Page 95 of The Noble's Merman

Mo placed his left hand on Kent’s shoulder and his right hand into Kent’s left, shuffling his legs underneath him. Oh, did that ever feel so strange, as the pebbles of the rocky beach dug into his new knees. He hissed at the pain, a foreign sensation as the rocks rubbed against vulnerable skin.

Kent placed his free hand on Mo’s waist. “You’re doing great. Can you lift one of your feet and place it flat?” Mo did as he asked, ignoring the pain that shot through his calf to keep going. “Good. Now push up on it. There you go. Up, here…”

Using Kent’s support, he managed to get his other foot flat and rose to a standing position. Pins and needles pricked at the soles of his feet, protesting at the sudden weight that this part of his body had never had to bear before, but he pushed onward. He straightened his back, never letting go of Kent, and his legs wobbled as he adjusted.

“You’ve got it! Yes, Mo, you’ve got it!”

“I… I do, don’t I?”

But he spoke too soon as his knees shuddered, and he fell forward into Kent’s embrace. Kent bared his weight as much as he could, keeping them both standing, and gently pushed Mo back into using his own feet.

“Woah, there! Try spreading your legs a bit more, to even out your weight. There, that’s it.”

And so, Mo did. Now that he was human, he couldn’t keep his legs stuck together as if they were one, as if he still had a tail, no, he needed them separate. Once he was steady, he lifted his chin, standing up straight.

Kent smiled, looking up at him. “I knew you’d be taller than me. I knew it!”

Mo grinned. “I suppose I am.”

“Here, I’m going to take a step back, so you can try standing without support. All right?”

“All right.”

Kent did as he said, Mo mourning the loss of Kent’s touch, and… he didn’t fall. He was standing on the pebbly beach with his own two human feet. A warm breeze caressed his skin, and he viewed the land around him from his new vantage point. He would have to walk up those grassy hills with Kent. The excitement of it made his heart pound, and his chest fluttered with wrasses.

“Mo, that’s wonderful! Do you think you can try to take a step?”

“Perhaps with your assistance.” He held out his hand.

“Absolutely. I’ll help you as much as you need. Wait! Oh, but first, if we are to walk anywhere where there are other people, you will need some sort of clothes at least on your lower half to cover up. Hmm, ah, here.”

Kent pulled his shirt off and suddenly wrapped it around Mo’s waist. He tied the sleeves together on the side of Mo’s hips, making the bulk of the shirt drape over, covering his privates along with his rear. “It’s not the best, especially with the blood stains, but this will have to do until we can get you some proper clothes,” said Kent.

“All right. This doesn’t feel too bad.”

Kent put his arm around Mo’s back, holding him steady and close. “Let’s try one foot in front of the other, now.”

Mo nodded, and lifted his foot to take the first step of his life. When it came back down, it shot more needles up his leg, and he couldn’t hold back a groan, making Kent tighten his hold.

“Careful, now! Are you in pain?”

“A bit, but I’ll be fine. Let’s keep going.”

“All right.”

Mo took another step, and soon after, another, ignoring the pain as he kept moving forward. The action of walking rang so oddly familiar to him, even though he never technically had before. No, he had—just never in real life.

“I’ve walked before in my dreams,” he mused aloud. “I’ve had dreams where I was human.”

“You have? I don’t believe you’ve ever told me.” Kent grinned as he held Mo steady with another step, finally making it to softer, grassy ground and away from the pebbles. “It’s no longer a dream, Mo. This is so amazing… it’s reality.”

“It certainly is.” He grinned back. For the first time, he would explore further than he ever could before as a merman, venturing farther than the beach, away from any body of water, as a human himself. The magic inside him pulsed with a comforting warmth as his excitement was nourished by one particularly assuring fact: Kent would be with him every step of the way, experiencing this new life together with him.

THIRTY-TWO

Kent could hardly believe that he was walking through the fields of Cornwall with none other than Mo. His merman, while still technically a mer by blood, now had the body of a human. So much about their lives was changing right before them, for the better, and Kent anticipated every wonderful minute of it.

As they walked along the same path Kent took earlier, he asked Mo if he knew why the shift happened in that moment. Mo explained what Wenta the mermaid told him, along with Noon the whale, that the shift would occur when there was a connection between a mer and at least one human, and that connection was made wholly, completely, and truthfully. Even though Mo had made a connection with Kent, the shift never took hold because Mo wasn’t being honest about who he was. But once Mo finally told the truth, and Kent accepted that truth, strengthening their connection, the magic finally activated to grant him his wish for legs.

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