She sits on the highest of three rocks, towering above the water surface, looking out on the ship. It's rocking back and forth, and music plays. She sees the lights flicker on the sea water. Oh what she'd give to see them dancing. But humans were dangerous, or so she was told. Not so long ago, she found it was mermaids who were dangerous, especially her kind. Her kind would sing, and lure men in a trap. Taking their lives with a single kiss. It was her sister who showed her how it was done. She'd swam away as her sister sent the lifeless body back to the surface. Now she's sitting on the rock where her sister had sat before, luring one of the men on that ship in a trap. But her intentions were different, she merely wanted to dance with them, learn how humans lived and such.

"Such loud wishes, dearie." A playful voice sounds behind her, she turns around to see a man sitting on a rock lower.

"How did you get here?" She asks, curiosity colouring her gentle voice. "Are you one of the men from the ship?" She leans on her hands leaning closer, squinting to see the man better. In the fade moonlight she sees his skin glistering, not like water has touched it, but more like it's his actual skin that glimmers.

"I am not." He speaks posh, but with an inhuman twist to it. "You have a wish, don't you Ariel?" She nods, carefully. "Something like this?" The man snaps his fingers, and her tail changes in two beautiful human legs, the moment she reaches out for them, smilingly, they change back to her green tail. Confused she looks back at the man. "That's what you want, isn't it?" Ariel nods more confident, her hair falling in her face. She strokes it behind her ear.

"Please." She pleads. The man crosses his legs, giving him a nonchalant look.

"I think we can make a deal."

"A deal?" Ariel questions, she has no memory of ever having to make a deal. Everything was always done for her without giving something in return.

"A deal." The man nods.

"Hold up, I don't even know you." She says, and draws herself back a little upon realising how close she's sitting to him, hooked to the idea of making a deal with him, trading her tail for her legs in exchange of something of hers.

"Ah." The man gets on his feet, bowing down a slight bit. "Rumpelstiltskin." He introduces, smiling, as if proud of his name. Ariel hesitates.

"What would I give you in exchange for legs?" Rumpelstiltskin sits back down.

"A kiss, perhaps?" He suggests. The thought of having to kiss the glistering man's lips repels her, and not even the slightest bit. But for legs, she might.

"Wouldn't a kiss kill you?" Ariel questions, still pondering over kissing the man. Rumpelstiltskin laughs.

"Someone hasn't been told how a siren kiss works, or so it seems." He decides, sitting more comfortably again to explain. "It only works when you want it to, dearie. If you fall in love, wouldn't you want to kiss him without him dying?" Ariel nods. "Exactly. I fear I cannot explain to you how it all works, though." He continues, "But you will know when the time is right. And aside from that, there is a lot more necessary to kill me than just a mermaid kiss." Rumpelstiltskin smirks. "But perhaps your hair would be more use to me than your kiss."

"My hair?" Ariel gasps, reaching behind her to touch her hair. "All of it?" Rumpelstiltskin laughs like a little kid.

"No, crazy. Not all of it. Perhaps like this..." He mutters, softly, the last part being said as if it were meant only for him. He reaches out for her hair and holds it in the middle. If he'd cut it there it would reach until the middle of her spine. No mermaid has ever had her hair this short.

"Okay." Ariel answers, deciding that she'd rather give him her hair than a kiss. Rumpelstiltskin takes out scissors out of nowhere and holds it where he wants to cut it through. "Wait. How do I know you won't break the deal?" He looks up in her eyes, she can tell that her words have hurt him.

"I've only broke one deal in my life and of that I still bear the scar, so I will never again." He assures her. "Your hair for legs, deal?"

"Deal." She replies.

"Deal." He laughs like an excited kid at the word and cuts her hair, whereupon pushing her in the sea. The collision of her body with the surface is painful. Her entire body aches, as if it's making changes that it shouldn't make. She tries to get to the surface, but it's like the sea tries to swallow her, pulling her deeper and deeper, and this until the last thing she feels is water entering her body and the pain knocking her out.

"We found a girl!" One of the sailors runs into his cabin. He turns around to find it's Jack.

"Where are your manners, sailor, knock, wait for an answer, then come in, if I allow you." Killian grunts, holding the bag of ice to his head. He feels as if he's been knocked against the head, even though it's just the alcohol elaborating. Jack leaves the room, closing the door behind him. A small moment later follows the sound of someone knocking the door. "You have got to be kidding me." He sighs, leaving the bag of ice on the desk, opening the door. "What's wrong with this girl?" Killian questions.

"Fear she's dead, Cap." He answers. Killian shrugs.

"Too bad, then." He says, and makes movements to open the door, but the sailor stops him.

"She's also naked."

"Right then, where is this girl?" Jack hides a small smirk and guides his Captain off the ship onto the shore. When he looks on the shore, seeing his men standing in a small circle around a body, he feels like the need to ask where she is, is unnecessary. He steps on the sand. He always hated it how it felt like the sand would like to swallow you, taking you into the earth. Dying by drowning felt like a better way to go.

"Move." He demands, his men make place almost immediately. A pale girl with red hair lays on the sand, she has dried salt on her back, making it obvious that if she's dead, she drowned in the sea. He kneels down, using his hook to move her hair from her face. Her lips are nearly blood red, in contrast with her white face. Thick dark lashes, not red, like her hair. Killian takes his jacket off and lays it over her to turn her around. He takes his hand, searching for a pulse in her neck. "She's not dead, far from, even." He answers, feeling her pulse against his fingers.

