The cover image is of 'Hannah the Mermaid' and inspration real life mermaid. i only edited the image slightly. her site -> http://hannahmermaid.com/
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“Let’s get one thing straight. I’m not your fiancé. I have no idea what you and your little giggling fishy friends did to me, but it’s not funny. You aren’t even supposed to exists!”
He gave me a sorrowful look. The only thing I knew about him was that his name was Sebastian and he had just screwed my life up. How you may ask? Ha! That’s a story in its self, let alone the one that is to come. So I’ll make this part as quick and as painless as I can.
You see I’m…was, a real ‘plain Jane’. Last week I was taking a stroll along the beach. Nothing unusual right? Anyway so I was walking around the cove climbing over some rocks away from the summer crowds. Anyway to my surprise there was another cove. Completely empty, a little rougher but equally as nice and more importantly, quiet. So yeah, clambering down from the rocks and jumping down to the sand I continued strolling. In the corner of my eye I noticed something pocking out of the sand. And no, it was not a message in a bottle, actually it was a guy. Yeah that’s creepy I know. He was buried up to almost his shoulders and was lying face down not moving.
So naturally, you run over to see if the guy is ok. I shook the guy a little until he groaned. “Are you ok?” I asked. He groaned some more and tried to move.
“No, sorry would you be able to dig me out?” he asked in a posh but not annoying manner. I honestly should have left but noooo… I went and started scratching away at the sand.
“How did you end up buried?” I asked the guy still unable to see his face.
“I don’t remember. I’m Sebastian by the way,” he mumbled. Judging by his back he was quite muscular and young, early twenties perhaps. I dug down a little further. I had noticed that his skin was red. I grabbed my towel and dipped it in the ocean and laid it on his back to. “Thank you that feels better,” his shoulders relaxed as I kept digging. Honestly how far down was he buried? When I got his torso unburied he twisted round to look at me. He had stunning blue eyes and his dark black hair fell in wet strands. I just paused, entranced by him.
And then he suddenly reached for my face and pulled me down and planted a kiss on me. Can you believe it, what a jerk! Of course being the plain Jane that i am, I’ve never had a boyfriend in my whole sixteen years of existence. No one ever gave me a second glance. Just another girl with brown eyes, brown hair, median height, not exactly pretty but not ugly either. Not exceptionally smart but not dumb or stupid.
So I was more or less paralysed with this guy hanging off my lips, unsure what to do. I was about to reach the point, just to leave him there when I felt him pushing me to the sand. I instantly push him back and ran. He could dig himself out. I clambered over the rocks cutting my legs and stumbling back to the crowded beach.
The Life guard stopped me as the gash on my leg was bleeding like anything. He bandaged it up for me and let me be. I took the bus home to find my parents were still out. My older brother Paul was busy playing some random FPS game. He was a slacker, I must admit he was hot, but a slacker none the less. I went to the back yard to hang up my swimmers and instantly realized I had left my towel with the creep. It was my favourite one too. I sighed figuring I would have to go back to get it, if it was still there. That night my parents didn’t return, they were always busy.
The next day I told Paul I was going back to the beach and I set off on the bus once more. The beach was equally as crowed as and the day before. I stared heading to the end of the beach where the rocky cliff stood. The one thing I hadn’t expected was for almost the whole secluded cove to be covered by water due to the tides. Annoyed I turned giving up when I saw my towel drifting in the water.
I wadded out to grab it minding the rock underneath. I had to swim the extra few metres to get it. Just as I grabbed it I was pulled under the water. I opened my eyes to see Sebastian pulling down, further and further down. I tried to pull myself free. When I noticed something. A tail! That’s right a freaky deeky tail. He was a merman? And at that I took a breath of sea water. Suddenly panicking that I was going to drown I poked him to get his attention to take me up for air. Instead he looked at me, also a little panicked and then pressed his lips against mine for the second time.
What was wrong with this guy, I was going to drown. I pushed him away again.
