“Oh! I almost forgot! I brought something for you!” She grabbed the stone and put it in something before she gave it back. It was a type of locket that I could open up and wear around my neck. “It is to make it easier for you to carry. All you need to do is open it near here and it won’t light up under the sea.”

“Thank you. Did you bring the special tea for my friend?”

She pulled three sealed bottles out of her bag. She held up the bottle full of leaves.

“This is the tea of change, and be careful with it.” She held up the bottle full of paste. “This is one part of the cure, if the spell goes wrong, rub this on the on the fins to revert the change.” Then, she held up the bottle full of powder. “This is the other part of the cure. Mix part of this in some water and have him drink this. This will help heal his insides.”

“Thank you for helping him.” I told her as I grabbed the bottles.

“Anything to help you out, but why are you risking your happiness to help him?”

“If I can keep him happy by helping him become human, then that will keep me happy.”

“You are torturing yourself with this. Then I should get you a bigger bottle.” She gave me a bottle that looked different from the others. “This is the tea that we are drinking right now.”

“Thank you so much mom.”

“Why don’t you go to him to spend some time with him?”

I kissed her cheek before she helped me to the water. I kept a tight hold of the items as I swam home. The place was quiet as I climbed up.

‘Finally, a little bit of peace and quiet. I guess that he is still sleeping.’

I grabbed the stone kettle and stuck it under the hidden spring. I slowly put some of the normal tea in it as it was filling up. As soon as it was ready and full, I pulled it out and poured a cup for myself. I blew on it lightly to cool it down before I started to take a drink.

“Back already?” James whispered in my ear.

He scared me so much, that I accidentally spilled the tea all over my chest.

“Damn it!” It burned a deep red mark on my chest and James brought some water and cloth to help me clean up. “Why did you scare me like that?”

“It was just an accident. How was I supposed to know that the cup was hot? I’m used to cold food and drinks.”

I rolled my eyes at him right before pouring myself another drink.

‘I love him but there are some days that I just want to kill him.’ I thought as his fin splashed water everywhere.

I managed not to kill him as the next night came. I gave him a smaller bottle of the special tea on him, and I had the cure ready as I was hiding behind our rock. The two of them were talking but I couldn’t hear them. I watched them drink the tea right before the castle lights got brighter for a few seconds. The human looked surprised right before he said something to James and he left the beach. I waited until I could not see him anymore before I swam up to the edge of the water.

“James, did you take the tea?”

“Yes! It’s not working!” he yelled at me as he slid into the water.

That was when I noticed the red coloring growing around him. He started to twitch in pain and I started to pull him to our rock.

“Come on! I know that you are in pain but you have to climb up!”

“What is happening?” He asked as I pushed him up.

I started to mix some water and the powder in a cup I brought.

“Just drink this while I fix your tail!”

I started to rub the paste on to the wound. It was horrible, I could see nothing but blood as his tail was separating.

“I am not drinking until you tell me what is happening!”

I ripped the cup out of his hand and filled my mouth with the water. Then I grabbed his face and pulled him into a kiss. I forced the water in and he drank it. As soon as my mouth was empty, I pulled away from the kiss.

“I will tell you after you are done dying.” I added more paste and the tail finally started to heal. “This meant that he didn’t love you as much as you thought he did.”

“But, he always would ask me about my life and pat me on the head.” I smacked him upside the head. “Ow!”

“You simple fool! That is not love! He was just being friendly with you. Love is wanting to be with a person all the time even though they don’t realize it. To be happy with every passing touch that was just for a moment. To love someone completely even though on certain days they get the urge to kill them.”

He tilted his head and looked at me funny as I put the last of the paste on his tail to finish healing the wound.

“How do you know what love is? I have never seen you with anyone.”

That pissed me off and I lost control of my words.

“I know what love is because I have been in love with you for years and I never wanted anyone else.”

“Oh.”

I glared at him before diving under the water. I was angry as I swam home.

“‘Oh!’ That is all he has to say to me after I confessing my heart and soul to him!” I punched the wall of my house with every word.

