Notes 1: Hans Christian Andersen talked about God (a lot) so I'm gonna add a dash of that, I think it helps somewhat with the plot?
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think human
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iii
the quiet undercurrent of understanding
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A mermaid.
Hans first questions his eyes then his mind. Is this real?
He stares at his company mutely, the little mermaid doesn't move either. They were both exchanging glances, observing one another.
She must know that he's noticed her shimmering green fishtail. Why isn't she leaping back to the ocean like a frightened animal?
Hans ponders over this fact ... then he recoils, reflecting back to days at the navy; at the tall tales and myths and the stories swapped while sailing the corners of the ocean.
"The mer-folk will lure you in with their lovely voices then drown you and eat your heart." They use to say.
Is this all a trap? Is she luring him into the sea with her false vulnerability?
"Why are you here? What do you want from me?" Hans asks, not taking his emerald eyes off her as he inches back slowly.
Am I crazy? I'm talking to a fish! He scolds himself in his head.
"You did not expire when … when swimming." She says, the language barrier still there.
Is this girl really a mermaid? If his eyes weren't locked on her sea creature appearance, Hans wouldn't have thought so. By the way she's speaking to him, she sounds so human. Too human.
Then she shows him a delighted smile. She may have sounded amazed and grateful that he didn't perish under the waves, but her sharp shark-like teeth tells him otherwise.
"I didn't die, no." Hans confirms.
"I … helped."
Hans blinks. "What?"
The little mermaid gestures to him. He only shakes his head in response. And when it occurred to her that he didn't understand, she pushed herself away from the shielding rock, exposing more of herself — to Hans' relief, she wasn't naked; scales covered her body, fitting her like a dress with no sleeves or strap; only her face, neck, shoulders and arms were human-looking.
She pulls back her wet hair and points to an area of her torso. "Red." She says. "Hurt."
Then she reaches forward and plucks a shedding scale from her tail. It mirrors the one he keeps in the pocket of his trousers.
"I helped swim." She adds.
He stares at her, then realisation slowly hits him.
.
.
.
"You saved my sorry soul."
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"I see you!"
Hans jerks his head and blinks. "Pardon?"
"I — I see you, it is good!" The little mermaid manages in her cheerful stupor.
It is good? It is — Oh!
"It's good to see you too." Hans answers. For a moment, he almost wondered if the little mermaid had read his mind and dug up his feelings of invisibility.
He's lonely but he isn't pathetically starved from interactions.
Despite that, he has made it a routine to visit the beach every day to see her. Sometimes she spends an hour swimming near the shore, sometimes only minutes.
The little mermaid isn't the way fables portrayed her to be. Her tail is beautiful, yes, and her face is lovely with youth and rosy cheeks. But her teeth are also sharp to eat fish, her hands webbed, ears pointed and gills by her neck. Her eyes are doubled lidded like a crocodile too.
She is unknown to him. She could still be dangerous. He hasn't stepped in the water since their fateful first meeting. He only sits on the sandy beach and attempts at conversation.
The little mermaid points to the souvenir in his freckled hand and asks, "You keep?"
"It's a reminder." He replies. "You saved my life."
"Maybe." She squints her sea green eyes at him. "Humans cannot breathe underwater, correct?"
He nods. "I would have died."
"You are too baby to expire." She replies, her strange dialect catching his ears.
"What's your name? Do you have one?" Hans continues prodding at her, he can't help but be curious. He knows she is curious about him too.
She only smiles then says mischievously, "Secret."
"And why is that?" He asks again.
"You are human," She tells him like it's a reason.
"And humans cannot be trusted?"
But, she does not answer, only squinting. Then as quickly as she came, she vanishes, diving under the waves.
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He learns her age before he learns of her name.
The little mermaid is cautious, and he holds no grudges against her for this. She may have saved his life but he is still a stranger.
The telling of her age comes up when he questions her of her safety in the human world.
"Should you be on the surface and not down under?" Hans asks.
He's seen fishermen near-by and would be devastated if she were to tangle herself in nets. She wouldn't be eaten but she would most likely be slaughtered and kept as a hunter's prize like those stuffed animals.
He's worried. With her childish ways, he almost sees her like one of the orphans playing at the churchyard.
"I am sixteen, I am alright." She says naively.
