Ariana awoke to an odd sensation. She dared not open her eyes as she feared what she would see.
She felt peculiar all over and knew what it must mean. Opening her eyes, she looked down to see her legs.
Despite the situation she was rather fascinated by them. She found them easy to move, much like her tail only now there were two. She happily waved them around and wiggled the little things on the end of them. Suddenly she thought of trying to walk. It had always fascinated her but now she was rather scared to try. Still, she pushed up with her arms and willed her legs to go.
She fell on her face. But being the stubborn creature she was, she tried again, and again, and again until she stood. The feeling on sand was much different now. This kind was dry and felt much better then the wet kind. It created a sort of tickling sensation and she was amused by it. But then the wish to walk returned and she tried to take a step. She balanced herself on a large rock as she wobbled dangerously and nearly ended up back on the sand. She took another and found herself getting stronger. After a few more, she let go of the rock and found herself walking. She was delighted of course but wished for another challenge. She walked progressively faster until she speed down the beach. 'This must be the thing they called running' she thought to herself as she tried to go faster. Once again, her face was in the sand.
She was brought out of her happiness when she noticed another presence of the beach. Her breathe caught in her throat as she turned but let it out in relief when she saw Florence. "Having fun?" he asked, rather amused at having witnessed her many failed attempts. She considered her answer. He gave her no chance to respond. "Well you shouldn't be" he continued "need I remind you why you are here?"
That well and truly brought her out of her happiness as she sunk down to the sand again as the full extent of her mission hit her.
"I can't do it" she said bluntly. "How can I make someone fall in love with me when I can't even touch him?"
"How can you do it when you cant even walk" Florence said, not helpfully at all. The look she gave him informed him of this and he gave her an apologetic look.
"Are you here to be helpful or are you just going to insult my walking."
This made him remember why he was here and he pushed a crate towards her. "Remember when we found this on a sunken ship?" he said as she struggled to open it "well I told you it would come in handy, you're going to need clothes to blend in." She tried her best but the humans seemed clever in this aspect of their inventions and she could not open it. "Try a rock" Florence offered and threw a sharp one from the ground near him. She hacked at the crate until she had a big enough gap to pull the garments through. "See I am helpful" he said as she struggled to figure out how to work the clothes. He shrugged at her confused look. "I think it's backwards" he commented on her feeble attempt. While she changed he filled her in on what she had missed. "They are not going to be patient you know. And to make sure you work fast they've taken a few precautions. They have been setting up giant storms for the few days you were unconscious."
"Days" Ariana asked in surprise.
"Days" he confirmed. "But as I was saying, There has been giant storms with ships sinking all over the place. People are dying Ariana. Also, you are aware of what happens when a mermaid doesn't have her tail? You are going to get weak and exhausted. You may also see some scales emerging which will cause you agony. Try to keep those covered. You will not blend in so well with those. And the main thing, the one thing you must remember, do not touch humans! You want the Prince's key, you do not want him dead. Apparently they don't die as quick as we used to think. After all you held him arm for quite a while to get him back to shore and he's not dead yet. With a lot of rest they can recover. Can you remember all this?"
She shook her head slowly with wide eyes as she tried to take in all this information. "Just do your best" he concluded "and work on your walking."
She wrapped the remaining clothes in a bundle and turned for one last look at her friend. "No hugs" he told her, knowing what she was like "you'll get your nice new clothes wet. I'll just wish you luck and laugh as you try and walk away."
She was glad, hugging him would have resulting in her breaking down and she needed to be strong. "Good luck" he said and gave her a special smile. She smiled back and turned towards the kingdom.
The moments was ruined when she tripped another time.
By the time she reached the gate she considered herself to be rather skilled at walking. She barley even wobbled anymore. But as she approached the gate she saw her next challenge. This device was made to detect merfolk but apparently it would only work if a large amount entered. Taking a deep breath, she crossed it and paused as she waited for something to happen. Nothing did. She took a small step and paused again, fully ensuring that nothing would happen. She then confidently travelled on.
She soon found herself in the village and forgot about her mission in the excitement that it brought her. Humans who were much more skilled than her at walking, rushed past at incredible paces as they went about their business. She was swept up in the colour and noise that poured from the people. She happily ran round observing all the things at stalls and the people behind them. Florence had included some coins in her bundle but she didn't know what any of them meant. If she had her way she could easily buy something from every stall, despite not knowing what any of them were.
Before she knew it, the day was ending. Her legs were exhausted and the things on the end were cut up and bleeding quickly. She didn't care, she was still thoroughly enjoying herself.
