anneoftheisland

Current Location: the small waterfall

Entry tags:

ariel,
in-game

picnic

Normally Anne's picnic basket held all her worldly belongings, ever since she'd fled her home ahead of the storm, but today she'd stowed all of those things beneath Ariel's bed so that she might use the basket for its intended purpose: a picnic. She'd needed to take a trip down to the small waterfall anyway, to determine whether Matthew's apple tree had survived the storm, so she thought it might be lovely to make a day of it with her new friend Ariel.

"Have you been here before?" Anne asked her, pushing through the last underbrush blocking the path. "Oh, I'm sure you have, you were on this island long before I was, but this is one of my very favourite places."

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Anne felt her cheeks go hot. "Oh, I couldn't do that!" she said. "Let everyone see my underthings? Oh, I couldn't! What if someone else should come along and see us?"

Ariel looked confused. "Why? I go swimming and people see me all the time..."

Anne tried not to look as shocked as she felt, for she had encountered a great many new things here, and she'd certainly seen any number of people walking around in dress she would never have considered herself. Her own standards had already become markedly different as well, thanks at least in part to the continuous heat.

"We don't do that, where I come from," she explained finally.

Somehow Ariel thought Anne must be disappointed in her, and her face fell a little. "But I don't...well I don't understand. What do you swim in?" None of the humans had said anything about what she swam in before, excepting when she didn't know to wear the bottoms as well and Dean teased her for it.

"My swimming costume would cover my body," Anne explained to her awkwardly. "It's not... proper, where I come from, to do that, particularly around men. Even the things I'm wearing now--" Said things consisting of a skirt the fell just below her knees, and a short--sleeved blouse. "--they would be considered improper."

"I like your clothes," Ariel said, sounding a little glum. She didn't want Anne to think she was improper.

"Oh, and I like yours," said Anne. "I hope you're not disapointed that this is difficult for me. I'm trying very hard to learn new ways of doing things, but it's very hard to unlearn what I've learnt all my life."

Ariel found she could understand when Anne put it like that. She nodded, looking sympathetic. "It was the same when I came here, I think I've just been here so long now that it doesn't bother me so much anymore. But where I come from this," she said, pulling at her shirt, "is too much. I'm used to only wearing a bra of shells and that's it. And in fact men wear nothing at all."

"Nothing at all?" said Anne, truly shocked this time. "Oh, I can't even imagine that." And truly, she couldn't, never having seen a fully-grown man unclothed. "You must come from a very different place than I do."

"Yes, I..." Ariel's reply was cut off as she realized she hadn't even told Anne yet. And suddenly she felt she almost dreaded it, especially after Regina's reaction. Of course, Anne would never be like that, but it was still a little intimidating. "I used to live in the sea," Ariel finally admitted, her voice going quiet. "I was a mermaid."

Anne's eyes grew very wide. "You were a mermaid?" she said in astonishment. "I didn't even know mermaids were real, I always thought they were just sailors' tales. Of course I hoped that they were real because it's a very romantic notion, don't you think? Oh, but why are you not a mermaid now? For I'm very certain that right now you are entirely human."

"Romantic?" Ariel repeated in a small voice, blushing a little. She didn't know how being a mermaid would be romantic of all things. "You believe me, then?" she pressed, coming to a standstill.

"Well, why would you lie to me?" Anne asked her simply. "I have no reason not to believe you, Ariel. What was it like?"

Ariel felt relieved and a little foolish as well. She shouldn't have thought Anne would doubt her. "It was...normal?" she replied, at a loss. "I don't know how to explain it, really. I could breathe water and air before, now I can only breathe air. And now that I'm human I can't open my eyes in the water or speak with the fish."

"That must be difficult for you," said Anne, still awed by the very idea. "That's much more difficult than just going from one place to another, when your entire way of life is suddenly different!"

"It was difficult, but I've been here for a long time and I feel much better about it now," she said, trying to play it off as nothing. It wasn't, not really, but she was reluctant to bring it up and let all those emotions back to the surface. She kept walking, she could hear the waterfall coming up.

"Well, perhaps with a little bit more practice, I can learn to swim like you do," said Anne. "It will take some time to get used to it, I think."

"It's so much fun, Anne," Ariel said, sounding wistful, and reached out to take her friend's hand. "It isn't the same but it's as close as I can get."

"Well, nothing's quite the same here, but we all make do," Anne agreed. "And some things, some things might even be better."

"Like what?" Ariel asked curiously. She knew there were things she liked better about being human, but she wondered what was different about this land in particular as opposed to other land.

"Well, if I'd never come here, we'd never have met at all," said Anne, "and that would be a terrible thing, don't you think? Even though I'd never have known that we'd never have met, I imagine there would have always been a little hole in my life where you should have been."

Ariel stared at Anne in wonder. She thought what Anne had just said was possibly the most lovely thing anyone had ever said to her. "Thank you, Anne," she finally managed to say, her voice soft.

"Well, it's only the truth," said Anne, smiling softly and tugging Ariel closer with their linked hands. "Here we are. Now we should find a place to eat our lunch and then perhaps you can go swimming."

Ariel smiled, her shoulder brushing Anne's. "I feel the same way," she said, feeling a great swell of adoration toward the other girl.

"Swimming first and then eating?" she asked, looking hopeful. Ariel sometimes found that the human food made her sleepy and lazy. "And you could at least come dip your legs in, couldn't you?"

Anne blushed and nodded her head. "I could certainly do that," she said. That was something she'd grown comfortable with, during her months on the island. "The cool water would feel very nice today, I think."

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