The kiss was magical. It was better than Eric could have imagined. After it was over, Eric just held Ariel. He hugged her close to him and stroked her red hair. "I am never letting you go," he whispered.
"Oh, Eric," she sighed. "I'm so happy."
Eric stepped away from Ariel and placed one of his knees on the sand. Kneeling before her, he took her hands in his and smiled at her. "Do you know what would make me even more happy? If you say you'll be my bride. Ariel, will you marry me?"
Ariel smiled. "Eric! Of course I will!"
Eric stood up and held her again. He took one hand and gently cupped her chin, softly pulling her to their second kiss. "I want to talk to you," he said. "I have so many questions, so many things I just want to know about you."
Ariel laughed, and looked down. "You mean like how I'm a mermaid?"
"Oh yeah," Eric said, genuinely surprised. "I forgot about that. Let's start with that."
His redheaded girl turned and looked out over the ocean. "Well, first, do you want to meet my father?"
Eric swallowed nervously. "Er… Yeah. We can do that first."
"Daddy!" Ariel called, running into the water until it came to her knees. She dragged Eric behind her, holding his hand tightly.
A man with long white hair approached them on a wave. He held the trident and wore the crown that Vanessa had been flaunting yesterday. He also had on two thick golden bracelets. He was incredibly muscled, with a long blue tail. Eric wasn't sure what to do. He assumed this was the ruler of the Merpeople that the old sailors had told him about: King Triton. Eric decided to bow.
"Daddy, this is Prince Eric. The human I've fallen in love with. He's asked me to marry him-"
"With your blessing of course," Eric interrupted.
Ariel smiled. "Eric, this is my daddy, King Triton."
"I trust you will take good care of my daughter, Prince Eric," The white haired king said.
"Yes, sir," Eric said, keeping the shakiness out of his voice. "I will love her till the day I die."
Ariel squeezed his hand.
King Triton's eyes softened. "I'm putting a lot of trust in you, Prince Eric. Ariel one of my precious daughters and I see in her eyes the same spark I saw in my own queen's eyes when we fell in love." He paused, his voice quivering. "I give you my blessing."
Eric felt honored. "Thank you, sir," he said, bowing again.
Ariel released Eric's hand and threw her arms around her father. "Thank you, Daddy!" she said quietly.
There was a strange sound in the water. They all looked down. Eric saw a little red crab. It made noise in the king's direction.
"Thank you, Sebastian. I'm sure the girls would love to meet Ariel's future husband."
"Sebastian's going to get my sisters," Ariel said in response to the confused look on Eric's face.
"Who's Sebastian?" Eric asked.
"The little red crab who just left," Ariel explained. "I guess humans can't understand sea creatures. How interesting!" She wrapped her arms around Eric. "There is so much you will have to teach me about humans!"
"And you'll have to teach me about mermaids," said Eric.
Behind King Triton, six mermaids with different colored tails poked their heads above the surface.
"Oh, Ariel!" cried one of the mermaids. She had brown hair with spikes coming out like a crown on he head. She had an orange tail. "We were so worried about you! You really shouldn't have gone to the sea witch! I always told you it was dangerous!"
Ariel laughed. "Oh, Tina. Stop being so sour. Eric, this is my oldest sister, Attina."
"Pleased to meet you," Eric said, bowing.
"You're dreamy!" said the sister with the gold tail. "I could swim circles in your eyes!"
"Back off, Adella," said the one with the purple tail, splashing water into Adella's face. "Ariel is the only one that will be doing any swimming in those eyes." She smiled at the prince. "The name's Andrina."
Eric bowed again.
"And I'm Arista!" the red-tailed mermaid exclaimed.
"Is that my sea shell comb you're wearing in your hair?" the blue mermaid asked angrily.
"I just borrowed it," said Arista.
The blue mermaid lunged at her. "Give it here! I never said you could have it!" In the struggle, the blue mermaid knocked into the last sister, one with a pink tail.
"Ouch!" the pink mermaid yelled. "You ruined my nails! I just did them this morning and they were perfect," she grumbled. "The clumsy fish in the blue shells is Aquata. She has anger management problems. I'm Alana."
Eric bent in a bow for the third time.
"Girls," King Triton bellowed, Instantly, the girls straightened themselves in a line. "Please try to show some dignity in front of Ariel's prince."
"Sorry, Father," they said in unison, lowering their heads.
