Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The young mer floated in the darkness. Lights sparkled above and below. All around him. He reached, wide eyes awed. If he could just touch-

“Danny! Wake up!” His mom’s voice roughly pulled him out of the dream. 

Startled by the shout, Danny twisted out of his sleep hammock. “Ah! Wha- Umph!” His light-blue flank spasmed, knocking nick-nacks off his shelf and down onto him.

Nose wrinkled, he rubbed his sore side. Where was-

Oh right. His eyes flitted over the room. Rough stone walls, wovened sleep hammock, scatters bits of shell and seaweed. This was his room; he’d gone up for a nap. And..

That dream. He had that dream again. Every few months, since he was a fry, he dreamed of the sparkling lights. Suspended among them, so far, yet close enough to touch. Something in him reached, pulled towards the-

A pounding below interrupted his thoughts. “Danny!” His mom’s annoyed shout. “The door!”

“I’m coming!” The mer-boy finally shouted back, shaking the last fog of sleep away.

This time, Danny anticipated the knock. 

“Get the door!” His dad complained. “Your friends are here!”

His friends! Danny’s eyes lit up. “Coming!” 

He raced down the corridor and into the livingroom, eyes taking in the scene. His mom and dad tinkered with some gadget again, googles fixed over their eyes. 

“I’m going out with Sam and Tuck.” The mer-boy said. “I’ll be back later.”

The adults waved him off casually, not even looking up. A stab of disappointment struck his heart. As always, they had eyes only for their work…

Danny shook his head, dismissing the feeling. He opened the door, “Hey guys.” And swam through.

“Tell us if ya see any wind spirits!” His dad yelled, as the door closed.

“So, where are we going?” Danny’s friend, a purple-tailed mer-girl named Sam asked.

“To the trench.” The boy grinned, eyes sparkling. “You guys have to see it!” Swimming fast, he pulled his friends along beside him. “If you look out over, just after the Dimming, when it gets dark, there’s all these tiny blinking lights. Like thousands of them!” 

“The trench?” Tucker, a yellow-tailed mer-boy with his customary hat of woven, red seaweed, squeaked. “You mean the one where if you swim too deep the weight of the water on top of you alone will kill you?” He raised a brow. “Haven’t there been, like, rabid shark sightings near there?”

“Those are just rumors, Tuck.” Danny shook his head. “And it’s not like we’re going to swim down in the trench. We’ll just watch from the top.” He dipped down, swimming through a gap between two rocks.

The three swam for several minutes more, the blue-tailed mer eventually pulling to a stop just at the edge of the ravine. “See!” He waved excitedly. “I mean, there are no lights yet but give it a few minutes.”

The mer-boy drifted down, settling on the cluster of boulders above the trench. His friends swam over, sharing fondly amused grins at his excitement. Sam took a seat to one of his sides, her dark hair swirling around her head.

“So they’re like the lights in the above world from the stories. The floating ones, up really high?” She asked.

“Stars.” Danny nodded, awe entering his voice. “They’re called stars.”

Tucker joined the group on Danny’s other side. He blinked, disbelieving. “How'd you know that?”

The blue-flaked mer’s eyes drifted to the open water in front of them, gaze far away. His mind drifted…..

A busy market square. A tiny mer crying for his mother. A cloaked man, a scar over one red eye. 

“It will be alright, little one.” A soothing, melodic Voice came from the merman.

Wide eyes traced the painted lines and dots on the stranger’s blue skin. “What’s that?”

“It is a map of the stars.” The stranger smiled kindly.

“Stars?”

Blue fingers followed the silver and gold marks. “The floating lights in the world above. In the world of air and light.” They seemed to shimmer, almost glowing. “They are called stars, child.”

Danny blinked, drawing himself out of the memory. “Someone told me once, when I was little.” 

“My grandma told me she went up there, when she was our age.” Sam leaned forward, purple-eyes sparkling conspiratorially. 

“How didn’t she die?” Tucker gaped. “You dry up and suffocate if you go to the surface! That's what my mom always says.” 

The purple-eyes mer waved him off. “You only really start drying out after twenty minutes, and it takes at least an hour to suffocate.”

“Only an hour?” The yellow-tailed mer scoffed sarcastically. “That’s plenty of time.”

“Exactly.” The purple-tail raised an eyebrow pointedly. 

This earned another scoff from Tucker and the two started squibbling. 

“Bub says the far lights are giant balls of gas, burning billions of miles away.” Sam argued.

“That’s ridiculous.” Tucker countered. “They’re obviously glowing plankton in the ocean above.” 

“What?” The mer-girl’s mouth dropped open, eyes narrowed skeptically.

The yellow-tailed mer motioned, one hand palm down and parallel to his chest. “There’s this ocean, the water below.”The other hand stacked on top of the first.  “The air.” The stack grew, his left hand added above the ‘air’ layer. “And then the other ocean, the water above.” It was as if the parts of the world were rock strata in a cliff-face, one piled atop the other. “Except it’s upside-down so we’re looking at the plankton floating near the surface.”

“You clearly just made that up, Tucker. Everyone knows that….”

The two argued lightly and Danny smiled, just enjoying the banter. It wouldn’t be a hangout section with his friends unless Sam and Tucker gave each other a hard time. And really, they were great for letting him drag them out here. It was quite a swim, and one his parents would not be happy about him making, but it would be well worth it when the lights came out. It wasn’t the stars but it was as close as he could hope to get. And-

“Danny! Look out!” Sam shouted. 

The boy jerked up, but not in time. Something gray and rough slammed into him. Sharp teeth flashed in his vision.

“Rabid shark!” Tucker cried.

Heart pounding, Danny flailed. Jaws snapped, eerily close to his tail. Frantically, the mer jabbed. “Take that!” His finger met the creature’s eye. “Gross!”

The shark jerked away, bits of gore drifting out its wound. But… madness linger in its remaining eye. The creature rushed back. 

“Sam! Tuck!” Danny screamed, floating over the ravine. 

He sprinted away, diving down. Frantic words, shouts sounded. The mer boy couldn’t process. Just flashes of his friends' panicked faces high above, where he had left them. Above?.... He hadn’t meant to swim this far down, below the cliff face.

“Guys! Help me!” He yelled, eyeing the shark still focused on its prey.

Above him, the groaning reverb of rocks shifted. The creature lashed out, inches from his caudal fin. Danny dodged but-

“Ah!” Too slow. Teeth sunk into flesh. 

“Now!” Sam shouted.

Immediately came a heavy boom. Danny turned to look, eyes widening. Oh no. A torrent of rocks fell. One slammed into his attacker, releasing him from its hold. 

“Danny!” “No!” Sam and Tucker reached towards him. But-  

A wordless scream, as the boulder impacted. His bloody flank spasmed uselessly and he spun, head over tail.

The worlds spun, light above and dark below flashing. His friends’ screams…. He couldn’t understand. His breath heaved, heart pounding in his ears.

Deeper and deeper. Darker and darker. Danny spun, mind in chaos. Then-

Glowing lights sparked into existence.

Eyes widened, his heart slowed. The lights all around him… they were so beautiful. 

A tiny fish, lines of glowing green flickering on its side, darted towards him and nibbled at his fingers. Danny flicked it off with a feeble chuckle.. And… his breath choked. 

His tail throbbed. Weakly, he tried to flex it, tried to kick but… the limb screamed, pain radiating down. He gasped. It must be broken. He couldn’t swim.

The realization should have caused panic, especially with the blood leaking from the wound, drifting up, just visible in the blinking light. But-

The blinking light…. Two pale white jellyfish undulated past, tentacles as long as he was tall drifting behind. An octopus, orange and pink small enough to fit in his hand, darted around; glowing spots dotted its skin. Masses of green plankton gently floated.

Danny sank deeper, his mind growing fuzzy and indistinct. The water pressed down on him, heavier and heavier. His tail ached, sensation dimming as his gills fluttered, straining to take in water. 

A colossal fish, long and eel-like with glowing blue dots lining its sides; a glowing spot hovered above its eyes. Miniscule jellyfish flashed different colors. 

Danny’s vision faded, growing black around the edges.

A clear oval luminesced, edges red. Fanning, branching, fluttering clumps, like the coral that rooted on the rocks near home, and yet it drifted in the open water. Lines of tiny blue squares, stretching as far as the eye could see. So many creatures floated around, beings he never could dream of. 

Floating on his back, surrounded by the ethereal glow, Danny reached up, towards the surface, towards his friends. 

Light shone above him, coalescing. White-blue. Golden yellow. Fanning, branching, spread-wide. Expansive but near. 

Something soft and light gently brushed his face. The boy reached back, the luminescence a hair’s breadth from his finger. 

Just like his dream.

A whisper into his mind. Almost a Voice. It was like a song, chiming and sweeping. Light and ringing. Immaterial, ethereal. Like nothing he’d ever heard before.

Danny’s heart pumped, slow and heavy. His gills struggled. One more breath. 

His watery mind barely grasped for understanding but… slipped.

He was dying.

The Voice’s words whispered soft, tender, kind. It was… a desire to save, to rescue. A plea to accept the offer. It just required a small sacrifice, something surrendered…. 

The mer-boy’s throat barely twitched. He couldn’t think. Couldn’t speak. Eyes fluttered, closing. One last moment. One last glimpse.

Against the pale blue, glowing white lines and dots made a familiar pattern. But he couldn’t quite remem…

Heart stopping, Danny exhaled. 

I want to live.

Danny gasped, twitching eyes darting around, unseeing. 

His mind raced. What? How? He wasn’t dead-

“Danny! You’re awake!” His mom’s voice, quivering.

The boy flinched at the sound. Too loud, too close. His head hurt.

“Son!” Large arms swept him up. “It’s alright. You’re alright. The wind spirits didn’t get ya!”

The mer squeaked, body pressed on every side. For a moment he was back in the ravine. The water crushed him. He couldn’t breathe. 

Gasping again, Danny jerked out of the hold. He fell back, onto something soft and springy. He blinked, eyes struggling to focus. And…

His parents' faces, hovering just over him and frantic, snapped into view. His parents? But-

The memories hit. The glowing lights. The ravine. The shark. His friends…. His friends?!

“Sam and Tucker!” The mer-boy shouted. “Where are Sam and Tucker? Are they okay?”

“Are they okay?!” His mom’s eyes snapped wide, almost bulging. “You almost died, Danny. You could have died! You’re not allowed to go to the ravine anymore. If your friends hadn’t found you…” Her voice broke, sobbing. 

The woman threw her arms around him and his dad joined, burying the boy in his parents’ arms. This time, Danny didn’t resist. He accepted the hug, though didn’t return it. For just a moment, a bitter hurt flashed through him. Oh, of course, they were worried now. After brushing him off this afternoon like always.

