The Mermaid's Reckoning | ONC 2024

Chapter 4

The first thing Pretie noticed when she awoke was that she couldn't breathe. Although her mind still felt foggy, she recognized that the feeling wasn't due to a stuffy nose, which she often got when she had a head cold. Instead, it felt like she was choking. No, that's not quite right. Pretie had swam in the ocean enough as a child to recognize this feeling. It felt like a wave had taken her under, like she couldn't reach the surface to take a breath.

It felt like she was drowning.

On instinct, Pretie tried to breathe in and she immediately choked as water filled her lungs. She coughed and coughed, but all that did was bring more of the bitter, salty water down her throat.

"Don't fight it," she faintly heard someone say, the sound muffled. "Let me help."

Spots began to darken Pretie's vision and she could do little to resist as a pair of hands tugged her to a sitting position and brushed her hair off of her neck. Slowly but surely, her breathing began to clear, causing the sides of her throat to tingle strangely. When she lifted a hand to touch the site of the tingling, she froze as she felt an unfamiliar pattern of ridges built into the skin of her neck. They fluttered in rhythm with her breaths.

"Just had to clear your gills, don't worry."

Startled, Pretie blinked and looked up. While her vision was blurry at first, it gradually began to clear—just enough to allow her to see the face before her. It belonged to a woman who seemed just old enough to be her mother—if her mother were still alive—with flowing locks of auburn hair. Her freckled shoulders were bare, and Pretie couldn't help but glance down, noticing the short, sleeveless shirt she wore. It was just enough to cover her chest, leaving her midriff bare, and appeared to be woven with a mix of shells. The shirt alone wasn't too unusual. Her tail, however, was.

Where the woman's legs should have been, there was instead a tail of shimmering goldenrod scales that ended in a forked fin. Pretie's eyes went wide and she tried to take a step back, only to realize that her own legs were gone. In their place was a tail similar in build to the woman before her, sporting scales of a drab grey color. Mermaids. I'm a...

"What the hells—" She hissed. A stream of bubbles left her lips along with the words. The girl attempted to scoot away, but she was unused to the scaled appendage and only managed to tip over onto her side, her brunette hair floating into her face. 

"It's alright, youngling," the auburn-haired mermaid murmured reassuringly, a hint of a smile on her lips as she helped Pretie sit back up and bat her hair out of the way. "I know it's a bit scary when your gills get blocked like that. But I promise that you're safe now. My name is Nehla."

"What is... Where am..." Pretie struggled to finish the thought, her mouth opening and closing in shock.

"Do you remember where you came from?" Nehla tilted her head, offering the girl a patient smile. "I have to admit that it's rare for someone to appear so suddenly, but things happen. Currents can go awry from time to time. Are you from a different reef, perhaps? If you remember what it looks like, I'm sure I can find someone who knows."

Reef? Her gaze moved from the woman in front of her to the environment around her. Rather than the interior of the Pantons' castle or the streets of Aecora, Pretie was... In a clearing surrounded by kelp and coral of different shapes and colors. The soft, white sand beneath her was dappled with sunlight, but when she looked up, she didn't see the sky. Instead, schools of colorful fish darted over her head in place of birds. Far above, she saw a pattern of ripples, the water's surface revealed by the rays of sunlight breaking through.

With that, the truth finally sank in. Hells, I'm underwater.

"Surely I must be dreaming." Pretie muttered, shaking her head quickly. Though the choking had definitely felt very real. "There's no way I could really be..."

She trailed off, the memory of the meeting with her father flickering in the back of her mind. Now that her head had cleared, she remembered the strange magic his two advisors had used, the words of the spell they had recited. While the specifics of the riddle were lost to her, she could recall some of the phrases they had used. Ocean, past the shore and far below... 

Those bastards.

"They cursed me here," Pretie muttered aloud. "I'm here because my father can't stand to hear me argue with him. He turned me into a..."

The auburn-haired mermaid tilted her head, her gaze curious. "I'm sorry?"

"My father, King Moran... His advisors... They somehow put a curse on me. I'm not..." 

"King?" A new voice echoed. When Pretie looked up, she noticed that several other mermaids had swam up, floating nearby or sitting on stacks of rocks. They all watched Pretie with varying levels of curiosity.

"Yes," she replied hesitantly, torn between confusion and growing frustration. "My name is Pretie Panton, princess of Aecora."

Whispers echoed around the clearing. Nehla raised an eyebrow. "Aecora?"

"The kingdom," Pretie clarified after a moment. "On the southwestern shore?"

"Forgive me, youngling," the mermaid murmured with a soft chuckle. "I'm not very familiar with the human kingdoms. Are you a fan of human history? A scholar?"

A surprised laugh left her lips. "What?"

"I'm just curious as to how you know the names of the human kingdoms. Is that something you enjoy studying?"

"Um, no," the girl answered uncertainly, her brow furrowed. "I'm a human. I'm from Aecora."

Nehla's eyes widened.

"I'm a human," Pretie continued. "I'm not one of you, though I might look that way right now. My father... He commanded that his advisors put a spell on me. To send me far away from him. They must have... They must have cursed me to take this form. Hells, this is terrible. What am I supposed to do now?"

Her eyebrows creased in concern, the auburn-haired mermaid glanced over to the others nearby. While many of them just looked confused, one of the mermaids was staring at Pretie with narrowed eyes.

"What do you mean? What's so terrible about this?" She called out, the tip of her jade tail twitching with annoyance from where she sat atop an outcropping of rock.

"I mean, it's not a problem for any of you, sure."

"But it's a problem for you."

Pretie threw her hands up. "Well, yeah, obviously! I'm a human, and royalty at that. I'm normal, I'm not— I'm not part fish. I'm not supposed to be here at the bottom of the ocean. I'm supposed to be above the surface, walking on legs, for hells' sake."

Murmured sounds of displeasure made their way around the clearing. From beside her, Nehla's expression had shuttered, her kind smile replaced with a mixture of disbelief and uncertainty. The mermaid atop the rocks let out a loud scoff.

"So we're not normal? Is that what you're saying?"

"All I'm saying is that I'm not supposed to be here," the girl grumbled, her frustration getting the better of her as she eyed the disgusted expressions everyone seemed to be wearing. "I'm Princess Pretie Panton, and I'm not meant to be a freaking fish!"

A ripple spread through the water before anyone could respond, and Pretie turned along with the other mermaids to spot a new figure entering the clearing.

"Princess Prettypants, was it? Well, this might just be your lucky day."