Tide led Alex back over to his favorite stone perch where he often liked to bask in the sun.
"This was my special place. It can be OURS now... The place where we first met... At the nexus I mean." Tide said dreamily with contentment.
Tide effortlessly glided out of the water and slid nimbly onto the smooth, wave-polished, stone surface and nestled himself comfortably into its gently contouring features, absorbing the warmth of the sun-baked exterior. Alex flopped himself haphazardly behind doing his best to control his fin, he wasn't all together certain what to do with it. He was still used to crossing his legs or kneeling to keep his limbs out of the way but his natural tendencies were fighting a losing battle against his unwieldy flipper. It thrashed around wildly splashing water everywhere. He was flopping around like a fish out of water. He looked over at Tide who smiled with understanding and lifted his tail instructively, draping it gently over the rocks. Alex pulled himself around by the arms until he felt situated and did likewise.
Tide laid down on his belly cradling his chin in his folded arms and looked down at Alex with deep affection. He opened his mouth and began projecting a clear, strong note with his astonishing voice. Alex could hear a second beautiful and equally clear note being sung alongside Tide's... The sound was a perfect harmonic compliment to Tide's angelic singing, and to Alex's shock, it was coming out of HIM!
"What was that?!" Alex asked, gripping his throat in shock as Tide's singing had faded to quiet.
"What do you mean? We were singing? Didn't you ever sing before?" Tide asked, marveling at his mate's bewilderment.
"Sure, I mean... Not really, but I mean... Why did I sing like that... I didn't even mean to do it." Alex replied in amazement.
"We're bonded, of course. We could never sing one without the other. That would be... so wrong." Tide replied, the thought of them not singing together was so strange, so sad.
"Go ahead, give it a try." Tide said with encouragement.
"What do I sing?" Alex asked with trepidation.
"Anything at all, don't be embarrassed... I'm yours... You'll never sing alone."
"AAAAAAAh" "aaaaaaaA"
"AAAaaaaA" "aaaAAAAa"
"aaaaaAAA" "AAAAAaaa"
The two belted out in perfectly melding harmony. As Alex's pitch rose higher and lower Tide's accompanying tones mirrored with perfect tonal symmetry. Alex continued experimenting, making larger more erratic changes in tone but Tide's contribution to the overall sound always melded so beautify, it was as though they were incapable of producing a bum note. Alex was smiling ear to ear singing and looking deep into Tide's eyes. He was adorable...
"That's incredible..." Alex said with wonder.
Tide smiled in agreement and took over the lead, hypnotically chanting a complex melody of tonal shifts. Alex found himself matching every syllable, and complementing every note perfectly... He wasn't sure how it worked. He was kind of concerned that he was being forced to sing... Technically it was happening against his will, but at the same time he was afraid to try to resist. It seemed wrong to stop, he owed it to his mate to sing, the thought of leaving him to sing alone was vulgar...
Suddenly there was a bright flash and Alex found himself under water... Or maybe in a bubble filled with water. He pushed his hands against the bubble but it was very thick; he was trapped inside... His initial panic faded as he realized he could still breath... He felt around for a way out but could find none, the bubble was very confining and his tail was bound up beneath him. He pushed his tail downwards as hard as he could and pushed his arm up hard through the membrane that surrounded him. To his relief it began to tear. He could feel his arm extending out into a world of yet more water. He pushed as hard as he could extruding his entire body out of the growing puncture hole into the watery void.
When he was finally free he cast his eyes to his surroundings, he was in what appeared to be a giant underground cathedral. The architecture was immense and oddly organic. It was a kind of harmonious blend of Greek pillars and natural aquatic terrain. As he looked beside him he became aware of a dozen or so little, baby-like, fish boys. They all had adorable merboy tails and chubby little arms and faces. One of the boys beside him with red hair and freckles produced a beautiful, high pitched vibrato. In the distance a complimentary tone could be heard, but Alex had no idea how far away it was... Sound seemed to travel so efficiently under water... Upon hearing the dulcet tone, the red haired boy began swimming toward it eagerly, disappearing into a distant crack in the ancient walls.
One by one a similar scene played out for each of the infants around him, some were lucky and heard a reply to their song, but many were met with only silence... Lost in wonder, Alex was startled to hear a rustling behind him... Turning back he saw what looked like a wall of cubby-holes, each one housing a large gelatinous orb. The orbs appeared to contain little merboys at different stages of development. The sound he had heard was one of those boys extruding his way out of his egg, as Alex had done not long ago...
Alex looked down at himself in shock, he saw a small, underdeveloped, sapphire blue, fish tail and an adorable, paunchy, little belly with baby soft skin. His arms were chubby and infantile and his hands were stubby and not particularly dexterous...
"aaaHHH uHH eH oooooooMMMMM!" Alex suddenly sang with involuntary conviction. The other boys all turned to him, they could hear as he had the faint call in the distance... He was one of the lucky ones... A complementary voice was out there, and it was looking for him...
As if in an automatic daze, Alex thrust his way toward the sound, desperate to find its source. He slid his way out of the cavernous nursery into open waters. Feeling he'd lost track of his target, he decided he should put his song out into the water again.
"OOOOOOOhhh" "ooooooHHH"
There it was. It sounded even clearer this time, but it was far away.
"ahH oooH oh aaaHH uuuMM" "AHh OOOh OH AAAAhh UUUmm"
Again Alex was compelled to sing in counter melody to the distant heavenly sound. He started swimming faster to close the distance between them. He was amazed by how fast he could move as such a tiny creature. Eventually he came to a large beautiful coral reef growing around what appeared to be a sunken ship.
"uuuMM aaaHH oh oooH ahH" "UUUmm AAAAhh OH OOOh AHh"
The sound was near, the voice was in this very cove! He started singing constantly, not sure if he was serving as the leader or not, the sound was close and very clear, but difficult to localize. He peered into cracks and swam around the ship but he couldn't find the source of the sound. Growing quiet he floated gently upwards along the outside of the ship looking longingly out into the void.
"Hi there" A playful voice came from behind him as Alex's head poked over the top of the sunken ship.
Jerking around Alex caught sight of another merboy with strikingly pale blond hair and seafoam green scales. He immediately felt a strong closeness and familiarity with the boy.
"I'm Tide" The boy said jutting his chin forward with a prideful grin.
"OOHhh Uhh AAAooooooo" "oohHH uHH aaaOOOOOOO"
"I'm Alex" he replied, practically melting with joy...
---------------------
Suddenly Alex found himself back on their rock with tide...
"What just happened?" Alex asked in alarm. "I was young, in a nursery, I hatched and found you at the site of a ship wreck... It seemed so real"
"It WAS real. That's how we first met... A long time ago." Tide said matter-of-factly.
"We first met today" Alex corrected, "Right here, remember... You just said that made this our spot."
"I meant we met here first at the nexus. Our REAL first meeting was on your birthday." Tide explained. "It's hard for you to understand because the magic of our union is still working, but it will all make sense to you in time... You see Mermen mate for life.... Their ENTIRE lives... Does that make sense? We've always been a couple for as long as we've been alive and you've always been a Merman..."
"So I'm going to relive my life as a Merman, piece by piece? Will I remember my old life?"
A thousand questions were running through Alex's head. He wasn't sure what he'd gotten himself into, his whole world was changing forever and he really hadn't looked before he leapt into this new life... He didn't know much, but he knew there was no going back.
Mermen mate for life, and he belonged to Tide... as he always had.