Chapter Text
Ariel sat on the deck of the ship, a small shell in her hands to keep them busy. Her eyes never drifted away from her new husband for long. He was magnetic and everything he did intrigued her. She watched as he captained their ship, his strong hands turning the wheel as his muscles flexed under his shirt. Ariel bit down on her lower lip as she watched him carefully navigate over the waves. Eric caught her eye from across the deck, winking in her direction. Ariel flushed and looked away, having been caught ogling.
Eric chuckled. He kept his eyes on her, hoping to catch her eye. When she looked back up, he nodded his head, gesturing her over. Ariel made her way to him, slipping her arm around his waist when she got close enough.
“How’re you doing?” Eric asked, tugging her closer and pressing a kiss to the top of her head. “Missing the land, yet?”
“Oh, please,” Ariel giggled, rolling her eyes as she tucked her head under his chin. “I’m more comfortable on the water than you will ever be.”
“Is it much different? Seeing it from above?”
Ariel shook her head, at first, but then nodded after a moment. “A little. It all looks the same up here. It’s hard to know exactly where we are. Down there, everything is so different. I wonder how I can explain… remember our day in the village?”
“How could I forget?” He laughed, his mind already replaying the scenes from their day spent exploring.
“The land was different everywhere we went, right? Like, the mountains were different from the beach and the beach different from the market and the market different from the lagoon… it’s exactly like that under the water. You can tell where you are by the coral that’s growing or the seaweed or the other animals. Even the mermaids that you see are different.”
Eric nodded. “I see. I suppose that makes sense.”
“How can you tell where we’re going up here? I mean, how can you be sure we haven’t been going in circles all afternoon?”
Eric put a hand on his chest, playfully affronted. “You don’t trust me to take you where we need to go?” He asked, the hint of a smile on his lips. “Oh, ye of little faith.”
“Stop it,” Ariel laughed, shoving him playfully. “I trust you. I’m just curious.”
“The sun is a great guide,” he told her, pointing up at the sky. “It rises in the east and sets in the west so we can tell which direction we’re headed. Plus, I’ve got my compass.” Eric held the compass out to her. “Have you ever seen one?”
Ariel inspected the compass in his hand. She’d had hundreds of human treasures in her grotto and a compass had definitely been one of them. This compass, however, was different. “I’m not sure. None of mine have that moving part…”
“The arrow always points north,” he explained. He turned the compass this way and that so she could see the arrow continue to stick north. “So, if we need to go south, we can glance at the compass and make sure the arrow is pointing behind us.”
“How do they figure that stuff out?” Ariel asked, her mouth slightly agape.
“Science, I suppose,” Eric shrugged. He pressed another kiss against her temple. “We’re close to shore. Are you ready?”
“I guess so,” she nodded. She ran her hand up and down his back as she looked across the sea towards the land. “Have you been to this island before?”
“Once, a long time ago. It was the strangest thing, the last time I was here…” he trailed off, readjusting the ship’s wheel to stay the course.
“What was so strange about it?” Ariel asked, already intrigued. She stood on her tiptoes, her eyes wide, ready to take in any and all information he would give her.
Eric glanced down at her and the look on her face brought a smile to his own. He pinched her nose, playfully, between his thumb and forefinger. “That is a story for another time,” he said, giving her a quick kiss.
Ariel’s nose wrinkled as she dropped back down to her flat feet. “But I want to hear it now,” she half-pouted. Eric chuckled.
“No time,” he said, pointing towards the shore. “We have to get going. Why don’t you gather up our things while I get us anchored and then we’ll make our way to land?”
“I guess I can do that,” Ariel sighed. She threw one last look over her shoulder at him before disappearing below deck. Eric watched her go and then let out a breath that he hadn’t been aware he was holding. Ever since they got engaged, he knew that this was where he was going to take her for their honeymoon. This island was his island. When he was a baby, his family had gotten in a shipwreck, leaving him stranded on another island. Luckily, they’d taken him in at the palace and raised him as their own. But, as he grew and became more and more curious about the world, his father had filled him in on his history.
After the shipwreck, they’d been able to recover many items from the boat and were able to figure out where they’d been coming from. As it turned out, they were from a neighboring island. Eric’s father was the captain of a trade ship. His mother had been traveling with him as she was due to give birth. Shortly after Eric had been born – a few days, based on when he was found – the ship had wrecked. He’d been put in a lifeboat that had made it to shore. Later that day, the king had gotten into a boat, hoping to find and rescue any other victims of the shipwreck. Instead, they’d found another boat filled with wreckage from the ship, including maps and books with information about the other sailors on board.
When Eric turned thirteen, the King and Queen gave him the maps that had been found from the shipwreck and they’d taken him home. He’d felt a deep connection to this island and, when he’d met Ariel, all he wanted to do was take her there. He hoped that she’d enjoy exploring it with him. It had been nearly ten years since he’d last been here and he couldn’t wait to discover all there was to know about the place that he would’ve grown up in.