When You Say Nothing At All

Chapter 3

"Oh darling," Ursula chides. "You poor unfortunate soul. In love with a man from the world of dry land."

"I was hoping you could help me Ursula. Everyone knows you have amazing power that are envied by all," I say.

"Oh child, of course I can," she says.

"Really?" I ask her.

"Yes," she says and I smile."For a price." I look down before staring at her again.

"What price?" I ask her.

"In exchange for human legs," she says. "I'm going to need your voice."

"My voice?" I ask holding my throat.

"Yes Katniss," she says. "Your lovely voice in exchange for three days on the land and a chance to win over the boy of your dreams and seal your love with a kiss. And of course if you fail to win his love in three days, your soul is mine."

"I don't know," I say. "All Peeta knows of me is my voice."

"But sweetie, you still have a body," she says. "The kind that drives all the boys wild. The beauty of a mermaid is the envy of Aphrodite herself."

"But," I start and she cuts me off.

"Didn't you say yourself that you didn't feel like living anymore if you couldn't be with your one true love," she says. "So what's the risk?"

"Fine," I say. "Give me my legs."

"Not so fast," she says pulling out a magic parchment. "You've got to sign the contract." She hands me a quill and the parchment. I just hold it in my hands. Can I really do this? Give up my life under the sea and possibly my soul in exchange for the slim chance of getting Peeta to love me back. But like she said, I don't feel like living anymore. My father doesn't care about me and my mother has been dead for nearly ten years.

I carefully sign the contract and it rolls up and into Ursula's hands.

"Wonderful," she says. "Now first I'll need your voice and then I'll give you your lovely legs. Now sing!" I start singing in a harmonious tone and literally feel my voice being pulled from my throat. Eventually I hear my song but I'm not making the sound. I feel something swirling around my tail and I feel it split into legs. I suddenly can't breath. I start swimming to the surface but I'm so deep down, I'm afraid I'll drown before I reach the air.

I feel Finnick start helping me pull myself up and I gasp as I reach the surface. I start swimming to the shore, finding it much harder with legs than with my tail. I get to a tidal pool and just sit there, exhausted from my ordeal. I lift up one of my legs and wiggle my toes. It's so weird. They are so strange. Like little hands attached to my new legs.

"You look so strange Catfish," Finnick says. I just nod. "You really can't speak?" I open my mouth to reply and when no words come out, I just nod again. I look around me and realize I'm on the shore I left Peeta. I'm almost right beneath his kingdom. I could be discovered at any moment and I'm barely wearing anything. I look around for something to cover myself in. I find a tattered sail from the ship wreck and a piece of rope. I fashion some sort of covering out of it, I think people call it a dress. I try to stand but find it extremely difficult. I fall down in a matter of seconds but am caught before I hit the ground. I turn to look into Peeta's blue eyes.

"Are you okay?" he asks. I nod. "You sure?" I nod again. "What's wrong? Can't you speak?" I shake my head and touch my throat. I kneel on the sand and write out my name in big letters. I point to it and then myself. "Katniss? Is that your name?" I nod. "It's nice to meet you. My name is Peeta." I smile at him and he helps me stand.

"Do you know where you are? Where you live?" I shake my head. "Well for right now, I think you better come home with me. You can get cleaned up and I'm sure I can find you something beautiful to wear. Something to compliment your dark hair, olive completion, and silver eyes that might I say, shine like stars." I blush and look down. "Come on, I'll take you home.

I try to walk with him and my legs are still wobbly. Peeta gently lifts me up and I lay my head on his shoulder. I allow him to take me home to his castle and he doesn't say anything when I start to fall asleep.

******************************************

I awaken in a grand bedroom, my hair brushed and combed, and dressed in the kind of night clothes humans wear. I sit up and run my fingers through my hair. It's really weird. I've never seen it completely dry and it's soft and curly as I run my hand through it. I slide out of my bed and walk over to the long mirror hanging on the wall. I lift up the long skirt and and smile at the skinny little legs that I see instead of my evergreen tail. I hear a knock on the door and go to open it. On the other side stands a young girl with two blonde braids.

"Hi," she says. "You're Katniss right?" I nod. "Well I'm Peeta's sister Primrose. He sent me to help you get ready for dinner." She walks past me and into the walk in closet and comes back out with a long dark blue dress that reminds me of the color my cavern turned when lit by the full moon.

"Do you like this one?" she asks. I nod and she helps me get dressed. There are a lot of elements that go into getting dressed in the human world. Down in the see, its just a debate of what color bikini top you want to wear. Up here, there's corsets and petticoats and all sorts of other things I've never heard of and that's just under my dress. Once I'm finally finished, Prim has me sit down.

"How do you want to wear your hair?" she asks. "I'd offer you makeup, but in all honesty, I don't think you'd ever need it." I just shrug my shoulders and watch as she brushes my hair and carefully plaits it into a braid from above my left ear to below my right and lets it rest on my shoulder. She combs my bangs out of my face and smiles.

"You're beautiful," she says. I shake my head and touch her cheek. She smiles and gently takes my hand. "Come on, its time for dinner."

And with that she pulls me out of the room, my shaky legs struggling to keep up with her.