No! No! No no no no...!
Gil righted himself and shot through the water to the surface. "ELI!" he called, desperately looking to where she had been on the ship. But she was gone. "EL-Mmph!"
A strong hand covered his mouth from behind and he felt himself being dragged below the water. As he made to bite the hand he was forcibly spun around. Shiiiit...
"What. The. Hell. Are you doing, Gil?!" his father thundered, scowling with what looked like to be every single muscle in his face. "You never came home! No one in the entire kingdom knew what happened to you! We were worried sick you had gotten captured, and lo and behold, that's exactly what happened! I had to hear your croaky singing to find you, of all things, and even then I couldn't do anything but follow the ship!"
"I-I can explain!" Gil opened his mouth then shut it, then opened it again. "Actually, I don't have time to explain, I have to get back to the ship!" He spun to swim away only for his arm to be grabbed in a steel hold.
"You will do no such thing! Explain," his father angrily growled.
"Fine, fine! I met this girl!"
"Let me guess: a human girl."
"Yeah! She's amazing, Dad, she really is! But Eli needs my help right now!"
"How so?"
"She's a princess and she's being taken back home, but she doesn't want to go home! She hates her life there! Her father's gonna marry her off unless she escapes!"
His father narrowed his eyes. "How is that your problem? Why do you care? You know we're not supposed to interact with humans, Gil."
"I know! But I can't just let her go back there! I can't let her get married to someone else! She-"
"Wait. 'Someone else'..." His father laughed. "Don't tell me you love her, Gil!"
Gil could feel his cheeks giving him away, so there was no point in lying. He confessed. "I do! I love her! I love Eli! With all my heart!"
"How long have you known this girl?"
"Ah... A couple days..." Saying it aloud did make their romance feel sudden, but Gil was not to be deterred. "So?! She loves me back, Dad! I saved her when her ship wrecked, and we got to know each other a lot as we ran from her crew! We talked, really connected, and-"
His father smacked his head. "Don't be an idiot, son. She's just fascinated by you. Humans fantasize about us! It's part of their nature to want what is supposedly unreal. And what happened to your crown? Your wrist cuffs? The humans stole those, didn't they?"
"The crew took those, not her! And I don't care about that shit right now!"
"That crown's been passed down for generations, show some respect!" His father shook Gil. "This is what humans are like, son! They capture you, take what's yours! You aren't human and they treat you as such! What makes you think that girl is any different?"
Rage began to boil inside Gil. He didn't have time for this! He needed to go after Eli! The longer he spent arguing with his dad, the more distance was put between him and Eli. "I don't have time to fight with you, old man!" he snarled. "You don't understand! I love her! And she loves me! Nothing I say will convince you, so how about you just let your idiot son go and if I make a fool of myself, so be it! She set me free to save me! But I don't want to be saved if she's going to be miserable!"
"She set you free?"
"Yes! She did, Dad, she really did!" Gil tried to speak past the lump in his throat as he remembered her pushing him. "She saved me, so let me save her!"
His father grew quiet, thinking. "...You truly love her?"
"I do! Eli is... She's Eli!" Gil closed his eyes, remembering her song that had drawn him to her. "You should hear her sing, Dad. She could be one of us with that voice... I knew I loved her the instant I heard her sing, the moment I saw her... And the more we got to know each other, the more my love grew..." Opening his eyes, he was surprised to find his father smirking. "What?"
"You sound like a lovesick maiden. Reminds me of how I felt when I fell in love with your mother. I'm sure if she were still here she'd tell you to follow your heart, so I guess... I have to honor her and let you go."
Gil's eyes widened. "Really?!" He immediately beamed a toothy grin at his dad. "You really mean it?!"
His father chuckled. "Either way, you were going to find some way to escape me and the kingdom. If I kept you from going, you'd resent me for the rest of your life, I wager."
"Definitely." Gil nodded. "Great! So now that we're in agreement..." He tried to tug his arm free of his dad's hold but to no avail. "Uh, let me go?"
"First, tell me your plan for saving her. I don't want my son speeding off on a dangerous journey without a clue what he's going to do."
"Ahh..." Well, shit. Was was he supposed to do to save Eli? There wasn't much-
"There's not much you can do in your current form, now is there?"
Gil shot his father a withering look. "Okay, maybe there isn't, but that won't stop me! Even if I have to drag myself ashore and get captured again to see her, I'll do it!"
"Our son can be so dense sometimes, can't he?" His father shook his head wearily, muttering as though his wife could hear him. "That'll only get you so far. And there's no guarantee you'll ever see her again if you're captured by the wrong people. Have you thought any of your rescue plan through?"
"Well..." Honestly, Gil was still much too scatterbrained to think past saving Eli and kissing her again.
With a great sigh, his father finally released him. "Go to The Deep. The coven will be your best chance."
