Once the dog jogged out into the sunshine, Anedra was too exhausted to hold on. Her tubular body relaxed and rolled downward, picking up speed until she suddenly ran up against something hard. Pressing her cold, pink skin against the surface, she tested it, stretching out and shrinking back until she recognized it as the crown. Somehow it had caught on the dog. Now if she could only get the dog into the water and get the crown off the dog, it could sink to the ocean floor where Queen Belvedere could retrieve it and be restored to her normal self.
But how could she make the dog do anything while she was a worm? She couldn’t even see, since worms didn’t have eyes. Anedra tried to think of something else to turn into, but she couldn’t seem to make her tail tap her forehead, and the only thing she could think of was water, soothing waves, the waiting queen.
Then the hair stopped moving. A warm hand slid beneath her worm body, lifting her into the air. Where was the dog? Had Durlynn caught up to them? Anedra squirmed as a warm finger tapped her head while a voice vibrated her body with the word, “Restore.”
Legs stretched beneath her, gloriously strong with bones, while arms grew out from her mushy body. Her head rounded and dark hair cascaded down over newly formed shoulders. Feeling slightly nauseous, she opened her eyes to see that she had her human body back! Dancing on her feet, swinging her arms with joy, she laughed, forcing back the nausea. When her hand hit something, she turned, startled to see a handsome young man looking down at her. A breeze from the sea at his back stirred his light brown hair around his face. Her heart gave a tug at the kindness in his eyes. Since the giantess was nowhere in sight, it must have been he who restored her. Just as she opened her mouth to thank him, he brushed his hair back, revealing Queen Belvedere’s crown on his head. The words of thanks she meant to speak twisted in her throat. “What are you doing with that? It’s not yours!” She sprang up, yanked the crown off his hair, and flung it out over the water. The glimmering circle splashed into the water and spun out of sight.
The young man gasped. Anedra looked up at him, alarmed to see his face pinching itself into a narrow oval, his eyes sliding slowly around to the sides of his head as his body shriveled. “I am Prince Marius,” he squawked through lips that opened and shut, opened and shut as though he could not get enough air.
“What have I done?” Anedra cried, watching in horror as the prince shrank down into the form of the same fish she had cooked at her parents’ house, red and orange scales gleaming with metallic edges. The fish prince flipped his tail, gills pulsing, mouth straining against air that could not sustain him.
Tears filled Anedra’s eyes. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I didn’t know you were her son.” She carefully slid her hands beneath the fish, making sure to avoid his gills, and lifted him off the shore. “I don’t know what else to do,” she said, stepping to the water’s edge and sliding him into the water. He flipped his glinting tail and disappeared into the blue depths.
“You could have kept him in a jar of water.”
Heart racing with fear, Anedra spun toward the raspy voice. Durlynn loomed above her, unsmiling. Anedra gasped.
“Don’t worry, I can’t do anything to you without the crown,” Durlynn said. “Well, except step on you, but what would that accomplish now?” Durlynn sat down, bringing herself closer to Anedra’s size. “That crown didn’t fit me anyway. I don’t know what Daddy was thinking, bringing home a thing like that. It was magical, so I was worried to death I might use it wrong and shrink myself or permanently melt my toes together or something.” She folded her arms and shuddered, cheeks jiggling. Her small eyes fixed on Anedra and her big mouth opened. Two bites and Anedra would be gone. All that would be left of her would be the bits stuck in Durlynn’s teeth.
“Daddy made me use the crown to cast a love spell on Prince Marius.” Durlynn gave a very unladylike snort. “Did you know he was Queen Belvedere’s son? A short little guy. Daddy never thought to ask me if I wanted to marry him. How could I love that weak little bug, no bigger than my arm? He’d never be able to get his arms around me for a proper hug.”
Anedra stared at the giantess. It had never occurred to her that Durlynn wouldn’t want to marry the prince.
“I love Zunkle.” Durlynn smiled, which made her look even more frightening. “He’s a big, strong giant who calls me his Snortcakes.” Durlynn gave a fearsome giggle. “But Daddy said it was all about royalty. You can’t make it in the world without being royal.” Durlynn shook her head so hard that her bun fell loose, unraveling down the side of her lumpy face. “I don’t want to be royal. I want to be Zunkle’s. Once you stole the crown, I realized that now Daddy’s gone, I can do as I please.” She twisted around and awkwardly bridged her big body onto her hands and knees, straining against gravity to push herself to her feet.
“Wait,” Anedra said. “Did you turn Prince Marius into a fish?”
