Content were Ariel and Eric to pass a moment or two in the way, recovering their energies in pleasant company and quiet contemplation. Eric, for his part, was acutely aware of the risk that Ariel had just taken for him and, although it appeared that such feats were by no means uncommon to her, the fact that his own uselessness had been the cause of it gnawed at him relentlessly. He silently cursed his own weakness, and vowed never to put the Princess in harms way again.
Ariel, unlike her friend, had not forgotten that had it not been for Eric's initial warning of there being danger, things could have been very different indeed. Her view of the ordeal was less one-sided; ultimately they had helped each other.
Presently, Eric took to making a more thorough observation of his surroundings, naturally wondering what relevance this place held that Ariel should choose to bring him here above all others.
'Where are we?' he asked, breaking their silence, determined that they shouldn't spend the day in low spirits. Whatever had preceded their being here was done now, and they may as well make the most of what remained of their time together.
Ariel smiled, albeit with a little nervousness, and wrapped her hand around Eric's.
'I'll show you. Are you alright to move?'
Her friend nodded and, having risen with only a little stiffness from the sand, allowed Ariel to lead him through into the tunnel into a larger chamber, at which point she released his hand and turned to him with a barely suppressed grin.
Eric stared wide-eyed at the grotto around him, marvelling at what could only be described as a spectacle. Shelves, naturally formed, towered high above them and held all manner of human objects, a vast display accumulated over what must have been years. There didn't immediately appear to be any order to the arrangements, certainly the objects weren't grouped in any way that he could easily distinguish, but each one was presented with such care, such consideration, that he found himself momentarily at a loss for words. It was undoubtedly beautiful, and shon despite the little light that passed via a small opening above them, like a spotlight or chandelier.
He turned in a slow circle, taking in all that he could from a passing glance, before his gaze fell once again upon Ariel, whose own eyes were fixed on him, awaiting his reaction in trepidation.
'It's incredible,' he breathed, impressed by the dedication of the Princess towards what was clearly a great passion of hers. He lowered himself to a smooth rock which protruded from the sand, before turning his attention upwards once more.
Ariel relaxed considerably, the corners of her mouth turning upwards into an easy smile. She had been working on this collection for that past four years—since she had discovered her first human object at the age of twelve, and six months later had come across this chamber whilst hiding from her father's guards. Nobody else had been here since, nor possessed any knowledge that such a place existed, even her father and sisters remained oblivious. Eric's reaction evoked such relief within her, for he could have easily disregarded its contents as pointless junk; to see him so awestruck made her heart swell. She was glad to have brought him here.
'I was wondering,' she began, wrapping a tendril of crimson hair around her finger, 'that is—if you don't mind—I was wondering if you might teach me what some of it is; what it's used for?'
Eric's silence lasted long enough to bring back all those feelings of doubt which Ariel had only recently disparaged. She watched in agitation as he surveyed the task at hand, seeming to consider her request for an eternity, and Ariel was just about ready to take it back and pronounce it as unreasonable when he began to nod—had the Princess understood that his hesitation stemmed only from uncertainty in his own abilities to satisfy her curiosity, she would have perhaps have suffered less, but all that was done away with that one slow and simple gesture.
'Where do you want to start?' he asked.
Ariel practically squealed in delight and threw her arms around her friend, and Eric had to plant his hand behind him to prevent both from toppling over. His stupefaction at such contact can be guessed, but it was by no means unhappily received.
Glee was evident in her smile as the Princess pulled back and begin to consider Eric's question more seriously. Where to begin indeed?
'I can't promise to have an answer for everything,' began Eric, hoping that by preparing her for potential disappointment he could lessen its effect somewhat when he found himself wanting for a suitable explanation. 'What I can tell you,' he continued with an easy smile, 'is that that's a very interesting use of a candelabra.'
Ariel followed his gaze.
The word itself was new to her and she considered it repetitively in picking up the object of Eric's attention—of which there were two, side by side—turning it over and over in her head and focusing on the shaping of her lips and the movement of her tongue as she murmured it to herself, surprised to find a familiar word amidst its newness.
'It doesn't look much like a bra,' she observed, holding the metal frame before her and turning back to her friend with an arched brow.
Eric flushed. 'No, it's not... it's... the two things aren't... aren't related,' he fumbled.
Ariel couldn't hide her grin, finding his awkwardness a little endearing. She sat beside him and held the object—the candelabra that had nothing to do with what its name suggested it ought—in her lap.
Eric smiled, albeit a little bashfully, and it was a smile which only grew upon closer inspection. He found himself both fascinated and awed by the ingenuity and individualism of his friend's mind; never, even if he possessed no knowledge of human stuff, would he have thought to display cutlery atop the branches of a candelabra.
It was Ariel who brought the attention to these particular items though. 'What are these bits for?' she asked.
'I'm afraid that's got to do with something completely different,' replied Eric gently, 'individually that's a knife, a fork, and a spoon'—he pointed to each one in turn upon naming it—'together they're known as cutlery.'
Ariel frowned, taking on board this onslaught of new information punctuated by new words. 'So...' she began hesitantly, unsure whether she had fully understood Eric's explanation, 'the candle-ah-bra is... this bit, and...' she trailed off.
Hoping to make things a little clearer Eric reached over to the object and, after obtaining Ariel's permission, plucked the cutlery from where it had been housed, holding the utensils together in one hand.
