Nixxon swam the fastest he'd ever swam; as he got farther away from their kingdom, he almost started to second-guess himself, but he forged on.
The Eaters, the most dreaded hunters, grew ten times a Mermen's size with jaws that could contain ten Mermen at once. He knew he was in their den when he saw the skeleton of his fellow mermen lying on the bottom of the ocean. His heart was racing as he increased his speed.
According to the tales they were told as kids, he remembered that it was said that whoever succeeded in passing through the Eater's den would soon get to the human world, for the Eaters found the curious humans as easy prey than the mermen.
As he swam through a high-arched rock, he saw a huge shadow appear above him. Without looking, he already knew he'd been spotted by an Eater.
He quickly flipped his tail at an incredible speed, causing heavy ripples of water waves to form behind him, slowing down the huge Eater.
They had an advantage with speed since they were slimmer and more agile. He heard the low growl of the Eater and quickly started to swim from left to right. Soon, he sensed the presence of Eaters behind him.
"Oh, no!" Nixxon gasped. He brought his hand up to his neck and closed his fingers around the locket. "Come on, Neireda's locket, show me the way!" He begged.
"Ahh!" He screamed as his rail was almost bitten off from his waist by the angry-looking Eater.
He heard another growl, and he diverted his swimming into the area with many rocks and lesser space; by doing so, he slowed the Eaters down and quickly swam away from their territory.
Soon, he saw it, his eyes widened as he saw a golden ray of what he believed was the sun streaming into the ocean.
He'd never seen the sun, but he'd heard numerous tales about it, and just like his blood, the sun was golden, too. Seeing the rays of the sun meant that he had succeeded.
But he didn't relax yet, he would only relax when he was fully out of the water.
He kept swimming higher, getting closer and closer to the surface, the temperature of the water was so warm, unlike the one in their kingdom, and he liked it, he saw seaweed floating above the water's surface as he got closer, and he saw unidentified objects floating above the water too, probably some human-related stuff.
Nixxon finally got close enough to the surface, but he didn't push his head out yet; he remembered that Neireda told him that the moment his body surfaced above the ocean, he'd transform into a human.
He slowly turned around and looked back into the ocean for as far as his eyes could go, and all he saw was darkness, but he knew that what was once his home lay beneath the very rock bottom of the ocean.
He didn't want to go back, he was very far away from home, and he hadn't come this far with all the risks involved just to give up and run back home.
With a heavy sigh, he turned around and pushed his head out of the water.
First, he choked.
He felt like his lungs were constricting the moment his head surfaced above the ocean; he closed his eyes from the sun; it wasn't harsh, but it was strange.
He tried his best to breathe as he did under the water but it proved to be a difficult labor, he flailed his hands around, splashing water around him, and when he saw that he was going to die if he continued struggling to breath, he decided to return into the ocean, but, just as he was about to lower himself in, he widened his eyes as he saw a huge and wave of water moving with speed toward him. He didn't like waves; they always made him lose focus and balance, and now wasn't the best time to handle a wave; he wasn't just in the mood for it.
But before he could escape, the wave reached him in a second and pushed him ashore.
Nixxon suddenly saw himself lying in between fine, smooth sand and the water.
He was surprised that he could now breathe properly, the air rushing into his lungs as he dragged a lung full of air in; he marveled at how good it felt, he felt alive for the first time.
After getting used to the mechanism of human breathing, Nixxon realized that he was still a merman. 'Had Neireda lied to me?' He thought with a sad frown.
He looked around his environment and discovered that he was lying on the cold, soft sand behind a huge oval rock, and it looked like the sun was still setting; he saw weird prints on the soft sand, prints of different sizes and shapes.
'I'm finally out. how do I become human?' He thought as he looked at the locket.
The sun suddenly shone brighter on his skin, and his silver and purple scales glittered, and he felt a strange hum of energy within him; soon, he felt like taking a nap; he yawned widely and stretched his arms above his head.
Maybe he was too tired from travelling the whole night without rest. He decided to rest his head on his arm and take a little nap.
