Rain pelted down. Lightning flashed through the clouds and thunder's loud voice sang around them, a voice that crashed and soared like the waves and struck new levels of terror within the desperate sailors. 

Then the inevitable happened. An enormous wave rose up above them and crashed onto the pitching ship, and their vessel capsized. 

He struggled to keep afloat, but could barely think. The water was icy cold, painful. The waves threw him up and down, so he had time only for brief gasps of air before the water swept him below the surface again.

And then arms were wrapped around him, gentle but strong, and he felt himself being pulled in a steady direction. He tried to help, tried to swim, but he lacked the power to do so. He was drained. His rescuer, however, was not.

Hours later, he woke up on a beach. He saw a young woman bending over him, her long dark hair resting on his face. Her large green eyes bore intensely into his. His heart beat fast. He didn't know why, but there was something familiar about her, something he couldn't quite put his finger on.

As he watched, she leaned closer to him. "Do you remember me?" she asked, in a voice that was  the most beautiful sound he had ever heard. And... he could understand her!

He tried to speak, but he could not. 

A sadness came into her face. "I thought not." Her fingers slowly moved down his face, and he felt tingles erupt where she touched.

And without warning, she turned and rolled away. He sat up and there she was, swimming away into the sea. But she had no legs. Instead, she had a long tail, with fins at the end.

She was a mermaid, not a human woman.

But he knew he needed to find her again.

* * *

Keelan remembered that day so well, but he couldn't fathom what she meant by that question. Was he supposed to remember her? Had they met? Because he couldn't remember, no matter how hard he racked his brains for any small detail about her.

He had combed the library in the village he'd washed up nearby for any details about mermaids, or how to survive underwater, or how to gain fins of one's own. As a rule, he was not a believer in love at first sight, but he didn't know how else to define this feeling that rose in him whenever he thought of the beautiful mermaid who had saved his life. He had to find her. But no book helped. And no one in the village was willing to help him, either - they were all scared to death of merpeople and magic.

And at last he did the one thing he had told himself he would avoid doing all those two months. He went to see the witch.

* * *

The hut was made of wood, and there was a small fire burning outside. Other than the fire, however, there was no sign of movement. The woods were silent, the hut gave away no secrets. Keelan pictured his mermaid's face, screwed up his courage, and knocked on the door.

It creaked open slowly, to reveal the witch herself. She was tall, with long silver hair and an expression that seemed to say she hadn't laughed in years.

"What do you want?" Her voice sounded like a human's - nowhere near as lovely as the mermaid's, but still nowhere near as horrible as witches' voices were made out to sound.

How was he to answer the question? 

"May I come in?" he asked. "It's quite a long story."

"Long stories are always entertaining." The witch beckoned him inside. "I'll brew you some tea whilst you tell your tale, if it's a good one."

* * *

Keelan sat down and drank the tea (which was quite delicious) as he told his tale. He told of the shipwreck, of the water, of fearing death. He told of the mermaid, her grasp around him, how she had saved his life and then asked if he remembered her. He told of how beautiful she had been, how beautiful and mysterious and familiar, and he told of his long, desperate search to find a way to reach her. 

"I need to find her," he said finally. "I need to know what this means."

The witch was silent for a few moments.

"Please help me," Keelan pleaded. "You must be able to!"

"You want to be a merman," the witch said expressionlessly, "so you can find the mermaid you love."

"Yes."

"Are you willing to pay the price?"

He started to say "Of course," but hesitated. "What is the price?" he said instead.

A mirthless smile twisted her lips. "The price is that you will lose your good looks if I give you fins."

"That's it?"

"It's not as small a price as you might think now, smitten as you are with this mermaid. But it may just have been your looks she saved you for."

"No!" Keelan stood up indignantly. "It wasn't! She asked if I remembered her! That has to mean something."

"So you're willing to pay the price?" The witch held up a mirror to him. 

