From no@no.no Sat May 17 22:43:44 1997 Newsgroups: alt.sex.stories Subject: Disney: Little Mermaid in Bondage - Part 1 (Bondage, S/M) From: "Col. Kink" <no@no.no> Date: Sat, 17 May 1997 22:43:44 -0400 -------- Prince Eric's Amusements "Darling, it's better, down where it's wetter, take it from me!" --Sebastian the crab "Come with me, Ariel." Eric's voice was far different than it had been in the three days since they had been married. Ariel wondered if she had done something to upset him. She hadn't meant to do anything, and found herself filled with doubt. Was he angry because she had slipped and almost fallen duri ng their first dance? She had pleaded for more time--after all, she had only had legs for three days. "Where are we going?" she asked, as Eric led her down into the lower depths of the castle. She could smell the sea air and it made her think of her family, below. Although the castle was directly on the ocean, the lower depths of the castle were not dank. "I want to show you something." "Are you mad at me?" She could hear far different tones in his voice. "No, not at all. But I want to show you something that humans do. Just please, be quiet and follow me. I'm kind of nervous as it is." Something human! Ariel was delighted. She knew Eric wanted her to be quiet but couldn't resist. She loved human things. "A human thing? Really? What's it like?" "Well, not all humans do it. You'll see." He spun and speared her with his blue eyes, the same eyes that she had seen from the deck of the ship not a week ago. Ariel was silent. But she did not have to remain silent long. Eric led her down the steps through a short hall, and then through a locked door. Ariel noticed he kept the key on a solitary ring. He opened the door and ushered her in. The room was large, and relatively airy. Torches burned on all sides of the room, but they were recessed into the wall and unobtrusive. There were large things in the room. A cross of some sort. A table. A thing which looked like a large wooden X. A post with chains hanging from it. One entire wall was covered by a mirror. Ariel had never seen a mirror this large, not in the room Eric had put her in and certainly not in the shipwrecks she had prowled before. "Eric...what is this?" Eric smiled. "This is what I do, Ariel. I want to share this with you." "But what is it?" "Ariel...," he cleared his throat. "Have you ever wondered what it would be like not to be a princess?" "Like a...merchant?" Ariel wondered whatever these devices could have to do with buying and selling." "No. Not a merchant. A slave." "A slave?" Triton's kingdom did not have slavery. "Eric, you can't enslave me, I'm your wife!" "Not quite. I mean...would you want to be my slave?" He reached for something behind his back and pulled out a leather strap. "To be your slave...." Ariel tipped her head and let her long red hair fall over her shoulder. A smile crept onto her face. "Is this a permanent thing?" "No." Eric fiddled with the leather strap. "For now, it'll just be for tonight. Maybe in the future, you will want to be my slave for longer periods. But not yet." "What are you going to do to me?" "You'll see. If you don't want me to do something, then call me by my first name." Ariel smiled again. "What should I call you otherwise?" Eric unlocked a tiny lock at the end of the leather strap and motioned for her to come to him. "You should call me Master. Now come over here." Ariel walked over to him obediently. "Take off your clothes," commanded Eric. Ariel was not expecting this command. She froze for a moment and looked at him dumbly. "Do it!" Ariel undressed quickly, afraid she had angered him. When she was naked, he smiled at her in a way he never had before. "Now kneel before me." She did, noticing that the stone was quite smooth under her calves. Only a prince could have made such a chamber; no one else would have people actually smooth out stone. Eric locked the leather strap around her neck and went to get some other things. Ariel took the opportunity to touch her new collar. It was wide, made of black leather, and had several rings on it. She couldn't turn her head very far to either side with it on. When he came back, he grinned broadly at her; he had seen her playing with the collar. Automatically, Ariel's hands shot away from the collar and behind her back. He didn't seem angry; on the contrary he seemed amused. "Like it, do you?" Ariel blushed and did not reply. She felt the first twinges in that thing which had appeared between her legs when she had gotten them. She had wondered what it was up until the wedding; the deal with Ursula had only been for legs. As she had discovered in the honeymoon suite on the boat, it was quite a bonus. What's happening to me, she thought. She had discovered that that thing was well designed