Lost at Sea

Eleanor stared at the walls of the cove in solemn numbness. The colors had faded with another day and the stars winked at her through the hole in the top. The water lapped gently at her skin as she floated face up.

She blinked slowly. Even that simple movement was a chore. She thought about all the things Jasper had told her about herself and tried to compare them to who she knew she was afterwards and found that it was like meeting a stranger.

Physically, not much had changed. She still had the auburn hair and the green eyes. But inside, where it counted, she was an entirely new species. She didn’t take care of wounded animals anymore; in fact, she ate them. She didn’t read but her entire life was a fantasy tale. She didn’t have any friends at all to speak of.

Maybe she had been a good person in her past life, but now those days were long gone. Now she ate sailors for every meal.

Eleanor was so dazed she didn’t even hear the sirens that entered her cove without her permission. She was only aware of them when they snatched her around the middle and dragged her out with them, their hands rough and harsh. She closed her eyes and didn’t bother to fight, for her will to live was walking on the mainland with all the memories that were stolen from her.

“That’s her,” someone whispered. She opened her eyes to find she was being dragged through a long path of sirens. Some faces she thought she recognized, but others it was quite clear she’d never seen before in all her life. “The rebel.”

Was that what she was? Eleanor didn’t see how she was much of a rebel. She’d only stood up for what she thought was right, and that was standing behind Jasper. She’d go to war for that man if she had to, and if that what being a rebel was, then she didn’t think she had much of a problem with it.

“What do you think he’ll do to her?” Eleanor heard. She smiled to herself. With any luck, “he” would kill her.

A great palace was rising on the horizon. Eleanor lifted her head to stare at it, reaching proudly to the surface and covered with algae. Maybe at one point it had been copper, but it was now a green color that blended in with the water around it. Poseidon’s palace. There was nothing else it could be.

She blew a piece of hair out of her face and watched as it fluttered gently back into the exact place it had been in before. The gates opened, and her captors pulled her through.

“Eleanor Elizabeth James,” said a booming voice. The use of her full name that even she hadn’t known was enough to make her stiffen. “Siren. Second-in-command of the Atlantic clan’s hunting party. You stand before me accused of treason and murder of not only the leader of your clan, but two of your sisters.”

“That sounds about right,” Eleanor said, lifting her chin to meet Poseidon’s eyes levelly. He was a large man with a serpent’s tail like hers and dark hair. His eyes swirled like small oceans.

“I am an unstable god,” Poseidon stated blandly. She only tilted her head in response. “My moods are as ever-changing as the sea itself, and had you caught me on another day, I might have left you alone to live out the rest of eternity as miserable as you are now. But today I’m feeling merciful.”

“Thank you,” Eleanor gasped, sagging with relief. He would kill her.

Poseidon raised an eyebrow. “I have not even told you what I’m going to do, youngling. You have quite a lot of-- what is the word I’m looking for?”

“I think that would be spirit, my lord,” said a mermaid to his right.

“Ah,” he replied, seeming pleased. “That is it. Spirit.”

“If you’re going to kill me,” Eleanor said, “--could you please just get it over with?”

“Silence!” Poseidon shouted, standing. Instantly, every eye in the building was lowered to the floor. Every eye except for Eleanor’s. “I’m not going to kill you, insolent fool. Your crimes are unforgivable. However, I’ve kept a special eye on you since I breathed the life of the ocean into your lungs.”

Eleanor watched as he descended toward her. “I like you,” he said, trailing a finger down her cheekbone. “-but I cannot allow you to live under my domain. I will take away my gift from you.”

“What?” Eleanor asked, bewildered.

“Your lungs were severely damaged,” he mused, straightened and turning away from her. He strode forward to a dais and took a trident from where it was held on a stand. “If you can survive your first breath on land, there you may stay. If not, however, there is nothing I can do, and you will drown in the sand.”

“I--”

“There’s no need to thank me,” Poseidon said, smiling kindly. Eleanor thought it was the same smile a wolf would give to a rabbit. “I’m only repaying you for the years of entertainment you have given me.”

Eleanor gasped as a searing pain filled her. She was slightly aware of currents carrying her somewhere far away from him, but only just. Her tail was shortening and splitting in half, her bones were elongating and rearranging. She wiggled her toes in satisfaction and scratched at the barnacles that clung to her skin with fingernails that no longer shredded flesh.

She crawled through the shallows and collapsed onto the beach, her lungs aching as she struggled for breath. She coughed up so much sea water it was coming out of her nose and eyes, as well. Painfully, Eleanor took a deep breath. Then another. And another.

She laughed, feeling human emotions fill her. All of her old memories came rushing back like a roaring river, flooding her mind with colors and sounds and smells. She remembered the way the sunset looked as it dipped beneath the hills of her home. She remembered the smiling face of her father as he gave her away on her wedding day. She remembered waking up to Jasper’s snoring every single morning and loving him a little more each time.

She pulled herself up into a standing position and wobbled precariously. She fell on her bare butt three more times before she got her bearings. Leaning heavily against a tree, she gathered her strength.

Then she was running. She lifted her arms above her head and danced over the wet sand. Her heart was beating faster than it ever had before and the smile on her face felt wonderful. She watched her legs pump away, felt the sand squishing between her toes. Nothing had ever felt better.

When she finally stopped, she collapsed to her knees and sucked in breath after breath. Her skin was completely dry for the first time in ages; she’d almost forgotten what it felt like.

A white cotton dress was stretched out to her right. She glanced around, but she was still the only person on the beach. Smiling, she pulled it over her head.

“Thank you, Lord Poseidon,” she yelled over the waves. She thought she could see the waves grow a little higher.

“Now, to find Jasper.”