Into the World of Twisted Wonderland

🐙The Merchant from the Depths🐙 Chapter 14

While Angel was sleeping, ripples started to form in her mind, a scene appearing in her dreams.

Angel opened her eyes, expecting a scene to form in her dream, but instead was met with nothing. (It's so dark...) Angel looks around, hoping to find a hope of light, but then suddenly, a dim light shines, and Angel looked at it, seeing that a fish figure was in the light. Upon closer inspection, it seems that it was Ariel in the light, looking within the dark place, which turned out to be a cave as there was brief floral around the mouth, and darkness within. "Come in. Come in, my child," a voice says, enticing as it is inviting, and Ariel hesitates for a moment before swimming in the darkness. As she slowly swims in the cave, she looks around the tunnel, the thin plants reaching out towards her, almost as if hands were trying to grab her as she swims deeper and deeper in the tunnel. As she goes deeper, she sees that there were hundreds of creatures looking at her, groaning at her as she gets closer and closer to the center of the tunnel, almost as if they were saying turn back and stay away, but Ariel's curiosity got the better of her and she only ventured further in the cave. Soon enough, she reached a clearing, looking around for the voice until her eyes land on a figure with tentacles and a plump upper half. The figure was wearing a black dress and her purple skin almost seemed to match with the darkness of the cave, the only thing out of place was her short white hair fluttering swimmingly in the water. The woman only looks at Ariel with a smile as Ariel only swims towards her, curiosity in her eyes as she looks around the clearing, admiring the trinkets and other items in the cave. "You're here because you have a thing for this human," Ursula says and Ariel only nods at her, acknowledging her question. Ursula only chuckles and hand out a piece of paper to Ariel. "Now, here's the deal," Ursula says as Ariel looks over the contract. "I will make you a potion that will turn you into a human for three days. Got that? Three days," she says holding her fingers up. "Before the sun sets on the third day, you've got to get dear ol' princey to fall in love with you," she says and two eels appear, excited for the next words to come out of her mouth. Ariel only nods in understanding as she is about to sign the contract, but Ursula stops her. "Oh," Ursula says, "and there is one more thing. We haven't discussed the subject of payment," Ursula smirks at Ariel, while Ariel only glances at her. Ursula points to the contract, specifically the top section where it says in bring letters, I hereby grant unto Ursula, the Witch of the Sea, one voice...of all eternity. "What I want from you is...your voice." Ariel only looks at the contract and then a fish shaped writing tool appears in Ursula's hand as she hands it to Ariel. "Now go ahead and sign the scroll!" She says with a smile and the eels only smile as well with anticipation. "I'll help this poor, unfortunate soul!"

Ariel looks at the scroll for a moment before picking up the writing tool and hesitantly glances at the scroll, and carefully sign her name on the scroll, each stroke slowly covering the line where her signature supposed to go. As she finishes, a bright like shines from the scroll, blinding both Ariel and Angel as the dream fades to black, leaving Angel into the void.

Angel's eyes slowly flutter open, slowly waking up as she tries to remember the dream she had. "Another mermaid dream...?" She mumbles as she looks around, seeing an unfamiliar setting around her. Panic starts to set as she looks at the environment around her, knowing that this wasn't her room, if anything, this was far from it. She takes a moment and think about how she ended up there. She went to the Mostro Lounge with Jack, talked with Azul, signed a contract... Ah...That's right. The dorm was taken. She starts to calm down, the memories of last night coming back to her as she sits up from the couch she slept on. Angel thought about the events from last night. Who even thought that she would sign a contract in order to free 225 students from Azul's contract? Even if it was Crowley's orders to stop Azul's schemes, it was all a little too much for her. So much responsibility, so little time, but a lot of stress all put unto her. Angel holds a hand to her head, a strange feeling coming to her as she continues to think about the situation. Ever since she came to Twisted Wonderland, it was almost problem after problem and Angel was roped into each one of them, yet for some reason, she always asks herself why not say no? Why not let things run its course? Why must she have to do everything around here? Why does she have to be here solving other people's problems? Why...does she have to be like this? Why does she have to be so useless? Why must she be the only one with no magic to help her friends? Why was she brought here? Why not...just leave it all behind and just disappear? The strange feeling only grows with each question, making her feel a little dull and numb. Her thoughts were interrupted by snoring, her eyes moving to see Grim sleeping on the pillow on the floor beside her.

