As one of Morgana's tentacles reached out and grabbed her mother, Melody's eyes widened in fear. This was her mother! Yes, maybe Ariel had made a mistake, but she still loved her mother. This had gone too far! Melody could see that her mother was trapped tight and couldn't get herself out of the strong grip of tentacles no matter how much she struggled. Her mouth was covered, too, so that it was harder to breathe.
"… Stealing from her own grandfather."
Melody gasped. "My… my grandfather?" No, it couldn't be!
Melody swam over to her mother while Morgana spoke, desperate to help her.
"I'm so sorry," she whispered. She wasn't even sure if her mother had heard her.
"At least, until a little thief came along." Morgana was looking at Melody at again.
"You tricked me!" Melody accused, pointing her finger at Morgana.
"You've got no one to blame but yourself," Morgana snapped back.
Melody hung her head, unable to come up with a response. What Morgana had said was true. All of this was Melody's fault. She had no one to blame for her current predicament but herself.
Morgana's arm came to rest around her shoulders. "Tell me, Melody, is being a mermaid everything you dreamed? Was it worth it?"
Another tentacle came out and wrapped around Melody. Melody vaguely saw her mother strain to reach her (even though her arms were pinned) as she was thrown backwards into an icy cavern. A blue and yellow fish that had come into the cave with Ariel followed Melody into the cavern. Melody didn't know who he was, but she was sure he was a friend.
Melody watched the hole of the cavern fill up with ice, enclosing her in its grip. Her eyes filled with sadness, anger, and guilt. If it hadn't been for her stupid rebelliousness, she would be safe at home, snug in her bed. If it hadn't been for her silly revenge, Morgana wouldn't have her grandfather's trident. If it hadn't been for her, Ariel would safe. Her mother's life wouldn't be in danger.
She didn't hear Morgana's words to her right before she left. Her eyes, and thoughts, were on her mother, caught in the tight grip of Morgana's tentacle. What if Morgana hurt her? What if Ariel was finding it hard to breathe? What must her mother think of her now? What if, because of Melody, Morgana killed her mother? What if Melody never got the chance to say goodbye to her mother?
No! She would not think of that. Her mother would live! Melody would save her mother and give the trident back to her grandfather, if it was the last thing she did! Her mother had only tried to protect her, and now she knew why! Morgana had wanted to kill Melody so that she could have the trident and control the seas! Of course her mother had wanted to protect her. And Morgana had been unable to find her when she was on land. That was why Melody had been made to stay inside all the time. Why, oh why hadn't she listened to her mother?
Melody swam as fast as she could at the wall of ice separating her from her mother. She rammed into it, hoping that she could break through, but nothing worked. The ice didn't even crack. She saw the blue and yellow fish ram himself against the wall, too. It didn't crack then, either. Melody continued to try and break the wall down, but nothing worked.
Finally, she slumped down to the bottom of the cavern, defeated. "It's no use," she said dejectedly. "It's too thick. I've ruined everything."
Then, even though she tried to hold it back, a single tear fell down her face.
The fish kept trying to break through the ice. She had to admit that he was stubborn. And valiant. She wished she were more like him. Maybe then this wouldn't have happened.
Suddenly, she started to float in the air.
"What – what's happening?" she cried. A green mist swirled around her tail. She felt her tail start to split apart into legs and feet. She was turning back into a human. "Oh, no! Oh!" She couldn't breathe underwater anymore. She tried to hold her breathe for as long as possible. She knew that she could hold it for a long time, she held a record, but she couldn't keep it held forever.
"Hold on, Melody!" the fish yelled. How did he know her name? "I'm gonna bust us out of here if it's the last thing I do!" But he had worn himself out and now he floated to the bottom. She couldn't hold her breath anymore. She started to float in and out of consciousness.
All of the sudden, she saw a large, dark shape heading towards her.
BANG! It slammed into the ice wall, shattering it into a thousand pieces, and then rammed itself into the back of the cavern, killing it. She couldn't tell what the thing was.
Two things came up on either side of her and quickly helped direct her out of the cavern and up towards air. She tried to help them and swim, but she couldn't. She didn't have any energy left.
She felt the air rush into her lungs as she was projected out of the water and onto the ice. She gasped in great lungfuls of air.
The first thing she heard was Morgana's voice, shouting out to everyone who could hear.
"Pathetic fools! Watch and see how utterly powerful I can be!" She was up on top of her ice fortress, the trident blazing green in her hand.
And Ariel wasn't with her. No longer did Morgana hold her mother captive. But where was she?
Suddenly, Melody saw her mother just yards away from her on the ice. "Mom!" Then she saw Eric lying unconscious in her arms. No! What had happened to her father?! Now he was hurt by her actions as well! Who else would she hurt by the time this was over?
Then, a jet of green light hit her mother. Ariel was forced to bow down to Morgana.
"The end begins with all of you with fins!" the evil sea witch cried gleefully.
Melody glanced down at her feet. For most of her life, she had scorned her feet, hated the fact that they weren't fins. Now, she saw that her human's legs and feet would be her freedom. Because of these feet, she could save her mother and father.