He huffed, eyes drifting over the…floor? He had been laying on the floor. A pile of woven seaweed blankets and pillows, stuffed with sea sponges, sat below him. Eyes flitted a few feet. His mom’s shell-decorated seat. Fish-bones needles, for one of Dad’s projects. This was his house. But…

Frantic words and questions bombarded him. But Danny ignored them, mind swimming. 

How did he get here? Why wasn’t he dead? Where were his friends?!

A sudden knock came from his left. 

“Is Danny awake-” Sam’s voice. “Danny?!”

His parents let go and a blink later, his friends were hugging him. This time, he returned the hug.

His heart fluttered, trembling. Finally, his own sob came. “You… you guys are okay.” 

“Of course we’re okay. You… you dork.” Sam squeezed him harder.

“Don’t scare us like that!” Tucker cried into his shoulder. “We thought you were dead!”

His parents’ both rose from the floor, whipping their faces. An awkward pause, the adults’ eyes on his back while he broke down. 

“You must be hungry.” His mom finally said. “Jack, come help me.”

The pair left, blessedly leaving the trio in peace. And Danny hugged his best friends, crying with them for a long while. Then…

A confused question broke through the supreme relief. “Guys! What happened!?” Danny pulled away. “That shark attacked us! It freaking bit me. I got knocked into the ravine.”

“We saw you fall. You disappeared!” Tucker waved his arms. “We were calling your name but we couldn’t see you. Sam was about to go after you but...” He bit his lip, trailing off. 

“Yeah.” Danny didn’t quite register the hesitation, sitting up more fully. “I tried to swim back but couldn’t. I broke something in my… tail.”

The blue-tailed mer’s eyes drifted to his flank, widening. With a thought, the tip flicked, as natural and easy as ever. “Guys… my tail isn’t broken. But… I know… I know it was. I couldn’t even move it without screaming. This is crazy...”

He stared, flexing his dorsal fin. Moving it side to side, up and down, mesmerized by the movement.

“That’s not the only crazy thing…” The yellow-tailed mer hesitated..

Danny looked up at the words, wide eyes flitting between his two friends. “What?”

The two traded hesitant looks. Finally Sam started. “Something… really weird happened after you went over the ravine. I was just about to go after you, when these lights showed up. At first we thought it was the glowing lights you’d brought us there to see. But then they were getting closer and closer. And brighter and brighter and… there was this sound.” Her eyes widened, far away. “It started small. But it kept getting louder and suddenly it was everywhere like.. Like it was inside my head….”

Beside her, Tucker shivered. “I heard it too. Nothing…  I’ve never heard anything make a sound like that before. Never. But… it was like this singing but… high and far away but somehow also really close and…”

The hair on Danny’s arms rose, something distant but so near tickling at his mind. The darkwater, bright light, a musical Voice.

“The light kept getting brighter, like it was gonna burn my eyes. It should… should have hurt but… it didn’t. I couldn’t look away.” Tucker breathed, almost dreamily. “It was so beautiful.” 

Danny’s stomach dropped, a strangely calm dread. He waved a hand in front of his friend’s face. “What happened next?”

The other boy shook his head, snapping out of it. “There was this flash and you were back. You were just laying there, at the edge of the cliff. But… but.” Tucker’s voice trembled. “There was seafoam everywhere. All over you.”

“Sea… sea foam?” The dread rose, wrapping around Danny’s throat. “Seafoam? Like…” 

Numbly, Sam nodded. “Your tail… it looked half gone. And your hands…” She shook. “You were dead. We were sure you were dead and.. And…”

Danny’s mouth was somehow dry. “Turning into seafoam.” He’d been dying. Sinking into the depths, the glowing creatures drifting around him… He’d been dying. He had felt it and…  “I… I was turning into seafoam.” Like any other mer, returning to the foam all their kind had come from. 

But… but that was impossible, Because… “I’m.. I’m not dead, though?” He asked, anxious, hopeful, desperate.

Sam nodded, eyes glazed, almost haunted. “Your eyes popped open and… they were glowing. Solid white.” 

“Your whole body started glowing too. Like light was coming through your skin.” Tucker added, nervously chewing at a fingernail. 

Danny stared at his own hand. This was.. This was all impossible. But… the image flashed in his head…. his veins, pulsing with light from within. Why… why did it feel so right?

“It kept getting brighter and brighter until we couldn’t see you at all.” His red-capped friend continued. “Then there was this whooshing noise, like a million manta rays flapping by, and you were normal again.”

“But there were all these white things around you. They looked like that red-coral at the reef, the branching wavy ones. But not hard at all. They were soft and smooth.” Sam’s brow furrowed. “They disappeared though. They were all gone by the time I came back with your parents….”

The purple-tailed mer trailed off, a heaviness falling over the room. 

Tucker wrapped his arms around himself. “It was freaky, man.”

Part of Danny wanted to laugh- talk about an understatement. But… in his chest, his heart pounded fearfully. He’d almost died, he remembered that. But what had happened to him after?

And yet… again, it scratched at his mind. Light coalescing above him. Immense, reaching softness. A ringing, tender almost-Voice. His heart skipped a beat.

Something had saved him.

Before Danny could open his mouth to tell his friends, his parents burst in. 

“Here you go!” His dad shoved a plate into his hands. “Manatee cheese and mussels. Your favorite!”

Again, a hint of bitterness rose. Apparently he just had to almost die for his parents to pay attention to him. Danny shook the thought away; it was his favorite meal…

His mom joined. “Sam, Tucker. Here’s some for you too.” She handed plates over and the five sat in a circle on the floor.

The blue-tailed mer ate the food, though he didn’t enjoy it. Not with his stomach churning as it was with the adults hovering over him. 

“You’re lucky to be alive, Danny.” His mom’s sad serious eyes fixed on him. “You know you can’t go to the ravine like that. It’s dangerous.”

“Yeah!” His dad stabbed his seaweed salad violently. “Those windy spirits haunt those cliffs. They lure you with their weird songs and spooky ghost lights.” His voice lowered, slow and ominous. “You get closer and closer. You can’t look away and…” 

Out of the corner of his eye, Danny saw Tucker’s widened, fearful. 

“They blind you!” His dad shouted, fingers jerking like a flashing ball of light. “Then they drag you to the surface and suck out your soul!”

Both Danny’s friends gasped, faces pale. They traded knowing looks, side-eyeing him. 

“Don’t scare the kids, Jack!” Mom reprimanded. “No spirit is going to touch my baby.”

“Sorry, Mads.” The other adult rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly.

Meanwhile, one of Sam’s eyebrows rose, a pointed though subdued question.

Subtly, the boy shook his head. And though both friends frowned, neither said anything

“You’re fine, Danny.” Luckily, his mom mis-read the exchange. “What happened was scary but it’s over.“ The woman placed a hand on his arm, an attempt at comfort. “You’re safe.”

The boy smiled, though the warmth of it didn’t meet his eyes. “I know. Thanks Mom.”

The group finished eating soon enough and the adults rushed Danny’s friends out. The trio shared a hug, again questioning looks pinned on the blue-tail. And again, Danny refused. As weird and worrying as what happened to him was, that was not a jar of slugs he was willing to open in front of his parents.

“We’ll talk later.” The mer-boy instead whispered into Sam’s shoulder.

With subtle, understanding nods and parting waving, both teens left.

Danny quickly excused himself to his room. As soon as he crossed the threshold, door closed, he let out a groan. 

“Why?” He rubbed his eyes. 

So much had happened, he couldn’t even begin to process. And of course, his dad had to bring up wind spirits again. It was ridiculous. Everyone knew spirits weren’t real. But…

The sweeping song danced in his head. The feeling of light on his skin, not searing or burning, but… warm and safe. 

Danny twitched suddenly. His back itched, something brushing his skin. He reached under his shirt, reaching for the spot. His fingers brushed the thing, soft like hair but… not. He gripped; whatever it was, the end was hard but light, tapering into a long, thin point. It came away without resistance. He brought it in front of his face. 

The boy gasped, eyes wide and mesmerized. The white object glowed, warm in his hand and pulsing with light. It tingled, the warmth spreading down into his palm. Something sparked in his veins. A flicker, a glow. Blue-white light shimmered through his skin.

With a choked cry, Danny dropped the feather as if he’d been burned. The light disappeared as soon as it left his hand, his own veins going dark. The object fell softly to the floor.

For a long moment, the boy held his breath, just staring. He swam back, slowly leaning closer, eyes fixed. Nothing. No spark, no hit of light. Tentatively, he poked the object. No reaction came.

“That’s dumb.” Danny complained, frowning at it. “ ‘s just a feather.”

The word passed his lips and the realization hit him like those falling rocks. It was called a feather. Usually part of a wing and used for flight. This thing that had somehow been in his shirt, that his friends must have seen around him when he… appeared back at the top of the ravine. It was a feather and…

His heart pounded, breath choked. He hadn’t known what this was this morning. He’d never seen a feather, nor a wing, nor flight. No one told him what they were. But… those words were there, in his head, as easy as any other. As familiar as his scales, his tail, the idea of swimming.

This was a feather. And not just any feather. It was his own .

Panicked, Danny shoved the object away. He stuffed it in the bottom of his chest, under old clothes and blankets. Out of sight. If he couldn’t see it, then it wasn’t there. It wasn’t real.

The boy paced. None of this was real. It couldn’t be. It wasn’t. He just… he just needed to go to sleep. He would go to sleep and this nightmare would be over. No more feathers. No more glowing. No more eerie wind spirits. Which saved his life! He’d be dead if it hadn’t-

No. With a frantic head shake, Danny practically leapt onto his hammock. He crawled in, tossing and turning until an uneasy sleep took him.

Great feathered wings stretched over Danny, filling his vision. They reached towards him and he reached back. 

Swirling light and water. The feathers encircled him. The tender Voice sang. A lullaby. Safety, closeness, love. 

Danny trilled back, high and melodic. Something in his chest vibrated. His back twitched, feathers brushing each other. He shone.

Movement. The pressure around him lessened. They were soaring, streaming up and-

A splash, tiny bubbles parted. Danny squeaked fearfully.

The Voice hummed and comfort filled the boy’s veins. 

Higher. Blue surrounded, paler than he’d ever seen. And… light. Yellow and shining, all consuming. 

Awe swelled in his heart. Danny stared at the sun.

The mer-boy woke with a gasp. His tail twitched, an ache deep in the muscle. His back itched; something invisible, immaterial fluttered, dragging in the water.

Danny opened his eyes and the feeling disappeared. For a flash, his heart throbbed, aching with its absence. Then he shook the sensation away. But his body still felt odd, too heavy and too light at the same time. His gills fluttered, taking in water. He breathed, the familiar movement foreign. 

