The Maidening Ceremony

Chapter Ten

We never saw the source of the voice to learn who or what it was, but we learned soon just how powerful it was. After those three short words, "So be it," the storm and ship disappeared. We were thrown into the ocean and sunk deeper and deeper, like anchors were chained around our waists. The water was surprisingly warm against my skin. I had two competing instincts battling in my brain – the first to reach the surface as quickly as possible, the second to completely relax and sink right to the ocean floor.

The longer I sank, the weaker the instinct to fight became.

I realized I should be dead, but was not. Through open eyes I could see the darkness quickly engrossing me, but then bright spots appeared above, below, in every direction around me. The nearest one drifted closer and closer until I recognized Samuel's handsome face.

His face was exactly the same.

Nothing else was.

His beautiful auburn hair was gone, replaced by luminous orange strands. His once fair skin looked pink under the glow of his hair. His legs! His legs were gone. Gone! Replaced by a bright, cobalt blue tail, shining in that vast darkness like a north star trying to lead me home.

"Samuel!" I cried, but the word was just a gurgle. Gibberish. If he heard, he did not respond. I tried again, it was a little clearer, but still did not sound like his name. Over and over again I attempted to get his attention until he was finally close enough for me to reach forward and take his hand. He looked coldly down at our fingers entwined, then shoved my hand away, turned, and swam towards the cluster of bright spots several leagues below us.

"Wait, Samuel, please!" I followed him, my arms slicing through the water effortlessly and my tail kicking energetically. Tail? I had a tail! Looking back, a long tail was flipping and propelling me forward. It was enough of a shock to stop me short. Twisting and bending my torso, I touched a fingertip to the cold scales. I was alive, but I was no longer human.

It was the single most terrifying moment of my life. Just imagine discovering you are no longer the species you had always been. It is unfathomable. It was strange seeing Samuel with a tail, but until I saw my own, I let myself believe it was delirium clouding my sight. But I had touched my own tail, felt it pumping up and down to push my body through the water. It was not a bad dream I could wake from. It was a new, incredibly harsh reality.

The time spent in self-reflection left me alone in the midst of an impossibly large ocean. The bright spots I saw earlier were now all grounded below me – I lost the one containing Samuel, but resolved not to let them go further without me. I dove down, my new tail and fins carrying me with an ease and grace I had never experienced on two feet.

I reached the group minutes later and searched eagerly for familiar faces: my parents, but mostly Samuel. I found him in the center of the crowd, conversing with the same man who had spoken in favor of this life on the ship. Struggling to get closer to him, I weaved in and out, ducked over and under, accidentally elbowing a few of the new merpeople. The creatures were buzzing, trying to speak with one another, but language was garbled – untested and undecipherable at these depths.

Samuel and the other man, now merman, were gesturing at each other using big sweeping motions of their hands and arms to come to some conclusion, though I could not figure out what it was. As they turned to face the crowd, Samuel's eyes met mine and I smiled. Reaching a hand out, I waited for him to come to my side, but in the next second, his eye contact broke and his head turned, as though I meant nothing more to him than a pebble on the ground.

The two mermen appeared to have taken it upon themselves to lead us and they motioned with broad, slow, full-arm tilts for the entire group to follow them. Like big dumb sheep, we did.