Blossom

The morning after my sixteenth birthday, I woke in my bed with a fish tail.

Would other people have been perplexed by this sudden development or worried for the future? Maybe. But not me. I was excited. I played with my new tail, too distracted by how pretty it was. Gleaming in the morning sun, my scales made the most wonderful rainbow lights all around my room.

It wasn’t until Lois came in and screamed that it occurred to me this sudden transformation of mine might be a problem. I tried to calm her down but the poor, unbelievably rational woman couldn’t accept the scene in front of her eyes, and she fainted dead away.  

Her scream brought the guards around. They stared in absolute disbelief for a moment, then one leveled his doru at me.

“M-m-m-monster! What have you done with the princess?!”

“I am the princess!”

“You’re a siren! A horrible man eating beast! You ate the princess and stole her face!”

“I did not! Look, can you just get my father? He’ll know what to do.”

I was right. My father, Giorgos Siculus, King Regent of Sanos, is an immensely practical and capable man. It was thanks to his quick thinking and command that news of my transformation didn’t spread. After swearing Lois and the guards to secrecy on pain of death, he summoned our most trusted royal physicians. These men spent the day poking and prodding me, trying to determine a medical cause for my sudden transformation. But of course, there was no such thing.

“It’s a curse,” they concluded. “Our enemies have cursed the princess to keep her from ascending the throne.”

“What enemies?” Father demanded. “Sanos is under the empire’s protection—we have no enemies!”

By that time it was getting on toward evening, and I was drying out. The physicians were quick to draw the conclusion that I needed to be in the water—the open sea.

Father was understandably anxious about my being alone in the Meddio and unprotected, but what could he do? It was clear our lives were never going to be the same.

With great care and secrecy he worked together with the guards to bring me down to the sea. I felt life reenter me the moment I touched the water. I shivered and wiggled, I went under and my tail moved quite naturally, propelling me through the sea.

Enchanted, positively enraptured, I confess I completely forgot about my father. I could think of nothing but how incredible it all was, and I only wanted to play, to turn in the water and zoom at incredible speeds, to dive and explore the ocean floor.

Sometime later, I remembered my father, and swam back to the cliffs where he waited, tall and grim, his blond hair tossed in the wild sea wind.

“For now, I think it would be best if you remained out of sight. I’ll make up some excuse for your absence, so don’t worry about your duties. And I will see about bringing in a witch to determine the cause of your transformation, and what can be done to bring you back to normal.”

With pain in his eyes, he left me there to fend for myself. After that we met a few times at the base of the cliffs, always after dark. He brought me food and introduced me to a few different witches, none of whom seemed to know what the problem was.

So it was on the night of the new moon with torches held in both their hands, I met the ancient Lyssandria. She wasn’t like the others, flashy magicians who struck me as all show and no substance. Though she was old, poorly dressed and grotesque to look upon, I sensed her power the moment I laid eyes on her, and recoiled from it instinctively.

“It is good you brought me tonight,” she croaked, seating her ancient frame on a nearby rock. “The magic is about to wear off.”

“What do you mean?” Father demanded, and Lyssandria pointed with her cane to the dark sky.

“It is the moon that fuels the power of her transformation. Tell me, the night she transformed, was it a full moon?”

“It was right after my birthday. June eighteenth.”

“There was a full moon that night,” Father recalled. “I stood out on the veranda after your party and admired it.”

“The moon is at the peak of her powers when she is full, and thus the transformation was activated. But she has steadily lost power since that night. And now, she is at her weakest. The magic will fail, and the princess will become human again.”

As if on cue, my transformation began. The scales fell away from me and my legs reappeared. I thought my father would collapse from shock at the sight. There were tears in his eyes as he helped me out of the water.

“Come, my girl. Come.”

I was dressed only in the sodden tatters of my nightgown; Father threw his robe around me and embraced me.

“Thank heavens. You’re safe.”

“You feel relieved?” Lyssandria cackled. “Your joy is stillborn.”

“What do you mean? Speak plainly, Witch!”

“Did the moon fall from the sky and become swallowed up in the sea? No. She hid her face only. Tonight she is weak, but little by little she shall regain her power. In two weeks time, she will shine brightly again, and on that night, the transformation will take effect. Princess Delphine will become a siren once again.”

Father shook. “You mean to tell me that for the rest of her life, my daughter will spend half her days as a—a fish?”

“Be grateful it is only half her days, Sire. While the moon is waxing, she will remain human.”

“Not good enough! I command you to make her human completely! Money is no object—use whatever magic you possess—only please! Save my daughter!”

The old witch eyed him with an amused expression, as though enjoying a joke only she knew. Then she threw her head back and cackled wickedly. I watched all this without really comprehending, still trying to wrap my head around the idea of this curse, but I felt Father stiffen with indignation at her mirth.

“So help me, Witch, if you dare mock us—”

“Pardon an old woman’s sense of humor, Sire,” Lyssandria wiped a tear from the corner of her eye. “What did you ask, you want me to remove her curse? It is impossible, of course. Only the one who cast the spell can remove it.”

“But I’m sure they will never show themselves. The cowards,” Father hissed. Then he turned his attention back to me. “Don’t worry, Delphine. I will devote all of the palace’s resources into tracking down the ones responsible for this. They won’t get away forever. They can’t!”

“Of course, there is one other way,” Lyssandria turned her eerie gaze on me, and I shrank beneath it. Sensing my fear, Father’s grip tightened on me.

“How?” I asked, my voice small.

“It’s very simple, really. It’s the moon’s power that fuels your transformation, so what else can you do but that?”

“But what? It’s not as though I can make the moon disappear.”

“Of course not. But you can break it.”