Chapter 7
For the next few weeks Eric, Ariel, and baby Melody continued to live in their wagon as they worked to tame their few acres of land. It wasn't easy work but they did their best, and did what they could attempting to cut the grass and dig in the sod.
One day, Ariel noticed Eric was cutting strips of sod up out of the ground and was stacking it like bricks along the ground. Curious, Ariel walked over to him while carrying the baby on her hip and began asking him questions.
"Hi Eric what are you doing?"
"Hi hon, how are my two favorite girls?" Eric said as he proceeded to dust off his hands, grabbed his daughter, and gave his wife a quick kiss.
"Hmm thanks hon. We're doing fine although Mel needs to go down for a nap."
"Ha ha I bet! Here you can take her back again, it smells like she needs changed too." Eric joked.
"Oh ho, well maybe she does, here I'll take her." Ariel said as she grabbed the baby, then she continued "Shoo it's hot out here, and you're getting pretty dirty yourself. So what are you doing with all of these pieces of...land?"
"Yeah you're right it's hot out here! Did you bring any water?" Eric asked as he wiped his brow.
"Uh no...I'm sorry..." Ariel gasped.
"No need to apologize. If you bring me a drink, I'll tell you." he said a bit mischievously.
"Okay, I'll be back in two flips of a guppy's fin hon." Ariel said as she walked back toward the wagon, talking to her daughter.
Eric just glanced up at Ariel and shook his head as he chuckled at his wife's comment.
A few minutes later, Ariel came back with a basket on on arm and a pail of water on the other. She set the basket down to one side and brought the water and a tin cup over to Eric. He thanked her, then proceeded to dip the cup in the bucket to fill it, then dumped it over his head. Then he refilled the cup and took a gulp of water.
"Ha ha why did you just do that? Dump water on your head?" Ariel laughed.
"Oh ha ha, its about a hundred degrees out here dear! Don't tell me you don't feel like doing that sometimes too?"
"Well sure, but I didn't know if it was proper..."
"Ha! When did you ever worry about being proper?"
"Well yeah I guess nobody's looking..." she laughed and grabbed for the cup.
Ariel then proceeded to dip the cup in the bucket, then started to raise it over her head to cool herself off, when Eric suddenly grabbed it from her hands. He playfully held out of her reach while she jumped at it. When she all but given up and turned to reach for the bucket, Eric suddenly reached for her , held her against him and playfully said "Oh I'm sorry Ariel dear, did you want me to give you your water ?"
"Yes please kind sir" she said mockingly.
"Oh well if you say it that way, here's your water little miss" he said as he dumped the cup full over her head.
" Hey I wanted to do that myself!" she said as she wiped off her hair.
"Oh I'm sorry, I just couldn't resist! Anyway it's a hot day, you'll dry off." he laughed.
"Couldn't resist? Hmm, well two can play at that game..." Ariel said as she picked up the bucket of water and started pacing around him.
"Hey what are you going to do with that? It's hot out, but maybe not that hot." he asked skeptically.
"Oh you said it was hot out here, well here's how to cool off..." she said as she paced around with the bucket, skittering just out of his reach each time he reached for the bucket. They continued their little dance of wits a few seconds longer, until at the last moment Ariel threw the water from the bucket right at her husband.
Eric growled and wiped off his face then said "I should throw you in the stream for that one..." as he started toward her, then paused and said "Aw but I need to get back to work...And you should too, have fun.." Then he removed his wet and filthy shirt and flung it at her.
"Ew more laundry? But oh, hmm I like what I see. I should've thrown that bucket of water at you sooner." she said as she watched him work.
"Oh you do?" Eric chuckled, humbly and continued to work.
Ariel continued watching her husband work, until their daughter started to cry, so she went over to her and began to feed her while sitting in the grass, singing a tune.
Eric glanced up when he heard her singing and paused for a moment to watched his wife feed the baby.
When Ariel sensed him staring at her, she glanced up at him and coyly asked "Hmm, what are you looking at? I thought you had to work?"
"Just looking at what I like to see..." he said slightly huskily.
"Oh really?"
'Umm hmm..."
They stared at each other for a few moments longer, until Ariel said "Well maybe once I'm done feeding the baby and you're done digging in the land, we can go down to the stream again. It appears we need more water."
"Yep it appears so..." Eric said with a wink and a sly grin, then went back to digging.
After a minute or two, Ariel glanced up at him and asked "So what are you going to do with all of those land bricks?"
"Well my dear these are going to be the bricks to our new house." he said as he continued working.
"New house? How can you build a house out of pieces of land?" Ariel asked skeptically.
"Oh you can. I read about it in a book, and talked to some others about it. These pieces of land are called sod, and you're supposed to stack them together like bricks, until you make a house." he explained.
"Really? These pieces of sod can make a house? That's wonderful! Wow this living on land certainly is interesting. You can actually do things with the land that we could never do under water, like build stuff with it." Ariel gasped in wonder.
"Yeah I guess so. Although it's not that unusual because almost everything you build with comes from the land, whether its rocks or sod."
"Oh yeah I guess you're right, I'd never really thought about it before."
"Yep and maybe someday if I find enough rocks, I'll build you a stone house."
"A stone house? That would be grand! Or you could even build a stone castle!"
"A stone castle? Ha ha, I don't think I'll be able to find that many! Erm..I think we'll just stick to the soddy for now."
"Oh okay. Speaking of that, do you need any help?"
