Ariel

Ariel was very weak when he was born, so his parents prayed to Goddess Lyre to heal him so that he would live to adulthood. To answer their prayers, Lyre blessed their child with good health and, as a thank you to his kind and loving parents, the ability to bring joy to everyone around him. Ariel grew up making everyone smile with his enchanted voice, and had many friends and admirers.

However, there was a problem. He was different from the others, who could walk on land as easily as they could swim in water. No matter how many times he tried, Ariel couldn't transform like his friends could. At least he was healthy; it wouldn't be fair to have both his enchanted voice and the ability to walk on land; perhaps it simply wasn't meant to be--he told himself all of these things over and over, but it didn't change the fact that watching his friends leave him behind to explore land brought pain to his chest. He wanted to go together with them. The power of his voice didn't matter if there was no one there to listen.

One night, feeling tired of being left behind day after day, Ariel swam to the witch's cavern and pleaded with them to allow him to walk on land with his friends. The witch pondered Ariel's request, and finally came up with an idea: they would give Ariel what he wished for, but on one condition... They wanted his magic. Desperate to follow his friends, Ariel agreed, and exchanged his enchanted voice for the ability to live on both land and water.

For a short while, things were great for Ariel with his newfound abilities. He may have lost his ability to speak and create joy, but he was able to travel with his friends and experience grand and new things. However, his friends slowly began to lose interest in spending time with him, growing bored of an Ariel without his voice. So despite finding a way to stay with everyone, in the end, Ariel was left with nothing.

Some days later he returned to the witch, offering anything in exchange for his voice back. The witch was reluctant, however, after seeing how miserable he was, they decided to give him one chance. The lonely witch wanted to experience something they'd never experienced before--the feeling of falling in love. The witch told Ariel that if he fell deeply in love and returned to them, they would take his feelings and return his voice. Leaving his friends and family behind, Ariel left on a journey to find the one thing that would give him back his happiness.