“Come here, Erunestian…” said a female voice calling to me gently.

My body felt heavy and worn out, as if I’d been beaten the day before. I tried to ignore her and keep sleeping.

“Erunestian…” she insisted.

Her voice sounded familiar.

I could hear the waves breaking on the shore, feel the sand beneath me, the burning sun high above, and the wind brushing against my forehead.
Realizing I was out of the water, I woke with a jolt.

I tried to move toward the sea, but a searing pain began to spread through my insides, completely overwhelming me. I collapsed back onto the sand.

What’s happening to me? 

I touched my face. My skin was dry and had a different texture. My hands were different too—my fingers were no longer webbed, and my head was covered in hair. My tail had vanished, replaced by a pair of legs I didn’t know how to use.

I remembered what had happened the day before. It hadn’t been a dream, and now I was trapped on land in a new body. I had no idea where I was or how I’d gotten there.

With my eyes wide open, I waved my hand in front of my face but I couldn’t even see its shadow.

I let my hand fall on my forehead and closed my eyes, trying to keep this new reality out of sight.

My head was spinning, my heart racing, and my fast breathing scared me—especially because we, the sea people, don’t breathe that often.

Where am I? I thought, terrified. A whimper escaped my throat. I was paralyzed, on the verge of panic.

“Calm down, Erunestian,” the voice said again. “You’re safe. I’ve been taking care of you.”

Who is that? Please, help me! I cried out in my mind. 

“Don’t you remember me?” she said. “We used to be friends.”

Cyrene?

“It’s me,” she replied, laughing. Her presence flooded me with calm.

It’s been so long... What a relief—what a joy—that you’re here!

Cyrene was a mermaid. The only truly gentle one. I still remembered her, even though it had been years since I’d last seen her. Always smiling, with her long hair tied back and her silver tail shining like the moon. She used to wrap her chest in cloth, like humans do.

When I was a child, she would sometimes appear and tell me stories about her magical world, or the human world. Her visits stopped as I grew older, and I kept our friendship as a secret.

“Being afraid won't help,” she said. “Breathe a little slower. You have to learn to control your new body and take care of yourself—just like you always have.”

Sirens can change their shape between birds, fish, and women. I’d seen her appear as a beautiful fish many times. But this time, I was sure she’d taken human form, I couls hear her footsteps coming toward me.

She sat beside me and gently brushed my forehead. Never in my life had I needed a simple touch so desperately. That small gesture brought me back to reality.

“Come on, Erunestian. Sit up. You can do it.”

I obeyed with great effort.

Cyrene continued,
“I’m here to show you how to live in this world and be reborn as a human.”

I'm truly grateful! I thought, overwhelmed. But, where are we? What happened?

“I brought you here. We’re on the beach nearest the mermaid palace,” she said, hearing my thoughts. “You fainted last night right after your transformation. Xenea ordered me to take you out of the water so you wouldn’t drown, and I decided to stay with you until you learn what you need to survive among humans.”

I’m so lucky, I thought, a silly laugh escaping my lips. It seems that deep, deep down, Queen Xenea is generous after all—for sending you with me so I wouldn’t die.

“I suppose she’s generous in her own way?”

And I still have eyes on my face.

“Oh heavens! Did you think Xenea would rip out your eyes?”

That’s what I thought...

“What would Xenea even do with that little bit of flesh?” Cyrene replied. “No, she took the color and light from your eyes to create a pair of gems.”

The color and the light... I thought. So, I must say goodbye to the sky, the sun, the moon, and the stars.

Disappointment rose within me. I wanted to see the world above the sea, human technology, the mountains, the forests, the animals and plants. But now I couldn’t. What kind of deal had I made? I felt like a complete fool.

Tell me, Cyrene, how do I look? Do you think I’ll blend in? I asked, trying to distract myself from my sadness with a smile.

“Oh, the queen did a magnificent job! But I seriously doubt you’ll go unnoticed—you’re going to attract attention,” she said, laughing. “The people in this region look different. Most of them have brown skin and hair and eyes dark like the earth. Your skin is rather pale as the sand and your hair is the color of gold. Even if you went somewhere where people shares your colors, they’d still see that you’re a noble boy from another world.”