What was wrong with him?

The boy dragged his head up, rubbing his eyes. This was crazy. He was going crazy.

Something green flickered in the dark. His eyes jerked to the object, widening. He reached for it.

Fingers gripped the corner. A piece of green sea-weed parchment, familiar with its squid-ink dye. And yet… it glowed. His eyes flitted over the words.

Beloved child of my wings. I am pleased to know you are well. Not a day has passed and yet I long to see you, precious one. Meet me where the lower water mets the air and we will fly together under the stars. Love, your Abba.

Danny read it one, twice, three times. Slowly bringing it to his chest, the boy’s heart pounded. Joy and terror mixed in equal parts. 

Safety, the feeling of being wrapped in protective wings, haunted him. His dream…. It had felt so real. And… feathered wings. That was what he’d seen above him as he died. An awesome, immense being with wings. 

And this letter…. The honey sweet words soothed him. His own parents hadn’t talked about him with such affection in years. The promise of the stars, always calling to him from his dreams, lured him; he could see them, really see them.

But the intimacy, the familiarity there, from something he did not know….

What, or who, exactly had saved him?

Chapter Text

The next morning, Danny arrived early at Tucker’s house. The note and his… the feather sequestered safely in his bag, over his shoulder. Waking up, he’d half-thought all of it had been a dream. But that parchment still hung above his hammock. 

He had dug through his chest, hoping, praying that the thing wouldn’t be there… and that it still was. His fingers meet alienly familiar softness. Relief and dread warred in his gut. That damned feather….

Now, both mer-boys sat in Tucker’s room in silence, anxiously waiting for Sam to arrive. 

The purple-tail stormed in, frothy and violent as tempest-tossed waves. “You said we’d talk later.” Hands on her hips, her tail lashed. “Talk.”

Danny swallowed. “Alright. I guess…. So first… uh…” He talked, the words heavy and difficult. They fought, his mind struggling to put sound to what he’d seen, what he’d experienced….

“I…I think I died. Or I almost died. But… something saved me….” The lights, the sound, the… size. “It was huge. Bigger than….” His eyes wide, mouth dry. “Bigger than the sky. It blotted out the surface. All I could see was the feathers.”

“What are feathers?” Tucker asked, arms wrapped around his chest.

Carefully, Danny pulled the feather out of his bag. “This.” 

Hesitantly, Sam took the object, turning it this way and that. Her eyes widened. “The white things around you when you re-appeared…. It was these. But…” She turned to him. “How do you have this?”

“I found it after you guys left…” Danny hesitated.  “in my shirt.” 

Both friends’ brows wrinkled, confused, skeptical. Sam opened her mouth, question visible on her lips. 

But Danny hurried on. “The….” creature was the wrong word. Too lowly, too… demeaning. “The entity spoke to me. It…” Also wrong, his heart knew. “He said he could save me, wanted to save me. So I said yes and-”

“You said yes?!” Tucker practically yelled, then winced at the volume, quieting. “To the monster, wind spirit thing.”

Danny shrunk back. “Yes. I… I didn’t want to die. And…” The memory of great wings tenderly embracing him in warmth and safety. His traitorous heart throbbed. “He did save me. He brought me back to you guys and I’m fine. Everything’s fine.” 

But was it? Finding the feather in his shirt. The hauntingly beautiful, disturbingly real dream. Waking up with his tail aching, every flutter of his gills feeling wrong. The recurrent itch between his shoulder blades. 

Just then, he jolted, shoulders rolling. The phantom weight of limbs on his back, water-logged feathers…. Danny braced his hands on his lap as joy leapt. His wings were alright. They were still there.

Then his mind revolted. Dread, a terrible sense of wrongness, screamed to be heard.

Sam’s steadying hand appeared on his arm. “What is it?” 

Danny turned his head, meeting her eyes. They were wide with concern, almost… scared. He swallowed, throat thick like it was suddenly blocked by stones. How could he explain any of this? The ghostly wings. The feather that couldn’t be, that definitely was his. The note…

“The feather wasn’t the only thing.” Shakily, Danny pulled out the note. “I found this after I woke up.”

He passed it to Tucker. The red-capped mer took it, pinching it between his fingers as if it was diseased. But slowly, tensely he began to read aloud.

Slowly, the knot of tension inside the blue-tailed mer loosened. He uncurled, muscles relaxing with every soothing syllable. 

Yet at the same time…. his friends’ faces grew more pale, more disturbed. As soon as he finished reading, Tucker dropped the piece of parchment, shoving it away as violently as a bloody bandage. “That’s so creepy! What the hell!”

Sam’s eyes blazed with fury. “What does that… that monster think it is?”

Danny’s burgeoning smile dissolved. “Not a monster.” He muttered into his tail, curling in on himself again. 

“It’s some kind of creepy wind spirit thing, that ‘saved you’” Tucker quoted with his fingers, the sarcasm so strong it was palpable. “And got possessive.”

“You don’t know he’s a wind spirit.” Danny crossed his arms.

“You heard what your dad said.” Sam argued. “They lure you with their songs and blind you.” 

“We saw!” His other friend waved his hands. “When you re-appeared. There was the light and the singing.” Frantically, he pointed at the crumpled note. “Now it’s trying to lure you to the surface and steal your soul!”

The blue-tail shook his head, gritting his teeth. “That’s ridiculous. The Spirit doesn’t want to steal my soul.”

“Then why did it save you?” Sam asked pointedly.

The question knocked the breath from Danny’s body. “I… I don’t…”

The purple-tail crossed her arms pointedly. “No one does things for free. Not out of the goodness of their heart. It wants something.”

The previous lightness, the confidence drained, as if it was blood dripping from a wound. “No, you’re wrong. It… he doesn’t…” Danny tried to argue, not even believing his own words. 

But his stomach churned, sour bile rising in his throat. The Voice had mentioned a price, a sacrifice, something surrendered. And…terror clawed at his throat. He didn’t know what that price was. He hadn’t even bothered to ask. It could be anything. Even his soul….

His friends must have read the fear on his face, each’s expression softening.

“You’re going to be okay, Danny.” Sam took his hand, gripping it reassuringly. “We’ll figure something out.”

“We’ve got you, dude.” Tucker offered a smile, wrapping an arm around him. “And hey, the good thing is, it looks like the thing can’t just drag you to the surface itself. It somehow left that note in your room but it didn’t mess with you at all.” 

“Yeah.” The mer-girl nodded eagerly. “It sounds like it wants to lure you into going by yourself. So if you stay away from the surface, you should be fine.”

“The surface is dangerous anyway!” The yellow-tail cut in. “You’ll turn into sea foam. Maybe that’s what it wants. You go up there, die and turn into seafoam, and it steals your soul after.”

“Tucker!” Sam reprimanded as Danny grimaced, the grizzly imagining flashing through his head. 

“That would be… be horrible.” The blue-tail shivered.

Still, his friends on either side of him offered comfort. “That’s not going to happen. You’re going to stay down here, where it’s safe.” Sam said.

Danny nodded. But still…. A part of him doubted, a part of him dared to hope. The feeling of safety, the tender embrace, the words of affection… those couldn’t all be fake, right? They felt too real. They couldn’t be a trick. He desperately didn’t want them to be a trick….

“Let’s just be grateful you’re okay.” Tucker hugged him, Sam joining 

The mer-boy shakily reciprocated. His insides warred.

The stars shone above, his Abba’s wings around him. Familiar red eyes, a scar over one met his and softened. And the other’s Voice…. Grand and sweeping, the wind over the sea. But at the same time… close and tender. 

“Look here, child. Up.” A hand guiding his chin. “That is the North Star, Polaris.” A blue finger pointing. “And this one-”

Darkness surged in. Thunder, the crashing of waves drown out the words. Clawed vacuum ripped him away. 

Danny’s back hit something hard. He couldn’t see. Blackness stole the light. The boy flailed, wings melting away. His scales pricked as they returned but… dry. No water. His skin itched. 

His heart pounded. What happened? Where was his A-

A blinking flash. Light flooded the world and his soul flooded with hope.

His rescuer loomed above, sky-wide wings blocking the stars. But…

A twisting sense of wrong. Luminous feathers didn’t shine; they burned. The fire licked at Danny’s body.

The boy screamed, reaching up. “Help me!”

Pain! A thousand needles through his skin. His flank jerked violently, the crunch of bones breaking.

“Help!” A choked cry. 

Sound swirled, great and terrible. Loud enough to crack the very stone under him. 

Another crunch, a fizzling pop. His fingers…. He couldn’t feel them. Eyes jerked to the side. Horror. His… his hand was gone, tiny white bubbles in their place.

Sea foam. He was turning into sea foam.

“Please!” Danny panted, body trembling.

But the foam ate him away. He screamed, he cried. But a million eyes turned away from him, uncaring.  

He was really dying. Popping, hissing, fizzing. Agony ripping through his muscles. His arms, his shoulders. His dorsal fin, his flank, his hips… All quickly dissolved. Gone in a flash.

One last plea. One cry. For water, for life, for rescue. 

But the being… it ignored him. The Voice of the wind did not save. It condemned. 

Danny’s body fizzled away and his soul burned.

The mer-boy jerked awake, falling out of his hammock. Heavily, he hit the smooth stone. A surge of panic. His eyes popped open.

“Oh.” Tension eased; it was just a dream.

His heart twisted. He was safe, in his room. Not on the surface, not burning up, not fizzing away. It was just a dream. But… the uncaring eyes, the cruel voice. Hurt and betrayal flickered.

Angrily, Danny pushed himself off the floor. “What do you want from me?” He harshly whispered at the ceiling. “You know what? I don’t care.” Eyes narrowed and scowling, he stormed across the room. 

Tearing open his bag, he pulled out the glowing letter. “I don’t care. I’m not falling for it.” Violently, he ripped the paper. “Whatever cruel trick this is..” In half…. “Making me think I was safe…” In fourths. “That you… you cared…” His voice quivered, with anger, hurt. 

Danny shook his head violently. “I’m not falling for it.” Agonizing tearing sounds cut through the water. “You can’t… You can’t trick me.”

It should have been satisfying, cathartic. But… Danny’s hands shook as he released the ravaged remains. He stared down, watching the pieces’ glow flicker and die. It felt like not the letter but his heart had been the thing shredded. 

The boy crawled back into his hammock. His aching chest drawn to the bend in his tail, the darkness swallowed him. 

Things would go on as normal, Danny told himself in the morning. He would go to school, hang out with his friends, annoy his older sister. His parents would rant about wind spirits, which didn’t exist, and he would roll his eyes. And he wouldn’t think about what happened.

He wouldn’t think about the stars above, the glowing feathers, or the Voice of a parent who actually loved-

No.

