From Beneath the Waves

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Gradually, as he looked over his newly smoothed skin, Korin pushed himself up until he was sitting, marveling at how odd it was to do so without having to bend his tail in odd ways. He turned his arms this way and that as Olivia spoke, as if looking for where his fins had gone, and finally focused on his new legs. It was all so strange, and the sand felt so different without his scales to keep it at bay. Not painful, but strange. He was only just figuring out how to wiggle his toes when Olivia turned so quickly away, and had to pull his attention away to give her back a puzzled stare.

"Why?" He asked, curious and a little confused, and turned his attention back to his own body to see what had disturbed her so. With a quizzical little tilt of his head, he pulled over the towel to do as she'd asked, wondering why she was being strange about things. He was relatively certain all humans had external parts, though he felt he should point out that he hadn't covered any part of himself before. It wasn't important.

"This has never happened before. . ." He said once he'd covered up, a sort of wonder and lingering trepidation in his voice, as if his own reaction to the transformation hadn't been indication of that already. "I don't understand why. . . It was so fast!" This was not normal, even for Mer. He'd heard of transformations with magics, but never so thorough, and he hadn't done anything. Had he been cursed by someone and didn't know it? Was someone playing some sort of disgusting joke? He hadn't even spoken to another mer in days. The new marvel of having legs was almost enough to override all his questions about why it had happened.
 
The confusion clear in his voice when he asked her why, made her blush even deeper as she realised she was going to have to explain.

She wasn't going to go into detail though, only hoping he wouldn't ask more embarrassing questions. "Beacuse.. you're naked.. and that's... inappropriate."

She stammered out, clearly quite flustered. Hearing him move around, she glanced behind her and saw he was now covered so she turned back to face him.

"Neither have I." She looked at him with concern, focusing solelyon his face. "Are you feeling alright?"
 
Korin tilted his head a little towards her, as if hearing her better would help him understand, a bemused little smile on his face. "I was naked before," he said, clearly a bit confused about it all, but shrugged the issue away. Something about humans not liking to see other humans. Had it been different, when he had a tail instead of legs? Had she felt better when she could think of him as an animal instead? He didn't like that thought, and it didn't feel right so he tried to let it go.

He made a thoughtful sound instead, looking up a bit as he assessed how he felt for a moment, then nodded a little. "I think so. . . I feel strange, but . . . I don't think anything is wrong." At least, he wasn't injured, and no parts of him were in pain. Quite honestly, looking at his own legs was making him feel a little giddy. "I have toes, Olivia. Look, I can move them and everything!" It was such a novel feeling, and an exciting one now that the initial strangeness had somewhat passed. Maybe having legs even meant he could walk like she did!
 
"Yes.. but before you didn't have..." She blushed and shook her head a little, not finishing. She decided to just change the subject, since he seemed okay to just move on and focus on other things.

His giddy excitement helped distract her from the awkwardness, as she smiled a little and nodded. "I know!" "This is incredible, think of all the things you can see and do now!"

"Do you want to try and stand up?" She asked as she got to her feet, holding out a hand to help him up. She blushed again faintly, "just make sure the towel is tied around you properly first."
 
Ah, so it was his new human parts that were the problem. He wasn't sure why it was bothering her so much, but it clearly was so he supposed it would do him no harm to make her feel better. He couldn't say he would think about it actively unless she told him to, but he would do his best.

"I'm not sure how secure I can make that. . ." He mused out loud, but did do his best to wrap the towel around his waist while he was sitting and get the corners tied off as best he could. It didn't feel very structurally sound, as knots went, but he supposed he could always grab it if it started to fall off.

"I don't actually know if I know how." He added as an afterthought, looking a bit more boggled at his legs. When he tried to bend them at the knee, at least, they seemed to obey him quite naturally. If he thought about it too hard he was sure he could trip himself up, but if he stopped thinking and just did things, maybe it would be all right.

Olivia's help was instrumental in helping him support himself until he could get his feet underneath him in the shifting sand, and there was a shocked, almost manic little laugh in his throat when he finally made it upright and nearly fell on her before her support helped keep him upright. "That feels so strange!" He said with a little shudder down his spine, holding on to her for balance with both hands and looking down at his feet still. He tilted his head down at them, felt his own hair brushing against his skin, and with a little start freed a hand to touch the side of his head with another little laugh. "I have ears!" Well. He'd had ears before, just less visible ones, and now his head fins were gone. It was all so much to take in at once, he felt like he kept finding new things.
 
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She pulled him to his feet, gripping him tightly by the forearms to keep him steady. For a moment she thought he was going to fall and drag her down too, but she planted her feet firmly and maintained her balance.

She might not look it but she was pretty strong from dealing with farm animals all day back home, which was sort of what Korin reminded her of right now.

His unsteadiness on his feet, him struggling to find his balance, even his giddy astonishment, it reminded her of the newborn foals when they were also standing up for the first time.

