AN: Sorry for the long wait, I got really slammed between work and my Master's Class. I hit mid-term week and we all know how busy that bs can get. Anyway, the itch to write and be creative was starting to become unbearably demanding. So for all my lovely readers here is the next chapter, finally!

I do have the next two chapters rouhgly planned out, I just have to get them written down and posted. I hope the next update won't be nearly as long a wait as this one was.

Enjoy!

Chapter Posted: 9/5/13

Part of His World

By Morgansgurl

The stench of the brig below decks was overwhelming. As the vile smell filled her lungs she could feel the vomit lurch into her throat and she barely managed to swallow it down as the men tossed her into a large cell. It was nearly pitch black but her nocturnally gifted vision could make out some of the dilapidated rotting wood and the rust and oxidization of the iron bars. It was by far less luxurious then the Quartermasters rooms had been. The vaporous mold and rot was so thick in the air around her that she could practically taste it on her tongue, squirming as it suffocated the oxygen fromaround her. It made her wish for the deep seas and ocean water so that she wouldn't have to be breathing in the toxic fumes.

The Pirates must have heard her gagging and dry heaving, because after the forlorn click of the large iron padlock all she could hear was them laughing at her expense on their speedy exit out before saying "You'll get used to it gorgeous, they all do." While shutting the cellar door and leaving her to the darkness. It made her miss the pitiful fresh air the cellar door had allowed in because now the smell engulfed her completely and there was no escaping it. It was a torturous mixture of excrement, mold, decay, and rot. It made her nearly empty stomach turn violently into unforgiving knots.

On top of smelling foul, it was damp and cold, sending chills down her spine and causing goosbumps to form on her arms. Down here the rocking of the ship was more prominent, with each sway of the waves small pools of stale trapped water would slosh about around her. It was easier to get seasick this deep in the guts of the Jolly Roger. That was if she was susceptible to seasickness. That was one thing to be grateful for she mused silently, she had lived practically her entire life in the rough sway of the ocean currents, and there wasn't anything unusual to her about the movements currently rocking her cell.

Never in her life had she pictured this. To be locked away in some deplorable cage in the belly of a Pirates ship. The Castle she had lived in with Eric had cells and dungeons, but they were much cleaner and forgiving then the one she was in. To think that she had griped and complained about how she hated the way the dungeon in the castle was unkept and inhumane. She now understood those cells were extravagant and cushy in comparison to what they apparently could have been. If they could only see her now, and the pickle she had gotten herself into. She wanted to take back everything she had said about the castle dungeons, she would gladly be resting in one of those right now instead, at least they had access to fresh air.

She waited for her vision to adjust to the dark, one of the many gifts of being a mythical creature. Any ordinary human would be out of luck trying to see in this kind of darkness, she however had the advantage of being born a nocturnal huntress. She was built for this, seeing in the darkest of night was a gift of her kind. Now though, it could be counted as much a burden as a gift when her eyes caught site of a rotting corpse and she gasped, pushing herself back from the skeleton and rotting flesh of what was once possibly a man, one limb of bone still chained up high above its skull the other having long ago fallen off to the floor.

Was this her fate? To be left to rot in this forsaken cell? It would take her months to die from starvation, what with her healing powers. She didn't want to suffer that long, trapped here in this hopeless place. She pulled herself across the floor towards the cage door and propped herself up onto her trail, thankful that the muscles which seemed so weightless in the water were so strong on land. The shackles were still clamped tightly around her wrists but at least the men hadn't attached the extended chain loop to any of the varying clasps along the walls. A small relief.

Ariel slammed her fists and body against the door, pushed and pulled with her strength. She even wrapped the end of her shackle chain around a bar and used that as leverage to pull back trying to jar it loose and still nothing. A few creaks and whines of false hope but past that. As strong a creature she was, she could feel the fear and panic start to build, her blood pressure rising with the dismay of being abandoned and forgotten here. She would have preferred her death to be quick even if it wasn't painless. This surley was inhuman even for a vicious Pirate…wasn't it?

She didn't even have a plan beyond getting out of the cage, it would take a feat of extrodinary prowess to haul herself up the many flights of stairs to a deck on the ship with any sort of access to the water where she could actually jump into the ocean from. As fast as she was in water, she was nearly useless moving on land, the men would see and catch her before she even had a fighting chance.

But she had to try.

"Please," her voice caught in her throat as she realized tears were starting to stream down her cheeks. She hadn't even realized she started crying. How human of her. She hadn't cried since the last time she had walked on land. It just wasn't a urge for a mermaid, or so she had thought. She had never been a normal mermaid either though.