Danny violently shoved the thought away. No. He was not going to think about those things. He wouldn’t fall for a stupid trap. Everything would be normal. He’d go on as usual and everything would be fine.

With forced confidence, the mer-boy straightened. He swam out of his room and down the shaft, into the lower part of their dwelling. 

This morning, his parents hovered over the table, fiddling with a collection of shiny and oddly shaped rocks. “Lure… conduit?.... spirit….” Nonsensical mutters occupied the two. 

His heart sank. “Good morning.” Danny greeted, trying to force the confidence back on his face.

But no reply came. And this time…. The boy barely managed the resolve to be annoyed. His parents completely ignored him, of course. Like they always did. 

With a roll of his eyes, Danny swam to the pantry. He opened it, brow furrowing. What to eat for breakfast…

For several moments, he shuffled around the cabinet, picking up and inspecting different objects. Half-crusted shells, twisted pieces of metal, random rocks and crystals – all objects of his parents’ study and experimentation – sat inside, among the jars and baskets holding their food. Danny poked a suspicious glob of slime. That definitely should not be near anything edible.

A tingle started in his fingers, swirling up through his hand. His nose wrinkled, shaking the slime away. Great, now it was doing something weird to his hand.

The feeling spread and intensified, an odd warmth mixed with the feeling of a limb falling asleep. Annoyance rising into fear, he reached for the jar of scrubbing sand on the counter. He had to get this slim off him. Now!

The water stirred suddenly and Danny looked to the side. It was his sister! Back from her trip last night; he’d completely forgotten. He reached out, wide eyes pleading for her help.

But Jazz’s gaze flitted over the room, unseeing of his distress. “Did Danny leave already? He wasn’t in his room.”

The mer-boy’s heart dropped. “Jazz! I’m right… here?” His voice lowered, the pins and needles in his body forgotten. His voice… something was wrong, an eerie echo he could almost place. 

His sister didn’t acknowledge the sound. Instead, she crossed her arms, scowling at their parents. “Mom? Dad? Didn’t you hear me? Where’s Danny?”

Danny opened his mouth, struggling to try again. Distantly, the tingling gave way to nothingness. The jar of sand dropped through his fingers.

The other three mers startled at the noise, his parents dropping their instruments while Jazz flinched back. 

Solidity rushed back, his limbs more present than ever. Numbly, he stared at the shattered container.

His sister’s eyes flitted to him. “Danny? How did you get there?” She shook her head. “Are you ready for school? We need to get going.”

Danny’s head jerked up, mouth opened dumbly. “I haven’t even eaten yet.” Of all the things to say…

“We’ll get food on the way.” Jazz practically dragged him out the door. 

“Aren’t you going to clean that up?” Their mother called sternly after, only to be ignored.

Almost as soon as they were passed the threshold, the questions started. “Mom and Dad said they had to carry you back from the ravine unconscious on Saturday. What happened?”

The boy winced, mind still spinning. “It was nothing, just swam a little too deep.”

“Swam a little too deep? Come on, you know better than…”

His sister poked and prodded. She hovered and worried…. And she complained. 

“Our parents found some weird shiny rocks near where they found you. And now they’re convinced a wind spirit almost got you.” The tip of her teal flank flickered with annoyance. “They’re more worried about the imaginary monster than the actual real rapid shark that chased you down there. I can’t believe them…”

This was familiar, almost comfortable, Jazz complaining about their parents. Part of him wanted to join her, agreeing. It had barely been a day and they’d already forgotten about him almost dying, fixating on their obsession with spirits. 

But at the same time… his heart pounded uneasily. Those glowing wings, the alluring voice. A wind spirit had saved him. No, not saved. It had bargained, tricked him. It wanted to trap him. But… doubt stabbed him. What if his friends were wrong-

“Danny, are you alright? You suddenly got quiet.”

The boy shook his head, dismissing the thought. “I’m fine.”

“Are you sure?” His sister’s eyes shone with concern.

He could tell her. About all this confusion, whatever just happened in the kitchen, feeling torn in two. A wind spirit had saved him, or it was trying to kill him. She could help. But…

Annoyance at himself flared at the idea. Yeah sure, he could tell her that wind spirits, the things their crazy parents had been obsessing over since before they were born, were real. She wouldn’t believe him, not his overly practical sister. Or worse… she’d tell his parents about his ‘delusion’ and he'd never hear the end of it from them. 

No. He couldn’t tell her. He wouldn’t.

“Yeah. I’m sure.” Danny forced a smile, swimming on. 

“Alright.” After some distance, Jazz seemed to believe him. She continued to talk, conversation moving onto other things. They stopped for sandwiches from Nasty Barnacle and Danny barely listened. 

But his mind spun. This morning… the weird tingling after touching that slime. The distant, far away feeling of his limbs. The jar had fallen through his fingers as if... they were incapable of holding on. Somehow Jazz hadn’t seen him. He’d just been floating in front of the cabinet, nothing blocking the view of him. When he’d tried to talk, the words didn’t come out right. His voice had echoed oddly, almost… musical. Like-

Phantom wings twitched. Danny closed his eyes, forcing the feeling down. 

No. It was nothing. Just his parents’ weird slime. It made his fingers numb, made him lose hold of the jar. And… Jazz was just distracted. She was tired after getting home last. This wasn’t… this had nothing to do with… that, with Him . 

It was fine. Everything was fine.

Danny sprinted through the rocky cavern system where the mers held their school.

“Come back here, Fen-slug!” Dash yelled after him. “You can’t get out of your daily beating just ‘cause a ‘wind spirit’ tried to off you!”

Danny grit his teeth. Great. His parents had apparently told the whole town.

He darted around a corner. Shot! A dead end. Maybe he could squeeze between the rocks and hide while Dash ran past.

“Fenturd!” The bully roared. 

A familiar tingling warmth swelling in his chest, the boy packed himself between the rocks. He held his breath, watching out of the corner of his eye. Please let Dash keep going.

Shit.

“You’re hiding like a sissy.” The bigger mer turned into the corridor. His eyes flitted over the rocks, landing on Danny’s hiding spot.

The blue-tail tensed, sure he’d been caught. 

But his bully’s mouth opened dumbly. “I was sure I saw him coming this way.” He turned, storming off. “That turd!”

For a long moment, Danny remained frozen, listening to Dash’s retreat. Finally he let out a breath. 

Or… he tried to. The impulse came, his mind telling him to exhale. But the sensation didn’t follow, no comforting flutter of water through his gills. 

Panic rose, pounding his heart. Except it wasn’t pounding. His hands should be shaking. But…

The immaterial idea of raising a hand to his face. Nothing. There was nothing. His hand was gone, dissolved. Like his nightmare… 

Wait. No. That wasn’t… He was still here, still aware so he couldn’t have dissolved.

The water swirling around him, through him. His limbs were distant, unfeeling. More of an idea than a thing. Like he would break apart without focus. Like a stray thought would distract and….

But he was here. He was still here. He ebbed and flowed gently, with the current flowing through the cavern. Every molecule of water touched every molecule of him. 

The fear calmed slowly into something serene. He spread ever so slightly, feeling the rocks in this little section of the cave. Every imperfection and crack and the tiny spaces between them. 

Then, with something like a breath, Danny coalesced. The impression of his hand swelled into being, his almost- imaginary fingers flexing. 

The water wavered. It shimmered, distorted like the transparent top of a jellyfish. Sparkingly like sunlight through clear water.

Danny lifted the impression of his other hand. The same image wavered into focus. And slowly… 

His head, his torso, his tail. Distant particles converged, the outline of his re-becoming form shimmering in the water. 

A few more fluttering breaths, each other more solid, more real. Finally, his body reappeared.

For a long time, Danny stared down at his own body. He had started to come apart. The parts of his separating, drifting away. And yet… he hadn’t died. He’d become immaterial. Incorporeal. Transparent. See-through. Invisible. Like…

The wind, blowing above the ocean. The Spirit of the wind and stars. His Abba. 

No. The boy sternly rejected the word. No. No. No. Nope. Not happening. He wasn’t going there.

Whatever that was…. It wasn’t that. He wasn’t a… wasn’t a spirit. He wasn’t like that thing. He wasn’t like Him . 

Even as the thought of being like his rescuer made his heart sing-

No. This was just more weirdness. Weirdness would go away. It would. It had to. 

“Ah, Mr. Fenton, you finally made it.” Danny’s literature teacher, Mr. Lancer, greeted frostily, voice tinged with annoyance. 

With his head fixed down, the boy drifted to his seat. 

Sam and Tucker on either side of him fixed him with odd, concerned looks. Danny ignored them, shoulders rising. 

It was fine. Everything was fine. 

The lecture his entrance had interrupted continued and the boy pulled out his slate and pencil. He bit his lip, focused on the writing material. He’d just focus on the lesson, not think about-

“Are you okay?” His yellow-tailed friend whispered to him. 

Danny’s grip on his pencil tightened. Apparently, his friends were not to be ignored. 

“Fine.” He muttered, offering a quick glimpse out of the corner of his eye. 

Still, his fingers shook slightly, a suspicious tingling entering. Oh no.

“Are you sure?” Sam poked from the other side.

His fingers wavered, airy and indistinct. They wafted out of solidity…

“I’m fine.” The boy hissed. 

And his pencil fell through his fingers, plopping to the floor.

Mr. Lancer paused, glaring daggers at Danny. “Is there a problem Mr Fenton? Ms. Manson? Mr. Foley?”

“No, sir.” The blue-tail shrunk back, shoving his incorporeal hand behind his back.

“Good. Then let’s reserve extra curricular conversation for after school.”

Obediently, Danny nodded. The teacher turned away, returning to the lesson.

The boy couldn’t help but release a breath as his hand returned to existence. After class though…

“Wait up, Danny! What happened before Lancer’s class?” Sam called after him. 

“Yeah. Where were you?” Tucker added. 

“Nothing. Just Dash.” The blue-tail stuffed his things in his bag. He chuckled sheepishly. “Gotta go. Grounded and all. Mom and Dad will freak if I’m late.”

He practically sprinted out of the room. 

He was a coward. He couldn’t talk to Sam and Tucker. He couldn’t. Not when he was cursed, a freak slowly turning into… something. 

He didn’t want to think about it. He couldn’t face it. He couldn’t. But… 

No. This was too much to push on his friends. They wouldn't understand. He couldn’t explain it to them, make them deal with it. 

He couldn’t do this.

“Hey!” 

Danny ignored the cry. He couldn’t.

The wind streamed around Danny. Above and below. Within and without. It ruffled his hair, bolstering him higher.

“Wooh!” A shout of joy. 

He twirled and spun. Light as the air around him. Free.

Higher! Muscles in his back twitched and flexed. He rose. 

Up and up. Farther. Higher. The stars grew closer and closer, brighter. 

