It’d taken about half an hour for Prompto and Gladio to leave the crow’s nest, and another ten minutes to rearrange the seating while trying not to spill food everywhere, get the seats wet, and knock Noctis around too much (mostly on Gladio’s part as he tried to climb back into the car while pushing Noct’s tail every which way…and getting smacked with a few fins all the while. Yes it was on purpose). And it’d led to another interesting topic of discussion as they drove back up north towards the Vesperpool.

“What’ll Noct eat?” Prompto had asked, fiddling with the wrapper on his burger. Ignis met Noctis’ eyes through the rearview mirror and he sighed as he slowed the car down, reaching behind himself into the back to fish into his travel bag, which had been left out for this very reason. For a fish. Noctis knew this because he’d realized rather quickly that his new body was made for eating one specific thing.

Fish.

The baked creature, still whole in appearance but thankfully gutted, was pulled out of its storage and handed to Noctis, who immediately started pulling at the wrappings. It was something Ignis had whipped up for him before they’d left Lestallum, prepared in case the prince was hungry. Which he surprisingly wasn’t, at the time. He wasn’t sure if it was jitters over the trip back and the subsequent meeting with the magic fish or if his body was just doing weird things, but thankfully it didn’t last throughout the day and he found himself hungry enough to try what Ignis made for him. He ignored the way the other two flinched when he started eating.

“Dude, you’re eating an entire fish? You? Prince Carrot-phobia?” Prompto asked in awe, his jaw dropped as his burger hung loosely in his fingers, the grease running down them and the wrapper. Noctis watched woefully as he was reminded of the food he couldn’t have anymore. What he wouldn’t give for a nice burger. And it wasn’t as if he minded fish, not at all. He loved fish. But being one put things into perspective.

“What else am I supposed to eat? It’s cooked and gutted and that’s good enough for me,” Noctis shot back, taking another pronounced chomp into his meal and tearing a chunk off. A small chunk. He couldn’t chew it, after all.

“It still has eyeballs!”

“Leave ‘im alone, Prompto. That’s what we’re going to the Myrlwood to fix,” Gladio defended, though his voice was as flat and bored as it could have possibly managed. Nice to know Noct’s shield cared so much.

“I don’t think His Highness has much room to be picky at the moment, Prompto,” Ignis said. “At any rate, it won’t last much longer. Soon enough, we’ll be at the Myrlwood and we can convince the creature in the pool to change Noct back.”

There was an uncomfortable, unspoken ‘maybe’ in there, and it terrified Noctis to think that she might not change him back.

It was too late to turn back even if they wanted to, however. They reached the road that led up into the Myrlwood by mid-afternoon and soon enough Noctis was being hefted up over Gladio’s shoulder as Ignis reached into the back and pulled out the fish tank. Prompto was told to have his gun at the ready, and he would be the one holding off the bulk of any attackers. Gladio might get by with a few sword swings and Ignis with a few thrown daggers, but they were trying to avoid a situation in which Noctis needed to use magic because if they got caught in the midst of it, they might accidentally fry him. Or freeze him. Who knew, considering the reaction his body had to being dried out in the Cauthess heat. The system worked for them, thankfully, as they made their way through the secluded forest and into the back where the pool and the haven were. Noctis was slid off of Gladio’s shoulder and down into the water, and the fish they’d caught joined him shortly.

Noctis cupped his hands around his mouth and called out. “Hey! Magic fish! We brought back your buddies! I need to speak with you, so come out!”

There was silence for a moment, long enough for Noctis to swim a bit further in and shout for her again. Still nothing. He turned to his friends and shrugged, watching their faces in hopes of an answer he doubted he’d actually receive from them, before preparing to dive under the water.

“Wait, Noct!” came Prompto’s voice. He halted his descent, paddling his arms and swishing his tail in order to push himself back up as he looked around, figuring that Prompto had spied the magic fish hanging around in the water somewhere. Sure enough, his eyes caught silver and he spotted the gleaming fish’s head poking out of the water by a collection of rocks. She floated there for a moment, watching him. Judging him, he’d bet.

