A look of surprise flashed across Ariel's face. "Really?" she asked. Ariel hadn't thought it would be so easy, really, which was why she hadn't tried. She'd resigned herself to the notion that the animals here did not speak as they had back home. After being asked to leave the pet store months ago for talking to the fish and showing frustration when they didn't talk back, Ariel hadn't really been left much of a choice but to accept the fact. "You can make them talk? I miss their conversation so much," she admitted wistfully.
The smile Maedhros offered was contagious and Ariel returned it in kind. The idea of being able to talk to her true kind again made her very happy indeed.
He led them into the park and Ariel was very familiar with it. When she'd first arrived, she'd returned often. Then it had gotten cold and things had become more dangerous; Ariel had stopped making trips out alone if she wasn't going to work. She stopped taking walks in the park and sitting at the mouth of the pond for hours, missing her friends from home and knowing that they weren't there, no matter how much she wished it.
His question took Ariel off guard. No one had really asked her that here, yet. A small, dopy smile slid over Ariel's lips as she thought back. "Different. Safer," she said. "I didn't have to go to work..." she added, looking up at him. "Everything was relaxed. As much as I enjoy legs, having my fin was a faster way to get around in the sea."
Ariel paused and let out a soft sigh. "I miss my treasure trove," she admitted. The human artifacts had been so much more mystical and exciting when she hadn't known, really, what they were and had had to break the surface to ask Scuttle to explain things. "And I miss exploring," she added, looking down. She hadn't done any of that here, not really. Abby had taken her shopping a few times and that had been an adventure back then, but Abby was gone now and Ariel was afraid a lot after everything she'd been through. Pushing the thought away, she looked up at Maedhros again. "What's it like where you came from?"