Keelan looked at his own face. For a brief moment, he hesitated - and then he nodded. "Whatever I have to do to find her, I will do."

"All right, then." The witch turned and bent over a steaming cauldron. She began to chant words that made no sense to Keelan. The words were not in any language he knew, and they sounded ugly and beautiful and everything in between. They were alien, unknown, and yet... almost familiar, just like the mermaid herself. Maybe that was a good omen.

The witch turned back around, and in her hands was a bottle. The bottle was filled about halfway with a blood-red liquid.

"Drink this," she said, "all of it. Your current face will become part of my power, as compensation for the fins and tail you gain. You will be able to go underwater and find your precious mermaid. But know this - things will not be as they seem once you reach her. I sense that there is peril before you on the path you choose."

"Wait." Keelan looked at the witch suspiciously. How could he know she was trustworthy? She was a witch, after all.

"This is the only hope you have of being with your mermaid," the witch said, reading his mind with uncanny success. "It's up to you, young man; you can trust me, or you can stay apart from her."

* * *

Keelan stood by the sea, with the potion in one hand and the mirror the witch had given him in the other.

It would sound silly to any rational mind, what he was doing now. Why was he giving up his own face for a mermaid he didn't know? She had saved his life, granted. But he hadn't even spoken to her! 

But at the same time he felt as though he did know her. There had been a connection between them from the moment they had met. He needed to see the mermaid again, otherwise his life would have no purpose. This he knew without question.

And so he bent down and placed the mirror on the ground near his feet. He uncapped the bottle and breathed in the scent of the potion. It smelled sweet, but there was something strange about it, something that made him want to recoil. 

He drank it down. 

It wasn't pain exactly, but it was hard to describe by any other name. All he could do as he collapsed on the sand was watch helplessly as his two legs snapped together, fused together into one long silvery tail. Then he cried out as he felt his face begin to contort, his eyes bulge, his nose grow, his cheeks stretch to the limit. He clapped both hands to his face, but it didn't help... 

Until it stopped.

Shaking, Keelan stared at the merman's tail that had taken the place of his legs. The two fins at the end quivered softly, and he watched them in fascination. After a moment of gazing at the tail, he slowly picked up the mirror and held it to his face. It was early evening still, so there was plenty of light for him to see by.

A hideous visage greeted his anxious eyes. His nose had one gargantuan wart on the end, and there were several more dotting his cheeks. His face was bulgy, and when he opened his mouth he saw that most of his teeth were yellow and some were even missing. His eyes were the same gray-blue color that they had always been, but otherwise he looked like a completely different thing.

Like a monster.

How would his mermaid know him now?

It doesn't matter. This is the only way I can find her. 

Keelan took a deep breath and slid himself awkwardly into the water. He was instantly awestruck by the power of his fins and how effortlessly he seemed to glide through the water. He was even able to forget how ugly his face looked.

Then he drew another deep breath and dove beneath the surface.

And it was a completely different world. Blue water was all around him, above and under and at the sides and touching every part of him. He was cocooned, sheltered, safe. As he watched, a school of fish swam by. He stared, fascinated by how they all stayed together, how each mimicked the movements of the others. Without thinking, he took another breath.

Then he gasped, hunched over, and choked. At that breath, a horrible pain shot through his chest. It was like fire, like his insides were on fire. It was excruciating agony. And it was coming when he breathed.

Why was this happening? 

I should never have trusted that double-crossing witch.

What was he to do? How could he get to his mermaid deformed and incapable of breathing without agony? 

He had to.

Gritting his teeth, Keelan forced himself to take another breath. He exhaled slowly as he dove, taking as few breaths as possible, trying to bear the agony as best he could. 

The water, blue at first, grew to darker blue, and he had the sense it would eventually turn to black if he went down far enough. But he was amazed by the plants that grew everywhere he could see. Red, green, purple... everywhere ablaze with color, even as he went further and further down. But then he breathed again and forgot all else in the agony that coursed through his chest.