I sighed. I still found it hard to understand how humans could vary so much in color and form. We, the sea people, all look alike, no matter which ocean we’re from—and we all speak the same language.

“Humans had to adapt to the regions they inhabited,” Cyrene replied, reading my thoughts. “That’s why their appearance, customs, and languages are all different. But we, the spirits of nature, are not bound by language or form the way you mortals are.”

She paused, as if recalling something.

“Oh! Even though I can understand your thoughts, you must learn the language of this region. And you also need to learn how to walk!”

Then there’s no time to lose, Cyrene! Teach me everything you can right now. You’ll see—I’ll be an easy student.

“With that kind of spirit, I’m glad to be your teacher,” she said cheerfully, and stood up.

Whoa! How’d she do that? I thought wryly.

She took my hands and pulled me up so fast that I was on my feet in an instant. I lost my balance and nearly fell on her, but she held me steady.

Used to floating around, I had no idea how to keep my balance on my feet. Just as we sea people use gentle fin movements to stay suspended in water, humans are constantly using their feet to push against the ground and stay upright. It’s something we do without thinking. 

When I finally managed to stand for a few moments, Cyrene pulled my arms again, forcing me to put one leg forward so I wouldn’t fall. It was my first step.

I felt so heavy, lifting my back leg to bring it forward was an enormous effort.

“Humans have hundreds of languages and dialects,” said Cyrene, as she made me take another step. “They express their thoughts in words, just like the sea people. But first, you need to get used to your new body. Once you can speak perfectly in your native tongue, I’ll teach you the humans’ language.”

“Bhasu!” I exclaimed as I forced myself to take another step.

Speaking wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. I’d known how to speak for years. I started talking in my language quickly, even though my legs were still weak.

Cyrene began speaking in the human tongue—the language of this region, called Spanish. Every question I asked in my language, she answered in that new one. I began unraveling the secrets of their speech, trying to guess the meaning of each word.

There were sounds my language didn’t have, and I repeated them until I lost patience, until I could imitate them.

And so, syllable by syllable, step by step, half the day went by.

Exhausted, I sat down to rest in the shade of the rocks.

Cyrene brought me food from the sea: seaweed and shellfish, I devoured it like a wild animal. Then she brought me water and taught me how to drink. From now on, I’d have to learn how to recognize when my body was thirsty. How could I not? That first sip of water slid down my human throat like a glorious wave of life. The burning sun had drained the last bit of my strength, but that food and drink made me someone new.

Cyrene told me bits of human customs and stories she’d heard and we kept practicing until nightfall. By then, I knew enough words to have a short conversation, and I could walk several steps on my own.

Satisfied, I lay down on the sand.

“Here,” she said, covering my body with a piece of cloth. “The sun and wind are merciless. The people of the land learned to cover their bodies so they could live wherever they chose. Over time, it became such a vital symbol of humanity that now, going without clothing is a source of shame.”

“I’d never thought about that,” I said.

“This is the only thing I can give you,” she added. “You’re lucky the weather’s warm. But soon you’ll need to find shelter and clothes to wear.”

I thanked her—over and over—until I finally gave in to sleep.
Cyrene took the form of a bird and kept watch over my dreams.

The next two days followed the same routine. That learning gave me more freedom each time. I went from feeling like a heavy rock on the sand to a land creature that could trot and run.

By the third night, I was exhausted from the hard training, but Cyrene still had one last lesson for me. She led me toward a rocky outcrop where the stones jutted out of the sand. There, she let go of my hand and stepped away.

“No, Cyrene,” I protested. “Please guide me!”

“Let your heart be your guide,” she said in the sweetest voice.

I began to walk carefully toward her, even as I felt her presence slowly pulling away. She wanted me to follow, but I kept bumping into rocks and hurting my feet.

“Wait for me!” I pleaded, crouching down to feel the ground with my hands.

“There is no obstacle before you, nothing can stop you if you know how to listen to the voice of your soul.”

I stopped then, trying to understand what she meant. How do I hear the voice of my soul? Her words sounded like poetry, but they didn’t help me move forward. Inside me, the desire to trust her battled against the self-pity of not being able to see, of stumbling and hurting myself.

