Chapter Two

Melody's eyes drifted towards the window. Outside she could see the sun setting behind the ocean, giving it a warm, soothing glow. She wished she could be there, swimming in the cool water, rather than inside sitting at this stupid desk.

"Melody, what are the top three exports of Tirulia?" her mother repeated gently.

"Ummm," Melody bit her lip as she tried to remember the answer. She scrunched her eyes closed and concentrated. "Fish…cheese…and, um, hang on, it's on the tip of my tongue…"

"Pigs."

"I knew that."

Her mother laughed and put the textbook aside. "You're excited about tomorrow. Aren't you?"

"Definitely!" Melody gushed.

Two years had passed since Morgana was banished away in ice. Two years since the wall between the sea and Tirulia was torn down. Two years since Melody had learned of her true heritage.

Her mother, Queen Ariel, had been a mermaid. She had loved Melody's father, King Eric, a human, so much she made a deal with the sea witch Ursula to trade her voice for legs. Ariel only had three days to make Eric fall in love with her. The two had fallen in love within that time frame, but Ursula had ulterior motives and tried to get between them.

Ultimately, true love had saved the day and the mermaid was given a set of permanent legs. The princess of the sea and prince of the land had married and their happily ever after had brought about Melody.

Born on land, Melody's parents had made a special visit to the ocean after her birth to visit her grandfather, King Triton: a merman who possessed a powerful trident, able to control the waves to his every whim, and ruled over all the seven seas. But Morgana, Ursula's sister, had made an appearance and threatened to feed Melody to her pet shark unless Triton handed over the trident. They were able to defeat Morgana that day, but the sea witch had vowed to avenge her sister and obtain Triton's power.

To protect their daughter, Melody's parents built a wall around the kingdom. But the wall was not enough to keep Melody from the water. The young princess found ways to sneak past the wall and swim for hours. It was on one such excursion she found a locket with her name on it. The locket had been a gift from her grandfather, showing the kingdom of Atlantica. Scared for her daughter, Ariel had refused to explain her past. Wanting answers, Melody ran away and was brought to Morgana who gave her a mermaid's tail. Just like her sister, Morgana had ulterior motives and her sweet demeanor was a trap so Melody would believe the trident originally belonged to her.

Melody had fallen for Morgana's lies hook, line, and sinker. She swam to Atlantica, got the trident, and put it in the sea witch's hands. Morgana only had the trident for a few minutes before Melody was able to snatch it from her and return it to her grandfather. King Triton had dealt with Morgana by freezing her in a block of ice which sunk to the bottom depths of the ocean.

King Triton had then given Melody the option to become a mermaid permanently. Instead, she asked for the wall to be taken down.

The time since then had been great. Melody no longer had to hide her trips to the seaside. She would swim every time she had a free moment. In the morning before breakfast, after breakfast, before lunch, after lunch; Melody would spend the entire day in the water if she could.

Unfortunately, Melody was getting older and that meant she needed more lessons. More lessons meant more studying so her frequent trips to the ocean were slowly having more and more time in between them. There were still days Melody could swim from morning until night to her hearts content. Her parents would come out with a picnic lunch and join her for the meal. Her mother would join her in the water, and only sometimes would her dad jump in.

"Hiya, sweeties!" Scuttle the seagull flew in through the window and made a crash landing on the desk, sending papers everywhere. "Official Post Bird here on official business. Here you go." With his wings, Scuttle took out two scrolls handing them out to each individually.

Melody and her mother took the scroll handed to them. Then they switched after reading the first line.

"Mom, are we done with lessons now?"

"Yes. But before you go, I want to let you know your grandfather agreed."

"Really?" Melody leapt up from the desk. "Wahoo!"

After a quick hug to her mother, Melody ran down the familiar hallways towards the courtyard. As she approached the sand, she discarded shoes, socks, and her outer garment. Within seconds of reaching the beach, Melody jumped into the waves. For a moment, the princess allowed herself to just be in the sea. She made no effort to swim in any direction.

Her attention was diverted as a figure swam beside her, and Melody grinned as she recognized who it was. To the surface she swam, her friend following.

"Hi, Alex," Melody said, once she broke through the surface.

"Hi, Melody," Alex said back.

During Melody's brief time as a mermaid, she had bumped into a few merpeople that were her age. She had bumped into Alex literally, and the group had asked if she wanted to play with them. Since Melody had been on the mission from Morgana, she hadn't been able to. But when Triton had brought down the wall, they had met again. It wasn't until after her mother and grandfather had set up Scuttle to send messages between the land and sea that she and Alex had been able to communicate on a somewhat regular basis.

Girl and merboy dove below the surface. Melody couldn't speak underwater, being half human. Her mermaid side allowed her to hold her breath for longer than a normal human could. Also, the salt didn't sting her eyes and she was able to keep them open for longer than other humans could. Still, Melody had to make trips up to the surface for air. Sometimes Alex would join her or just patiently wait for her to come back down.

It was during one such break they both swam over to the rocks to eat the kelp cookies Alex had brought with him.

"Are you excited for tomorrow?" Melody asked, her mouth full of cookie. "Mom told me told me grandfather said yes."

"Really?"

Alex didn't sound that excited, but Melody paid little attention to that. "Yep," she proudly declared.

"Oh. Well, that's cool, I guess."

Melody smiled as they munched on the cookies and watched the sun set. Eagerly waiting for tomorrow.

Updates should be more consistent from now on. And longer. What happened? I don't know. My guess is I somehow stepped into a time machine and went from back then to now.