Ariel's Wedding Night (an unauthorized Little Mermaid story)
Christine Morgan
vecna@eskimo.com
comments welcome


	The wedding ship sailed serenely under a sunset sky. The weather was 
as calm and perfect as King Triton could make it, in his happiness on the 
day of his youngest daughter's wedding.
	The humans aboard were making most merry. They drank wine, rum, 
mead, and whatever else they could lay hands upon. Most were drinking out of 
joyous celebration, but there were those who drank heavily, Lord Grimsby 
included, to try and forget the fact that Prince Eric had married a fish.
	All agreed that marrying a fish was considerably better than the 
octopoid witch that had nearly tricked the handsome young prince into 
wedlock. Princess Ariel was lovely, sweet, and kind. She had legs as a human 
did, but none of them were going to easily dismiss the memory of her 
flopping on the deck with a scaled green tail.
	Among the nervous were those who made their living by plundering the 
sea of its wealth. Eric's was a coastal domain. Fishing was their main 
source of food. Difficult, that, when what was hauled up in a net may be kin 
to their princess. Shipping was another means of income, and even piracy 
(though they called it privateering). But it was now confirmed that the sea 
was the realm of a king, a king with power over wind and wave, a king who 
might impose restrictions on travel across his territory.
	The staff of the royal kitchens had been in a quandry. How to 
prepare the traditional wedding feast while keeping away from seafood? 
Instead of succulent roast dolphin, they had to serve beef. The few
cattlemen of the realm were quite pleased, but their herds and farms would 
not sustain the masses forever.
	All in all, it was understandable that the liquor flowed freely.
	The only ones aboard who were not distraught over one thing or 
another were the bride and groom, and Eric's shaggy dog Max. Max had eaten 
most of the cake that the chef Louis had ruined in his pursuit of Sebastian 
the crab, and the overfed dog was now sprawled beside the mainmast sleeping 
it off. Louis, who had broken off most of his teeth, was sleeping the sleep 
of brandy given him to ease the pain.
	Ariel and Eric stood on the prow, arms around each other. The wind 
stirred her luxurious red hair and ruffled the lacy hem of her gown.
	"Oh, Eric, I'm so happy," she said in the breathy yet melodious 
voice that he had heard in his dreams since the day she had saved him from 
drowning.
	He lifted her hand to his lips, kissing it lingeringly. "Shall we go 
to our cabin?"
	She nodded, blushing and smiling shyly. He led her to the spacious 
cabin. It was lavishly furnished and piled with gifts. Once the door was 
closed and securely locked, Eric gathered his bride into his arms for a 
passionate kiss. She responded expertly, warm soft lips flavored with wine, 
tongue darting like a tiny fish amid the coral shoals of his teeth.
	Ariel could tell immediately that Eric had never been kissed by a 
mermaid before. His eyes flew wide, then closed in rapture. She let her 
hands drift like waving strands of kelp over the sides of his face, the
strong line of his jaw, running her fingers through his hair.
	When she released him, he blinked at her, then grinned. "You didn't 
kiss me like that before."
	She lowered her head and gazed up at him from beneath long silky 
lashes. "You weren't my husband before."
	"If I'd known it was like that, I would have married you the day I 
found you on that rock, wrapped in sailcloth."
	She giggled and kissed him again. This time, he slid his hands up 
the brocaded fabric of her bodice to her full bosom.
	"Do you still wear seashells under here?" he murmured against her 
mouth.
	"The dressmaker wouldn't let me." She squirmed against him, giving 
him more access. "Actually, this is really uncomfortable."
	Eric's grin widened. "Why don't you take it off?"
	"Undo me?" She lifted her hair over one shoulder and turned her back 
to him. He began unfastening the dress, his fingers clumsy on the tiny pearl 
buttons.
	"Damn! How many are there?"
	"Half a hundred," she said, frowning. "And half a thousand on the 
skirt. So many oysters died to make this dress, which I'll wear only once."
