(Accidentally got Larissa’s name wrong. And Dustin is Ty’s foster brother, not stepbrother. Oops.)
“What am I gonna do now?” Dustin moaned to herself.
Unable to formulate a good reply, Tyna tried to put a comforting hand on her shoulder. At her touch, the other mermaid flinched and shot her a fierce glare. However, that anger instantly gave way to despair, and Dustin quickly swam a good distance off, though not far enough to get lost in this vast alien ocean. There she once more curled up on the sand, looking so small and fragile in the open water.
“I am sorry,” Larissa said. “I never meant our reunion to cause another separation.”
Tyna turned to her mother. “Why did you tell her she was stuck? I thought you said that you weren’t sure and that you’d figure it out.”
Larissa shook her head. “I did figure it out. While carrying her, I used my most advanced abilities to examine her all the way down to her core, and I fear nothing of her original form can be salvaged. The spell we performed on you was never meant to be used on true humans whose bodies are unacquainted with magic. Against an influx of our world’s most sophisticated spells, her humanity never stood a chance.”
“Oh no,” Tyna whispered. Without thinking, she flipped her tail and sped after her former foster brother.
“Wait! Maybe we ought to give her time,” Larissa tried to warn her, but she was already out of earshot.