Max struggled and punched at the thing that bit her and began dragging her underwater. Unable to see in the haze of bubbles and blood, her lungs felt like they were going to burst as she was dragged down deeper and deeper. I'm dying, she thought, as her throat felt like was going to explode, before the thing that bit her stopped moving and pressed it's mouth to hers, filling her lungs, in the haze of bubbles and blood, Max couldn't see or move, all she felt was pain in her neck and chest, as things shifted and moved and blood poured from her neck and she felt a weird fluttering sensation, as it grabbed her again and holding her to it's chest as they swam farther and deeper, until he deposited her next to the coral reef, more than 200 feet below the surface, satisfied with his catch.

Max sat up slowly, her vision blurry and dark, as the thing that dragged her down here swam around her. Unable to move, her body numb, I'm dying. I drowned…I'm breathing. Bubbles all around her, her gills opened and closed, as her lungs finished their change and her breathing eased, as her second set of gills opened above her hips, as her skin turned the same blue gray as his. She felt it thickening and growing slick, and it warmed her in the freezing water.

He swam circles around her, knowing his bite had begun the change, keeping his distance from his prize, as she continued her change.

Her body numb, Max couldn't move, the dark water making it impossible to see, where is it? No, I have to be hallucinating, dying, I can't move. Closing her eyes briefly, when she opened them, they had turned black and she could see clearly again. Gasping at the clarity of her underwater prison, see it watching her, gray skinned, black tail, watching her, as her hair grew to her waist, darkening and thickening around her, until it was as black as her eyes. Her jaw ached, and she felt her teeth grow sharper and harder in her mouth, as her lips turned as black as her hair and eyes. What is happening to me, she thought, I'm…he bit me. No, I can't…I'm under water. No…

He swam around her slowly, happy with her how her change was progressing.

Max ignored him, even as he pulled her back up, his black eyes boring into hers, he did this to me…whatever this is. I'm changing…turning into…no. He nodded, as he lifted her arms so she could watch her nails turn black and grow, curling into claws, as black webbing grew between her fingers, as Max could only stare in horror at her rapidly transforming body. The tingling started again, black fins grew from her elbows to her wrist and finally across her hands, connecting her webbing, making her more and more suited for the water.

Bubbles flared from both sets of gills in her terror as her legs forced themselves together, the slick gray merging together, as her jaw dropped, as they stretched into a long and tapered form, her growing tail stretching out five feet long, muscle and cartilage filling it, as it shifted and twitched on it's own, and Max felt a blinding pain in her head as new nerves and connections formed, linking her new tail to her nervous system, as her feet began to flatten. Her headache throbbing, as her former feet grew translucent as they began to shape and unfurl from the bottom of her growing tail. My tail, Max thought, I have a freaking tail…what is happening to me? What am I? That thing…she saw it watching her still, her body betraying her more and more as it became more suited to the sea. I'm breathing, she thought, seeing the bubbles from her gills, I can see…he did this to me.

She turned her attention back to her body, as her feet finished and her tail fin unfurled, making her look very much like the sea monster that did this to her. She dug her clawed hands into the sand, her new nerves giving her some mobility, as black and blue scales pushed through gray flesh slowly at first before rapidly covering her from waist to fin, as her tail fin turned as black as her other fins. Max could only stare with her black eyes at the tail that was now a very real part of her, lying limp on the bottom as she turned numb again.

He swam closer to her, taking in her changes, stroking her long tail, and Max couldn't look away from him. Feeling something stirring inside of her, he chose me…and she couldn't move as he bared his teeth at her again, nipping at her a bit, as her final changes sped up.

More fins grew from her hips to her tail fin and the one growing the back of her tail lifted her off the ground briefly, and she saw them fluttering around her. Grimacing, she felt one push out front the base of her skull and run down her back, connecting to the top of her tail, her body tingling with new nerves and growth, as she felt things shifting inside her, making her feel ill, as her body twitched on it's own, as it finished it's transformation. Not the mermaid of human fantasies, but a creature meant to live in the depths of the ocean.

