He watched her. Beautiful in a worn, earth-stained gown, barefoot on the parched land of her father, she walked gracefully, singing lowly under her breath. Skin like rose quartz, a clear pink-white unmarred by her life of servitude. Crimson locks cascading down her curvaceous, if not malnourished, figure. Her heart-shaped face smiled easily, her lips plump and inviting, white teeth showing beneath the dusky-rose of her smile. She was beautiful. She was perfect. She belonged to him.
The shadow approached her, softly, silently. She did not even notice him until he was but a few feet away. She started when his darkness fell across her. At least two heads taller than her, the top of her head barely reached his shoulder. Though he looked unnaturally thin, a power beyond the physical lurked about him, as though he were Hades himself, a god among shadows. A sleek black cloak of made of closely woven wool, shielded him from further scrutiny of his physique, but underneath a fine black fedora artfully placed upon his crown was something she could not overlook. A mask of shining white porcelain covered his entire visage; it was in such contrast to his shadowy form that she was momentarily dazzled by the sight of it. But beyond even this were the most unusually colored eyes she had ever seen. Yellow-gold, like a wolf's eyes staring keenly at her own, and a tenderness she did not know could be expressed by the eyes alone, radiated from them.
Nothing in his appearance or demeanor prepared her for his voice. "Hello, Ariel." Sweeter than honey, deeper and smoother than butter, a tenor beyond mortal comprehension, the awesome beauty and power overwhelmed her. All Ariel knew was she never wanted to hear any other voice again, for it would sound gritty and flat in comparison. She attempted to collect her thoughts, "H-how did you know…my name?" she managed her senses still besieged. A sorrowful gleam entered his eyes as they gazed into hers, suddenly he didn't seem the powerful shadow prince he had been a moment before. He was vulnerable, almost childlike, with the hopeless despair of a much older man…
Then he returned to the dark angel, and answered in his divine voice. "My name is Erik… Just Erik for the present, once when your father was still the Marquis he became fatally ill, my father, the apothecary, cured him for the price that when the Marquis had a child, that they would marry his child." He looked into her eyes and saw the panic, the confusion, and hastened "Wait a moment, Ariel, let me finish…" she looked up relieved there was more to the tale, and his despair intensified.
"My father died before I was born; the fever took him, so my mother was charged with my care. There were complications…" he indicated the mask with a bitter air. "My mother was terrified that your parents would call off the engagement if they knew the truth, so she hid the truth from them for seven years. Eventually, you were born after a few years, and your parents insisted we meet. The instant they saw me, the engagement was off. Who would give their only daughter to a monster?" he let out a sorrowful sigh. "I didn't care about getting married at seven, so this didn't truly bother me, but I was curious about the girl I couldn't marry. I followed your parents as they hurried away, keeping to the shadows. Finally I came to your house and looked in your window… you were three, maybe four, and I fell in love with you the moment I saw you."
He gazed into her eyes for a moment, and at last she recognized that tenderness she saw in his eyes. She looked away; uncomfortable she could not return the sentiment. "I watched you for two years, mostly at night yet sometimes in the day, and what I saw I did not like… Your father squandered his money gambling and so sold you to a much grimmer proposal. That boy, De Chagny, was your new betrothed." She shivered knowing to what he referred. Raoul had hated her for most of their early life, taunting her about her status, pulling her hair, the meanest things a boy that age could do. He was two years older than her yet he acted as if he owned the world, including her. Lately though, he practiced a new kind of torture. If she did not fulfill her parents' promise, he would seize their land, throwing them at the mercy of the streets to starve. He wanted her in the most basic and hurtful way. "I hated that boy." He growled, and she saw skeletal hands ball into fists, "I wanted him dead for treating you any less than the angel you are. So I resolved to save you.
"When I was nine, I ran away from home to seek my fortune, and your hand. For I knew that to your father the glint of gold would pacify his fear, I knew his greed as it had been your prison could be the keys to free you. I wandered for many years, have endured many horrors, and gained many riches. So I return to you, thirteen summers hence to ask for your hand. So allow me to make you an offer… I require nothing from you neither dowry nor carnal pleasures, only your company. In return, I will give your family enough wealth to last them till the end of their days, and secure their land. You will have riches as yet beyond your imagination, and I will be your obedient slave. I love you, I want only your happiness, and I seek to hand you the keys to your freedom. Be my bride and I will be your slave." He swept gracefully to the ground on his knees he calmly whispered "Will you marry me?"
Ariel did not know what to say, she merely gaped at him. He said he loved her, made her an offer she could not, in good faith, refuse. He was giving her everything, and he did not even request his husbandly rights in return. But giving him her freedom, entering into a life of unrequited love, was it worth it? If she refused him Raoul was to be her betrothed, and that meant a life of terrorized itemized existence. However, if she accepted there was no hope for romance as he wished it. Only acceptance, and kindly pity maybe even mutual respect, but fairy tale love would be lost forever.
There was only one choice…
"I will." Ariel breathed, softer than a rustle in the grass, and as she did a ring of frigid metal encircled her finger bound by metal and oath, her chains held in the hands of a stranger, she wept.