When he'd regained some strength, tears of pain on his deformed face, he saw something much more of interest.

Three mermaids were swimming right by him. One had red hair, one had blue hair, and one had brown hair similar to his own. He could hear their laughter as he pursued them. Not one of them was his mermaid, but maybe they would lead him to where she was if he followed them long enough.

These mermaids seemed familiar to him too. He strained his memory, but he couldn't remember ever seeing them. 

He gritted his teeth again and inhaled. This time he cried out at the pain.

Instantly, the three mermaids whipped around in almost perfect synchronization. Their eyes widened at the sight of deformed, ugly Keelan hunched over in agony. Two of the mermaids cringed away from him, but one hesitated.

"Who are you?" she asked, trembling. "What do you want?"

Keelan forced himself to return to an upright position. Thankfully, there were no tears on his face - or even if there were, they'd have long since joined the sea around him.

"I..." he choked. "I... I need to see a mermaid..."

"There are plenty of those," the mermaid said, slowly coming closer in spite of her friends' hisses of protest. "Are you looking for one in particular?"

"She..." Keelan wheezed. "She's got... lovely green eyes... and dark hair and a beautiful voice..."

All three mermaids gasped.

"No, Rina, there's no way it can be-" the blue-haired one began.

"But it has to be!" Rina, who was apparently the mermaid who had spoken to Keelan, said.  "Look, he has the same eyes and he's got the sickness, clearly-"

"But he doesn't look like... he's so different!"

"He has the same eyes, I'm telling you! Even his tail's the right color, and it's his voice too!" Rina turned to the red-haired mermaid. "Autumn, you go get her now. She needs to see this."

"Rina, shouldn't we just get him up?"

"Autumn."

Something passed between the two mermaids. Autumn bowed her head and left, presumably to go find his mermaid.

"Where..." Keelan coughed.

"Don't talk, it'll only make the pain worse." Rina didn't look at him. "Just wait."

* * *

Keelan was lying on his back upon the ocean floor. Rina and Coral stayed there with him, talking quietly and occasionally glancing his way. All three waited.

And then, at last, she came into view, Autumn at her side.

The mermaid was exactly as Keelan had remembered her - tall, with long dark hair and those beautiful green eyes. Her eyes widened as she glimpsed him, and her mouth flew open. She sank down at his side and tenderly she pressed her fingers against his deformed face. He knew she knew who he was, in spite of the change he had undergone since their last meeting.

"No," she whispered.

"I'm sorry." Rina came to put a hand on the mermaid's shoulder. "It is him. We've got to get him up."

"How did you get here?" the mermaid asked, deaf to Rina's words. "And how did you become like this?"

"Mira, we need to get him up to the surface now, or else he'll die!" Coral said warningly, and then she slapped a hand over her mouth.

"Coral, what did you do!" Rina howled. "Now he'll remember!"

Mira. That was her name. 

Mira.

* * *

He was a young merman, a little one. He was wandering the ocean by himself, school having finished and his parents having given him permission to play, but not to go too far.

"Hi."

He turned around in surprise, to see a mermaid about the same age as himself. He'd seen her a few times at their little school, where they were learning the techniques of swimming and dancing and hunting and even singing. She had short dark hair up to her shoulders, and her eyes were a brilliant green color.

"Hi," he said awkwardly. 

"My name's Mira. What's yours?"

"Keelan."

"Do you wanna play a game?" Mira asked, her eyes glinting with mischief. "It's called "Scare the Next Grownup Who Comes By."

That did sound fun. "Sure, Mira. How do you play? Just jump out from a clump of seaweed or something?"

"Could do that, or you could drop down from above. That's pretty great."

"Let's do it!"

So they shot upward together until they were at a substantial height and could look down on everyone leaving the school.

"Alright," Mira breathed beside Keelan. "Look who's here."

Keelan's eyes widened. It was their history teacher, heartily despised for her grueling lessons.

"What do we do?" he whispered.

