The ocean breathes. Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale. All of life is breathing with it, as if it anticipates what happens next.
Then all life gasps. A flash of green.
And all goes quiet.
Ariel stands up. Her heart is racing. As horses running through the night, war drums, the song of a great battle long ago.
She dives into the ocean before she can think, and becomes one with it before she can feel.
In the deep, she has felt something move. A force of infinity.
She knows it was magic. The magic that runs through life, the Universe's veins.
As natural as the ocean, as green as the tree, as breathy as the wind over the sea line. This force is the same.
Someone has been born. There in the heart of the waters.
Someone has been born again.
Ariel hauls him up. She can't see him clearly yet. There is a soft halo falling about him. A soft glow of thousands of years rushing together, piece by piece, replacing bone matter like puzzle pieces.
As their heads break water, she hears him gasp. The first breath after death.
The waking breath of life after life.
Ariel is moved to tears. He screams in pain, and his body goes limp in her arms.
Hold on...
She rushes him to shore, and lays him down in the moonlight. His eyes are wide. They are glowing golden.
Ariel feels her heart startle, scattering up sparks of magic fire-flight. He is gasping in pain still, and his golden eyes are burning as he looks at her, processing her, processing sight.
She realizes only then that she has been singing to him her siren song. Trying to calm the race of his newborn heart.
He gasps breath after breath,drinking in the air, as if he is drowning in it. The soft glow that was there when he was born is shining out of him. Ariel realizes only then that his bones are glowing like icy diamonds, as they swarm to repair themselves. His skin has the rarity of a new snowfall as it sews itself back together. His hair is burning like sunlight as it has grown back all at once.
The blaze of gold in his eyes dies down to a soft blue. He breathes and his breath comes in more naturally.
"Hi!" Ariel feels a giggle rise in her throat. The reborn man is starting to process that another friendly face is there with him. His terror is turning to wonder.
Ariel reaches down for him, subconsciously lifting him up into her lap. He is wearing a snow-white tunic and trousers of a dark blue, the color of the ocean. On his waist, a small golden dagger that blazes with the light that was in his eyes.
She lays his head in her lap. He reaches up and takes her hand, squeezing it hard. Now he pants like someone who has been running hard.
Then, he is crying. Softly, frightened out of his mind, as the reality of all he sees and all he feels and hears has come to his attention. As, all at once, perhaps before he was ready, he has come back to life.
"Shh, it's alright...If..if you wanna know, you're on Earth. Earth is a good place! This is the shoreline of a little town called Storybrooke. It's nice here! Lots of friendly people...you'll be okay..." Ariel realizes after a moment that he can't understand what she's saying.
He speaks to her in an ancient language. A stuttering, gasping voice, hoarse from battle smoke. She feels her heart swell with sorrow at this ancient human tongue she can't understand.
She thumbs his tears off.
"Oh, dear...you don't know what I'm saying do you?"
He repeats whatever he has said. Then, he winces and lets out a cry. A terrible magic stirs through him, swarming like fire, and rolls to a stillness. He lays back on her lap and pants, crying from the pain.
"Shh, let's...let me help. Let me help?" She motions to him that she is going to help him stand up. He nods and accepts her help. Slowly, they stand.
He stumbles. He stares into her eyes for a moment, as if he is still astonished that she exists. She smiles.
"Ariel." She says, and puts a hand on her chest, to show him without language that this is her name.
He sputters.
"Arthur..."He whispers, pointing to himself, eyes wide with wonder as if only just now he has remembered his own name.
She doesn't know yet who he is, only that this name sounds familiar. There was a legend once. A legend among her people, the Merfolk. One that told of darkness, long, long ago, when a kingdom known as Albion was in the heart of what became the Enchanted Forest.
Ariel motions over her shoulders that she will lead him into town. She takes his hand. He frowns, and his eyes flutter, saying he is still in a good deal of pain. She helps him take his first steps.
Together, they walk to Granny's Diner.