"What?! They're real?!" A shiver passed through Gil's spine. "But I thought they were just a rumor!"
"For all intents and purposes, they are a rumor. Their existence is to be kept secret from the rest of the kingdom."
"But my friend-"
"I suspect you'll find out what happened to him there. Anyone who intends to find the coven usually does." Gil's father unexpectedly gathered him in a hug. "Be careful. Know that I love you, Gil. May your mother swim with you, always."
His dad never gave hugs. So why...? "Why are you acting like I won't come back?" he cautiously asked.
"...If you love Eli enough, you might not," was his father's throaty answer.
To which Gil couldn't bring himself to reply.
Gil was short on time. Who knew how far the ship had gone by now? He raced down, down, down, into the depths of the ocean. As darkness began to creep into his surroundings, he tried not to panic over what he was doing. All those stories about The Deep... His friend's disappearance... He tried to push those thoughts away as he focused on his task. He had to find the coven to save Eli. He didn't know what they could do to help, but if his dad had told him they were his best chance, then he would trust him.
He didn't know where exactly to look, though. It wasn't like his dad had given him instructions on where to find them. What was it he had said? "Anyone who intends to find the coven usually does."
Suddenly it was pitch black. He stopped swimming for a moment, unsure of what had just happened.
Then he heard it. Someone singing.
"Come this way, my sweet,
I hear the desire in your soul.
If you are willing to pay the toll,
Then follow my voice and we'll meet.
You want to save dear Eli, don't you?
This might be the only way.
If there is a price you are willing to pay,
Then this is very well your cue."
It was a siren's call, yet... not. The song didn't follow the typical mermaid's lyrical pattern. But Gil didn't have time to wonder over something so trivial. He headed toward where the singing was coming from. He swam, and he swam, until he eventually came to a cave dimly lit with glowing anemone. He entered and saw the cave extended to a much brighter area and swam to it.
Upon entering the brighter dwelling, he was met with a group of women with the lower bodies of various sea creatures, just like the stories had mentioned. One with a tiger shark's tail opened her arms to him.
"Welcome, Gil. You have found us. Now what is it you desire?"
Gil swallowed. The presence the group had was remarkable, and very, very intimidating. "I... I thought you knew what my desire is? You said so in your song," he bravely remarked.
The witch with a squid body laughed. "I like him! He's not afraid to be cheeky," she grinned, swimming up to him and giving his cheek a pinch.
Another with a jellyfish body sighed. "You'll have to excuse her. We don't get many visitors."
The tiger shark witch inched closer to Gil, with a serene smile on her lips. "You are correct, I know what you desire. Still, I wish to hear you speak it."
He looked her in the eyes as he spoke. "I want to save Eli, in any way I can. I want to save her from a life that isn't hers. I want her to be free."
A manta ray witch clapped her hands together. "How touching! You're willing to risk your life for this human?! How romantic!"
Gil couldn't tell if she was being genuine or sarcastic. "Please... Whatever you can do to help me! I'll do anything!"
"Anything, he says..." A witch with octopus tentacles snorted. "And what will you give us in return? You have nothing with you to trade."
"I can give you treasure from my kingdom! If I'm able to save her I'll give you whatever you like! We've accumulated a lot from shipwrecks over the ages!" Gil suggested eagerly.
"We don't have a need for that." The tiger shark witch stared at him, but he couldn't read her thoughts on her face. "...Hold on. Something about you seems familiar... DARLING!"
Gil started as she called out for someone in the web of rooms stretching out behind her.
"DARLING, GET IN HERE!" she called again.
Moments later a new figure joined the gathering and Gil's jaw dropped open. "Nep, you're alive?!"
His friend blinked in shock at the sight of him, then swam forward excitedly to gather him in a tight embrace. "Gil! It's so good to see you!"
The jellyfish witch gasped. "This is your friend?! The one you told us so much about?!"
Nep nodded and laughed as he let go of Gil. "Indeed, it is! It's been years! What brings you here, Gil?"
Feeling a bit dizzy, Gil braced himself against the cave wall. "Forget about me, what the hell are you doing here?! I thought you were dead!"
Giving a sheepish grin, Nep looked to the tiger shark witch. "Well... You know how I wanted to be human and came looking for the coven so they could transform me? Well... I found them, obviously, and decided to stay with them out of curiosity."
Gil raised an eyebrow at him. "But you wanted to be human so bad! What happened to change your mind like that?" There was another shared glance between his friend and the tiger shark witch and realization dawned on him. "Oh..."
"They fell in love~!" exclaimed the jellyfish witch.
"You could call it love at first sight, as cheesy as it sounds," the manta ray witch added with a grin.
"But I suppose that's something you know all too well," the tiger shark witch said, looking to Gil as she sidled up to Nep. "That first look... I'm sure it doesn't happen to everyone, but when it does, you feel it in your soul, don't you?"
