Ariel had been stuck in the room for over two hours. She had tried everything- slashing at the door with a sword, hurling chairs at it- she had even tried to yank the door open using her bare hands. Nothing had worked. Ariel was convinced the door had been locked by magic.
So Ariel did the next best thing- she started scouraging the room for the weapon that she had set out to find in the first place. She found many things- magic wands, enchanted jewelry, treasure maps... But the thing was, unlike before, the turquoise gemstone wasn't glowing as brightly. Did this mean the weapon wasn't here?
Just then, the door she had been trying so hard to unlock burst open, and in entered Captain Hook. Ariel immediately backed up, but he grabbed her by the arm and frantically dragged her outside.
Instant pandemonium.
A huge swordfight was taking place on the top deck of Hook's ship. Hook's pirates were battling against a group of young teenage boys. Despite the size and age difference, the boys seemed to be holding their ground pretty well. In fact, one of the boys- a fifteen year old boy wearing a green shirt- was fighting three pirates at once, and yet was still winning.
All that stopped when Hook held up a blade- the thing humans called 'swords'- to Ariel's throat. "Pan!" Hook yelled loudly.
The boy in the green shirt looked up, and his eyes widened. "Now, I don't know if this is one of yours or not," Hook said, jutting his head at Ariel, "But this wench right here- she's a mermaid."
A ripple of hushed whispers spread across the ship.
"And I'm sure, being the moral kind of guy you are," Hook said, pressing the sword even closer to Ariel's throat, "You wouldn't want to see an innocent die. So I'm going to be merciful here, and let all of you and your lost boys go without suffering any consequences. And you will comply, unless you want to see this thing die!"
"My friend is dying, Hook!" the boy called Pan shouted back. "And I'm not leaving without the magic I know you have."
Okay. This whole expedition of hers had suddenly turned into a murder scene. No human, no matter how moral, would just let the hope of saving their friend's life go for the sake of saving someone they had never met before.
Ariel prepared herself. After everything she had been through, this was how she was going to die.
She felt the cold blade dig into her throat.
"Wait!" Pan shouted. The pain in Ariel's neck stopped.
"I-" Pan hesitated. He looked at Ariel, and frowned. Ariel was confused. What was this boy up to? And why was he staring at Ariel like he recognized her?
"Let her go, Hook," Pan said, dropping his sword. "I'll leave, okay? But let her go."
Hook laughed. "You see, Pan, that wasn't part of the deal! The deal was, you leave, and I won't kill this creature. Not 'you leave, and I'll let her go'."
Pan stared at Ariel. He seemd to be trying to tell her something.
"C'mon," Pan said to the rest of the teenage boys. "We're leaving."
Ariel watched in fascination as the boys were lifted into the air by magic. Soon, all of them had flown back to the island of Neverland, leaving the pirates and Ariel aboard the ship in the ocean.
"Well!" Hook said, staring at Ariel. "I have a feeling you and I are going to be friends."
Ariel didn't understand what was going on. All she knew was that Pan had given up something very important to him for the sake of Ariel's safety. And Ariel knew that this act of kindness wasn't random. Pan had recognized Ariel from somewhere. The thing was, Ariel was certain she had never met the boy before.
Whatever had happened, Hook now seemed to think that Ariel was a valuable asset, and began treating her completely differently.
For starters, he had given Ariel her own room aboard his ship, the Jolly Roger, instead of locking her up life before. In fact, Ariel's room was much bigger and much more nicer than all of the other pirates' living quarters combined. Second, Hook had started referring to Ariel as a 'she' and not a 'thing' or 'creature'. And lastly, that night, Ariel was taken out of her room to dine with the Captain himself.
Ariel fell onto the floor as the pirate who had been ordered to bring her pushed her into Hook's dining room from sheer jealousy. Dusting herself off, she got up, and stared at Hook, who was sitting at the end of a very long table.
"Sit," he said, pointing at the chair across from him.
Ariel awkwardly made her way to the table and sat down.
"Wine? Food?" Hook said, gesturing at the lavish meal laid out in front of her. "Help yourself, love," he said, staring at her with curious eyes.
Ariel stared at the human food. She hadn't eaten anything all day. She was starving. But she didn't take anything.
"Rude, aren't you?" Hook said, smiling.
"I don't know who you are," Hook began. "But Peter Pan obviously does. And you must mean something to him for him to give up the chance of taking one of the precious artifacts that I stole. So tell me, how do you two know each other?"
Ariel didn't say anything. Obviously.
"Right, you can't talk," Hook said, just remembering this fact. "Can you write?" he asked.
Ariel slowly nodded. Hook grabbed a scroll from a nearby shelf and pushed it all the way across the long table to Ariel. He them got up, grabbed a quill and a bottle of ink, and walked over to her.
"Let's start simple," he said. "Who are you?"
Ariel didn't move.
Hook took out a weird little stick that seemed to be made of metal. "This," he said, twirling the stick around, "Is a pistol. If I were to pull this trigger, this thing would shoot a tiny little ball of lead straight into your heart at the speed of 2600 feet per second. So I would answer my question if I were you."
Ariel felt her heart pounding. There would be no harm in writing her name down, would there?
Ariel.
She wrote her name down on the piece of paper, and showed it to the pirate.
Hook's face turned pale. He stared at Ariel with wide, horrified eyes. He got up, knocking down a row of chairs. Not taking his eyes off of her, the pirate stumbed out of the room, leaving Ariel confused and alone.