Water coursed over her body in the usual exhilarating way. What a pleasure it was to be able to swim as fast and as well as she could, for she could think of nothing that had brought her more joy or convenience. Miles escaped her as she swam, gaps between worlds were made brief and it was all for her joyous disposal. It was however, not often that Ariel was granted company. Her girlish ways didn't make her an ideal companion to many, her love of the human world especially not granting her the company of her beloved sisters. So the young mermaid swam the days away in her own company, exploring the ocean around her and most of all, striving to gather what she could of the human world.

It was not uncommon for Ariel to come upon a ship in her path, though this was an especially exciting time for her. A ship meant men were aboard, and this was something that excited her beyond belief. The men aboard these ships never saw much of Ariel. She wasn't like her sisters who would lure the men into their clutches through their beauty and song. Ariel simply liked to observe, so observe she did. From the water, a safe distance away, she would watch a ship of jolly sailors make their way through her home, the ocean.

Captain Hook, from his position on deck, spotted in the distance the young mermaid through his telescope. He rolled his eyes, not another one, he thought to himself. The girl must've been late to the party, for the Jolly Roger had just nearly escaped a swarm of them the night before.

"Aye, Smee! Warn the men a siren lurks to the east, I'll do my best to avoid her," hand and hook on the wheel he steered his ship as best he could to avoid the distant mermaid. A young one, he observed, keeping a steady eye on her as they approached. She swam to counter them, this worried him further. What was she planning?

"Clear of the mermaid yet, captain?" Smee asked upon his return.

"No," Hook kept his eyes out at sea. "Alas, she's lurking from a strange distance. Far enough off, but I don't trust her."

"Is she beautiful, captain?"

Hook rolled his eyes, taking in the portly man. "Aye, Smee. She's a siren, what else would she be?"

Smee shrugged but the Captain began speaking his thoughts aloud.

"It is rather unfortunate, is it not? That sirens be what they are, sirens. I've seen mermaids that exceed the beauty of the most lovely women on land by tenfold. A shame they couldn't, oh… oh nevermind Smee, is there something else I can do for you?"

"Aye, I mean uh, no sir," the crewman turned to leave his Captain. "Anymore messages for the crew sir?"

Hook tried to regain his thoughts, steady his mind. Were these thoughts the work of the siren? He'd not even heard her song yet. "No, that'll be all for now. Be weary of that mermaid though."

"Aye, captain," and he was gone much to Hook's relief.

Ariel bobbed peacefully in the water, squinting to avoid the sun's glare to get the best view of the humans on board that she could. She wondered if the ship was sinister in any way, not too far off the waters of Neverland a ship with dark sails seemed merely to be circling the island. Curiosity plagued the girl and closer she swam. They seemed altogether harmless, for they had not shown signs of attack yet and she'd been in their line of vision for hours. Her father's warnings overtook her mind as she dipped below the surface to sneak a closer look at the ship. Were they pirates, she wondered, a thought that excited her more than scared her simply because she knew very little of pirates. Her sisters had spoken of them as a nuisance, of blundering fools who were no match for them no matter how much they seemed to think they were. She wanted to be the judge of that herself.

"The siren approaches captain!" Smee ran frantically towards Hook.

"I see her, you fool."

"What do we do, captain?"

"Ignore her."

Smee wasn't sure how to respond. "Um, are you… sure? Last night we… that was a tough battle, captain."

"I'm aware, but this one is alone and she's not a threat to us. Please stop flailing about, will you?"

Smee hadn't thought he was flailing, but he stayed still nonetheless. "How can we be sure captain?"

The captain was becoming increasingly annoyed. "Because," he huffed. "She's not sung yet, none of us has drowned yet. I don't know Smee, have you seen any threat appear? She's only a dozen or so meters off."

"Perhaps she's not a mermaid then, just a girl in the water."

The captain did not respond.

"Please, return to your duties. And forget the sodding mermaid."

Ariel wondered how close was too close, so closer still she swam. Perhaps when danger persides, that's when she'd swim away. She was world's faster than the fastest ship on water, so she was not concerned for her safety.

She began to hum to herself, a habit she'd picked up in her hours spent bobbing above the surface to bathe in the sunshine. Anymore, she didn't notice she did it and, along with that, she didn't notice when her humming became singing of the most exquisite kind. The kind to turn the most sensible sailor, senseless and the kind to turn a wayward captain's hairs on end.

She heard shouting up on deck and she wondered if this was it, their oncoming attack. Lazily she lounged on her back, exquisite tail splashing in the surf before her. Her song continued unbeknownst to her, something she could perhaps credit to her constantly drifting mind.

A man's face suddenly appeared over the railing and she quieted herself with the realization that she'd been caught. Their eyes locked and she wondered if humans were as entrancing to mermaids as mermaids were said to be to humans. She felt as if she couldn't look away from him, even if she wanted to. His blue eyes pulling her in, as if they were the ocean and she were drowning.