“You want air?” he asked having no problems with the water. Was he stupid or something? I nodded. And again he went in for another kiss. I instantly felt air enter my lungs. Further and further we went down. I must have fallen asleep glued to his lips as I don’t remember the journey until he gently squeezed my hand as we came toward a grand city. But to my surprise we didn’t enter it, we just swam passed into a cave no one would ever notice. It was dark and I couldn’t see a thing. I felt something slimy drift across my leg and I clung closer to Sebastian, who held me tight.
I felt for once we were moving upwards. As soon as we reached the surface I tore my lips away from him and took a breath of air. The air was stale, and smelt damp but with a hint of…peach?
The ceiling of the cavern glistened with what I hoped were glow worms. But what was the real feature of the room was the little fluorescent pink glowing pool. A pair of mermaids dragged themselves over to us across the smooth polished stone. I heard a scream somewhere further in the cavern. I jumped and fell beneath the water. Luckily for me Sebastian pulled me up. I was exhausted, despite my nap. The two mermaids quickly slid off deeper into the cavern. Sebastian gently lifted me out of the water and sat me onto the ledge.
“You ok?” he asked. I shivered wiping my hair away from my face. I shook my head. My jaw ached. After a few minutes I finally spoke.
“Where have you taken me, I want to go home. Who are you? What do you want from me?” I asked with no strength behind my voice.
“Ah Sebastian, you’re finally here,” I turned to see the scariest creature in the world. She was long and sliver and looked like a snake. Her hair was a matching grey and her even her lips were a sliver colour. The only thing that wasn’t silver was her eyes that were a crystal green. Suddenly finding the energy I jumped back into the water and hid behind Sebastian using him as my sheild. She chuckled and laid down on her long belly and held her head in her hands. “So this is your dear little Singer?” she mused. “What’s your name?” she asked her voice cheerful and elegant despite her appearance.
Should I had told her? Would it have made a difference? Probably not.
“Aubrey,” I whispered. She obviously heard as she smiled a sharp toothy grin.
“I’m Ava, now let’s not dilly dally. It’s not often we get to play with the pools,” she grinned. I was lifted out of the water.
“How long will it take?” Sebastian asked. Huh? Snake lady wrapped herself around me.
“A few hours, it’s not exactly an instant result. And don’t worry; I’ll take particular care of her.” I watched as he descended back into the dark water leaving me with snake lady. Still wrapped around me she moved to the glowing pool. Curling over it, she loosened her grip on me. I slipped out and fell into the pool, which was surprisingly warm. She came around and dunked me under for a few seconds.
“I thought you were going to be nice to me?” I questioned as soon as I came back up. She just grinned.
“Provided you don’t try to run away and let the pool work its way into you,” she smiled. It’s not like I had anywhere to run to. The two mermaids returned and I found them to be rather dull in colouring. Sebastian was a beautiful deep blue shade with the slightest touch of green. After five minutes I felt something burning my legs. “Is it starting to hurt yet?” Ava asked. I quickly nodded and started to get out. She instantly pushed me down. Honestly what gives? “It’s happening,” she grinned wider. The other two mermaids began undressing me, but not without a fight, in which I lost. They held me in the pink pool as the pain intensified and spread across my body. Every once in a while they would dunk my head under the water and soon the pain spread to my face. I screamed out in pain. It felt like it was eating away at my skin.
My leg had begun to darken and merge together. I lifted my hand to the back of my neck behind the jaw line where I found new flaps of skin…my leathery skin. My breasts rounded a bit more evenly and one of the mermaids came around with a seaweed halter top for me, while Ava muttered something inaudible. Several hours in, another mermaid with dull greenish fins pulled herself out from deeper within the cavern she looked strangely familiar. At this point I couldn’t move, my head laid limp against the edge of the pool as my body twisted into new things. I couldn’t even scream anymore, my throat ached and I could only manage slow steady breaths.
