December 21, 2018

A/N: AU taking place before the events of the first film. Only major differences is Athena survived the pirate attack, and Ariel's sister also develop a interest in the surface world.

Prologue

"Good job, Flounder!"

A flash of red hair streaked through the water towards the small yellow and blue fish. The young mermaid, who was just over fifteen years old, smiled brightly. Her line of sight was drawn to a worn out object resting between two rocks on the ocean floor. Upon closer inspection, the object was revealed to be a chest. She ran her hands across the aged wood surface and rusted metal lock. This was way better than what she'd expected her fish friend to find.

"What did I tell ya, a human treasure chest in perfect condition!" Flounder pumped his fist a few times. "What do you think Ariel?"

The merprincess laughed and hugged her fish friend. "It amazing!" Turning her attention back to the chest, she looked at the weathered lock. A quick tug proved it was still strong enough to keep the contends of the chest a secret...for the moment. "What to do, what to do..." Ariel tapped her chin as she pondered the problem.

"So this is where you were."

Ariel and Flounder froze at the sudden voice and spun around in surprise. "Geez Aquata, don't sneak up on us like that!"

The blue tailed and fourth oldest daughter of King Triton rolled her eyes. "You two were too focused on that to even hear me." She looked past Ariel's shoulder at the chest. "What human thing did you find this time?"

The red-head smiled. "A little interested are we, Aquata?"

"Don't get cute with me." She looked to the side and sighed. Truth be told she'd started following Ariel the moment she left the palace. Like the rest of her sisters, she knew the youngest princess liked exploring for human objects. Worried that father would find out, she followed to keep an eye on her. That and other reasons as well. "Okay, maybe just a little."

Ariel laughed and grabbed her older sister's hand, pulling her towards the chest. For the most part, her six sisters had turned a blind eye to her collecting human items. They even showed interest when she'd snuck a super interesting find back to their bedroom. Attina, though cautious about the potential of the King and Queen finding out, caved when her curiosity and love of research and history drawed her to Ariel's trinkets. Then there was Aquata who had been hesitant to accept her younger sister's interest in the surface. It took Ariel showcasing her thingabobs, watchacallits, and thingamagigs before Aquata let her guard down. She had to admit, the human items were like nothing found in the ocean kingdom.

Ariel tugged at the lock again. "It's not going to budge without help." For the most part, human locks were like merpeople locks. Have the right kind of tools and you could pick em. "You wouldn't happen to have any tools on you, Aquata?"

"Sorry." She raised up her empty hands. "We should move it to the grotto. Anyone can see us and it out here."

The red-head nodded and grabbed the handle on one side of the chest while Aquata grabbed the other. The chest wasn't heavy with both of them and the two sister quickly began swimming off with it. While once Ariel's most held secret, the grotto that housed her surface collection, the catfish had been let out the bag when her six sisters followed her one night. Ariel had made a habit of sneaking off past curfew, which hadn't gone unnoticed by them.

Once the grotto was revealed everyone had freaked out. Attina's first reaction was to tell father and mother, which would have been the end of the world for Ariel. While Queen Athena didn't seem to mind humans all that much, King Triton hated their race. The near death of his wife in the lagoon ten years earlier solidified his opposition to contact with the human world. Contact with them was forbidden along with the exploration of ship wrecks. If he found out his youngest daughter was actively collecting surface objects, he would have been furious to say the least.

It took a bombardment of begging and pleading from Ariel before the sisters reluctantly agreed not tell their parents. But there were a couple conditions that had to be met though. Firstly, they made Ariel promises to stop sneaking off past curfew. The next time she got caught, it might be the guards or worst, King Triton himself. Next each princess had her own personal request. They'd been raised to be wary of humans their entire life. This didn't stopped natural born curiosity from forming in due time however.

Attina, being a lover of history, wanted to see any human history books or documents that Ariel found. The art loving Alana wanted to see any human paintings or sculptors that she happened across. Being a helpless romantic, the third oldest Adella desired romance books from the surface. While Aquata really didn't have a preference, she was mostly curious about items that didn't seem to have any ocean counterpart or role. Arista, being a bit of a ditz, wanted any object that looked like fun, be it a rare human instrument, game, or toy. It took Andrina a moment too decide what she wanted. Like Ariel, all of the human trinkets in the grotto looked strange and amazing to her. She decided only time would tell what she wanted to examine from the collection. A joke book would be nice, if humans even told jokes.