"Maybe after awhile, if you think you're up to it..." he queried.
"Oh I'll try at least for awhile, if we can swim in the creek afterward. "
"That's my girl. Ha ha, yeah maybe we can do that...and soon, if you catch my drift." he said as he winked at her and continued working.
They continued to chat awhile longer until the baby fell back to sleep and Eric decided he was done for the day. "Urgh I guess I'm done for now." Eric growled as he stretched the kinks out of his back.
"So can we go swimming now?" Ariel pleaded playfully.
"Yeah, I just need to pick up some of these things, though if you help me, it'll get done faster."
"Oh of course." Ariel said as she walked over and started to help him. She had just put a shovel away beside their wagon, when she saw her husband bent over looking at the soil and saw a gap around the edge of his pants, so being sneaky she took a handful of loose soil and dumped it there.
"Hey why'd you do that?" he yelled and tried to playfully reach for her.
"Aw I just saw an opportunity and went for it!" she said as she scampered out of his way, running toward the creek. Eric knew he could catch up to her easily, but since Ariel had already run off toward the creek, he ran over and picked up the basket their daughter was sleeping in and carried it with him down to the shore of the creek.
"Aw you finally came, slow poke!" she shouted.
"Ah but you forgot somebody, see..."
"Oh the baby! Aw how could I forget Melody? Aw she's sleeping too...okay, hmm...lets put her over here." Ariel whispered as she pointed toward an area along the bank of the creek.
Ariel had just removed her dress and was only in her underclothes when she heard a splash and saw that Eric was already in the stream.
"Hey no fair, you beat me in! I can't get these buttons..." Ariel laughed.
"Ah don't worry about it, just jump in. I'll help you. You can swim in your underclothes if you want." he said.
"Okay, but you must not be wearing much..." she said as she glanced over and noticed his pants bunched up on shore.
"I'd said I'd help you." he said with a sly grin.
"Oh I'll bet." she laughed as she proceeded to step into the stream until she was waist deep in the current. He swam over to her and took her hand to lead her further into the stream, while she commented "Oh Eric, this is different than the ocean. The water seems to be moving all in one direction and it sorta feels different, it even tastes different!"
"Well that's because its a freshwater stream which flows in one direction. Plus you're human now, so maybe it just feels different to you. Anyway just lay back and see if you can float on your back."
"Okay. Though it's funny, you teaching me how to swim! But I guess I'll have to learn many things over as a human." she said as she leaned back and floated on her back.
After floating for awhile, Ariel said "See Eric I remembered how to float, ha ha...Ah Eric where are you?" as she broke out of her float and started to too scan for him. Suddenly something grabbed her foot and broke the surface. "Hey...ah what are you doing?"
"Just grabbing one of your little feet." he said as he pulled her along.
They playfully swam together, until they drew close, he wiped the water from her eyes, and started kissing her face. When their lips came together, they locked in an embrace that lasted until they got to shore, where he helped her out of her underclothes and they made love on the bank on the creek.
After awhile, Ariel heard the sounds of her baby crying, so she got up from her husband and searched around until she found Melody's basket had drifted into the edge of the stream where it had gotten amongst some weeds. She rescued her daughter and carried her over to her husband, telling him about it.
"Guess what dear, our little baby's basket had drifted into the creek and had gotten caught in some weeds along the shore. It's a good thing we found her when we did."
"Ah ha ha, our daughter is a venerable Baby Moses!" Eric chuckled.
"Baby Moses?" Ariel asked.
"Yeah Baby Moses. You've never heard of the story of Baby Moses?"
"No..." she sad cautiously.
"Oh yeah maybe you haven't. Well anyway its a story from the Bible that most people learn as a child. Anyway in the story Pharaoh, who was sort of a king in a country called Egypt, was getting angry at his Jewish slaves, the Israelites, for some reason, so he started killing off a bunch of their babies..."
"Ew that's quite the story! And they tell that to children?" Ariel gasped.
"Ah don't worry, it gets better hon. Anyway there was this one family that hid their baby son despite Pharaoh's decree, and after awhile when he was too big to hide in their home I guess, the mother made a reed basket and put the baby in the basket, put him in the edge of the river, and had her older daughter babysit him from the shore. Eventually this Egyptian Princess came along and found the baby and wanted to adopt it, but when she needed a wet nurse to feed the baby, the older sister popped out of the bushes and volunteered her own mother. So baby Moses was raised by both his own mother and his adoptive mother, and was saved." Eric explained.
"Wow that is quite the story! Is there more to it?" Ariel asked.
"Yeah but I'd have to look it up in the Bible again." he said.
"Oh okay. Hmm, this story sounds familiar...Hey maybe You are like Baby Moses too! Why if that woman, Giselle's story is true and she's your birth mother..." she pondered.
"Yeah maybe so, but either way my father was still a prince, even if it sounds like he didn't treat Giselle very well in the end." he sulked.
"Well, maybe your dad did what he thought was best at the time. It might not have been an easy choice to make...did you ever think of that? Anyway I had a lovely time tonight. Thanks for taking me swimming, and everything else, my love." she said as she leaned over and gave him a quick kiss. She snuggled down beside him then, with the baby, then pointed to the stars and said "Okay tell me which stars are which, sailor boy."
"Okay lets see, things are different than they were out on the open sea, but let me see, there's the big dipper and Leo and ..." he chuckled as he went on to describe the constellations they could see that evening.
