"Melody! Are you ready yet?"

"In a minute, Mom!"

Ariel chuckled and stepped away from the staircase, waiting for her daughter to come down and meet her. Today, Ariel had promised Melody that they could go down to the beach together and look for seashells. Now, as usual, Ariel was just waiting for Melody to be ready.

Melody had started collecting seashells and sea glass on her own, when Ariel and Eric didn't know she was sneaking out to the ocean. After the Morgana incident, Melody had shown her her collection, which was cleverly hidden in her closet. Despite the fact that she had hidden it from her, Ariel couldn't help but be happy that Melody had a collection of her own. The former mermaid remembered how fascinated she had been with human things; Melody had the same fascination with the shells. It was clearly a trait that she had inherited from her mother.

Within a few minutes, Melody was running down the staircase, clutching her bag. Though the coral-colored bag was a bit run-down, Melody refused to use anything else to collect her seashells; she considered it to be lucky.

"Ready to go?" Ariel smiled, and at Melody's excited nod, the pair headed out to the beach. Melody ran ahead, quickly searching the sand for anything special before the waves came up and swept everything away. By the time Ariel got to the beach herself, Melody had already found three seashells and one piece of sea glass.

Ariel could easily say helping her daughter collect seashells was one of her favorite things to do. It was nice being able to spend some alone time with Melody doing what both of them loved: collecting. Especially now, with Hayden around, Ariel made an extra effort to come out here with her daughter, so Melody could get some one-on-one time with her mother without her baby brother interrupting.

The redhead trailed behind as Melody swiftly made her way down the shoreline. Occasionally, she would run back to excitedly show Ariel a shell, only before shoving it in her bag with the others. Seeing the excitement and pure elatedness on her daughter's face was enough to make Ariel want to stay out on the beach forever.