Two days had passed since Ariel's very strange dinner with Hook. The moment she had given him her name, he had frozen up, and had left the room in shock. Ariel had spent the past two days holed up in her lavish room, wondering what that had been all about.
Suddenly, she felt a lurching motion. Ariel stumbled her way to the window, and saw the the ship was rising into the clouds. The pirates had lifted the ship into the air- getting ready to pillage another realm, not doubt.
Was Ariel's mission simply futile? Had she made a mistake, thinking that she could save her kingdom?
And what about that boy called Peter Pan? Why had he looked at Ariel so strangely, like he recognized her? And what did Hook have that could save Pan's friend's life?
Three hours passed, and the ship landed with a splash in the water. Ariel looked outside. They weren't in Neverland, but they weren't in her realm, either. The skyline was full of castle towers made of glittering gold. It was a human kingdom, but its atmosphere was tingling with magic. Then Ariel noticed three ships sailing towards the Jolly Roger. They had flags drawn onto their sails- Ariel recognized the shapes and colors. Those were navy ships, sailing at full speed towards them.
One of the pirates sounded an alarm. Ariel heard shouting and the stomping of feet. She kept staring intently out the window. What was this place? It had magic and humans, just like Ariel's realm, but unlike her realm, the humans of this place knew how to wield magic.
"Raise the white flag, men!" Hook's voice ran throughout the ship. It had seemed that the pirate captain had regained his unconsciousness after all. There were several cries of protest, but Hook silenced them and continued ordering his men to raise a flag of surrender.
Ariel opened up her room window, and a burst of magic tingled throughout her body. At least there was one good thing about being in this realm- Ariel's magic was much more stronger here than it was in Neverland. The air here felt much more familiar.
Ariel watched as the navy soldiers swung aboard Hook's ship. Each of them carried large metal sticks- guns, Ariel realized. All of them also had long swords strapped onto their waists. A tall man with brown hair was one of the first to jump aboard the pirate ship. He was wearing a large captain's hat, and he was undoubtedly the one in charge.
Curious, Ariel slowly exited her room.
"Drop your weapons!" the captain of the navy ordered. The pirates reluctantly set their swords on the ground, glaring at muttering at Hook.
"I'm surprised, Hook," the captain said. "You never surrender. What changed your mind?"
Hook smiled with an evil glint in his eyes. "Don't be so hostile, brother," he said to the navy captain. Brother? It seemed Ariel was not the only one who had been surprised by this news. Several of the other pirates began whispering in hushed voices. "Silence!" Hook yelled. The whispers stopped.
The navy captain smiled grimly. "You may think you're some great adventurer, Hook, with all your pillaging and stealing, not to mention your ridiculous jokes, but at the end of the day, you have no power over the king's navy. Give yourselves up willingly, and I wlil make sure that you are not killed, brother. though the same cannot be said for your men."
That was when Ariel noticed one of the navy soldiers bringing out a tiny little herb- with a start, Ariel realized it wasn't an herb at all. It was a deadly poison that grew at the bottom of the sea. It could leave a mermaid incapacitated for hours- Ariel didn't want to even imagine the horrors it could inflict upon a human.
The soldier slowly brought forth a small little blade. As the navy captain continued to distract Hook, the soldier holding the poison smushed the marine plant all over his blade. Ariel realized what the soldier was going to do a split second before it happened.
Concentrating on the air around her, Ariel brought forth the magic around her. She directed it all onto that tiny blade- the blade which had just been thrown by the soldier and was flying straight into Hook's heart. As horrible as Hook was, Ariel wasn't just going to sit by and watch a murder occur.
The direction of the wind shifted slightly, and the blade veered off course, imbedding itself in Hook's leather coat instead of his heart.
With a start, Hook jumped away. At the same time, the soldier who had thrown the knife must have realized something had went wrong. In less than five seconds, all the navy soldiers' weapons were pointed at Ariel, who had been standing unnoticed right in front of her room door the entire time.
Ariel froze. She didn't move, though she knew she could deflect any weapons thrown at her with magic if she wanted to.
"Stand down, men," the navy captain ordered. "She is just an unfortunate girl who has been pulled into my brother's crew at the wrong time."
So they didn't realize, then. They hadn't realized that it had been Ariel's magic that had veered the poisonous blade off course. Well, the soldier who had thrown the blade knew there had been magic at work, but the other soldiers didn't. And Ariel wanted to keep it that way.
"You were going to have me killed?" Hook said in disbelief. The young navy captain smiled. "Tell me, brother, why did you surrender and invite us on board in the first place?" the captain asked. "So that I could kill you, of course!" Hook answered immediately. "Exactly," the navy captain replied.
"Come down here, girl. We can get you to safety," the navy captain said. not taking his eyes off of Hook.
As Ariel slowly walked down the stairs, she realized she had to make a choice- it was either her safety or the weapon that could save her kingdom. The gemstone suddenly felt heavier in her pocket.
Ariel felt Hook's gaze upon her as she stood next to one of the navy soldiers. There it was again- that look of recognition.
"Take these dirty pirates aboard my ship, and get the girl to safety. As for my brother, leave him to me," the navy captain said, as he raised his sword up in the air and swung it down upon Hook.
Human ignorance. A weakness that they all possessed. Their underestimation of Ariel just made everything so much more easier.
The tide rose up, rocking the ship and tipping all of its contents towards the edge of the ship. The swrod the navy captain had been holding dropped into the ocean. Ropes of seaweed crawled up the Jolly Roger and entangled not only the navy, but Hook and his men as well. Soon, Ariel was standing at the center of the ship, with almost sixty men wrapped around the ship's mast and walls.
Ariel looked around. All the men were tied up- all, except for Hook.
Ariel turned around, and wasn't surprised to see the one handed man staring at Ariel in fascination. Ariel wondered how he had avoided Ariel's spell. She didn't have to wait long to find out the answer. In his one hand, Hook wore a black stone ring. And that ring was unleashing all kinds of dark protection magic. At that moment, the turquoise gemstone in Ariel's pocket began glowing so brightly that is literally burned Ariel's skin.
There was no doubt about it. That ring was the weapon that would save Atlantis. Only problem? It was attached to a murderous pirate who was absolutely immune to Ariel's magic.