✔THE STING (onc-19)

8. 'The story of us.'

A very melodious humming contrasted on a background of rhythmic chanting tickled Kai's ears. He strained to blink away the bright light as he woke up and sat upright taking support of his hands.

"Gabby?" He hushed, pressing his pounding head, at the plump silhouette sitting right beside him, "is that you? I can't feel my legs."

"Yeah...tell me about it." Gabby rolled her eyes looking at something happening at a not-so-far distance with a hint of boredom on her face.

Kai glanced at her face, then her body and lastly, her legs. What he saw made him jerk and jump in shock. Instead of a pair of plump legs, Gabby now had half a dozen of very flexible legs, 'tentacles' to be precise. "What's happened to you? You...you look like an octopus!"

"Calm down kid, have you seen yourself?"

"What do you mean? Don't tell me I am an octopus too," Kai squeezed his eyes tight and examined himself with his hands. His legs felt unusually hard, fused, rough with a chitinous texture of some kind. "Oh god."

The chanting suddenly became so loud and sharp to his ears that he had to swiftly turn around to see what was happening. There was a humongous light orb nestled at the center of a dancing red kelp forest, leaves of which were entwined into each other like a honeycomb. Right in front of it laid his father's lifeless body surrounded by women with undulating and light studded fishtails he had seen in the book the other day; the woman he had encountered while drowning in the maelstrom.

"Dad!"

"Shh...shh. It's okay Kai, he is going to be just fine." Gabby assured him, preventing him from wrecking the ritual. "Calm down."

"Where's Chip? Sheila and Zaren? And Tibby and Bo?" He asked breathlessly, his eyes widened as some bubbles escaped his mouth while he talked. He unwillingly accepted that he was very well alive, breathing underwater, with a fish-tail that almost looked - funnily enough- like a lobster's tail.

"They are alright..." Gabby waved her fingers reluctantly standing on her tentacles. Kai fumbled to fathom her appearance as he struggled to gain the balance with his new found body. A hooded figure of thousand colours floated flawlessly like a shooting star across the dark sea, only to twinkle and stop right in front of him.

Kai shut his eyes and fled the attack by turning around. But much for his surprise, instead of running away or wade across the water with his fins, he landed on the sea bed on his sharp and pointy legs that protruded from his back. "What the hell?"

"Awesome isn't it?" A familiar voice whispered into one of his ears. He instantly turned to her and what he saw took his breath away.

Sheila. Her hair had turned into a hood of sparkly colours, her body was now a night sky studded with thousand stars and from waist down, there was an undulating skirt like mane. Long strands of light flowed down from her hood and arms as if they were a jelly fish's stingers. Kai stretched his fingers out to touch her magical face, but she instantly flinched away from him.

"Why? How? Where are we?" Kai didn't seem to understand anything​ whatsoever. "Are we in the heavens or something?"

Zaren's laugh echoed across the abyss. "Welcome back Kai, you turned out to be quite strong for a lad after all."

Glancing all around him, Kai saw a silhouette of a man with fish tail approaching him, swimming in swirls and spirals. "Zaren? You've got a killer look with those fins."

"Thanks. You see, I am a killer whale," Zaren waggled his eyebrows and swirled like a bride admiring her brand new wedding dress. His tail was black with a strong fin, anterior part of his body was spotless white with a black pattern encroaching it from behind like a cloak. He grinned and sicced bubbles at them in happiness.