for romping in the bed with Eric, but had never imagined that it would react to being collared and naked kneeling on a stone floor! Was she ill? Scuttle had never mentioned anything like this about humans. He handed her a small pile of things. The first things she saw were a very strange pair of shoes. These were somewhat like the shoes she had worn at the wedding. They had a higher heel than those shoes did, a higher heel than Ariel thought would be even wearable. They were extremely shiny. The next was a pair of black silk stockings, which Ariel had learned about at the wedding, from the helpful old maid who had bathed her before she met Eric. Once the problem of voicelessness had been solved, it was much easier for Ariel to learn peculiar human customs. And this was the most peculiar of all. But Ariel was admittedly enjoying this. She could feel that thing between her legs growing slightly wetter as she examined the toys. Ariel dressed in the stockings and shoes. She was careful with them, because only royalty could afford silk stockings; Ariel had seen more pairs in her six days as a human than most of the peasantry of Eric's kingdom saw in a lifetime. There was also a strange thing which had metal and laces; Ariel did not know what it was nor where it went until Eric placed it on her midsection. It stretched from below her breasts to her hips. Eric tightened the laces at her back. Suddenly it was hard to breathe. "Argh. Eric-Master-what are you doing?" "Look at yourself, slave." He pointed her towards the mirror. It was hard to stand up in the shoes, and the corset squeezed worse than Ursula's tentacles had. Yet Ariel could not believe the image in the mirror was hers. No more purple shells, that was for sure! Her waist was much smaller, and the high heels made her legs--her lovely, smooth legs for which she had sacrificed so much--look wonderful. She ran her hands over them, enjoying the feel of the silk. "Very well." Eric sounded satisfied. Now Eric placed two small sets of chains onto the shoes. Each chain was made in a figure-eight, and one slid onto her toe and went up to the instep, the other circling her ankle and locking shut. Now she could not remove the shoes. While Ariel was admiring herself in the mirror, Eric took her wrists and locked leather cuffs onto them. Then he locked them together, pinning Ariel's hands behind her back. "Now, slave, turn around." Ariel did, shakily, for it was hard to turn with the heels, especially without her hands for balance. "Undress me." "But how-" Eric was holding a short riding crop, which he used viciously on her bare buttocks. "With your teeth, slave! Now do it!" Ariel took a deep breath, the three welts on her buttocks burning and feeling gloriously sensitive. She undid the catch on Eric's cloak and let it flutter to the floor. Then she carefully worked each fancy button on his shirt through the loop and pushed it through with her tongue. For his pants she had to go on her knees again. She was feeling marvelously wet again, wondering if Eric could tell. Eric's manhood jutted out from his pants, as wonderfully erect as it had been after the wedding in the honeymoon suite when Ariel had learned of the ways of human physical love. Ah, but that was nothing compared to this. Her skin felt wonderfully hot and flushed, the welts on her buttocks tingling more than the unwhipped bare parts of her body. She wanted Eric to whip her again. She reached out for Eric's penis and took it into her mouth lovingly, caressing it with her tongue. "Not yet," said Eric. He lowered a leather blindfold down onto Ariel's face. He locked this on, and now Ariel could not even open her eyes. The blindfold was padded and seemed to be custom-made to her eyes. She waited nervously, on her knees. "Grimsby, bring in what I asked you." Grimsby was there? Great Triton, no! Surely he wasn't going to let Grimsby see the Princess of the Kingdom bound and naked on her knees! "Yes, sir," came the reply, and Ariel's face flushed as deep a red as her hair. "The princess looks very attractive, sir." Grimsby would never look at her the same way again. How could he? But another part of Ariel wanted Grimsby to see her like this, Eric's pleasure slave, bound and kneeling, ready to be used as Eric's will dictated. Was that thing between her legs going to drip? Being a mermaid had _never_ been like this. While Ariel grappled with herself, Eric came back. "I brought you a friend, Ariel." Suddenly there was a sharp pain in her nipples. Ariel screamed. Something was crushing them, and Ariel threw her blindfolded head back and howled in pain, her entire body concentrating on the two spots of white fire that her nipples had become. "Leetle missy, I dot dat was dee only way to geit you to listen!" The new voice was a familiar one, laced