Darya was nervous but she wouldn"t let her mother or Marty see that they might try and talk her out of going.

She was excited but everything was going over her head a bit. She knew the science of the ocean, the biology of it her mother had been teaching her since she could walk. But she didn"t know the magic side of it, her father"s side of it. The side she never knew existed until the night before. Remembering the man that laid on the sand of the beach last night brought a chill to her spine, more so than the mist of the ocean.

The boat began to slow down when they came upon a small gathering of rocks and boulders and the closer they got the more she saw the opening of the cave they were most likely going to.

The sound of the motor died down when the boat came to a slow drift towards the cave. Denise adjusted herself on her seat, Darya could tell she was nervous same with Marty, at least she wasn"t alone in her feelings.

"We just need to dock the boat and head into the cave, don"t worry it"s safe no one would dare venture out this far without a good reason. Needless to say, it isn"t easily accessible." Raj, her father spoke over the dying engine. The boat docked against the boulders at the foot of the cave, Denise jumped out to help Raj tie the boat to the nearest post they could find.

Marty and Darya followed after them when the boat was secured. Darya looked the entrance of the cave over and another chill ran down her spine. She gulped back her fear and followed behind her father as he walked to the dark entrance of the cave. The three of them paused before entering with Raj, they all looked at it as if it would bite them at any moment.

"Let"s go, the moon is only out for so long and it needs to be directly over the cave." His words were lost on them, they didn"t know his world but they would follow his lead none the less.

"This cave is sacred to our people, Darya. You may be the first of our family to be born human but this cave and its pool has held every royal body since our people first became civilized. That was nearly three centuries ago." Raj told the three behind him as they walked towards the center of the cave. Darya tried to listen to him but she was so enthralled with the cave that she barely heard what he was telling her.

Raj brought them around a medium sized naturally formed pool. The gently blue color made all of them relax on sight, almost creating a trance in the humans that were now surrounding it, aside from Raj.

"Darya, you will need to get into the pool, I a.s.sume you"re wearing your swimming suit under your clothes?" Raj asked as he began to pull his shirt off and walk into the glistening pool of natural water.

Darya followed his lead and peeled her clothes off and stood there in her two-piece. She wasn"t sure how the tail thing worked and she didn"t want to get her one piece shredded if that was what would happen. She looked at her mother and Marty right before she gently dipped her feet into the surprisingly warm water.

"There is a bit of magic to the pool, it"s always the same temperature no matter the weather around the cave," Raj told her as she continued into the pool. Her nerves were making her stomach hurt and her legs shake as she entered the water with her father. She settled into the pool as the water clung to her every inch. She looked over at her mother and Marty who took a seat at the edge of the pool on the rocks that surrounded it watching and waiting for something to happen.

"Now, this pool is used for ceremonial reasons, usually when a new king or queen is crowned, so to speak. We don"t actually have crowns underwater. Anyway, this water will uncover the other half of you. The rash is annoying I know, but it will have to get worse before it gets better. I want you to dip your entire body in the water once the moon hits the top of the cave. You won"t be able to see it but I can feel the pull of it and will tell you when it"s time."

Raj back peddled a bit and let his back hit the side of the pool of water. He watched his daughter look at the water with wonder, he knew this would work, the moment she started itching at her throat from the rash. He knew it meant that the water was working, it wasn"t normal water, the properties in the liquid accelerate their natrual born gifts. Like the scales that will replace her legs and the gills, she is currently scratching at on the sides of her throat.

"Mom, it"s getting worse, usually the salt water makes it better. It"s like the opposite right now!" Darya shouted making Denise tense with worry and fear. She couldn"t help her daughter and it was making her crazy.

"I"m sorry baby, you need to do this. Push through it. Remember when you got the chickenpox when you were six? Marty and you tried to scratch each other through the oven mits that I taped to both of your hands. I didn"t do anything to help you two because you needed to learn self-control." Darya was in too much annoying pain to really listen to her mother.

"Control yourself!" Denise suddenly screamed at her daughter while watching from the sideline. Darya"s eyes went wide when she heard her mother. She was right of course, but the rash was beginning to burn and she didn"t know how much longer she could take it. Her legs suddenly started to cramp and she bit back a hiss of pain.

"The moon is over us, I can feel the pull of the currents around the cave. Under the water. Now." He demanded in a low tone. Everyone else around the cave and in the water gave him a surprised expression, but he didn"t have to tell Darya twice. She wanted the pain of the rash and the cramps in her legs to stop.

She dipped the rest of her body in the water and used the rocks behind her to hold herself under. She wasn"t told how long to stay under the water but she would as long as she could.

Her hands pressed against the rocks harder and harder while the skin on the sides of her neck began to split. She opened her mouth to scream in pain but it filled with water. Before she thought she was going to drown with the water filling her mouth but instead it began to filter out of the slits on the sides of her neck.

She swallowed more water and tested out the new gills on her neck. She smiled when she realized she could now basically breathe under water. She began to smile but the cramps in her legs started to get worse making her curl her legs up and under her b.u.t.t trying to make them feel a little bit better, but it didn"t work. Instead, her legs cramped so bad that they pointed straight out and began to stick together.

She reached for them but recoiled her hand quickly when she felt the rough, almost sharp scales that had replaced her leg skin. One last spurt of pain in her feet made her scream out into the water. No one would be able to hear her but it made things progress a bit quicker.

The pain subsided but her limbs and muscles hurt too much to pull herself to the top of the water again. She looked up to see the ceiling of the cave through the glistening of the water.

A calm came over her when her pain subsided. Forgetting she was still submerged in the pool of water, she closed her eyes and let the gentle pull of the water rock her to sleep, she didn"t even care that her father, mother, and Marty were waiting for her to finish and come back to them but she couldn"t just yet.