Water and Air: A Waterfire Saga reincarnation fanfic.

Fighting the Whirlpool's Strength

I'll tell you what's not fun: Learning to walk as a newly-footed mermaid. That's right.

Hans Christian Andersen was right: it was painful. My feet were not only swollen but bleeding, cut and bruised with ugly blisters and what not.

Of course all I needed was practice. But you could bet it was a long time before they began teaching to run.

Instead a few select Wave Warriors including physio-therapists and doctors began teaching how to walk. First grasping railings which I did for dear life, and hands and then on my own. Walking backwards, forwards, turning spinning, getting quicker and more agile each day. Going up and downstairs. Uphill and downhill. At the end of it all, I was exhausted.

Yeah, sue me. I had to die, and be reborn as a mermaid. And now I had to learn to walk again.

Getting my strength up, they began testing. I stuck to mer foods, but then they began experimenting with gogg food. Of course sushi was the safest thing, and sashimi. But anything else? Cheeseburgers for one? Of course, the nymphs of long ago never left detailed records of their diet. It took a while. Indigestion, pain, sickness and so forth soon told me what I could and couldn't eat. I could eat some human foods and to an extent. But I needed mer food to keep me alive, though human food could also nourish me in my human form. But we learned to take it slow. After a lifetime of eating mer food, going to human food all of a sudden was enough to make my digestive system go into shock overload.

Then came basic human lingo and stuff. Speaking English still came naturally to me, I wondered if I was an Omnivoxa. But I still had to polish up my Italian, French and Spanish, even though we used snippets of those back home. And Turkish. Because my father came from the Sea of Marmara and because of the Janissaries that risked their lives every day to guard us, even though we might not be in danger. I learned about computers, read books and stuff. I even sat for exams about this, as well as the traditional syllabus my tutors were pressing on me.

And there was combat. Oh, that I loved. Underwater and on land, even around water- in case some crazy psychopath *cough, Orfeo, cough* would try to capture or kill me near to or around water in his trawlers and stuff. I felt like James Bond. Guns, harpoons, swords, spears, or just myself. Anything at all. Climbing and scaling walls. Sneak attacks. Escaping in a cargo hold. And yes, I trained like a freaking SAS soldier. Learning how to survive on my own, getting beaten up by Wave Warriors pretending to be enemies and getting captured, interrogated, threatened, even beatings and food deprivation. To everyone's surprise I didn't complain. No, I felt strong. Sore, beaten up, bruised but strong. I felt like a soldier.

And soon I would be ready.

"Neria bless you, child." Mother leaned forwards and gave me a kiss.

"I don't understand, Mum." Des scowled. "Where is she going?"

I opened my mouth and closed it. For months now, my siblings had suspected I was keeping a secret. A secret I felt bad about for not sharing, a secret I was dying to share with them. It killed me the idea that I might be betraying their trust but Isabella's orders were unequivocal. Des and Sera could not know. Not until Sera was ready.

"Away," Isabella said simply. "I have a task for her." Des straightened. "Why can't I do it?"

"Because," Isabella sighed. "Your youngest sister has been chosen."

"By whom? What for?" Isabella shook her head. "No more questions. I will tell you when you are ready," she informed Sera who bit her lip. "But until then..."

"Mum, you're not sending her to Ondalina, are you?" Des said, eyes widening in panicked realisation.

"No," Isabella assured him. "Kolfinn is not sending his daughter in any case." She grimaced. "But Serena has another path she must follow."