Mutante

Chapter 1

Copyright 2023 Elizabeth Frerichs

Cross-posted on elizabethfrerichs.com and fanfiction.net

****

Another tendril of magic kelp snaked out after the first and grabbed Rosie's left tail fin, beginning to wend its way towards her torso. She gasped, the stream of bubbles escaping upwards with a speed she desperately envied.

Magic was unpredictable. Dangerous. Something she wanted nothing to do with—not after having watched her grandmother and aunt fall prey to an old curse. But, between her mother and the magical kelp forest, the forest was usually the lesser of two evils.

Rosie didn't know what would happen if she left the safety of the magic path Grandma had created all those years ago, but she didn't want to find out. As the kelp tendrils grew taut and countless other kelp plants shook their tips at her menacingly, she realized that she might not have any choice in the matter.

*****

Rosie's tail twitched as she tried vainly to remain perfectly still and upright as her mother began complaining (for the hundredth time) about how she had been cursed with such a troublesome child. Although Rosie had just had her sixteenth birthday, her mother insisted that she was a mere babe.

The moment Rosie had mentioned Mrs. Sourfish's inquiry, her mother had begun bemoaning her fate and swimming back and forth across their large sitting room, weaving around the artfully placed stone perches and elegant bric-à-brac with the ease of long practice. Everyone hated her grandmother and her Aunt Rina, but Mrs. Sourfish was the most persistent in requesting regular updates, and Rosie couldn't exactly blend in with the other merpeople, no matter how much she wished she could.

"And now everyone will think I am neglecting my own mother!" her mother finished, wringing her hands. "All because of you and your wretched tail!"

Rosie suppressed a sigh, knowing that nothing she could say would lessen the tirade. Unlike the other mermaids, who had sensible tails in beautiful shades of jellyfish-green, aqua, deep blue, and everything in between, she had been born with a ruby red tail.

"Someone will just have to go check on Mother," Mariya Stonefish said, pinching the bridge of her nose.

"I can go," Rosie offered, trying to keep the longing out of her voice. In the kelp forest, no one stared at her or whispered about her or required her to behave like a proper mermaid. And, if she left tomorrow morning, she would have an entire day free of her mother's laments and stress over the upcoming elections.

Mariya didn't even glance her way. "Lady Platt has asked me to assist her with the annual charity ball, and I really don't have time to spare right now. And of course it has to be election season—why did Mother choose now to miss her regular check-in?" she wailed.

Rosie's father, Councilor Jonah Stonefish, had been on the city council for two terms now and was hoping to sit for a third. Most likely, he truly enjoyed advising the king and untangling the many issues citizens in the capital city faced. Why else would he sign up for another ten years of doing so? Then again . . . . On days like today, Rosie wondered if the city council was his escape.

Her mother sighed gustily. "There is nothing for it. I hate to send you, but you have made it there and back safely before, and you're the only one who can be spared right now. I only hope that the feud between Mother and Rina hasn't flared up." Mariya fixed her with a firm stare. "You can leave in the morning. The decorations committee is meeting tonight and Patricia Platt is so in love with the sound of her voice that I doubt I will return until late, so I will not be able to see you off. However, you are only to go to your grandmother's and nowhere else. Is that clear?"