'Cutlery. Candelabra.' He motioned to each in turn, "separate objects used for separate things.' Admittedly he felt bad about dismissing her ideas by his separation of the two items, the last thing he wanted to do was make her feel that all this was incorrect; but he soon perceived that her desire to learn far outweighed her desire to be right, all which surrounded them was simply trial and error.
Ariel's smile confirmed this. 'They don't go together then?' she surmised.
Eric shook his head softly. 'Cutlery's used for eating, the candelabra provides light similarly to the lantern we found yesterday.'
'You... eat them?' Ariel fixed her attention on the objects in Eric's hand, noting that they didn't look particularly appetising.
'No, no, you use them to eat with,' corrected Eric, 'to cut up food and transport it from the plate to your mouth. We've no use for them down here because... well, I suppose if we tried to plate up food it would just float away.'
Here, owing to Ariel's quizzical expression, Eric realised that this was going to be much harder than he had first considered. The differences between the human world and their own were immense. Yesterday he had thought that maybe it had simply happened to be that the objects they found required a great deal of explanation, but now it seemed that such was not the case; in fact very little could be described without eluding to a myriad of other unknown items. A plate, for example; merpeople didn't have plates for the exact reason Eric had just given, instead they ate compact finger-food, often skewered.
'I'm sorry,' he said, rubbing the back of his neck, 'I'm not being much help.' He paused and glanced around. 'Do you think... I don't know if you've got another item here somewhere, a sort of flat disk about so big? It would make things a little easier to explain.'
So began a new plan to accumulate items that went together. Both Ariel and Eric rose from the seabed and scoured the shelves, the latter continually awed by all that surrounded him, the former faced with the challenging prospect of finding something that she was unfamiliar with. Still, she threw herself into the task without hesitation. Periodically she would hold up something—a wheel, the lid of a barrel, a porthole—to Eric, that she thought resembled the item of his desire, resuming her search with no less keenness after each failed attempt.
Eventually, it was Eric who came across the plate, or rather half a plate, decorated around its edge by a pattern of chipped blue ivy, but it would serve a purpose nonetheless and it was easy enough to image what it would have looked like had it been complete.
The duo returned to the center of the chamber, whereupon Eric plucked a strand of seaweed from a small clump at the base of the rock and set it upon the cracked semicircular crockery, before taking up the knife and fork and demonstrating their use with renewed clarity. Of course there were many variations of all three utensils, but Eric decided that an overall picture would suffice for now.
Ariel watched attentively, and was more than eager to try out these utensils herself when Eric passed them over and gently helped to position her fingers around them. The spoon took a little more explanation, but the Princess was soon able to grasp this concept too.
'What do humans eat?' she asked, practising again with the cutlery.
Eric gave a short laugh. 'I don't think I could even begin to explain that, most of their food doesn't have an equivalent down here.'
The subject of their eating fish—a fact known by Eric and supposed by Ariel, as a result of her father's continuous warnings—hung heavily between them, but remained unspoken. Ariel's thoughts turned to her mother and she shuddered. Swiftly and deliberately she changed the subject, turning her attention once again to the now useless candelabra.
'What about that then, you said it was like the lantern,' she prompted. 'Why do humans need both.'
Eric explained that a candelabra was used indoors, whereas a lantern was designed specifically for outdoor use, its panelled sides serving to protect the flame from the wind, though the idea that a flame could be extinguished by the 'surface current'—as Ariel referred to it—remained a somewhat elusive concept. So too did Eric explain the addition of wax, this leading to another search, and this time it was Ariel who procured the box of wax sticks—a dozen in total and varying in both width and length—required for this particular demonstration.
'These are called candles,' explained Eric, rifling through the collection, selecting three and slotting them in place upon the branches of the candelabra, 'you put them in here, like so, and light a fire on the tip of each one to light a room.'
Here the demonstration faltered somewhat, with fire again to blame, until Eric happened to recall something held seen in passing during his recent searches. He ascended, the candelabra in in hand and Ariel close behind him, and came to a halt afore a remarkably maintained oil painting.
He smiled at the find and offered the frame to his companion. 'There, that's fire.'
Ariel paused, her bottom lip caught delicately between her teeth, presented with this image—a woman gazing wistfully at an illuminated orange teardrop—in a new light, despite it having been a feature of her collection for several lunations now. The little mermaid reached out, took the candelabra, complete now with three crumbling wax-sticks, and held it up to the image, positioning it so as to catch the flame atop the center candle. The result simply took her breath away, for the rippling light dancing across the painting gave the impression of movement, as though the candle were truly alight.
'It's beautiful,' she breathed, certain that she could have remained perpetually entranced by this illusion, 'Eric, I...' she trailed off, overwhelmed by an admixture of emotion and gratitude. She would remember this moment forever. Ariel placed her free hand on Eric's arm and, to his utmost surprise, broke eye contact with the painting to plant a chaste kiss upon his cheek. 'Thank you,' she said softly.
Eric recovered himself as best he could, assuring her that he was more the happy to provide these moments where he could, so too to continue these lessons. Indeed he could think of nothing he'd like more than to proceed in spending his time this way.
And they did, most contentedly, until the arrival of sundown approached and Eric regretfully excused himself; but there was no doubt today what tomorrow would bring, and they parted in agreement that this would henceforth be their meeting place.
Despite his promise to his mother, the excursion of earlier would slow Eric considerably and prevent him from making it to the caves before sunset, but it would bring him close enough not to raise any substantial level of suspicion; and to provide Ariel with such joy was, in his estimations, worth such a slight infringement of his word. That tomorrow would bring more of the same delighted him and, for the first time in a long time, Eric found that he had something to look forward to.