Brenda awoke and was quickly aware that she was underwater. Instinctively she lashed out at anything near her trying to get a grip on where she was and why was submerged.

Then she was aware of two pair of hands steadying her. As she struggled she became aware of a conversation about her.

She could hear voices under the water as well. They were as clear as if she was not submerged, "Help me hold her Boreas! Diantha could well hurt herself or us if she should fall!"

"I am doing the best I can, Kassiopeia," he replied, "I am not as young as I once was! There is something different about her though, can you not sense it?"

"Yes, I feel that she is distressed somehow for being here with us," Kassiopeia answered, "but there is something else greatly changed within her."

Once Brenda realized that she was not drowning, and that she was in fact breathing quite well underwater, she slowed her struggles. There were other things to deal with aside of the strange watery location and the ability to breathe beneath water – she was not alone and someone was actually trying to care for her.

"Diantha?" she thought to herself, "Who the hell are these people? And why would they refer to me as that? And what the hell is on my feet?"

She gave a kick to try to shake the feeling off her feet but it would not go away. It remained.

With her eyes still closed she felt the light brushing of a delicate hand upon her cheek,
"Diantha? You are home here with me, Kassiopeia and your dad Boreas. You've been unconscious for quite some time now; almost a full season. We were worried for you that you would not awaken. Your injuries have long healed after the eel bite but your reaction to the eel bite had us very scared."

Brenda opened her eyes to see the delicate features of a young girl looking down upon her. There was also something else she could sense. A familiarity that she could not explain, and the idea that she was not in danger in the least."

"Diantha?" she spoke but haltingly and in a very different voice.

For the moment she brushed the oddness off to being underwater.... "wait a minute. I shouldn't be able to breathe under water anyways, and what the hell is on my legs?" she spoke aloud as she struggled to sit up and gazed down at her torso.

There were no legs to see at all. There was a silvery scaled fish tail there instead, the tail of the fabled mermaid. She also wore no clothes at all. Her breasts, which were about the same size and shape as Kassiopiea's were left uncovered and none seemed to notice save for her.

She dropped her head back down, speaking aloud as she closed her eyes again, "wow, whatever caused me to pass out really did a job on me. For a moment there I could swear that I saw a fish tail!"

Boreas responded gently, "Why, what did you expect my dear? Legs are only for the land peoples. Naturally, you have your tail, and it has healed from your encounter rather well I would also add. You must have dreamed that you were a human."

Brenda sat back up, opening her eyes and turning to see the grizzled but proud grey bearded face of a.... merman?

It was a strong face that had seen many years. He had shoulder length wavy grey hair that floated naturally with the slight water currents within the underwater home. He had strong shoulders albeit somewhat slight by human reckonings. He wore no clothing at all save for a necklace of carved coral in the shape of a dolphin that was held by a woven strand that held it around his neck.

She shook her head for a moment but the older gentleman's features remained. He also had a silvery tail similar to the one she had. She then turned her head to the female at her side.

She also had a silvery tail, and very fine, almost elfin features to her face and upper torso. She was not large in the bust but was "well equipped" with modest B cups bared for any and all to see.

"Apparently clothing sis not the way for these people," she thought to herself as she then noticed that the young mermaid also wore a similar dolphin necklace about her neck.

Kassiopeia had long auburn hair floating about her face that gave her an almost angelic look. She also had a comforting smile that could disarm the nastiest of foes.

"I'm not supposed to be here," Brenda told them, "I don't know who this Diantha is but I am not her."

She then looked down at her tail and then noticed that she wore a dolphin necklace of her own, identical to Boreas' and Kassiopiea's. Then a tendril of auburn hair floated into view from her own head.

She took the tendril in her hand, also a fine boned hand, not dissimilar to Kassiopeia's hand and shrugged, "At least I never used to be her. I don't know what happened but I used to be, as you referred to us as, a land person. This is not the body I was born in. Not that I am complaining, mind you, as I was not exactly happy with what I had before this."

It was only then that she noticed the sensations at the sides of her neck. She could feel something on it slowly and gently opening a closing with each breath she took. A light and careful investigation with her fingertips answered the question she had in mind. She was, like the two merpeople she was with, breathing with the aid of gills.

"Well that answers that question," she said aloud as she fended off a pair of questioning faces, "This is all going to take some time to get used to. To humans mermaids and mermen are nought but mythology. So few of us have witnessed mermaids that they are considered crazy or some sort of dream."

"Well," Boreas said, "apparently although we do have the body of our Diantha back with us, it no longer carries her **pnévma." (**pronounced NEHV-ma)

"We have long learned to avoid the shores where humans were known to gather. In fact most of us consider going anywhere near land as a foolish activity. We stay to the depths and some live, as you see," he motioned to the room around them, "in the lost wreckage of your ships that have been long lost to your kind."

"Who is it that we share our time with then, my dear?" Boreas enquired of her.

"Well my name, as a human was Brenda, but that was a derivative of the name my parents gave me at birth, which was Brendan. It was a boy's name but I never saw myself as such. But I would welcome the name of Diantha if it would please you. Trying to explain to others that a new... umm... pnévma exists within her body would likely be hard to explain. Even to me it seems like I am within an insane dream; not a bad dream, mind you, just one unexpected."