“Blast it all, Alton! Do you know how close you are to being beheaded for treason?” King Vernor growled at his court wizard.
“I do, indeed, Your Majesty,” Lord Wizard Alton replied. “But I know you won’t do it. For one thing, we’ve known each other a long time, and you know I would never deliberately put your family in danger. Second, you know as well as I that this was inevitable. Damon would have gone to the mer-kingdom despite anything we did to stop him. When he asked me to tell him where find the mer-folk, I knew there was no point in refusing him. At the very least, I managed to arrange an escort for him. Or to be more accurate, for her.”
“Her?” The king looked horrified but soon deflated, rubbing his forehead as he leaned against the armrest of his throne. “Oh, don’t tell me. He’s become a…a-”
“A mermaid, Your Majesty,” Alton finished gently. “My contact has confirmed it. Your daughter has returned to her people.”
The king groaned. “How did we get to this state, Alton? How!? All I wanted was to keep my child, and I end up losing both her and her mother.”
“We gambled with fate, Your Majesty. We gambled and lost.”
“I suppose declaring war didn’t help any.”
“No, Your Majesty. It wasn’t your best moment.”
“Well, no helping it now. At least, keep an eye on her, will you, Alton? Not just as a duty to your king but as a favor to an old friend.”
“I promise.”
“And in the meantime, I guess I can expect to hear word from the mer-king.”
“Most likely.”
“Fine,” the king sighed. “Let us prepare a statement.”
-----------------------------
Damon thrashed with her tail as fast as she could, trying to keep up. How did that mermaid swim so fast?
“You have to put your whole body into it,” her guide advised, doubling back to assist. “Like this.”
As Damon watched, the mermaid swam a wide circle around her at a slow, steady pace, her entire length moving in a beautiful undulating pattern. It all looked very graceful and simple. Too simple. When Damon tried to copy, she found herself sadly uncoordinated, making very little forward progress and sometimes even finding herself turned upside down. The other mermaid giggled. “No, no. Lead with your head and let the movement roll down the rest of you like a wave. And don’t flap your tail so much. Keep it extended or you’ll flip over again.”
“I’m just not used to my, uh, lower half bending that way,” Damon reasoned as she tried following the other’s instructions. “Human knees only bend back.”
“Hm, that sounds very restrictive.”
“It’s not really,” Damon shrugged. “We can travel long distances on the ground easy enough. It’s what our bodies are suited for.”
“Well, right now, your body is suited for swimming. And you’ll get the drift of it quickly enough. We need to get going, though. I’ll go more slowly so you can practice on the way, alright?”
Over the next hour, the two mermaids swam next to each other, allowing Damon to mirror her guide’s every motion. After a while, she worked up a steady rhythm, swimming at a more rapid speed. Thankfully, the other mermaid had been correct. Her current form seemed built for this activity. In her old body, her abdominal muscles would have been aching by now, but here, she felt no more tired than if she had taken a long leisurely stroll.
Another surprising thing was her hair. It had gained considerable length during her transformation and now flowed down to her hips. However, it caused very little drag in the water. Running her fingers through it, she discovered that it felt much lighter than human hair, the collective strands taking on an almost oily texture like seaweed. Thinking back, she recalled how the other mermaid’s hair had shone with unusual slickness in the sunlight when she lifted her head above water.
“Ah, here we are,” the mermaid announced, interrupting Damon’s thoughts.
Looking ahead, Damon saw…