Melody sighed heavily as she combed her hair with a fork. She had picked up the habit from her mother and found that it worked through her tangled mess much better than any brush her father or mother had bought her.
Father, Melody thought, floating out of the room through a nearby window and looking to the surface. Her mind began to wander about his whereabouts and what he could be doing at the moment.
Of everyone in her family, Melody found herself closest to her father. She never understood why either. Upon swimming back to her mirror, she examined her features. She shared the raven black hair with him, that was completely obvious. A piece of her said that her eyes came from her father, but then again they could be from her mother.
Her thoughts were interrupted when she heard King Triton and Ariel talking quietly outside of her room. Her mother sounded worried and the king himself spoke with a tone that Melody had never heard before.
"Daddy, are you sure that someone is on the island?" Ariel questioned with trepidation in her voice. Melody saw a flashing light from the hall and swam over next to the doorway, careful as not to be seen.
"Ariel, there's no doubt about it," came the older man's reply. "The trident is blinking and it only does this when someone has patted the water three times when they are on one of those islands. Who else knows about the islands?"
Ariel began to count on her fingers, stating out loud the names. "Well, there's myself, Eric, Melody, and…" Her voice trailed off when she lifted up her fourth finger and she trembled when she said the next name. "And Grimsby."
Triton looked at his daughter, hoping to get an answer out of her as to why a man he barely knew was informed of the island. Ariel saw the curiosity is her father's eyes and began to explain.
"He knows for one pure reason… Eric and I told him about the islands for the possible reason that if anything happened to Eric while Melody and I were away, he could come tell us about it." Her eyes shone with fear and her hands shook. "What if something has happened to Eric, daddy?"
Melody gasped at the thought of something happening to her father. Could it be true that something could have happened to him?
The princess slid down to the floor, pulling her tail close to her chin and silently began to weep while she continued listening to the conversation going on outside.
"Ariel, stay here. Make sure that everything in the kingdom is safe until I return," Triton went on. "Most importantly, try not to let Melody know until we know for sure if something has happened or not. I'm going to the surface to see what is going on." He kissed his daughter on the forehead and swam out of the castle.
Ariel turned around and started making her way back to the throne room of the palace while Melody made sure no one was watching. Once she was confident that the coast was clear, she set out and began following her grandfather. She feared what or who she might encounter on the surface but she was determined to find out anyways.