	"Don't think about it," he said, caressing the milk-smooth skin of 
her back. "Think about you and I and how happy we will be."
	"Mmmm," she sighed.
	He fumbled another few buttons open, then muttered an oath and 
seized the sides. He pulled. The dress came apart with a rapid patter of 
pearls hitting the wooden floor.
	"Eric!" she gasped, pretending shock.
	She shrugged out of the gown, loving the feel of the cool sea air on 
her skin. She was completely bare beneath the gown. The dressmaker had 
argued for complicated undergarments, but she disliked the confinement. Her 
breasts needed no uplift. Her legs were long and smooth, utterly free of 
scars and blemishes. Her waist was almost too narrow, her hips sweetly 
flared, her bottom firm and cute with one dimple on the left. She had spent 
many hours surreptitiously studying human women, and knew herself to be
quite appealingly shapely.
	Eric's reaction confirmed it. He admired her as she stood proudly, 
turning this way and that.
	"I was afraid you'd be shy," he said, laughing a bit at his own 
foolishness.
	He peeled off his shirt as she watched intently. When she'd rescued 
him, his shirt had torn, and she had thought there was something strange 
about his chest. Now, as it was revealed, she saw that she was right. There 
was a patch of short curly hair in the center, spreading out in a fan shape 
between his nipples.
	"You have hair here," she said, touching it. "How funny!" A 
narrowing line of it went down toward his waist. She traced it, feeling the 
muscles in his stomach jump and flutter under her fingertips.
	"You have hair somewhere else," he said, dropping his gaze boldly.
	"Well, yes, there for some reason." She shrugged. "It was like that 
when I became human. Do you have hair that low?"
	He nodded. "That and more."
	"Show me! All these clothes are so unnatural."
	Eric sat on the edge of the bed. Ariel sat beside him, watching as 
he tugged off his boots. The sight of his feet made her want to giggle. Feet 
seemed silly to her, even her own. No wonder humans wore shoes so often.
	With his boots off, Eric stood and removed his tight trousers. She 
saw that even his legs had hair on them. He straightened, and her jaw 
dropped. There was something odd between his legs, a pale column of flesh 
sticking out of a curly thatch of black hair, and a wrinkled pouch behind 
it.
	She covered her surprise before he saw it, not wanting him to think 
her ignorant. There had been enough of that already, when she had used a 
fork to comb her hair or thought Grimsby's pipe was a musical instrument. 
Surely whatever that thing was belonged there, and she wasn't about to act 
the guppy.
	Except for the hair, he was as handsome as any merman from the waist 
up. Her many sisters were jealous. They were all older and plainer, and 
while they had schools of suitors because they were princesses, none of them 
had found true love.
	"Well?" he asked, turning as she had done. "What do you think?"
	"The statue didn't do you justice." She held out her arms. "Come and 
hold me. I want to feel your skin next to mine."
	"No, not shy at all!" He threw himself on the bed and pulled her 
down with him. They rolled over furs and satin pillows, laughing, kissing.
	His skin felt odd next to hers, hairy as it was, but like the 
coarseness of his chin, she quickly got used to it. She missed the 
whisper-sheen of water all around her, but found that legs could twine like 
pairs of tails.
	The only problem was that column, which felt hard as bone as it 
pressed against her. She reached down to move it. It lurched in her hand, 
damp at the end. Eric moaned.
	"Oh, Ariel, I don't want to wait any longer!" He rolled on top of 
her, the weight of his legs and the pressure of his knees spreading her 
thighs apart.
	"Wait? Wait for what?" she said.
	He cupped his hand over the mound of red hair between her legs. "For 
this!"
	She twisted away. "Eric, what are you doing?"
	"I want you, Ariel! Now! We can be leisurely later, but I must have 
you now or else explode!"
	Ariel jumped. "Eric!" His questing fingers were causing strange 
sensations in that area, which she thought was for human eliminatory 
functions. Why did he want to touch her there?