Finally she could move and she hesitantly touched her slick and finned arms with her claw-like nails, flexing her hands meant to swim and hunt…Oh god, I'm a…mermaid? Some kind of sea creature. I need to get help…Kenny…he…what? Look at me. Flipping her tail, seeing how it worked, Max touched her scales hesitantly, how…why? I'm not…Mermaid?

He swam around her again, happy with her transformation, after his venom invaded her systems. Seeing nothing of the human she once was, her coloring now one of his tribe, he watched her examining her new body, her black hair floating around her, her tail moving slowly, as he swam to her, stopping in front of her.

"You can hear me now."

Max stared at him, her new body feeling foreign and strange, half animal, covered in fins and scales, he did this to me…I understand him. I've never heard that language before and now…I know it. Knowing human speech was lost to her like this…I have to change back. I can't stay like this.

"We have a long journey."

She backed away from him, trying not to look at her fins, not wanting to believe what happened to her.

"You have no place else to go."

She looked at him with her black eyes, knowing deep inside herself she was stuck like this. Not a mermaid, she thought, looking at her webbed and clawed hands, this body belongs here. I changed, he changed me, so that I can…stay here? I'm a sea monster. Running her tongue over her sharp teeth and looking at her claws and scales…Monster.

"I knew you'd be my mate when I saw you."

"Mate? What…How? I'm a monster!"

"I was sent to find a mate, banished from my tribe until I found one. Not all of you…whatever you used to be can handle the change. I sensed it in you. You were the one."

"Turn me back!"

"Impossible. You don't want to go off alone. "You look like a Fenris, but you know nothing of the sea yet. Your instincts will only take you so far. You'll be eaten before you can learn."

"Fenris?"

"What we are."

"I was going with a mermaid or sea monster."

"Land words. You're a Fenris."

Fenris, Max thought, giving her body another glance, her fluttering fins, glittering scales…no…I can't…I can't look like this. Be this. Oh this hair, she thought, looking at the black strands floating around her. Flexing her hands, she looked at the webbing and claws …to swim and eat. "Fenris. How…you bit me?"

"I did. Your gills opened first, and then my venom numbed you, I didn't want my mate to hurt, and you were reborn into a Fenris. You didn't hurt?"

She swam in another slow circle, getting used to her tail a bit. "It didn't hurt."

"Come with me," he said. "Let me teach you."

She looked at her transformed body again. I should swim away, not give him the satisfaction of going with him. And do what? Get eaten alive? Starve? Swim back up there and be thrown in a zoo? "Where?"

"The only place you belong now. You do not want to surface."

She gulped, trying not to look at herself, to see what she was now. I'd hurt him, she thought, feeling that. I'd…eat him? No, of course not…my bite…Oh god. Humans they…no. I love him and, she thought, looking down at her half fish body, predator. Dangerous. Monster. Not a Disney mermaid or fairy tale…Fenris. Part of the tribe, she thought, something ancient and unknown to the world above. She looked up again, the world I don't belong in anymore, Fenris only surface to find their mates, to take a human, to change them, to hunt them…Oh god, I can't…

"You will hunt to survive."

Teeth and claws, she thought, this body is made to swim, hunt…mate. Transformed into something dangerous…we live deeper than humans go, a sacred and unknown reef. How…how do I know this? I'm a Fenris, Max thought, feeling more connected to him and her tribe, I belong here. No…look at me. Fenris. Not a sea monster, not a mermaid, she mused, to be chosen is an honor. How do I know that…because I'm a Fenris now. We're connected, I belong here with him. Looking at her black and blue tail, with its fluttering fins, I'm where I belong. Swimming back to him, she felt more right in her new body than she ever did on the surface, with every flap of her tail. I belong here.

"We have a long swim."

Max looked up toward the surface again, knowing her life there was gone, and she had no idea how to be this new creature, even if she could feel a pull of her instincts and desires as she looked at him. Fenris… "I'm ready."