A stray cloud drifted across, moonlight streaming through it. Danny turned, flipping on his back. He lifted his hands, laughing as they glided through the cool, misty wetness. 

With another laugh, the boy righted himself. He hovered, full moon hung majestically in front of him. He bobbed in the air, its currents swirling around him. Long white feathers fluttered at the edge of his vision.

Danny just took it all in for a long moment. The silver light stroked his skin, the embrace of a loving parent. A warm contentment enveloped his heart. He’d never seen anything more incredible than this. 

For the second night in a row, Danny awoke to darkness. He blinked once, twice, eyes adjusting to the dim light. Well, he hadn’t fallen out of his hammock this time….

The boy sighed, pressing his cheek in the fabric. Back to sleep…

Wait. His half-lidded eyes fluttered open. There was a dim light, a soft glow coming from somewhere near. Out the corner of his eye…. soft, glowing filaments brushed his cheek. Tentatively, he reached up and grasped the… feather. It was a black feather, at the edge of his hairline near his ear.

With a definitive yank, Danny plucked it and- “Ow.” He hissed, the feather coming away with a sharp stab of pain. 

Bringing it in front of his face, he stared at the culprit, eyes narrowed. Slowly, the feather’s blue light sputtered. It faded and died with a flicker, leaving the black fluff invisible in the darkness.

Danny could still feel it though, the delicate softness under his fingers. But even that changed. It fizzled and popped, a wet electric tingle. A smell like ozone, a storm over the sea, and the feather was gone.

The boy flopped his head down, staring at the ceiling. Well, he was definitely growing feathers now. Great. And now that he was paying attention…

On his back, his shoulders, the nape of his neck… tiny feathers prickled, brushing against the fabric. Those in his hair gently swayed with the water, casting soft light.

Danny held his breath, wishing, hoping, praying them away. Slowly, the electric fizzle returned, the feathers disappearing. The boy sighed with relief. But at the same time… a stab of disappointment, like he’d lost something precious.

With a groan, Danny buried his face in the fabric of his hammock.

In the morning, Danny ignored the weird feather episode. He ignored his parents’ loud hypothesizing at the breakfast table. He ignored his sister’s rebuking of the adults. He tried to ignore everything but…

His hand tingled, going transparent. His spoon fell through, clattering to the floor. He fought back a groan but… it wouldn’t have mattered, not with the other three so focused on their argument.

With a huff, Danny left for school. He swam the familiar path, the same as any other day. And yet… everything felt different, his mind distant, his body far away. 

His bag dropped from his back and he nearly ran into a wall. Or rather… the boy pulled up short, his tail…. What should have been his tail…  phasing into the rock. Startled, he jerked away and a second later the misty limb popped back into solidity. 

Dread dropped in his stomach. He couldn’t keep doing this. He needed to get it together.

Danny swam back to retrieve his bag. He picked it up, gripping it with white knuckles.

At school, the boy swam through the halls as stiff as a board. His muscles tensed, as if he could will them to stay present. If only it was that easy…

Five minutes into his first class, his pencil dropped through his fingers again. And as the day continued…. His backpack between classes, his sandwich at lunch, all the balls during gym. 

Danny could keep hold of nothing. 

His body trembled slightly, every part shaking as if his very molecules longed to come apart, to unravel and fly away. As the day progressed, his eyes swam, struggling more and more to focus. Out the corner of his vision….

Something many limbed and white-blue bobbed. 

Confused, alarmed, Danny’s head snapped to the side to find… nothing. Just the wall, the seat beside him and… the boy winced… Tucker looked at him with furrowed brow. 

“Sorry.” He winced sheepishly, rubbing his forehead. “Getting a headache.”

That was true at least. His head hurt, a dull ache behind his temple. It was making his ears ring. 

He tried to focus back on the lecture but the droning words failed to perforate his watery brain. They vibrated, deep and reverberating. He can’t understand a word.

The hairs on the back of his neck prickled, a growing sense of wrongness. No, this wasn’t right. 

In front of him, Paulina raised her hand. The teacher pointed at her and nodded. The mer-girl spoke, her voice as musical as ever, but… it shook his bones. Not the mer speech he was used to, that he’d heard his entire life but…

The bell rang out, signaling the end of the school day. Voices rose, a flurry of activity as students packed up their things. The teacher shouted over the cacophony of noise. 

Danny cried out, covering his ears. But the sound still rang in his head, loud and deep. Like… like the bellowing of far away whale songs. 

Sam and Tucker appeared in front of him, eyes increasingly wide and mouths open. They were talking but… the watery crash of distant glaciers breaking stabbed at his ears. Danny wanted to scream, wanted to cry. He couldn’t understand and-

“-ny? You with us, man? Danny?” Like a film popping over his mind, the words shifted into clarity.

The mer-boy blinked. “Yeah. Yeah. I’m fine. I’m-” Rapidly, he pushed himself up. “I…I need to go.”

Again he swam away, the rest of the day spent hiding in his room. He really was a coward.

The clouds, fluffy and white, drifted through the bright blue sky. Slow and leisurely, Danny flew among them. He approached, parting the curtain of mist. The droplets dusted his skin. 

A strong flap and he rose above. Another orb of light in front of him. Instead of silver like the moon… it was golden. Soft yellow rays kissed his smiling face. 

His wings titled, up and then swinging down. He swept down to roll on his back. His feathers wrapped around him, as stable and comfy as his own hammock. Eyes closing, he bathed in the sunlight. 

Danny’s heart beat, slow and serene. He was safe, at peace. 

Wind gently picked up, ruffling his feathers, swirling around. It whistled, hummed, sang. 

Safety and warm. The light on his face…

Danny awoke to light on his face. Morning already? His eyes squinted. No, not morning.

Something branching and feathery hung over him, filling his vision. His breath caught, joy and fear clashing. It was Him . The Voice. His Abba-

Wait. No, this wasn’t some eldritch spirit. It was a luminescent creature, one of the ones he saw in the ravine. Dozens of feathered limbs sprouted from its center. They undulated, waving gently in an unseen current. 

Hesitant, Danny reached up. To bat it away? To draw it closer? He didn’t know which. But the creature reached back. Its white-blue appendages, surprisingly solid and textured,  gently wrapped around his fingers. Its light flickered, changing color. And so did Danny.

His eyes widened, spots on his skin lighting up. They shifted, from white-blue to golden yellow and back. He stared, awed and anxious.

Airy, warm pins and needles sparked at the tip of his tail, in his fingers. No. Not again. 

The creature squeezed his fingers gently, comfortingly. 

No. Not again. He couldn’t-

A hum, like a lullaby, sounded, swirling deep in his chest.

Danny fell back to sleep.

“You’re still here. Great…” The mer-boy grumbled in the morning. 

Danny dressed and packed his bag, the creature hovered behind him silently. Now in the light he could see it more clearly. It had no discernible face, just a mouth barely visible in its center. Almost like some kind of starfish, though it sported far too many arms.

“So I’m going to go to school and you’re not gonna be here when I get back.” The boy fixed harsh eyes on the thing, trying to reprimand but... “Hey! What are you-” 

He expected it to be hard and rough. But… “Huh.” Though it was solid, the texture was smooth, almost like the skin of a sea cow. Somehow, it nuzzled into his neck. “Oh no you don’t.” The still lingering anxiety melted into annoyance; it was hard to be scared of something rumbling softly… and admittedly adorably right next to his ear. 

The creature’s dim glow flickered. Danny’s own spots appeared, casting soft light. “And now I’m glowing again. Wonderful.” That familiar tingling sensation sparked, the white hair at the edge of his vision starting to blur.

Danny gritted his teeth, grabbing the animal’s center. “No, we’re not doing this.” He pulled, at first gently. “I’m not disappearing again.” 

It didn’t budge. Danny pulled harder. “Come on.” His grip tightened. “Let go.” A hard yank. The rumbling cut off, replaced with a hurt whimper. The feathery limbs disentangled. “There!” 

The mer-boy flung the creature and bolted, slamming the door behind him.

“Danny! What have I said about not slamming doors?!” His mom yelled from the lower level. 

He breathed out, relieved. That should keep it- 

“Ah!” He turned around. The stupid creature floated in front of the door, somehow having escaped. 

“And why are we yelling?” Danny could practically feel the woman storming up the connecting corridor. She arrived to the top, fists balled on her waist. 

His eyes, wide and anxious, flitted from the floating creature to the woman. 

“Well?” His mother raised a brow. 

She couldn’t see it… 

The boy smiled sheepishly. “Uh. Sorry. I thought I saw a box jelly. But it’s gone now.”

Her expression smoothly slightly, sternness fading. “Jack! Jellies are getting in the house again!” She shouted.

“On it! I’ll get the Fenton Jellyfish Juicer. They won’t know what hit ‘em!” His dad boasted proudly.

The other adults turned back to him. “Don’t slam the door next time, sweetie. You could break the hinges.” She turned and swept back down the stairs, already joining the loud conversation of their violent plans to capture innocent jellies.

Danny winced. Then, he turned back to the glowing animal. “She couldn’t see you…” His brow furrowed, an idea tickling his brain. The invisibility, the glowing…. 

Was this a wind spirit? One of His minions? It didn’t look like a creature of the world above. But then again…

The boy looked at his own hands. The memory of tiny sprouting feathers. His dreams of the stars and the sky. He didn’t look like a creature of the world above and yet…

Danny shook his head. What was he even thinking about? This was all crazy. 

He huffed, turning and ignoring the animal. He darted off, towards the kitchen. The water quivered behind him with movement. Long, leathery appendages wrapped around his arm.

Sigh. This was going to be a long day.

The creature followed Danny, clinging to him all day. He’d given up trying to shake it off at the swim to school, determined to not look any crazier than he already appeared.

The boy made it to his first class without incident. Avoiding his friends’ attention and Dash’s bullying, he was as invisible as ever, though luckily not literally. And as he suspected… no one could see the creature except him. Their eyes flitted right over it, over him like always. At least no one was staring, not like yesterday when he was dropping things every five minutes. That was… odd actually.

Yesterday, his body kept trying to disappear, mind and muscles straining to stay present. But now… the warm tingle swirled in his chest, just below the surface and stronger than ever. And yet, it didn’t spread. 

He eyed the creature suspiciously. Was that its doing? Why? How? And-

“-ny? Danny? Daniel?” Someone was calling his name. “Mr. Fenton?”

The boy blinked. “What?”

The teacher held up and waved around a spiral shell, white with orange red stripes and about the size of her hand. “Danny, I was asking you a question. What type of creature is this from and what are some of their close relatives?”

“Oh. Umh.” Danny blushed, embarrassed. “I think that’s from a nautilus. And they’re related to….” He racked his brain. “I can’t remember. Sorry.”