“Let it guide you,” she insisted. Her voice sounded more and more like the wind.

“I can’t see, I can’t see! And it’s my fault! I committed a crime, I’m far from my people, and this is my punishment,” I said to myself.

If Cyrene was guiding me, I had nothing to worry about. But now that she had let go, I felt abandoned again, lost in the void.

“If my father saw me now, he’d kill me! He’d kill me!” I thought, as I crawled forward, slowly and carefully.

“Erunestian, you are a prince. Stand up—your highness should not be on the ground.”

“But how can I go on if you don’t guide me?” I cried out in despair.

“You will, because I won’t be with you forever.”

When children grow up, their parents let go of their hands and allow them to swim freely, to make decisions that become more and more important for their lives. I had been excited to be considered a man among my clan. But once I was, I felt afraid and overwhelmed by all the responsibilities I had to bear. I wished my father would always help me—but that was no longer the case. I had to face it with courage.

Now I was in a similar situation. Cyrene had guided me just like my father once did. She had let go of my hand, and I needed to find a way to walk on my own.

“Just as the souls of your people are one with the sea and its life,” she said, “so too are the souls of the people of the land.”

I took a deep breath and focused, trying to ignore my thoughts.

At last, I understood what she meant. I had to connect with the land and its goddess the same way I had always known how to connect with the sea and its god.

I took a handful of sand and let it run through my fingers. I could feel it while it was in my hand, but as soon as it slipped through and fell, it disappeared to me.

If my eyes worked, I would have seen the sand falling softly like a stream of frost and merging back with the ground. I repeated this a couple more times until my ears recognized the faint whisper the tiny grains of sand made as they fell and hitting each other.

I placed my hand on the small mound I had created, and it crumbled under the weight.

Once more, I let another handful of sand trickle down. Until finally, I saw it. I saw the cascade of frost, I saw the little mound that formed. I saw it all, though only in my mind.

In that moment, everything made sense.

I lifted my face and opened my eyes without fear. That was when the terrifying void transformed into my world. I could actually hear everything around me. And I knew where the rocks were because I could remember them.

With the sea to the west and the land to the east, my mind soon revealed the map of the place to me.

How can I explain it...? In the sea, there is up and there is down. We can swim in any direction. And we can use echo as well as our eyes to guide us. But now I was on land, and the echo was too faint to guide me. So I had to find another way to see the world.

The sounds, the smells, the texture of the sand beneath me, and the endless sky above me. The whisper of the wind stretched long and far, letting me know that to the west, the sea was vast and empty, but to the east, there were things on the land and plants that rustled their leaves as the wind passed through them.
The seagulls squawked with their annoying cries, telling me where they were and how many of them there were.

I stood up and walked slowly but with purpose. I did not stumble once, my memory guided me with enough precision.

I stood in front of Cyrene. I heard the subtle sound of her hair being moved by the wind. Her laughter told me where her face was, and her voice brought her gaze into my imagination.

I reached out my hand and touched the tip of her nose with my finger. Laughing, I said:

“I have opened my eyes and seen a little of Ardenlanig. I’ve noticed that the people here can only move forward.”

Cyrene stroked my head, laughing, and said:
“I let you walk freely in this inhospitable world, trusting that you will not stumble—because you have an advantage over the people of the land: they only believe what their eyes and ears perceive. But you see beyond. Under the sea and on the land, no one can deceive you, because you see with your heart. And if you ever have doubts, the song of the waves and the flutter of a distant bird’s wings will bring you answers.”

She had finished teaching me, and this was her way of saying goodbye.

“Your spirit is strong, Erunestian,” she said as she walked away. “I know you will accomplish what you set out to do.”

“Wait! How do you know so much about humans?” I asked.

She just began to laugh.
I felt a kiss as light as the wind on my forehead, and then I heard her say in my thoughts:
“Just like you, I too once fell in love with humanity.”

She left me alone in the middle of the night, and I began to walk along the beach, following the line of the waves. I went north—I don’t know for how long—in search of a settlement with people.
When I heard noises and voices in the distance, I lay down to rest, content. And among the shelter of the rocks, where Helena would later find me, I fell asleep.