He notes the seven year difference — a lucky number according to superstition. There's a lot of sevens when it comes to this little mermaid. This is the first time Hans has ever come across anything that's considered lucky. He hopes he doesn't ruin it.
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The mer-folk have a speech pattern that sounds familiar yet also otherworldly. Hans understands the little mermaid when she tells her tales to him, but there are times where he has to double-back. Not that it was a bad thing, he enjoyed the way she strung her words together, it reminded him of his younger days, learning languages and culture from his tutors, and his many years since he's studied, but there were still obstacles to overcome.
"How do humans talk?" She asks, hands on the rock that hoists her above the water. She sat a distant away; where, if he ran to her, she'd be gone by the time the waves reached his shins.
Hans thinks for a moment. Simply talking isn't enough. He wants to show her, not tell.
"I could read to you." He offers.
"Read?" She says like it's a foreign concept. She may be illiterate.
"The church has plenty of storybooks that the orphan children read. There are pictures too." Hans says.
"Story … about the human world?" She asks, gleeful.
"Do you enjoy learning about the human world?"
A large grin dominates her face. He'll take that as a 'yes'.
"I enjoy your company very much. It would be a good way to spend time together if you would let me read to you."
"Alright." She smiles at him, sharp teeth pointing.
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.
.
He reads her children's stories from the small collection the church has. It doesn't take long before they run out of fairy tales, though the little mermaid does beg Hans to re-read stories where there is everything good; where a lovely, kind princess falls for a handsome, brave prince; where there is true love involved and a happy ending as a gift.
She is gleeful, claps every time the story ends and tells him how much she adores fables like these.
He returns her enthusiasm with a smile, but it doesn't reach his eyes.
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"Shiny gifts, for the stories." She says as she tosses a handful of silver objects on the sandy floors.
"Where did you get this?" Hans asks. He picks up the silverware the mermaid has gathered and eyes the expensive cutlery.
She points to a set of houses on the other side of the beach. "Human family."
"They gave it to you?" Hans asks, genuinely surprised.
"No, they left the whatchamacallits by the shore." She explains.
She had started making up words after she had a suspicion that the words Hans was reading to her during weren't real. He had protested that was the opposite aim of their reading sessions but she relented.
"So you just took it?" Hans questions further.
She nods her head.
"You can't do that." Hans says, trying to keep his voice even. "You have to give it back."
"Why?" She sounds innocent as she says this.
"What do you mean 'why'? You can't go around stealing things."
She blinks her large doe eyes at him. "What is … 'stealing'?"
Clicking his tongue, Hans tries not to sound too harsh. He doesn't want her to think he's scolding her.
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"You look like him." She says, wet webbed hands touching the pictures in the books, ruining the pages with seawater. "Are you him? Are you … 'a faraway prince'?" She recites the passage of the page.
Hans smiles, but that is the only kind response he gives her. "No."
"Shall I call you 'Prince'?" She asks, starry-eyed, she's gotten better at stringing sentences together. "My prince."
"Call me what you like." He answers.
After all, he hasn't given her his name either. If she's not willing to tell him hers, then he shall keep a few secrets of his own.
Secrets, like how he's lived through such fairy tales that she adores and yet he did not get a happy ending.
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"Why do you even want to know about the human world?" Hans finds himself asking one day.
If anything, he thinks his little mermaid friend should be more interested in her own world. The ocean has yet to be explored, but there are already so many stories like the undersea kingdom of Atlantica and the sunken city of Atlantis.
Hans holds his breath, waiting for an explanation.
She hums for a moment, choosing to float on her back. These are the rare times she gets to enjoy the feel on the sun fully on her skin.
"I want to be you." She answers, finally. "Human."
An unreadable expression etches itself on his face but she whines anyway — like she's heard it all, like she knows he'll protest.
"The mer-folk do not trust humans, but, Prince, the human world is wonderful, correct?"
"No, it's awful. Being human isn't all that grand." Look at him, he's a man without a title or country.
"Prince." She begs, sounding naïve and childish, but Hans doesn't budge.
"What's 'stealing'?"
He won't tell her this, but the fact that the mer-folk wouldn't know or care about sin makes them more alike to humans than they think.
"Prince, I want to be human because they have souls."
Hans snorts, thinking she's kidding, until he recognises the irritated flick of her fins.
"Mer-folk are soulless creatures?" He asks.
"Yes."