"It's no use." A quiet voice from the darkness advised.

She whipped around with inhuman speed, slamming her back against the cold iron, her fists down by her hips holding onto two bars in a white knuckle death grip. Her heart was racing; threatening to beat through her ribcage as her eyes frantically searched the darkness for the source of the sound. The voice had caught her completely off guard; she could have sworn she was all alone down here. Ariel narrowed her eyes trying to see to the very back of the cell, her vision may be enhanced but even she could sub come to the length of the darkness blurring and disabling the depth of her sight.

A few long minutes passed where all she could hear was her own blood rushing past her ears and her own breaths coming ragged from between her lips. The voice never said anything after that though. It was discerning because she knew she hadn't imagined it, as horse and quiet it had been it was certainly real and not a figment of her imagination, not yet anyway. Given a few more weeks down here without food, water, fresh air, or contact with another living thing and there was no telling what her mind would imagine and conjure.

"Hello?" she asked quietly into the shadows, trying to see to the very back but the cell stretched half the length of the ship and all she could make out was the blackness. Still there was no answer to her question, which left her with her only option to investigate and hunt out the source of the voice. There was no way she could be stuck down here with some unknown creature sharing her sentence. If she was going to die in her sleep she at least should figure out by what or whom, as morbid as that reasoning was. Hell, after a few weeks she might even be begging the voice to put her out of her misery and deliver her to peace. However, she reasoned that she should at least put up a bit of a fight first; she owed herself that much before giving in completely. She was always a stubborn one, determined and willful, it was in her being to try and survive. In reality she was surprised, she honestly hadn't imagined making it past day one on this ship after being caught. So really she was already doing better then she had previously figured. She still had a chance.

She dragged her body across the slimy feeling floor of the cell, using her tail to push her along and her claws to dig into the pliable wood and pull herself forward. A few times she had to push some stray bones or clumps of unidentifiable substances from her path, remembering to keep the vile that was building up in her throat down. It didn't help if she breathed through her mouth or nose, there was no escaping the wretchedness of this disguting place. It was all she could do to keep from hurling all about the floor, but there was no telling when or where her next meal would come from, if any meal came at all, and she needed to try to keep down the meager amount that was left in her stomach.

As she neared the end of the cell she could see the shape of a man starting to come into her view, his bare feet wrinkled from being exposed to the stray water they were stuck sitting in for so long. His clothes were tattered and soild. She kept a safe distance but the closer she got she could see that the shackles on his ankles were connected to the wall unlike hers, she had been gracefully afforded that freedom either by choice, or by laziness on behalf of the Pirates wanting to get out as fast as they could. She didn't blame them for leaving in a hurry.

She examined the body closer, he was definitely a male, she could tell by his underlying smell, but it was hard to tell that he was even human with the condition he was in. Every bone in his body was visible under the taut flesh of his skin which had lost all muscular definition. It broke her heart to see a human so emaciated to this point. She couldn't even imagine how he was still alive, if it wasn't for the faint heartbeat she could hear coming from his chest she would have figured him recently dead. It wasn't a far fetched assumption to think death was at his doorstep, it surley wouldn't be long now.

Ariel reached out to touch his shin and he didn't even move or acknowledge her touch. It was hard to believe the voice came from this shell of a man. She looked around some more but couldn't find anyone or anything else down here with a beating heart. They were the only two souls down here still alive, kept by the company of varying degrees of rotting corpses.

She pulled herself up so that she was leaning against the same wall as him, but still out of arms reach in case this were some sort of ploy to get her close enough to eat or attack. She was sure by the looks of him he was ravished. Despite her caution she doubted the man would even make a move for her in such a weakened state. He was probably just wishing to pass already. By the looks of it he had been down here for maybe a couple weeks or more, perhaps longer if his captors had been tossing him scraps and he'd been eating them.

"Hello?" she asked again, softer now, the pity and sadness she felt emitting through her tone. She saw his head lull slightly but there wasn't much more of a reaction than that.

"Hello." She tried again, a bit louder this time, making it more of a demand then a question. This time he opened his eyes. Her breath caught in her throat, even now with the dullness of starvation and the dimness of her vision, she could tell he had brilliant chocolate colored eyes. She doubted he could actually see her in the dark, but still it seemed as though he had found her gaze and made contact with her own eyes.