She looked tired and sore and struggled to move across the smooth floor unlike the other two. Ava slithered over to her and handed her a piece of paper. I heard someone pop up from the water, but I had not energy to even turn my head.
“Ah, perfect timing. Now you will have to help her along, teach her how to swim, and don’t let go of her, she seems to be in a state of shock at the moment. I’ll stop by in a day or two.” Ava mentioned some other stuff that I quickly forget. So that chick was new? I had already come to the conclusion this was the method for transforming humans in to mermaids. If only it was as easy as in the little mermaid. I wonder how much of the movie was true, probably very little.
“Ava, how much longer?” I gasped. One of the mermaids had not shifted her gaze from me in hours and neither of the mermaids had spoken a word. Ava slithered over into view and dipped her hand into the water feeling my tail.
“Only about twenty minutes now child. Oh Sebastian is going to be impressed,” she smiled finding some unknown approval. She sent one of the mutes off, to fetch Sebastian. Five minutes later I was able to peer down at my legs. They had scaled over and my tail fins… they were strange. In fact they were non-existent just a big glob at the end.
“Don’t worry about it. Just like a butterfly’s wings they have to spread out.” What would she know about butterflies? They soon pulled me out of the pool and dried me down, to get any of the excess pink stuff off. They sat me on the ledge and told me to swish my tail so the fins would unfold. Depending on the angle and lighting my tale either appeared a dark green or purple It was like those fancy polychromatic car colours or Indian fabrics.
“Do you dye your hair?” Ava asked suddenly. I looked at her a little surprised.
“No, never. Why do you ask? Is there something wrong?” I asked a little worried.
“No no, it must be my imagination,” she responded drifting off.
Sebastian suddenly popped out from the water and instantly hugged me. This guy must have issues. He let go and looked me over. I always feel uncomfortable when people do.
“You’re beautiful,” he smiled. I couldn’t help but blush. He gently helped unruffled my tail into bigger ruffles. Which according to Ava is kind of rare, and almost impossible for the transformed.
“Why aren’t you quite the goldfish,” she mussed. Did she just seriously call me a goldfish? I looked at her to see if she was serious, yep. Sebastian laughed.
“It’s meant as a complement. Humans keep goldfish because they are pretty to look at.” He explained. What, not dumb, cheap, forgetful and easily prone to death?
“Well Aubrey seems to have fared much better than my last experiment,” she chuckled. She suddenly stopped and went all serious. “Now you will have to take time off to look after her. Consider her a pup. She is a danger to herself if you leave her alone to long in this early stage. Be a gentleman and tell her about her new body and how it works. Oh and teach her to swim properly that will be top priority. With this frilly thing, it might take a while,” she lifted my tail and jiggled it about in demonstration flipping me onto my back in the meantime. “You of all people know about the legalities that need to be done. Ok my dears have a happy life together and I’ll see you in a week or so.”
She more or less pushed me into Sebastian’s arms and slithered off. I pushed Sebastian away. “Honestly I can breathe underwater now, I don’t need you attached to me,” I descended into the dark water, it was clearer than before and it wasn’t as dark. Probably a new lens or something.
“Ok then, but if you want help, you’ll have to give me something in return,” he smiled crossing his arms watching me.
“As if,” I smiled back. Honestly how hard could it be? You just flick you tail up and down, like how you did it as a kid pretending to be a dolphin or a mermaid. I tried whatever which way of to move forward but just ended up getting myself upside down and wrong way round, slowly drifting down to the slimy bottom. I instantly pushed myself up with my hands. “Ha see,” I grinned. He came down and circled around me still smug.
“Now what?” he asked. Watching as I started drifting to a wall. I tried flapping my arms, trying to stop. I did stop and looked up to find Sebastian holding me shaking his head. “I can see you’re going to be a handful.” He bent forward and kissed me. “That’s payment, now come on.” He held onto my hands and summersaulted over me so that I somehow ended up on his back with my arms around his neck as he swam off into the city. Apparently it was night time so the ‘streets’ were deserted.
