the little mermaid

the change

Dorienne didn't know where to go first.

She could go anywhere she wanted, because as far as her father knew, Dorienne was still in her room.

The first thing that came to her mind was the sunset. That was what had gotten her in this mess in the first place, and she was determined to see it.

Before she could go to the surface, though, she needed to get far away from the kingdom. She didn't want anyone to tell her father she was out of the castle; that would result in even greater punishment than before.

Dorienne swam and swam until there was no longer any sign of life.

At this point, she didn't know how much time had passed, and was therefore unaware of whether or not the sun had already set. The water looked dark, though; she had probably missed it.

She decided to go up to the surface anyway, just to check.

When she reached the top, it was dark and cold. The sun was gone.

But rather than going back into the water, Dorienne decided to explore the surface. She had never spent much time up there for fear of getting caught, but now there was no one to catch her.

It was terribly dark and Dorienne could barely see in front of her, but she needed to see what was above. As she waded through the freezing water, she ran into something.

It was a man - a human man.

And he was dead.

She swam away frantically, fear encompassing her.

And then she ran into something else. It was another dead body.

There were an unimaginable number of bodies splayed across the water in front of her. She wanted to swim away as fast as possible, but she was transfixed with the sight. What had caused such mass destruction?

Finally, she came to her senses and began to swim away.

"C-come back," said a hoarse and almost incomprehensible voice from the crowd behind her.

Someone was still alive! She had to save him!

Out of nowhere, Cordelia's voice was back inside her head. "Don't go near him," she said. "He'll know you're a mermaid."

Dorienne didn't care, though. She couldn't leave a helpless man out there to die.

She ignored Cordelia's advice and made her way through the bodies to where the voice had come from.

"Over... over h-here," he said.

Finally she spotted him - a young man around the same age as her, immersed in such freezing waters for so long that his hair was clumped together in little icicles and his eyelashes were frozen. His face had grown pale and his lips blue, and his eyes were beginning to close.

"They say... d-don't go into... the l-light. B-but it's so... p-p-pretty," he mumbled.

Dorienne grabbed him in her arms in hopes of warming him. Mermaids were much more adept to freezing waters than humans.

"You m-must be an... an angel," he said in awe.

Dorienne shook her head.

She brought her finger to her lips, motioning for him not to talk, and whenever the man tried to close his eyes, she made him keep them open.

For a while, Dorienne swam aimlessly with the man in her arms, with no idea where to take him.

Finally, she saw lights. They were coming from a row boat! It was there to rescue them!

She swam quickly toward the rescue boat and made as much noise and movement as possible.

"You're making a mistake," said Cordelia at the back of her mind.

Suddenly the boat was mere inches away from Dorienne. How had they reached each other so fast? A man shone a light in her eyes and looked straight at her. Dorienne let go of the man in her arms and swam away as fast as she could without showing her tail.

"Where're you going, lassie?" shouted a voice. "We're here to help you! Row, boys, row!"

Dorienne turned her head slightly and saw the man she rescued being wrapped in blankets. He would be okay.

"I'm going to help you again," came Cordelia's voice yet again. "I warned you not to do that, and look at the mess you've put yourself in. There's only one solution."

Suddenly Dorienne was very cold. It felt as if a thousand needles were poking her all over. The freezing water was attacking her.

It was so cold Dorienne couldn't even feel her legs.

Just as she realized that she had legs, she was grabbed by muscular arms.