"Now then Flounder, how do you plan on paying for this ship?" Gold asked as the blonde haired boy leaned across the little table separating the two of them.
"I want to make a deal" he said bravely not wavering eye contact with him.

"And what might that be?"

"I'll do whatever you want. As long as you give me the boat, that's all that matters"
"Why do you have a sudden interest in one of my boats?" Gold asked.
"My friend Ariel needs it" Flounder explained not telling Gold the whole truth.
"OOOh the Little Mermaid yes I've heard of her, that's quite kind of you to purchase a ship for her, but tell me what would she want with a ship?" Gold smiled as he noticed Flounder was holding back.
"We think we have a way to get back to our world. And when we make it we are going to try and bring everyone back" Flounder quickly explained knowing that if he didn't tell him the whole truth this deal would go nowhere. Gold thought of something for a moment as a question formed in his mind.

"Well that's very kind of her, going back to our world to save Emma and Snow, but honestly tell me is she going back for someone else as well?" Gold asked suspiciously. He watched as Flounder perked up a bit at his question.
"Her father, we think he got sent there by accident around the same time Emma and Snow were sent there" Flounder told a half truth again, which Gold easily caught.
"And..." he prodded. Flounder looked around the empty room just to see make sure that no one would hear him.
"Have you read Henry's book?" Flounder asked. Gold's question was suddenly answered. He had taken a look at Henry's book multiple times when visiting the Queen's house and it hadn't taken him long to notice who Ariel's significant other was in the story.

Gold pretended to play dumb just for the fun of it.
"Yes" he answered.
"She's going back there to bring back...her true love...Killian" Flounder said, even though it was quite hard for him to admit it.
"Killian Jones?" Gold asked, still playing dumb.
"You've heard of him?" Flounder asked.
"Perhaps you don't know my story, then about my wife?"
"Milah" Flounder realized.

"Well if you've connected the dots then you'll find it as no surprise then that Hook and I are enemies. And of course if he were to come here, that would be very bad for me seeing as I like living" Gold joked. Flounder's face stayed serious.
"So you want to make a deal then?" Gold challenged him. Flounder nodded.
"Make sure Killian Jones, doesn't make it back to Storybrooke kill him if you have to and the ship is all yours" Flounder froze up for a moment.

I could always lie to him he thought.
"Deal" Flounder lied. Gold Smiled at him and shook his hand and Flounder felt this odd sort of surge rush through him as the deal was set in place.
"And one more thing, if you are unsuccesful in completing this transaction you are dead" Gold finished off the deal and Flounder felt an even bigger surge of magic rush through his arm, meaning that there was no way this deal could be broken. Gold quickly handed him the papers, with a smile on his face.

"It was nice doing business with you" Gold said to Flounder as he watched the boy walk out the door.

"You've had your chance and now it's my turn, for me to do this the right way" Cora smirked at Killian as she turned her back towards him, ready to leave him stranded there at the bottom of the beanstalk in the cold rain, that was stopping now as the morning started to break over the horizon.

"Oh and one more thing" she realized.
"I believe you also stole one special item of mine that I like to keep with me always" she said to him. Killian smirked at her as he realized the Swan Girl had actually done him a favor.

"That was taken from me and is now in the same hands of the person who has our compass"
"Now why would you steal from me though? Do you not trust me anymore? I thought we were allies Killian?" Cora smirked at him. Killian sort of flinched back at the way she said his name. Nobody should call him by his real name besides Ariel. He didn't care if he was called Hook or Captain by anybody else, but when he was called Killian he only liked to hear it spoken from the lips of his mermaid.
"I mean I haven't killed her yet, so what would make you want to steal from me?" Cora asked.
"That's because she gave her heart to me long before you ever ripped it out of her. It should be with no one except me" Killian told her. Cora did a small slow clap for him and smirked.
"Such romantic words, honestly the love you two must share between each other it's just so sweet. Your heroic effort to try and save her is adorable but it seems that I am the second person to have bested you now" Cora said as she pulled a beating heart out from a pouch on her belt, that was very similar to the one Killian had stolen from her.
She held Ariel's heart in her hand and felt it beat rhythmically on her palm. She smiled as she noticed Killian's eyes grow wide.
"Did you not expect me to have a decoy heart?" she joked. She squeezed the heart a bit and she could feel it's pulsing increase quickly. The beating started to slow down the longer she held onto it, as if it was dying.
"Stop that now" Killian demanded. Cora eased her grip on the heart and felt it go back to a normal pace and saw a look of relaxation passover Killian's face.
"Get me the compass" she ordered disappearing and leaving him there, right as he was about to lurch for her.

"OH my god this is amazing! Ahhhh! Wow! I mean just wow! Are you listening to this there are actual words coming out of my mouth?" I squealed excitedly as Flounder and I trekked through the woods, leaving the wreckage of our ship far behind us.

