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The night sky was starry and a full moon hung low in the sky, looking almost blue. Jasmine sat with Carpet on the unfamiliar beach and tried to clear everything from her mind: the death of her father and Prince Ali, the parade of suitors, having to rule, Jafar and his oh-so-subtle courtship, everything she wasn't ready to deal with right now.
It was then that she saw something in the sea: a glint of red reflecting off of the black waves. It rose higher and higher out of the water until Jasmine realized it was a person, a girl with red hair, walking out of the sea. She was close enough for Jasmine to see that she walked unsteadily, each wave threatening to push her feet out from under her. Then she was close enough for Jasmine to make out her features. Damp red hair decorated with a strand of seaweed clung to her form, and large blue eyes stared into her own, a look of surprise on the girl's face.
Now that she was nearly at the shore, Jasmine could see that the girl was her age, or perhaps just a little bit younger, completely naked, and her legs were shaking, the poor thing. Without a second thought, Jasmine ran out into the waves and wrapped her arms around the girl, just as the girl's legs gave out.
"Are you alright? What happened?" Jasmine asked. And then she remembered all the miles and miles she had traveled tonight on Carpet. The girl could possibly not understand a single word she was saying.
The girl made an attempt to communicate, though. She pointed to the sea, made a motion with her arms... Jasmine didn't understand. The girl paused and then pointed to her throat and made a motion from her mouth with her hand.
"Oh..." Jasmine said, the realization suddenly coming. "You can't talk?" Jasmine tried motioning back, throat, no.
She was answered by an enthusiastic nod.
Well, that made it even harder, Jasmine thought. "I don't know what to do," she said, thinking aloud. She glanced back at Carpet, who shrugged -- he was as silent as the girl she was talking to. When she turned back, she was met with big sad blue eyes and a pout. "Do you... want to come with me?"
The girl didn't understand, that Jasmine could tell. Her brow just furrowed in confusion. Jasmine couldn't bring her all the way back to Agrabah, could she? She needed to find where her home really was... but how? And the poor girl was shivering. Jasmine knew what she had to do. She just hoped the girl would be able to handle a flying carpet ride.
The palace was still sleeping when the Carpet and its two riders descended onto the balcony outside Jasmine's room. Jasmine wasted no time: after handing a robe to the silent girl, Jasmine strode into the neighboring room where her maidservants slept. She shook three of them awake and told them how she had found a girl who needed a warm bath and food and clothing.
The oldest of them, a woman Jasmine had known since she was just a girl, raised her brow skeptically. "At this time of night? Your Majesty, you had better not be sneaking out at night again," she said sternly, but quickly led the other servants in making the preparations. Jasmine came back to find the girl on her bed, wiggling her toes with utter rapture.
Jasmine spotted a pen and a piece of parchment on the table near her bed. Taking it she wrote her name, Jasmine. "My name is Jasmine," she said, pointing to herself. The girl's eyes were bright, Jasmine noticed. She could hear, and seemed to even understand the general meaning of what Jasmine was saying. Jasmine handed her the pen and paper. "What's yours?"
The girl wrote her name. Five letters, using not Arabic but Latin letters.
Jasmine sounded them out slowly. "A...riel?"
The girl nodded, a grin breaking out on her face.
"Ariel. That's pretty."
The servants arrived then, to take Ariel to the heated bath. They scrubbed her clean, dried her, dressed her in a simple nightgown, combed her hair, and set some food in front of her, which she ate with a child's enthusiasm.
Jasmine was about to show her the room that had been prepared for her in the meantime, but she came back to her room to find Ariel dozing peacefully on the sofa. Deciding she needed her sleep, Jasmine covered her in a blanket and then went to bed herself.
The two of them woke up early and spent the morning trying on clothes. Jasmine had the servants pick out the finest she had, clothes fit for a princess. Despite her pale skin and red hair, the clothes somehow suited Ariel very well. Ariel looked at her reflection in the mirror, shy but clearly pleased. Jafar came in then with important laws that she needed to sign.