She laughed with him, "you do!" "Guess you can use my headphones now."
 
Somehow, Korin had imagined that standing might hurt, using legs he hadn't even had, let alone used before, but it felt almost natural having his weight on them once he was finally upright. All but vibrating with the excitement and lingering adrenaline of it all, he practicing lifting his weight up onto his toes, lifting up and down a couple of times and then lifting each of his feet up a little one by one. Finally, with a small amount of confidence, he tried to slowly let go of Olivia and stand on his own, keeping only one hand in hers for balance.

"I feel like an infant," he said, though there was still laughter in his voice. "Standing doesn't feel as strange as I thought it would." Almost like he was meant to have them, though that was an interesting thought all on its own. He would have to ask Minamet the next time he saw her. Perhaps she would know what kind of magic had touched him. "I don't know if sand was the best place to start, though," he added with a chuckle. "Do you think you can help me to the dock?" At least that wouldn't slide out from under his new feet.
 
She let go with one hand when he pulled away, using the other to keep him steady. He seemed to take to it pretty quickly, and she wondered what exactly that meant, was it just instinct?

She smiled in amusement, "well you sort of are i guess, this is the first time you're walking after all." She joked, nodding a little at his comment. "You've gotten the hang of it pretty fast."

She laughed and nodded, "yeah it's not the most stable is it?" She gripped his forearm tightly as she gently led him towards the dock, she walked slow as made sure he was steady.
 
Korin was wobbly, but figuring out walking was not as hard as he thought it would be. Actually doing it on sand was a bit difficult, but figuring out the motion wasn't. Did all humans find it so easy when they learned?

"Well, they're still my legs, I suppose," he said with a slight shrug, unsure how else to answer as he started struggling to make his way to the more solid wooden surface. Just as his tail was his and he moved it without thinking, his legs were his now and could be commanded easily enough. They weren't a foreign entity stuck to his body, outside of his control.

The handful of times he almost fell on their way to the dock had him laughing at his own expense, but he managed not to drag Olivia down with him at least. "That's better," he said with a few lingering giggles as they finally reached it, huffing out a shuddering breath. "Oh, that feels strange as well. I know what wood feels like but . . . standing on it is new." It didnt hurt, but it was less rough with scales, that was for certain. Every new thing he could feel beneath his feet was a novel experience.
 
Though full of questions, which really they had no way of answering, she had a bright amused smile on her face, his laughter and enjoyment was contagious.

"I guess everything will feel strange under your feet at first." "You should try standing on cool grass on a warm day, that's always nice."

She wondered briefly if he'd ever experienced grass, she didn't know how often he visited the surface before her, and she assumed if he had that around here, it would just be sandy beaches.
 
"I do feel things through my scales," he explained, though he was sure that much was obvious, "but feet are much . . . softer?" He laughed a little at the simple words, but couldn't think of anything better. "If I had ever wondered why people wear shoes all the time, I don't anymore."

He was just considering the thought of human clothes and how useful they were to protect a body with no scales, when a thought occurred to him that made him gasp, turning to her with wide, excited eyes. "Does this mean I can see your house?"
 
She laughed a little, "yeah shoes are pretty important." At first his gasp startled her, but when she saw his excitement she smiled and nodded.

"Of course, if you'd like too." She hadn't really expected him to want too, he was usually so insistent on staying close to the water. Though she supposed he had been getting more relaxed with that.

"We can go now if you want to." She looked thoughtful for a moment, "how long do you think you'll be like this?"
 
It was all so new and exciting, he'd forgotten to think. Being near the water had been for an easy escape, so that if anyone saw him he could quickly get away before they had a chance to form a solid picture of him in their mind and could be fooled into thinking it was nothing, just reflections off the water. Now that he looked human, he could go anywhere. He hadn't thought about the spell wearing off.

"Oh. . ." Korin said softly, clearly a bit stunned by the thought, and when he looked at the water slowly began to feel the first trickling of panic since the change had begun so suddenly. "I don't . . . I don't know." he admitted, with no reason to lie about it, and quite unconsciously curled his fingers a bit tighter around where he still held her hand. ". . . What if I don't change back?"

What then? Even if he miraculously knew how to swim in his human body, his gills were gone. He would never be able to swim deep enough to reach his home, or to find the others. What if it was not some strange trick and he was stuck on land? What would he do? He hadn't even considered the thought of never being able to go home again.
 
She immediately regretted asking her question, as he seemed to get quite distressed. She hadn't thought it might be permanent, she'd just assume it would wear off eventually.

She wanted to make him feel better, but she wasn't sure how. They had no idea what had caused this, so she couldn't say with certainty it was only temporary.

Still she wanted to do her best to reassure him, and no matter the outcome, he was her friend and she would do whatever she could to help him.

"It's going to be alright Korin." She said gently, as she gave his hand a soft reassuring squeeze. "I'm sure it's only temporary ok?" "But we'll figure it out together."

