My name is Lulu, not Lucia or Louise. My parents told me they found me during their morning walk on the beach, wrapped in a piece of fabric. My green hair was sticking out a little. In my hand, there was a pretty little star-shaped birthmark that I still have.

That mark shone faintly that morning, as if catching the first rays of the rising sun. Mom said that's what drew them to me—that soft, mysterious glow dancing across my tiny baby palm. The fabric I was wrapped in had a strange texture, silky like silk but tough like leather, with iridescent highlights that shifted in the light.

For years, I believed their story without question. After all, why would my own parents lie to me? I was their little Lulu, the green-haired girl they had welcomed with such love into their modest home by the sea. Dad worked as a fisherman, and Mom ran a small café on the harbor. We weren't rich, but we were happy.

But as I approached my sixteenth birthday, strange things began to happen around me.

The star-shaped mark on my palm began to glow more brightly, especially on nights with a full moon. At first, it was barely noticeable—a faint phosphorescence I attributed to my imagination. But the phenomenon intensified. My green hair, which everyone at school took for a bold and unusual dye job, seemed to ripple on its own when I approached the ocean, as if drawn by some invisible force. Sometimes, I swore I heard voices in the murmur of the waves, as if the sea were trying to tell me a long-forgotten secret.

The marine animals behaved strangely in my presence. Seagulls followed me everywhere, dolphins approached the shore when I walked on the beach, and once, I would have sworn I saw a human figure with a fish tail dive near the rocks where I used to read.

My friends thought it was cool. "You have a gift with animals, Lulu!" Sarah would say, laughing. But I felt it was deeper, older, more... frightening.

Then, three days ago, everything changed. A woman appeared in front of our house at sunset. Tall, majestic, dressed in a gown that seemed woven from sea foam and moonlight, with hair the same emerald hue as mine, but even longer, cascading to her feet like a living river. Her skin had a pearly sheen, and her eyes... her eyes were such a deep blue they were like the ocean itself.

She looked at me with tear-filled eyes and whispered a single word that shook my world: "Princess."

I stepped back, confused and scared. "You're mistaken, I'm nobody. I'm just Lulu."

But the woman shook her head, and a tear rolled down her cheek. When it touched the ground, it transformed into a perfect pearl that shone before disappearing.

“You are Luminara, heir to the kingdom of Oceania,” she declared in a voice that resonated like the song of whales. “I am Coralina, your aunt and regent of the throne in your absence. Sixteen years ago, our kingdom was attacked by the forces of the Abyss. Your mother, Queen Marisia, sent you to the mainland for your protection, hoping that one day you would return to claim your inheritance.”

My parents came out of the house at that moment. Dad was holding an old box that I had never seen before. Mom was crying.

"We knew this day would come," said Dad.In a broken voice, she said, "We love you, Lulu. We will always love you. But it's time you learned the truth."

They handed me the box. Inside, there was a crown of coral and pearls, a necklace adorned with a crystal that pulsed like a living heart, and a letter written in a language I did not know, but which I could mysteriously understand.

“My dearest daughter,” the letter began. “If you are reading this, it means you have grown up safe and sound, far from the dangers that threaten our world. I named you Luminara because you are the light of our kingdom. The star-shaped mark on your hand is the royal seal, proof of your blood. When you turn sixteen, your power will awaken. You will then have to choose: remain on land in the peaceful life I have given you, or return to the ocean to save your people. Whatever your choice, know that I love you more than all the treasures of the seven seas. Your mother, Queen Marisia.”

I looked up at Coralina, then at my earthly parents, then at the ocean shimmering in the distance under the dying light of day. The mark on my hand now shone with a blinding brilliance.

My heart was breaking. How could I choose between two worlds, between two families, between two destinies?

"I... I don't know who I am," I whispered.

Coralina approached and placed her hand on my shoulder. "You are Lulu, the girl who was loved and raised with tenderness. And you are Luminara, the hope of a kingdom swallowed by darkness. You are both, my dear. And it is this duality that makes you strong."

That night, I didn't sleep. I stayed on the beach, my feet in the water, feeling for the first time the deep call of the ocean in my blood. The waves seemed to sing me a forgotten lullaby, and in the depths, I glimpsed lights dancing like underwater stars.

Tomorrow, I will have to choose. But tonight, I am simply Lulu, standing between two worlds, with a shining star in my palm and infinity before me.