toes.
My lungs sputter in my chest, no longer suitable for both worlds. Made for only one, and it’s not my home. I gasp in as much air as my lungs can hold, suddenly in need though I haven’t been underwater for several minutes. Somehow without my mermaid body, the air temperature is much colder, and I immediately begin to shiver, the adrenaline coursing through my veins notwithstanding.
I push myself up out of the lapping tide, new legs wobbling under my weight, my toes digging into the uneven sand below. It’s almost stunning to me that I’m whole and solid. I look down past my seaweed skirt to those toes, flashing white. I am human. And now my clock is ticking right along with Alia’s.
I test out my stride, taking a few uneasy steps. The shifting nature of the sands under my feet doesn’t help before I nearly fall over. And then I realize that even if I figure out how to walk, I still won’t be right. I need shoes.
I backpedal and retrieve those extra wisps of seaweed.
“Snúa. Efni.” I say the spell, but … something’s distant about the magic I’ve called forth.
“Snúa. Efni.” I repeat, thinking it might improve things.
It does, but the distance stays, even as the seaweed begins to obey, weaving itself into one slipper and then another.
I keep reaching, reaching, reaching, for the magic as it works. It hears me, but it’s from across the room, not within my veins. After much longer than I’d expected—several minutes longer than it took the magic to create my entire skirt—my shoes are made. They aren’t durable in the least, but they should do for now.
When I’m finished, the sky has evened out into a lush blue, the warmth of dawn gone. Another day begun. Two days behind. Time to find Alia.
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