• Listen to me and my story. Listen to these words, for they are the first I have spoken for years, and the last I will speak for all of time. My story is one of sea and song given up for stone walls and the beating heart of Man. Listen and learn, for mine is not a tale of joy, but of loss.

    I was born in a world you cannot imagine. A place of no ceilings, of flowing and ebbing and songs that flew like wind through the tides. I should have been happy, but I was young and I knew no contentment.
    I saw him for the first time when I turned fifteen. His soft body mirrored mine in its youth, but there was a strength to him, a solidity that I had never known. He was a Prince in his world, and though I did not fully understand what that word entailed, I was drawn to its power. I watched him for years, finally knowing what I wanted, but never knowing how to achieve it.
    Then I met the Witch. Through the dark and the silt She flew, Her arms like fans and Her eyes like silverfish- all flashing light and cheating warmth. She came from the North, some said, where the waters ran cold as lies and gargantuan beasts swam beneath islands of clouds. I believed none of that, but I believed in Her. I began to see Her everywhere, but apprehension froze me and hid me away. Finally one day a bolt of courage lit my veins and I followed Her home. She welcomed me, hugged me to Her fat yellow body, cooed in my ear, and gave me hope. "He would love you," She said "If only you had legs like his." Her breath bloody iron, She whispered "He would make you his, if only you were of Man." I begged Her to make it so, and She did.

    The conditions: On land I could not sing or laugh or speak, and my new legs would forever burn like hellfire, all raw meat and needles. Of course, I agreed.

    And so that very morning I rose from the waves in a gown of deepest blue, my sea-dark hair shining in pearls, and my new feet swathed in silk. I stumbled, but my charms were great and no man saw me falter. I slipped into castle life and I was never questioned; my beauty was my invitation and when the Prince saw me, his want became my home.
    I grew to love his cold stone walls, unmoving in their sturdy existence. They were power, and power was ringing through my lovely body like bells; for with beauty like mine, who would need words, or waves, or sweet salt?
    My legs were wounds, scalding boils, but I smiled and no one saw. Night after night, we danced, my Prince and I. And when the musicians were gone, we danced alone in his room, and I discovered the secrets that lay between my new legs.
    I became a regular in his court. Not a woman talked to me, and I could hear their acid whispers behind spread fans, but I cared not. Their men doted on me, night and day, and when they lay in the arms of their jealous wives I knew that they thought only of me.
    I grew drunk on the potency I held, and my Prince became secondary. I set aside my love, assuming what was mine then would always belong to me. I was foolish in my youth, and it was only a matter of time before he found another. A quiet girl, like me, but one who could sing, who could run, who felt his lips and knew only joy. I saw them together in the garden, their love a brilliant light too harsh for my bitter eyes, and suddenly I knew that the Witch's spell could only do so much.
    I tried to call him back to me. On raw legs I danced for him and only him, I learned to embroider and I sewed him exquisite stories of love and eternity, all the things I wished from him. But his eyes that had once only seen me now slid towards another, and I knew he was no longer mine.

    On their wedding day I cried salt, and my lungs heaved like waves on a beach.

    My tears reminded me of the sea I had left, and a pain grew in me, far greater than the loss of my Prince, the silence in my voice, the stab of my legs. My home was no longer mine, and I belonged nowhere. I was a creature of neither sea nor earth.
    I flew from room to room, not knowing what I was searching for, only knowing that it must be found. At last I came to a room that I once knew; my Prince's bedchamber. I stumbled through it like a blind-woman, clutching at clothes and smells I had long forgot. I saw the sea from his balcony, and I knew what I must do.
    My fingers shook with delightful terror as I pulled up stones from the gray sand and tied them into my dress. Behind me, behind heavy walls as high and thick as forests, the wind turned and I could suddenly hear the cheers and trumpets of merriment.
    My eyes bled and my hands became steady. As I waded into the surf, the familiar waters greeting me like the old friend I was, I steeled myself and glanced back. And there they were, on the balcony where I had stood only moments earlier, their arms entwined and their breath mingled. I felt my body shatter and I crumpled into the welcoming sea.

    I was pulled away at once, and as my breath left me and my body foamed and frothed, I began to speak. "Listen to me and my story." I bubbled, as my vision faded "Listen to these words, for they are the first I have spoken for years, and the last I will speak for all of time."