She opened her mouth to speak to him, a human. Imagine a conversation with a human as beautiful as he. But just as she did she found herself encased in large net, being hoisted aboard a ship which just seconds ago was a mere fantastical view.

The crew stood around and watched her tail splash violently on the deck.

"We've caught 'er captain!" cheered Smee along with the rest of the crew. The mermaid looked up in horror, silence striking her pale frame as she searched for an inkling of welcome aboard the human vessel.

"Great, what do you plan to do with her now?" sneered Hook, he looked down upon the pathetic mermaid and felt pity for the creature. Why she looked just like a young woman one might see in a nearby village, she was all but a human if you were only to see half of her.

"Captain's orders," Smee giggled as if he had a devious plot in mind, but Hook simply watched her writhing figure slow to a standstill.

"Release her," he said, eyes locked in on the mermaid's. Oh, she was gorgeous, yes. But what use did he have for a gorgeous half-fish woman. And afterall, what harm had she done?

"But captain are you sure?"

Another sailor chimed in. "I was thinking we could slay her sir!"

"Yeah," cheered another. "Show those beasts what we're capable of, send 'em a message!"

The mermaid squirmed about some more. "Can you speak, love?" said the captain disregarding his crew. He knelt down beside her and she instantly coiled away in fear.

"I have nothing to say to the like's of you, you're who my father warned me about. Men like you are renowned among my kind, the true enemies of us all."

"Oh bollocks," laughed Hook, rising to his feet. "Have we a container to keep it?"

The mermaid sucked in a sharp breath of air, the droplets of water that stuck to her skin beginning to chill her along with the ocean's breeze.

"I'm sure we can find something for it, sir."

"Good, fetch it quickly."

Ariel scowled up at the devious Captain, the wretched man who looked upon her with such a sense of wonder and yet such a sense of disdain. Had she only hindered herself by speaking aloud, she could not tell. She felt her tail burn in the sunlight as water began to dry from it. Where were they to keep her, she could not think of any storage fit for a mermaid and yet perhaps in the human world, such containers existed.

The sun continued to burn her glistening tail as she squirmed aboard the deck. Energy drained from her and she began feeling peckish. Was this why mermaids must stray from the land, was she to dry up and decease with too much exposure to the sun's harsh rays?

"Please," her voice let out a faint whisper, one which only the captain heard as he rose from his knelt position beside her. "Please, I don't want to die. I meant no harm," a tear escaped her eye and suddenly her tail burned with a fierce intensity. The captain stared down at her in wonder and within no time at all, she no longer felt her tail at all.

But where had it gone, the feeling of her damp scales trashing on the wooden floorboards? Had it dried up and left her ability to do the one thing she loved completely absent. Men hurried with a large glass container and nearly dropped it when they caught sight of her. Oh, she was horrified to look at her tail. To look at the mess the sun must have caused to her anatomy.

"Why… you're not the average siren at all are you?" said the Captain, not so much to her but to express his own self. Looking down alas, using her arms to prop her drained body up she did no longer view a glorious array of green and blue scales but a pair of human legs attached to her very own torso.

The men stared at her, mouths agape. Had they just witnessed her tail transform into legs? Was this truly unaverage of a mermaid, or just something no one had sat on land long enough to discover? A dry tail leads to human legs, oh how could that possibly be?

"Are these… do I have legs!" She shouted excitedly, her energy regaining as she was beginning to take in what had happened to her. A dream she'd had her entire life was a reality, and all it took was being caught by some pirates before it occurred.

"Do you still want her in this container, sir?" called a stout pirate who was assisting in lifting a clear, glass casing.

"No, I don't think that will be necessary," called the man who was presumed to be the captain. His eyes were fixated on her legs, on the little seaweed that tangled around her midsection that covered other parts entirely new to her. "You are to follow me, mermaid. Men, back to your duties. If I hear you speak of this beyond this moment, I'll ensure you regret it." A large hand reached down to Ariel and she simply tilted her head to inspect it. He was more patient with her than he perhaps should have been, and eventually she caught on that she was supposed to take his hand to assist in helping her rise to her feet. Feet, what an exquisite thing to have.

He pulled up all of her weight, as she had never stood before and had no idea how to keep her balance. She fell into his arms, hands looped around his neck to keep her balance as her feet slid on the ground, attempting to understand gravity. His hands gripped at her bare sides, causing her to shiver. The entire encounter must've been incredibly awkward to witness but Ariel had no sense of that, and Hook pretended that none of his men had seen.

With one swoop he lifted her up into his arms, pretending as if he hadn't the time to deal with a woman learning to walk for the first time when really he had no complaints in holding her lithe form in his arms.