~The Siren's Call~
“Eric, are you alright?” asked King Triton.
Grasping the sides of the ship tightly in response to the pain he was experiencing, Eric groaned, “Huh? Oh, yes, I’m fine.”
“Hmm...” grunted King Triton, doubting Eric’s words. Ignoring Ariel’s pleas to have his wounds properly looked at, he ordered Grimsby to form a crew together to try and hunt the sea witch down. King Triton was barely out of Atlantica and on his way to Eric’s palace when he saw the eerie green light Morgana had produced on her arrival. Fearing what that omen meant, he drove his chariot as fast as he could to come to their aid but was met with a barrier constructed of magic halfway along the path. Initially bewildered at this phenomenon, King Triton then realized that whatever was transpiring on land was more serious than before and destroyed the barrier in one fell swoop from the Triton. To his dismay though, he had not reached his extended family in time to prevent the fate that befell his grandson and opted instead to aid Eric in his haste to locate Morgana.
Between Eric’s feeling of anger towards himself for not being able to protect his family and Triton’s anxiety over the toll these events were taking on them all, the two were at a loss of what to say to one another and proceeded forward in silence. Finally, when the sun had begun setting in the western sky, painting the seascape with its deep crimsons and violets, Eric swallowed his pride to ask, “Triton, can you help me?”
Futilely waiting for an explanation for this question, King Triton raised himself up to the deck’s level and asked back, “With what, Eric?”
“It’s…about Ariel.” Eric whispered to him slowly. “During Morgana’s ‘visit’ with us, Ariel just flat out broke down on us. I mean—I know she’s not incapable of doing that, but I’ve never seen her look as though she’s just…given up hope.” Hanging his head down, he sighed, glanced over at King Triton and said, “I want to do something to comfort her, but I don’t know what to do…”
[break]
King Triton, admittedly, became disheartened upon hearing about his daughter suffer an emotional collapse, but he felt further grief just listening to how his son-in-law was conducting himself. As far as he was concerned, the man of the house was its sworn protector; that it was his duty to remain strong even in the bleakest of moments so allowing himself to succumb to such sadness, even for a moment, was utter foolishness. He did, however, feel inclined to cut Eric some slack for being able to keep this episode of weakness away from his family. Besides, King Triton knew without a doubt that Eric already knew the answer and believed that all Eric really needed was a little push to give it life.
With these thoughts still fresh in his head, King Triton decided that the best way to aid Eric in this matter was to provoke Eric into pulling himself back together by gravely asking him, “If you’re so concerned about my daughter the why are you all the way out here?”
In the back of his mind Eric knew a response of that caliber was coming and grinned when it finally surfaced. Through his years of observing the old sea King, Eric deduced that harshness was one of the few outlets in which King Triton could express himself without any restraints, which was exactly what Eric realized he needed at that moment. It might not have been the easiest of traits of his father-in-law’s that he had to accept at first, but it was one that Eric came to respect due to its subtle way of reminding him that even he, despite being the ruler of his Kingdom, had someone to answer to (besides his wife, of course). Sure enough, Eric became somewhat relieved by the lecture-like tone King Triton presented him, and answered, “Well, at the time that I decided to do this it seemed like the best thing to do.”
“And do you still believe that?” inquired King Triton flatly.
“Well…” Eric was about to say “no” to the old sea King when a sudden idea came across his mind. Removing himself from the railing he said, “Let me get back to you on that,” and then headed straight for the wheel to turn the ship due north.
Taken aback by his sudden change in demeanor, King Triton asked, “Eric, what are you doing?”
“This is the first time anyone has seen or heard from Morgana in a year, right?” asked with a touch of optimism in his voice.
Hesitating, King Triton responded, “Yes…?”
“And the last place anyone saw her was at the ice fortress, right?” asked again, edging King Triton on by waving his right hand.
Not even a second had passed when the Ruler of the Seven Seas caught on with what Eric was hinting at. “I get it now—you’re thinking that whatever released Morgana from the ice fortress may have left a trail for us to follow, is that right?”
“I’m not thinking it; I’m counting on it.” Eric corrected. Eric believed with full confidence that some trace of whatever released Morgana had to be left behind, or rather needed to believe that. Thinking about it, he felt immensely guilty about leaving Ariel and his children at home without warning and wanted to make amends for it. If he could find something—anything—that proved that his venture was not in vain and that Morgana’s plan could be foiled as soon as possible, then perhaps that combined with his renewed presence at home would aid in the process of getting his family back on their feet faster.
Processing Eric’s theory carefully King Triton personally believed this to be a plausible idea, but his status as King and the wisdom of his years prevented him from solely looking at this from one perspective. “And what makes you so certain that there will be any trail left for us to follow? The ocean has its way of keeping secrets, even from those of us who dwell in her.”
Grinning wide, Eric remarked, “If I had ever allowed myself to believe that, then I definitely would never have had someone as wonderful as Ariel to be my wife.”
~*~
