Chapter Text
Eric didn't dare leave the marbled part of the Plaza. He felt sick to his stomach, and he wasn't sure why. The moment he awakened in the Valley, he deftly came up with the excuse that he was hungry and asked me to bring him something. Now, he was starting to feel a bit guilty about asking so much for the sole purpose of stalling, but he really needed a moment to himself for the first time in a while.
He wanted to kick himself for thinking that.
If he had forgotten just how powerful I was, the speed I returned with his food served as a hard reminder. I materialised beside the fountain in a sparkling mist.
"Here, man, damn. Ariel's waiting. Can you eat and walk?" I asked, handing him one of three dishes from my inventory.
"Oh... that's a good idea," said Eric, starting to pick at the berry salad.
I took out my map. "Looks like she's in the Forest of Valour."
Eric swallowed hard. "Actually, when the Forgetting started, Ariel and I agreed that, if anything happened, we'd meet on the bridge in Dazzle Beach."
Without a word, I blinked. I looked down at my map, then back at the prince.
"I don't have all day. You already had me make all this stuff for you."
"Yes, thank you. I really do appreciate it. Really... but–"
I groaned. "But you just have to meet on the beach. Yeah, yeah. You people really kill me sometimes."
A nervous laugh rattled around his throat. That was a lie, too, but he was certain Ariel would show up there eventually. They both loved the sea. She was born a mermaid, and he was a sailor. Surely, they belonged on the shore.
Feigning urgency, Eric led the way. We walked through the meadow and down the staircase to the beach.
"Oh, wow. Did Ariel find that?" he asked upon catching sight of the statue in his likeness.
He was a little disappointed to see it. From the moment Grimsby had gifted it to him, Eric hated it. He wasn't the kind of prince who wanted to be eternally preserved by a vanity piece.
"Boy, almost nothing you see in this valley comes from anyone but me and my pockets. To answer your question, I found the pieces and put them together because Ariel asked me to. She wanted people to see your face and remember who you are."
"Did it work?"
I tilted my hand, suggesting 'not really'. "Everyone lost some of their memories. I mean, Kristoff was using a piece of your face as a paperweight, so..."
Soaking in the information slowly, Eric's mind drifted to other matters.
"Who's that?"
I followed Eric's sightline, settling on a girl on the east side of the beach playing with a turtle. The seawind lifted her hair with the salty caress of a hand. She seemed like a nice neighbour but, ultimately, was a stranger to him.
"You guys used to go exploring together."
He rubbed his chin as he watched her. A contemplative hum followed.
"I wish I could recall. I kind of remember wanting a crew, and Kristoff turning it down."
"It was you, Donald and Moana."
Distracted by the conversation, I didn't notice that Eric had stopped walking. He kicked at the sand as we stood there idly. But something had just lit up his eye.
"Right, Donald's a sailor too. What about her?"
"She's a master wayfinder from an island called Motonui."
Despite the distance, he eyed how the orange glow of sunset bounced off the girl from Motonui. 'Wayfinder' sounded more like the kind of thing Ariel would call a cartographer than it did the positions he had learned about from the buccaneers of his kingdom. Admittedly, he was more of an enthusiastic passenger among the crews than part of them. Being allowed to go sailing with them was a 'reward' from his father when the prince attended to the royal duty of trying to find a wife.
Each time a princess sailed in from some faraway land, Eric would politely participate in the droll conversation his guest's chaperone would allow her to have. Then, he would pretend to be impressed by the piano performance that they always had prepared. Finally, he would walk with them on his arm around the palace garden in near silence – the private moment that their kingdoms hoped would be enough to seal their allegiance – with nothing to say. He never had plans of writing any of them, and he could tell from the moment he saw them. All that mattered to Eric was getting that letter from his father saying he could indulge in yet another maritime affair.
So, perhaps wayfinder was merely a position he had overlooked in his limited time at sea.
"Moana also catches fish for the whole valley to eat. I only fish to sell or when one of you guys wants something rare to eat. And you better get ready, cause that's what you and I are going to be doing for the next hour after you reunite with Ariel."
I had nothing to say after that, and neither did Eric. What became a few minutes of awkward silence for me was a brief moment for Eric while he tried to elicit a memory of Moana. The crashing waves were rhythmic like a ticking clock that he was too preoccupied to notice. Eventually, she stood up and waved goodbye to the turtle. He watched the sea air blow her curls into her face as she climbed the hill to the meadow.
After those minutes of periodically checking the map for Ariel's location, I lost my patience.
"She's still in the forest. I'm done waiting, I have money to make and more villagers to bring back to the Valley."
"Just hold on a second," Eric pleaded as I ran across the bridge, "I'm sure she'll turn up."
I glared back at him. Eric had run out of excuses and, even when I backtracked, waiting for a good reason to keep loitering on the half-constructed beach, he remained motionless. Again, I marched toward the Forest of Valour, but he wouldn't budge.
In an instant, Eric was being pushed across the beach like a boulder.
"Seriously?" he complained.
But I was done discussing, and he could feel it firsthand.
He tried to talk his way out of the situation, finding himself magically unable to fight back physically. As we passed his castle and approached the market opposite, Eric fell quiet. His heart thumped uncontrollably at the thought of someone seeing the ridiculous scene of him getting forced around like a stubborn mule. There was no logical explanation, nor was he certain of the illogical reason he was acting this way. Fortunately, I seemed not to question the odd behaviour. But would someone else? He loathed to imagine.
"Chopsticks! I have something to tell you!" yelled a snowman descending from the steep hill to the forest.
As I turned to answer, Eric took the chance to run back to the bridge. I nearly growled in frustration.
"Dammit, Eric! Get back here!" I yelled as I chased after him.