Not looking where she was going she happily raced on and found herself running into none other then the Prince. Her legs weren't used to this sort of thing and she found herself on the ground again. Both apologising he bent down to help her up. Upon seeing her face he almost dropped her.
"It's you!" he said in amazement. "Excuse me?" she asked curiously. Surely he could not remember her, he was barley awake. "You saved me! About a week ago when I was drowning."
Obviously he could remember. All the horrible images of what humans would do upon the knowledge of her true self flooded into her mind. Luckily, she had always had a dark talent for lying.
Pretending to be amused by his words she said, "So you think it to be plausible that I swim around in the middle of the ocean saving men like yourself?"
Pausing, he realised how the story sounded. But then her words made him hesitate. "I never mentioned the ocean. What makes you think it was from there that I was saved?"
Internally cursing herself, she quickly covered herself by saying, "where else would people drown?"
He looked disappointed at her logic but didn't seem convinced. She had no idea what to do next. She knew her task but didn't know how to go about it. Torn between running and staying she remained frozen on the spot.
"Well I'm sorry for the mistake" he said. She nodded as a sign of her acceptance of his apology. She realised he was still holding her hands from helping her up and quickly yanked them from his grasp. It didn't suit her to have him dead. Both were trying to think of what to say next when he noticed her bloody footprints. "Are you aware your feet are bleeding?" he asked.
She whispered to herself "feet, so that's the word."
"Sorry?" he asked and she quickly tried to think of how to cover up what she had said. "Yes I am perfectly aware" was the only thing she could think of to say.
"Did you lose your shoes or something?" he asked. She had no idea what he was talking about and quickly tried to think of what these shoes could be. "Yes" she guessed, hoping that it was an acceptable answer. "Well we can't have that" he said "it is my duty as a Prince of this Kingdom to equip you with new ones."
She raised an eyebrow in question. "Its in the oaths" he explained. "They ask do you swear to protect the Kingdom to your death, I say I do. They say do you swear to buy new shoes for anyone in the Kingdom if they have none, I say I do."
"I get the picture," she laughed. "Well then why don't you buy some for that man?" she said as she indicated to a man sitting on the side of the street. He looked rather worse for the wear and not having shoes was probably a regular occurrence.
Eric shrugged and turned to the man. "On my oaths as a Prince I am required to equip you with new shoes." The man simply shrugged as it seemed he would do anything for new shoes.
Eric offered Ariana his arm but she opted to skip ahead, rather exited about learning what these shoes things are.
The excitement only grew when they reached the store. She saw shelves and shelves of brightly coloured things to decorate feet and she ran around happily trying on different kinds. The shopkeeper was rather amused by the whole situation and enjoyed showing her the more outrageous articles and seeing her happily prance around in them. Eric was also amused, especially at all the times she stumbled. She glared at him every time he dared laugh which quickly silenced him.
The man from the streets opted for the most expensive pair of shoes he could find and went on his merry way. Ariana was so excited that she barley noticed.
Eric found a pair with the highest heels and challenged her "I'll bet you cant take twenty steps in these."
This annoyed her slightly. "Are you implying that you think I do not have the basic skill of walking?"
"Well you stumble a lot. And when we met you did run into me. And you have pretty cut up feet. And…"
"I get it" she interrupted and snatched the shoes from his grasp. She stumbled as soon as she stood up in them and fell back down. "My time starts now" she said in reply to his laughter. One step, two steps. With every one she grew slightly more confident and faster. Seventeen, eighteen, just as she approached the end one small stumble sent her falling. He was there to catch her and everything seemed to stop when she looked into his eyes. They were frozen for a moment, the shopkeeper stood very awkwardly on the side, not wishing to interrupt. Realising he was touching her, Ariana quickly leapt back. "It's your turn now" she said as she handed him the shoes.
"There is no way" he told her.
"I did it!" she exclaimed "so will you admit that I'm better than you or try?"
She didn't think he would but he wore them. He only made seven steps. She instantly felt a lot better about her walking abilities.
Finally she knew that had to settle on something more practical and allowed the shopkeeper to choose for her. Both Eric and Ariana were rather disappointed at how little time it took as she had to be on her way.
"I guess Id better be going" she said uncomfortably and he stopped her. "Where are you staying?" he asked, stalling.
"Where the wind takes me" she joked.
"I could…" he began but she cut him off.
"You've done enough. Now I don't need you helping me every step I take." She really didn't, she now considered herself quite an expert at walking.
"Well can I see you tomorrow?" he asked hopefully. She considered, really not knowing the answer. After a while she thought she had better answer. "We'll let fate decide" she finally said and walked off, with great skill might I add.