"Ridiculous!" snorted Lakme.
She and Ondine were diving through the wreckage of an old galleon. What humans would not give, to know the location of this rich memento of history. The ship's hull was half-gone. The stumps of masts were festooned with riggings of seaweed and it sat becalmed on the bottom of a deep valley. Gold doubloons glimmered on the ocean floor, half concealed in sand and ooze. They were ignored by the mer-folk. The galleon and its treasure were, to them, just a decorative oddity. The mer-folk had better fish to fry, so to speak. Humans were mostly uninteresting, their occasional forays in scuba gear were a rare sighting and the source of some amusement.
Ondine, however, had listened to stories of her mer-nurse when she was just a little sprat, tumbling and spinning in schools under the watchful eye of the venerable Nixie. Nixie was old, but no one could match her for her sea-eagle eye, and she could dart as fast as an eel after an errant mer-baby. Her one weakness was for talk. Confined to the company of infants, Nixie indulged in storytelling. The rapt attention of her audience was rewarding, even if they asked endless questions and if they tended to nap during the longer tales. Ondine and Lakme were raised in Nixie's school. Lakme, now a young mer-lady, had put the childish tales of sea serpents, sunken cathedrals and water-monsters behind her. And of humans, and mermaids who became humans. Ondine remembered.
"It's not ridiculous. It's entirely possible that a mermaid could have grown legs and walked on land," Ondine replied. She swam sulkily under a mat of emerald-green algae that had the aspect of a tattered sail. Tired, she stopped swimming and propped herself on a broken boom. Her tail swished in long sweeps, sending the seaweed matting fluttering.
"Nixie is an old fool, and she tells baby stories. No one would give up her mer-hood to be a human. Look at them! They can only dive for a short while. They spew air from those ridiculous tanks, and wear masks. They can't even breathe water. They are so...lame!" Lakme swirled a left fin and blew a stream of silvery, sarcastic bubbles. "Oh, Blub, blub, blub. I am a human, look at me!"
"Now, if you told me the story of a human who gave up their legs to become a mermaid or merman, now that I could believe. " Lakme dove off the spar and swam upside down.
"Quit that!" said Ondine, "you are making me dizzy. Is it true? Could a human ever become a merson?"
Lakme thought a bit. "Why, ask Nixie, She'll know." Lakme was being sarcastic, but Ondine, who lived still half in her childhood fantasy world, took Lakme at her word. She swam off in search of Nixie, determined to find out if it was possible, could a human become a mer-man?
Nixie was sitting on the steps of her house, a huddle of shells and rocks with a coral roof. The house was modest by mer standards; no mother of pearl walls, no fine algae carpets. Nixie was old and her school was gone a long time ago. She could no longer swim so quickly after the slippery youngsters. Ondine woke her up from a nap.
Still drowsy, Nixie considered Ondine's question. "Once, I heard a story. It was a secret for many years, a shameful story to some. So mer-folk don't like to tell this tale. But I remember it. This was the story of a human who became a merman.
Ondine looked startled. She was afraid Nixie would have been annoyed and thought she was, perhaps, mocking her. She didn't expect that Nixie would know a secret tale.
Nixie saw the expression of surprise on Ondine's face. A born-storyteller, she couldn't resist a fascinated audience. "Oh, I know plenty of secrets. You won't hear this story anywhere. Here's what happened. It's shocking, but it's absolutely true, I swear it!
One of those human divers stumbled on a mer-city, quite by accident. Naturally, the mer-folk couldn't let the humans find out about our world here, and they didn't know what to do. They had to act quickly, as the diver's air was running out and they couldn't let him return to his world."
Ondine was surprised. "I never heard of this! You never told us this story." Nixie continued in a dreamy fashion. "Finally, the mer-folk brought the human prisoner to their Queen. She was wise beyond her youth, a lovely mermaid, brilliant and forceful as any king or queen before or since. She ruled the city wisely though her years were few. The queen looked at the diver. He was obviously stunned by her beauty and stared at her full in the face. He did not bow, as would have been proper. The mermen of the court wanted to kill him outright for his insolence, but she waved a hand and held them back. "Don't hurt him! We are a compassionate people " she rebuked them.
"Though a difficult situation, I have made a decision. You must trust me." She dove under the throne and pulled a small casket from under the coral chair. She hesitated for just a moment and withdrew the loveliest Pearl anyone had ever seen. "This is the Sacred Pearl of Change," explained the Queen. "It is very, very old, so old, it would seem to have been in the hands of the royal house since the very beginning of time. The Pearl has deep magic. He who gazes into the changing colors and makes a wish will be granted the boon of Change. It can only work once, then the pearl is as worthless as any pebble. I do not choose this lightly, but we must protect what is ours, our home, yet we must be merciful. How can we, as mer-folk, act otherwise?"
Ondine listened, entranced. Nixie was pleased. She had not had such an audience in many a year. Encouraged, she continued. "The Queen gazed intently into the eyes of the diver. He slowly removed his mask. Taking one deep breath from his tank, he pulled away the tubes. He looked frightened at first, then strangely excited, happy even. The queen held the Pearl in her cupped hands and the diver gazed deeply into it. He closed his eyes. The Pearl's colors swirled red, blue, purple, gold, silver, and then turned a dull leaden gray. The diver opened his eyes. He drew a clean, deep breath of water. He looked down and lo, his legs were replaced by a tail and fins. The Pearl melted into the water and was disappeared. The Queen and new consort disappeared at the same time. Where they went is anyone's guess. I think they lived happily ever after."
Ondine sighed. How beautiful. Wouldn't Lakme be amazed! She swam off, to tell her friend the story of the human who gave up his legs to marry a mermaid queen.