Melody began running towards the fortress of ice. Curved pillars of shining ice now covered the entrance to the original cave, making it impossible to get in. But Melody didn't want to get in. she wanted to go up, up to the top. She wasn't too graceful on her feet, but she had to try. She started jumping onto the pillars as they grew, one by one, and they lifted her towards the person she had once trusted.
Morgana was still making everyone bow to her. Melody ignored her for the most part until she heard Morgana yell, "That's it, Triton! Bow down!"
She glanced down to see her grandfather, the man she had once looked upon with disgust, battling against the power of his own trident. "Bow down before me!" Morgana yelled again.
Finally, Melody saw her grandfather give in the power and bow down.
"See that, Ma!" Morgana yelled to the heavens. "Who's your favorite now?"
Melody tried to move faster up the slippery wall. She could tell that Morgana was getting ready to do something drastic.
"It's over, Triton!" Melody put her hands over the edge of the top and began hauling herself up. "I sentence you to oblivion!"
WHAM! Melody ran into the imposing woman and yanked the trident from her grip. The eerie green glow faded from the powerful tool.
"You!" Morgana hissed. "Just what do you think you're going to do with that?"
Melody, in a state of panic, pointed the trident at Morgana. Blunt end first. Damn.
"Hah!" Morgana laughed. "The wrong end? Sweetheart…"
Melody scrambled away from her, towards the edge of the platform. "Grandfather!" she yelled. "I think this belongs to you!" With that, she tossed the trident out to where she had last seen her grandfather bow down to a tyrant.
"No!" Morgana cried. She moved to grab the trident and knocked Melody off of the platform.
"Ahhhh!" Melody yelled. This hadn't been part of her plan, not that she had actually thought about getting down yet. But still, she hadn't meant to fall off!
"Oomph!" She had landed on Dash's stomach, safe and sound.
"Never again will you or yours threaten my family!" Melody turned to look at her grandfather. She had heard this voice before, right before she had stolen the trident. This was the voice of King Triton, in all his majesty. "There will be no escape for you," Melody saw a blast of golden light shoot out from the trident towards Morgana and envelop her in a case of ice, "ever!"
With that, the ice fortress started to collapse. The curved pillars crumbled into the sea and Morgana fell down, down to the depths of the ocean, to where she would never harm anyone again.
Melody slid off of Dash's stomach and to the ground. She fell onto her knees… hard. When she tried to stand up, her mind blacked out. She couldn't remember hitting the ground.
When she came to again, she could feel herself being jostled around. A warm presence was holding her, carrying her, somewhere. Her eyes cracked open and she caught a whiff of a scent she knew very well.
"Daddy?" Her gaze went up and caught the eyes of her father.
"Oh, Melody," he said softly. "I was so afraid we'd lost you." His arms tightened around her and she snuggled in closer to his chest. She vaguely wondered where he was taking her. But at that moment, she didn't really care. She was safe. Her father was alive. Last she had seen, so were her mother and her grandfather. And Morgana was gone.
When she felt herself being lowered to the ground, she looked around and saw her mother, still a mermaid, arms reaching out towards her daughter. Melody gently fell out of her father's arms into her mother's warm and welcoming embrace.
"I'm so sorry, Mother," Melody said. She could feel tears coming on again, but this time, she held them in.
"Oh, no, sweetie," her mother said soothingly. "We should've told you the truth."
"I didn't mean to hurt anyone," Melody said, still holding back tears. Especially not you and Dad, she thought. "I just hoped I'd be a better mermaid than a girl." There, she had said it. Her fear, deep down, that her parents wished she had been more graceful and poised and beautiful. Her fear that her parents didn't like her for who she was.
Her mother let go of Melody so that she could look her daughter in the eyes. "Oh, Melody, sweetie," she said with a bit of a laugh in her voice, "it doesn't matter if you have fins or feet. We love you for who you are on the inside: our very brave little girl." Her father came over and put an arm around Ariel and nodded, to emphasize her point.
"Just like her mother," came a new voice. One that Ariel recognized.
She looked up to see her grandfather swimming towards the little family. She felt a small surge of guilt at the sight of him. She had stolen from him and thought him a thief, after all. "Oh, Grandfather!" she said, meaning to apologize, but Triton interrupted her.
"Now, Melody, I don't blame you for wanting to join us merfolk and because you're my granddaughter, I'm giving you a most precious gift: a choice. You can come to Atlantica with me, or you can return to your home on land. It's your choice."
He was smiling, but Melody could see the sadness in his eyes. His daughter had chosen to stay on land. He knew that Melody loved the sea, but would she give up everything she knew to finally get her dream?
And what was her dream? To live in the sea?
Melody looked back at her parents, who each bore an expression similar to Triton's. They wanted their daughter to be happy, but they didn't want to lose her either. And they knew that they couldn't make this choice for her.
She didn't want to leave her parents. She knew that now. While she had always loved her parents, their relationship had always been somewhat shaky because of the long-kept secret of the sea and the merfolk and her mother's past. She wanted to fix that, now. But she also wanted to get to know her grandfather and all the merpeople under the ocean. Why couldn't she live in both worlds?
Wait. That was it! Why couldn't they all live together?
A large smile spread across Melody's face as she turned to face her grandfather, her answer ready.
"I have a better idea," she said firmly.