Pregnant storm clouds bloomed across the otherwise clear heavens above as she twirled the trident in her grasp. The skies obeyed the magic wielded by the king of the seas' weapon, their thrashing mirroring the torment in her own soul that the very merman had instilled in her long ago.
Bright red hair emerged from the water's surface just as the human prince had rowed up in a small vessel.
A menacing laugh escaped her lips at the sight.
Poor, unfortunate lovers.
Her quarrel had not been with them, but there was something satisfying in trampling them on the pathway toward vengeance.
Ariel- the name alone made her cringe- was valiantly rescued from the churning waters by the dark haired prince. He held her close and glared up at the giant octopus with the head and torso of a woman.
Not that she had asked to be a monster, but it was what Triton had turned her into after breaking their proposal and running off with another mermaid who shared so many of Ariel's features that Ursula had almost believed it was her whom her eels had discovered that day.
But the queen was dead which did not bode well for her original plan yet this outcome had proved to be much more satisfying.
So enraptured by her thoughts and memories, she had nearly allowed the pathetic souls to escape. A maleficent grin upended her scowl as she drove the fork-like weapon into the waters and created a whirlpool.
Ariel screamed, broadening her smile, and the boat overturned and both of its passengers vanished beneath the grey depths below.
Tasting victory, the witch stabbed the open air and hung her head back in delight.
Vengeance was hers. Atlantis would be hers, nay, the world! What was more, the king still breathed as a wrinkled, dejected creature spun from her magic and he would live to see his kingdom overthrown and his daughter killed by the one he had betrayed so long ago. And the king had no one to blame but himself.
Or that was what she had planned.
The witch's plans were thwarted by the pesky prince.
Something sharp clamped onto her tentacle, startling her. Bending at the waist to search for what had struck her, a bird assaulted her nose and lips with its beak.
In the struggle, she dropped the trident.
"No!" she screamed, tasting blood where the seagull had assaulted her lip.
With no time to react, the prince snatched the trident and thrust the weapon into her abdomen. Tentacles flailing, she twisted and jerked about, wanting nothing more than to escape this wretched twist of fate.
As she descended into her watery grave, her eyes caught sight of the mermaid princess and the human prince holding one another. The fairy tale ending that should have been hers was theirs'.
All would remember her as the evil sea witch, never knowing the mermaid that had sold her soul after being rejected and abandoned by the one who vowed to love her forever.
The tales the ocean floor could tell...
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