"So, this is my family," Ariel said. "From oldest to youngest, Attina, Alana, Adella, Aquata, Arista, and Andrina. She pointed to each sister in turn.
"Sorry if I mix your names up at all, Eric said to the girls. "The fact that they all start with 'A' is a little confusing."
"Annoying, isn't' it?" Andrina said dryly.
"I think it's amazing," Eric replied, smiling at the sister with the purple tail.
"I think we need to go back to our castle in Atlantica," said Aquata. "My face is drying out with all of this sunlight. It's not good for my skin. I need to moisturize."
Attina rolled her eyes. "You and your beauty cremes."
"I wanted to thank you, Prince Eric," said King Triton. "You defeated Ursula and saved the ocean from a terrible tyrant."
"Ursula?" Eric asked.
"The sea witch," Ariel said helpfully.
"Oh! She told me her name was Vanessa."
After Ariel's family swam back into the sea, Eric and Ariel walked along the beach.
"Mr. Grimsby will be worried about you, Eric," she said.
"I know it's selfish, but I don't care," said Eric. "I want to spend the rest of the morning hearing your entire story."
And so, Ariel told him. She told him about how she had always longed to learn more about the human world. She told him about how her mother had died in a boat accident, causing her father to ban merpeople from the surface. She described her collection and he told her the names of some of the treasures she had collected. She told him about seeing the fireworks from his boat, climbing up onto the side, and seeing him for the first time.
"Right then, I knew I was in love with you. I couldn't believe how handsome you looked dancing around with Max among all of the other humans. And then I heard you talking about finding the girl of your dreams and all I wanted was for that girl to be me."
Ariel told him about the storm. She talked about the way he had begun to sink to the bottom of the ocean. "I couldn't let you die." she said.
"And then, you sang to me on the beach?" Eric asked.
Ariel smiled. "Yes. You opened your eyes and touched my hand…" Ariel trailed off. "And then I had to swim away before someone saw my fins. Father says that if man were to ever catch a mermaid, they would kill us."
"And I searched for you in all of the wrong places," said Eric, squeezing Ariel's hand. "All that time, you were right there in the ocean."
"Sebastian tried to convince me to stay in the ocean. He even sang a whole song about it, but my heart kept telling me I had to get to the land again." Ariel leaned her head on Eric's shoulder. "I needed to find you."
As she continued her tale, Eric began to understand the rest of the story. She had gone to the sea witch. The witch gave her three days to kiss him or she would have to return to the ocean, her life belonging to Ursula.
"It may have been a stupid choice to make a deal with such an evil woman," Ariel said. "Even though my father had more power than her, he didn't understand why I loved you. I went to the sea witch kind of just to make him angry." She sighed. "But it didn't work out that way. I didn't realize how much my daddy loved me until he signed his name over mine on Ursula's contract and took my place. He was willing to sell his life to save mine."
"So, you came to the shore and that's when I found you," Eric said.
Ariel laughed and explained all of the funny things that had happened over their short time together. She told him about her friend Scuttle and the dinglehopper and the snarflat, she told him how much she loved dancing and how much she had wanted to kiss him in that lagoon.
"All of the fish and birds and other animals around us were singing, you know," she said.
"I thought I heard something!" Eric said with a laugh. "What was the song about?"
Ariel smiled. "Kissing." She laced her fingers through his. "They were trying to tell you to kiss me."
Eric stopped walking and faced Ariel. "I can't say no to that."
He leaned down and kissed her red lips. Ariel kissed him back, wrapping her arms around his neck. With one arm securely around her waist and the other on the back of her head, he pulled her closer to him.
"Eric!"
Ariel and Eric jumped apart at the sound of someone approaching. It was Grimsby and Carlotta. Ariel tucked her hair behind her ear and gave Eric a nervous smile.
"Eric!" Grimsby called again. "You're alive! And you," he said to Ariel. "It's nice to see you on two legs again, young lady."
"Thank you, Grimsby," said Ariel.
"You can speak!" Carlotta and Grimsby said at the same time.
Together, Ariel and Eric pieced together their story for Grim and Carlotta. When they were finished, Carlotta was dabbing her eyes with her apron and Grimsby was grinning broadly.
"Well, Eric, it seems to me as though it's time to plan another wedding. Princess Ariel of Atlantica is a much better match for you than that…. creature."
"Ariel is the only match for me, Grim," Eric said, taking Ariel's hands in his. "She is the one I've been searching for. She is my rescuer. And I will love her forever."