Poor Unfortunate Soul

Over the next month, Killian started to get visitors. At first, just a trickle, but then more and more kept showing up. Word had gotten out that the witch was back, apparently, and Killian found himself busy with supplying all manner of magical remedies.

Along the way, he learned that in many cases, a magical miracle was hardly necessary. Most of the time, what they needed was just someone to listen to their problems, and offer advice. Like, did that snapping turtle who came to see her really want a love potion? Or did he just need to come out of his shell a little, and find friends who would appreciate his sharp sense of wit? Was that dolphin really haunted by a ghost? Or was she suffering from unresolved trauma about being left behind by her pod?

Killian began to get pretty good about figuring out when someone needed a flashy spell, and when they needed some cookies and a cup of tea while he listened to their worries. Plus, having company every few days kept things interesting, and meant he wasn’t nearly as lonely as he had been during the first month. But still, one particular ex-merman kept roaming back into his thoughts: how was Titus? What exactly had happened with that human prince?

One day, Killian was relaxing, scratching Flotsam behind the headfins as he read a book on the alchemical properties of various sea mosses, when he heard someone calling from the main cavern. He sat up straight at the sound—there was only one person with that particular melodic, lilting voice. 

He quickly swam out, and there, floating in the main room, was a human. Like many humans, this one was covered in unnecessary fabric that made moving around in the water tremendously impractical. But this human also had something familiar: a shiny necklace and a bubble around his head.

“Um,” Titus said, frowning. “Hello. Who are you?”

“Killian,” he responded. They looked at each other for a moment.

Titus spoke up again, still glancing around the room as if he expected someone to be hiding somewhere. “So, I was here about a month ago, and there was this girl, right? A little bit shorter than you, same brownish scale color, actually… She was really cute, but kind of prickly too? Rude, but not mean—I got the sense that once you got past the sea-urchin exterior, she was perfectly lovely.”

“Excuse me?” Killian said “I’ll have you know that I’m venomous spines all the way down.”

Titus stared at him. “Whuh. Huh? But you’re...”

Killian crossed his arms, glaring. “I’m a boy now. What, you going to make a big deal about it?”

“How?” Titus said, gaping. “I… you’re that good at magic?”

“Well, of course I am,” Killian huffed. “But it’s not magic, just biology. My whole family is like this. If I chose to live in saltwater, I’d start looking like a guy all the time, and if I chose to live in freshwater, it’d be the reverse. So my brothers live out in the sea and my sisters stick to rivers and lakes.”

Titus looked thoughtful. “But you live here, where the river meets the ocean.”

“Yes,” Killian said. “I do.” He crossed his arms, annoyed at suddenly feeling a bit vulnerable. It wasn’t like he cared what Titus thought about him.

“Cool,” Titus finally said.

Killian waited for more, but Titus was just distractedly staring at Killian’s tail. Was he… was he checking Killian out? Killian felt his face flush.

“So!” he announced, a little bit annoyed. “What are you doing here? Don’t you have your human prince and a happy life on land or whatever?”

Titus’s shoulders slumped. “About that…”

“Let me guess: your voice wound up being a curse? You faced numerous hardships and learned an important lesson, yada yada.”

“No,” Titus said. “Love the voice. Voice is great. The humans loved it too.”

“Hmm. Then it turns out your prince doesn’t like men? I’ve heard humans can be weird and picky about the strangest things.”

“Nah,” Titus said again, looking even more depressed. “He was very interested.’ He shifted uncomfortably, and tugged at the black fabric he was wrapped in. “We were going to have a wedding actually. But I ran away. It just…” He let out a groan. “It all still feels wrong!”

“Well, no wonder,” Killian offered. “You’ve gotten all tangled up in a net or something.”

Titus shook his head. “No, no. These are clothes. Humans wear them around their bodies all the time.”

“All the time?”

“Yes.”

“Ew.”

“I know, right?” Titus cried out. He started fighting with something around his neck, face going red as it seemed to only get tighter and tighter. 

Killian swam over, and grabbed hold of Titus, wrapping his tail around him a bit to hold him steady. There was some kind of black cloth noose around Titus’s neck, all wrapped up in a showy knot. With careful precision, Killian dragged one clawtip through the fabric, cutting it cleanly.

Titus took a deep breath of relief, looking up at Killian with appreciation. Then they both realized at the same time that Killian was basically holding Titus in an embrace, their faces way too close together.

Embarrassed, Killian flicked his tail, retreating to a safe distance, and trying to ignore the blush forming on his face. From the looks of things, he had made Titus feel awkward too, because he was shivering a bit, red on his own cheeks.

“A-anyways,” Killian said. 

Titus cleared his throat. “R-right. So. Humans.”

“Humans. Humans sure are weird.”

“You don’t even know the half of it.” Titus sighed. “I was really hoping that having legs and getting to be a human would make everything make sense. But I still felt just as off as always. The prince was nice and all, but… kind of pushy and demanding? He kept showing me off at parties, and I think I was more of a curiosity than a person to him.”

