Disclaimer: Twilight characters belong to Stephenie Meyer. Ideas taken from H2O TV show and The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Anderson. Mer characters and Serena belong to me.

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Chapter One

I was underwater, swimming as usual. The sun was shining again and the light made my pastel pink tail glow with mermaid vibes. I was laughing with my best friend, Lynnie, a tall mermaid with pale hair and a plum-coloured tail, as we perched on some rocks near to the palace. The palace was where the king and his daughter lived. We were good friends with the Princess Imogene, so we were waiting for her outside. We could have gone in, because the swordfish knew who we were, but the sun was too brilliant today to miss out. My skin was naturally tan, but Lynnie was always trying to colour her rather snowy skin up a little.

"Do you ever wish you could be a human?" I wondered out loud.

I had always secretly wished I could be a human. I wanted to go to the surface and walk on land, go to human high school and do things that normal girls did, like go to parties, go shopping and flirt with boys. Under the ocean, however, you just couldn't say things like that out loud. Everyone was content with swimming about and being merfolk, that I thought I was just the anomaly of the bunch. As we were mythical creatures, we tended to be immortal – we ceased to age when we hit eighteen. There was an initiation ceremony that happened on our birthday, where we were welcomed into the 'family', so to speak. It meant we were officially part of the mer community forever, entitled to vote and such.

"Serena," Lynnie said anxiously. "You know you're not meant to say things like that in the open."

Her eyes glanced sideways at the glittering emerald walls of the palace. Lynnie knew all about my love of the land. I sneaked out a lot, swimming to the surface and sticking my head above water. We merfolk could breathe easily above water. I knew I had to knock out of this habit soon, because my father wanted me to be a proper lady for when I got married. My parents had chosen my husband for me, as was the custom. True love was not believed in down here. You got married because it was expected. And I did not like my fiancé, Chris, at all. He was an arrogant jerk, but he was rich and had posh parents, so my parents were overjoyed when his parents agreed to marriage to me.

"I know, Lynnie, I know," I sighed, just as Imogene sailed over.

There was a grin splashed across her face, and I smiled back because her optimistic attitude was so infectious. Imogene was getting married to a prince soon, just after our initiations. We all had one big ceremony for all the girls, and, since our birthdays were so close, the ceremony was in two weeks. It was just a matter of time before I was stuck down here forever. I grimaced.

"Hello, my darlings," Imogene greeted. "And what are we going to get up to today?"

"Mischief?" I shrugged, and she giggled.

We decided to go up to the surface, knowing that our parents would be mad, but not really caring. We stayed out of sight though, because when we arrived there were an awful lot of humans milling about. I was burning with jealously. The thing with humans was, they could not know of our existence. They did, of course, have their legends because some merfolk were just careless – but I secretly admired the merman who married his human lover. He went to the surface and was never seen again. It was terribly romantic, but naturally he was shunned from the community forever. Merfolk are proud people.

"When's the wedding, then?" I asked Imogene.

"Day after the ceremony," she said enthusiastically. She loved her fiancé, Aaron. I could understand why, as he was all the things Chris was not – charming, polite, attractive and humorous. They were the perfect couple and I was happy for them, if not a little wistful because I did not have the happy ending I had longed for.

"My dress is incredible," she sighed. "It's white, and the skirts flow and float divinely in the water. The jellyfish made it – you know what nimble tentacles they have. I can't wait for you to see it. Oh, and you two must come for a fitting for your bridesmaid dresses. I will set a date once I check with Papa. We are ridiculously busy! I envy how relaxed you always are."

This was news to me, because I was always stressed out over everything, but I nodded anyway. I was not the most normal of merfolk, because I had powers. This caused me to stress, although most of the mermaids in my class didn't believe that I was anything other than lucky. Rarely was a mermaid or merman blessed with a talent like mine. I could control the elements – I could manipulate them in any way I wanted. Because elemental control was generally not something taught at school, I was forced to struggle through myself and my own power sometimes scared me. I caused accidents when I could not control it. It had been almost one thousand years since a merfolk member had been blessed with powers. Once again, I was an anomaly.

We swam back late. The sun was setting, casting fiery colours into the sky. As we swam, I saw one of my favourite human inventions. I felt a rush of adrenaline and enthusiasm.

"Look!" I cried happily. "It's a ship!"

We weren't meant to go near ships, and I knew this but I went anyway, because I rarely saw them. I remained carefully concealed. The ship had an old-fashioned charm – not like the cruise ships I saw from time to time – but was also modern. I swam over to a window, peering inside with delight spread across my face. I could hear the cries of the others to come back, because they would be forced to leave me otherwise, but I didn't care. I was glad they were leaving, because I didn't want them to get into any sort of trouble.

The room I was looking at was richly decorated in king's colours. There was crimson and purple with gold decoration, and I wondered if anyone important was residing on this ship. Inside the room were three men. One sat at a desk, while the other two stood and talked. I felt a sense of awe as I stared at the scene, because the men looked really important. With my advanced hearing, I listened in. All the merfolk had amazing hearing because we were underwater, and it was ten times harder to hear or so I had been informed. All our senses were enhanced, and I could smell their scent too. It wasn't very human, I realised. I could hear no heartbeats either – who were these people?

