"No, your highness, your son Triton is in the dungeon punishing the polluter men," one of the guards said.
"Thank you Erik," Angela said with a nod of her head. She swam into the palace with Patrick following her. The two guards looked at Patrick with hungry eyes as he passed.
As they swam in the palace Patrick asked, "Why are there no mermaids except you?"
"A curse has been placed upon us," Angela said shaking her head sadly. "All the mermaids with the exception of myself were turned into mermen. What's worse is that the mermen eat our young."
"Why did you bring me here then?" Patrick asked suddenly very afraid.
"I won't let anything like that happen to you," Angela said her voice sounding very reassuring. "I brought you here to help break the curse."
"That is if it can be broken," a merman said coming up a set of stairs.
"Allow me to introduce you to my son Triton," Angela said. "Triton, this is Patrick and I've chosen him to be your brother."
"I hope he survives Mother," Triton said nodding. "The others you've brought have been eaten."
"You mean..." Angela started to say with a look of horror on her face.
"I'm still here Mom," a mermaid, who appeared to be eleven, said coming up the same stairs that Triton had.
"I thought you said that all the mermaids had been turned into mermen," Patrick said staring at Angela.
"They were," Angela said sighing. "Ariel is different from other mermaids. She was once like you except older and male."
"Did you want to be a mermaid?" Patrick asked wondering why anyone would want to be a girl.
"Oh yes I did," Ariel said smiling. "There are those that feel that they're in the wrong body. You've felt like that before or else you wouldn't be here now." She smiled at Patrick's blush then continued with, "I just happened to feel like I was suppose to be a mermaid and Mom helped me to become one."
"I don't understand why you're a mermaid," Patrick said.
"It has to do with the curse," Angela said. "According to the curse if a merchild reaches adulthood the curse will be broken. Of course with the mermen eating the merchildren it's extremely difficult to have one get to adulthood."
"So why isn't she a merman?" Patrick asked starting to get a little frustrated.
"I'm getting to that part Patrick," Angela said with a slight frown. "The witch had to include a way for the curse to be broken but she didn't have to make it easy. With the mermen eating the merchildren and the mermaids being transformed we needed another way. So I go and look for people that want to be merchildren. It doesn't matter how old the person is before they're transformed but they have to be twelve or younger when they are."
"Is Triton going to eat us?" Patrick asked looking a little afraid.
"I'm afraid that I might," Triton said looking down.
"They can control it to a certain degree," Ariel said putting a hand on Patrick's shoulder. "It's when they sleep that we have the most to worry about since that's when they lose the little bit of control they have. Don't worry though. We'll be in a secure room during the night which is fast approaching. We should be headed there now." She holds out a hand for Patrick to take but should he?