A/N---
Congratuations to all my friends in New England!!
MAY YOU ALL ENJOY YOUR SNOW DAY!!!
To all my friends NOT in New England.
I'm sorry, may the day pass by quickly for you....
Anyways, its Wednesday, my updating day, and to celebrate the Snow Day for New Englanders, I'm thinking about doing a double update.
Tell me how that sounds in the comments!!
Peter's POV---
I felt my heart crumbling to ash, my soul ripping from my body. I was devasted, I was agonizingly, painfully aware that I was alive and my Lost Girl wasn't.
I sat there, sobbing quietly, hugging Talia to my chest.
She couldn't be gone, not really. She had defied death before, defied the rules. I wanted so desperately for her to come back. "I miss you so much already, my little Lost Girl." I whispered into her hair. Her head in the crook of my neck.
I felt warm arms hug me softly. I didn't register whose they were, but they held me close, but loosly.
"Am I so pale that you compared me with glue?"
My head snaps up suddenly, and I hear a gasp. The first thing I see is Talia's face.
Just like before, ashen and pale. But she looks so different now.
Her beautiful, silvery gray eyes, are open.
They glimmer beautifully in the dying light of the afternoon. The orange flaming sun reflects off of her beautiful dark hair, and she smiles weakly. "I don't believe for second that I'm that pale."
I look at her in shock. I hug her to me. She pats my back softly. "Peter, Peter let me go please. Your belt is pressing into my wound, and it's very uncomfortable." But I don't really hear her, not really. I can't hear her over my own relief.
"Peter, GET OFF ME." Her words are slow but firm, and I loosen my grip, but don't fully pull away. "I'm sorry." I breath. "I thought you were dead, and, and, I, God Talia, I missed you so much." I cup her face in my hands and kiss her suddenly on the lips.
She places a hand on my chest, surprised.
I hear someone clear their throat behind me. "But, how are you alive, exactly?" Ariel asks. "I'm not saying I'm not glad to see you again, but, how am I seeing you again?" Talia's expression darkens.
"I'm still mortally wounded, but there's a certain reason why death was forced to loosen his hold on my body." She says.
We look at her expectantly. "I am to continue the work of my mother, be a great holder and weilder of magic, and continue in her benevolent footsteps she says." I chuckle quietly. She looks at me, raising an eyebrow. "What?" She asks. I shake my head. "I just missed how you have that way with words...."
She smiled at me, but Calypso interuppted. "How can we heal you then? Even if your soul has returned to your body, we have to heal your body, or you'll just return to death's grip." Talia looked at Ariel.
"You and I both know what I'm thinking, and we both know its the only way to heal a wound like this." Talia gestures to her sotmach. Ariel looks doubtful. "It would undoubtedly heal you, I'm just not sure I can guard you well enough."
"What?" Felix asks impatiently. Talia looks up. "It's time we use the skills gentically given to me by my mother." She says.
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I carry Talia in my arms, her face pale and drawn. She holds both her hands to her wound, a piece of ripped cloth creating a makeshift bandage.
Her eyes are closed, and she's visibly in pain. I lean in closer to her ear, and whisper, "Do you want me to walk slower, or to fly so that the ride is less rocky?" I ask.
She opens her eyes, and shakes her head. "No, it's fine."
We walk through the tree line with Ariel, Ashton, Felix, Tink, Tiger Lily, and Calypso with us.
Ariel clutches her necklace, sitting down on the flat rock of Mermaid's Lagoon. Silver dust-like light swirled around her legs, and slowly merged them together to form a tail. Ashton just stared at her. "Your going back?" He asked quietly. Ariel shook her head. "No. I'm helping Talia heal."
We all gave her a confused look, except for Tink. She just started striping off her weapons, and handing them to Felix. He looked at her, bewildered. "What, what are you doing?" He asked, bewildered.
She didn't answer him, except kept removing her clothes. "No time." She said simply. She ripped off her jacket, boots, socks, and leather corset. She handed those to Felix too. She gave him a peck on the lips and smiled. She gestured for me to put Talia down. She gestured for Tiger Lily and Calypso to help her.
"We have to remove her jacket, weapons, corset, and be careful of her wounds." She said simply.
Ashton, Felix and I exchanged bewildered expressions. "What is going on?" I ask. Tiger Lily turns away from Talia and says, "You remember how Talia's mother could turn into a mermaid? The waters of Mermaid's Lagoon are magical, they can help cleanse and heal the wounds of mermaids. If Talia can survive the mermaidic transformation, then the waters will certainly heal her wound. It is the only way for her."
"What about the fairies? Can't they help her? Or Calypso?" Tiger Lily shakes her head. "This is well beyond the boundaries of a healer, no offense meant at your expense Calypso." Tiger Lily turned to Calypso. She just waved a hand casually as she worked on removing the leather corset off of Talia's torso. "It is magic alone that can heal her now. She does not have the same ability as her mother to gain pixie like features and attributes, only mermaidic ones."
Tiger Lily explains. "How do you know this?" I ask her. "I told her." Ariel replys from the water.