Even in his current state and under the sadness and pain she could see there was a fire deep within, a desperation and flicker of hope, and just the faintest hints of love. The kind of love that lasted forever transcended time. It was thekind of love a man couldn't forget or let go of, that he would rather die for than live without. The kind of love she used to have with Eric.

"Hello?" she tried again, now that she had whatever was left of his ability to pay attention.

"No use." He said hoarsely, a thick accent she couldn't quite place coating his choked words. It sounded like he hadn't had a drink of water in days, and she supposed he probably hadn't. He didn't need to elaborate further for her to know that he meant it was no use to try and break free, his hand pulled weakly at his chain as if he was trying to extenuate his point but more than likely just testing them again in a hope that defied his ailing strength.

"My name is Ariel," she told him, a compassion and concern she had once had as a mother coating her sweet voice. For some reason she didn't think this man should die alone, that someone should at least be here for him in his last moments, however long that was. She reached out for his hand and grasped it in hers and she felt the soft twitch of what might have been him trying to pull back.

"The….hearts of….the ocean." He responded between weak breaths, his eyes falling closed again. This caused her brows to furrow.

"I'm sorry?" she asked, squeezing his hand a little harder as if to will him to stay awake

"Ariel…" he trailed off a bit and took another deep shaky breath. "and Eric…hearts of the ocean." He said again weakly, like talking was a struggle, yet still there was a hint of a smile on his lips. She was thankful for the darkness. Glad that he couldn't see her utter shock. His words had stunned her. How did he know who she was? How did he know about Eric? That was centuries ago, a time long forgotten among most of those living today.

There had been a time when all the nations and kingdoms knew their names and their stories, but now it had faded far into the background. Their story wasn't of any significance anymore, at least that's what she had always assumed after all this time.

"What?" she asked the shock and worry evident in her voice as her grip tightened marginally on his hand. She could hear his heartbeat start to fade slowly, as his head fell further to rest ontop his emaciated shoulder. "No!" she whispered frantically, reaching her other hand out and shaking him gently. She wanted answers. Her current situation of captivity faded to the back of her mind and less of a concern in light of this new fleeting information. She needed to know what this man knew and how he knew it. "Please!" she begged, shaking him harder but getting nothing but a fainter and fainter pulse of his heart.

In her desperation and selfish desires she leaned in and pressed her lips hard against his, channeling all her desires and will into saving his life. When she pulled back she was holding her breath in anxious anticipation. Then his heart stopped…and she exhaled heavily, tears starting to well up again in her eyes. "Too late." She sighed heavily, trying to keep back her tears as the stress, confusion, and her stark reality came crashing down around her.

Now she had more questions that would never be answered. She was locked in a cell she would never get out of. She was stuck on a filthy Pirates Ship with a heartless Captain that would do gods knew what with her carcass.

Ariel felt her body start to wrack with silent sobs of pain, fear, and anger. Anger at herself. Anger at Ursula. Anger at Hook. It was resonating through her body and eating her up from the inside with each breath and cry let loose. She pulled her tail up and wrapped her arms around its silky smooth scales tightly, her head burying into the muscular green flesh. It was confusing to feel so many depressing feelings at once, all fighting for dominance in her soul. The five stages of grief.

Denial.

Anger.

Bargaining.

Depression.

Acceptance.

It felt like all the stages were blurring together for her. Where one tragic event ended another started. Eric. Being captured. This nameless man's death. She had accepted the loss of Eric long ago, she was angry she had been captured, and she was in denial about the man next to her and to top it all off she felt depressed about her current situation regardless of which stage of grief for which situation she wanted to choose from.

"Thank you." Came the namless voice again.

Ariel nearly jumped out of her skin as she pressed herself back into the corner, her cries stifled by her hyperventilating breaths.

"You." She accused in shock, for the second time in such a short period.

He was there in front of her, breathing, he chocolate eyes an even more brilliant color now, filled with life and energy. His sun kissed body was muscular and toned again. Gone was the emaciated man she had found, and in its place was this strong young lad. She heard his chains clink togeather as he sat up, examining his arms and feeling his legs as if he was as equally as surprised as her.

"Is this a dream?" he asked his voice breathless, his thick Indian accent much clearer and stronger now.

"Excuse me?" she asked barely above a whisper, still trying to calm her rushing heart. She had had her fill of mini-heart attacks for a lifetime now.

"I thought you were my angel," he told her honestly, his voice full of awe as he was running his hands down his face and through his long dark locks. "The symbol of everlasting love coming to take me from this life." He sounded as sincere and truthful as any man could.