with a strong Caribbean accent. No! It couldn't be! Eric took off the blindfold only to let Ariel see what she already knew; dangling between her breasts, clutching onto each nipple with a death grip, was her old friend Sebastian the crab. He was glaring up at her from his little crab googly eyes. "Sebastian...please..." To speak was an effort that she could barely handle. "Leesten up, chile, ofter what you put me troo..." Sebastian tightened his grip, causing tears to flow from Ariel's eyes. Eric grinned. "You have caused Sebastian a lot of trouble these past few days, slave. I thought you did deserve some punishment." Suddenly his hand was between her legs. "Seems like you're enjoying this more than you think." As Sebastian continued to grip, Ariel felt an odd sensation coming over her. It began to hurt less, and her body seemed to feel almost as if she was floating. Her vision faded, although Eric had not put the blindfold back on. She could feel it as Sebastian abandoned her nipples, could feel the dull ache of sensation coming back into them, but it was a muted feeling, almost as if she was feeling through a curtain. She closed her eyes and enjoyed the crest of feeling as the crab crawled around behind her to pinch her naked buttocks for a bit, and then left those to pinch her labia. She was no longer in Eric's dungeon. She was floating somewhere, perhaps in the sea where she had spent the first sixteen years of her life, perhaps in the air, perhaps only in her mind. Wherever it was, Ariel simply allowed herself to enjoy the sensations. When the crab squeezed her with his strong claws, when Eric whipped her naked body, she did not feel that as pain, instead as a new boost higher into herself. She came back on the floor. The cold stone felt good against her hot, tortured flesh. Her ass was up in the air, burning from its whipping. She could barely feel Sebastian's claws above the tightly laced corset. Eric's blessedly cool hand massaged her buttocks. "Leave us, Sebastian," he said. He lifted Ariel up gently, and carried her over to a wooden chair in the dungeon. Then he sat her down backwards on the chair, binding her ankles to the back legs of it and her wrists, in front of her, to the bottom of the seat. The top of the chairback had a cutout which was perfect for her chin. Ariel's body jutted forward at a forty-five degree angle and her legs were spread and bound. He gave her a few minutes to get back into herself. She wondered what was next. She discovered. Eric was rock hard; he crouched down and slipped into her wet, engorged depths. Ariel's bonds were immovable; she was a spectator to the very act of sex she was engaged in. She could not move, instead she could only stare at the wall while he enjoyed himself within her. "Tell me when you're going to come, slave," he grunted while he was thrusting. Ariel thought at first that she would never be able to come after her ordeal with Sebastian. But Eric was her Master, and she wanted to please him, so she lay on the chair and let him enjoy herself. Eric's hand stole around and began to play with the nub of flesh he had played with once before, in the honeymoon suite on the ship. Ariel felt her body respond, slowly at first. But Eric was insistent, teasing her until she began to moan and fight her bonds. "Master--I'm-going-to-come," she gasped out. Eric slowed at once, with both cock and finger. Ariel moaned and began to thrust her hips back as far as her bound hands would allow. "Please, Master...oh, great Triton, please..." "Not yet, slave. Your begging is too pretty to end yet." "Master please...if you don't let me come I will die...I will do anything..." After similar incoherent pleas, Eric decided it was sufficient and allowed her to come. Eric was a skillful Master, and was able to make her come three or four times. Then he came in her himself, and she felt the warmth slowly trickling out of her. Eric unlocked her restraints, and carried her slowly across the room to a hidden door she had not seen before. Opening it, he carried her up the stairs, to the royal bedroom. He put her gently down on the bed and removed her corset, shoes and stockings. She was naked except for her collar, and completely exhausted. "That's enough for now, my love," he said, stroking her sweaty red hair back from her forehead. He moved to remove her collar. She stopped him, placing both hands on his and tenderly kissing his hands, closing her eyes and preparing to sleep. "No, Master. I would rather be your slave on land than a princess of the sea." The End From no@no.no Sat May 17 22:45:12 1997 Newsgroups: alt.sex.stories Subject: Disney: Little Mermaid in Bondage - Part 2 (Bondage, S/M) From: "Col. Kink" <no@no.no> Date: Sat, 17 May 1997 22:45:12 -0400 -------- Ariel's Continuing Education It had