"This hasn't happened before right?" She continued to speak in a calm, soothing tone. "So we need to think, what did you do differently this time?"
 
The short silence between them was too much. Korin could feel his heart beating faster, his breath coming quicker as he looked out at the water and imagined never being able to go back, of falling into the water that had been his home all his life and finding it was no longer a safe place for him to go. It was terrifying.

Olivia's gentle voice pulled him out of it, though his eyes were still panicked when he looked at her again. "U-Um, no, never," he managed, a tremble in his voice and a shake in the way he tried to draw in a breath and think like she wanted him to. "I- I . . . I laid in the sand for a long time and . . . I got really dry. . ." It was all he could think of. He'd just been thinking of it, not long before everything had started to happen, that he was very dry and should get back in the water before he got too uncomfortable. He didn't understand. All magic he knew of was under the water, how could it have touched him on land, with no one around?
 
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Her gaze was warmly sympathetic as she looked into his face, she could see the panic in his eyes and hear the tremble in his voice.

She understood why he felt this way, but it would do him no good. "You dried out?" She repeated thoughtfully, could it really be as simple as that?

"Okay I think you should sit down, and put your feet in the water alright?" She didn't know if it would work, but even if it didn't, sitting down would hopefully help him calm down a little.
 
It felt like being a child again, waking up with no idea where he was, or with who, or what had happened. He didn't know what had changed or if he could change it back, and if Olivia hadn't been there with him, trying to talk him through it and holding his hand, he wasn't sure what he would have done. Maybe he would still have been lying in the sand, paralyzed by fear and indecision.

"Okay. . ." He managed shakily, glancing back at the water again and taking a breath to try and calm himself, to at least fight down the lump in his throat and the burn of potential tears in his eyes. "O-Okay . . . I can . . . I can do that." Just sit. Just touch the water. He would feel better if he was sitting anyway, he thought. Being closer to the ground might make it feel less like it was dropping out from under him.

With her help he managed to walk to the edge of the dock, to lower himself down until he could sit carefully with his feet dangling but not pitch himself into the water accidentally. The sea was cold in a way that was familiar, and as he sat with the waves licking at his shins he breathed more slowly, staring down at his own feet like they would be fins again if he just thought about it hard enough.

". . . better," he said quietly, tremors in his voice still but less so, his hand still holding on to hers like a lifeline. "It doesn't . . . It's not enough. . ." That was the only feeling he got out of it. The water was right, it had always felt right, but he needed to get closer. He just didn't know if he could swim without his fins.
 
She kept a firm grip on his hand as she helped him over to the edge, he was unsteady on his feet and she was afraid he might stumble off the side and into the water.

It seemed like a strange thing to worry about considering what he was, but he no longer had his tail or fins, and she wasn't sure if that meant he'd also lost his gills or whatever he had that let him breathe underwater.

So she was worried that in his current state, he might end up panicking even more and forget how to keep himself afloat. Once he was sitting, she sat down beside him, never letting go of his hand.

She was glad to see it was helping a little, if nothing else, it was at least calming him down a little. "I'm glad." She said softly when he mentioned he felt better.

"Hmm" She murmured thoughtfully as she considered his words, currently the sea was pretty calm, the waves gentle. "I could lower you in and you could hang onto the pillars?"

"Or we could go in from the sand, so you can still touch ground?" She smiled reassuringly, " dont worry, I'll stay with you."
 
Korin shook his head, uncertain about which option was better, and for a moment only stared at the sand. From the shore he could touch the bottom for a while, and the waves weren't too strong but he knew the undertow could be difficult and he didn't know how to swim in this body, or at least he didn't think he did. From the dock he at least had something to hold on to, but it was much more exposed and he knew his feet wouldn't touch the ground.

". . . From here." He decided finally, and though he was determined to follow through on the decision he found himself struggling to remember to breathe slowly, to not panic. It had been a very long time since the ocean had given him a reason for such fear.

Korin was careful to make sure he was near one of the dock's pillars when he turned to slide carefully off, supporting his weight mostly on one hand so that he wouldn't drag Olivia in with him - his upper body, at least, retained the same amount of strength that he'd had before, and legs were at least much lighter than his tail had been. He hesitated there for a moment, the water up to his stomach already, instinctively kicking his feet a bit though they felt largely ineffective, and took a few quick breaths to steady himself.

"I think . . . I think I should let go." He said finally, looking up at her with a great deal of anxious fear on his face still but not quite as much panic. "It'll be okay. . . I think." Just as when the transformation had started, he only had a gut feeling to go off of. He really didn't know what would happen at all.
 
She nodded a little once he'd made a decision, gripping his hand tightly as he carefully lowered himself into the water. Though she thought this was the idea, she was still a bit worried.

When he said he needed to let go, she frowned a little with concern. "Are you sure that's the best idea?" He still seemed worried, and obviously had no experience swimming without his tail and fins.

She was ready to dive in and help him if need be, but she didn't want to take an unnessacary risk.
 
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