“Those aren’t my brethren, you primitive creature,” she eventually seethed, her voice echoing across the chamber, loud enough for even the others to hear. A far cry from the small voice Noctis had heard in his head the first time, though still just as childlike and strange.

Also, she was definitely judging him.

“What are you talking about?” he asked, exasperated. “I brought back all of the fish I pulled out of the pool.”

“These fish are from outside waters! You probably ate the original fish, you ape!”

Noctis was inclined to point out that if she didn’t want him to eat fish, she probably shouldn’t have turned him into something that was made to eat fish, but instead he kept his mouth shut about it.

“What’s it matter? They’re the same types of fish,” Noctis sighed, rubbing at his temple in irritation. It seemed Gladio’s plan hadn’t worked in the end, and honestly they hadn’t really expected it to, but it was still worth a shot. Or so they thought. In the end, it seemed to just piss off magic fish more. Judging by her affronted gasp, he would definitely wager it had.

The fish suddenly disappeared beneath the water before jumping out of it in a flash of white light, producing in her place a small girl with long, wavy blonde hair. A small, strange creature, in fact, that settled herself on one of the rocks beside her. One would think, at first glance, that she was simply a mermaid from the golden-scaled fish tail. But most didn’t imagine mermaids with wings. Equally golden and folded neatly onto her back, the girl sported magnificent wings that almost glowed from how well they shone. She glared at the group with yellow eyes, perched haughtily upon her rock as her tail splashed the water around. And when she spoke, a familiar voice met Noctis’ ears.

“You must take me for a fool, don’t you?” she asked, her childlike voice boiling with anger under the surface.

“Not quite. If anything, we’re just desperate,” Noctis answered, cringing a bit when she narrowed her fiery gaze at him.

“Desperate? For what? Haven’t I given you enough?” she raged, her knuckles white as they clutched at a small golden object in her hands. It almost looked like…a lyre?

Seriously, what was she?

“Uh…not to seem ungrateful, but I didn’t really want to be turned into a merman,” Noctis answered. The creature’s eyes narrowed at him.

“Was I to let you drown then? Perhaps I should have. How rude of you to reject my gift!”

Noctis decided it would have been counterproductive to mention that she was the one who nearly drowned him in the first place.

“Sorry? I can’t stay like this forever, I have my own duty to get back to,” Noctis shrugged awkwardly.

“Ah, yes. The King of the Stone. Hmph! If anything, I was doing you a favor to keep you from that duty. But I suppose if you’re so upset at my gift, I’ll gladly take it back.”

Noctis’ eyes widened at the creature’s easy guess to his identity, but he wasn’t given a chance to question her when she began to glow and the same wisps of magic that had turned him into a merman surrounded him again, transforming him just as rapidly. Immediately, he felt the familiarity of his own body. The joy of having only lungs, and normal eyes, and normal teeth, and –thank the gods– legs! He stared down at his arms in wonder, glad to see nothing but smooth skin as opposed to the scales he had only recently started to grow accustomed to. And a little bit of a shame, if he was honest with himself. It was nice while it lasted. But in the end, it was high time he returned to himself. He looked up again at the creature, prepared to thank her for changing him back. She watched him steadily, unnervingly, as if she was once again judging him harshly and he wasn’t quite living up to her expectations. A product of his rejection of her “gift” perhaps?

Honestly, he wasn’t sure and he didn’t really care.

“Thanks, uh…?”

Her lips thinned in annoyance, but she answered him nonetheless. “You may call me Siren.”

“Thanks, Siren.”

“Do not thank me, mortal. You may hold the favor of the stars, but you’ve yet to impress me. Take your legs and leave my pool be.” And with that, Siren slipped back into the pool, leaving behind no trace that she’d even been there at all. It was…odd.

This entire situation was odd. But it was also over, and Noctis was happy with that.

He turned to Ignis, raising an eyebrow. “Ever heard of a Siren anywhere before?”

Ignis stared at the spot where Siren had sat contemplatively, likely turning her words over in his head. It took him a moment to answer, but eventually he did so as he walked over to pull Noctis out of the water.