I kept on punching the wall until my hands started to bleed. I could feel the tears falling down my face. My heart felt like it was going to burst from the pain.

“I thought that he was about to die and it would have been my fault that he died and I would have left me forever.”

A small bottle floated up at the entrance and just stayed there. I wiped my eyes and reached out to pull out the bottle. There was a small note that was half wet.

I’m sorry for acting stupid. Did I hurt your feelings? I didn’t know because I was surprised. I would like to try that tea that you were drinking before. You seemed to like it. How about we drink it together at our rock tomorrow night?

-James

I smiled at his note and carefully set it on the desk. I wanted to see his face to see if he truly felt sorry.

The next night, I prepared the kettle and put the special lid on it. Because of the type of rock it is, it can stay warm as I travel underwater. I grabbed the cups and started to head towards our rock. He was already the top, waiting for me.

“I almost thought that you weren’t going to come.”

“You really think that I would leave you?” I poured the tea into the cups as he smiled at me. “I have dealt with your stupidity for too long to stop now.”

“Have you seen how beautiful the stars are tonight?”

I looked up and saw that the whole sky was covered in shining stars.

“Yeah, they are beautiful.”

“I didn’t mean to get you mad yesterday. I was just surprised at your words.”

We took a drink at the same time. The tea didn’t taste the same as the last time I tried it. It tasted like someone mixed the tea with something similar to it. My eyes widen as I finally noticed the cloth covering most of his legs.

“I guess that our friendship was powerful enough to make it work.” Gone was his long golden tail, and in its place, there were two human legs. He hugged me then he stood up. As I felt the first shock of pain, I reached out to grab him, but he jumped off the cliff and into the water. “See you in a bit.”

“No, no! I don’t want to die!” I begged as I crawled to the edge.

I watched him climb out of the water and he started running away. I could feel the blood coming out of my tail as it started to separate into two halves. My heart completely shattered as he left my view. I fell over the edge as my tail was almost all the way ripped.

‘Maybe I should just accept death.’ I thought as my body hit the side of the rock before hitting the water and I blacked out.

My body felt light and I felt so tired at the same time. If this is death, then it is not as much different than life. Then I could hear some sort of movement.

“How long do you think it will be until he wakes up?” That voice sounded familiar.

“It really depends on him, it could be any second to a whole month.” The new voice said before fading away.

I opened my eyes and woke up in a bright room. The way that the room looked was way different than the rooms underwater. A door opened nearby and my mother walked in.

“Oh Caesar! You’re awake!”

She came over and hugged me.

“What happened?”

“You almost died from blood loss and shock. I thought that you said that it was for your friend.”

“It was, but he snuck some into my tea after he failed his attempt. He thought that our friendship would be strong enough to do the change. How am I still alive?”

She smiled at me before kissing my head.

“Remember, I have a talent with healing and herbs. That didn’t change just because I turned human.”

A guy walked in and he looked familiar.

“You are the human that James fell in love with!”

They gave me a shocked look.

“He thought that we were in love? I wanted to find out about the mer-life from him. I was hoping to find you from talking to him.”

I just nodded my head as he kissed her cheek. He walked out after that and we were left alone again.

“Sadly, I wasn’t able to heal you completely. I am so sorry but I did my best.”

She moved part of the blanket and I saw that my legs were human, but both legs had a deep scars on it. She left shortly after telling me so I could take the time to think about what happened.

My life changed in ways that I never expected. Later, she found James begging on the streets and she took him in. He became one of the many servants here. We were able to become friends again after I was able to forgive him for breaking my heart.

A few years later, I met a prince at one of the court balls and we fell in love. He was so sweet to me and he didn’t care that I wasn’t born human and that I had scars that covered most of my lower body. It was amazing that we were able to marry for love and to create better relationships with our two kingdoms.

Change is a necessary evil in life because sometimes a bad change can lead to something great and good. Sure, there were good changes and bad changes in my life but I don’t mind the path I walk. I went from being a lonely merman to a happily married human prince. Sometimes, the seaweed isn’t always greener than the grass on land.