The first time she dove was the first time she felt like herself. Her human lungs were her limiter, forcing her to return to a surface she didn’t feel was hers. She wished she didn’t need air. She wished she could stay under forever.

If the world was an oyster, the ocean was her pearl. The seaweed waved serenely, the fish greeted her with streams of gentle bubbles and glossy scales. The light from above created beautiful refractions that she could swim through at her leisure.

One day the fish asked if she wanted to stay. She nodded eagerly, pleading with her eyes, and they circled her. They told her she was kind, beautiful, and worthy. They breathed air bubbles into her waiting mouth, and she felt her atoms shift as she became who she truly was - 

a daughter of the sea.