Gil smiled at the thought of Eli. "Yeah... You do."
Nep looked confused. "Hold on, is that why you're here? What's going on?"
Gil quickly explained the situation to him and the witches, though the witches already seemed to know everything. At the end of his story, he looked to Nep's wife, who was in charge of the coven. "Is there anything you can do to help me? Like I said, I'll give you anything to save Eli. Just say it and it's yours."
"No payment will be necessary." She reached forward to place a hand on his shoulder. "Consider this a favor to my husband's best friend. That, and I can relate all too well. I would go to the ends of the earth to save Nep if anything ever happened to him. Just thinking of being separated from him pains my heart."
"Awwwwww!" the rest of the coven collectively cooed.
Nep kissed his wife's cheek. "Thank you, love. I'm grateful."
She grinned lovingly at him before turning her attention to the others. "Sisters, you know what I need. Let us get started!"
The witches swam farther into the cave as Nep remained with Gil in their current room. He gave Gil a reassuring smile. "They'll give you what you need. You can rely on their magic. Let's catch up meanwhile and you can tell me more about this human girl you're so crazy for."
Gil smirked. "And you can tell me what you've been up to all these years. Congratulations, by the way."
"Heh, thanks! So... Why don't you start?"
Gil recounted everything he could think of about Eli to his friend. What she looked like, what her voice sounded like, what she had told him of her life, her personality, her sense of humor, her bravery, her kindness... He rambled on and on, until he realized there was nothing left to tell. Then it was Nep's turn.
He had found the coven, had it in his mind to ask them to turn him human, but as soon as he laid eyes on Clarida he knew he didn't want to be human anymore. He asked to stay with them, curious about their magic abilities, their isolation, their unusual appearances. He learned their magic was considered a gift from the sea goddess (as were their looks), similar to the abilities mermaids had. Their craft was sacred to them, and feared by the merfolk, as ages ago several of their coven broke off and wreaked havoc on the oceans and whatever humans they found. As a result the remainder of the coven was exiled, so that their magic could not taint the sunlit oceans again. Merfolk were allowed to search for them, but they could only find the coven if their desire was genuine. Stories that claimed the coven was responsible for searchers' deaths turned out to be false. The creatures of The Deep killed them, not the coven.
As Nep finished telling Gil about Clarida, she entered the room with the rest of the coven behind her. "It is done," she stated, opening her palm for Gil and Nep to see the fruits of their labor. In her hand rested two pearls, one white and one black. "These pearls bear the power of transformation. The black pearl is yours. Kiss it three times, and you will lose your tail and anything else that makes you a merman. You will gain legs, the body of a human man, and lose the ability to breathe underwater, so be careful when you kiss it. Make sure you are within reach of land or the result could be fatal."
She dropped the black pearl into a small woven pouch. "We asked the goddess and she answered us: one temporary transformation equating three days. That is all the time you will need. The transformation will wear off as the sun sets on your time in the human world." She dropped the white pearl into the pouch as well. "The white pearl is Eli's. She will swallow it, and she will gain the tail of a mermaid, the ability to breathe underwater, and the siren's call all mermaids possess. We asked the goddess and she answered us: one permanent transformation that cannot be reversed."
Gil's heart skipped a beat. "Wait, but that's... I-I don't know if that's what she wants, though!" He loved her, and she loved him, but a permanent transformation into a mermaid... She would be forced to leave the human world behind. Forever. "I don't know if she wants to be a mermaid the rest of her life!"
Clarida tied the drawstring pouch around his neck. "That is for you to ask her, then. But the goddess saw your desire and has spoken, and this is what we give you."
Gil felt a hollow pit in his stomach. Had his selfish desire for Eli to be a mermaid so they could be together overshadowed his desire to save her? Is that why the goddess had told the witches to give Eli a permanent transformation?
Nep clapped him on the back. "Don't worry, Gil. Go save her and the rest will fall into place."
Regardless of whether his desires had gotten mixed up or not, Gil couldn't dwell on it any further. "Right... I guess this is goodbye, then. I won't be able to find this place again, will I?" he asked, looking to his friend.
Nep shrugged. "Hard to say. You just might. The Deep is a mysterious thing." As he swam with Gil to the entrance of the cave, the coven shouted their goodbyes after him.
"Go get your girl!"
"Better swim fast, boy!"
"I bet she's just waiting for you!"
With a little nudge, Nep shooshed Gil out into The Deep. "All you have to do is swim up. Good luck, Gil."
Gil nodded. "Thanks. Take care!"
And so he swam up. Up, up, up, up and out of The Deep. Time seemed to be in limbo as he swam for the surface as fast as he could. When he finally broke free of the water, he got his bearings from the rising sun and headed off for the direction the ship had been sailing.
"Just you wait, Eli! I'm on my way! I will rescue you! I promise!"