His classmates snickered but the teacher made no comment. “Can someone help Danny out?”

A girl Danny didn’t remember the name of raised her hand. “They’re related to octopus, squid, and cuttlefish.”

“Very good. Can one tell me…”

The class continued and Danny subtly glared at his sticky companion. Why did it have to distract him? Still, it purred softly, oblivious to his ire. Again, the mer boy found himself fighting not to groan.

The day continued. Trying to pay attention to his teachers, trying to avoid bullies and concerned friends, trying to ignore the creature’s soft purring. How did it even purr anyway? He’d never heard a starfish make noise and the longer he looked, the more sure he was they were related. Still, it was almost cute, clinging on to him like this….

Maybe the creature was growing on him.

The animal rumbled pleasantly and Danny found the airy warmth in his chest answering. He barely registered the subtle buzzing sound. That is… until class ended.

He rose to leave, making it all the way to the courtyard before Sam and Tucker cornered him. 

“You’ve been avoiding us.” The purple-tailed mer crossed her arms. 

Guilt stabbed at the blue-tail’s heart at the words. He shouldn’t have been running from his friends but... 

“Yeah, Danny. I’ve been acting different since you showed us that creepy note.” Tucker eyed him, obviously worried. “What’s been happening?”

What had been happening… He didn’t understand it. It was weird, freaky, mind boggling, scary. But at the same time…

Danny shook his head, averting his eyes.

“Whatever it is, you can tell us.” Sam’s voice softened. “I know what happened at the ravine was freaky. And whatever’s happening now, you can tell us.” 

Could he though? How could he even hope to explain? What was happening to his body was impossible. It was terrifying. He should be scared out of his mind, begging them for help. But…

That flicker of joy that passed over him last night when he thought it was the Wind Spirit hanging over him. His mouth opened and closed, the words stuck. The dreams, memories of safety, warmth, love…. Each night they felt so close, so authentic, so real. And he was terrified that they were all those things. And more terrified that they weren’t.

“Come on. We can help you.” Tucker pleaded. “We’ll figure something out.”

Danny wanted to laugh. “Help me? You guys can't help me.” He actually did laugh, something dark and humorless. 

He failed to register his friends both going pale.

“I’m being brainwashed. Probably. Maybe. I have no idea.” He lifted his arms. “Maybe I’m dying. Or maybe the Spirit’s changing me into something like him. I’ve been sprouting feathers and glowing. There’s this feathery starfish thing that only I can see.” He waved frantically, dislodging the creature. “Oh! And I’ve been slowly disappearing.” His fingers started tingling, volume rising. “I dissolved completely, like I was just an idea. Like I didn’t exist anymore. Except I did! I came back. But I’m terrified that it’ll happen again and I wouldn’t be able to pull myself back together. I’ll just freaking disappear forever! And- ” He cut himself off. “What?”

Sam and Tucker had both flinched at his shout, jumping back. 

“What?” Danny repeated, lowering his arms.

The two stared, alarmed. “We can’t understand what you’re saying.” Tucker said quietly.

The blue-tail sighed. “I know it’s confusing but…” He heard it. His voice… something was wrong. “Is that…” A hand raised to his throat. “Is that me?” 

His voice… it echoed eerily, almost musically. Sweeping and airy. Like the wind above the sea. Like… like His .

This happened before, with Jazz and his parents. “No. Not again. Not now.” The warmth in his chest flared, spreading down his limbs.

“Danny! Your hands!” Sam pointed. 

His eyes jerked to his hands. They were fine- 

No. His fingers blurred, substance pulling apart. 

“No. No. No.” He strained, focused. “No. Go back! Solid.” His once hands ignored him, the dissolution spreading up his arm. The hair at the edge of his vision unfocused. “No!” 

His voice whistled, the angry gale of a thunderstorm. But still, he unraveled. His elbows to his shoulders, the tip of his tail to his hips.

Sam and Tucker both leapt forward, hesitance replaced with desperation. They grabbed for him but their fingers passed through as if he was water.

His insides turned out, his backpack falling through. His hair, his ears, his cheeks…. 

“Danny!” Sam and Tucker cried.

It all unwound. Danny dissolved.

Chapter Text

Danny pulled apart. And yet, like before, he still existed. 

His friends screamed and cried, eyes frantically searching. 

“He’s… he’s fine. That was just a prank. A sick prank. He’ll….” 

Their words drifted away from him, simple vibrations in the water. 

Still he wanted to reach out to them, to tell them he was still here, that he would be okay. His molecules drifted, ebbing and flowing. Farther apart and closer. 

The spectacle attracted mers. Students gawked, teachers asking what was wrong. A current flared, streaming through the courtyard. It hardly fazed the gathering crowd, but…

No! Danny wanted to scream.

The  water ripped the boy away. He swirled down the street, between the houses and shops. The world turned. It spun, flashes of color and movement. People passing by. Fish and tiny crustaceans. Stone and sand. Pieces of driftwood. A glimpse of a street sign. He was near his house…

The current shifted sharply, pushing him in another direction.

Different colors now. Pinks and reds. White and yellow and pale blue. A bumbly branching mass clicked into focus for a moment, rippled away the next. Coral? He was in the coral park.

Movement. Creatures darted through him. A clown fish. Blue Tang. Two-spot Octopus. He sensed more than saw.

A glow, waving feathers. Hope sparked. Abba? 

A snap of clarity. No. His star-fishy companion. 

Danny twirled for seconds, minutes, hours. He couldn’t tell long. Color and movement streamed passed him, through him.

Flashes of green. So much green. The kelp forest? He’d never been here. The fronds tickled his insides. There was so much to see! Crabs fighting. A fish guarding its eggs. Sea horses nibbling at the leaves…

No. He needed to focus. Needed to pull himself together. 

Danny strained, feeling all of his spread-out self. He was big, at least as big as a pod of whales. A whale! Its song tickled his edge. Maybe he could reach it! He spread farther, branching passed the forest.

No. No. He needed to coalesce. Focus on coming together. At this kelp stalk, centered here. He drew in. Or… was it this one? 

Oh! This stalk had some jellyfish. A bird! A bird just dived into his water!

Danny spread. Or maybe he grew. His consciousness darted, place to place. Ebbing, flowing, dividing, multiplying, coming together. Sight, sound, and touch magnified and melded. 

His curiosity sang, delighted with all he could witness. And relief, relief from his worried friends, nosy sister, inattentive parents. No one could see him, bother him. No one could find out what a freak he was. But…

Fear lingered in a small part. He couldn’t… It was too… too much. Everything assaulted his senses, overwhelming. He had to pull himself together. He couldn’t pull himself together. He needed to…

Danny extended once more, finally reaching that distant whale. She had a calf! That was-

Having grown too large, his awareness snapped. One final burst of terror. Danny lost consciousness. 

Danny hung in darkness. It suffocated him, heavy and oppressive. And the silence… it ate at him, stealing even his breath, his very heart beat. 

He couldn’t see, couldn’t hear, couldn’t feel. He wanted to cry. He would cry but he had no voice. Fear gave way to despair. He was nothing, no one. Utterly helpless, alone.

But…

Light sparked, a far away star in the eternal night. Hope flickered. Danny reached, the dim outline of a hand almost visible…

A soft breeze, immaterial feathers, the warmth of that single distant star caressed his fingers. 

“My foolish child.” The Voice - worried, tender, real - rang out. “Why have you been running?” An unseen hand found his in the darkness. 

And Danny found his voice. “I…I don’t understand.”

“Come home, Danny.” A gentle plea. “Come home.”

Despite expecting never to wake again, Danny awoke. In the middle of the kelp forest, he floated as indistinct as a cloud. Fuzzily aware, he observed. Silver light wafted through the green fronds, turning the world blue-green. A spark of awe. This was… real. He was here.

His diffuse body swirled, parts knitting together. Serenely, he coalesced. His heart beat, returning to life. Gills fluttered, taking in breath. His shoulders, his arms…. His fingers reformed and Danny stared with newly made eyes. His white hair glowed in the dim light, his head no longer imaginary but material. 

His hands clenched and unclenched, testing out the muscles. He… he existed again. He hadn’t disappeared forever. 

Numb belief bled into excitement. He was back! He was okay! Everything would be-

Pain! Danny hunched over, a pain sparking in his tail. Straight down the middle, it ached. Looking down… 

He was glowing, tiny jellyfish drifting around his re-materializing waist. Pale skin returned, his belly button visible. And directly below… his stomach churned with dread. No line of scales appeared at the top of his flank, just more skin. And that wasn’t all…

His tail continued reforming, from the bend in the middle to his dorsal fin but… it was wrong.

Instead of one muscular, scaly appendage, there were two. Each was the pale cream color of his arms and covered in tiny hairs. The boy kicked both, gently rising in the water, and let out a gasp. Knobby joints in the middle bent. 

Another kick. He rose higher but also… dropped, the dorsal part of his tail impacting the sand. The limb, or rather limbs, collapsed. Danny landed, bouncing on his back side. 

Blinking up at the surface for a moment, he sat up. He studied the end of his former tail. Each tapered into a long, flat part, pointing up towards the surface. They ended in five knobby digits, complete with nails. He flexed the nubs, head tilted. They were like his fingers but shorter and blockier. 

Danny stared for a long moment, inspecting his new limbs. Then…

His lower half prickled. The hairs stood on end, skin wavering and translucent. His eyes widened, alarmed. No, he.. He couldn’t be disappearing again. 

But still, the limbs defused, tiny bubbles rising. But a second later…

A snap, like air and water rushing back to him. His blue-scaled tail popped back into existence. Danny flexed the end, as easy and effortless as ever.

His heart quaked, so many feelings rushing back. Surprise, confusion, guilt, unease, relief, fear. It all swirled in him, messy and overwhelming. But paramount…

Danny sighed. He was tired. Tired of the confusion, of the fear. Tired of feeling pulled in two. Tired… of pushing away the longing in his heart.

Desperately, he looked up, pleading at the surface. “What’s happening to me?” 

Around him, the fronds of the kelp ruffled in a sudden current. The jellyfish tumbled, bobbing around him. And…

A light appeared, tracing lines in the sand. They curved, elegant letters taking shape. Danny held his breath…

Come find me.

The words repeated in his head, almost audible as the Voice of the one who had spoken them. 

Danny’s heart shook. Dread and awe. 

The note, found in his room, his safe and private space. 

Not a day has passed and yet I long to see you, precious one. Meet me where the lower water mets the air and we will fly together under the stars. Love, your Abba.

His dreams, visions, memories…

A hand finding his in the darkness. The light of a distant star. “Come home.”

A tired hope dawned…. 

Danny pushed himself off of the ocean floor. He swam for the surface.

