Poor Unfortunate Soul (An OUAT Fanfiction)

9: She Who Holds Her Tongue

*A/N: Yes, as a matter of fact, I did use a bit of the song from Disney's "Little Mermaid" in this part. I figured it for a nice throwback to the "traditional" fairytale, much like the actual show. -KM

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Enchanted Forest

"Nearly there, your Highness!" Giles whispered to the barrow full of burlap sacks.

He had tucked Ariel into it, and saturated the sacks so that she could at the very least breathe. In this manner he brought her all the way to a small cove enclosed in the hanging branches of a weeping willow.

"We have arrived, princess," he told her, pulling off the bags to expose her face.

"Leave me here," she instructed. "Wait outside."

Giles hesitated. "Are you sure?" he asked.

Ariel nodded, "Go now." She didn't want him to see how terribly desperate she had become.

The minute Giles withdrew, Ariel practically threw herself out of the barrow and to the water's edge. Her gills flared open wide as she gulped the life-giving water.

A raspy cackle caused her to pause.

"What's the matter, little fish?" A wheedling voice asked, "can't get enough?" Rumplestiltskin appeared behind her.

"Please! I c-can't—I c—I c-can't—" She said no more, only showed him the wide swatches of human skin peeling off her mermaid scales.

Rumple shrugged. "That's no problem dearie! There's water right there."

Ariel shook her head, "No—I—I—want—I wa—t-to—stay!"

The dark imp shook his head. "I'm afraid that wasn't part of the bargain, dearie."

Ariel gripped his dirty hand. "Please! I'll make a new bargain! I'll give you anything!"

"Anything? Are you sure? You've already given me your voice."

Ariel shook her head as skin from her neck sloughed off. "Something else!"

Rumplestiltskin shook his hand loose. He stared hard at the dying mermaid who insisted on remaining near the water but not in it. After a moment, his obsession with bargaining overcame his loyalty to bargains already made. "Oh, very well." He snapped. "A new bargain: I will give you another potion—in return for something only you can get me."

The skin on her arms hung in tattered ribbons. Frantic, she heaved, "Name it!"

Rumplestiltskin indulged in a victory jig. He cackled before stating, "Summon Ursula to me."

Ariel gasped so furiously that she had to dunk her head underwater for several moments to recover herself. She pulled her head up and glared at Rumplestiltskin, fire smoldering in her sea-green eyes. "You wretched being!" she seethed. "You would ask me to place the most valuable creature in Undersea, The one in my father's protection, in the hands of the Dark One?"

Rumplestiltskin shrugged disarmingly. "You want to be human; I want the cuttlefish."

Ariel withdrew somewhat. "It is not in my power to give."

The imp leaned closer and wagged a finger at her. "But you are the only one with the power to summon it!" Ariel still hesitated, so he prompted her some more. "Hurry, little fish-maid! You will have to dive soon!"

Ariel suddenly picked up her head and a small smile played at the corners of her lips as she said, "I cannot summon it without my gift."

Rumplestiltskin's mouth twitched, and he looked close to furious. "Oh! So that's the way you want to play, is it?" he snarled. "So bold for one so small!"