If Ariel had known just how wonderful human food was then she surely would have come to the surface sooner. Though, looking back, not with the sea witch's help. Ideas, she had come to learn, usually did not look as bright in retrospect once the gleams of nostalgia and wonder were wiped away. Still, the human world, with its hard land and rich cultures, was better than even her younger self had ever imagined.
Ariel lowered her knife and cut a piece of light pink meat with her fork. Her eyes wondered up to where her small daughter sat, sucking on a bottle with hands clutched tightly around its glass frame. Erik held it partially, his other hand ruffling the dark hair that so closely matched his own.
Part of her almost wanted to raise the fork - the dingelhopper - to her hair and run it through her thick red locks. Melody always got a laugh at that, and she had even tried imitating it once with a small fork of her own. Though she had her father's looks, not even her husband doubted that she had Ariel's spirit.
Right then, the child needed her food. Ariel kept her fork to her plate and continued cutting.
The meat was covered in warm butter that ran off its sides and spilled into a small pool on her plate, a glistening yellow against the white china. Every bite was savored longer than the one before. Yet even for each moment spent enjoying her dinner, her food seemed to vanish all the more quickly.
"Hungry tonight, eh?" Eric asked.
Ariel could only give him a grin back. She took another bite, sucking her fork at the end to savor the juices.
It was only when she had one bite left, a mere scrap left behind on her plate, that Ariel truly looked it over. There must be, she realized, a way to make food last longer, to allow her to keep it behind her lips and between her teeth for just a little more time.
The day before she had learned of new traditions and the week before that how to use a human invention called a bicycle. Even years after being on land, it seemed that every day she was learning something new about humans and their world.
Time to learn something new today, she thought as she brought the fork to her lips.
She chewed slowly, moving her teeth monotonously and running the meaty pieces over her tongue. Ariel closed her eyes, blocking her senses until there was nothing but the taste on her tongue.
It was only when she swallowed that her body stiffened.
The bite had not been large, and it had been thoroughly chewed at that. Had all the bits of food, small as they were, clumped together?
Perhaps it was fate, a sign of some moral failure, but if so why wait so long?
Why wait until now, when it was her last bite of that night's meal? Why then, after all the other fish dishes that she had eaten before?