Before he had time to doubt, Danny breached. Water and air clashed at their intersection and he broke through, tiny drops of water flinging from his hair. 

The boy blinked, blurry eyes struggling to adjust. Darkness and light interplayed, above and around him as he bobbed. The rush of approaching water… a wave, just starting to foam, washed over him, pushing him under. 

The mer rose again, breaking the surface with a gasp. But… the swish of incoming waves, again. His eyes slowly adjusted, reflected light visible on the crest. This time, Danny dove under the wave. 

The boy surfaced again. He kept swimming, away from the rough waves. His gaze flitted, searching. There. A tall shape, dark with tiny spots of luminescence green, rose out of the water, strake against the horizon. 

Danny swam for it. As he approached, his eyes widened, realizing. It was a cluster of rocks, dotted with glowing algae. A wave washed over him in his distraction, luckily pushing him towards his destination instead of away. 

Moments later, he arrived, hands reaching out to cling to the stones. Stable, he finally let himself look around. There was… water, as far as the eye could see. A reality he was used to, one he’d experienced as long as he could remember. But up here… the water lapped, calm and measured in intermediate waves. Light sparked off their crests, countless tiny reflections leading him to…

Danny looked up, eyes widened. The stars…..they were here. They were real, floating above. His breath stilled. They were real and they shone above him. Brighter, more vibrant, more real than he’d ever imagined, ever dreamed. 

His heart stirred, overwhelmed. He needed to get closer. All else forgotten, the mer-boy pulled himself onto the rocks. Arms and tail strained, slowly, slowly coming free of the water. Higher. Closer. Hand over hand, he climbed. The stars sparkled. They sang, calling him to come. 

And Danny answered. Reaching the pinnacle, he laid on his back, head turned to the sky. He  stared up. They were so beautiful…

The boy breathed slowly, lured into contentment. The air… so calm and still. So light, now that he was out of the water. He hadn’t even realized before, the weight that had barred down on him until now. Those tons and tons of water, an impossible mass, pressing down on him from the moment of his birth.

But now, his chest rose and fell effortlessly, somehow a thousand times easier than breathing water. His skin tingled, hypersensitive to the air’s feather light touches. 

And still, he stared at the beautiful stars. Names and stories, half remembered from dreams played in his head. Polaris and Cassiopeia… 

A subtle itch started in his dorsal fin.

Deneb and Sirius…

The middle joint of his tail, his fingers prickled.

Mars. Gemini…. 

His elbows, the scales lining his hips… 

Jupiter. The Big Dipper….

They started to burn. Danny gasped, pulled away from the stars. 

His skin itched, dry and his heart skipped a beat. Water dripped off, pooling under him. It wafted, trickling into the air and leaving him bare. 

Danny paled. It… it couldn’t be.

An electric tingle, the whiff of ozone. An ache bloomed in his limbs. A fizzling pop.

His eyes popped, dread surging. 

No. The boy rocked his hips. If he could just roll onto his stomach.... But his body failed him, refusing to even twitch. He…he couldn’t move.

His fingers felt light, sharp bubbles tickling his skin. No. No. No! Tucker’s words seeped into his brain. 

“You dry up and suffocate if you go to the surface! You’ll turn into sea foam.”

His mind screamed. The surface. The surface. He’d willingly gone to the surface and… his body was parched. The foam ate at him. He was.. He was dying again.

His chest spasmed, part cry, part scream. He was an idiot. The stupidest mer to ever live. He’d… he’d done this on purpose and now he couldn’t move. His body burned, a thousand needles through his skin. He was turning into seafoam. 

His eyes darted up. The stars… the stupid stars he’d dreamed off since he was little. They’d started this, luring him to that ravine in the first place. And now… they had the audacity to twinkle brighter than ever. They flickered as though seen through a mirage. A flash of blinding light consumed the world. 

Danny screamed.

Hanging above him… feathers. White feathers. Colossal wings stretched across the sky. Thousands, millions of eyes stared down at him.

Panic. Terror. His dream. This was his.. his dream. Fire, burning. Uncaring eyes turning away, his soul ravaged. He was dead. He was an idiot. He fell for the trap. He was going to die.

And yet…

“Help me!” He cried.

Why was he begging? The Voice of the wind didn’t save. It condemned. It tricked. It consumed-

A song answered, beautiful, ethereal. The wind blew, ruffling the feather. Feathers that were reaching for him…

The boy recoiled, shaking with fear. But strong wings bolstered him, drawing him into the sky. He dangled, blood rushing through his ears. His eyes pinched closed. He… he couldn’t bear to look. He couldn’t. He was going to be dropped, dashed against the rocks. Crushed to death, eatened. His heart spasmed, straining against his sternum as if…. the thin gossamer of his soul, his very existence were hooked through and pulled from above.

His… his parents were right about wind spirits. And his friends…. he should have listened. He should have stayed away from the surface. 

But now… now he was going to die and… and he never got to apologize to his friends for avoiding them. He never got to make up with his parents. Never got to tell Mom and Dad, Sam and Tucker, Jazz how much he loved-

Do not be afraid. 

The Voice spoke and his fear died. 

Slowly, Danny’s eyes opened. The light spilled in and he saw .

Do not be afraid, my child. Let yourself be re-made.

A tightness within the boy loosened and the hard barrier around his heart shattered. Something in him bloomed. 

His self unwound, pieces pulled apart. He swirled, stretched so much wider and longer than before. And yet… still tiny in vast hands. 

In a blink, Danny re-coalesced as something different. White feathers draped down his back, brushing against his clothing. He looked down. He hadn’t been wearing a shirt just a second ago. But… black fabric enrobed him, speckled with glowing silver dots. Stars...

From the end of his robe, knobby digits poked out. A sense of deja vu washing over him, the boy wiggled them. Like before, his tail was gone, replaced with two foreign limbs.

Legs. The Voice supplied. They are called legs. Though you don’t have much need for them now. A humored lithe.

Danny looked up, head tilted in question.

Unseen fingers brushed his feather, coaxing his wings to spread. New muscles in his back flexed. A breathy gasp caught in his throat as the new limbs unfurled to their full length. 

His head turned to inspect, curious hand caressing his own feathers. They were soft, softener than his hair. And long. Each wing stretched far past the tip of his fingers, at least as long as he was tall.

Gentle hands brushed his wings again. Give them a try. 

His dreams…. Flying above the clouds. It felt impossible. But… his wings beat gently at first, wind stirring. The movement felt surprisingly natural. 

He flapped, wider, more energetic. Slowly, his form lifted, growing lighter.

He was doing it! He was flying! Danny spun in the air, grinning. He rose higher, gaze set on the clouds, on reaching closer. 

The boy paused. He bit his lip, eyeing the Spirit. Not fearful or distrusting. But… a child, hesitant to leave his parents’ side and take wobbling first steps.

Go. Fly. I will be here.

With that calm reassurance, Danny nodded. He spread his wings and ascended. Rising rapidly, he left the surface behind. In moments, the cluster of rocks was a dim spot in the vast ocean. 

Higher. Danny’s hesitant smile grew. He spun, first one loop. Then another and another and another, until he was laughing with glee. 

“Wah who!” Danny found his voice. It carried on the wind, seeming to almost bounce off the sky. 

And that sky… the stars hung above. Their melody sang through his veins louder than ever before. Lifting him higher and higher, his wings beat. His heart did too, light and free. The stars grew closer. 

For an unknowable time span, Danny ascended. Spinning, swirling, twirling. He laughed, shouted, screamed for joy. His soul sang.

Finally…. at the top of the world. The boy spread his arms, head lifted. The wind streamed through his feathers and hair in a gentle familiar embrace. He bathed in the star's light. They shone, impossibly brighter, more vibrant, more real than he'd ever dreamed. Danny shone with them. 

Slowly, his heart beat calmed, serene, at peace. His awed eyes fluttered closed, drinking in the feeling, the sound. And after a small eternity…

Danny exhaled, eyes opening. He looked down. The sea stretched far below him as far as the eye could see. Even with the supreme peace, the reality struck him. He was actually flying up here in the air. His chest rose and fell, no familiar flutter of gills but… something in his chest. Lungs, his mind supplied. He really could breathe the air. 

He stared at his hands, a glow wafting around them. The feathers at the edge of his vision. Even the new familiar legs under him… 

He was something different, something new. 

His gaze flickered below. A white winged form hovered over the sea. Somehow he could tell… eyes fixed on him, patiently waiting for his return.

A hint of renewed worry stirred in his gut but with a sigh, Danny dove. Down to the One who had answers.

Between one blink and the next, feathers encapsulated his vision. 

The boy pulled up short. He swallowed, voice stuttering. “Who… who are you? What are you?”

I am the Light of the sun, moon, and stars. The Voice of the wind. The Lines between the stars which mark the passage of Time. And I am the One who rescued you, who adopted you. Your Father, your Abba.

So many words, ideas… they clashed, wrapping around him. Danny’s mind swam, the edge of overwhelmed. “But… what are you?” 

A hint of a chuckle sounded. Your mer parents would call me a wind spirit, though that is a very small, ill-fitting label for me, I think.

“You can say that again.” Danny muttered. Then he winced, half-ashamed to interrupt. “Sorry.”

But no reprimand came. Instead, the Voice softened. There is no need to apologize. I understand you are ill at ease. And I anticipate your next question. You wonder what you are. 

Numbly, the boy nodded. 

Well my child, simply, you are like me. Though lesser in magnitude, of course. You were born mortal after all. 

Danny’s heart almost quaked. He’d already suspected it. Earlier he’d feared it but… “I'm a wind spirit.”

That you are. The Voice said kindly. 

The boy’s fingers nervously ran through his hair. It was true. He was a spirit. A creature of myth and legend. His parents' obsession. “But… why? Why did you change me into… this?” He spread his arms, motioning to his wings. “Was this the price?” He swallowed.

In a way.The thing surrendered really was a portion of your mortality.

Danny blinked. “I don’t understand.”

One can not take spectral form while fully alive. And a spirit cannot be crushed by the depths. I simply hastened your transformation.

“Okay, so that's how you saved me from dying. But-” He cut himself off, eyes widening. “Wait, hastened? You said hastened.” Danny paled. “So this was always going to happen?”

It was always a large possibility. The Voice said.  

The boy shook his head, heart aching. “You… you were always going to turn me into the thing my parents hate. Why? Why would you do that?”

I already said. It was to save your life. Wings reached forward to embrace him again.

Danny flinched back. “But… why were you there? Why… why me?”

The feathers retreated and somehow the tone softened even more. Allow me to reassure you. I will explain.

The light flared, great wings fluttering. Slowly the Spirit transformed. The shape changed as sky-wide wings lessened, reduced, shrank. Feathers dwindled, eyes closing and blinking away. The form became less gargantuan, less mind-boggling. It shifted into something familiar….

