Mezmerising

Chapter 5

My tail was exhausted. I really needed a rest. But the Baltic Sea was excruciatingly cold. Its practically artic. If we were to stop for sleep, especially at night, we would probably freeze to death. But Celeste was obviously growing weaker, since her stamina wasn't as advanced was mine, since she was still young. The only solution I could think of would be to find a sheltered area and sleep on land. "Celest!" I called.

"Coming! Sorry Mezmy, I'm kind of tired." she replied, her words slurred from exhaustion. It was plain to see that she was more sleepy than she was letting on.

"Don't worry about it. We're going to find somewhere to spend the night." The thought of sleeping on land, or doing anything on land for that matter, was foreign to me. Making the biggest jump I could, in order to see above the waves, I spot a tiny island, not too far away. I had some rocks that would protect from the bitter cold wind. If I could just find a big enough tide pool... The swim to the island was difficult, with the waves pushing us back. The sky was almost pitch dark by the time we arrived, so we found a tide pool by the light of the moon. Celeste gathered some dinner while I looked for the pool, and then we had dinner in the sea. Getting to the pool was the hardest part. I had to flop across the beach, lacking our usual underwater grace, and practically carry Celeste. We spend a cold, restless night in the tidepool.

We were back on the move early the next morning. We continued to spend three more short nights in tide pools and flooded caves, swimming twice as long as we slept. Like mother had said, somehow I knew exactly how to get there. By noon of the th day, I know we were getting close to the home of Ezra the sea nymph. I looked around when I felt we were there, and spotted a homey looking cave. I knocked on stone wall and call out, "Hello? Is anyone there?" My voice echoed through the cave. I had never seen a sea nymph, or any nymph at all, and her appearance shocked me. She was extremely pale, so white that she had a blue tint, with sparkling silver-white hair, and a long, flowing white dress. She almost appeared as an apparition.

Despite her ghostly paleness, the nymph was breathtakingly beautiful. She looked about my age too, maybe a couple years older. "Are you Erza?" I asked quietly; for some reason I was intimidated by her.

"Erza was my mother. I'm Lisanna. Who's asking?" The nymph - Lisanna - seemed skeptical.

I hadn't felt it before, but looking at Lisanna gave me a weird feeling, like something was tugging at me, telling me to do something. Then it clicked. I knew where I recognized this feeling from. It was the same urge that I felt just before the siren took over. It's weird to think about the face of a siren taking over my body, because I'd always thought it was just me. Kinda makes you feel violated.

I wondered why this nymph make me feel like I wanted to kill her, but then I realized, nymphs were part human. That's why it was the same feeling, but on a smaller scale. I was lost in my own thoughts when I remembered she had asked who I was.

"Oh, sorry, I'm Mezmera." I replied hurriedly.

"Ah, my mother told me about you and yours. You want to know about the cure, don't you?" I nodded in confirmation. "Well, come on in, I guess, but don't knock anything over with your clumsy tail." She sneered. I looked down at her delicate little legs, and decided that I didn't like this nymph one bit. But I needed her to help with the curse. Lisanna disappeared around a corner. I could tell she didn't want me to follow her. Eventually she emerged from the chamber a vial filled with a purple and blue liquid swirling around inside. The vial was only about as long as my middle finger. "Here. this is the cure." Lisanna said curtly, as if no further explanation was needed.

"Um, sorry? That's it? This looks like it will only work for one. Where's the rest of it?" I ramble out questions frantically. Lisanna sighed in exasperation.

"Ugh, you sirens are such imbeciles. You don't drink it, you moron, you empty it into the water."

" Really? Thats it, so simple? Then why haven't you done it?" I was fairly skeptical.

"Wow, you really are dense, aren't you?" Lissana sighed. "A siren, or mermaid, or whatever you want to call yourself, has to be the one to open it, or it won't work. God, do your research next time." She sneered. This pretty little nymph was a real snob, and the tugging, angry feeling in the pit of my stomach was growing stronger. She didn't know the half of it. But I needed to hurry and get out of there before I snapped.

"Okay, thanks, I'll do it when I get back, but one last question. How can I avoid being affected by the curse?" I asked. Lisanna looked confused.

"Wait, what? You don't want to be cured? Then why are you here?"

Her delicate little face had lost it's sour sneer, and was replaced with genuine confusion, which I considered a tiny victory.

"I'm trying to honor my mother's wishes." I replied. "I hate the humans. They killed her." And with those words, something broke inside me. It was like a punch in the stomach. If that pain had been physical, It would have nearly killed me. I had never said those words out loud. I never heard them before. I wanted to take them back, shove them back into my mouth and swallow them. I looked into Lisanna's steely eyes, and glimpsed what almost looked like pity, or maybe respect.

"Oh. I'm sorry, I had no idea." She seemed to actually understand, which is something I had though nobody ever could. "In order to avoid the cure, you must be out of the water when it is emptied. Spend a night on land or something." Well that will be easy, I thought. I've been spending the past week's worth of nights on land.

"Thank you. Oh, and I'm sorry about your mother too." I said, assuming her mother was also gone, since my mother had known her 40 years ago, and she was alone. I turned tail and exited the sea cave.

Celeste chattered happily from where she was waiting when I emerged. "I got it!" I told her, wiggling the vial between my fingers.