"I pity you, young man. You have eaten of the herbs that brought me to the state you see. Soon you will feel a mild desire to enter the water. And if you resist it will grow ever stronger. At last you will respond, and when you do, your body will change as did mind. You too suffer the curse of Glaucus!
Demo stared at him in distaste. Yet, fearfully, he knew it was true. Even now he felt the urge to enter the beckoning sea. His mind saw visions of deep lagoons populated with swarms of fish, great manta rays, swimming amidst brilliantly colored coral reefs. His skin felt dry and sere. He must swim in the warm ocean, or he would surely die.
Quickly he rose to his feet. Glaucus looked down, did not move. Demo walked slowly to the beach, looked back at this, his weird visitor. Finally, closing his eyes, he stepped into the water.
He felt the change begin even as the soft waves touched his ankle. He rushed forward, threw himself headlong into the soft waves lapping the shore. He heard a roaring in his ears, his muscles ached, and for a moment his eyes were sightless.
It was done!
He did not ask. He looked at the scaly hands, the strangely webbed fingers and toes. The curse of Glaucus. The adventure was over. Athena was lost to him forever. Now he was but another denizen of the deep, a strange monster in the ocean's depths.
The dolphin swam near.
"You are one of us, now. I know not whether the process can be reversed. In any event, in this form I can take you to Proteus, if it is your will?"
"Proteus? What matters it now. He would set upon me, for I resemble nothing but a monster of the deep." Yet, reluctantly, Demo swam with the dolphin through boundless seas 'til night darkened the eastern sky.
"Down. We must go down. Here Proteus waits, prepares for the coming of Oceanus. He works busily, his eight great arms ever assembling the throne on which Oceanus would sit. Come with me to the depths."