Chapter Thirty-One: Hybridity

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Author's Note: This was so rushed and bad cause I'm at work XD I'll fix it later but keep in mind there could be a ton of mistakes XD ❤️

Author's Note: This was so rushed and bad cause I'm at work XD I'll fix it later but keep in mind there could be a ton of mistakes XD ❤️

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It had been exactly two weeks since Camille underwent the procedure to speed up her evolution. She could still recall the joy she had felt upon waking up...only to find that the danger hadn't passed. The surgery itself was only the beginning. It supplied her body with everything it needed to evolve, but it was up to her own physiology to adapt to it.

Mera had taken her to a shipwreck in the middle of nowhere, and with her mastery of Atlantean magic, formed a mystical ball. Inside of which Camille was to reside. She would sit there, the Xebelian had told her, for an entire fortnight without her suit. The human was relieved to find oxygen inside the spherical barrier, but it had enough water inside to reach her waist when she sat down. Apparently, she had to remain where she was without food, drink, or company until the ball finally decided to burst. It was a test of endurance, leading to the sudden reveal of whether the procedure had actually worked or not. Camille almost wished she had died during the operation...at least then she would have been blissfully unaware of it.

Instead, here she was, practically starving and dehydrated with cramps in both legs and no signs of change. She felt exactly the same...apart from the persistent dizziness. The hunger pangs had vanished after the fifth day, primarily because her body had given up on the hope that it was going to be fed any time soon. There was a stage in which she was overwhelmed with fear, and the realisation of how ridiculous she had been for agreeing to this sunk in. It was too late now though, and that thought peeled away until nothing was there but impatience. Dead or alive, she wanted to get out of this confined space.

Well, that's what she thought she wanted until a loud pop pierced the silence around her. Streams from the ocean started to leak into the faltering magic and Camille regained all of the energy she thought she had lost. She was in the grip of a silent panic, brain synapses firing like an internal aurora borealis and hands trying to block the water from entering. It was useless. No matter what she did the magic keeping her alive was failing.

Before she even had the opportunity to scream, the bubble completely disintegrated and she was plunged into the sea. The water pressure didn't immediately crush her, but she couldn't breathe either. Camille moved her arms to and fro like she was climbing up a series of rocks but it was only water around her – water that washed around her body and prevented access to precious air. It was like having a gun to her head and being told not to let her heart beat. Of course it would beat. And just like the heart must thump, her lungs needed to inhale whether it was air or briny water.

Camille's mouth opened, and desperately tried to suck in a few breaths...but it only resulted in large gulps of water filling her lungs. Everything hurt, right down to the pores of her skin that felt like they was absorbing the salty water she was submerged in. That's when realisation struck. Some Atlanteans possessed gills, but others like Arthur and Mera didn't. They breathed in a way that was foreign to human comprehension. They filtered water into oxygen...through their pores.

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