Love Magic

Chapter 6: What Happened?

Emma woke up the next morning, thinking that the whole experience was just a nightmare, until she opened her eyes.

This isn't my ceiling.

She looked around.

This isn't my room.

She tried to move her legs under the blanket, but one big lump moved. Emma screamed as she ripped off the blanket, seeing a large, six foot long tail. The pink to purple to blue fade on her tail glittered in the light, showing that it was real.

Nerida shot up once she heard the scream, "ar-are you okay?!"

Emma hadn't noticed the pressure that was on her chest, so her jumped a bit from the response.

"D-did you do this to me? What happened? What did you do?!" Emma immediately started spurting questions, Nerida having almost none of the answers.

"I-I um.. I'm a mermaid. We mermaids have a thing with soulmates, we don't have scales until we kiss them. Our tails are just fleshy and the same color as our skin. Before I kissed you, I didn't have scales and you didn't have a tail.. So I think I might've had something to do with that, but i don't know what! No one else has heard of this happening, that I know of. But it's going to be okay!" Nerida quickly added when Emma started to seem scared, "my parents are going to do something about it, it's going to be okay."

"I'm... I'm a mermaid. I'm my favourite fairytale from when I was a kid.. Wow," Emma mumbled softly to herself.

Iremia and Kako knocked softly on the door as they walked inside, "are you both ready to go?"

"Go? Go where?" Nerida asked, sitting up.

"We're going to the sea witch, hoping she can help." Iremia answered and left the room, "we'll be waiting outside."

Emma looked at Nerida as she sat up aswell, "a sea witch? Is this like.. Ursula crap?"

"No, she's a great woman and keeps her deals. She's actually how I got legs," Nerida said. She pushed herself off the bed and swam over to the door, "are you coming or not?"

Emma pushed off the bed and fell to the floor, not knowing how to swim with a tail and how it was still so sore.

"Oh, Em! I'm sorry, I should've expected that," Nerida hurried over to Emma and helped her up. To help Emma stay up, Nerida intertwined their hands and crossed her other arm across her chest, holding onto Emma's bicep.

Emma pulled herself away, supporting herself on the wall and said cooly, "I got this."

Nerida looked hurt and then kept swimming slowly by her side.

Slowly but surely, Emma got the hang of swimming with a tail and they soon got the the Sea Witch's cave.

"You two stay out here, we'll go talk with her," Kako said while going inside with Iremia.

"Why did you do this to me?" Emma asked softly as she sat on a nearby rock.

"I-I didn't do anything. I've never heard of this ever happening. If I knew that th-this was going to happen, I would've never kissed you. P-please understand, I'd never wish for that to happen to you," Nerida pleaded, feeling tears form in her eyes.

Emma didn't respond, she just watched her tail sadly. She never thought that she'd be what she always loved, and if she ever had become one, she thought she'd love it. She'd swim around with dolphins and sit on rocks, braiding hair. But right now she just wanted to go home and be alone, especially from Nerida.

"Come on in, dearies!" The old witch called out to the teens, they then swimming in cautiously.

"Now, I don't agree with what your parents are doing, but it's what pays the bills," the sea witch shrugged and grabbed a few things from her shelves.