Ariel and Melody: return to the sea

Chapter 4: Melody's 6th birthday

"Mom! Wake up!" Melody said excitedly.

"Mmm? Melody? What's wrong?" Ariel asked sleepily.

"You promised me that on my birthday that you would show me your secret hiding place" Melody said.

Ariel laughed before replying "Okay, we'll go after breakfast"

"Yay!" Melody said happily.

King Triton swam in at that moment. "Good morning Ariel, Melody, breakfast is almost done" he said.

"We'll be down as soon as I brush Melody's hair" Ariel said.

"Alright" he said before swimming out of the room.

"Mom? Where's my father?" Melody asked suddenly.

"I don't know sweetheart" Ariel lied.

When they got done with her hair, she excused herself.

In the dining hall

"Where's Melody?" Attina asked.

"Bathroom. Daddy?" Ariel asked looking at her father.

"Yes, Ariel?" He asked.

"If Melody asks, don't tell her anything about Eric or the land" she said, "I don't want her to know any of it"

"We won't tell her a thing" Triton said.

Melody arrived in the dining hall.

After breakfast Ariel took Melody to her secret cove and let her explore what she used to collect.

"What is all this stuff?" Melody asked looking through a teloscope.

"Its what I found in old sunken ships" Ariel said sighing in relief as she remembered that the Eric statue got destroyed.

"Wow, can we go see a sunken ship?" Melody's voice brought her back from her thoughts.

"Melody, we can't go visit sunken ships they're protected by sharks" Ariel said.

Just then a shadowy figure passed over head and Ariel knew what it was, but Melody being curious wanted to find out more about it; so she started to swim towards it.

"Melody! Get back here!" Ariel shouted before swimming after her.

"Mom, what's wrong? I just want to see what that shadow was" Melody said.

"Melody, promise me that you won't swim up to the surface. Its too dangerous" Ariel said.

"How is it dangerous? When it has all the neat stuff from your cove" Melody asked.

"Humans are dangerous. They killed your grandma when I was very young" she said finally realizing that she was foolish enough to fall for a human.

"I promise mom" Melody said.

"Ready to head home?"

Melody nodded and held her mother's hand as they swam out of the grotto.

"Ariel? is that you?" a familiar looking merman asked as he stopped to look at Ariel. "Its me Urchin"

Ariel couldn't believe her eyes, her childhood friend looked nothing like the dorky merboy she used to play with. He looked more well built and was very attractive looking, even though he still had that sandy brown hair that fell into his beautiful blue eyes.

"Its me" she said.

"And who might this little princess be?" he asked smiling at Melody.

Melody looked at her mom who nodded that it was okay to talk to him before saying, "I'm Melody"

"Hi Melody, I'm Urchin one of your mommy's friends"

Ariel couldn't help but smile at the sight of them talking.

"Melody turns six today, do you want to come to her party?"

"Please Urchin? I want to show you my toys" the six year old pleaded looking up at him.

"I would love to" he said smiling down at the young mermaid.

As they swam back to Atlantica, Ariel and Urchin started talking about their lives.

"Surprised to see you back" he told her.

"It was a mistake leaving, which I fully regret. So what about you and Gabriella?"

"What about us?"

"Are you two dating?"

"No, she told me she likes me, but I told her that I only like her as a friend"

"So your single?"

"Yeah"

Ariel got excited knowing that she didn't have to compete with some one for his attention.

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Porcupines float in water