Nixxia swam the fastest she'd ever swam; as she got farther away from their kingdom, she almost started to second-guess herself, but she forged on.
The Eaters, the most dreaded hunters, grew ten times a Mermen's size with jaws that could contain ten Mermen at once. She knew she was in their den when she saw the skeleton of her fellow mermen lying on the bottom of the ocean. Her heart was racing as she increased her speed.
According to the tales they were told as kids, she remembered that it was said that whoever succeeded in passing through the Eater's den would soon get to the human world, for the Eaters found the curious humans as easy prey than the mermen.
As she swam through a high-arched rock, she saw a huge shadow appear above her. Without looking, she already knew she'd been spotted by an Eater.
She quickly flapped her tail at an incredible speed, causing heavy ripples of water waves to form behind her, slowing down the huge Eater.
They had an advantage with speed since they were slimmer and more agile. She heard the low growl of the Eater and quickly started to swim from left to right. Soon, she sensed the presence of more Eaters behind her.
"Oh, no!" Nixxon gasped. She brought her hand up to her neck and closed her fingers around the locket. "Come on, Neireda's locket, show me the way!" She begged.
"Ahh!" She screamed as her rail was almost bitten off from her waist by the angry-looking Eater.
She heard another growl, and she diverted her swimming into the area with many rocks and lesser space; by doing so, she slowed the Eaters down and quickly swam away from their territory.
Soon, she saw it, her eyes widened as she saw a golden ray of what she believed was the sun streaming into the ocean.
She'd never seen the sun, but she'd heard numerous tales about it, and just like his blood, the sun was golden, too. Seeing the rays of the sun meant that she had succeeded.
But she didn't relax yet, she would only relax when she was fully out of the water.
She kept swimming higher, getting closer and closer to the surface, the temperature of the water was so warm, unlike the one in their kingdom, and she liked it, she saw seaweed floating above the water's surface as she got closer, and she saw unidentified objects floating above the water too, probably some human-related stuff.
Nixxia finally got close enough to the surface, but she didn't push her head out yet; she remembered that Neireda told her that the moment her body surfaced above the ocean, she'd transform into a human.
She slowly turned around and looked back into the ocean for as far as her eyes could go, and all she saw was darkness, but she knew that what was once her home lay beneath the very rock bottom of the ocean.
She didn't want to go back, she was very far away from home, and she hadn't come this far with all the risks involved just to give up and run back home.
With a heavy sigh, she turned around and pushed her head out of the water.
First, she choked.
She felt like her lungs were constricting the moment her head surfaced above the ocean; she closed her eyes from the sun; it wasn't harsh, but it was strange.
She tried her best to breathe as she did under the water but it proved to be a difficult labor, she flailed her hands around, splashing water around her, and when she saw that she was going to die if she continued struggling to breathe, she decided to return into the ocean, but, just as she was about to lower herself in, she widened her eyes as she saw a huge wave of water moving with speed toward her. She didn't like waves; they always made her lose focus and balance, and now wasn't the best time to handle a wave; she wasn't just in the mood for it.
But before she could escape, the wave reached her in a second and pushed her ashore.
Nixxia suddenly found herself lying in between fine, smooth sand and the water.
She was surprised that she could now breathe properly, the air rushing into her lungs as she dragged a lung full of air in; she marveled at how good it felt, she felt alive for the first time.
After getting used to the mechanism of human breathing, Nixxia realized that she was still a merman. 'Had Neireda lied to me?' She thought with a sad frown.
She looked around her environment and discovered that she was lying on the cold, soft sand behind a huge oval rock, and it looked like the sun was still setting; she saw weird prints on the soft sand, prints of different sizes and shapes.
'I'm finally out. how do I become human?' She thought as she looked at the locket.
The sun suddenly shone brighter on her skin, her silver and purple scales glittered, and she felt a strange hum of energy within her; soon, she felt like taking a nap; she yawned widely and stretched her arms above her head.
Maybe she was too tired from traveling the whole night without rest. She decided to rest her head on her arm and take a little nap.
After a while, Nixxia slowly opened her eyes and immediately covered her hand across her eyes. She was surprised to see how bright the sun was shining, she'd never seen anything as bright and hot! The sand beneath her felt so hot, even hotter than the fire crystal they used to fight off the Eaters.
