As the morning sunlight poured into the bedroom, Ariel awoke. She quickly shielded her eyes from the sunlight with her hand, forgetting for a split second that she was now on land. But only for a split second. Ariel sat up and removed the comforter. "Two legs," she whispered and wiggled her toes with a wide smile.
It had been a month since Ariel's father transformed her into a human and allowed her to live on land. Sometimes, Ariel still couldn't believe it was real. Of course, she missed the ocean and missed being around her family, but she'd finally gotten what she'd dreamed of so long. Not only was she finally part of the human world, but she also married the man she fell in love with upon first sight. With someone to share her human life with, there was really nothing else Ariel could think to ask for.
As Ariel turned to put her feet on the floor and stand up, she felt something funny. It felt a little sticky, a little...wet. Ariel stood up and gasped in horror when she saw what was in the spot she'd been sitting. Blood. The bedsheet had a big blood stain on it. Ariel then raced to the mirror and glanced at her backside. Blood was on her nightgown. The stain was even bigger than the the one on the sheet.
Ariel became frantic. Where did the blood come from? She hadn't injured herself, not even a tiny cut, so how could she be bleeding? Was this something humans did that she never learned when she was still a mermaid? Bleed spontaneously?
Ariel quickly grabbed a dress and undergarment from her drawer and raced to the bathroom to wash up and change into clean clothes. "Eric!" she thought. What would she tell Eric? What if this wasn't something humans did and something was wrong with Ariel? What if she was sick? What if she was dying? These thoughts made Ariel cry. She hadn't been human for that long - only a month - and she already had a problem. She could only hope it wasn't as bad as she was imagining.
Soon, Ariel had cleaned herself up and felt a little better in her clean, blue dress. But she still had to tell Eric.
Ariel peeked into the bedroom. To her relief, Eric hadn't yet woken up. Perhaps she could remove the blood-stained bedsheet without disturbing him. As quiet as her dainty feet would allow her, Ariel walked over to the bed and slowly began pulling the sheet from underneath Eric. He stirred and moaned a little, but fortunately for Ariel, nothing more. She pulled the sheet off the bed and placed it with her blood-stained nightgown.
Ariel was too scared. She knew she had to tell Eric so he could help her, but she was afraid of what he would say. The thought of possibly being ill or dying ran through Ariel's mind again.
For the next few moments, she just stood there with wobbly legs and an anxious mind, mentally debating over whether or not to awaken Eric. She failed to notice that the dress she had just put on was also, albeit slowly, being stained by blood.