After they rmoved everything but Talia's loose white blouse and her black pants, Tink gestured impatiently to come. "We don't have much time." She explained. "Her life energy is limited. We must move quickly." Tink had me carry her to the edge of the lagoon's water. I lowered her slowly into the water, and too Ariel's waiting arms. Ariel shot a look at Tink. "I need your help now Tink." She said.
Felix looked at Tinker Bell in confusion. She sighed, and stood at the edge of the lagoon, her back to us. "There are many things a fallen fairy's wings can do." She said. She sat at the edge of the lagoon, pointing her feet and legs over the water.
All of a sudden, her wings seemed to liquify. The liquid snaked down her body, and wrapped around her legs, quickly hardening and materializing as a tail. She scooted into the water, her dark, forest green tail matching the color of her wings.
We gapped at her as she slid gracefully into the water of the lagoon. She held Talia's head in her hands. She looked at Ariel. She just nodded. Tink looked up at us, along with Ariel. "Watch our backs, try to help as much as you can." Ariel says. "But do not, do you hear me, do NOT step into the lagoon." She says firmly.
Then Tink, Talia, and Ariel disappear under the water's surface.
The water was crystal clear, so we could see what exactly was going on, at least. I was so worried for her, because I heard the first time someone grows their tail, the pain is so excuciating, so agonizing and intense, that most people end up dying in the end.
But I knew, that this was our only hope of Talia ever coming back to us.
Talia's POV---
I opened my eyes, and Peter's face looked down at me. His face was distorted and rippled, it was only then that I realized that I was in the water of Mermaid's Lagoon.
I turned to see Ariel and Tink holding both my arms, their tails' swishing powefully, churning the water below them.
Suddenly, I felt an agonizing ripping feeling in my legs. I screamed, air bubbles escaping my mouth. The pain was so intense, traveling all over both my legs.
It felt like my bones were snapping and reforming, melding together into one leg, into one tail. My skin and muscle and tissue felt like they were on fire, burning, melding together by an intense heat, ripping and reforming, binding togetehr in the most agonizing way possible.
I kept on screaming, and soon realized that the hold on one of my arms had disappeared. I saw Ariel, holding her jade green trident, warding off frightening looking mermaids. Tink had her long dagger drawn, and was swiping it at nearby mermaids, one hand holding my upper right arm.
Arrows from the surface world whizzed through the water, sometimes sticking to the hungry mermaids, most of the time, the momentum of the arrow was cut by the water, and barely scratched the slimy skin of the carnivorous mermaids.
But I was mostly oblivious to all of this, writhing and screeching under the water.
Soon after my legs were in pain, my lungs started to ache and burn as well. They were getting accustomed to seperating the air particles from the water, transforming the water to a similar substance to air for my greedy lungs to breath.
The edges of my vision were riddled with black spots, almost like the curled and burned edges of parchment.
I slowly started to lose my energy, and I became weary of screaming. The pain in my lungs almost all went away, except for a dull ache. The pain in my legs lessened mercifully, the feelings I had described before had not gone away, but the pain was a bit lesser, a bit subtler.
That's when the throbbing began.
The throbbing in my wound is bareable, compared to the pain I feel in my legs. I look down, and see the crystaline waters of the Mermaid's Lagoon shimmering in and around my wound. Slowly and painfully, the tear across my stomach started to heal, the cut on my cheek, the slash on my shoulder and the many bruises on my body.
The bones in my ribs hardened and mended themselves. Ripped tissue, flesh, and muscle healed, leaving only faint scars, if any.
I kept screaming, bubbles floating uward, escaping my mouth.
I thrashed and fought, lashed out at any and all I could hit. The ain was so intense, black spots started forming in the corners of my vision. I closed my eyes and thrashed senselessly around in the water, my hair floating around me like a a cloud.
Calm down my child. A calm, soothing voice entered my mind.
The rational part of me told my own self to calm down, but the pain, screams, and horrifying growls and snarls from the hungry mermaids forced me to panic once again.
If you calm down, the pain will lesson. The voice whispered in my mind.
I started to calm down. I began to recognize the voice as my mother's.
Good. She intoned. Now, focus on your legs, imagine how they will form. I don't mean the color, shape, shininess, no. I mean, imagine the way it will flow, how it will cut through the water like a paddle blade.
I followed her instructions. I imagined, not the way the tail looked, but rather the way it worked.
The flexing of the tail muscles as it proppeled me through the water, pushing water behind me swiftly. I imagined the way it would feel, as if one singular leg of mine were waving in the water.
I had never swam before, never learned how. So imagining the sensation of swimming with legs, never mind a tail, was enough to keep me enthralled.
Slowly, the world around me melted away. My eyes were closed, my ears were nonhearing. I held my arms out wide, as if embracing an unknown force without care. Slowly, but surely, I felt the pain start to ebb, agonizingly, dramatically slow, but soothing and calming to feel. A warm sensation reverberated through my body, resonating from my tail.
I kept my eyes closed, not from panic or fear and discomfort, but from simple intuition, instinct.
Something told me certain things were best left unseen.
Then I sensed the moment was over, and it was safe to open my eyes.
I opened my eyes.
Little did I know, that may have been the worst decision of my life.