"Then why won't she wake up?" Someone asks. Killian shrugs, moving his hand over her face, brushing the sand off the cheek she laid on the beach with. At the touch of his hand with her cheek she opens her eyes suddenly. Sea green eyes, hauntingly beautiful, are staring in his. He quickly looks away from her.

"Told you she wasn't dead." He says, getting up on his feet again. "Miss, you're completely naked." He informs her. She looks down, finding the jacket over her, whereupon she frowns. "Go back to the ship." Killian tells his men. "Now." He demands when they don't react fast enough. They make way back to the ship as instructed.

"Is that your ship?" She asks, sitting up straight, holding the jacket in front of her, looking completely next to him, to his ship.

"It is." He answers, wanting her to talk again with her gentle voice, filled with curiosity.

"Can I see it?" She looks up at him, squinting as she finds the sun behind him.

"Could you perhaps firstly explain to me why you are lying naked on a beach?" She looks away from him to look at her legs, she lets go of the jacket to reach out for her legs, she looks at them as if she's never seen them before.

"I have legs!" She exclaims, and stands up, awkwardly holding the jacket in front of her while trying to look down on her legs. They shake a little.

"Well it's common for a human to have legs." Killian replies, finding the redhead quite strange.

"I've never had legs." The girl says, "I've had a tail." Killian reaches out for her forehead. "What are you doing?" She questions.

"I thought you had a fever, perhaps you're just mad." She pushes his hand away.

"I'm not mad!" The girl yells, giving him a hurt look.

"Says the naked girl who claims she had a tail before she had her legs." Killian smirks. The girl frowns, restraining herself from reaching out and slapping his mocking face. She takes a deep breath, instead.

"I had a tail, I was a mermaid, and Rumpelstiltskin gave me legs." Killian takes a step forward at the sound of his name, standing closer towards her. She even smells like the sea, but the most pleasant smell of the sea. That smell that invites you to jump in the water and take a swim.

"Rumpelstiltskin, huh?" He asks, "Where did he go?" The girl frowns, as if trying to remember, then she carefully shakes her head.

"I don't remember." She answers softly. "He punched me in the sea after he took my hair. He could've drowned me." She notes as she speaks.

"Took your hair? Why?" The girl shakes her head again.

"I didn't ask, I just wanted legs, I wanted to be able to dance, you see." As she speaks she gives him a sweet smile.

"Dance, sweetheart, you can't even stand on your legs properly." Killian laughs. For no reason at all, her sweetness just makes him want to laugh at her even more. But he also notes, that this strange girl with her wide green eyes and sweet smile, is slowly creeping up at him. A feeling he dislikes. But maybe he needs the strange girl to find Rumpelstiltskin.

"I'll learn it." She assures him, to what he nods.

"What's your name?"

"Ariel." The redhead answers.

"Well then Ariel. I'm Killian and I'll make you a deal, I'll teach you to dance, if you help me find Rumpelstiltskin."

"Okay." Ariel smiles. Killian offers his hand, which she takes - still holding up the jacket in front of her with her other arm - and they shake their hands once. He takes off his white shirt and hands it to her, she accepts it, waits for him to turn around. He feels her soft hand on his bare shoulder. "I'm done." He turns around to see her in his white shirt. It had been too big for him, and it was certainly too big for her. She hands him back the jacket. "Can I see your ship now?" She asks. Killian nods, taking a step forward, as she tries to follow him she falls forward. He catches her before she falls.

"Shall I teach you how to walk first?" She smiles guilty and nods. He takes her arm, laying it around his waist. "Just eh..." He falls silent, realising how uneasy it is to explain how you walk. "Do what I do?" He suggests. Ariel laughs softly, a sound he's already came to love.

"All right." She replies, following his step. By the time they reach the small boat that is supposed to bring them to the ship, she manages to walk without tripping. Jack nods at Ariel and she smiles at him, getting help from Killian to get in the boat.

"I'll go first." Killian speaks up once arrived at the ship. "Jack you follow me."

"What about me?" Ariel asks.

"I'm not sure if you noticed, miss, but under that shirt you're still naked." Killian tries to keep the smirk off his face, that will eventually come anyway. He climbs up a little already.

"But I don't know how to climb." She points out, giving Killian a small reminder that she's only gotten her legs just now.

"I can take her on my back, Cap." Jack says. Killian nods, without looking back down at them. Once on deck, his men look at him.

"If any of you peasants touch her in a way she doesn't like it I'll throw you over board, got that?" He can see them nod right before he turns to go to his cabin. A little later someone knocks his door. "In." He answers, whilst looking through his wardrobe. He looks up as the door closes with a soft thumb. Ariel looks around, eventually resting her eyes on Killian. Her lips turn into a sweet smile.

"Nice men you got there." She speaks, breaking the silence.

"That's because I scared them." He answers, taking out another white shirt of his to put on. "I don't have any female clothes, Ariel, I'm sorry." Ariel shakes her head, walking towards him.

"That's okay, just give me trousers or something." Killian smiles a little at himself, wondering why anyone would stuff such beautiful legs in trousers. When he turns around to hand her his smallest trousers, there was no sign on his face that he ever smiled.

"There is underwear in that drawer, just see what fits you." He says. "And Ariel?" She looks up, looking straight into his eyes. He wishes she'd stop doing that. "You can't tell anyone you were a mermaid. Can you promise me that?" She smiles.

"Yes, Captain." He forces on a smile that leaves his face directly as he turns around to leave the room.