“So what, you want to come back to the ocean?” Killian said. “Witches don’t give refunds, you know.”

“Oh, of course!” Titus said. “And I don’t want my old voice back anyways.” He shook his head vigorously. “Absolutely, definitely not.”

“Then what?”

“Well, if the ocean isn’t the place for me, and land isn’t the place for me…” He gazed upwards, his eyes growing distant and misty. “There’s another option.”

“What?”

“Okay, so, a few days ago, in the midst of all this wedding planning stuff... I couldn’t take it anymore. When I got a chance and no one was looking, I slipped away and then just started running.” He grimaced down at his legs. “These things are so silly. I got pretty far, but then I tripped over my own feet and fell down a hill.”

Killian’s eyes widened. “Were you okay? You didn’t hurt yourself, did you?”

“Nah,” he said. “But I did tumble head over heels for a while. And then, when I came to a stop, I’m lying on my back in the… what do they call it? Landweed? No, it’s grass, I think. I’m lying on the grass, looking up at the sky and I see the most beautiful sight.”

Killian raised an eyebrow. “What? Clouds?”

“No,” Titus said, his voice growing softer. Now that it was so feminine and melodious, it made him sound even more lovestruck. “I saw… a harpy.”

“What.”

“She had this golden plumage, and the most adorable beady little eyes, and…” He breathed out, enraptured. “These wings.”

“Oh no,” Killian said to himself.

“And I just thought… What if this is it? What if it’s actually the sky that’s been calling to me all along? My harpy princess is waiting for me!”

Killian just groaned.

“So I made my way back here. I know you can help me.” His eyes grew big and round. “Pleeeease?”

It wasn’t like he could say no to that face. He let out a theatrical sigh though, just to make it clear that he was agreeing under great duress. “Fine.”

“Hooray!”

“But you’re going to have to pay another price, to be clear.”

“Oh, that reminds me,” Titus said blithely. “I brought you back something too. I know, I know, but this isn’t part of the price. It’s more of just a thank-you gift for being so helpful.” He flailed around a bit, swimming down to pick up a heavy-looking sack.

“Hm.” Killian wasn’t sure what witch policy was on thank-you gifts. Normally people are supposed to cower in fear, or rue the day they crossed your path? But he was awfully curious what was in the sack. Maybe this was like… tribute. Witches could receive tribute, right? “What is it?”

“Well, humans have this custom of giving each other silly things at weddings, and I didn’t want to leave entirely empty-handed, so…” Titus reached into the sack and pulled out… some kind of complicated doohickey made of silvery metal. It had nozzles and dials and looked completely incomprehensible. “It’s an ex-press-soh machine. I think it’s for making potions faster? And since you had all the cool potion stuff already, maybe…”

Killian took it from him, peering down at the shiny metal. There were so many buttons. “Wow,” he said, looking up at Titus in surprise. “This is… really nice. You didn’t have to. Really.”

“Don’t worry about it!” Titus said, looking at the floor as he smiled bashfully. “Like I said, you helped me a lot, and… well, you’re helping me again.”

“Right,” Killian said, his mood souring slightly. “Let’s see about that spell then, shall we?” 

He carefully set the ex-press-soh machine aside and swam over to the Hextionary. Like before, it flipped open, glowing with eldritch power, and fell open to a particular page. Killian inched forward carefully, scanning the complicated runes. “The Gift of Flight,” he intoned, and Titus nodded eagerly. “Oh boy,” he said. “This is a doozy. And the price is pretty steep.”

“Y-yeah?” Titus said, sounding a bit unsure.

“Are you willing to sacrifice… your strength?”

Titus hesitated, twiddling his fingers. “What exactly does that mean?”

“I’m not totally certain myself,” Killian admitted. “On one hand, maybe you just become physically weaker, or more easily tired. On the other…” He shivered. “Well, hexes are narrative magic. and they tend to have a mind of their own. Particularly if they can inflict some kind of ironic punishment.”

“I see,” Titus said. He took a deep breath. “But I’m willing to risk it.”

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you,” Killian muttered, his stomach clenching a bit. It’d be fine though, right? The first time had worked well enough. Unexpected, sure, but… well, Titus had seemed to enjoy the results for some reason.

With a sigh, Killian headed to the storage cavern to start gathering up the supplies. When Titus wanted to help out too, Killian hesitated, but gave him the simpler tasks, like carrying the reagents and mixing up the ingredient base in the cauldron. Meanwhile, Killian very carefully sketched out the magic circle, being very precise and specific to make sure everything was right. This time he couldn’t quite cheat the spell to bend it towards positivity, not without risking breaking it entirely. He’d just have to trust that Titus would be okay.

Entirely too quickly, they had everything assembled. Killian considered dragging it out a bit longer, because it was oddly fun to banter with Titus as they got everything set up, but… If he didn’t cast the hex quickly, the ingredients would overboil, and then things really would go terribly.

