(Oh my… I have so many feelings after 'Land Without Magic'. Just … SO…MANY…FEELINGS! I'm extremely excited for the Season Two! In this chapter everything begins to fall into place. I hope this chapter is all you hoped it would be. And just to let ya know, this whole chapter takes place in Fairytale Land. I just didn't want to break up this part and thought it would be best as a whole Fairytale Land update.)
[Music suggestion: Listen to 'Mermaids' by Hans Zimmer is probably the closest thing to the music I kept hearing play inside my head as I wrote this chapter. Either that or 'Dealing with Rumplestiltskin' by Mark Isham.]

Chapter 6

The Deal is Struck

Ariel's head gently broke the surface of the water as she looked about the cove. To say she had been having second thoughts would be an understatement, but her mind was made up and her father's actions always came back to remind her why she was seeking out Rumplestiltskin.

The moon was high in the starry sky and cast a soft glow upon the cove. It provided enough light for Ariel to see. The only problem was… she didn't see anyone. Ariel began to panic. Was she too late? Had Rumplestiltskin given up?

"I knew you'd change your mind."

Ariel looked in the direction the voice had come from and there he was; grinning like the cat that caught the canary. He was perched on the rock he had occupied like last time. His eyes glimmered as he stared at Ariel and he gave a giggle.

"I need your help," Ariel admitted with a slight catch in her voice. The distressed tone was not lost on the powerful imp. His grin went down a notch and he lifted his eyebrows.

"Of course, dearie," he replied in his lilting voice. He crouched down on the rock and beckoned Ariel to come closer. "Come on, princess." Ariel hesitated and Rumplestiltskin wrinkled his brow. "Don't back out now, child."

The little mermaid took a deep breath and swam to the base of the rock. Rumplestiltskin giggled with glee. "Now, then…" He pointed at Ariel's face. "Looks like somebody got a dose of a disapproving father's opinion."

Ariel dabbed at her eyes. Under the water, tears were invisible and Ariel had not realized that she was still shedding them. She ducked her head in embarrassment. "Now, now… no need to cry," Rumplestiltskin said as he tilted Ariel's chin up by the point of his clawed finger. Ariel shivered at the contact.

"I want to be with the sailor," Ariel sniffed, tucking her head back down despite Rumple's attempt to lift it back up.

Rumplestiltskin compressed his lips into a thin line and removed his hand from Ariel. "Well… like I said before, princess, the solution to your problem is simple." He made a flourishing motion with his hands. "The only way to get what you want…," he flicked his hands at Ariel and grinned, "is to become human yourself."

Ariel eyed him warily. "And you can do all that you said before? About making me human?"

Rumplestiltskin held out his arms as if to embrace someone. "My dear, sweet child!" he pretended to gasp. "That's what I do!" He stood to his feet and held a finger in the air. "Now, here's the deal, dearie. I will turn you into a human for three months. Got that?" He joined two more fingers with the one. "Three months." Rumplestiltskin withdrew his hand from the air and rolled it around as he spoke. "During this time, you will be able to scour the country side in search of your sailor boy." His hand suddenly ceased rolling and a finger was once again lifted in the air. "But," he cocked his head to the side and grinned, "you will be staying with me at my estate and you must do as I say or else I won't let you look for him. If you find your sailor, you must get him to fall in love with you before the sun sets at the end of the three months. That is," Rumple put a hand up to cover one side of his mouth like he was sharing a secret, "he's got to kiss you."

"A kiss?"

Rumplestiltskin waved his hands at Ariel's question. "Not just any kiss, dearie! The kiss of Twu wuuv," he sing –songed in a childish voice. "If ol' sailor boy kisses you before the sun sets at the end of three months, you'll remain human permanently," he said while moving his left hand in a horizontal line. His grin took on a shady turn. "But…," he knelt down to be eye level with Ariel, "if he doesn't kiss you … you'll turn back into a mermaid and you'll belong … to me." Rumple let out a high pitched giggle while never taking his eyes off of her.

"No, Ariel!"

The two were startled to hear another voice besides their own. Rumplestiltskin's head snapped to the right so fast Ariel thought his neck would break, but it didn't. She also looked in the same direction and felt her heart skip a beat when she saw Sebastian and Flounder wading behind a rock at a small distance. Rumplestiltskin simply flicked his index finger at them and Ariel's aquatic friends were suddenly surrounded by a cloud of purple. When the cloud had disappeared, Sebastian and Flounder were nowhere to be seen.

Ariel gasped and turned back to glare at Rumplestiltskin, who was grinning at the empty spot her friends had been wading. "What have you done?" Ariel shouted.

Rumplestiltskin faced Ariel and offered her a mock comforting smile. "Don't worry about them. I simply sent your little friends far enough away from us so they can't interfere." His hand snaked around Ariel's face and drew her closer to him. "Have we got a deal?" he asked.

Ariel stared past Rumplestiltskin as she thought over what this deal could mean. "If I become human, I'll never be with my father or sisters again."

