"Ariel's Foot-Notes"

It has just been a week since Ariel and Prince Eric got married, but Ariel believed there were still had a few things she wanted to learn. Being a mermaid, she never got completely used to her feet during the period of Ursula's spell since she only had 3 days. So now she was free of fins and now walking like a completely different creature with these 2 new appendages that seemed so new and mysterious to her.

One afternoon, Ariel was just sitting on her bed staring at her bare feet, wiggling her toes in the air like she just didn't care. That was when Prince Eric came in. "Hey honey, what's the matter?" he asked. "Oh nothing" she replied. "I'm just still getting used to these feet of mine. I'm just so curious about feet. How do they work? What do they hide? What's there to learn about them?" Surprised by the former mermaid's question, Eric smiled and put his arm around her shoulder. "Oh Ariel, you know when you walk from place to place?" Ariel nodded yes. "And how about when you wiggle your toes like you're doing right now?" She and her toes nodded yes. "That's how they work; they get you from place to place and provide amusement when you wiggle your toes."

That was one question solved for her. "Ok then, is there anything about them that can be considered interesting or unusual?" she then asked. Prince Eric thought for a moment, and then he began pulling off his boots. "What are you doing?" asked Ariel all perplexed. Eric then placed his now-bare feet on Ariel's lap. "Here's something interesting AND unusual: grab one of my feet and sniff it." "What??" "You'll see…" he insisted. She took his left foot, sniffed it, and… "Peeyoo!! That is a horrible smell coming from your foot!" she shrieked in disgust. "Yeah, feet can also smell bad."

"Well enough about that how do you make them change color?" Now this question seemed the oddest of them all. "Change color?" "Yeah, your butler, Grimsby, seems to have a different color of feet than your and mine. They're so grayish white, and they don't even look like they're made of skin like ours." Eric began to understand where she was getting at. "Hey Grim!" shouted Eric out into the halls. At that moment, Grimsby came running into the room. "Is something the matter my boy?" asked the harried butler. "Nothing really, but can you help Ariel with something?" "What does she need help with now? We've already gone through most of the things she'll need to use once she becomes a queen." "She just wants to see your foot for a moment." Grimsby then felt all gypped. "Ok… but make it quick" he sighed. Ariel then grabbed one of Grimsby's long, scrawny legs and looked at it. "Just don't tear my stockings dear" he told her. "Stockings?" she asked. "Is that what you call these odd legs?" "Odd legs?!" gasped the old butler in confusion and annoyance. "That's what she needs help with. Grimsby let Ariel see your stockings. Take off your shoes and show them off." By now, Grimsby was getting sick of this. "I have no time for this Master Eric!" "Come on now, or I'll tell the chef that you were the one who ate nearly half of those cream puffs before the banquet started last Tuesday…" Eric warned. Grimsby sighed and removed his fancy buckled shoes and revealed his stocking feet. Ariel seemed so amazed by these stockings. "They feel like they are a different layer of skin on top of the existing feet!" She exclaimed. "But where are your toes?"

"I can also take these stockings off" replied an all-of-a-sudden-in-the-mood Grimsby, he then removed one of his stockings and wiggled his toes on both his bare foot and his stocking one. He showed them to Ariel, but she held her nose. "These feet smell even worse than yours do Eric!" Everyone laughed. "Would you like to try on a pair of stockings, Miss Ariel?" Grimsby asked. He reached into a drawer and gave her a pair of silk stockings, which she immediately put on. They felt so strange on her, she felt like her feet were being trapped in a net when she wiggled her toes in them. She took them off and found that her feet began to smell just as much as Eric's and Grimsby's.

"I guess that's everything I need to learn about feet, right?" said the satisfied Ariel. "Not yet…" said Eric with a mischievous smile. "Give me your foot for a second, there's one last thing you need to know about feet…" She did so, and Eric began to run his fingers down her soles which made this funny tingly feeling go through her like a sting of a jellyfish. She began bursting with laughter to this new feeling, "Hahaha, what IS this-hahaha new fe-hehe-ling?" "It's called tickling" replied the rascally prince. "Oh yeah? Well then, I'm gonna do that to YOU now!" Ariel said as she grabbed Erics foot and started tickling it. Eric howled with laughter when the tables were turned on him. Grimsby began walking away while the two young lovers were busy tickling each other, but then he was grabbed by them and was immediately part of the tickle fight. After all this, you can say that Ariel was given a lot of FOOT-notes!

THE END