“No, no,” Durlynn protested, standing up straight and shaking the hair out of her eyes. “Why would I want to marry a fish?”
“Then who did?”
Durlynn leaned down, hands on her knees. Anedra shrank back, wishing she hadn’t asked. “He did it himself.”
Shocked, Anedra asked, “How?”
“If you can believe it, he caught a fish that told him not to eat it. He ate it anyway. I would never marry a dummy like that.” She turned and walked away, the ground shaking with each step.
Anedra looked out across the water. She needed a boat.
Something floated into sight. Anedra watched it approach the shore, fascinated at the sight of a bubbly mass that appeared to be nest of floating fish eggs. It drew close enough that she felt certain she could wade out to it. If it couldn’t hold her, she’d simply return to shore and find something else. All she wanted was to get home, and this was the only way she could see to do it.
Once she reached the fish egg raft, she was delighted to find that it held her weight. When she lay down with her feet over the end to propel herself through the water, her cheek rested on a cool froth of bubbles. Paddling with all her might, she felt the raft move steadily toward deeper water. The sea was on her side, providing a current that carried her along with such speed that she could feel the wind blowing against her face. In spite of being unsure of her direction, she was overjoyed to finally come across the stream outlet that she knew would lead her home.
As she began paddling harder against the current at the mouth of the stream, she noticed a figure sitting at the base of a tree by the water’s edge. When she looked more closely, she was so startled to see Prince Marius that she quit paddling. To her surprise, the raft didn’t wash further out to sea. Instead, it moved against the current closer to shore where Prince Marius watched and waited for her with a mischievous smile.
“You’re not a fish,” Anedra said when she reached the shore.
The prince moved to the water’s edge and reached down to her. She hesitated, then put her hand into his. He wrapped his warm fingers around her wet skin and asked, “You aren’t going to throw me in the water, are you?”
“Not unless you need it.”
He grinned and pulled her onto the shore. “I’ve had enough swimming for awhile, not to mention flying and running.”
Anedra gained her balance and gave him a puzzled glance. “What do you mean?”
“After you threw up the part of me you ate back into the water, I was a whole fish again. Then I used the ability my mother gave me to turn into different animals, such as a puffer fish, an eagle, a wasp, and a dog.”
Anedra gasped. “Those were all you?”
“I had to be sure you followed through on your mission to restore my mother to her true form.” He shook his head, keeping his eyes fixed on her with a small smile set in his face. Then he reached out and gently brushed her hair to one side, showing the slight mark of a fish tail on her forehead. “You certainly have a hard time focusing.”
“Why couldn’t you get the crown yourself?”
“Because Durlynn enchanted me. When I was in animal form, the pull was much less, but it was still there. I couldn’t go against her.”
“How did you become human again if you could only change into animal forms?”
“When you turned yourself into a worm, the crown landed on my head. That was all I needed. Luckily you fell on my head, too, so we escaped together, although why you couldn’t have chosen to be a fuzzy caterpillar instead of a slimy worm is beyond me.”
Anedra put her hands on her hips. “You try thinking fast when your body is flying through the air like a sack of bones ready to crack against a wall.”
“Well, you came out of it all right.”
“So did you.” Anedra looked him up and down and said with a smirk, “You’re much taller and rounder than the last time I saw you.”
“Because you helped get my crown back.” Queen Belvedere walked out from the shade of the trees. She was even lovelier as a woman than she was as a mermaid. “I am happy to tell you that all the people who were turned to fish are now back to their original forms. Better yet, I still have ties to the sea. I learned the dolphin language while I ruled the deep, and used it to find some kind dolphins to bring you to us.”
Anedra turned toward the water, surprised to see six smiling dolphin faces looking up at her from around the edges of the floating fish egg raft. She couldn’t help but smile when she said, “Thank you.”
They squeaked and ducked beneath the waves.
“Anedra!” Her name surrounded her like a hug in the voices of her beloved parents. She whirled around to see them climbing from a boat that flew a royal flag. Bursting into a run, she streaked toward their open arms. They folded her into their warm embrace with enough tears that she almost felt like a fish again. Raising her eyes to Prince Marius, she said, “Thank you.”
The prince shrugged. “Your father is a noble man. Your mother works hard. I appreciate them as much as I appreciate their daughter.”
Anedra turned and nestled in to her parents’ warm clothing. She loved them so much, and the prince was an interesting young man. Perhaps one day she would learn how to twist her hair into a bun just the right size to hold the crown that would make her his princess.
The End
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