"Just follow my lead." Mira took a deep breath and, with a mighty war cry, shot down at their teacher more swiftly than Keelan had ever seen anyone swim. 

The teacher looked up. Her eyes opened wide, and her mouth opened wider, and with a piercing scream at the sight, she hastily shot off away from them. Mira and Keelan landed in a clump of seaweed, both giggling uncontrollably.

"That's a great game!" Keelan exclaimed. "Let's play again!"

* * *

Keelan was sixteen, and Mira was still his best friend. 

It had been his idea. They'd already explored every inch of their water kingdom, or at least what felt like every inch. He'd wanted something new.

"Come on!" he coaxed Mira. "Let's go see the surface."

Mira needed very little urging. "We'll need to be careful," she said all the same. "If humans see us, who knows what they'll do?"

"They won't see us. We'll just go straight up to the surface, away from the beach."

"Okay, let's do it!" Mira held out her hand, and Keelan shook it firmly. It struck him unexpectedly that he didn't want to let go. But he did nevertheless.

With a quick swish of fins, they were both flying up. Neither of them had ever been to the surface before, but they knew the way. All they had to do was go straight up, and they would reach it eventually. Side by side, they soared up and up as the water around them faded to a lighter and lighter and still lighter blue.

And then with a victorious splash, their heads both left the water and were exposed to brilliant sunlight.

Having never been to the surface before, it was jarring to suddenly be out of the water and into the sun. Keelan's eyes began watering, and the unfamiliar warmth made him almost want to duck back into the sea again. But he was awestruck at the beauty of the sunshine on the waves, and the cries of what certainly must be birds as they soared above.

Mira was laughing. "It's so beautiful!" she said.

"I know." Keelan looked over at her. The sunlight falling on the ocean was also falling upon Mira's face and her hair. She looked golden, her hair shining bright. He didn't think she'd ever looked as beautiful as she did here.

* * *

"Mira."

"Yeah?" 

Keelan had just turned seventeen. Mira would follow a few weeks later.

"Mira, there's something I want to tell you," Keelan said awkwardly.

"What is it?" Mira looked at him in mild concern. "Keelan?"

I... I want you to know... I've felt like you're... well, you're a part of my life now and I don't ever want that gone... so..." Mira was smiling in spite of herself, and her eyebrows were steadily traveling higher up. This was not helping matters at all. "I guess what I want to say is... I think I'm in love with you, Mira."

Mira's hands came up to cover her mouth. "You mean it?" she asked, her voice slightly muffled.

"Of course."

Mira let her hands drop, and Keelan saw the broadest, most beautiful smile he'd ever seen in his life on her face. But he didn't get a long chance to see it, because Mira said quickly, "I love you too!" and then she kissed him, and everything vanished.

* * *

Merfolk had a tradition when it came to marriage. Either partner could ask the other, but whoever did ask had to give the other a necklace made of beautiful stones, usually passed down through the generations. In return, the partner would do the same if they consented.

"Keelan, will you marry me?" Mira asked abruptly, holding up a necklace to Keelan.

Keelan's jaw dropped. He couldn't speak for a moment. And then he produced another necklace. "I was about to ask you the same thing."

For a moment they dumbly looked at one another, and then they both burst out laughing. Keelan placed his necklace around Mira's neck, and Mira did the same for him.

* * *

It was yet another shipwreck, but both Keelan and Mira were curious as to what lay inside. Side by side, they swam through the ruined decks. From the outside, it looked to have been a warship.

Keelan opened a door, and they swam in. It wasn't a large room, but there was a bed and a mirror. Everything else, it appeared, had been swept away. Except one large box, lying in a corner. It didn't look like it belonged there. Maybe it had been swept in, or maybe someone had kept it there for some reason.

"What do you think? Should we check out what's in there?" Mira asked, fingering her necklace. She'd been doing that ever since Keelan had given it to her three weeks ago.

