"Hm I'm not sure, I haven't seen many of the big ones." He answered, wracking his memory to try and figure out what the biggest one was but nothing came to mind. "What do you mean by that?" He asked referring to her wanting to explore the island.
“I mean, I want to explore the island,” She said with an excited smile, giving him the bare basics of why they could form legs and why she hadn’t already “Mermaids have the ability to form human legs, though it’s forbidden to walk amongst humans or very far inland with them. If I was caught I would be executed, but it’s a risk I’ll take.”
"Are you sure? I'm not going to try and stop you just execution seems like a pretty big risk?" He asked a bit worried.
Nautia shrugged and waved a dismissive hand, “I’ll be fine, no one will know.” Her eyes flicked to the water and she assured herself that no one would know or wander over and spot her.
"Alright if your sure you want to do this, I'm happy to help with whatever you need me to do." He answered, Keiran was a little worried about the consequences of getting caught but pushed those feelings aside and reminded himself that Nautia knows the merpeople world 1000 times better than he ever will.
“It’s been a long time since I’ve used my legs, but if I remember correctly, I just need a pair of bottoms and a top.” Her face flushed slightly and she looked at her tail, “For…obvious reasons.” Hanging around him was already basically treason, so exploring the island wouldn’t break any more laws than she already had.
"Oh uh yeah" He laughed awkwardly. He slipped off his button up shirt that he had been wearing and handed it to her, leaving him in a loose quarter sleeve shirt. "Here you can use this, it might be long enough to be used as a dress?" He tried to think. "If not I can find some big leaves to use as a skirt."
Nautia smiled and her face flushed more as she took the shirt and laid it gently on the beach away from the water, “It should work, I’m actually surprisingly short when I don’t have my tail.” She motioned for him to spin around as she focused on forming her legs, not a terribly painful process, but one that took a lot of concentration. Her tail started shrinking and her scales faded, the outline of legs appearing as it continued to disappear.
Keiran nodded and turned around, giving her privacy to get dressed once she changed into human form.
It only took her a few more minutes to form her legs, and she stayed silent the whole time. She grabbed the top he gave her and pulled it on before attempting to stand, her knees buckling and bringing her to her knees. “Ok, you can turn back around now,” She said, shakily standing once again and looking up at him with the top covering her body. True to her word, without her tail she was short, barely reaching 5’2”.
Keiran turned around to face her, it was a bit strange to see her with legs after knowing her with a tail. But she looked beautiful. "Wow…you look great." He smiled "You weren't lying about being short though I see." He joked, laughing lightly afterwards.
She smiled and laughed lightly, a faint blush covering her cheeks, “Sadly, average tail length does not cross over into average height, and it seems I got all the shortness from my family.” Nautia pulled her hair over her shoulder and wrung our all the excess water she could before brushing it back against her back. The only bright side to having legs and being short was her legs were very defined and toned, she did swim constantly.
He laughed lightly before looking towards the water. "Maybe we should go farther into the island? So that no one sees you and so you can see the island."
She nodded eagerly, the mention of the island making her want to explore that much more. Nautia just had to make sure she wasn’t caught and she could explore as much as she wanted, “The farther inland the better, mermaids have very good vision thanks to swimming in the dark sea.”
Keiran offered his hand out to Naudia and smiled. "Let's go explore then." He was happy that she would be able to see on land for herself after hearing her excitedly ask him questions about what it's like.
With a bright smile, she took his hand and looked back at the ocean one more time before starting towards the inland of the island.
As they walked farther into the island the trees and plants got thicker, giving them shade. The soft sand turned into a rougher dirt with tall grass and flowers growing from it, there was a soft breeze that shuffled the leaves against one another and the birds could be heard chirping along with bugs and other things making their variety of noises. The light shining through the leaves gave a soft green haze around them with beams of sunlight escaping through the gaps.
"Wow…this place is beautiful.." She whispered to herself, eyes wide in amazement as she looked around at absolutely everything. It was so green here, and the animals actually made noise, making the place seem even more alive.
"It is isn't it?" He hadn't really stopped to appreciate the beauty of this little island since this had all been so normal to Keiran, but thinking about it from Naudias perspective and how she's likley never seen anything like this ever gave him a deeper appreciation for their surroundings.
Nautia nodded eagerly, slowing down to admire one of the trees and its leaves, "This is absolutely amazing.."
"I think we should be far enough away from shore where no one can see you now." He slowed down with her so she could have more of a chance to look around.
Again she nodded, but her eyes didn't leave their surroundings as she took in everything that was happening. It was breathtakingly beautiful compared to the home she was used to. "Is all of the planet besides the oceans this pretty Keiran?"
Keiran looked around with her before looking back to her. "Well, I guess it depends. Different places in the world look very different." He answered.
"Are there places in the world that are this green?" She asked, turning and looking to him before motioning around with an amazed look, "I've never felt the ground beneath my feet before this, and leaves don't make noise when they move, they just swish around. The noises from animals are amazing. Wow…"
He smiled "Yeah there are plenty of places like this, none are quite the same as eachother though. Every place is unique." He explained trying to word everything in a way that makes sense. "I guess it makes sense that sounds are muffled underwater."