Chapter 89 - Makai - A Total Shocker Part 2

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Makai

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"Makai?" Ocean called out to me nervously. "Is something wrong?" I was staring at him, frozen in place as I looked at what he had changed into.

"Y..y..you're not a Merman." My words rang through the echoing pool room.

"What?" Ocean looked down at himself then, and his eyes popped open.

Ocean was seeing the same things that I was. He didn't have a tail, at all. He didn't have the fins on his arms that I have. He wasn't metallic at all. He looked nothing like a Merman. Honestly, I had suspected it. His trident color was not the same as mine. 

What Ocean did have was blue hair, a shining shimmering blue that matched his mark. Not to mention that his hair was a little longer than it usually was, nearly shoulder length. He had patches of the white scales all over his body, including his legs that he still clearly had. And, what was the strangest of all was that he had a thin, see-through green outfit over his body. I wanted to call it a dress, but I know that he would take offense to that. And there was what looked like a long braided piece of kelp that tied that dress like thing around his waist and a few of them in his hair. And I noticed that his face also looked a little more feminine than it usually did.

I didn't know what he was, but he wasn't one of the Merfolk. I hoped that my parents would know what it is that Ocean turned out to be. And I hoped that my methods for controlling his change would work for him since he wasn't a Merman.

I don't see how the method wouldn't work though. He changed in the water the same as I did so that should mean that the repression method should be the same.

While I was thinking about this Ocean started to flip out again.

"What the hell? If I am not a Merman, then what am I? And why the fuck am I in a dress?" Well, at least he had admitted that it was a dress.

"I don't know what you are, Ocean. You're a creature of the sea, that I know for sure. It was proved by you changing like this, but you're not a Merfolk."

"Did I change though? Aside from the scales, I just got put in these weird ass clothes. And, what happened to my shorts?"

I looked over and saw the swimsuit he had been wearing. It had ripped off of him even though his body hadn't changed shape. I looked through the water and saw that under that thin, see-through dress, he was naked. If I didn't know any better, I would say that dress was made of kelp, but it looked like gossamer. That was weird.

"We will get to the bottom of this, Ocean. I swear we will." I swam over to him and took his hand in my own. I tried to link our fingers but there was something in the way. "Huh?"

"What?" Ocean looked worried again.

"I think you have webbing between your fingers. Here, let me see." I pulled his hand in front of my face and looked closely at the space between his fingers. Yup, sure enough, he had a thin layer of skin between his fingers. That would help him to swim faster in this form.

"Well? Do I?" He asked me in a panicked voice.

"Yup, let me check your feet."

I dove into the water and lifted his foot in front of me. Yup, there it was, webbing between his toes too. That was weird. Why didn't he just get a tail?

"You have webbing between your toes and fingers. That will help you to swim faster."

"Really?" He looked like he was starting to accept it a little. "Let me see."

Ocean started to kick his legs and move his arms. He was rocketing toward the other side of the pool, moving faster than I had ever seen him go. I think he might even be moving faster than me. That was pretty cool.

He made it back to where I was in no time at all. It hadn't even been thirty seconds since he left me.

"That was fucking cool." He grinned as he smiled at me. "But now I need to know how not to wear a dress when I swim." His chuckle made me grin.

"I don't know, I kind of like it." I pulled him against me, pressing him against my tail.

"Don't even, I am not into cross dressing." His glare just made it even funnier, and I laughed hard. "Oh, shut up." He snapped at me.

"Alright, alright." I caught my breath and calmed him down. "Let's try to get you back to normal first."

"Hey, wait a second, I just thought of something. I can float a lot easier right now. It's like just thinking about not wanting to sink, and I am floating."

"That's different from me. I need to move my tail to make me float." I shrugged and thought about it. "Try thinking about not floating."

"OK."

In an instant, he sank to the bottom of the pool. After he was there for a second he frantically swam to the top of the water again, taking a big gulp of air.

"Wait, can't you breathe underwater?" I was shocked that it seemed like he couldn't

"Yeah, it just feels weird." I saw him turn his head and saw the gills behind his ears. Those, at least, were just like mine.

"You will get used to it, here look." I showed him my gills. "It took me a while too."

"Well, glad to know that I am not the only one." He laughed. "Alright, let's get me human again."

We moved to the shallow end of the pool so that Ocean could stand up and not have to worry. I changed back, standing there in my human form as I guided him.

"OK, Ocean, what you need to think about first is the way the water feels on your skin. Does it feel different now than it did before you changed." I was trying to remember what it was that my parents had said to me back over the summer.

"Yes, it feels smoother, easier to move in. And warmer."

"That is the benefit of having scales." I smiled at him. "OK, now think about how the water feels against you when you're human. The way you move and feel in the water when you don't have scales."

"Alright, got it. What's next?"

"Now, think of your body. Every part of you that is human. Think about how you usually look when you're not in this form. How it is you want to look right now."

I saw him close his eyes in frustration. He was concentrating hard, and it was showing on his face. It took a long time, but I saw that the hair started to become normal again and so did his skin. The dress disappeared, and he was just standing there in front of me, naked.

"I..I did it." He smiled at me. "I'm back."

"Yes, but if you don't learn to control the magic of the change, then you will go right back to that form.

Even as I said those words the scales were coming back.

"Dammit." He swore as he fought the scales spreading over his body. "How do I stop it?" He asked me as he changed completely again.

"After you are back in your other form, when you feel that heat of the magic spreading through your body, you need to push it back inside by whatever means necessary. Some people think of ice and other cold things to cool their body down. Some people push the magic with their mind into the dark corners of their mind. Whatever it is you choose to do you have to keep part of your mind on that at all times when you're in the water. If you don't, you will change, and quickly too."

"OK, let me do this again."

I watched him concentrate again. This time the change back to human took a lot less time than before. That was good, he was a natural at that part. Now to hold it back.

I watched for several minutes and only saw scales appear for a second every now and then. After a little bit, the scales stayed gone. He was keeping them back.

"I..I..I did i..i..it." It sounded like he was struggling.

"Don't think so hard. Just have one corner of your mind pushing back at the magic while you loosen up the rest of yourself." I tried to get him to act more naturally so that he could be more comfortable in the water.

"O..O..OK."

He took a deep breath and relaxed. I watched and waited for the scales to come back, but they didn't. He was keeping them in the back of his mind like I had told him to.

"Excellent." I smiled at him happily. "That's perfect, Ocean."

"I did it." He jumped at me, and I caught him in my arms, holding him against me.