The portal between the two worlds seemed to both long and short at the same time as Karen and Kat went through it. Princess Amara had explained how the transformation would work before opening the portal to the merpeople's world and some of it seemed rather interesting and odd, in a way. That they would essentially join with another creature and yet as the two of them merged, their human mind would dominate the creature that they were joined to. From there, the "mind" that the creature had before that would die off as they became mermaids.
Karen was smart enough to know that that wasn't quite like how things had gone in many of the movies she remembered growing up with or taking Taylor, Angelia, and Rose to see, but then real life was often different in various ways from stories. And at present, Karen really didn't care about the old stories of mermaids or the magic with them. All she wanted was to see Taylor again, and if that meant becoming a mermaid, herself, she didn't care what pain she'd have to go through or how long it would take, or even what she'd give up to do so. She couldn't lose her daughter. She guessed that Kat was feeling similar desires over Amanda and that was why they had entered the portal that Princess Amara had opened.
The portal was about as tall as they were and had been opened so that it was right at the edge of the "bubble" that the mermaid princess had created to talk to them, with the knowledge that humans couldn't breathe water. Karen and Kat walked through it with ease, though Karen found herself steadying Kat a bit, probably given the alcohol that Kat had taken in. Magical portals didn't cure one of being "buzzed." As they went through, Karen noted that the pathway seemed lengthy in a swirl of bluish energy with a current of electricity that went along with it. They went through it, and while it looked to the eye like a lengthy portal, they actually made it through to the other side of the portal in the matter of seconds. They emerged into the air on a tropical looking island and on the edge of a small lake at the edge of a mountain.
"This looks like the place the mermaid said what comes next would begin," Karen commented as they stepped and and found the area on the edge of the lake having rather soft sand.
Karen looked out over the lake and noted its dimensions and its near crystal clear color. The sun was setting in the west, but for the moment it was just light enough that they could look into the water and notice that it was clear, noting a white sandy bottom. This well all the way up to the mountain where she thought she saw an arch in the rock as though the pool lead into a cave or some other underground structure. That made her wonder if merpeople had made the cave or that this was a natural formation on their world. Like a volcano that had gone completely dormant and the former chambers of magma replaced with water.
"Getting bit by a big fish," Kat said slowly, and almost hiccupped at the end of it.
Karen nodded as there was some memory of what Princess Amara described as how the transformation from human to merperson worked and what was the mechanism that did it. It was odd, but with her memories of losing her husband, she couldn't lose her daughter and thus didn't care. She helped Kat toward the edge of the lake and sat the other young woman down. From there she sat down beside her and began undoing her shoes and socks. To some extent they were already wet from when they'd been swept into the water to meet with Princess Amara, but at the same time Karen also knew that this specialized and "holy" fish that would join with them couldn't "digest" the materials in shoes well.
"It certainly isn't the first way one would think would be part of the process of becoming a mermaid," Karen admitted, "but then we took the offer... so..."
"On to a watery world that actually tolerates lesbians!" Kat declared as she then stood up and walked into the lake's waters.
Karen looked up and over to see that not only had the Kat gotten her shoes off but had also taken off her pants as well, revealing a pair of black cotton panties with a red A on the front and back. Karen let that be for the moment, as Kat was likely still under the effect of the alcohol. The thing that Karen was unsure of was that there didn't seem to be any other merpeople there waiting for them. From what Princess Amara had said to them, Karen thought the director of the facility that handled the transformation of humans to merpeople would come to greet them. Yet, no one had come out.
"Don't you think there should be someone to greet us?" Karen asked carefully as she stood up feeling the warm and soft sand rub on the soles of her feet now that she had her shoes and socks off. "I mean... we were invited to join their society and thus we know about them. So it shouldn't be like they have to hide themselves from us..."
"Who knows? Don't care!" Kat answered and moved more into the lake's water and eventually dove in while calling, "I'm coming Amy!"
Karen was hesitant for a moment, but knowing that this was part of her move to stay close to her daughter, she made her choice and walked forward to step into the lake. Karen didn't enter the lake as quickly as Kat did, but she did so with her own determination to join her daughter. She could look out to see Kat almost dancing as she walked out and got to the point where she had to swim and tread water. It let her splash about for a few moments, and Karen wanted to feel that was just a young college graduate's excitement of seeing her lover again in the future. It least that was Karen's hope. The water wasn't too bad, though it did weigh down her own outer clothing a bit, but Karen was also fairly sure that drunk or not, Kat didn't want to be around a woman wearing only her underwear that was old enough to be her mother.
The excitement, however, didn't last very long as Karen noticed some movement coming from the bottom of the lake. With the clear water, even in the low light of dusk, she could movement of the "holy animal" to the merpeople. It was about the same length as a human, but had some build that was different from most normal fish. It's head was very wide, and Karen thought she could see the mouth was lined with teeth and it moved quickly up to where Kat was in the water. It was enough for the "mother" in Karen to call out to Kat, even though Princess Amara had told them that the process of transformation from human to merperson essentially started with being bitten by the "holy animal" before it and and the human merged to become the new merperson.
Kat paused her sort of party when she heard her name called and turned to see Karen coming into the water, her shirt and pants practically clinging to her as she came into the water. Kat thought she saw a look of panic, but wasn't fully sure on what as she kicked her legs slowly as part of the process of treading water. It wasn't until she got a nip at her foot that she became more aware and she looked down to see that one of the "holy animal" had caught her right foot in its mouth and she could see the outline of its lower jaw bones. Her first reaction was to try and kick, but in doing so she brought her other foot close to the strange fish's mouth, the "attack" progressed. The fish opened its mouth and practically inhaled her other foot. With both feet now in the fish's mouth, Kat could feel it "eating" its way up her legs as she began to black out. Though oddly at the same time she seemed to almost feel the movement of water around the fish's tail as well.
Karen could only watch as Kat was soon pulled under water, though by this time, she was reaching the point where the bottom of the lake or pool drooped nearly straight down. She could still see to see the fish moving up until its jaws reached Kat's waist and she began to sink down to the bottom of the pool. By this time Karen was now in deeper water and some of the other white scaled holy fish were rising up toward her and taking some interest in her. Though the start of the interest was different. Instead of going for her feet and essentially starting the transformation process, a pair went for the fabric of her pants and they began to pull in different directions and even moving her legs in the water before other fish could gather around her. They then began to pull apart the pants that Karen was wearing, letting her shirt flow freely in the water and exposing the pink panties that she'd had on underneath her pants. The pulled apart clothing was then spit out and the fish turned their attention to Karen and it wasn't long before one was "eating" its way up to Karen's hips and waist. It hurt, but Karen knew that this was part of the process that would let her see her daughter again.
"Taylor!" was the last thing Karen remembered calling out before blacking out.