Melody was the first to pull away and Chase reluctantly let their lips part. Silence fell over them as they tried to regain their breath and smiled awkwardly at each other. Chase was the one to finally speak.
"Wow…" he mumbled. His eyes were unable to be torn from Melody's. She grinned at him a bit and blushed.
"Agreed."
Melody sat back and pulled her hair out of her ponytail, hoping to fix the tangles in it that Chase had caused.
At the sight of her hair down, Chase felt his jaw drop. He had never seen her hair down before and he suddenly felt he never wanted to see it any other way.
"Wait!" he said, catching her wrist before she put her hair back up. "Keep it down; it looks prettier."
Melody stared back at him and quickly remembered he was supposed to have been back at the castle ages ago.
"What?" Chase asked, noticing Melody's gaze.
"Grandfather!" she replied. "He needed you back at the palace forever ago!"
Chase realized she was right and moved his hand from her wrist to her hand. With one tug, he pulled her up and began swimming. In the midst of being torn from the ground, Melody dropped her hair band and abruptly intertwined her fingers with his. When he turned around to look at her, she gave him a slight grin. He sheepishly smiled back and squeezed her hand a bit.
"Ariel, how is that a legend? To me it seems like just a story!"
Eric sat up, puzzled about the story his wife had just told him and why the community believed it would happen again. Sure he had a white tail and there was the possibility of another sea witch, but Ariel was still sitting next to him and Melody was out trying to find Chase.
"Eric, the legend of the story is the voices heard from above," Ariel explained, sitting up as well. "No one is positive if those words are true or not! And the white tail is more of a symbolic thing. It represents new beginnings, death, fighting, and love."
Eric turned his head towards Ariel and caught her eyes. His stomach gave a little flip like it had the first time he had seen her. He sighed and ran his hand through her hair. She caught his hand in hers and smiled at him.
"I know you don't want to accept it but you have to. We have to. Daddy has and he's prepared for it." Ariel's gaze fell to the floor at the mention of her father. The idea of losing him was unbearable and knowing that he knew he wasn't going to be there for the family much longer made matters even worse.
Eric sighed and shook his head. "You're right…"
Ariel lay back on Eric's shoulder. They were quiet for awhile until Ariel finally realized that Melody had been gone for an awfully long time.
"Eric, I'm going to go find Melody. Could you go to father please?" Eric nodded and swam out of the room with Ariel.
Before she turned to move down the hallway, he grabbed her wrist and hugged her to him, not wanting to let go. He took in the scent of her hair, the feel of her skin, the strength of her grip around his neck. When he let her go, he placed a small kiss on her lips and whispered into her ear, "I love you."
She told him she loved him as well and swam off. Something in the pit of Eric's stomach told him that she needed to be told that for it might be a while before he saw her again.
Ariel swam out into the open waters and started to get farther away from the castle. She figured Melody was in the grotto and, if she wasn't, they might meet up along the way.
However, Ariel started getting worried when she had made her way to the grotto and hadn't seen Melody the entire swim there.
"Melody?" Ariel called as she entered the grotto. However, any sort of reply would have been cut off by Ariel's screams.
Tentacles covered her ears and her mouth. When she moved, it stung and she couldn't help but shout more.
Jellyfish, she thought, noticing the how the free tentacles flowed so loosely. But why here, why now?
"Well, well, well. If it isn't Princess Ariel, come to visit her home under the sea."
From the top of the grotto, Ariel saw more tentacles appear. However, these weren't pink and flowing like the ones that were stuck on her. These were thick, dark ones with suckers on the bottom. Those that belonged to a creature that had once taken Ariel's voice and also given Melody fins. Tentacles that belonged to an octopus. Tentacles that were wrapped tightly around Melody.
"Yes, you see, I thought I'd play a little game," the creature hissed. "I saw that the mysterious white tailed merman had come back into town and I simply could not resist. I suppose I'm just following the legend." A grin spread on the octopus's face as he stroked Melody's free hovering hair with an open limb.
Cerberus! Ariel thought. I could have sworn daddy made sure he was dead after Morgana!
"Ah, but your father was wrong, dear," Cerberus said, chuckling at Ariel's shocked expression. "After he thought I was dead, I hid. And I grew stronger. My magic grew stronger. I can read your every thought, dear Ariel. I can read your daughter's every thought. I can read Eric, Sebastian, and even Triton's every thought as well. And I can, well, to put it simply, kill you." He reached out and took her from his minion's grasp.
Melody quickly maneuvered her mouth out of Cerberus's hold. "What have you done with Chase, you monster?"
The snippy question didn't suit the octopus well and he threw her into the clutches of his awaiting partners who proceeded to shock her, tossing her back and forth like a volley ball.
"Melody! No!" Ariel couldn't stand to see her daughter hurt and was even more concerned when she saw Melody's body go limp. "How can you do this to an innocent eighteen year old?"
"Easily, watch." Ariel's head was forced to stare and not move away from the sight of her unconscious daughter being bounced around. "See? It isn't that hard."
The jellyfish soon became bored of the girl gone ragdoll and let her drop to the floor. Ariel squirmed, pulled, and pushed with all her might to get to her daughter but Cerberus's grip was too strong.
"You take the red head," he said, passing Ariel off to his followers. "I'll take the weaker one. She'd be too heavy for you to carry alone." A horrible snicker escaped his lips as he began to float out of the grotto.
Eric, please, Ariel thought. You know the legend and are a bigger part of it than anyone here. Please sense something is wrong, please get help.
She felt the shocks starting to affect her and before she knew it, everything was black.
"Sebastian, I just don't get it. I sent for Chase hours ago and he hasn't returned yet."
Sebastian sat loyally at the king's side, unsure of how to respond. He had a bad feeling in his little crab heart that something wasn't right. Eric had just mentioned practically the same thing to him about Ariel and Melody not more than ten minutes ago.
"Your Majesty, if I may, I believe dat someting must have gone wrong out dere!" Sebastian said, worry a genuine part of his voice. "Chase would never be dis late for someting dis important and you know dat! Eric just told me dat Ariel left an hour ago to find Melody and neider of dem have come back, sir."
Triton grabbed the trident and rose from his throne, knowing in his heart what was happening. "Round up the strongest guards in Atlantica and send out a search party for Chase."
"But, your majesty, aren't you going to stay here in da palace?"
The sea king shook his head. He knew his fate and he knew what he had to do. "I have to fight to get my daughter and granddaughter back. Make sure that Chase is prepared for battle. I have a feeling I know where Eric is."
Eric was swimming as fast as he could. Where he didn't know but he felt as if a map had suddenly been placed in his brain.
It had been an hour since Ariel had left to get their daughter and she wasn't home. Something in the pit of his stomach told him that whatever she had done had gone wrong. He felt it was his duty to go out and scour the darkest parts of the ocean for her and Melody.
"He had fed them to his minions…" Ariel's words rang clear in Eric's head and gave him an extra burst of energy. He sped off faster into the darkness. The water around him grew colder but Eric didn't seem to notice.
As he reached a cave where smoke was billowing out from the entrance and evil laughter was heard from inside, Eric knew he had reached his destination.
Whatever was inside the cave was about to get something it never saw coming.
A/N: Sorry this took me so long to update! I had a story idea and I was writing that and then I started school. It has been CRAZINESS. Just R&R and give some suggestions for the next chapter!