Chapter 11: Song of the Sea

It had been well over a decade since Ariel had been back in the water, and everything seemed both different and the same. The tides and sand are constantly shifting, but there are more subtle changes that take years to pass. Rocks are worn away, undersea volcanoes and earthquakes altering the landscape, new trenches ripped open and mountains toppled.

The years had changed Ariel as well, she wasn't the same wild rebellious mermaid princess anymore. Now she carried herself with the composure of a Queen, long red hair neatly secured into a tight bun, diamonds hanging at her ears and neck.

All of these new developments weren't lost on Ariel, but her mind could only think of her daughter and the thousands of what-ifs that could be playing out. Her very heart ached, the pain and panic seizing her body in waves. Her chest locked up so tight it was hard to speak. How could she possibly go home to the comfortable palace with her daughter missing? How could she face her sisters after a decade apart when she was already an emotional wreck? How could she do anything besides look for her child?

It would be pointless for her to try and find Melody in the bustling urban streets of Atlantica. It's the biggest metropolis in the entire ocean, with hundreds of merfolk in every direction and dozens of guards already in the streets looking. She knew she needed to comb everything that stretched between Atlantica and the human shoreline. It was illegal for any merfolk to travel more than one mile east of the city, any further was considered human territory and forbidden.

Search parties ordained to go out into this human territory would likely be going there for the first time, and how could you thoroughly search a place you have never been? But Ariel spent more time in these forbidden waters than any law-abiding citizen would dare, and even twenty years later it felt like her old stomping grounds.

She didn't realize how many memories she had in that long stretch of forbidden ocean. The shipwrecks, being nagged by Sebastian, going to visit Scuttle, going to secret fish concerts with Flounder. Even her old secret hideout, where she hid her collection of human world treasures. The remains of that collection still scattered in pieces years after her father destroyed it all in front of her. Memories and places she wished she could share with Melody, places that she knew her daughter would have loved.

The longer Ariel spent as a mermaid the louder she could hear the ocean in her ears. It was a sound she nearly forgot, the rhythms of the currents, how it speeds up or slows down according to the moon, the way all living things alter the notes with their every movement in the water. The Queen remembered using it as a lullaby for her newborn, wanting nothing more than for her baby to hear the ocean's voice. For the little girl to hear it just like her mother did, secret music no one else could ever understand.

Ariel swore if she ever saw Melody again, she would share the song of sea with her.

After a long restful nap on top of a friendly blue whale, Melody went through the enchanted bag Morgana had given her. It carried as much as she needed, made it all light as a feather, and never changed sizes.

It didn't take her long to find the map, a stone tablet with intricate carvings etched over its surface. The map etchings had been painted lightly over within white to make the carvings easier to see.

Despite this, Melody couldn't even figure out where she was. Let alone figure out where everything else on the map is and follow it to Atlantica. Plus the whale had probably been drifting for hours now, how far was she from Morgana's lair? It was the only location on the map she could recognize, and she had only a vague idea of the direction the whale was swimming.

She wasn't staring at the map for long when she felt the kind whale beneath begin to heave. He had drifted into a kelp forest, the seaweed tickling his face and underbelly. In a quick jerk, the whale sneezed, the blowhole right next to Melody exploding with a stream of water.

The powerful blast launched the young mermaid off the whale's back and crashing onto a nearby iceberg. Her landing had been incredibly lucky, smacking onto a pile of freshly fallen snow. Had she been just a few feet over she would have landed on a deadly sharp icicle.

An immediate groan escaped her lips, and a moment later a giant rock exploded into the ice by her head. On instinct, she shrieked and threw her arms over her face just in time.

After rolling herself over she realized what had happened "Oh no, no no no no!"

The rock that nearly bounced off her head was the stone map, and now it was in unreadable pebbles scattered across an ice field.

"Ugh now, how am I going to find my way to Atlantica? And even if I do get there how will I get the trident? Or find where Lily lives?" A swell of hopelessness filled her heart, and questions swirled in her mind.

"Um, are you okay?"