After a while, Nixxon slowly opened his eyes and immediately covered his hand across his eyes. He was surprised to see how bright the sun was shining, he'd never seen anything as bright and hot! The sand beneath him felt so hot, even hotter than the fire crystal they used to fight off the Eaters.
He slowly raised his hand, paused, and stared at his hand in shock, he raised the second one in front of his eyes to make sure he wasn't imagining. No more scales on his skin!
His fingers were slim and long, and his arms were slender and fair; he couldn't believe he could look this beautiful without those bright-colored scales.
His mind suddenly told him to check his tail fin, and when he did, he saw the most amazing thing on earth: feet!
He wiggled his toes and smiled; he was human!
But he frowned when his eyes caught something strange while traveling up his body.
"What is this?" He muttered in Mermen's language, surprised at how soft his voice was.
He sat up and stared down between his legs and observed the weird thing that looked like a sea cucumber, just that; this one was smoother and quite smaller.
He reached out his hand and pressed it, hard.
"Argh!!!" He screamed painfully, his vision turning blurry.
So that was part of his body. He had no idea what humans used that object for, but one thing he knew was that it was a part of the body that should never be played with; it hurt more than getting stabbed by his Father's scepter.
Nixxon sighed, looking around the beach; he couldn't hear any voices around, which meant that no one was around the area.
He slowly crawled closer to the rock and held it, gasping from how hot it was, but he needed to walk. He bent his legs behind him and knelt on the hot sand, his hand was his propeller as he used it to pull himself up, just the way his mother had told him the humans did, he succeeded in holding the hot rock as support to lift himself, but the moment he stood, his legs wobbled and he fell back to the floor.
"Oh no, what am I supposed to do? I can't walk," He sadly whispered to himself.
He suddenly thought of something he did as a merman and decided to try it out; he put one elbow after another and laughed when he saw that he was slowly gliding away from his location.
The sand was hot on his skin, but he was determined to go far away from the ocean; he didn't want to risk getting carried back into the ocean by the waves.
Nixxon was surprised by how large the beach was, he saw what looked like a wooden bed with huge umbrellas placed beside them and he thought of going there to rest for a while, but his eyes suddenly caught short wooden stairs beside a tall and beautiful building and decided to glide into the building, he would get more shelter there than laying on the wooden beds.
Nixxon struggled to climb the stairs as his elbows were already bruised and hurting. He tried and tried, but he just couldn't get himself up.
Instinctively, he replaced his elbows with his hands, then propped his knees under him to hold him up. He wobbled for a while, but he found a way to crawl up the stairs, smiling as he did so.
"So this was how humans moved," He said to himself.
He frowned when he climbed to the top of the stairs and saw that the building had a high fence around it, and he knew he would never be able to get through.
He changed direction immediately and decided to follow the wooden path; he crawled and crawled, passing by trees and cute flowers until he reached a soft, mowed path.
He wondered what those trees were and what they were used for.
He sighed as the soft grass suited his sore limbs, but he kept moving until he saw a huge black gate, however, it was locked.
He almost lost hope, but he suddenly saw a four-legged, furry creature that walked just like him pass through what seemed to be a smaller gate below the huge gate.
He immediately knew that that was his route.
He quickly crawled over to it and fixed his head through it first; next, he took his hands out; the hard part was getting his midsection out, but once he did, his legs were easy to pull out.
Looking ahead, Nixxon was confused; a long black and smooth path stretched out in front of him, he didn't know which way to go. He looked left and then right, but the path seemed unending. He sighed.
'Which way to go now?' He thought, a little frown showing his frustration.
Finally, he decided to go left, legends say that the right path was always wrong. So, there he was, crawling towards the left path.
"Asshh..." he hissed when his hands and knees touched the scorching hot path.
'How do humans survive crawling in such hot environments?' He thought quietly as he crawled tiredly.
He was getting hungry, and his stomach was twisting and hurting, but he ignored it and moved on.
Soon, Nixxon snapped his head behind him when he suddenly heard a monstrous rumble, his eyes widened as he saw the gigantic black monster moving with an incredible speed toward him; he was stuck in place and didn't know how to escape.
"Argh!!!" Nixxon screamed as the gigantic black monster hit him from behind, sending him flying some good distance away from his initial point.