By the time they arrived at the shore, Derrick was standing at the water’s edge. In a great splash, Kimmy almost leapt from the water right in front of him. “Hi!” She called. “I’m Kimmy!”
“Um, hi, I’m Derrick,” the boy replied, suddenly nervous at facing his first real mermaid.
Julie bobbed up a second later with Miley at her side. “What are you doing with my tail!”
It took a second for Derrick to switch gears from close encounters of the mythical kind to the jaws of angry sister. “I-I just wanted to know how it worked. I remembered seeing you swimming around out there and how your tail moved like hers did. I had to know how it did it.”
Julie glanced at Miley and sighed. “It wasn’t the tail. It was me. Miley turned my tail into a real one with her magic. See?” Hauling herself onto land, she lifted her tail high over her head. As with Miley’s, her fish portion arced gracefully with no sign of knees or the usual limitations of bipedal limbs.
Derrick’s eyes bulged. “C-Can I touch it?”
“Ew! No!” Julie slipped back into the water.
“You can touch mine,” Kimmy offered eagerly, getting into the same position that Julie had taken.
The boy ran a finger along her scales in wonderment, sending a pleasant shiver up her spine. Feeling her fin made her giggle. Like her sister, she was ticklish.
“What’s it like?” Derrick asked Julie. “Is it different than…y’know, legs?”
Julie tilted her head. “It’s kinda hard to explain. It doesn’t feel too different, but it is somehow. I don’t have to worry about my legs as separate things, but I’m longer, so I have to be careful about whacking stuff with my fin. On the plus side, I can swim really fast, much faster than before.”
Miley came forward and smiled. “Want to experience it for yourself?”
“Huh?” Derrick blinked.
“Huh?” Julie echoed, but with more consternation.
“I can give you a tail like your sister’s, if you want,” Miley continued. “Besides, we shouldn’t hang around here for too long. Who knows how long this beach will stay empty. It would probably be better to talk down here.”
“B-But,” Julie stammered, trying to think of an excuse not to do this. Mermaids had always been her own private passion. The idea of sharing it with her little brother made her more than a little indignant.
Too bad for her, Derrick shrugged and answered, “Alright. I’ll try it out. Um, do I have to wear this?” He held up the fake tail.
“No way!” Julie objected. “You’d stretch it! Those tails are custom made for my legs, you know.”
“He doesn’t need to wear it,” Miley reassured her. “For you, the spell used your artificial tail to save energy, but it’s not necessary. The magic will simply give him his own tail when he transforms.” To Derrick, she asked, “Ready?”
The boy nodded and took off his shirt.
“You may want to remove the rest, too, and come into the water.”
Brother and sister went beet red. “Why?”
Miley sighed. “Mermaid magic can be finicky about some things. Besides, you don’t have to worry about modesty. Mermaids have vastly different anatomy below the waist, so seeing whatever you have down there isn’t taboo for us. Besides, Kimmy is dying of curiosity.” Her sister nodded enthusiastically.
For a moment, Derrick hesitated, and for a second, Julie hoped he would change his mind. Unfortunately, she underestimated his curiosity.
“Fine.”
Julie had to turn her back as her brother stripped the rest of the way and waded in. Kimmy, of course, asked lots of awkward questions, but her more experienced sister reigned her in. “Alright, let’s get started.”