"Ariel no offense but you know that's the fifth time you've said that exact sentence right?" Flounder asked as he tried to catch up with me apparently he wasn't that good at making his way across the forest terrain.

"Well I'm sorry but try going as long as I have without speaking and see what comes out of your mouth when you get your voice back" I told him.

"Alright so do you have a plan then?" Flounder asked.
"Not really"
"So we're just going to wander through the whole forest till we run into someone?"

"You've got a better idea?" Flounder went quiet at my question.

"Then we'll just stick to my plan then" I smiled at him. I had never really seen a forest quite like this before. Part of it was exotic and had tropical plants as far as the eye could see and another part of it was just like regular woods everything felt so big and woodsy not to mention the air seemed so fresh to breath in.

"Do you think when we find Killian he's going to try and run me through, with that sword of his?" Flounder asked to make conversation.
"Most likely" I smiled at him.
"OH god you're going to let him beat me up aren't you?"
"Only a little bit I'll let him give you a black eye or something" I joked.
"Can I say sorry again?"

"Sure, why not? I like hearing it"
"I'm sorry" he apologized. Suddenly I felt a sharp pain in the back of my head as if something hit me. I touched the back of my head and felt nothing there.
"Did you see that?" I asked Flounder.
"See what?"

"Something hit my head"
"Maybe it was the universe trying to tell you to shut up and let it a have a moment of silence for a couple seconds" I smacked him on the arm when he made that comment and he gave me a cheeky smirk.
"Or it was probably a pine cone" he suggested.
"Bleh I hate when I get leaves in my hair" I complained as I shook my hair out and saw not leaves but sparkly dust fall to the ground. Suddenly I felt like I couldn't breath, my chest hurt so much I had to grip onto Flounder to stand up.
"Ariel?" Flounder asked worriedly. I let out a small scream as I tried to catch my breath but couldn't find any air. Then it all stopped and I could breath again.

"What just happened?" I asked.
"I don't know maybe it's a heart attack or something" Flounder guessed.
"Pretty sure I wouldn't be able to recover that quickly from a heart attack"

Wait heart...I realized.

"Cora has my heart" I remembered. Suddenly I heard twigs snap and the subject we had just been talking about went to the back of our minds. I looked around the area and noticed what looked to me like people, but they were moving with slight limps and they were all really pale and dead looking. Flounder and I silently looked at each other as we started running. We stopped for a moment as we hid behind some trees to take a breather.
"Last time I checked, I don't remember there being any zombies here"I whispered. We heard their approaching footsteps, there had to be about three of them going after us. I decided to use the tree branch next to me as I pulled it back and let go once the footsteps got closer. The branch connected with one of the zombie's and I couldn't help but smile to myself.
"Right then back to running?" Flounder asked.
"I guess so" I said as we ran off.
"I thought zombies were slow?" I asked Flounder as we tried to run away from them but when I looked right next to me I saw that Flounder was gone.
"FLOUNDER?"I shouted. I was alone now. Completely and utterly alone in the middle of nowhere.

"Shit" I muttered.

The zombies had been quick in grabbing Flounder before Ariel had run off. They had made no fuss of chasing after her once they caught him so they just lead him towards this sort of cave like prison. When they pushed him in he saw an unconscious girl lying on the floor. She was very pretty she was dressed in a pinkish sort of gown and she had light brown hair.

Once the door to his cell closed her heard someone approach him from behind.
"What the hell are you doing here?" the voice of Killian Jones said behind him. Flounder turned around to find the pirate looking quite surprised to see him.

"What are you doing here?" Flounder asked.

"I'm here to set the young maiden free because believe it or not I'm actually a gentleman and I don't betray my friends. Unless I have too then that's a completely different matter. Also I want to piss of Cora"

"I'm sorry, but are you making that sentence sound like I betrayed my best friend?" Flounder asked.
"Listen if it wasn't for your whiny arse none of us would be in this situation right now. Well except Aurora she might possibly still be in this situation if you hadn't gone and turned yourself human" Killian said. Flounder looked towards the girl named Aurora and felt the need to help her. There was a moment of silence between the two men as Flounder knelt down to find a way to get Aurora out of these shackles she was chained in.

"Is Ariel with you?" Killian asked the one thing that had been in his brain after he saw Flounder. Flounder knew it was selfish to think of his own life before Ariel's happiness but Gold's threat's for not fully accomplishing this deal of his could not stop ringing through his head. So he knew how awful of a thing, this was going to be for him to say, when the first thing that came out of his mouth was...

"She's dead" and he watched as the mans composure before him crumpled into a million pieces.

YES I KNOW YOU'LL PROBABLY HATE ME FOR THAT ENDING BUT I STILL HOPE YOU ENJOYED THE CHAPTER! HAPPY XMAS!