a table, they went hidden to avoid being caught.

Melody kept an eye out, then whispered to her friends. "Come on, follow me!"

The four went under a table, covered by a cloth. They all looked up to see Triton pacing sadly.

"That must be him, he looks sad..." Melody whispered.

"He does not look like a thief." Felicity observed.

"They never do," Tip whispered to them.

A mermaid passed Triton as she had a plate filled with shells on it and Triton was in deep sadness, unknowing to the others, about his granddaughter he had been kept from for twelve years.

Melody then looked and found the trident. "Look, there it is!"

"A fork?" Tip snorted. "We're riskin' our tails for a fork!?"

Triton was looking at a shell, then saw the other  merpeople going around, getting grumpy instantly. "We haven't time for this! I want every available merman searching! Find them! Find them!" he slammed on the table the group hid under and turned it, but didn't notice the four of them snooping around.

"I wonder who he is talking about..." Felicity muttered to herself.

Tip, Dash, and Felicity quickly went to run and hide back under the table. Melody, however, went to the plants and hid herself. Triton was about to look under the table, hearing whimpering and saw it shaking. Just as he was going to, his seahorse assistant quickly swam up to him.

"King Triton, your daughter and her friend has returned." the seahorse told him.

Triton then left instantly with him to meet with Ariel and Cherry. Melody saw the coast was clear and quickly went to the trident to take it and give it to Morgana. She knew why she had to do it, but stealing was wrong, even if it was for her dream and wish to stay a mermaid. Tip and Dash went to Melody with Felicity.

"Oh, sure, that's it, take your time," Tip leaned back calmly, then snapped. "Kick back, relax. Let's all just linger here and DIE!"

Cherry, Ariel, Triton, Flounder, and Urchin were coming back.

"I'm sure they'll turn up soon." Triton assured the girls.

"Flick is around here somewhere... I can smell what's left of her blood..." Cherry said gravely.

"He's coming up!" Dash cried out to signal his friends.

Melody grabbed the trident the best she could. It started glowing as she lifted it up, that her locket started to fall into the sand. Melody wanted to get it, but Tip and Dash already took her and Felicity away to avoid being seen.

"Ah, don't worry, guys, we'll find them." Flounder said to his mermaid friends.

Ariel looked around, then gasped. "Daddy! The trident!"

Sebastian gasped and went to the place holder. "But that's not possible... Nobody can remove  the trident from the stand except you, sire. You or one of your descendants."

"Wasn't me..." Urchin said shyly.

Cherry looked down and saw something shimmering. She reached and picked up the locket with Melody's name on it, then handed it to Ariel.

"Melody..." Ariel muttered.

"Who I was supposed to be watching," Sebastian flailed on the golden stand on his back. "Go ahead, crack me open. Make a crab cake out of me for Maestro Forte, sire."

"If Melody is here, then Felicity must be too." Cherry commented.

"But, how could they have gotten here?" Ariel thought out loud.

"Morgana," Triton clarified. "If she gets her hands on my trident... Double the search parties! I want every  creature in the ocean on patrol!"

"Yes, sire!" one merman knight nodded, then went off with the others.

Ariel, Cherry, Flounder, and Urchin looked up to see Cloak and Dagger hovering above them.

"Wait a minute... I know those two!" Ariel swam toward the rays.

The others left Sebastian and looked as Cloak and Dagger were mysteriously going away in the distance.