been one week since Ariel had been introduced to the role Eric wanted her to play, below, in the dungeon below the royal bedroom. And she had waited eagerly. Eric had not inclined or willing to take her there a second time. She had insisted on wearing her collar for long periods of time, even walking on the beach near the castle wearing it. She had not seen Flounder, but she had seen Sebastian. She had thought he might be angry at her, perhaps hold her in lower esteem, but he seemed as friendly as ever. Grimbsy as well had been his usual friendly but reserved self, never letting on from his behavior that he had seen her bound and kneeling on the floor of Eric's dungeon. Only the leather collar which she wore constantly told her that the scene in the dungeon had ever happened at all. Eric was in the bedroom when she got back from her walk along the beach. She wondered why she had not seen Flounder, nor her father, nor in fact anyone who had not been in some way involved with the events in the dungeon. He was sitting on a velvet chair in the bedroom, smiling in the same way he had smiled at her down below. "Morning," he said, and she recognized the tone in his voice. Yes, it was time. "It's good that you already have your collar on," he said. Ariel's hand crept to the leather collar around her neck, playing briefly with the ring embedded in the front of it. He arose, embraced her, and took her hands. As he kissed her she felt him secure cold metal cuffs around her wrists, and when he broke the kiss and moved away from her, her wrists were firmly but comfortably locked together. He snapped a leash onto the front ring of Ariel's collar. Then he opened the hidden door within the royal bedchamber and led her down into the dungeon. The door at the bottom slammed shut and locked. Ariel jumped at the sound. "Nervous, are you?" Ariel bowed her head. She had tried to think about what he would want from her, and physical signs of submission seemed to be a good idea. "Somewhat, Master," she said, her clear alto voice the same one that had serenaded him on the beach two weeks ago. She wondered what he was going to do with her. She had enjoyed the floating experience of last week, but had no desire to allow Sebastian the crab to punish her in order to get to it. Her nipples were still sore from the ordeal the crab had inflicted on her as punishment for the chaotic three days before her marriage to Eric. "I have something special for you," he said. He undressed her quickly, letting her wide, long skirt flutter to the floor, removing her blouse and then carefully removing it one sleeve at a time, unlocking her wrists only for a short time while he did. Ariel stood naked except for her collar and cuffs, wondering what it was he had in mind. He then wordlessly led her over to a long table which was tilted at a forty-five degree angle. Eric unlocked her wrists and gestured to it. "Get on that, slave," he said peremptorily. Ariel obeyed, wondering if she should speak. She decided not to. Quickly, Eric secured her wrists over her head. The table was smooth, polished black stone. There was a small pillow for her head, which was somehow attached. Ariel could feel some of her weight on her wrists, but it was not enough to hurt. "What are you going to do to me, Master?" she asked curiously. She flinched as much as she could after she said it. Would it anger him? She realized how defenseless she was, and hoped madly he would not be angry. "You'll find out," he grunted, and fastened the leather blindfold around her eyes. "Now be silent, and don't move unless you are told to." Ariel could not figure out what for the life of her was happening. First he covered her legs with something that felt foamy and sticky. Then she could feel him sliding something over her legs and crotch. It was hard and cold, and she realized with a shock that whatever it was was removing her red pubic hair. "Don't move," he said calmly. "I mean that, Ariel. Don't move an inch. I don't want to cut you. That's the maid's fetish. Bet you didn't know that when she bathed you." He chuckled. Ariel didn't move, for she did not want to be cut, but inside she was aghast. That nice old lady? The very same one who had bathed her and served dinner when she had combed her hair with the fork and blown Grimsby's snarfblatt ash all over him? She could hardly believe it. She would never be able to look at the maid in the same way again. Then again, that was precisely what she had thought about Grimsby and Sebastian the last time. "May I speak, Master?" she asked quietly. She knew she would probably be punished somehow for talking, but she had to ask this question. "Sure," he said, his voice sounding somehow sarcastic. "Go ahead and speak, slave." "Is that maid...does she...do anything else?" He stopped shaving