"Zzz...Mrah..." Grim moans as he sleeps. Angel was a little grateful at the fact that his snoring broke her out of her thoughts, the strange feeling starting to disappear as she put her attention away from the thoughts plaguing her mind. It's not important at the moment. I need to figure out how to get them out of the contract.

Suddenly, the door swings open, with Angel flinching at the sound, not really expecting someone to be coming in the room, but then again, she remembers that this isn't her room, it's Leona's room. "Heya, g'morning!" Ruggie shouts cheerfully to the two, or well, at least Angel who was awake, while Grim only jump at the loud sound, making him wake up. Ruggie only looks at the two and head towards the bed, where Leona comfortably rests in between blankets and pillows. "Leona, it's time to get up," Ruggie says, trying to wake Leona up. He looks at Angel and Grim. "Up and at 'em, Angel and Grim. Let's get those mangy faces washed," he states, and Angel only get up and stretches, while Grim only blinks, trying to wake up but at the same time, trying to go back to sleep.

"Mrah? Morning already?" Grim groans as he looks at Angel's phone for the time. His eyes widened at the time. "W-wait, it's barely six!"

"We do morning Spelldrive training here at Savanaclaw," Ruggie explains. "Since you're part of the dorm for the next few days, you'll be joining us, Grim."

"Muh? Morning training?" Grim asks.

"Yup. We've been at it ever since the last Spelldrive tournament."

"Mrrrgh, lay off...zzz..." Leona mumbles in his sleep as he only turns around in the bed, trying to get a more comfortable position.

"Leona! Don't roll over and go back to sleep!" Ruggie exclaims as he tries to drag Leona out of bed, trying to wake him up.

Angel and Grim could only stare on in shock. I would think Leona would be a light sleeper with being sensitive to sounds, but this is crazy! "Whoa. Ruggie's draggin' his own boss outta bed feet-first," Grim says in awe as he watches Leona basically fall out of the bed with Ruggie's grip.

"Mrrrf...Zzz..." Leona snores as lands on the floor, not letting the fall interrupt his sleep.

"W-wow...He's a heavy sleeper..." Angel says in astonishment as she just watches the scene.

Time until Azul's contract expires: Three days

The duo arrives on the Spelldrive field, seeing that almost all of the Savanaclaw students were fired up for morning practice. The two scan the field and Jack, in his P.E. uniform, notices the two. He approaches the duo. "Oh, hey. You're joining us for morning practice?" He asks the two.

"I'm not, but Grim is," Angel says as Grim only nods his head, dozing off as much as he can. "I'm on cleaning duty."

"I coulda used several more winks, but Ruggie wasn't havin' it," Grim groans, yawning.

Soon enough, Ruggie and Leona stands out in front of the crowd of students wearing their P.E. uniforms. Ruggie is wearing his P.E. uniform normally compared to Leona, who only ties the top half of his jumpsuit around his waist, letting his gold shirt show. Instead of wearing his hair down, he has it in a ponytail, in which Angel could understand since long hair is a hassle when you're trying to do anything physical. "Since we've got freshman crashing with us, let's make today a light game. Go easy on 'em," Ruggie says to the crowd of students.

Leona yawns. "All this standin' around is gonna make me fall asleep again. Let's get on with it," Leona says sleepily, in which everyone only cheers.

"Well, have fun guys. I'll see you guys afterwards," Angel says as she waves to Jack and Grim as she heads to Leona's room, dreading the amount of work she has to do cleaning.

"Hmph. It ain't fair that I gotta practice while Angel gets to clean," Grim mumbles.

"She has no magic, so it's understandable," Jack says as the two head to the field.

Once the two got on the field, Grim input his magic into the disk and the disk started to hover above him, and him and Jack head towards the center of the field, where Leona, Ruggie, and other students stood. Leona only yawns at the two, making Grim annoyed at his laidback attitude.

"Hey! He thinks he can still take us on while he's half asleep!" Grim exclaims.

The comment didn't go unnoticed by Leona who only smirks at him. "Hah. Forget half asleep. I could take you fully in dreamland."

"Okay, let's get this party started!" Ruggie exclaims as practice starts.