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Ariel's eyes grew as large as oysters after hearing Eric call out. "Flounder! I think he heard us!" she exclaimed in a hushed voice.
"Well, wasn't that the point?!" Flounder said.
"What do I do?!" she whispered.
"I'd just go back home and avoid him. He's a human, Ariel. Humans catch fish and eat them," Flounder warned her.
"....Maybe I should talk to him," Ariel said, gathering her courage.
"Aaaaa-riel, you're crazy!" Flounder wailed as she started to peek her head over the top of the rock they were hiding behind.
***********
Eric saw a head slowly peering up from behind the rock. A lovely female head with a lot of red hair and stunning aquamarine eyes.
"Oh!" He exclaimed, laughing to himself. "For a minute, I thought you might have been a sea otter or something. Are-are you okay?"
He talked to her!! Ariel's little heart beat inside her chest and she felt giddy with excitement. Her voice caught in her throat; she didn't know what to say to him.
"Miss?" Eric tried again. "Are you okay?"
Ariel took a big breath before she responded. "I'm fine!" She smiled. "Why wouldn't I be?"
"Well..." Eric cleared his throat. "...it's just...it's kind of unusual for young women to be playing around in the water. At this time. Because, you know, it's getting kind of dark out."
"Oh," Ariel laughed lightly, moving her arms up on the rock but keeping her bottom half in the water. "It's nothing for me, really."
"Do you know how to swim?" Eric asked, moving in a little closer.
"Of course I do," Ariel said. "Do you?"
"Yes," Eric said. "Um...not a lot of women know how to swim."
"Well, it's kind of an important thing to learn, don't you think?" Ariel asked, batting her eyes. "Especially if you live near the sea."
"Yes, I suppose you're right," Eric said. "You know....you look very familiar to me...did I see you earlier today?"
"Yes," Ariel said in a very sing-song-y voice.
"Funny, I don't recall seeing you in the kingdom," Eric said.
"Oh, I don't live in that kingdom," Ariel said.
"Really?" Eric said, raising his eyebrows. "Well, where are you from?"
Ariel was not about to tell Eric that she was from the sea, because she didn't know how he'd react to that. "Um, far away," she said.
"Are you visiting?" Eric asked.
"You could say that," Ariel answered, smiling.
He laughed slightly. "You're visiting from far away, and you like to play around in the water."
"What's wrong with that?" she cutely replied.
"So why exactly are you sitting in the water?"
She didn't have much of an answer to that. "Uhm...because it's cold?"
Eric laughed. "You're sitting in the water because it's cold?!"
Ariel felt a little embarrassed. "Well, it's quite comfortable. It's a little cold up here, to be honest."
"I'm sorry," Eric apologized. "I didn't mean it that way, I just...um, er...you know, I didn't ask for your name."
She smiled. "Ariel."
"Ariel," he repeated to himself. "That's pretty."
"Thank you, Eric," she answered.
"...How do you know my name?"
"Because I met you earlier today, remember?"
"...Oh, yes, that's right," Eric said, feeling a little embarrassed himself. He decided to try again. "You know, if you're visiting, I should give you a proper tour of the kingdom someday," he said, starting to move in a little closer to Ariel, entering the shallow water near the rock.
"N-no, that's okay," she said, squiriming behind the rock so he couldn't see her bottom half.
"No, I insist," he said, wondering why she was so reluctant to get out of the water. Maybe if she was just swimming around, she wasn't wearing any clothes.
Shocking!
....Eric let his curiosity get the better of him. He had to see this for himself.
He thought he saw something glimmering and green in the water near Ariel, like a fish's tail. As he moved in a little closer, he realized that fish's tail was.....
....Well........Ariel's.
He looked down at her shimmering green tail and couldn't tear his eyes away. Ariel was scared. She had just broken her father's biggest rule, aside from going up to the surface: Don't let a human see you.
In a tiny voice, she squeaked out, "Please don't hurt me."
"Oh, no," Eric stammered. "Why--why would I hurt you? I mean....you're obviously a....a...." He couldn't even say the word. He had honestly thought that merpeople didn't exist, that it was just a myth that that his sailing crew just like to tell. "It...it's no big deal, really," he said.
"It is a big deal," Ariel said, tears starting to roll down her cheeks. "I shouldn't even be up here, my father would be so angry with me, and....and I just wanted to see you and make sure you were all right..."