her for a moment; he was laughing heartily. "Good Lord! What you don't know! She's...well..." He continued laughing. "Ariel, you really don't mean to tell me you never...," he trailed off, laughing too hard to speak. When he had caught his breath again, he continued. "Ariel, don't tell me that the mer-people don't have homosexuals and lesbians." Ariel was shocked and flushed a deep red. Yes, the mer-people had a small portion of mermen who loved mermen and mermaids who loved other mermaids. Triton had regarded them an outrage and officially banned it throughout the kingdom. Some of the mer-people who felt this way practiced their activity in secret. Others came out openly and protested against Triton's policies. This had given rise to a new phrase in mer-speak: "coming out from under the shell." Ariel had always wondered just how her father could enforce such cruel policies against loyal merfolk who were engaging in acts that didn't hurt anyone else in the privacy of their own homes, but she had learned that her father was, in some ways, a diehard old-fashioned hater. Hater of humans. Hater of those "out of" and still "under the shell". Hater of her, now? It did not matter; she had asserted herself and he had, to his credit, changed. She had not seen him since her wedding, but that was not out of hatred towards Eric; instead, there were great problems in the kingdom under the sea--the mer-gays were insisting on their rights as loyal subjects, a financial crisis was looming over the fact that oyster pearls were losing value swiftly since Eric's kingdom had agreed, at Ariel's request, to begin phasing out fishing that was not necessary for economic survival. "Why didn't you tell me?" she asked, freezing and then belatedly adding "Master." "Two reasons," he said, delivering a sharp slap to her thigh for talking without permission. "One, you might not have been friendly towards her if you knew, because I didn't really know you before she gave you a bath. Two, she regards her preferences as her business. And I don't really care." Ariel wondered if other mer-people would want to emigrate if they heard of the policies in Eric's realm. Eric returned to shaving her, being slow and gentle so as not to cut her. As he did, he talked. "You see, I run this kingdom fairly. Whether or not one of my staff prefers members of their own sex is irrelevant. As long as she does the job I ask of her, what she does on her own time is not my concern." He had finished shaving her legs and began to concentrate on her crotch. He was speaking slower now, his words fading and rising as he worked. "That doesn't mean they can do anything they want, now. I have a law in this kingdom. Anything that takes place in private between consenting adults is legal and exempt from royal censure. It's only when it involves real abuse or children that the Kingdom takes an interest." Ariel wondered silently just why it was her father could not simply pass a law like that under the sea and solve the whole problem in a snap. Eric was done shaving her. He rinsed her legs off with water, and then slid something over her legs. It was made of leather or something. When he laced it up, she discovered it was taut, covered her feet and reached up to her waist, and had two thick protuberances which invaded her fore and aft. She gasped. "Like it? But wait, there's more!" He sounded cruelly jovial, and she could tell that he was walking away. He returned with a heavier garment made of leather. When he slid this on, Ariel could not move her legs at all, even though she had tried and there was little wiggle room in the first restraint. He had to coat the first one with oil to slide the second one on. When it, too, reached up to her waist, he smiled, pleased with his effort. Then she felt a waist belt slide around her middle and lock. Eric unlocked her from the table and carried her over to another one, leaving her hands free. He placed her on another table. Suddenly she realized there was something familiar about this feeling. Oh no. The sudden realization even made her unaware of the double plugs which were pressing inexorably into her. Eric took off the blindfold and let her see herself. She was lying on a table over a pool set into the floor. Her lower body was clad in a green leather mermaid fin. Her legs were completely encased in it. She was speechless. There were even scales hand-embossed into the leather. In shock she moved her fingers across them. She could not even feel her legs. There was absolutely no evidence she even had them. "Master...please....," she finally managed. How could he do this? Didn't he know what she had gone through? How could on earth could he do this? "You know your safeword, slave," he said mildly, and looked at her. When no answer was forthcoming, he stepped on