Others
You couldn't explain it if you wanted, but for some reason, that distant figure out there in the water gives you a really bad feeling.
You turn away, and instead of the open water, you see a large coral reef before you, rising up from the sandy seabed; it is delightful show of grace and color, seaweed gently rocking to the flow of water, fish swimming busily about, Sea Anemones adding bright splashes of color to the scene.
You swim slowly toward it, staring wonderingly about at everything; below you, you see dark spots in the coral, like holes or the mouths of small caves.
You see something else below you, and you almost do a double-take: a splash of riotous color below you, greens and blues and reds and very color of the rainbow, they swim about casually or lie about, lounging on the coral, talking and laughing and playing with each other: mermaids!
You give a flip of your tail, and almost go tumbling; you correct yourself and then chuckle ruefully; it looks like swimming with a tail is not as easy as it looks! A little more carefully, you start swimming down toward them.
As you draw near, one mermaid looks up and sees her; she gives a wiggle of her tail and rises up easily from her resting place atop of a large sponge coral. "hello!" she calls, swimming out to meet you. "Are you new here?"
"Yes!" you say, getting a good look at this other mermaid: she has long red hair that floats about her head when at rest and lags behind her head like a second tail when she swims, as she is now. The scales of her tail are a flashing iridescent red, shading to a bright orange underneath and on her fins.
You two reach each other, and she reaches out and grabs your hand. "Hello!" she says, flashing you a bright smile. "Welcome to the reef!"
"Thank you," you say, a little surprised by her excitement. "It's-"
"What's your name?" she asks you.
"It's-" you hesitate, unsure how to answer; of course you know what your name is, but should you go by that name anymore? Now you are a mermaid?"
"My name is Sophia!" she says with a wide grin, ignoring her own previous question. "Come and join us!"
"Well, I'd love to-" you start to say, but Sophia turns away, still holding your hand, and drags you down toward where the little school of mermaids is at play.
What will happen next?
Written by J-B-Hickock on 05 December 2014