Page 52 of Hot in Witch City
Sure enough, a glance at my lower body revealed that my legs were gone and replaced by this long, graceful blue appendage.
I had a tail!
I lumbered with awkwardness until I figured out how to move in this form. How did this happen? After some jerky adjustment, I navigated through the water. The very way I swam changed, becoming much more efficient and streamlined, propelled by this powerful tail.
Mystified, I followed in the direction the others swam, trying to get used to this new experience. Although I’d always been a great swimmer, I’d never sprouted a gill and tails! My mind was blown.
I met up with the pod. All of them moved gracefully as they twirled and swam and moved about beneath the water. I forgot all about the cold and how I should have been freezing. In a strange sort of way, I enjoyed myself.
You're doing great,my mother said.I knew you would. She didn't say it through her mouth, but I heard her in my head. I knew beings could communicate telepathically, but I never knew that I was one of them. So many things about what had happened in the last few minutes were ready to blow my freaking mind.
Did you make me shift?
I just helped it along.
A strange calm fell over me. It was as if this was more familiar than I thought. Like I’d done so before.
Maybe it was just the fuzzy edges of a dream. When I was little, I’d often dreamed about what it would be like to swim with my mother. So much longing for the woman who was here now, swimming with me. To make one of your longest and deepest desires come to fruition seemed magical and yet so strange.
After an indeterminate length of time, we swam back to shore. As the water grew shallower, my body seemed to sense the need to change. By the time I was back to be able to stand on the sandy bottom, my tail had split without any sort of pain as my legs returned. I touched the gills on the side of my face. They grew smaller. When I broke through the surface, I gulped for oxygen.
I walked the remaining way, the coolness of the outside air bristling my wet skin, but it wasn't unbearable.
"What did you think?” my mother asked.
My mouth opened and closed before I asked, "Did you know I could do this?"
"Of course," she replied matter-of-factly.
I shook my head, still awed. "I’ve never shifted before today."
She opened her hand palm up. "Because you never knew it was possible. I just helped you realize your potential."
“How?”
“I used magic to encourage the transformation. You always had it in you.”
My mind fog swirled from mild confusion to utter chaos. “Do you generally live underwater?”
"Sometimes more than others. We're of both land and sea and adjust to both."
Some of the sirens ahead found spots beyond the sand to where there was grass. They squeezed the water out of their hair as if sunbathing. Their wet bodies glistened beneath the moonlight.
Jakob caught up with me. "Your first time like that?" He asked.
"Yes," I replied with a slow still somewhat disbelieving nod. "What does this make you—a merman."
"Something like that."
Why was he so cryptic?
He took my hand and led me over to where the sirens were basking in the moonlight. We were all naked, but I didn't feel the least bit self-conscious.
As I found a spot on the grass, I sat alongside them, trying to convince myself that this was all completely normal. My mother was on one side and Jakob on the other.
“Can I shift like that on my own?” I asked.
“Yes,” she replied. “Just go in the water and will it to happen.”