a hidden tripswitch and Ariel slid into the water. "Now, mermaid slave, swim for me." Ariel could only beat her fin enough to keep her face out of the water. The pool was long enough where she could conceivably swim a fair distance. Why hadn't she seen this before, she wondered? Then the answer came looking about her. This was in a darker section of the dungeon, and she had been blindfolded for a fair portion of her last visit here. "Do it!" He stalked away to a cabinet and came back with a long whip. Ariel tried to stand, but her feet were forced by the leather fin into an extreme version of the high-heel position and she could not stand in the pool. Eric flicked the whip and suddenly a fiery handprint came into being on her back, just above the heavy leather of the fin. Ariel began to swim, feeling on the brink of tears. It was hard because the plugs kept interfering with her flipping and she could not swim underwater. She could feel her jaw trembling, and bit the tears back. She did not want to cry. As Ariel obeyed her master, swimming back and forth in the pool, she felt herself grow wet in front. The aft one had been well lubricated, and she felt herself responding to both as they pulled and slid. Eric paced back and forth along the pool's edge, striking her occasionally with the whip. Ariel's mind began to drift and she let herself respond to the plugs and the whip. She only barely heard herself moaning in pleasure. Eventually, she came. She came back into herself, lying next to the pool, wet and dripping. She was lying on her back. Eric was crouched over her, concerned. "Are you all right?" he asked. She smiled, feeling the aft plug press harder since she was on her back. "Yes, Master, I'm fine," she said slowly and dreamily. "Why did you stop?" "You slipped in the water and had trouble coming up." Then she noticed that he was also wet and dripping. "Did you...," "I got you out, yes." She was comforted by the knowledge that he had done this. She had given him herself, and she was gladdened to know that he would risk himself to save her. She felt him sliding the fin off of her and almost cried out to feel it leave; the very fin which not long ago she had been horrified to see. Then he crouched over her and stroked her wet red hair away from her brow. "Do you want to continue?" She smiled lazily up at him. "I didn't safeword, now, did I, Master?" A devilish grin spread across his face. "Very well, then." He brought a wooden X-frame over and affixed her wrists and ankles to it. It did not seem to weigh much as he brought it over without a grunt or any sign of strain. After he had done this, he placed Ariel in it in the water. Ariel was surprised. The water was warm, and she was not uncomfortable, but it was odd. She was floating almost completely submersed in the water except for her head, which was cushioned. She could observe her spread-eagled, nude body under water. She turned and looked at him with her blue eyes, surprise making them even bigger than their usual saucer size. "Master, what are you doing to me?" Once he was satisfied that she was safely secured, he leaped out of the water and pulled a hidden rope in the shadows. "Oh, it's not what _I_'m going to do to you, pretty slave." Ariel saw a portion of the pool at the end slide up, revealing a hidden panel. There was a watery tunnel behind it. And in swam a fish--but not just any fish. It was a young fish, yellow, with blue tiger stripes. "Flounder!" she cried, her eyes growing even larger with shock. "Glad to know you didn't forget me," Flounder answered with a smirk she had never seen on him before. "Course, things are going to be a little different from what they were. You're not in charge anymore." Ariel remembered her ordeal with Sebastian. "Flounder--please--" Flounder swam up boldly between her parted and bound legs. "Aw, don't worry, Ariel. I'm not gonna hurt you." She tensed against her bonds, but that was useless; both the bonds and the frame were too strong. Flounder poked out his fishy tongue and began to poke at her captive labia. Ariel shrieked. No one had ever done this to her before; she had never even dreamed of a fish doing it to her. Eric sat at the edge of the pool, grinning. "Quiet down, slave. It won't kill you." Flounder's lips and tongue pulled hungrily at her center. Ariel realized she was enjoying the sensations despite herself. It was only the idea, she told herself, the idea of doing it with a fish. And Flounder of all fish.... Ariel took a deep breath. She could see in Eric's face that he wanted her to do this, and she did not want to disappoint him. Flounder was not hurting her, and she was helpless anyway. So she mustered all her self-control and made herself relax and tried to accept it. Flounder was not very skilled at first, but he was a