The boy blinked. “I…I’ve met you before.”

A figure suspended in the air in front of him. A blue-skinned man, red-eyed with tattooed lines. 

Danny stared. “When I was a fry. You stayed with me until my mom found me.” He shook his head. “Why?” 

The man smiled warmly, eyes soft. “You were a lost child. Of course I came to your aid.” 

“I don't understand.” Danny paced the sky, part of him comforted by the reassurance but the rest… his brain anxiously churned with information. “I met you when I was little. And those dreams I've always had about the stars like… like..” “ His eyes widened, tracing the painted lines on the man's skin. “The marks on your skin.” He stopped abruptly. “It was you. All those dreams before.. you led me there. You were there in the ravine with me. I…. I was dying. But…” His brow furrowed. “You saved me. You keep calling me your child.” So much love communicated with every proclamation…. his insides almost melted at the word. “And you've still been talking to me through those dreams. But….” His heart hurt. “There was the one where I… I dissolved.” 

“Your mind has been clouded with fear, Danny.” A comforting hand reached for him. “And fear is a powerful force. It quiets my Voice and brings doubt. It shields the truth, even warping it.” 

Just moments earlier, Danny might have pulled away but… “And that truth is?” He relaxed at the gentle touch. “You picked me? Because you met me on the street as a child?” Not hostility, not accusation but… a wide eyed plea for understanding.

“I did. I chose you.” The Spirit nodded. “And I have chosen, am choosing, and will choose many more. I see the great wheel of Time and how it turns with the motions of the stars. And your kind, the mer, are precious to me among all things created.” 

“Chosen?” Danny’s brow furrowed. “Chosen for what?” 

“Life after dissolution. You came from the sea foam, the churning where the water and air collide. And so, you pass back into the air when your time comes.” 

“So… everyone becomes spirits?”

“No, not everyone.” The man looked down, almost despondent. “Life is free to all but many refuse. They are too proud to be rescued by another’s power. Or too afraid to lose control and embrace the unknown.” 

Danny blinked, yet another startling revelation hitting him. He still didn't understand, so many emotions and ideas swimming in his head. “Then…” This was all too much for him. “I'm not special.” Of all the questions to ask…

“I have said no such thing.” Finally, the Spirit drifted forward, his arms spread wide. “You are incredibly precious to me, my son.” Those arms wrapped around him. 

Danny accepted the hug, head buried in his Abba’s embrace. “I still don’t get it.”

“You do not have to.” The Voice reassured. “Time and Existence are full of mysteries and you are still young.” Tone softening. “It is enough to trust in my care for now.”

Trust. The word repeated in Danny’s mind. Trust versus fear. Doubt versus belief. For so long, he had been pulled in two directions. The fear of the unknown, of the changes ravaging his body, of his mysterious, powerful savior… They warred with a desperate hope for something real. The light of the stars, the freedom of the wind, the love of a parent. He wanted to believe. He wanted to trust so badly.

Danny’s voice trembled, one last hint of fear. “You really… really love me?”

The hug tightened. “Yes, Danny. I love you.”

Yes. The boy’s eyes watered, overwhelmed. For a long time, he clung on, the watering escalating into tears. They streamed down his face, his body shaking. 

Abba held Danny close to his chest, a hand cradling his head. The man gently shushed him, whispering sweet comforts. 

Finally…. A wet, bubbling sound from below interrupted the moment. Slowly, reluctantly, Danny pulled away. 

He looked down, brow wrinkling. “What was… that?” His eyes widened. Below, feather-like appendages waved out of the water. “My star-fishy buddy!”

Abba laughed. “They’re called a feathered star.” He waved a hand over the water, lines of light spirling from his fingers. As the tendrils stretched, they brush the surface. They twirled around the feathered-star, pulling it out of the water.

“What are you-” Danny started.

Then the light flashed and the creature changed. In a blink, a vague shape floated in front of the two. A glowing blue ball of light, blob-like with a fringed head and slender neck. It flew forward, nuzzling into Danny’s neck. A smooth, rounded bill peaked at his robe. 

The boy laughed, rubbing the creature down the approximation of its back. “Well… I’m even more confused now.” 

“I think it will become a sea duck, given time.” The Spirit smiled. 

The animal settled onto Danny’s shoulder, purring softly. Abba held out an arm, drawing the boy back to his side.

“Would you like to continue our lesson?” The Spirit asked.

The boy nodded eagerly. “Yes!”

A hand guided his chin. “Again, that is the North Star, Polaris.” A blue finger pointed. “And this one…”

For minutes, hours, the sky turned. Pin-pricks of light, shooting stars, streamed across every so often as the position of the crescent moon shifted. Danny’s eyes followed each movement, wide with awe. His Father’s hand pointed to each star, painting the lines between them.

“These groups of stars which form different shapes in the sky, we call constellations.” The man explained. Stories rolled off of his tongue, perforating Danny’s brain. 

The boy’s gaze traced the lines on his Abba’s skin. They were a symbol of those stories in the sky and their use to tell the progression of the seasons. The warmth in his chest buzzed pleasantly, pleased to finally understand. He snuggled into his parent’s side.

The sky lightened from dark, vivid blue to gray, the stars blinking out. Danny’s heart sank, for a moment disappointed. Then… the horizon changed. It shimmered, pastel orange and pink. Clouds drifted, reflecting the light. 

The boy’s breath caught. The colors shifted, painting the sky. They melded, darkened, intensified. Slowly, a tiny sliver of gold breached the horizon. Danny’s heart stirred, taken by the scene. The sliver rose, growing into a circle of light. 

Finally, the boy breathed out. His eyes fixed on the sunrise. It shone blindingly, golden tendrils touching every part of the world. All the while, Danny’s Abba held him.

An unknowable time later, the arms around him squeezed. “You should return home, little fledgling.” 

The boy looked up. Home. Returning to the ocean floor hadn’t even crossed his mind but now… his heart throbbed. “I… I want to stay with you.”

Hands gently ruffled his hair. “It is not your time to dwell in the world above yet.”

“But….” The argument danced on his lips. How could he go back after all he’d seen, all he’d learned? His wings twitched, longing to spread. Abba released him. “I found you. You called me here. Home, to you. And I’m here. I found you. I..I can’t go back now, not after everything.”

“Seeing you here, at my side brings me such joy.” A hand cupping his face. “But below is still your home as well. Your friends and mer family need you.”

His wind spirit obsessed  parents who ignore him? His nosy sister, too distracted fighting with their parents to notice him literally fading away? Danny shook his head. How could they need him?

And his friends? When he’d told them about Abba saving him, about the note and feather, they hadn’t understood, skeptical and mistrusting. No, more than that. They had been downright hostile. They’d stomped all over his burgeoning hope, the trust he was starting to place in the Voice who saved him. 

And… the looks of terror on their faces. They’d seen him fading away, watched as he literally dissolved. And after-

Danny’s eyes popped widened. “Sam and Tucker… they saw me unravel. And… they told everyone. They must have. All the teachers and other kids saw them freaking out.” He paled. “They… what did they tell Mom and Dad?”

“You will not know unless you return.” Abba said. 

The boy’s stomach twisted, dread rising. His parents faces’ flashed in his mind. Hard and angry, wielding harsh weapons and shouting about the dastardly spirit which stole their son. No spirit is going to touch my baby. The hatred in the words…. And now he was the very thing his parents despised.

Head down, the question came out painfully quiet. “Not knowing… Would that really be so bad?”

 His Father’s voice rang with compassion. “That is not a question I can answer for you.” 

Danny frowned, heart sinking. If Abba didn’t even know that answer, then what hope was there…

But the Spirit continued gently. “But consider those who love you. If you fail to return, they will also never know what became of you.”

The boy winced; he couldn’t help but imagine…. His mom on her knees, weeping into his favorite blanket. His dad and sister, packing up his belongings, expressions painfully tight, fighting to keep it together. His friends, huddled in a corner, trading harsh whispers and blaming themselves. All his loved ones, gathered around a stone, a memorial for him

That would be the reality, if he never came back. Grief and confusion. Unanswered questions and pain. His heart throbbed with guilt. How could he do that to them? And… 

Those who love you. The words struck him. Mom and Dad, Jazz, Sam and Tucker- all his loved ones…. And those who loved him.  The past bloomed in his mind's-eye. His sister asking if he was alright, gaze full of concern. His friends, though their eyes blown wide with fear, reaching for him as he dissolved. And… His parents. His mom’s voice trembling, full of tears. His dad’s arms, wrapped strongly around him, as if he would disappear. 

Pain, an old bitterness, began to wane. “They all do love me. Mom and Dad really do care about me. But…” The boy bit his lip. Was that love enough?

It was as if Abba read his mind. “There is hope for your parents yet.”

Danny looked up, meeting reassuring eyes. The confidence in those words…. In his heart, that very hope flickered anew. The tension in his shoulders eased. He would never know if he didn’t return.

“Will I see you again?” Danny finally asked.

“Of course.” His Abba smiled, red eyes crinkling with the twitch of his lips. “You can fly with me whenever you wish.” The man leaned forward, “I am always only a shout, or a whisper, away.” A kiss planted on the boy’s forehead.

The younger spirit's heart squeezed. “I'll see you later then.” One last hug. “Love you, Abba.” 

“And I you, my son.” 

With that, the two parted. A few flaps and Danny drifted just above the surface. Wings folded and he dropped. 

The ocean swallowed him. His feathers melted away, legging melding together and scales resurfacing in a familiar tingling pop. 

Now a mer again, Danny  sank below the surface. Tiny bubbles rose passed him. The blue sky shimmered, just visible through the water.  Golden light perforated the depths. And directly above…

The flap of wings, first small and distant, grew louder. Light shone from the floating figure, swelling brighter, radiating, spreading pasted the mer-sized form.

Danny’s breath held, eyes widening. Great white wings, his own only a pale reflection, unfurled, stretching across the entire sky. Sparkling like stars in the night sky, countless eyes opened.

 Above him, limited form gave way to majesty. Danny’s heart pounded, overcome. He felt small with such an immense gaze fixed on him, seeing all of him. And yet… 

The Voice reverberated, singing over him. Every note rang of peace, reassurance, love. 

The warmth in Danny’s chest echoed back, singing its own song of awe. There were no words for the feeling, for its magnitude, its depth. His Abba was so great and he was so small. And yet he was cared for so greatly. 

Light flashed above the water, endless feathers disappearing in a cacophonous blast of wind. Only the sun hung in the sky. But still… Danny felt the kind smile, the gentle gaze fixed on him. 

With his own smile, the mer-boy turned, swimming for the ocean floor. And in his heart, he knew; Everything was going to be alright.