“Can you guess where we are?” he asked trying to start a conversation.
“Err Atlantis,” I said sarcastically.
“Very good guess,” he beamed. I instantly let go of his neck. This was Atlantis? Wow, that I had to admit was kind of cool. Though I had imagined it would be bigger, but at least it made sense that the mermaids were using it and why it didn’t look so…abandoned. I would really like to see it in the day time. Sebastian grabbed my hand before I drifted to the ground. “Here, I’ll help you along, you’ll have to start somewhere,” he pulled me along letting me get use to moving my tail.
“Where are we going?” I asked.
“To see the king, then hopefully straight home,” he replied.
“Why?” I asked. If the stories were anything to go by, the king wasn’t very nice at the best of times.
“Mostly because he wants to meet you.” He wants to meet me? Plain Jane Audrey? Well maybe now I wasn’t as plain. The castle came into view. This time I couldn’t stop to have a good look as Sebastian pulled me along.
“Ah wont he be asleep?” I asked kind of worried, unsure of the time and how things worked around here. The one thing that startled me was that even if this was real, I was just going with the flow, not really questioning the reality of it all.
“Normally yes, but like I said he wants to meet you in particular.” I drew closer to Sebastian, hugging his arm, as we passed the guards. They only glanced at me, but it sent a chill down my spine. “You see, as I more or less work in close proximity to him, he has granted the rare use of the Pools.” He smiled. He worked for the king!
“What exactly do you do then?” I asked intrigued. He paused to think.
“I don’t really have a job title. I advise him occasionally on things, I remember everybody’s name and a little bit of background information about them. So that comes in handy whenever a someone comes to talk to the king. I am also a bit a representative and manager for events.” He explained while my head whizzed to comprehend how actually important this guy was. “I was given the title of Count a year ago, but everyone just calls me Sebastian as no one cares about titles.” Count? This guy was a Count? That was like really high up, right? We rounded a corner and under an arch to a tall long room. I jumped when I saw the massive merman sitting there. He was huge; his head alone was over half my height including the newly acquired fins. He had a white beard and his fins were a royal blue, not as dark as Sebastian. He didn’t wear any sort of crown or have a trident. He seemed delighted when he saw Sebastian, so that meant that they were close. I inched back behind Sebastian using him as a barrier for whatever potential harm would come my way.
“Ah Sebastian,” the king grinned. “So is this your little Singer?” he asked leaning to the side trying to look around Sebastian at me. He looked back to Sebastian. “Shy one is she?” he asked.
“A bit stubborn too,” he replied teasingly. Annoyed I flicked the back of his ear making it turn red. The king laughed nodding in agreement.
“Yes, you two will make a fine couple,” he smiled
“Couple!” I squawked out in surprise, pushing Sebastian away, but ended up pushing myself away backwards. Couple in like boyfriend girlfriend? I didn’t want a boyfriend. Apart from the kisses Sebastian gave me, I had no experience in relationships.
“I take it you hadn’t told her,” the king sighed. “That was the one department you are hopeless at.”
“I thought I was making it clear,” he objected. My head was spinning as I slowly sunk to the bottom of the room. Only now I did I remember the subtle things, he did and the stuff Ava mentioned.
“Well during your time off you better seduce your fiancé in time for the wedding, the girls are looking forward to it,” he continued. Seduce? Fiancé? Wedding? I was going to faint.
Sebastian finally noticed I had disappeared and swam down to me. He came level to me and stared at me with his beautiful blue eyes. “Aubrey?” Sebastian asked. “Aubrey, are you ok?” he asked feeling my forehead.
“I want to go home, my home,” I mumbled, staring blankly in front of me.
“That’s impossible at the moment,” the king replied. “You’re a new Halfling, and the transformation is still very unstable,” he continued. No more family? No more legs? I fell against Sebastian’s chest, the shock finally catching up.
I was stuck here!