He stares at her, thinking. So, when everybody else had given up on him, this soulless creature had decided to save his life and give him a second chance?
"What will happen to you when you die?" He asks, more worried than curious.
She must have noticed his concern because she shakes her head as if brushing off an insignificant issue and says, "Nothing to cry over, the mer-folk live for hundreds of years. Humans have shorter lives, you are babies."
"That doesn't change the fact that you'll die. Where will you go?" He can't help but wonder. He felt like he was a child again, pondering if his cat would go to heaven if it didn't grasp the concept of morals; virtues and sin.
Her sea green eyes stare into the waters. "We ... expire." She speaks as if she'll fade like most things in this world. "But, there is a story. Cure to our soulless expiration. Love helps."
Love?
Oh, can't he escape from this nonsense?
"Love grants mer-folk souls. Our bodies turn to … seafoam and our souls live on. We become ... spirits of the sea breeze." This may be the closest explanation to the afterlife by non-humans.
He stares at her. He's not saying love is an easy achievement but … "Do mer-folk not believe in love?" Hans finds himself asking despite not really wanting to hear the answer.
"As much as humans believe in mermaids." She replies.
"So, very little?" He concludes.
Her face softens into a delicate, sad smile. "Yes, it is ... unfortunate."
Maybe. He thinks.
Then she dips the lower part of her face into the sea. A part of her wants him to ask her, 'And you? Do you believe?' so she adds in a smaller voice, "I do though. I believe in love."
He doesn't hear it, but the waves do.
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He's grown protective of the mermaid. She was just a girl, of age sixteen. Maybe he saw a part of himself in her, with her being the youngest out of seven sisters; bright red hair and sea green eyes. She was like a little sister to him. She was his little mermaid.
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"I want to be where the people are. I want to see them dancing." She says dreamily after Hans finishes reading a story about twelve dancing princesses.
"It sounds more like you want legs." He retorts. Human legs.
"Ah, um," She fiddles with her hands and avoids Hans' gaze. "Now that I am sixteen, I can have legs."
"... But, you have a tail."
She shrugs, trying to act nonchalant but Hans can tell she's itching to say something. "I ... I should not tell you this. But ..." Her eyes stone with playfulness. "We mer-folk are not as helpless as we look."
He never thought she was helpless.
"We do have the … ability to walk on land. We can change form, like …" Her hands move around, searching for the right words. "Like … shedding skin, but we rarely do it."
"Is this the story you mentioned the other day?" Hans says.
"Yes. Do you want me to tell you, Prince? A gift for you reading to me."
"I don't mind."
"Many years ago," She says, copying his style of story-telling, making him chuckle. "A pact with a sea witch was made. There was trouble in the waters, there was nowhere else to go. The mer-folk were in danger so the sea witch granted them a gift: the ability to walk on land, but …" She pauses for effect and holds up two fingers, "... terms and conditions."
Hans almost laughs. Of course, there would be conditions. Villains are supposed to be crafty (unlike him).
He motioned for her to continue and, she does.
"For the price of human legs, mer-folk will lose their voice." She explains, curling a finger. The first condition.
She's about to launch into the second condition, but upon catching the face Hans made, the little mermaid tries to justify the reasoning.
"It is ... it is not as bad as you think, Prince, it is to keep mer-folk safe."
"I don't see how being mute constitutes as safe."
"If our people were to ever captured by bad humans, a loss of voice would mean they cannot reveal any of our underwater secrets, like where we live or who our friends and family are." She says, touching her throat. But even she seems saddened by such a thing. "You do not think it is fair?"
I don't. Not at all. Wouldn't being mute also mean those who are captured cannot shout for help nor communicate? Hans thinks. And mer-folk are illiterate so the odds are against them.
She sighs, "I think it is a small price to pay."
He disagrees. He thinks, putting herself in danger isn't a small price to pay. He didn't always catch everything the little mermaid said but he enjoyed talking to her. He liked the way the communicated.
"It is like I said, not many venture on land despite the opportunity. It is not safe and scary. We are alright now." She says, just as the church bells ring, causing the who redheads to notice the time. "It is late. I should swim back."
Hans nods.
"I will come back tomorrow. Can you read me more stories?" She asks innocently. Such a small request from a person like him. He would travel great lengths and slay monsters just to see her smile.
"Of course," He tells her, gathering the books he's collected for her. "As much as you like."