"Okay, why not?" Keelan swam over to the box. "I mean, it's been soaked, whatever's in there is probably okay to look at now..."

He opened the box... and something large, black, and smoky erupted from it, engulfing him. At first nothing happened, and then a searing pain tore through his chest and everything disappeared around him, even Mira's scream.

* * *

Keelan opened his eyes. There was his beloved Mira, looking down at him, her eyes filled with tears... and her necklace still round her neck. Instinctively he felt for his, but it was gone.

"What happened, Mira?" he asked shakily. "After I opened the box, what happened?"

Mira's voice was even shakier than his. "You passed out, and I dragged you out of that ship and to the witch."

The witch? Ah, yes. There was a witch down here, too. He and Mira had even gone to her underwater cave as children and dared each other to go in. Neither of them had ever done it.

"She said you wouldn't be able to breathe without pain anymore, because that stuff was apparently poison for all sea creatures. You'd have died..." Her voice broke, but she kept talking. "She said that the only way you'd survive would be to live out of the water."

"But why strip my memories?"

"That wasn't my idea." Dimly, Keelan saw Mira's eyes flash with something of the spirit he remembered. "That was entirely the witch's doing - but then she asked me if I thought you'd be happy knowing your world was unreachable, and I knew what the answer was."

"Mira, I wasn't happy anyway." Keelan fought to talk. "I was separated from you and everyone here - my parents, my friends. I was all alone... up there. And I didn't know... where I belonged!"

"I'm sorry," Mira whispered. "I just wanted you to have a chance at another life."

"But my life is here, Mira! With my family and friends and with you. I can't... really live... without you! I'm not going back..." 

"You're not going to die here, Keelan," Mira said fiercely, even as she tightened her grip on him. "I'm not letting that happen."

"Mira, enough talk-" Rina, Autumn, and Coral all seized Keelan. "We've got to go, now!"

And without another word, they and Mira shot up toward the surface, bearing Keelan securely in their grasp. Keelan would have fought, but he breathed again and pain shot through him. All he could do was cry out as Mira and the others bore him up steadily toward the surface.

Soon enough, they burst out of the water, all five collapsing on the beach. Keelan lay gasping for breath... and it didn't hurt him. He breathed in and out, and each breath rejuvenated him, until he was able to sit up and take in his surroundings.

He was still a merman, and Mira was sitting beside him, holding his hand in both of hers. 

"How do you feel?" she asked anxiously.

"Fine," he answered, squeezing her hand. "Just tired."

"Good."

"Mira," came Coral's voice. "We can't stay here forever."

Mira paid no attention. She just looked at Keelan, and Keelan noticed that she was not just wearing one necklace. She was wearing two. His and hers.

She followed his gaze, and smiled sadly. With her free hand, she removed his necklace from around her neck and carefully hung it around his, where it belonged. She didn't need to say anything. 

"Mira, I swear I'll find some way to cure myself," Keelan said fiercely. "And I'll come and find you again."

Mira looked at his ugly, deformed face, and Keelan realized that they were both crying. "Keelan, how did you get a tail again?" she asked, wiping her eyes. "Who did it?"

"I did."

Both Keelan and Mira turned, as did the other three mermaids. The witch was slowly walking down the beach towards where they sat. 

"She did," Keelan said belatedly.

"Can you cure him?" Mira asked, her fingers tightening on Keelan's. "Please, he's really ill, he can't breathe underwater without pain."

The witch regarded Mira without emotion. "There will be a price, if I do cure him."

"Mira, please," Keelan said desperately. "Be careful, she'll trick you-"

"Be quiet, Keelan! What's your price?"

"You will find the other witch, the mermaid witch you no doubt know. Find her and bring her up here. That is my price."

"That's it?" Mira asked suspiciously.

"You'll find it harder than you think. But she was once my... friend, and I'll need her help to break this curse."

"Alright." Mira turned to Keelan. "Don't go anywhere. I'll be back as soon as I can," she promised.