She slowly raised her hand, paused, and stared at her hand in shock, she raised the second one in front of her eyes to make sure she wasn't imagining. No more scales on her skin!
Her fingers were slim and beautiful, and her arms were slender and fair; she couldn't believe she could look this beautiful without those bright-colored scales.
Her mind suddenly told her to check her tail fin, and when she did, she saw the most amazing thing on earth: feet!
She wiggled her toes and smiled; she was human!
But she suddenly frowned when her eyes caught something strange while traveling up her body.
"What is this?" She muttered in Mermen's language, surprised at how soft her voice was.
She sat up and stared down between her legs and observed the weird but neatly shaped slit; she lowered her head further and spread her legs; she furrowed her brows, wondering why Neireda fixed an Abalone between her legs.
She reached out her hand and poked it, hard.
"Oh!" She grunted painfully.
So that was part of her body. She had no idea what humans used that part for, but one thing she knew was that it was a part of the body that should never be played with; it hurt to touch; she wondered how much more it would hurt if someone hit her there, it could hurt like getting stabbed by her Father's scepter.
Nixxia sighed, looking around the beach; she couldn't hear any voices around, which meant that no one was around the area.
She slowly crawled closer to the rock and held it, gasping from how hot it was, but she needed to walk. She bent her legs behind her and knelt on the hot sand, her hand was her propeller as she used it to pull herself up, just the way her mother had told her the humans did, she succeeded in holding the hot rock as support to lift herself, but the moment she stood, her legs wobbled and she fell back to the floor.
"Oh no, what am I supposed to do? I can't walk," She sadly whispered to herself.
She suddenly thought of something she did as a mermaid and decided to try it out; she put one elbow after another and laughed when she saw that she was slowly gliding away from her location.
The sand was hot on her skin, but she was determined to go far away from the ocean; she didn't want to risk getting carried back into the ocean by the waves.
Nixxia was surprised by how large the beach was, she saw what looked like wooden beds with huge umbrellas placed beside them and she thought of going there to rest for a while, but her eyes suddenly caught a short wooden stairs beside a tall and beautiful building and decided to glide into the building, she would get more shelter there than laying on the wooden beds.
Nixxia struggled to climb the stairs as her elbows were already bruised and hurting. She tried and tried, but she just couldn't get herself up.
Instinctively, she replaced her elbows with her hands, then propped her knees under her to hold her up. She wobbled for a while, but she found a way to crawl up the stairs, smiling as she did so.
"So this was how humans moved," She said to herself.
She frowned when she climbed to the top of the stairs and saw that the building had a high fence around it, and she knew she would never be able to get through.
She changed direction immediately and decided to follow the wooden path; she crawled and crawled, passing by trees and cute flowers until she reached a soft, mowed path.
She wondered what those trees were and what they were used for.
She sighed as the soft grass suited her sore limbs, but she kept moving until she saw a huge black gate, however, it was locked.
She almost lost hope, but she suddenly saw a four-legged, furry creature that walked just like her pass through what seemed to be a smaller gate below the huge gate.
She immediately knew that that was her route.
She quickly crawled over to it and fixed her head through it first; next, she took her hands out; the hard part was getting her midsection out, but once she did, her legs were easy to pull out.
Looking ahead, Nixxia was confused; a long black and smooth path stretched out in front of her, she didn't know which way to go. She looked left and then right, but the path seemed unending.
She sighed.
'Which way to go now?' She thought, a little frown showing her frustration.
Finally, she decided to go left, legends say that the right path was always wrong. So, there she was, crawling towards the left path.
"Asshh..." she hissed when her hands and knees touched the scorching hot path.
'How do humans survive crawling in such hot environments?' She thought quietly as she crawled tiredly.
She was getting hungry, and her stomach was twisting and hurting, but she ignored it and moved on.
Soon, Nixxia snapped her head behind her when she suddenly heard a monstrous rumble, her eyes widened as she saw the gigantic black monster moving with an incredible speed toward her; she was stuck in place and didn't know how to escape.
"Argh!!!" Nixxia screamed as the gigantic black monster hit her from behind, sending her flying some good distance away from her initial point.