Disclaimer: The Little Mermaid, Ariel, and Triton are all owned by Disney. I assure you I am not making money off of this. Feel free to leave constructive criticisim, as this is a work that I would like to improve on.
Recollection
She barely remembered her mother. But just because she couldn't remember didn't mean she didn't think about her.
She probably thought about her even more often than her sisters did. True, her sisters had had more time to spend with her, and no one missed her more than her father did, but it was Ariel who had had the least amount of time with her, which probably made that time more precious.
She remembered when she had first told her about how she was interested in the human world. She had been five years old and her mother had come in in the morning to wake her up, she had slept late that morning. Her mother had come in and gently patted her face and told her to wake up, sleepyhead, her sisters and father were waiting for her to come play with them. Ariel had smiled and giggled and told her that she had been having a wonderful dream. Her mother had smiled and held out her arms so that her daughter could sit on her lap and asked Ariel to tell her her dream. She told her mother about what she'd dreamed, about the world above, and what it must be like to have legs and walk and dance around as they pleased and staying out all day lying under the sun during the day and the stars at night.
Ariel had thought that her mother would be angry and tell her that the human world was very dangerous, and that she must never dream of going up there, like her father would have. Or maybe that she would laugh and call her silly, like her sisters did when she told them she wanted to go up there. But she did neither of these. Instead, she had looked thoughtfully at her youngest daughter and smiled, revealing that she, too, was curious about the human world. She even bent down and whispered that she secretly dreamed of going there too, even if only for a day. Ariel had beamed and bounced happily in her mother's arms, asking if they could go up there one day. Her mother had said no, her father would never allow it, but maybe when she was older she could convince him. Ariel had sighed and agreed, reluctantly, but was inwardly ver excited and happy, and wished she could get older right away so she and her mother could spend one day together, exploring the world above.
Sadly, that day would never come. Several months later – she couldn't remember the exact date – her mother had gone to the surface to see if she could get a closer view of the ship she had seen earlier. She had seen that the people were fishermen and had tried to swim away as quickly as possible, but a sailor had mistaken her tail for a large fish and had aimed his spear right at it…
She wondered why she was still so curious about the human world and made so many trips to the surface, remembering the way her mother had died. She knew the risk. She knew, deep down, that it was a bad idea, which was why she avoided getting too close to actual humans, as much as she wanted to. She was afraid that she would meet the same fate her mother had.
But at the same time, she felt like exploring and seeing the world above was something she needed to do. That was why she shirked her responsibilities so often to go explore with Flounder and risked getting in trouble by going to see Scuttle to ask him what he knew about the human world. She felt like she had to find out, because her mother had wanted to know so much about that world, too.
Ariel wondered sometimes if her mother would be ashamed of the things that she did with her free time, but knew in her heart that she would agree with her and what she did, because she had longed to do it as well, and to do it with her.
She knew her mother would want her to do it. Because it was part of who she was.