For the third time in five minutes, the princess screeched and was caught completely off guard. In the water beside the iceberg was a shirtless blonde-haired boy, just casually speaking to her in a frozen wasteland.

"Woah are you…?" Internally she cursed herself for her idiocy, she almost gave herself away by asking if he was a merman. What kind of question is that for a mermaid to ask? "Uhm I mean, are you… are you alone?"

The young man smiled, casually resting his arms on the edge of the ice. Melody couldn't help but notice how powerful his arms looked, how broad his shoulders. Her skin flushed a bright red, both with embarrassment at having screamed earlier and from the sight of such an attractive young man. Living isolated in the castle didn't give her too many chances to run into handsome men her age, or many men at all for that matter.

"I'm so sorry miss, I didn't mean to scare you. I'm traveling alone, it's just uhm…" he fidgeted and glanced away shyly.

"I think I just saw you soar through the air? Then snow and rocks started raining down everywhere… Are you alright?"

If Melody wasn't crimson before she was now, "I'm such an idiot, I'm sorry… I was riding a whale and it just suddenly flung me out of the water, and then my map broke into a million pieces and-"

A deep honeyed laugh interrupted her flustered ramblings, "It sounds like you got sneezed off! Don't worry, even the best of us get distracted while hitching a ride."

Melody locked eyes with the young man, taking in his face closely for the first time. He had dark green eyes that reminded her of how sunlight reflected off kelp fields as they swayed in the currents. His skin was deeply suntanned, hinting he hadn't been in the Arctic waters for very long.

Upon scrutinizing his features more closely, a strange feeling appeared. Her brows knit in confusion, "Have… have we met before?"

The young man seemed taken aback, his casual demeanor wavering for just a brief moment before he flashed another smile. "I don't believe we have, I'd have remembered your face. My name is Alex."

A soft smile appeared on the princess's pink lips, "My name is Melody, it's a pleasure to meet you, Alex. What are you doing out here alone?"

"I could ask you the exact thing, Melody."

"Well I'm trying to get to the city of Atlantica, and as I said before, my map broke. Even if it hadn't though, I would still have no idea how to get there. I'm kind of a hopeless case."

"I don't think you're hopeless, just a little turned around. Why are you heading to Atlantica anyway?"

"It's kind of a long story."

"Well, why don't you tell me along the way?"

"I mean I guess I can tell you if you want… Wait, what?!"

Alex grabbed Melody's hand and pulled her into the ocean with him, "You heard me, I'm going to take you to Atlantica. I know the way by heart."

"You would do that for me?"

Alex turned and began to swim away, motioning for her to follow. "I was heading to Atlantica anyway. We aren't too far from a strong current that we can take almost the whole way there."

With a flip of his dirty blonde hair he playfully taunted back at her,

"Well Melody, are you coming to Atlantica or not?"

Hi everyone, thank you for reading my AU of The Little Mermaid 2, with Melody at 19 and not 12. I originally posted this FanFiction on Deviantart, and it is updated there every 1st and 15th of the month. I will be adding chapters to this story every Monday till it's caught up to the deviant art version.

If you would like to read ahead or check out my Disney fan edits here is my deviantart link:

mermaidmelodyedits

You can also check out my Disney fan edits on Instagram:

mermaid_melody_edits/

I'd super appreciate if you guys could leave me your thoughts in the comments! Critique, comments, discussion, etc. I want to hear it all! Feel free to also message me if you have any questions or want to chat!

This chapter is where things really start to change from the story, for one thing Tip and Dash will NOT be appearing in this story. I just feel they dint serve a purpose besides being Melody's ocean friends, but that role has been replaced by both Lily (Flounder's daughter) and Alex the merboy! Both feel like more organic companions for Melody than Tip and Dash, plus Alex should have got wayyy more screen time instead if Tip and Dash. Don't get me wrong, I still love Tip and Dash as Melody's friends, and I love their designs. They just didn't really fit or flow well into this story at all. Next chapter is all Alex and Melody, so look forward to that!