"I know. Just... please be careful, Mira. Don't do anything stupid."

Mira didn't smile exactly, but a wicked sparkle came into her eyes. "You are telling me not to do anything stupid?" she asked pointedly.

Keelan did smile. It had been so long. "Yes, I am. Good luck."

"Thank you." Mira turned towards the sea. "Come on, Rina, Coral, Autumn," she said. 

The three other mermaids joined Mira quickly, and all four slid into the sea. Keelan watched as they disappeared gracefully into the depths of the water, leaving merely ripples behind. He was daring to hope.

"I can see why you love her," the witch commented, sitting beside him. "She's quite pretty, and she's got quite a spirit."

"Yes," Keelan said softly. "She has. If only I hadn't opened that box."

"Box?" the witch said sharply. "What box?"

"Oh - there was this black box on a shipwreck Mira and I were exploring, and I opened it, and this smoke came at me and that's why I can't breathe down there without pain."

The witch took a quick breath and let it out in a long, quiet hiss. "I should have known that poison wouldn't make its way to her," she said.

"You-" Keelan turned to stare at her. "This was your poison? You did this to me? Then you shouldn't be asking for a price!"

"I gave it to some sailors, because they wanted to fight Talia, the sea witch. She was terrorizing them, and I didn't want to fight her myself."

"You gave them something to kill your friend?!"

"She's not been my friend for a long time."

"Then why will she help you?"

"Not me," the witch corrected, "you."

* * *

It was several long, tense hours before Mira returned. 

She was accompanied only by a mermaid who looked as though she hadn't smiled in years, much as the human witch beside Keelan did. The sea witch's hair was blue, and her eyes were gray. Her tail was also blue, which Keelan saw as she pushed herself up onto the sand.

"Larin," she said, her tone unfriendly. "How un-nice it is to see you."

"I am not particularly glad to see you either, Talia," the witch said. "But he needs your help. If we do this together, we can break the curse upon him."

Keelan looked at Mira, and he saw that her face was red with fury as she looked at the human witch - Larin. Talia must have told her everything about where the box had come from.

"This young mermaid told me everything, and now I know whose fault this is," Talia hissed. "I didn't help them before, but you need to make up for what you did, and if you need me for that you need me. So come here and let's get this over with."

Keelan glanced at Larin, and he saw something like pain flash through her face as she walked over to join Talia.

"Alright," the human witch said. "You, boy. Close your eyes."

"Is this going to hurt him?" Mira asked tensely.

"No," Larin said. "but it'd be best if you held his hand." Mira, crawling up on the sand, immediately followed this advice. Keelan squeezed her hand. "I'll be fine," he told her.

And then the magic came.

It was like a wave of the ocean, like sunshine, like the return of long-forgotten memories, like the sound of Mira's voice after having gone months without hearing it. It was like happiness, like sadness, like a warm embrace and cool water wrapping around him, taking him to safety and to the promise of more adventure and a return home.

And then it was over.

Silently, Larin handed him a mirror. He glanced at it and he knew that he was cured.

"There we go," Mira whispered, and her smile filled him with an unbelievable joy. 

Keelan knew what he wanted, but he first turned to Larin. "Don't I have to pay a price, since I'm the one who was cured?"

"No," Larin said. "You were an innocent who stumbled across a poison not meant for you, and today we witches have righted that wrong together. You are free to go, and you can live knowing that the water is always going to be your home." She and Talia looked at one another, and they did not look away.

Now Keelan smiled, the first genuine smile he had felt upon his face in a very long time. He turned to Mira again, and she was smiling too, her eyes glistening. But he did not let himself look at her long. Instead, he quickly leaned forward and pressed his lips firmly to hers. He felt her arms slide around his neck, and buried his own hand in her hair. This was right. This was perfect. This was the way it was supposed to be.

And things would never change again. Now he could go home with Mira, whom he loved beyond all words.

"I remember," he whispered.