"Later, Jafar," Jasmine said simply, too cheerful today to give him the scowl she usually used whenever he bothered her early in the day.
"Very well then," he replied.
He approached her again when she came to the throne room. "The papers, Your Majesty. And who, may I ask, is this?" With a hand he indicated Ariel.
"My honored guest, Jafar. She has come from a country far away."
"I see." Jafar gave Ariel a suspicious sideways glance. It amused Jasmine that he sized up every newcomer to the castle like that.
That night Jasmine took Ariel on another carpet ride to see if she could find where she had come from, if there was anything that seemed familiar to the girl. But in fact, absolutely nothing seemed familiar to Ariel. She spent the entire time marveling at mountain peaks, at clouds, at horses running across the plain, at windmills, and houses, and little fires. Jasmine wondered if it had felt like this for Ali, showing someone wonders they had never seen before.
When they got back and sat on the balcony playing with the toys and trinkets Jasmine kept in her room, the sultana wondered if it was wrong to feel so much the same towards this girl as she had felt toward Ali.
The next day, they were honored with a visit from a suitor, a tall and muscular man, with a thick beard and a broad chest.
"In my land we hear stories of the beautiful sultana who rules in the west, so I have journeyed over many mountains and deserts to lay my eyes upon you."
Jasmine rolled her eyes. They usually started off like this, followed by declarations of love and a marriage proposal.
Sure enough, the man took her hands in his and said, "I love you. I love you more than the moon loves the stars, more than the hot wind loves the sand."
"And I... have just met you." She supposed she should entertain him for a while, and if he got too annoying, she would call for Rajah. She ordered the servants to set out lunch, and they sat at the table, Ariel on her right, and her guest on her left. As they ate, the man got to the heart of it all -- politics. He talked at length about how good it would be if he were to become the sultan of Agrabah. After about thirty minutes of listening to his proposal, Jasmine glanced to her right. Ariel looked... sad?
When Ariel tried to ride the suitor's thoroughbred horse, the horse panicked and nearly injured itself. That was the last straw. The man took his horse and stormed out of the palace. Jasmine couldn't say she was sad to see him go.
The third day Jasmine spent giving Ariel a tour of the palace grounds. She showed her the palace menagerie, where the animals soon made friends with the girl. As she watched Ariel touch the feathers of a brightly-colored bird that had perched on her arm, Jasmine realized she sometimes forgot the girl couldn't talk. Her expressions seemed to say everything for her.
Late in the afternoon Jasmine showed her the gardens. They sat on the edge of a fountain as the sky turned orange overhead. They sat together, not saying a word, the only sounds coming from the cicadas. Jasmine could have sworn their chirping sounded like kiss her kiss her kiss her kiss her. The thought had occurred to her before, but she had always hesitated. Not now. Running one hand through Ariel's long red hair, with the other she cupped the other girl's chin and leaned in. Their lips met and then...
She was not sure what was happening. Far off in the distance, Jasmine could hear a beautiful song, like that of a sea siren. It grew closer and closer until she could see it was coming from a glowing ball, which floated into Ariel's open mouth and down her throat. And then Jasmine realized the song was coming from Ariel herself.
The song Ariel was singing faded to silence, and she turned to Jasmine, blue eyes bright. "Jasmine," she said, impossibly, the surprise inherent in her own voice. She touched her neck in wonder, and then smiled and let out a cheer, tackling Jasmine to the ground. "I love you!" she said happily. "Jasmine, your name, right?" Jasmine stared wide-eyed at the girl, who had pieced together the sentence in simple, accented Arabic. Jasmine barely managed to nod her head in answer. Had Ariel been listening and absorbing the language these past few days? she wondered. To be able to pick it so fast was unbelievable.
"Jasmine," Ariel said, holding her face close to the sultana's. "Jasmine, Jasmine, Jasmine. I love you, I love you, I love you."
Then she laughed.
Jasmine had never heard anything more beautiful in her life.