Once We are Descendants

Chapter 2: I Want to Know More

Over the next week or so, Mal was spending more and more time away from her friends and keeping to herself.

"Hey Melody," Mal had asked the day after the encounter.

"Yeah?"

"Just curious, how does your mom usually travel around the lands?"

"Why do you want to know?"

"It's... for a report I'm doing..." Mal lied quickly. "I'm asking different kids how their parents like to get around. I mean... Talia's mom usually uses pixie dust, Chad and Ben's parents use a coach, Carlos' mom in a retro car... My mom, if she could, would fly everywhere or teleport."

"Oh... okay, well my mom usually travels by boat, it makes her feel closer to the sea because of the whole mermaid thing."

"So, you've learned how to sail yourself?"

"Yep, I learned how to man a tiller before I could even walk."

"Does your mom still swim?"

"You mean as a mermaid?"

"Both."

"Not really, she can get her tail back if she wants to, but she has to ask my grandpa first. She says she prefers the legs to a tail, that way she's not cheating when we train together. I would still go for the tail, it's so much faster."

"Really?"

"Oh yeah, plus you don't have to come up for air as often. I'd kill for a mermaid swim team here at school."

"Sounds like you really want to have a tail."

"Yeah... I mean I've had one before, but it's not a permanent thing. Mom still wants me to interact with people my own age and not just sea creatures."

"When was the last time you saw her as a mermaid..."

"Umm..." Melody said biting her lip. "I think it was almost two years ago... For my grandpa's 195th birthday."

Mal did her best not to act too surprised because it seems that Ariel might be living a double life. It had definitely been Ariel that she talked to the other night and she was most certainly a mermaid.

"Right I forgot mermaids live so long."

"I got to go too, it was quite the party."

"Gives new meaning to 'Under the Sea' dances," Mal smirked.

"Yeah, I guess. Hey, are you sure you don't want to join the swim team?"

"I'm good thanks," Mal said before walking away.

In her mind, she was trying to process the information. So, Melody's mom doesn't become a mermaid too often and since Melody just came to Auradon Prep, there's no way Ariel could have developed a secret life all of sudden. She remembers talking to this redheaded mermaid and she said that she travelled around a lot... plus she'd never heard of Auradon before. If Melody was coming to this school... how could her mother not know where she was? Could the daughter of Prince Eric and Ariel have run away from home? No that didn't make sense because Mal saw both parents at orientation week... It's not hard to miss the red hair.

Mal wanted more information. A few days later, she began searching the library for anything associated with mermaids or possible other worlds. The problem was, there weren't that many... it's as if Auradon wanted to deny the existence of alternate worlds, in fact in Geography class, there were only so many lands that they studied. The daughter of Maleficent ended up sneaking into a restricted section of the library, which wasn't too hard considering Dreamy... was the nickname given to Sleepy Junior. Sleepy's son was the library assistant and was either doing what his father did best or daydreaming behind the counter. To do this, she used her powers to make a stack of books fall from a table and while everyone was busy picking them up, she picked the lock and slipped inside.