Rumplestiltskin removed his hand from Ariel's face to cup under his own chin as if he were considering this news for the first time. "That's right. But you'll have your man. Life's full of tough choices, innit?" He giggled and then snapped his fingers as if he suddenly remembered something. "Oh! There is one more thing, princess." Rumple steepled his fingers and drummed them against each other. "We haven't discussed the subject of payment. All magic comes with a price, dearie."

Ariel's heart sank at the reminder. She lowered her eyes to the blurry reflection of the moon on the water. "But I don't have any-."

"Neh-eh-eh-eh!" Rumplestiltskin quickly interrupted. "I'm not asking for much. Just aaa token really, a trifle. You'll never even miss it."

Ariel cocked her head to the side. "What is it?"

"Rumplestiltskin's face slowly morphed into a sly grin and his voice dropped an octave. "What I want from you is…your voice."

Ariel felt a jolt of shock course through her. "My voice?" she asked, reaching up to grasp at her throat as if he were trying to take it from her already.

The imp jabbed a finger at the mermaid as his grin grew impossibly wider. "You got it, princess. No more talking, singing, zip." He popped his lips to over-enunciate the P.

"But without my voice, how can I-?"

"You'll have your looks, your pretty face, and don't underestimate the power of body language." But then again… the girl probably didn't even know how to entice the boys by movement. Rumplestiltskin slightly tilted his head to the side, giving Ariel a once over. Yes. He could tell just by looking at her that Ariel was clueless in that subject. Innocent.

Rumplestiltskin quickly shook off his thoughts and stood to his feet, turning his back to Ariel. "It's either your voice or no deal." He waited for her to respond, grinning mischievously.

"Alright then."

Rumple casually looked at her over his shoulder and nodded. "Now we're talkin'." He turned fully around and flicked his hand, making a scroll and quill appear in his grasp. "All you need to do is sign on the dotted line." He handed the quill to Ariel and set the scroll down on the rock. Her hand was trembling as she pressed the nib against the contract and signed her name. Rumple snatched up the scroll once Ariel was finished and eagerly eyed her signature, nice penmanship by the way.

"Now what?" Ariel asked in a quivering voice.

Rumple's crazed eyes gazed at Ariel's from over the edge of the scroll. "Nooow," he slurred, making the quill and contract vanish in a smoky purple mist. When the mist cleared, a small, golden seashell was in his clawed hands. "Sing."

Ariel licked her lips and swallowed back the sense of dread that was rising up like bile in her throat. There was no turning back. She had signed the contract. Ariel opened her mouth and began to vocalize to a melody that she had invented herself and one that she often sang. There were no words to it, just pure voice and Ariel didn't think it needed words. Her voice rose and fell like the waves and flowed in perfect rhythm to the ocean. It was like the sea itself was singing.

Rumplestiltskin couldn't help but feel a sense of awe at the sound of the little mermaid's voice. It was unlike the singing he'd heard from other princesses and fair maidens who were said to have the finest voices in the Enchanted Forrest. Ariel's voice was just … unearthly and beautiful.

His thoughts were interrupted when a golden mist began to rise from the seashell in his hands and slither towards Ariel. Rumplestiltskin grinned like the devil he was said to be as he watched the mist slowly change its shape to resemble a pair of sinister hands. Ariel's singing faltered at the sight of the mist. "Keep singing!" he urged her. Ariel kept on with her song.

The mist-like hands reached towards Ariel and she instinctively shrank back. "Ah-tah-tah-tah!" Rumple reprimanded. The hands reached again and this time Ariel reluctantly didn't move. They ghosted across her face and her throat began to glow. The hands then became vapor as it went into her throat and brought out a tiny glowing ball. The moment this happened, Ariel felt her voice was gone but she could still hear it coming from the tiny glowing sphere as the hands slowly floated back towards Rumplestiltskin.

The imp giggled madly as the hands slinked back into the seashell along with the mermaid's voice and the singing ceased. The shell began to glow and he clasped both hands around it. He could feel the magic pulsing inside. Rumplestiltskin looked up from the shell and fixed his gaze on Ariel. His dark eyes seemed to have grown larger and he cackled. Ariel was clutching her throat in disbelief and fear.

Rumple twirled his left index finger in a circle and a small whirlpool began to form around the mermaid. A purple cloud enveloped her as she spun within the watery vortex and Ariel instantly felt something changing. She tried to see what was happening but the purple mist prevented her from seeing anything. She didn't even feel like she was in the water anymore, it was like she was floating above the surface.

The powerful imp watched with rapt attention as the swirling mist completely covered Ariel and lifted her a few feet above the water. Flashes of what could have been small bolts of lightning coursed through the smoke. Rumplestiltskin giggled with mad glee. He knew what was taking place inside the mist. An invisible force swiftly broke out from the smoke and pushed against Rumplestiltskin, making him stagger for a second. He shielded his eyes as he watched the purple smoke disappear and reveal a human form still hovering in the air. With an unceremonious plop, Ariel was dropped from the air and landed in the water with a loud splash. She resurfaced, gasping for air, and wildly flailing her arms about to keep herself afloat.