From that day forth Ariel was able to explore shipwrecks without fear of her sisters telling. During free time, Ariel and some of her sisters would spend hours rummaging through human books and tinkering with mysterious human treasures. While still not as strong as Ariel's love for surface things, the others were beginning to become much more comfortable with the whole ordeal.

Swimming close to the sandy bottom to avoid unwanted attention, the two sister sped towards the grotto with the treasure in tow. Surely something in the grotto could be used to pick the lock. Oh what kind treasures could the humans have locked away in the chest? Ariel had found chest before that had help jewels, gold, scrolls, and other items she had no name for. A smile spread across the young mermaid's lips. It was like opening a surprise present every time.

In their haste to hide away the chest, neither of the merprincesses noticed a large dark shadow pass over head. The dark oval shaped shadow passed by, heading in the opposite direction. Had they seen it, they would have no doubt know it was the outline of a large ship sailing on the surface.

Surface

"I'll tell you a tell of the bottomless blue and it's hey to the starboard heave ho! Look out lad a mermaid be waiting for you in the mysterious fathoms below!"

A young dark-haired man smiled as the sailors' voices filled the deck. It was a beautiful day out on the high seas, and both the song and salty sea breeze put him in high spirits. Even the sound of his confidant and caretaker Grimsby vomiting over the railing didn't dampen his mood. It had been a few hours since the ship left port and the whole ride had been rather peaceful. Yes a perfect day to be at sea.

"Thanks for listening to my request and bringing me along, Eric." A young man around the same age as Eric walked across the deck and stood beside him. He had clean shaven brown hair with a calm expression. Resting in his hands was a sketch pad and a pen. Looking down, he made a few more strokes as he finished the rough drawing of a dolphin. He gave a slightly disappointed smile. "Only saw a few pods today. Shame. I would have liked to have gotten a sketch of a whole family before we got back."

Pulled himself from the railing, Grimsby coughed and straightened his collar. "Would like to remind Mr. Holland that he should be referring to his Majesty as Prince Eric."

The brown-haired boy stiffened a little, but Eric just laughed and slapped him on the shoulder. "It's alright Grim, you know I don't like formalities. Besides, Darius and me have known each other since we were school children. This is my ship after all and I'd like nothing more than have the kingdom's best oceanographer accompanying me."

Darius relaxed and scratched the back of his neck in embarrassment. "Come on Eric don't you think that's stretching it a bit? I'm hardly even close to being the 'best'. I just wanted some more sea animals for my journal." He closed the leather bound sketchbook.

"You're to modest. Almost twenty-one and you've already graduated from the Academy with the highest grades in your field."

"It wasn't easy you know. Many a sleepless nights just to study for papers and tests." Darius winced as if remembering the stress of those nights.

"And you passed them all with flying colors. Come on man, give yourself some credit!"

Grimsby watch the exchange with a exhausted sigh. Prince Eric had picked Darius Holland as the royal oceanographer and marine specialist. Graduating from the Royal Academy with top marks spoke for itself on the young man's intelligence and competence. That combined with their long standing friendship meant that least one position in the kingdom was in the right hands. Grimsby shook his head and let the matter slide. They were childhood friends after all.

"Sorry to disturb you your Majesty." A middle aged and cheerful looking sailor climbed up the steps to the upper deck where the trio stood. "I'd like to report that it seems we be having good weather on the way back to port. A fine strong wind and following breeze, King Triton must be in a friendly type mood."

Confusion crossed the young prince's face. "King Triton?"

Not far away, the old sailor mopping the deck laughed. "Awe! He's the ruler of the Merpeople, lad. I thought every good sailor knew about the Undersea King."

Eric scratched his chin and looked at Darius who just shrugged. Grimsby on the other hand scoffed at the idea of a underwater kingdom. "Merpeople. Eric pay no attention to such utter nonsense."

