The old woman walked over to Fionn and threw her hands dramatically in the direction of me in the tub. “It’s not working.”
Fionn’s gaze landed upon me for the first time. Great, he sees me chilling in a bathtub of a crazy lady. Should I wave? He seemed deep in thought for a couple of minutes, just looking at me in the lukewarm water.
“I wondered too why he wasn’t changing,” Fionn spoke quietly.
Great they were both on the same mushrooms. Maybe if they gave me some I could be let in on the game they were playing too.
“Explain,” the lady barked.
“Yeah, explain,” I tagged on, feeling like I should be participating in this conversation in some way. All I got was a glare for my efforts.
“Yura,” Fionn addressed me, “where are you from?”
I answered, not quite seeing how this was relevant, but humoring him, “I am from Alaska, but my parents found me abandoned on an island here.”
“He’s a northerner,” the lady muttered under her breath.
“An extreme northerner,” Fionn agreed. “I actually think he might be from Alaska and somebody brought him here as a baby.”
“He needs colder water,” the old woman said with understanding.
“He needs colder water,” Fionn agreed.
They both came over to the tub. I shrank down, into the water, a little nervous with what they were going to do. The old lady reached her hand down into the water. There was a cold emanating from it that I could see. Tendrils of ice snaked from her fingers lowering the temperature of the water from lukewarm, to cool, to cold to frigid.
I found it strange that I knew the water was getting colder, but it didn’t actually feel cold to me. It was actually weirding me out a little. The skin on my arm started to itch. I reflexively reached my other hand up to scratch it and gasped when I felt something strange. There on my arm were glistening green… scales. They looked like fish scales.
I jumped to my feet.
Pushing past the two spectators, I clamored out of the tub. Like hell were they turning me into a fish!
I bolted out of the room and quickly made my way out of her house. I could hear their footsteps hurrying after me.
I ran from her house, not really sure where I was going. I figured eventually I would get to a place where I could get help.
Looking down at my arm, I let out a strangled cry. There were more scales. My whole forearm, both of them, had shining emerald scales all over them. The change from flesh to scales was seamless and weird to my eyes. Why was this happening?
“Shit,” I hissed as I made it to a rocky beach. I was still on that damn island.
“Yura,” I heard Fionn gasp as he finally caught up to me. He rested a friendly hand on my shoulder and I rounded on him.
“What did you do to me?” I seethed looking at him with fear in my eyes.
“Nothing, we were trying to help you,” Fionn tried to explain.
“By turning me into a fish?” growling I took a swipe at him.
“No, by giving you energy to recover. You were-”
Shut the hell up, Fionn,” I barked walking away from him as fast as I could manage on the rocky coast.
Yura, listen,” Fionn tried again, grabbing my arm.
I reached my hand out and grabbed Fionn’s wrist, “No! Let go,” and a white spark shot from my fingertips where we touched.
Fionn recoiled in shock staring at his hand.
What had I done to him?
What had he done to me?
I turned my back on him. “Leave me alone Fionn,” I began evenly. “I don’t want to see you anymore. Whatever we had… it’s over now.”
I really liked him, but I didn’t understand what was happening, and why Fionn had done this to me. It was better if we just didn’t see each other anymore.
I walked further along the coast, glancing back, I saw that Fionn was gone. A pang of guilt shot through me. Why the hell did I feel guilty?
Pushing down my warring feelings, I started looking for a way off of the island.
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