Grimsby marched his way through the endless corridors of the palace, holding a huge stack of papers for the king to sign and look over. His feet knew the way by heart, turning from passage to passage in the maze of halls.

In a few minutes, he found himself at the study. Grimsby knocked once on the wooden door. Nothing. He knocked again, this time harder than the knock before. Still nothing. Grimsby waited for a few moments to see if Eric would open the door himself. Nothing. The man sighed and turned the doorknob itself, surprised at the fact that it wasn't locked. He stepped into the room.

Almost immediately, Grimsby practically retched at the smell. It reeked of musty books and unfinished, rotting meals. He looked over at the king.

Eric was sitting at his desk, which was filled with scraps of paper, books, pens, crumbs, and things the old man did not want to even know the identity of. The king had his chin cupped in his hands as he looked at the tiny piece of vellum on his bureau.

He looked a sight too. He was only in his blue cotton pants and white shirt, with no type of shoes or boots on at all. His black hair was hopelessly tangled, and it was obvious that he hadn't combed through it or cut it for months. The king's skin and body did not seem any better. His skin was very pale, almost see-through. His ribs easily showed through his shirt. His arms and legs were fraught with cuts and bruises.

Grimsby hated to see him like this. But he knew Eric's state would probably never change. He had been like this for almost twelve years, after Ariel and Melody had died that fateful year. No one could persuade him to do anything but the necessities- eat, drink, and sleep- and sometimes even those were hard to convince the king to do. Desperately, the old man wanted the former Eric back- the one who wanted to explore the world, meet new people, and see new things. Not sit around in his study all day, reliving memories.

However, he couldn't think about that right now. He had to deliver the legal papers to Eric. Grimsby slowly and deliberately coughed, trying to catch the man's attention. After several coughs, he looked up. He sighed. "What do you want, Grimsby?"

The old man gazed at him sadly. "Some more papers arrived today, sir. You just need to look over and sign a few of them. Then you'll be done," he calmly said.

Eric sighed again and turned back to the scrap on his desk. "Maybe later. I don't have time for them right now."

Grimsby nodded and placed them on the velvet brown couch in the corner of the study, "I'll just leave them here, then, if you don't mind."

The king nodded, having no awareness of what his advisor had just said. Grimsby exhaled, and carefully closed the entrance to the study.

Eric continued to stare at the paper on his desk, thinking intensely. There was a drawing on the paper. It wasn't very good- just stick figures of people, like a first grader had drawn it. In fact, a first-grader had drawn it. Melody had.

He remembered the project well. Melody had talked about it constantly at dinner. The children were doing a unit about families, and were assigned to draw their own as homework. Eric smiled as he recalled the many hours Ariel and him had sat in the living room posing as models for their daughter, the young girl admonishing them if they even moved an inch. And after all her hard work, this is what it turned out to be.

The drawing was of a man and woman standing on the beach, holding hands. Eric recognized himself by the blue lines of his legs and black streak of marker atop his head. He recognized Ariel too, for Melody's attempt at her purple gown, which she had worn on many occasions. He also identified her by the curly lines of red drawn from her head. In the corner of the drawing, by the blue waves of the sea, was Melody herself, one eye facing her parents, one eye facing the ocean. Black lines of hair were drawn from her head, and she was wearing a yellow dress.

Eric pushed his chair back a minute as he contemplated how accurate Melody's drawing of her family was, despite the fact it looked like a cat had somehow had a marker in its hand when it died. It was true, he spent much time with Ariel in those days. Melody was usually off at school or in some kind of lesson. And, as always, the young girl had been obsessed with the sea- for good reason, considering her mother was a mermaid.

Painfully, memories of those years with his daughter and wife streamed into his mind. Snow days, playing in the grass, market visits, and warm nights by the fire with hot chocolate. Then, memories of the birth of his second daughter, Leira, came into his mind. Teaching her his name, along with colors, and numbers. Playing with her. Singing with Ariel to gently lure her to sleep. Melody's fascination in being an older sister. Tears began to fill his eyes as he remembered those wonderful days, however quick they went by. Soon, he was quietly sobbing, wondering how he could have possibly saved his family from their terrible fates.

Silently, Grimsby watched his king from the crack of the unclosed door. His eyes began to fill with tears as well. It looked like all those stacks of papers would not be looked at again today. But that didn't matter. He could wait.

Here it is. The long-awaited chapter! Well, I guess not really... Oh, whatever.

While writing this, I seriously cried. I find that funny. A character that doesn't exist can move me to tears...

Yes, I'm sorry. Melody is dead. How? Well, we'll have to find that out in the next chapters, won't we?

Thanks for reading! REVIEW!