Cite

Ariel studied the baker: what was his age, really? He seemed young, but spoke with a strange authority on the subject. Like a mermaid suddenly made queen.

«I want this castle put on high alert», – Ursula snapped. – «I want a meeting with a captain of the guard. I want watches doubled, tripled. I want everyone to know about a certain red-haired enemy of the state. I want a reward put out for a sighting and another for capture. I want dozens of men on the beach again, men in front of every low window, and for every maid to be told exactly what she looks like». «Absolutely, Ursula», – Flotsam said with a grin. «About time, Ursula», – Jetsam said with a sneer. Vareet said nothing.

And was Eric regaining his will? He had acted a little odd at lunch, but sometimes it was hard to tell with humans. Especially dumb ones.

«I was dangerously close to becoming my little sister's little sister there...»

iTunas

MMORPG: Mostly Men Online Role Playing as Girls

«Damn Kerori. Making me out like I'm a cross-player... Though there really aren't that many girls playing net games. The cute girls are just old men in disguise...»

«I've been plenty careful to make sure it was safe. Why would this happen now after he's been a girl for almost a month..? «A month»..?»

– Огурчики! Толстые, шероховатые и полны удовольствия!

Не важно, что за сон тебе снится, приходит время, когда ты должен проснуться.

– Хотела кушать. Присматривала за домом. Кушать нету. Не могла уйти.

– Так, Муроми-сан, что на этот раз?

– Спаси её. Спаси её.

– Подумаем... Раз, два, три... Семь звёзд и надкусанное яблоко. Неужели ты – Белоснежка?

– Бинго!

– Я что, угадал?

– В этом мире есть вещи, в которые лучше не совать свой нос.

– We tailed her for half the day, and not only did she not meet anyone, all she did was eat and poop.

– She entered a family restaurant.

– Behavioral psychology suggests it's suspicious for a teenage female to enter a family restaurant alone.

– Eww! Gross!

– Is there a problem you're facing? Just let me know and I'll make it go away!

Scuttle shrugged. «I don't know, Ariel. She's evil, right? Who knows why she does anything? To make more evil, maybe? Or maybe she just likes it here. Whatever is going on in her crazy head, we gotta take her down, that's what we gotta do. We'll eighty-six her, get your dad back, get the prince, and everyone lives happily ever after».

An explosion of grey and white feathers landed on the beach next to them. As soon as he recovered himself, Scuttle threw his wings around her in a gully embrace.

Without spoken language and no knowledge of signs, back then she wasn't able to tell Eric what had happened to her or how she loved him. She wasn't able to tell her father not to trade places with her. She wasn't able to rule her kingdom without the help of a fleet of people to interpret and speak for her.

Ruefully she remembered the concert that Sebastian had so carefully planned, which she had missed, which her dad had punished her for, which led him to set the little crab on her case, and so on...

She hadn't been deliberately disobedient. She just... forgot.

Her voice had been such an important part of her life before. The merfolk celebrated her for it. Her father excused her occasionally questionable behavior because of it. Eric loved the girl who rescued him, because of her singing....

...she'd never really enjoyed singing for anyone else. In fact, she hated audiences. She sang because she liked to sing. She just... felt... something, and had to sing it. If she were happy, or sad, or angry, she would go off by herself and sing to the coral, sing to the seaweed, sing to an audience of sea snails or tube worms (who listened, but never commented). Most of her mergirlhood had been spent swimming around, exploring, singing to herself. Making up little stories in her head and then putting them into song.

She coughed and tried again, cocking her head and effecting a stem look.

«Just do it. Flounder; I need the tax audits by the third tide so we have something to present to the council». «Sebastian, I don't care about the gala or its details. I'm sure it's all fine in your very capable claws». «And with the cutting of this ribbon, I hereby declare the Temple of Physical Arts open to all!» Ariel smiled, then threw back her head and laughed – but it was brittle. She picked up a shard of the nautilus and sighed.

She had the voice of the gods, some had said. The sort of voice that could lure landlubbers to sea and sailors to their deaths, a voice that could launch a thousand ships. She had the voice of the wind and the storm and the crash of the waves and the ancient speech of the whale. She had the voice of the moon as it glided serenely across the sky and the stars as they danced behind. She had the voice of the wind between the stars that mortals never heard, that rushed and blew and ushered in the beginning and end of time.

It was like a pile of books had fallen from a high shelf onto his head, and, having broken his skull, somehow managed to directly impart their contents into his brain.