Melusine awoke to a high pitched keening sound, punctuated by a wail of agony. It was some moments before she realized that the horrible cries were coming from her. Her chest was burning like she had been breathing the sulfuric waters of a volcanic vent. The pain intensified by the second and the frilly gills behind her ears fluttered wildly to no avail. Suddenly, a horrible retching wracked her frail body. Her chest contracted painfully and her whole body seemed to seize rhythmically. She could only watch in horror as the saltwater poured out of her mouth in gush after painful gush. She felt dizzy and her entire body shook uncontrollably as the water spilled from her onto the brilliantly white sand on which she lay. When there was no more water left inside her to push out of her body, something strange happened. Without warning, something inside her released and her mouth snapped open involuntarily. A whoosh of air sucked into her throat, and then her body clamped down violently, sending it back out with incredible force. It happened again, and again until she seemed to gain some control of it. Eventually, she stopped sputtering and took slow even gulps of air. Her vision cleared and the burning in her chest subsided into a gentle tug and release of air in and out of her body. "This must be what the humans call breathing" Melusine realized in shocked fascination.
No sooner had the pain subsided, than her tail began to tingle and itch. It began as a slight irritation and quickly grew into a buzz that made her squirm. It started it the deep green at the delicate ends of her fluke and shot all the way up to her lower back in an electric arc of gold light. She looked down at her turquoise tail and saw it split, painlessly down the middle. Shock slammed into her already overwhelmed mind and it all went black again.
Erik woke up surrounded by driftwood and wreckage from the ship. He had won... He had defeated King Boleslaw. He was one step closer to his dreams of uniting the lands around the Baltic under one ruler. The storm had sprung up before he had even had time to celebrate his victory and enjoy the riches that had come with it. A wave had struck the side of his ship and the vessel had capsized. Now he sat in the sand somewhere along the coast of Denmark. It's new king stranded on its shores all alone. He slowly rose unsteadily to his feet. He found that he was miraculously uninjured and took a handful of steps down the beach when he heard an inhuman moaning. He staggered down the beach and saw a naked woman, unmarred and asleep on the sand. She was perfect. A valkyrie or a goddess lay naked at his feet. She was impossibly beautiful, with a long red-gold mane hair that spilled out around her in ropes like spun gold. Her body was so pale it seemed almost translucent, the fine blue veins visible underneath the thin, delicate skin of her breasts... Round, heavy breasts were set widely apart on a broad chest, tipped in bright pink nipples. She stirred, one long leg dragging through the sand. Erik snapped out of his daze and pulled her up into a sitting position against his chest. Her eyes fluttered open. He had never seen such eyes before, the pale turquoise green of the ocean and shaped like almonds fringed in thick gold lashes. Lashes that fluttered up at him, before closing again. Her head lolled back against his shoulder. Erik cursed under his breath and carefully slid her limp form over his shoulder and began the search for shelter.
Melusine woke up to the screaming of the wind. She was warm. How could she be warm? She had been dying in a frozen sea. Something soft was wrapped around her and she was laying against something warm. She slowly turned around, and there he was... The beautiful man she had rescued from the ocean. She flexed her tail to get better leverage to turn and immediately knew something felt odd. She pulled back the blanket and stared down at two sets of legs. One pair of strong, male legs.. Cabled in lean muscle... and one pair of long, slender female legs with strong curving claves and small white feet. She tested them, trying to move the ends of her fluke. The result was her toes wiggling. She worked her way up, flexing and wiggling until every strange muscle moved how she wanted it to.