"We will be back at Volterra soon," the man from the seat said. He had raven black hair and paper white skin – even paler than Lynnie's. That was odd, I thought.

"We need new talent, Aro," a blonde man replied. "Do not avoid the subject. If the Romanians attack us, we will need some new talent to kill them with. It is inevitable that we will be facing such a situation soon enough."

"Caius is right," the final man said in a whispery voice. "We must do something."

Aro looked discomfited. "We cannot just pick up humans from the street to change, and hope they will have some talent of use. We will need to find some existing vampires."

I gasped, rather audibly. Their heads snapped to the source of the noise – me, floating in the water next to their ship. Their eyes were crimson. I stared for one nano-second too long and flipped back under the water, accidentally revealing the fact that I had a tail as it flicked above the surface in the process of my diving. My mind was racing as I swam deeper under water. My heart was pounding. I had revealed our secret to vampires. I was not fit to be a mermaid. The ship was not even that far from the shore. What if they tried looking for me and came across the kingdom?

Then, I realised, they had been looking for talent. I had talent. Whether it was useful or not was quite a different matter, but I possessed one. I could bargain with them to keep away – but I did not have legs! I could never survive above water, because I would be a freak with a tail. The only way I could obtain legs was to go to the sea witch, I knew. She was an outcast of the kingdom, and I was sure to be an outcast as well if I asked for her help. But I would be one already, because I had broken the law and revealed my true self to someone who was not a mer. I had no other choice, to be honest. So, instead of swimming frantically home, I swam in the other direction that was not near the city, but near to the witch's sea cave.

It wasn't as I would have expected for a sea cave. As I peered in, I found it to be rather small and even cute, like my grandmother's house which was filled with frilly items and merdolls. I noticed the shelf of potions, the crystal ball and the witch's pet eels, encased in cages. They scowled at me as I entered cautiously. Then the witch herself came out, dressed in a flowing black sea dress which was decorated with various shells. It was the custom for female mer to dress in human tops or dresses these days, though not originally. After human endorsement of modesty, the mer followed suit.

The witch was a beautiful witch, not an ugly one like in the human story books. She was slender and had soft features. Her eyes were primrose pink, because, unlike humans, merfolk's eyes could be any colour at all, though most generally matched the tail colour. Mine were pale rose, in unison with my tail. Eyes did not follow genetics down here. I watched as the witch moved gracefully over to me, curling black hair floating dreamily around her. Her cold hand touched my face and she sighed softly.

"What can I help you with, sweetie?" she asked quietly, drifting to her crystal ball.

"I did something terrible," I whispered. "And I want to make it right. I want to become a human."

Her eyes flickered over me. "Come to me," she beckoned, so I swam to her and sat on a beautiful seat made of pearls which was positioned next to her crystal ball. She gazed into the glass sphere for a moment before speaking, though I could not see a thing. The witch was talented like me, but she had the coveted gift of future seeing. She was thousands of years old, I knew, but she did not appear a day over twenty. She was a wise woman, the only person who could help me now.

"Ah, yes," she said gently. "The human spell. I cannot make you a full human, my dear, but I can turn you closely into one."

My heart soared with hope. "How close?" I questioned eagerly.

"You will be a human all the time – until you touch water. Then you will be a mermaid again, until you are dry," she explained. "You can drink, though, such is the human need." She wrinkled her nose.

"Please," I sobbed, though it was virtually impossible to actually cry under water. "Please, change me into a human!"

She floated over to her shelf and reached down a vial of liquid. It was bright green, glowing dully in the cave. She looked at me dubiously, swinging the vial around under the water. "I have seen things," she told me. "Things you might become an outcast for, down here. Though you are certainly the happiest you will ever be, up in the air," she added. I doubted this, but merely nodded in reply, my eyes fixated on the vial, my beacon of hope. "Do you still want to be a half-human?" she asked finally. "You will always be a half-human, half-mer, you know. It is not reversible."

"Best of both worlds," I muttered, and the witch gave a half-hearted chuckle. "Please?" I fixed my eyes hopefully on her.

"It will be painful," she sighed. "You will wake up on the shore, in the morning."

She handed me the little bottle. I pulled the stopper off and put the vial to my lips. Then, throwing a quick word of thanks to the witch, I gulped back the horrible tasting liquid. For a moment, nothing happened. Then, in a rush of pain, I was choking, my eyes rolling back into my head as I gasped for air that I should not need. My limbs were heavy and felt like they were being stabbed with knives. I couldn't move – I was suspended in the water, my caramel hair fanning out behind me. I looked at the witch desperately. She put her hand on my numb shoulder, and said, "It will all be over soon." But I could barely hear her because then all the sounds of the ocean rushed together, louder and louder in my delicate ears, and I was lost in the blackness as I closed my eyelids.

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