Disclaimer: I own all.
Notes: Thanks to those who reviewed. This will be the last chapter until the end where the old mermaid narrates. I have no beta reader and so I've been doing it on my own. I don't know how well this chapter reads so please let me know. If you want to help just let me know. Thank you.
IMPORTANT: This is the last chapter that will come out for quite a while. School starts very soon and although I hope to get another chapter out before it does I'm not sure if I will be able to.
"/Words/" = common/ English.
"Words" = Melena's home language. To be explained later.
~Legs~
The next day the old mermaid came out of her home early only to find the crowd from last night still where she had left them the night before.
"Good people! Why do you wait outside my home? My story can not have been that captivating."
Someone in the crowd shouted, "It was grandmother! It was!!" This was followed by others like it and soon the whole crowd was screaming for more.
"Alright, alright, calm down all of you and I will continue." The silence was almost deafening.
"Melena hugged her great-grandmother and nodded. She pulled herself up onto the small beach where she took the stopper out of the potion bottle and looked at her sea home one more time. Then sighing she held the bottle up to her lips and emptied it."
It was here that the crowd stopped hearing the old mermaid's narration and began to really feel the story, as though they were reading it or seeing it.
Melena drank the potion like grandmother Kalypso told her to and she felt a strange tickling sensation in her tail and at the roots of her hair. The tickling sensation continued to grow. She watched in silent horror as her hair darkened until almost no trace of green could be seen. Then looking at her tail she found that it had split and was now becoming scale free. Feet began to form on the ends of long ivory legs.
When the tingling had stopped Melena looked around. She saw that she was lying on a beach. All around her was a rock cavern. To the right was a stairwell that went up and up and up. The first thing she thought of was 'How will I get up all those stairs? I don't even know how to move.'
She looked miserably back at the place where her grandmother had been. Kalypso was gone. Melena screamed but it was still silent. She lay in despair for hours until she heard a loud sound like thunder to Melena but in actuality was only boots on the stone steps. She struggled to get up but did not know how though she was able to push herself into a sitting position.
There was a loud clatter and then a small boy carrying a bucket appeared on the last step, then he stumbled and tumbled onto the beach. It was then that he noticed her and he dropped the bucket. "/Mommy! Mommy! There's some'un here!!/" he screamed up the stairwell. Melena was confused as to what he was talking about for he was speaking a different language.
"/Okay Rowan. Stay right there I'm coming./" A female voice, at least she though it was female, called from where Melena could only assume was the house Kalypso had told her of. Seconds later there was a much lighter clatter on the stairs and a woman joined the little boy. "/Who are you? Where have you come from?/" she demanded. She hadn't seen anyone yet but you could never be too sure.
The woman was short and thin; her blue dress was fashionable but practical and complimented her light skin. Brown hair tumbled down her back and fell into her face occasionally. Blue eyes surveyed the beach and landed on Melena.
Melena shook her head a frightened look on her face. She didn't understand the woman either. A sad expression crossed her face and she turned away from the two people, her dark hair covering her face.
The woman inspected the girl half lying half sitting on her beach. Long black hair with green tints cascaded down over ivory skin. Her face was hidden but the woman could feel the sadness radiating from her. She wasn't wearing a stitch either. The girl had begun crawling toward the water when the woman realized what she must have been.
The woman's voice changed from demanding to soft as she told her son to go upstairs. Then she turned to the girl still trying to slide into the water. "Ya're Athenian aren't ya?" she asked the girl, using the girl's language this time.
Melena looked at the woman shocked that she knew the Athenian language. Then she nodded shyly. "What is your name child?" Melena understood her but could not answer. She just shook her head miserably. "Is it that ya canna tell me your name or is it that ya have no name?" the woman joked.
Melena smiled sadly but did not reply. She reached up and tapped her throat then shook her head. The woman's pretty face fell. "So you canna speak then. Miss Kalypso told me she might be bringin' some'un here but she dinna say when. You must be the one she meant. Come on then let's get you up stairs. Rowan's told the whole house 'bout ya by now unless I miss my guess."
Melena shrugged her shoulders and tried to push herself up again. When the other woman saw that she didn't know how to stand she ran over to help. After pulling the dark haired girl up and putting an arm around her to help her walk. Melena got the main idea of how walking worked and they made it up the stairs before Athenian the other woman stopped and sat her on a chair outside of the door that Melena could only guess where led.