Rumplestiltskin slapped his knee and laughed good and loud at the spectacle until he realized that Ariel probably had no idea how to swim with legs. It took Ariel's head submerging under water and not resurfacing for about twenty seconds for Rumple to be convinced that this was just the case. He leapt off his rock and grimaced as his skin felt the biting cold of the water. He headed for the last place Ariel had been seen and was rewarded with the sight of her hand breaking through, groping for any kind of support.

Grabbing the girl's hand, Rumplestiltskin pulled her up and held her head above the water. He teleported them to shore and set Ariel down on the sand. She turned onto her side and silently choked and coughed up sea water. Not even a human for two minutes and already she was exhausted.

Rumplestiltskin summoned a cloak into his hands and wrapped it around the trembling girl's shoulders. Now that she was human, Ariel was no longer immune to the chilling temperatures of the sea. Ariel gratefully wrapped the cloak tightly around her body. The light blue dress that Rumple had magicked Ariel into was soaking wet and plastered against her skin, not helping her against the cold at all.

Once she was able to stop shivering so much, Ariel finally looked down where her fin used to be. Rumplestiltskin watched in amused silence as the former mermaid slowly stuck her bare feet out from under the cloak. When she caught sight of her new appendages, Ariel's blue eyes grew round with wonder. She cautiously wiggled her toes as if to see if they were really there. Her face broke out into a bright smile and she wiggled both feet in uncontained excitement. Rumplestiltskin couldn't help but chuckle.

He adjusted his position to be in a crouch, hands dangling between his legs as his elbows rested on his thighs. "Well princess? Are you happy with your new legs?" he asked, smiling. Ariel quickly nodded her head and proceeded to poke at the top of her left foot. "Wonderful." Rumplestiltskin stood to his feet and gazed down at Ariel with a gleam in his eyes. "Now it's time to fulfill the rest of the deal," he said, extending his grey-gold hand for Ariel to take.

In her moment of excitement and joy, Ariel had forgotten about the rest of the deal. The shining light in her eyes dimmed and her smile slowly faded. The grin on Rumplestiltskin's face didn't budge. Hesitantly, Ariel reached up and timidly placed her hand in the imp's grasp. His other hand clamped around her forearm for a better grip as he pulled Ariel to her feet.

The moment Ariel was standing, her legs crumpled underneath her and she clutched onto Rumplestiltskin's jacket to keep her from falling. Rumple's right arm wrapped around Ariel's waist and his left hand held her left elbow. "Careful now, dearie," he cautioned. Ariel's whole body was swaying as she tried to find her balance. She lifted her right foot to take her first step but ended up upsetting her balance and sending her into a top-heavy fall against Rumplestiltskin' chest. "Not so graceful on land, are ya, princess?" the imp teased. Ariel felt her cheeks turn red with embarrassment.

"You'll get the hang of it. Now take it slow." The powerful sorcerer could have very well just used his magic to take them to his estate at the Dark Castle, but he knew that Ariel needed to learn now how to at least take five steps without falling. Besides, he still had some time before he had to go and meet the sea witch. Ariel swayed dangerously to her right and Rumple strengthened his hold on the girl. He couldn't have her injure herself, now could he?

Ariel slid her feet in the sand and beamed when she succeeded in moving a few inches without falling. Rumplestiltskin shook his head. That wasn't going to work at all. "No, no, no, no, dearie. You have to lift your foot."

Ariel furrowed her brow in concentration and slowly lifted her right foot barely an inch from the sand and place it a full foot length ahead. She did the same with the other one and felt a thrill wash over her. She was walking! Her next step ended up catching a higher patch of sand and sent her wobbling forward. She would have face planted into the sand if Rumplestiltskin had not caught her in time.

"Weeell, that's the right idea," the imp giggled.

Rumplestiltskin helped Ariel learn to walk for a least an hour. They finally got to the point where he released her and Ariel could walk on her own at a slow and careful pace. The imp chuckled at how Ariel walked with both arms slightly stretched out, but bent at the elbows, as if she were balancing on a slender beam of wood that was placed very high off the ground. She kept looking at her feet as she took her cautious steps.

Watching the girl take her first steps sent Rumplestiltskin's mind back to hundreds of years in the past. It was memories that he cherished but felt agonizing pain over remembering at the same time. Memories of a dark haired baby boy, named Baelfire, learning how to walk towards his cowardly father for the first time. Rumplestiltskin felt his chest tighten and he banished the memories back into the deep recesses of his mind.

Rumple broke out of his reverie when Ariel tripped and landed with a dulled thud in the sand. She pounded her fist against the ground out of frustration and pushed herself up to sit on her knees. She heaved a muted sigh that made her shoulder's slouch and her head hang low. Most people would have thought she was giving up, but Rumple knew by just a quick glance that Ariel was just tired.

"We've worked enough for one night, princess." Rumplestiltskin walked over and helped Ariel stand. His arm went to support her balance and she gripped his jacket by the shoulder. "Luckily we don't have to walk there," Rumple said with a playful tone. He snapped and the two of them were surrounded by the same purple mist that had covered Ariel, transporting them to the Dark Castle.

(So what do you think, huh, huh? Was this chapter good? Please let me know your thoughts in a review! Thanks for reading!)