She flashes toothy him that grin that he's grown used to.
And when she leaves, diving back into the waters like an elegant swan, Hans realises he never did hear the second condition to trading her mermaid tail for a pair of legs.
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"Ariel." The little mermaid says as Hans is telling her stories. Stories about the human world, but never stories about himself.
"Are you correcting me again?" Hans asks, the last time his little mermaid friend had sworn a fork was actually called a 'dinglehopper'.
She shakes her head. "No." Pulling herself up and propping herself on a rock, she says, "It is my name. Ariel."
His green eyes widen. His mouth slowly turns upwards into a grin. He's about to open his mouth and says something, maybe something teasing. But then he notes the clouds of his breath. It's …
The sudden chill in the air sounds alarm bells in his head and he looks towards Ariel who's sensed it too.
"Prince?" She asks with panic in her voice and wraps her arms around herself. "The water is cold!" And her teeth chatter.
Hans doesn't get to reply. Doesn't even get to think. Because the sudden sight of the ocean freezing over is enough to cause his feet to move.
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Notes 2: Ah, yes, time for my useless knowledge (read as 'obsession') about mermaids to finally shine. I re-read Hans Christian Andersen's the little mermaid and the scale part isn't canon. I must have read it somewhere in my childhood or my nanny might have added that part when she couldn't be bothered to tell me a new story and just went 'Welp, I'll just add some shit here and there, so the story runs a little longer and hope this brat falls asleep'.
Notes 3: So I decided while I was having a fever that it'd be best to work on this AU. Tolkien thought of The Lord of the Rings after a high fever and I thought I'd do the same. Get some madness in my writing.
So here I was, out of my mind; consumed nothing aside from soup, water, medicine and a lot of mermaid content, including dark fantasy like drowning and death — and I realise, according to my headcanon, since mermaid turns to seafoam when they die, then Ariel might not have knowledge on human death. If she wasn't curious about humans (anthropology?), she probably wouldn't understand how, when a human dies, the soul leaves but the body remains. Like, she's seen dead fish probs but fish are a different story. She's still fresh to the land world, she's a baby, she knows nothing. It's not odd to her that her body just disintegrates into the sea, like how a phoenixes turn to ashes when they die but … humans deaths? Human deaths are a mystery to ignored mermaids. To see a human body still intact if it dies, she might not think anything strange of it.
So I'm thinking, what if Hans dies via drowning, at sea, and Ariel's like, "Oh prince, you found a way to live underwater with me!" and he's obviously not saying anything but, the logic here is, when Ariel became human, she was mute too, so she might just think Hans has traded his voice to be able to live underwater. And he ain't swimming when she guides him (cause he's fucking dead) but she couldn't walk either the first time she transformed — she was clumsy and needed support, so she just drags his body around and happily says, "I'll teach you how to swim."
And after I went through this thought process of 'Oh yeah, that could totally happen', I sat with my head in my hands and thought, 'What the fuck, Sue?'
— 30 October 2019
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guest
It was interesting the interaction of Hans with Ariel, now that he knows what she is what will he do? I find also intriguing the person and place that Hans is taken care of. It would be strange if they are avoiding him because of who he is. It would be against their belief.
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Hans has always been a lonely person, he would try to talk to Ariel given that she's 'the only person' aside from the nun that he spoke feel comfortable talking to.
It is against the church's belief to discriminate, I tried to word the scenario where it leans more towards Hans doubting himself/all in his head: 'Hans thinks', 'He suspects, at least', 'He believes'.
It's likely that the church wants to keep a respectable distance and doesn't want to bother Hans by asking him to tell his backstory or take of woe, but Hans wants to keep his secrets so nobody's getting anywhere, are they? Either could try to say something but … there's always a wall built before they met. I'm not blaming anyone on Hans' isolation but I never did think Hans had the best tactical skill, if he did then his plan to rule a kingdom would have worked. Frozen had so many plot holes based on Hans' actions and I just headcanon that he's terrible at planning. He gets like 2 million ideas with a drop of a hat, but do they work? Nah man.
I would also imagine that the members of the church are actually very busy taking care of the church and garden and children. Those who have been/are involved with church know that there's always so much to do and so much going on.
Hans will understand the church better in the last chapter because it will continue to play a part.
Thanks for your curiosity and thanks for being kind :)