From Feet to Fins Part Four

If you are reading this and missed Part One, Part Two, and Part Three, please check them out or you will be incredibly confused.

...

Panic raged through my veins as I leaped back from the water. I clapped a hand over my mouth to keep from screaming. I crawled away from the ocean, breathing raggedly.

I clutched my foot, groaning until the pain faded.

I shivered as I thought of entering the water with my whole body- but did I really have a choice?

The ocean was my home. I belonged there.

I took a deep breath, closing my eyes as I stepped back. I took another. And another.

Then leaped into the water.

The pain was indescribable. It was fire and ice together, burning my body.

My hair became a cloud around my head. I couldn't tell which way was up or down. Bubbles streamed out of my mouth and nose as I screamed in pain. Then, there were no more bubbles.

I lay on my stomach under the water, finally acquiescing and filling my lungs with water.

Then, everything became clear.

My hair fell against the sand and allowed me to see the full moon glimmering above me, distorted by the gentle waves.

I gulped in another breath of... water? It felt natural. It wasn't too thick, it didn't sting my nostrils.

I took another breath and laughed, pleased to hear my voice echo through the water. I drifted off the sea floor, bending to look at my legs-

What were my legs.

In their place was a long, rose-pink tail with a coppery sheen, sparkling under the moonlight.

"Oh!" I cried, clapping my hands over my mouth. I brushed my fingers along the beautiful tail. My tail. I felt a thrill at having something so beautiful be a part of me.

I moved it. It obeyed my command!

I marveled at the beautiful shimmer of the tail and the elegantly tapered fins.

When I finally got over my infatuation with my gorgeous tail, I decided to test its functionality.

I whirled around, spinning off to swim into the mysterious depths of the sea. To find where I belonged.

...

I found a coral reef.

It was achingly dull. A dead one that hurt to look at.

Now that I belonged to the sea, I felt a deep heartache at the destruction I witnessed. I had spent my life surrounded by a bunch of dorky treehuggers. Their cringy posterboards decorated with lollipop-shaped trees and frowny-face whales had deterred me. The next time I saw one of them, I would be sure to hug them.

They were the only humans that understood what damage they did.

Humans, I thought. They. I only discovered like, eight hours ago that I am a mermaid.

I shook the peculiar thoughts away and swam around one large coral, shaped like a ghostly white crown. I brushed my finger along the dead coral and found an opening, gaping like a mouth prepared to swallow me.

I shivered as I stared into the hole, both curious and terrified as I stretched my hand into the darkness.

Something leaped out of the gap in the coral and latched onto my wrist. I released a high, piercing shriek that had been building up in my throat since I saw the coral.

I tried to pull my wrist out of the vicelike grip, but it pulled me into the opening in the coral. A hand clamped over my mouth, silencing my scream.

"Shush!" said a forceful male voice. "It's night. There are sharks out."

I stilled at the voice. It was definitely human.

I was released. "Where am I?" I whispered into the darkness as I felt around the inside of the coral. I fixated on his outline

"At the gateway," he said.

"The gateway to what?"

"The gateway to the Kingdom of Marina," he said. He sounded confused in the way that it was expected of me to know that. "Are you an enemy from another kingdom?"

"No!" I cried. "I- I don't understand!"

He didn't reply for a long time. "You're coming with me," he said decidedly. A hand caught my wrist again, trapping it in his hands.

"No!" I cried. 'Wait-what are you doing?" I asked as I heard something hard, metallic, and sharp tapping against the dead coral. I tried to pry the fingers off my wrist to no avail.

Then a beam of light, brighter than the moonlight slanting in through the opening, dazzled me for a moment.

Then, as my eyes adjusted, I gasped at what I saw.

A magnificent coral reef lay before my eyes. Inside the coral.

A marvelous palace, a giant coral village, a kingdom.

It would have been more spectacular... if it weren't for the fact that I was kind of being held prisoner.

The merman- yes, he was a merman, with a blue tail and a silver sheen over it- yanked me out of the safety of the dark coral.

"Wait!" I cried as he dragged me down. He clenched the trident- I guessed it was what he used t0 open the gateway- and that told me to shut my mouth.

We swam over the streets of the city, where merpeople with tails in a dazzling array of colors stared and pointed at us. The tails all shimmered softly in the light of the corals.

He dove down to the palace gate, even as I protested, then saluted the guard in golden armor. "I need to see the queen," he said. "I think she's an enemy from another kingdom."

"You may enter," said the guard, frowning at me as we passed.

He hauled me through the courtyard with vibrant coral about an odd fountain that spewed golden liquid, rather than water, and into the actual building.

Into the throne room.

The walls was decorated with mother of pearl, alabaster, and hints of gold. There were statues of gold all about the room, in various poses.

The throne resembled a conch shell, but instead of hues of coral or peach creeping out of the center, it was gold. It was the most magnificent, beautiful thing I'd ever seen.

Then... there was the queen herself.

I could tell she was the queen immediately.

She had a pure white tail with a silver sheen over it. She wore white shells flecked with silver. Her face was perfection, with charcoal eyes and hair. Her lips were an exquisite red.

She was even more perfect than Bella Hadid.

She wore a fierce, but king expression as she stared down at her subject. "Please," said the blond-haired woman kneeling at her feet. "I've come to you every day for thirteen years. Please. Let me go to the human world. I need to find my daughter!"

"Avrea," said the queen. "You know the law. I cannot just change it. It has existed for thousands of years."

"Please, why can't you make an exception?" the woman sobbed.

"I am sorry," she said. She turned up to see the merman and me.

"What is this?" she asked.

"An enemy," he growled, throwing me at her feet. Luckily, the water slowed my movement and I was left kneeling at her fins.

"Your Highness," I said, looking up into her dark eyes. "I've been in the human world for the past thirteen years, I have no harmful intentions with you or your people!"

"Ah, so a different kind of treason," she said coldly.

"No!" I cried. "I washed ashore, I'm only fifteen!"

"No one is allowed to leave the ocean," she shouted over me. "Sanver, kill her."

"No!" I screamed as the merman- Sanver, apparently- lifted his trident high above his head. The blond mermaid's eyes widened as it swung down in an arc of shiny pearl.

"No!" cried the blond mermaid, throwing herself at the trident and pushing it off course.

The queen leaped off her giant conch, her eyes blazing. "WHAT DID YOU JUST DO, AVREA?" she shouted, glaring down at the mermaid.

"Don't kill her!" Avrea begged, shielding me.

"Why should I listen to you?" the queen demanded, taking the trident from Sanver and hefting it.

"Because," said Avrea. "She's my daughter."

...

Thank you for reading!! If you want to read more of this series, please like, share, and subscribe!!

Part Five is coming out on July 17.

And a quick confession- I don't know how long this series will go. I have the storyline worked out but I have no idea how many more parts I need to tack on.

So, um, stick along for the ride- it's gonna be exciting!!