Eric's jaw dropped as soon as he heard her say that. "Are.....was that you that rescued me? From last night?"
She nodded.
"Wow, just...." He was speechless, and looked down at her. A mermaid had indeed saved him. Nobody would believe him. "Well, Ariel, this stinks," he finally said.
"What stinks?" she said, drying her tears.
"Well....here." He knelt down and lifted her up from where she was in the water and sat her down on the rock. Then he sat next to her. "This stinks because you're a....well, a...."
"Mermaid," she said what he couldn't bring himself to say.
"Right," Eric said. "A mermaid. You're a mermaid and I'm not."
She giggled. "Not a mermaid."
"No. A man."
"Right."
"This is awkward."
"You're telling me."
"Well, anyway....Ariel...thank you for rescuing me."
"You're welcome."
He sighed. "Oh, this is terrible. I don't want to let something like your tail come in between us."
"Neither do I."
"Because I like you. A lot."
She brightened up. "You do?!" He liked her. That's all she needed to know.
"Yes, but.....how are we going to work this out?"
"....I don't know."
Eric sighed and held Ariel's hand. "We'll find a way."
It had already grown dark over the rest of the kingdom. The sun was setting in the west, shades of yellow and red and orange-y pink seeping into the blue night sky like shades of multicolored sand. Prince Eric strode along the edge of the beach where Grimsby had found him, still a bit out of sorts after what had happened the previous night.
He had nearly drowned on his own birthday. And someone had rescued him. A girl. With a beautiful voice that still lingered in his head.
Grimsby had tried rationally dismissing it: "What sort of young woman knows how to swim? There were no women on the ship. I think you hit your head or something when the ship blew up, or you were hallucinating or something, Eric."
No. Just no. He didn't buy that. There was a lovely girl, about his age, maybe a little younger. Singing.
He had spent all day combing the kingdom, looking for her. He even went to the local convent and played the same melody for the nuns there to see if they knew anything of it or if they had any young girls preparing for their service. Alas, all the woman at the convent were old, and none were familiar with that song.
He had heard the story of how a prince in one of the more northern kingdoms had found his true love after she had lost a glass slipper at a ball, and she turned out to be a scullery maid. Is that what it would take for Eric to find the one who saved him? A ball where he had all the eligible maidens sing for him?
Splish-splish-splash. The water gently lapped at the beach's edge right outside the castle. Eric at first paid no attention to it.
**************
From behind a giant rock near the beach, an argument was ensuing. ".....Ariel, he's just standing there," Flounder said, stopping his fins. "I don't think he can hear me."
"Then splash more! Splash harder!" Ariel pleaded.
"Oh, Ariel, this is ridiculous," Flounder whined. "We shouldn't even be up here. You're going to get in so much trouble with your dad for this. Maybe we should just go back to your grotto or something." Besides, Flounder had gone through all that trouble to salvage that statue of the dumb prince for Ariel's collection.
"Sssh, don't be such a guppy," Ariel shushed him.
"You're the one who likes him," Flounder said. "Why don't you splash your tail and try to get his attention?"
"Because if he sees I'm a mermaid, he'll probably freak out or something," Ariel said, pouting.
"Or capture you," Flounder countered.
"You sound like Daddy or Sebastian," Ariel fumed.
"So what do you plan on doing? Stay in the water the whole time?"
"....Maybe."
"This is dumb," Flounder sighed, splashing back underneath the water.
"Flounder," Ariel pleaded, "don't just leave me here! I can't do this without you!"
**************
There was more splashing than what he thought there normally would be. Eric slowly moved to the seashore. At first he thought nothing of it, but the more he heard, maybe it was an injured sea otter, or maybe Max had gotten loose and was playing around.
"Max?" he called. He half expected his giant sheepdog to come bounding out of the sea, wet and covered in seaweed. Nothing.
He was quiet for a moment.
**************
"Ohmigosh, that's him, isn't it?!" Ariel squealed under her breath, cowering behind the rock.
"Well, I don't think the furry human can talk," Flounder said, agitated.
"Does he have the furry one with him?" Ariel asked.
"No, it's just him."
Ariel could hardly contain her excitement and squealed.
*************
Eric thought he heard something squeal behind the rock. "Hello? Is someone there?" he called out.