Damon felt a wave of water surround her body as she was instantly sent to the ocean by the witch.
It took her some time to adjust to her new surroundings but Damon quickly found that she was able to see clearly underwater. She looked down at her new body and smiled. Wonderful flowing blonde hair, a nice pair of breasts covered by seashells, and a beautiful red tail with scales that glittered against the sun.
She chuckled. “The witch was right, I do look quite lovely as a mermaid.”
Damon flicked her tail and swam to experience her new home.
The young mermaid swam past schools of colorful fish that took her form in awe - Here was this human woman that shares her lower body with their species, an interesting sight. The fish were eager to follow Damon around and examine her body.
As she swam and observed the ocean’s amazing sights, she felt her tail being prodded and touched on. Looking back, Damon spotted fish eating up dead scales and algae from her tail, causing her scaly limb to look clean and polished as ever. Damon grinned as she discovered the sea’s creatures were taking an interest in her.
Feeling a sense of joy that was building up in her stomach, Damon swam upward and jumped from the water. Damon could feel time slow down as she felt the breeze blow against her aquatic body and water droplets flew high from the water.
Crashing back down to the water in a big splash, Damon could only laugh as she was having fun with this new form.
With no high and mighty expectations to live up to from a kingdom, Damon felt free. Being a commoner mermaid was far more liberating than being a royal human prince.
Damon swam across the water, humming a lovely melody that wasn’t from her memory but came from her heart. Feeling happy with her new life, she didn’t notice that the saltwater fish were starting to reluctantly swim away from the mermaid.
Little did she know, Damon was now swimming in a lake.
Sitting quietly in a boat laid a college-aged boy named John. He was majoring in a degree related to science at his school but was off-campus due to his summer break. Wanting to spend the rest of his summer at peace and put the grades and finances behind, he decided to spend the day fishing.
His father was an avid fisherman and gave him the equipment necessary to catch fish just before he left for his first year at university. John used to be an avid lover of the sea as a child, thinking about the various creatures that swimming in its depths. But as he grew older and became more interested in science, he felt that it was time to leave his childhood fantasies behind and be logical.
Be logical, that’s what his teaches told John growing up.
“Logic…” John said to nobody.
Feeling that today was likely not getting a plentiful load of fish anytime soon, John was ready to pack up his things and headed back to his apartment when he saw a girl swimming in the water.
She looked very pretty as she floated on her back. John blushed as he looked over the lady’s features. Everything about her body, from her hair to her chest, seemed to be perfect.
John was silently admiring the swimmer's body when he saw something that almost made him bite his tongue in shock.
“A… Fish tail?” John thought to himself. “ That has to be a costume. Mermaids are a myth.”
His thoughts were soon rebutted as John took a closer look at her waist. The transition from skin to scale seemed all too smooth to belong to a costume. Even the highest quality fish tail costumes had a clear indicator of a seam that was absent in the swimming girl.
He had to be seeing things. Mermaids don’t exist. Even if they did, why would they bother swimming in a cheap lake, with a risk of being spotted by humans, when they could just swim in the open ocean instead?
John’s thoughts were soon interrupted as he heard the girl dive down in the water. The girl soon broke the surface and gracefully jumped from the water in a perfect arc.
John was shocked. Everything from the way she emerged from the water with such ease and grace, the transition from skin to scales, and the pulsing gills that were on her neck and sides of her torso. She was a mermaid. A real mermaid!
Suddenly it dawned on him. This was a living mythical creature, a sea angel, that was alive and breathing right in front of him. Not just a creature, but a girl his age who just happened to be half fish.
“Could I… Have a chance with her?” John wondered
Immediately, upon thinking this, the logical side of his brain berated him for making such a suggestion.
How could he even have a chance with her? She was a beautiful mermaid while he was an average looking human. His parents wanted grandkids, sure, but would they accept it if their grandchildren were merfolk? How do merpeople even mate? Would this mermaid even be interested in sex? How lonely must a man be to think he has a chance with a mermaid?
The berating soon stopped as soon as the mermaid returned to the water with a big splash. It was upon this moment that John realized that he didn’t have much time. The girl could flick her tail back at her underwater home at any moment, he had to act fast.
The logic was now at the window. At this point, John didn’t care about his circumstance. All he knew that he had to catch her with his fishing rod.
He wasn’t going to give the mermaid away to a lab that would experience on her or sell her off to the highest bidder. John simply wanted someone who he could care and nurture for, and a chance to care for a mermaid was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity he couldn’t pass up.
Even if the mermaid rejected his offers of a relationship, it would be better than nothing. If he could talk to a mermaid, then he could talk to anybody on his campus and improve his lonely social status.
John opened up his backpack and looked around on what could be good food for a mermaid. Normal worms were out the question.
“No way a mermaid would that. She might think it's dirty and not proper or something.” John quipped. He looked further into the backpack and saw a pack of gummy worms. “Just familiar enough to be recognizable to a fish, but visually appealing to a girl - Perfect for a mermaid.”
John carefully laid a gummy worm on a fish hook. The hook didn’t have a sharp end, the last thing he wanted to do was injured a legendary creature. Everything had to be just right.
The boy threw the fishing rod and watched as the bait landed silently in the water.
All John had to do now was wait.