“Are you ready?” he said, voice wavering slightly.

Titus nodded, looking uncharacteristically grim. He floated over to the center of the circle.

Killian took a deep breath, and started reading. Once more, all other sound stilled, leaving only the ringing sound of his words, swirling and swirling around the room. A vortex sprung up around Titus, and he started glowing blue. If the first spell had been darkness and explosions, this one was light and… also explosions. Booms echoed out as Titus’s shape grew so blinding that Killian had to look away, shading his eyes.

When the sounds faded away, and Killian blinked away the afterimages, he found… Wait, where had Titus gone? There was just a mass of clothing left behind.

And then the clothing moved, causing Killian to jump in surprise. One slender hand reached out, clumsily trying to push aside all that cloth, and with some wrestling, Titus emerged, looking nearly unrecognizable.There was no sign of any gift of flight, but plenty of other obvious changes. 

Titus’s face was now smooth and beardless, perhaps even a bit rounder than before, while his hair had grown several inches, flipping down over his eyes. Where before he had been big and muscled, with broad shoulders and thick, powerful legs that were reminiscent of his strong tail, now he looked much more… petite. Not just tiny, either, but… graceful. Delicate. All the places that used to be solid and firm were soft curves now. Killian found himself wondering what Titus would look like now if he was still a merman. Or… mer… person? As handsome as he had been at first, something about these changes just suited him, and it seemed to make so much more sense seeing Titus in this new form.

Titus seemed to be doing his own self-inspection, and Killian kept staring at him until he looked up. “Okay,” he said, a bit of mirth in his still-melodic voice. “This is great and all, really. But I’m not sure how I’m supposed to—” He paused, nose wrinkling. “To fl—” His breath caught again. “To— T— To fluh… ah… ahh… achoo!”

Titus clamped his hands over his mouth, letting out a titanic sneeze. He blinked blearily, and both he and Killian realized at the same time… a single feather had sprouted from his index finger. Then Titus sneezed again, and again, and when he pulled his hands back from covering his face, several more tufts of feathers had joined the first. It didn’t stop there, and soon Titus was coughing and snorting and sneezing like he had just licked a lionfish.

By the time the sniffle attack had let up, Titus was completely transformed, a thick coat of light brown feathers covering his arms and spreading across his shoulders and chest. They even threaded through his longer hair here and there, looking like charming accessories. His arms—wings, now?—looked longer, but they kept the same elegance that the transformation had wrought.

“Huh,” Killian said, as Titus held up his wings, gaping as he wiggled them. “You look…” Oh no. He couldn’t say ‘cute.’ First, that’d be insulting or emasculating, probably. But second, it was Titus. Killian stared a moment longer. Then he smirked. “You look like a duck.”

“I do not!” Titus squawked.

Killian just grinned.

“This is…” Titus looked down at his feathery appendages again. “This is…” His gaze drifted further down, and he twisted, looking at his bottom half that was now more slender in some places, but also far more curvy in others. “This is amazing!” he exclaimed. “This is so cool!”

“You definitely look a little bit weaker now,” Killian said. “So you should be careful, just in case.”

“I guess! But I feel like I could take on the world!” Titus giggled, doing a flip in the water. If he was part duck, it was probably good that his feathers were water-resistant at least. He looked even more comfortable in the water than he did a moment ago—maybe wings were the tails of the sky or something? It sure must be rough to be a human who got neither. 

Now that Titus was talking, though, his lovely voice only further emphasized the way all these changes made him look.

“You’re not worried about being mistaken for a…” Killian trailed off, frowning. “Well. You know?”

“Hmm?” Titus said, looking up at Killian. Wow, his eyes were bigger too, maybe? Or was that just Killian’s mind playing tricks on him?

Killian was torn. Should he really point out how androgynous—if not outright feminine—that Titus looked now? Especially if he didn’t seem to notice it himself? Would that be rude? Or would it be rude not to? Titus was all smiles though. He had to have noticed. Killian tried to justify it to himself that way, because he just didn’t have the heart to see Titus sad or disappointed.

“It’s not important,” Killian mumbled. He cleared his throat. “Anyways, I believe you have a harpy girl to impress?”

“Hmm?” Titus said, sort of distracted, as he stretched out a wing to pose in one way, then shifted in place to try out another. “Oh. Right. Yeah.”

Before Killian knew what had happened, Titus abruptly swam over, giving him a quick, feathery hug. “Wh-What’s that for?”

“For being so nice!” Titus chirped. He smiled sweetly. “I really think this is it, this time. I feel so much better already! The sky must be the place for me, it must.”

“I guess,” Killian said. The water had always been enough for him, but… Well, if it made Titus happy, then maybe the sky was okay after all. 

Titus nodded solemnly. “I’ll never forget this. Or you, either.”

“Sure. But… Well, if it doesn’t work out…” Killian glanced away. “Feel free to come back? I’ll be here.”

“Of course,” Titus said. “But I’ve got a good feeling about this. This time, everything is going to be perfect.”