Shadow at the Water's edge.

The Truth is Out.

Vivian stared at him in shock, stammering slightly as she struggled to say something. Alex suddenly laughed and shook his head, clapping Squints on the back as he joked.
"I think you hit your head a little harder than we thought." He draped Squint's arm around his shoulder and helped him stand up.

"I'm fine. And I know the truth." Squints insisted, pulling his arm away from Alex and walking over to Vivian who was just standing up. He pointed an accusing finger at her and stated coolly. "I'm not sure what you are, but you're not human."

Libby, who was looking back and forth between her friends, finally reacted to what was going on in the form of a nervous laugh.

Vivian took a deep breath and glanced at Alex before directing her attention back to Squints who was still in front of her.

"Why don't you think that I'm human?" His eyes lit up slightly, a small smile hovering on his lips.

"Several reasons. You show up out of nowhere, head directly for Alex, whose been having inexplainable things happen to him, you healed three times as fast as a human would, and just now when you pulled me out of the water, I saw you before I fell unconscious." He glanced at her legs and then smirked. "Nice fins by the way."

"Squints, I think we'd better get you to a hospital..." Alex started, but Vivian cut him off with a small shake of her head.
"It's no use Alex." She let out a sigh and looked back at Squints. "I suppose you want to know the whole truth." He nodded.

Libby suddenly held up both hands and blurted.

"What the hell is going on?" Squints grinned.

"Vivian is a mermaid."

"Sea Nymph actually." Alex corrected, running a hand tiredly through his hair. He dropped his hand and let out a heavy sigh.
"Why don't we go inside and Vivian and I can explain everything?"

A few minutes later they were all seated around the dinning room table, glasses of lemonade set before them.Vivian looked at Alex and asked.

"Where do we start?" Alex shrugged.

"Tell them about you and your kind first I suppose." Squints and Libby leaned forward eagerly as Vivian began to explain.

"We've been around since humans have. We used to live solely in the ocean, but as humans became more advanced, we grew curious and began to move on land. My kind has lived among you for hundreds of years, we stick together in family groups known as a Grex.
Each Grex is different, and the only time we leave a Grex is when we are paired with a Nymph from a different Grex. A pair is our term for a married couple.

My Grex were lovers of light and creation, other Grex's...not so much. The Umbra Grex is one of the sister tribes. They are lovers of darkness and destruction. They are a sister tribe because they are not quite like us." Here Alex added.

"Think Sirens from mythology." Vivian nodded.

"They delighted in causing ships to wreck, and then they would...well I won't go into details but it never ended well.
My kind lives far longer than humans, although we appear the age that our maturity parallels with humans, we age much slower."

Alex turned to her with a confused expression.

"What? You didn't tell me?" She shrugged.
"I...I didn't know how."

"So how old are you?" She bit her lip and glanced away as she murmured.

"Around one hundred and seventy." The three friends stared at her. She crossed her arm and half glared at them. "What? For a Nymph that's approximately seventeen for a human. I'm not old." She added with a pout.