“She seems to be a lesser astral, much like Carbuncle and the like. She’s a finicky creature, however, only ever spoken about in legend. There are different accounts on her; some say she’s a beautiful woman with large golden wings, some say she’s a mermaid with a golden tail, all tend to agree that she carries a lyre and has the singing voice of an angel. Beyond that? I couldn’t tell you anything you won’t have already realized from meeting her.”

“Sania said something about paying attention to mythology. You think this is what she meant?” Prompto asked. Ignis opened his mouth to answer but, as if on cue, Noctis’ phone started ringing. Eyebrow raised, he reached into the pocket of his jacket and pulled out his cell, checking the screen and finding an unknown number displayed across it. Not that this was the first time he’d gotten a call from someone who knew his number without having asked him for it first. Far from it.

“Hello?”

“Hey, it’s you boys! Right?”

Noctis found, to only his mild surprise, that the professor of science in question had indeed called him.

“Yeah, it’s us. What’s up?” he asked. The others watched him curiously, though no one interrupted.

“So I examined this scale of yours a little closer and I’ve found that it has trace amounts of energy from the meteor. Not something usually so widespread, probably introduced to the environment by something else…likely you boys, but I’d noted that some of the mutations I’ve found in the frogs showed the same signature.”

“Okay…?”

“Sorry to inform you, but… I think this had nothing to do with the fish. I’m not even sure there was a fish. You might have been hallucinating while the energy mutated you into a fish-hybrid. I’m sorry to say not even modern medicine will be able to save you from that. Looks like you’re stuck that way.”

Noctis wasn’t even sure there were words to describe the face he was making, but whatever it was seemed to amuse his friends as they started grinning and snickering while they watched him. He figured it’d be for the best just to not mention that they had indeed met a magical fish, and that it was Sania’s first prediction about mythology, and that he had not been mutated, and that he was no longer a fish because honestly he wasn’t in the mood for arguing about this.

“Okay,” he said instead. “Thanks Sania.”

“Hey, you sound like you’re taking it pretty well! That’s the spirit. Anyway, if you ever want to donate your body to science, just know that I’m always around. See you boys soon.”

And with that, Sania hung up on Noctis, allowing him to quickly stuff his phone back into his pocket. Sighing, he looked back up at the others. All of whom still looked pretty amused, he noticed.

“Well, speak of the devil huh?” Prompto grinned.

“Anything important she have to say?” Gladio asked.

Noctis shook his head. “Not really. Anyway, let’s just get out of here. I’m done with this place.”

“Highness, wait.”

“Iggy, c’mon, don’t tell me you actually want to spend more time here…”

“Certainly not. But I’m sure you don’t want to go walking around outside only half dressed,” Ignis sighed, waving a hand at Noctis’ newly returned legs. Noctis looked down only to realize that said newly returned legs didn’t also come with a pair of magically returned pants. Thus he was naked from the waist down.

And no one had said a damn thing.

“Aw man, I was hoping you wouldn’t say anything Iggy,” Prompto said, his grin widening before he inevitably burst into laughter.

“Yeah, shoulda let him figure it out for himself,” Gladio snorted before his own guffaws were let loose.

Ignis pulled off his jacket and tied it around Noctis’ waist, staying close to him as he turned around.

“Alright, alright,” Ignis said quietly, trying to calm the others down. Noctis stared holes into the back of his head, knowing full well that he was grinning too. What the hell was he even laughing at? He saw Noctis naked on a near daily basis. Guess it was funny all of a sudden when he was cluelessly walking around pantsless.

…Okay maybe it was a little funny when he thought about it.

“I’ll cover you from the front and we’ll get you a spare pair from the car. No one really drives around these parts too often, so we should be fine if we’re quick,” Ignis continued, turning his head to address Noctis directly.

“Got it, Specs, let’s just go. I just want to put this entire mess behind me.”

Both Ignis and Prompto opened their mouths and Noctis was quick to cut them off.

“If either of you makes an ass pun, I’m banishing you both from the kingdom.”