The snowman let out a gasp that reminded Eric of who he was: Olaf. He winced, remembering his blabbermouth.
"Prince Eric?! Ariel told me alllll about you. Like how you have a dog-person as a friend. Me too, his name's Goofy. What am I saying? Everyone knows Goofy. Did you know he has a son? Really makes you think..."
Although he wanted to hide, Eric found himself paralysed with guilt once he crossed the bridge.
"Eric?! Is that you?" called a familiar voice, accompanied by a splash.
He spun around to face her. "Ariel?"
The mermaid smiled brightly and nodded. Eric's mouth fell agape seeing her half-submerged with a tail. He didn't remember her not being human before the Forgetting. Relief washed over him, and he exhaled deeply, letting go of held breath.
"It's me. I'm finally human again," he said.
"Oh, Eric. That makes me so happy!"
He lowered himself onto one knee to talk to her at the water's edge. Up close, he could see the tinge of pain in her eyes. He cupped her cheek with his hand, and she leaned into it. If he had done something to upset her before the Forgetting, he couldn't remember. Maybe it was the reason he was so conflicted. The last thing he did, while not unforgivable, did seem like something he could apologise for. He hated to see his wife hurt.
"I wanted to tell you..." he started, suddenly aware of the lack of privacy, "I'm sorry about the deal with Ursula. I just wanted to protect you and–"
"It's alright. I made a deal with her once too, remember? I'd rather not think about it, but, I hope you do remember... us. Kristoff still doesn't remember Anna. Well, maybe you don't remember them either."
"I would never forget us. Let's agree to never deal with Ursula again."
"Never again," Ariel echoed, putting her hand over Eric's and holding it tenderly, "We're together now, and that's all that matters."
Eric opened his mouth to question their 'togetherness' given her state, but settled on a smile instead.
"Alright, lovebirds, I've got money to make. I haven't been cosying up to Ursula just for fun; I needed a fisherman. Let's get moving, your highness," I said.
"I guess you have to go, now," Ariel huffed.
She puckered her lips and, dutifully, Eric gave her a peck. As he rose to his feet, he could see the disappointment Ariel was struggling to hide. He knew a little passion may have been due in their reunion kiss, but the watching eyes were what stopped him.
That's what Eric told himself.
Once we were deep into the Anglerfish-fishing session, I took a break to have a snack and clear my inventory by selling some things to Goofy. Eric waited by the pond at the back of the Forgotten Lands, ruminating as he leaned on a large rock. He watched Kristoff and Anna collect wood for his stall together. They revelled in each other's company in a way that made Eric jealous. He wished he could do that with Ariel, but he was stuck on land and she in the Valley's waters.
He listened to their laughter reverberate around the eerie land, warming it up like the sunlight that was incapable of reaching it. Their conversations weren't necessarily intellectual, but they were brimming with the intimate substance of two people who really knew each other. He remembered that the couple were a little older than he and his wife, and, though they weren't married, had years of partnership on them.
Imagining himself and Ariel in their place painted a different picture. They knew each other for a matter of months before the Forgetting. She was still adamant that a seagull was more of an authority on humanity than Eric was, which was not a problem to him, but it made communicating a little difficult since she insisted on calling all manner of objects by a gibberish name. That wouldn't be a problem either if she enjoyed talking about much else other than the mundane minutiae of human life. At first, Ariel sharing her excitement for the unremarkable was exactly what Eric needed to get out of his slump.
But it lost its lustre once they found themselves in the Valley. Eric remembered wanting nothing more than to be on the water. That was how he was feeling now. Bargaining with that unforgiving sea, which was deeper than any man could dream of imagining. Well, Ariel would know, but those kinds of things slipped her mind. She tried to answer Eric's questions, but, as he had come to realise, she had always been drawn to the shallows, as he had been to the deep. Their perfect opposition fuelled their initial attraction. It all seemed perfect, once upon a time.
"How's fishing going?" asked a voice: sweet, but completely unfamiliar.
Eric startled out of his thoughts. Then, his heart skipped a beat at the girl who had appeared..
"Oh– ah, good. Well. It's going well. For Chopsticks. I'm not much of a fisher, but not too shabby when it comes to throwing magic fish at someone," he joked, winning a giggle.
"Prince Eric, right? I'm Moana. Welcome to the Valley."
"Nice to meet you," He stood up straight and extended a hand to her in greeting. "You can just call me Eric. I'm not big on titles."
He searched her eyes for a glimmer of the past as they shook hands. There was nothing Eric recognised, except the familiar lost gaze.
Moana tucked a lock of hair behind her ear as she broke from his grasp. The quiet clearing of her throat. Awkwardness loomed over their heads.
Her fingers fidgeted with themselves. "Sorry, I heard we were friends before, but the Forgetting messed with some of my memories. I can't really remember anything about you."
"Phew. I thought it might just be me," he admitted with a laugh.
The apologetic spell on her features was lifted at the sound of that. She clapped her hands together and smiled.
"That's perfect. If we were friends once, I'm sure we can do it all over again. Getting to know someone new is an adventure."
Eric liked the sound of that. Before he could think of a reply, the sound of me dashing back over to continue fishing distracted him entirely. He watched as the line swished on the rod. As I cast the fishhook into the water, the splash seemed to reflect the unhappiness Eric had seen in Ariel's eyes.
"Hey, Moana," I said.
"Hello," she responded.
Moana stayed for a moment without a word. The shadow of a bird moved across the indigo turf beneath them. A single pale feather floated down, catching her attention. She pulled her eyes away from the pond to find a white raven circling them beneath the stars. Its wings were like sails, freely gliding in the night sky, dark as the sea, touching the ever-unreachable horizon.
"Well, you guys have fun," she said, before wandering off.