"I….don't understand." She said, her confusion blatant.

"You said your name was Ariel, did you not?" the man asked, a bit more questionable accusation in his tone.

"I did," she responded, not sure what that had to do with anything. "It is." She corrected.

"If that is true then you must be one part of the hearts of the ocean." He told her, as if this was common sense and he couldn't fathom why she was so lost in this conversation. "Unless you are simply named after the legend of the Queen." He added after a brief pause, as if he hadn't thought that was a possibility before.

"Hearts of the ocean?" she asked, sitting up a bit straighter.

"Eric and Ariel, the mermaid and the human prince. The lovers who made it in the face of all odds and lived happily ever after. It's a legend of an epic love that my people tell their children." His voice carried off as if nostalgic and a bit condesending "My mother told it to me as a boy, it's our cultures tale of how true love can persevere. Some say it's even true."

"They do?" she asked, not even believing what she was hearing right now. She pinched herself a few times to make sure she wasn't hallucinating or dreaming. Who runs across this in this kind of place. Seriously, what a fucked up little game of fate. When she died she had some words to be had with the Powers that Be for this bullshit.

"I believe it is, some say it is just fiction made up to empower the hearts of the young. I think they were real though, something in my gut and heart says it has to be so." He told her, pulling roughly at his chains, this time with more strength and fervor then during his dying moments.

She didn't have anything left to say after that, so the silence around them grew, the only sounds filling the space between them of that of the man trying to break free. Eventually though he broke the deafening quiet again.

"You healed me didn't you?" he asked, his body thumping back against the wall after having given up for the time being against the chains and shackles about his feet.

"I did." She responded, but her voice betrayed that she felt perhaps it was more of a curse then a blessing for the man.

"How?" he asked, his own voice filled with disbelief, which considering he was basically brought back from the dead was entirely reasonable.

"With a kiss." She answered honestly, not sure how much information to divulge, but the truth being easier to stick with then the effort it would take to make up some elaborate half-cocked fabrication of a lie. It went silent again as he mulled this information over, the only sound the creaking of the wood and sloshing of the water as the boat rocked to the sway of the waves.

"So," he started, his voice sounding both sure and doubtful. "You are her. Queen Ariel I mean?" he asked. She let his question linger in the air for quite some time before she allowed herself to speak.

"What makes you think that?" she asked, genuinely curious but feeling exasperated.

"The kiss of a mermaid is rumored to save a man from drowning, but if she wants it to, it can heal him whole." He told her, as if he had read it from a textbook. "You said yourself your name was Ariel, and that you saved me with a kiss." He explained to her how he had connected the dots. "So are you her? The Ariel of legends?" he asked again, a bit more pleading this time, as if his very fate lingered on her answer.

"Yes." She answered with a sigh her voice again feeling weak from all the use. She had done more talking than she had in years recently and it was wearing on her vocal cords.

"I knew it!" he told her, excitement edging into his thick accent. "My angel. You saved me for her!"

Even though he couldn't see it, here eyebrows shot up in a questioning manner. She was almost starting to regret saving this man's life. Hadn't the kiss been a second to late, because she was starting to think it should have been.

"I didn't save you for anyone." She told him bluntly, feeling tired. Everything had been so overwhelming recently and this certainly wasn't helping.

"But you did!" he protested, she could tell his eyes were searching for her in the dark but were falling short. "If not for you I would be dead right now, waiting in purgatory for my love to join me."

Whatever bigger picture he was privy to she was starting to feel a bit resentful of it. She didn't save him because she felt bad for him; she saved him because she had wanted to know about his last words. It had been selfish on her part. Still, a tiny part of her under all the wear and tear of the last couple days was stirring with joy at his words.

"What is your name?" she asked.

"Aladdin," he obliged, and in a much more formal voice added "Sultan of Aragbah."

A/N: I would say I am apologetic for not having a tiny bit of a cliffy with no explanation and for not having any Captain Hook in this chapter…but I'm really not. I hope you all like the addition of Aladdin into this fic, his story and why he is there will certainly be fleshed out more in the next chapter. Aladdin has a very important role to play in regards to Ariel's future on the ship so stay tuned for more ;)

Please read and review (I love reading the reviews, you guys are fantastic!).

Also, If you are curious I wrote this chapter with Florence and the Machine`s – Breath of Life on repeat. I love that song and if you have time you should listen it ;)

(\/)
(O.o) /\
Copy the bunny to your presentation to help him achieve world domination,
and come join the dark side. (We have cookies.)