quick learner and slowly but surely brought Ariel to a state of passionate excitement. Yet he would not finish the job, instead keeping Ariel dancing just on the edge of orgasm. "Please...oh, please....," she begged incoherently. Flounder grinned up at her. "I don't know...," he said in his young, high-pitched teenagerfish voice. "You almost got me eaten by sharks....," "I'm sorry,...please, Flounder....," "And you made me be your limousine out to the boat, and got me in trouble with your father, and...," he pulled away slightly. "PLEASE," Ariel gasped, unable to think of better ways to beg. "I'll die if you don't." "No, you won't." The young fish sounded sadistically pleased. This torment continued for a few more minutes, Ariel fighting uselessly at her bonds and allowing the fish to strike her thighs with his (in truth, rather puny and not fearful) tail. Then Eric made a motion with his hand, and Flounder finished what he had started. Ariel came extremely hard; she thought her very ears pressed inwards. Afterwards, Eric took her off the frame, out of the pool and up to the royal bedchamber after bidding Flounder farewell. Ariel felt extremely submissive as she lay with Eric in the bed, realizing that he had, throughout the time in the dungeon, been able to control when she came, and been able to make her enjoy her own submission. He insisted on removing Ariel's collar after it had been in the water, explaining that leather might shrink and he did not want anything to happen to her. After a time she asked if he would mind if she went for a walk on the beach. He shook his head. She dressed and left, sitting on the sandy beach near the castle at the edge of the shore, listening to the waves beat against the sand. Suddenly there was a great rush of bubbles and her father, King Triton, who loved her dearly, rose up out of the water. Ariel wondered briefly what he would say if he knew just what Eric was doing with her. "Hello, sweetheart," he said kindly, his beard curving up into a smile. "Hi, daddy," she replied, smiling. The wind blew her hair back from her brow. "How are things down there?" Triton groaned and gestured with his trident. "Oh, extremely busy. The merchants are hollering because the pearls are losing value by the day. Sebastian is still pressing his application for a medal and a pension owing to the three days with you, those...those...gay merfolk are daily protesting and more are coming out from under the shell every day, and your sister Andrina..." He sighed. "Your sister Andrina...has just joined them. " He shuddered. "I wonder what it was I did wrong." Ariel rolled up her skirt and took off her shoes, and then waded into the sea next to her father. She embraced him. "Daddy, you didn't do anything wrong." "Ariel, it's just wrong!" His voice shook. "Daddy,..." She kissed him on the cheek. She had always wondered idly if it was true about Andrina. She had never cared one way or the other, and she was proud to hear that Andrina was accepting herself the way she was, but she was somewhat hurt that Andrina had not said anything to her. "You didn't do anything wrong. Andrina's not a bad person." He glanced at her disbelievingly. "She's just...different." He sighed and shrugged his mighty shoulders. "Ariel, you don't understand. I was raised in a different age. I was always taught that it was a moral abomination." Ariel smiled. She knew she had him now. "Just like wanting to be human was a moral abomination?" Triton opened his mouth. He closed it again. He seemed to be thinking. "Ariel,..." he said, trailing off into silence. Ariel gave him a smile of infinite patience. She had gotten a foot in the door of his mind, as she alone had been able to do all her life. "Daddy, I know it's hard to fathom for you, but Andrina is your daughter, and she's not a monster, she's a mer-person just like you. I know you don't understand it, but you don't just try to destroy things you don't understand, you have to try to learn how to understand them! That's how you grow as a merman, daddy." Triton frowned at her, his large brow wrinkling at her. But there was a light in his eyes that spoke of past fights and wishes to reconcile, the same light that she had barely seen when he destroyed her collection of human things. "Have you been learning all these new ideas on land, young lady? Are you so much better now that you are human?" Ariel wanted to retort to the comment, but she had planted the seed in his mind and did not want to screw it up simpy because of a personal slight. That would be unfair to Andrina, the gay merfolk population....but mostly to herself, and to the new self-exploration she was undertaking as Eric's slave. "No, daddy, humans are far from perfect," she said. "But they can try. And so can you. That's all anyone can ask." The End