"Nonsense?! That ain't no nonsense!" The old sea salt glared at Grimsby. "I tell down deep below the waves of the ocean they live. I've seen one with my own eyes when I was but a young lad many years ago!"

The old caretaker backed away as the old sailor continued on his rant about the merfolk, the mysterious half human half fish people that are said to inhabit the deep depths of the seas. Chuckling to himself the other sailor who reported dismissed himself, leaving Eric and Darius to watch the old salt put Grimsby through the ringer. It truly was a comical site that made even the usually quiet Darius suppress a laugh.

"Well what do you think?"

Darius raised an eyebrow. "About what?"

"Merpeople. Mermaids. Do you believe in them?"

The oceanographer opened his sketchbook and flipped through pages of several marine animals he'd drawn over the last few months. "The ocean is a big place. We haven't even mapped a fraction of it, much less the world below the waves."

"That doesn't answer my question." The prince pressed his friend with the question as if it was a question for a school test back when they were kids. Eric wasn't dumb, his grades being high as expected of the crown prince, but that hadn't stopped him from squeezing questions out of the smartest kid in class when need be.

"To be honest, I don't know."

"You don't know? My great royal oceanographer doesn't have the answer!?" Eric placed a hand to his chest in a over dramatic way, amused grin forming on his face. "I must search for a new one at once!"

Humor was one of the attributes that made Prince Eric so popular with his people. Not only did he possess charisma and a solid sense of humor, he also interacted with the common folk on a daily basis. Such ideas were instilled in him from father, the late king. You weren't fit to rule a people unless you understood their needs and wants he'd told him. The best way of finding out of course was to ask. His personality affected everyone, even his old friend.

"That won't be necessary," he said trying to brush off the jab. "And to answer your question...it not something I've given a whole lot of thought. There's a ton of legends about mermaids from ages ago. Everything from myths to sightings just a few years ago. Whose to say a kingdom under the sea isn't ruled by King Triton?" The sketch pad was snapped shut. If Darius had said that back when he was in the Academy, he would've been laughed right out the door. For a moment it felt good to vent his thoughts.

By the time shipped arrived back at port, Grimsby had finally freed himself of the old salt's stories and had swiftly left the ship the moment it docked. Darius, picking up his bag, shuffled through to make sure he hadn't forgotten anything. Worn books on marine life, notebooks full of hand written observations, and finally his aged sketchbook that he'd been drawing in for years. As he followed his friend, the prince, off the ship, he couldn't help but run Eric's question through his head over and over again.

"Merpeople. Mermaids. Do you believe in them?"

He hadn't answered truthfully, well not completely. The memory in his mind was foggy, like a dream that shifted out of vision the moment you tried to look at it. Sometimes he wasn't sure if was a memory or a dream that had remained in his head for the last eight years. The only proof that it was indeed real was the first page of his sketchpad.

Being careful to hide it from Eric and Grimsby, Darius cracked open the book and flipped to the very first page. The passing of time had not taken away from the well draw figure resting on the sheet. From the waist up she was a beautiful young girl with silky brown hair tied up in a exotic style. From the waist down however, it was clear this wasn't a normal human girl that had haunted the young man for several years. Where her legs should have been, a shiny blue fish tail took up the lower half of the page...

A/N: And that's the prologue to the Daughters of Triton. Hard to believe it's been six years since I joined this site. It's been more than two years since I update a story so please forgive me as I'm a bit out of practice in writing stories. For some reason I just felt the urge to write a Little Mermaid fanfic after rewatching the three movies. It just made me remember how much I loved Disney as a kid.

I'm not sure what my updating schedule will be for this story. At the moment, I'm off for Christmas break before going make to college in January. In order to make longer and better quality chapters, I'm going to write at my own pace. In past stories, I'd try to cram write to meet a deadline and it would result in a rushed or bad chapter all together. To avoid that, I'd like to just go with the flow and write when I feel inspired to do so.

If you made it this far, I'd like to thank you for reading my story. As the title says, Ariel and her sisters will be the main characters of this story. This is the time frame between what would have been Ariel's Beginning and the original film. The other set of main characters will be Eric, Darius, and other OCs that I plan on introduction in the future.

Please review, favorite, follow, and I hope to see you guys and gals next time. Peace!