Melody hovered outside of her grandfather's palace on the porch the next morning, nervously checking over her shoulder towards the door. The door was actually a large clam shell, and Melody thought it was charmingly nautical when she discovered her mermaid heritage three years ago. Now it just looked menacing. She was worried about her parents or grandfather catching her doing what she was about to do.
"Are you sure you want to do this?" Alex asked cautiously. He was floating a few feet away from Melody, who still was on the front porch, not moving.
Melody looked at the door once more and thought about Ariel, Eric, and Triton realizing she wasn't in the palace and frantically searching the seven seas for her. She reached for the barnacle door handle slowly.
Then, she thought about her family allowing this archaic law-forcing her to marry!-to rule her life and transferred her hand from the handle to Alex's hand. "Let's go!"
Alex smiled at their joined hands as he and Melody floated outside the palace gates.
They walked in silence for a few moments until Alex asked, "Do you know where we are going?"
"Welllll…" Melody stammered. "Kind of. It's about a week's journey from Grandfather's palace."
"In which direction?"
"North," Melody answered confidently. "We will go north for a day or two. Then it's, um, west. I think." She paused. "Maybe we should stop in town and buy a map to get there. The headquarters for the Coalition for the Coexistence of Humans and Mers is a popular tourist area; surely we can find a map that will help us get there."
Alex and Melody headed into town. It was late afternoon, and most of the shops were empty.
"Princess Melody! Princess Melody!"
Melody and Alex practically ripped their joined hands apart and turned around. Two mer-teens were standing behind them, looking very excited.
"You are Princess Melody!" shrieked the mermaid on the left. She was thin with curly brown hair. "I'm Ruth, and this is my sister Dania."
"You are our favorite princess!" Dania gushed, squeezing her sister's hand.
This was really bad. Melody mentally berated herself for not creating some sort of disguise. Of course someone would recognize her! There were always articles in the newspapers-gossip rags and actual news-about her and her fellow royal relatives.
"Well, it was nice to meet you." Melody tried turning back to the checkout counter. "We really have to-"
"Who is this?" Ruth interrupted. "Your boyfriend?"
"I didn't know you were with anybody!" Dania gasped. "I didn't see that in Royal Watch." She turned to her sister. "Did you?"
"It's been so great to meet you both," Melody repeated, putting on her best regal voice. If you'll excuse us…"
She and Alex paid for the map and ran out of the shop. Melody collapsed onto a bench, panting.
"Mel-Mel, it's okay," Alex assured her, using his girlfriend's special nickname.
"How can you say that?" Melody asked. "We left home not ten minutes ago, and already someone spotted us. If word gets out that we are together, who knows what will happen? All because of the stupid marriage law." She wiped her eyes.
"Do you want to go back home?" Alex's voice was patient and gentle.
"Go back home?" Melody jumped off the bench and grabbed Alex's hands. "We can't go back home until you and I can be together." She hugged Alex tightly, which he returned.
"So, what is Royal Watch?" Alex asked as they resumed swimming a couple minutes later.
Melody snorted. "It's the gossip section in the newspaper about the royal family. It's always filled with lies."
"I can't believe they would print that in an actual newspaper."
"Neither can I." Melody shook her head and the pair swam on, hand in hand.
"Daddy? Daddy! Where are you?" Ariel frantically swam around the palace, yelling her father's name.
"I'm right here, Ariel." Triton stood up from his seat in the parlor. "Are you okay?"
"Melody's missing!" his daughter answered tearfully.
"Missing! Are you sure? How can she be missing?"
"We haven't seen her since last night. Eric and I looked all over the palace and outside within our gates, and she isn't here."
"Oh, no. I feared something like this would happen." Triton sank back down onto his seat.
"What do you mean?"
Triton sighed. "Well, Ariel, she was clearly upset when we spoke to her about the new marriage law. I'm wondering if she is hiding out somewhere, trying to show us that she won't cooperate with the regulations."
"Hiding out?" Ariel fretted. "Do you mean she ran away?"
"I don't know," Triton admitted. "Anything is possible. You remember what happened before she knew she was half mer…"
Triton and Ariel were silent for a moment as they remembered three years back when Melody ran off to Ursual's evil sister, Morgana, questioning the pendant with her name on it that she'd found under the sea. As they were pondering this, Eric walked in and sat down next to his wife on the sofa, taking her hand as he did.
"Daddy thinks she is hiding out from us," Ariel explained. "Or that she ran away."
"Oh no." Eric ran his hands through his dark hair. "We need to expand our search." He jumped off the sofa and gazed back curiously at his wife, who was still seated and looking pensive. "What are you thinking about, darling?"
"I'm wondering if she's hiding alone."
Triton shook his head. "None of my other grandchildren seem to be missing." A tear dripped down his cheek. "Just our little Melody."
Ariel smiled sadly. "I was just thinking, our little Melody isn't so little anymore. She's fifteen, after all."
Eric gasped. "What are you saying? You don't think…"
"It's possible."
"What is possible?" Triton asked in frustration.
"I'm just wondering if she ran off with someone," Ariel explained.
"Someone like who?" Triton asked suspiciously, ready to punish that person to the severest extent.
"Alex," Eric and Ariel replied in unison.
"Alex?!"
"Melody has had a crush on Alex for a long time," Ariel told her dad.
"And Alex has felt the same way for probably just as long," Eric put in.
"What-what-Alex and…and Melody? Why, I had no idea," Triton sputtered. "All this time."
Despite the frightening situation, Eric and Ariel couldn't resist smiling at the king's bemusement.
"Well, then." Triton stood up, towering over his daughter and son-in-law. "Let's go get those kids back."
"Not so fast, Daddy. Let's go talk to Urchin and Gabriella, see if they can give us any insight. At this point, it's a guess that Melody and Alex are together." Ariel felt a wave of nostalgia, thinking of her old friends, Gabriella and Urchin, who were Alex's parents.
"I haven't seen Alex around at all today, though," Eric put in.
"Well, then, let's go see Urchin and Gabriella!" Triton hugged his daughter tightly.
"It's going to be okay, Ariel. We will find Melody."
Ariel hoped her father was right.
Sorry for the looooong delay, but I'm back! Read and review please.
