He hadn't meant to come here. Of all the places in the sea, her's was the last doorstep he wanted to find himself on.
Taking his pike in hand, Urchin's muscles flexed with tension, his gaze low and narrowed. If anyone knew he was so far off his assignment--
Well, he laughed a little bitterly, it didn't matter now. The Royal Guards wouldn't want him, returning with news of a far-off undersea human colony.
"I always knew Triton felt bad for the kid but eesh..."
"Did you hear about that orphan? Taken in and all he repays him with is--"
"Speaking madness! He has no place.."
He'd heard it all before.
Orphan, runaway, gang-member, trouble. The only thing he knew about himself or his past was a scrap of parchment and a memory of two glowing eyes-- The only remnant of his parents an isolated abandonment and years of searching and dead ends.
So, he'd had to make a name for himself, and what a name!
Urchin the orphan, Urchin the liar, Urchin the thief!
Lives alone in a hallow cave at the end of a sea floor, no good comes from him. Better lock up your goods, hide your daughters, your sons-- He's a corrupter.
And then-- she had taken a kindness to him, a smile and a laugh that rocked him from his fingertips to his fin. He'd never known that measure of kindness in anyone before her, and he'd treasured it. Even the Royal Family had.. Well, they sort-of adopted him. They'd given him shelter, education, food--
They'd loved him. And he'd loved them too.
If he was still honest, he still did, but he wasn't sure if he could be honest anymore. Not since he'd come back from the academy, and found that she'd --- She'd--
The words hurt too much to think of. Instead, he'd poured himself into his work and his duties, hoping someday to get assigned to a patrol near her, to speak to her, to see her--
No such luck. While relationships with Humans had improved in Atlantica, the Olympian method of discussion still regarded them as a threat, particularly after their long and studied history with their shipwrecks and mariners. He'd learned things in the Academy he wasn't sure he could ever forgive humans for--
And he'd learned much worse returning home.
So he'd been at sea for months now, waiting, plotting, scheming with no answers and nowhere to turn. Up until he'd met Milo he thought he was fine-- After all, hadn't he met some decent humans? Rapunzel, Milo, Kristoff… Even before the academy, he'd doubted just a little that they were--
And now he was home to share the news-- And as isolated as ever.
Having nowhere to turn Urchin had lain awake nights since, tossing, turning, dreaming of far off shores and debts and revenge. All he wanted to do was to see her, to bring her home, to break her of whatever spell she was surely under--
He'd seen the human world. He knew a little about it. Why did she choose that over...?
And then the dreams had come. Strange dreams with two glowing eyes and low chanting he couldn't understand. A flash of a familiar smile, not hers, but familiar all the same, a humming low and soft. A cot in a garden--
Two glowing eyes and arms entwining, promising him power and anything he could wish. Just to say one word--
When he woke up, he'd known where to go, and known who to ask.
Only one person had the answers he sought. His parents, his fate, her place-- How to get her, how to see her home again--
How he could build a home, find a place, be someone. But only if he had her help.
Swallowing hard, Urchin lowered the weapon and looked up into the mouth of the Sea Witch's lair, and breathed the word he remembered from his dreams, the one word he knew could help start to solve everything:
