"Come on, Ell, mommy said it's not safe. Let's go."

A young mermaid pulled Ellysia's tail.

"Beat it, clamp! I know perfectly well what I am doing. It's safe. I trust them and one day I'm gonna marry them."

Ellysia whipped her tail and pushed the young mermaid away. She then swam back closer to the ship and put her hands on its glass underside at the same height of a human child's hands.

The young mermaid drooped off. She hit the water with her fists.

"Not fair! Ell is only interested in humans. I'll show her once I've got legs of my own. I'm gonna become a human and then she'll have to pay attention to me."

A dark figure approached the young mermaid from behind.

"Did you say you want to be a huuuuman?" its bittersweet voice asked. "I can help you with that..."

***

The next day a young girl washed up on the shore. She was naked, but there weren't any signs of predators having hurt her.

It became clear she could hear, but she didn't understand the language the police officers spoke.

She tried to talk, but no matter how hard she tried, she just wasn't able to produce sound.

Walking too was impossible: she had legs, but she didn't know how to use them.

The doctors concluded that psychological trauma must have rendered her mute and interfered with certain motoric skills given that physically everything was in order.

The physician who learned the girl how to walk and the psychologist who learned her how to communicate ended up adopting the girl with her consent.

They named her Maya.