SIEL
"Puwah!" I breathed.
With my head peeking above waters, I roamed my eyes around.
The shore was bathing in orange as the sunset is waving goodbye; Yet the Island before my eyes is beaming with wonderful colors of grassy green, just a bit tinted marmalade and full of cliffs on either side.
'The sun was still way up high when I left from Trivadocea, the journey really is long.'
Waves.
A dark figure wearing a fluttering robe swaying against the wind with a lazy hand waving in the air was visibly sitting in a low cliff.
Unlike when I first saw him, his robe is not the hooded plain black satin. This time he is wearing a fancy robe embroidered with various signs and magic symbols, it was hugged and adorned with beautiful gems glittering from head to toes.
'Hahah.' I sniggered.
Despite the luxurious ornaments, Sai, the one wearing the garment is apathetically slumped sitting on the rocks.
'He's waving apathetically too, but his smile tells otherwise.'
"Sai, your smile looks animated."
"But of course, you have no idea how long I've waited. The sun's almost gone now too." He stood up, his locks proudly disintegrating from his fancy ponytail.
"You're so slow, it almost bored me to death."
'And yet you still waited,' I kept my thoughts for myself.
"Did you come alone?" He asked.
I shook my head, "Aspen came with me, let me get him for you!"
I dived again underwater, only to be surprised that Aspen already left.
'That feels a bit....disappointing.'
"Never mind, he's gone back to Trivadocea." I told Sai.
I looked up the cliff down to the shore.
"So, how do I go there? Are you gonna cast a spell again like last time?"
"No. That's a one time thing. You climb here yourself."
Ha?
"Excuse me?"
'Me? With these tail? Climb? Is he drunk?'
----------
Knock knock.
"Hmm? Who's there? Did you forget something, Siel?" Karius swam to open the door.
An unlikely group stood in front of him.
"Hello, Sir. May we come in?" They greeted.
Although clueless, Karius let them in. It was Cose, along we the others in Siel's circle of friends.
They sat down on soft sponges of giant clams as they started to converse.
Gulp.
"We would like to know...the way to have legs like you did in order to cross land." Without beating around the reefs, the guest, Rave declared.
A heavy silence filled the small house.
"..."
"...It's no point. You're too late. Siel already left--"
The merman, Draein retorted. "It's not late! We can follow her!"
With knitted brows, he rejected them. "I will not put the friends of my daughter at risk. Go home."
"We want help her!" Hannah intejected.
"And so do I. But I choose to trust her. Tell me, why can't you do the same?"
".."
None of them could muster an answer.
Sigh.
Karius sighed and gently told them, "I really want to go too. But I trust her. She will contact me if she needs help, and if she does, I will come crossing even worlds to save her...and her brother. I know you mean well, but I hope you choose to trust her."
The group failed to convince Karius and was forced to go away.
Meanwhile, Karius appreciated Siel's friends. But for him, he would rather not get them into trouble.
'If there is any sacrifice to be made, I'd rather do it.' He believed.
But not even a few minutes after the group left, a young merman came back, begging on his tail.
Karius starred at the young merman for a long time, before starting to speak again.
"I trust her." Essic stated.
"But I feel like dying whenerver I imagine her all alone on the surface. I want to be with her!"
He was desperately on his tails, frustratedly glaring at the ground.
"Please, sir. Help me be with her."
Karius felt a headache coming. "First of all, come inside and calm down--"
"No. I'll stay here until you help, sir."
Looking at the stubborn figure, Karius sighed.
"..."
The silence grew deafening every second as Karius crucially scrutinized him.
"Haa." He sighed, "Well, you can give it a try. But I doubt it." He finally gave in.
The merman flashed a bright smile, 'Siel.' He thought.
A flame of hope started to light up in the young merman's eyes as he patiently anticipated the next words of Siel's father, very carefully.
"Find the sea hermit. You would most likely find him at the deepest of Trivadocea."
The young merman, with shaking eyes, bowed deeply at Karius as he went his way.
The deepest part of Trivadocea is also known as the dark valley of Neptune. Although it is a restricted location, it was not an impossible destination.
'Therefore, I have a chance.' Essic thought.
When the young merman left, Karius' eyes lingered at the space where he stood.
'He can have a chance, if the sea hermit allows two beings to exchange their tails for legs at the same generation.'
Karius shook his head.
It was unlikely for such a thing to happen, and even more so, the consequence of trading a tail for legs is even graver.
He clenched and unclenched his fist thinking about how he lost what used to be 'everything' for him, in order to follow his beloved Inarra on land.
It was a grave sacrifice, but it is nothing compared to being with Siel's Mother. For Karius, Inarra became his everything...and now, that is still the case, although with the addition of his children.
As Karius looked at the corners of the house, he is reminded of his children, especially the girl whom the merfolks came for.
"Seems like many merpeople loves you, Siel." He murmured as he thought of the mermen that visited him prior to Essic and the others who just left. They all came for the same reason.
----------------
SIEL
"Just think you have legs."
"It's not that easy, all I see is my tail, okay?"
"Then it's because you lack imagination."
"Or maybe you're just not very good at instructing."
After the banters, Sai glared at me. "Ooh, so you can talk back to me now?"
I shrugged as I grinned. "I've always been rebellious."
He smirked back at me, "Hmm, I heard rebelliousness come from being dumb."
"Do you always have to get the last say? Even coming up with a stupid statement?"
He shrugged and crouch forward to my direction, so I started looking up at him on the cliff again.
Wssshh. Wssp.
The ocean crashed against the rocks.
"Listen carefully. Imagine your tail splitting into two. Think back."
I closed my eyes and imagined my tail, like how my scales disappeared that night on our 18th birthday.
"Remember when you crossed the sands using your limbs. Think back on how stupid you are floundering in the sands. Just like a fish out of the water, stupidly sticking your hands on the roughness of the sands!" Sai shouted.
I frowned.
I breathed more as I tried to think back on my first time walking.
Sai, of course, continued preaching.
"Imagine all the things you've always wanted to see on the surface. Think of the most beautiful thing you've seen beyond the sea!" He shouted.
Hmm...the memories started coming back to me, and so did the feeling of nostalgia from my first time at the night bazaar.
"Think about me! I know I'm the most beautiful being you've seen so far!"
My already frowning forehead, knitted even more.
'Should I stop him from talking?'
"Are you listening to me? Don't waste my saliva here, listen to me well,"
'...Seriously...I'm speechless at this guy.'
I felt a familiar mana surging from my heart down to my fingertips.
'It's my Mother's mana! The mana core from the sun-like tattoo on the back of my hand that climbed to my chest! It's the same feeling!'
I jolted my eyes open and hurriedly looked at my tail.
The scales were disappearing like bubbles! It became skin, dividing into two legs! Bubbles keeps on bubbling everywhere.
"Sai! I did it!" I exclaimed, huh?
Blurdfhadh, blurrgh, lurp.
"Dumbass, congratulations! Of course, you'll be drowning...yet again." Smirked Sai.