Three Days Ago
They met at dawn on the shore of Turtle Island. The turtles were a bit annoyed by the interruption. They narrowed their bulbous eyes and munched on sea grass while the Merpeople gathered at the water’s edge.
Meeshell hadn’t slept a wink. How could she? So much was about to happen. Not only was she going to leave her family and travel to a new world, but she was going to change the shape of her body!
The Sea Witch parked her rather large self onto a boulder. Then she sipped a cup of briny brew. She looked as if she’d come to watch a special show. “Coral, are you ready?”
“Hold on a minute,” King Philip said. “I still have some concerns about your daughter casting the spell. She’s very young, after all. Can you guarantee that nothing will go wrong?”
The Sea Witch took another sip, then cackled. “Philip, my dear, you know there are no guarantees where magic is concerned.” She reached into the water, pulled out a wiggling eel, and ate it whole. Then she dabbed at the corners of her mouth with a piece of kelp. “But Coral is my daughter, which means she’s extremely talented and intelligent, just like me.” She paused, as if waiting for Meeshell and her parents to confirm what she’d said. But they said nothing. She glowered and the air around her turned stormy. But her anger faded quickly and she took another sip. “Anyhoo, as I was saying, Coral is perfectly capable of changing a tail into legs, aren’t you, darling?”
Meeshell and her parents looked at Coral, who thus far had said nothing. She swam next to the boulder, chewing nervously on her lower lip. She was so different from her mother, quiet and with delicate features. Was she Sea Witch material? “Well, actually, I’ve only practiced the spell on eels—you know, since they don’t have legs—and it did work but then…” She held up an eel, who glanced worriedly at the Sea Witch. “But then the legs fell off after a day.”
“Fell off?” Meeshell cried, her hand flying to her mouth.
“That’s alarming,” Queen Pearl said.
“Oh, it’s really not that bad. The eel hated having those legs.” Coral let the eel go and it swam into the depths before the Sea Witch could eat it.
“I can’t have legs that fall off,” Meeshell said. “Dad, do something.”
“Why are you asking your daddy to do something?” the Sea Witch said snippily. “He has no magic. We’re the witches. Talk to us.”
Meeshell swam closer to the Sea Witch than she’d ever been—so close that she could see the barnacles that grew on the witch’s earlobes. She felt so nervous, her tail trembled. But she knew that the Sea Witch had as much to lose as she did. “It’s in both our best interests that this spell work,” Meeshell reminded her. “If you believe that Coral can do it, then I shall also believe. Because if this doesn’t work, and I’m a failure on land, then you will never have my voice.”
The water around the Sea Witch grew stormy again, and she rose onto her tail so she towered over Meeshell and her parents. “I will have your voice!” Her face turned as red as her tail. Even Coral swam backward, to keep clear of her mother’s wrath.
While the Sea Witch was having a temper tantrum, Coral glided up to Meeshell and said, her voice lowered, “Mom’s making me do this. Just wanted you to know, in case things go wrong.”
“Got it,” Meeshell said. She didn’t add that her mom and dad were also making her do something she didn’t want to do. Why couldn’t Ever After High wait for another year? There were so many fun things going on in the Merkingdom. She’d miss the next manta ray races. And her friends were planning on surfing the outer reef next week.
“Let’s do this!” the Sea Witch hollered. She settled back on her boulder.
Meeshell kissed her mom and dad, trying very hard to hold back tears. They said all sorts of comforting things to her. They’d send letters. They’d send care packages. She’d have fun. She’d be home at the end of the quarter for a visit. But none of those things made Meeshell feel better. Choking back a sob, she swam into the shallows, until she was sitting in the sand. A pair of turtles waddled away, leaving a little trail of footprints.
“Go on, Coral, cast the spell. You know it by heart.” The Sea Witch waved her daughter forward.
Coral, looking as if she was about to face a great white shark, slowly swam into the shallows next to Meeshell. She lifted her hands into the air. One hand held a slender wand, made from carved abalone shell. Meeshell couldn’t help but notice that the hand was trembling. As Coral spoke the words that would change Meeshell’s life, everyone and everything held perfectly still and in absolute silence. Even the waves halted their course.
“Through the power vested in me,
By the wild magic sea,
Two legged shall she be.”
Meeshell looked at her beautiful tail, with its blue shimmering scales. She wanted to squeeze her eyes closed, just in case something terrible happened. But she mustered her courage. Right before her eyes, her beloved tail faded away, and when she reached out, she found not the familiar texture of scales, but something soft and smooth.
It was a leg. And right beside it was another leg. Two legs! Meeshell kicked, as she would with her tail, and the legs flopped awkwardly.
“Marvelous!” the Sea Witch cried. She began to applaud. “Well done, my dear!”
Coral smiled, just as surprised as everyone else that her spell had worked.
It took a long time for Meeshell to get to her feet, and then to keep her balance. Luckily, the sand was a soft place to fall. By the time she’d mastered walking a few steps, a ship appeared in the distance. The Narwhal had come to take her to Ever After High.
It had already been decided that Meeshell would hide her identity, so there were quick kisses good-bye, and words of comfort. King Philip and Queen Pearl disappeared beneath the water, as did Coral and the Sea Witch. Meeshell made her way onto the dock, her bag in hand, watching as the ship drew closer and closer.
“Oh, I forgot to tell you something.” Coral popped out of the water, then floated next to the dock.
“What?” Meeshell asked.
“There’s a little thing you should know about the spell.”
Meeshell’s entire body stiffened. “A little thing?”
“You’re really lucky that you get to go to Ever After High. I hope I can go there one day. Do you think you’ll meet your prince?”
“My prince?”
“The one in your story. The only one you’ll give up your voice for and live with happily ever after.”
Oh, that prince. With all the emotional upheaval of the last twenty-four hours, Meeshell hadn’t thought about her future prince. He was supposed to be a land-dweller, so it was possible that he went to Ever After High.
“I don’t know if I’ll meet him,” Meeshell said. “But, Coral, what is the little thing you forgot to tell me?”
“Oh right.” She reached out of the water and pointed at Meeshell’s legs. “You can’t get them wet or they’ll turn back into a tail. But then once the tail dries, it’ll turn back into legs. See ya.” And then she disappeared.
That was not a little thing.