	"Ariel! Yes!" He mistook her alarm for acceptance and flipped her 
legs up over his shoulders. That column of flesh, rigid and even seeming to 
throb, jutted out from his body.
	She tried to speak, but in this awkward position her breasts were 
squashed up to her face and she could barely breathe.
	"It will only hurt for a moment," he promised. He thrust down.
	Her soft tissues parted like wet sand as he forced the column in. 
Sudden vivid pain shot through her. She felt as if a foot of hard iron was 
rammed into her belly, a fishook to spear her most vital inner organs.
	Ariel screamed in a pitch so high only dolphins could hear her. She 
pushed against Eric, trying to throw him off, but he was too heavy. The 
column was only halfway embedded, and she was dying from the agony. She 
thought he loved her! How could he do this? Her father had been right! He 
was killing her!
	He grunted, tongue caught between his teeth, and shoved down again. 
Her hands beat at his head like a flock of startled seagulls. He gripped her 
buttocks, fingers digging in, and drove onward until their bodies were 
locked together. The width of his hips forced her legs wider. She could no 
longer see the column, just his black lower hair and her red, so close they 
might have made the pelt of one strange beast. Her feet kicked uselessly 
beside his ears.
	"It's all right," he whispered. "The pain is over, sweet Ariel. It 
was only your maidenhead." He withdrew most of the way, and she saw that his 
column was now streaked with her blood. He thrust it slowly all the way back 
in, heedless of her pathetic struggles.
	Ariel was sobbing, gasping, trying to scream. She pushed harder, 
writhed under him. He pulled it out and pushed it in again, again, faster 
and faster.
	"Eric, please!" she begged.
	"Soon now, darling. Soon. Oh, I knew you would be like this. Move 
your bottom, yes, up and down, as I do, oh, Ariel!"
	He was enjoying this! Enjoying her pain! Barbarian! Monster! She had 
been fooled, so horribly fooled!
	In and out, in and out, faster and harder, the whole bed bouncing 
and shaking with them. Eric's thighs slapped against Ariel's buttocks.
	He suddenly flung his head back and thrust at her so hard she was 
sure his invading rod would burst out of her belly in a gout of blood. 
"Ohhhhh, Ariel! Yes!"
	Two more battering thrusts, and his entire body went rigid and 
shuddered. She felt a gush of some hot fluid inside her and knew she was 
dying, he had ruptured something and she would die.
	He collapsed on her, heavy and covered with salty sweat. Incredibly, 
he was kissing her brow, her cheeks, her lips. "Ariel, darling, that was 
wonderful!"
	She pushed him away and rolled onto her side. "You shark! You 
vicious shark!"
	"What?" He rose on one elbow. "Ariel, what's the matter?"
	She sobbed, arms wrapped around her middle. She could feel  
stickiness oozing from between her legs but dared not look. "I thought you 
loved me!"
	"I do!"
	"Then why? Why this?"
	"What? But, it's our wedding night?"
	He sounded concerned, perplexed. Ariel was not dying as fast as 
she'd expected, though she felt bruised and swollen all over. "I don't 
understand," she wailed, covering her face with her hands.
	"It does hurt a little the first time --"
	"First time! You mean you plan to do that again?"
	"You didn't like it?"
	"Like it!?! I tried to stop you! I'm supposed to like that? Whatever 
for?"
	"You're my wife. Don't you want to have children?"
	She looked up at him, now even more confused. "Children?"
	"Yes. Children. How else would we get them?"
	Ariel pulled a blanket tight around herself. "How else? I'll lay my 
eggs in the spawning bed, and you swim along ... and ... oh."
	There was a moment of awkward silence, then they both spoke at once.
	"Humans don't lay eggs, do they?" she asked in a very small meek 
voice.
	"Merfolk don't have sex, do they?" he asked.
	They stared at each other in horrified realization.
	Up on deck, a drunken sailor lit off a whole box of fireworks and 
everyone cheered to the long and happy marriage of Eric and Ariel.