You look into the mirror and notice nothing out of the ordinary. Everything is normal. You leave the bathroom and walk over to your wardrobe, picking out something to wear. You pick out the clothes that you want to wear for the day and go to put on your pants when you notice something on the top of your left foot. You finish putting on your pants before bending down and looking at the object.
You aren’t exactly sure what it is. It's about the size of a small coin and somewhat circular in shape. The object is a vibrant blue color unlike anything you’ve seen before. Using your fingernail, you begin to scratch at the edges, trying to get it to come off. When it eventually does come off, you pick it up and put it in your pocket. With that out of the way, you finish getting dressed.
Suddenly, you’re overcome with a desire to go to the shoreline. You aren’t exactly sure why, but spending the day at the beach does sound quite fun to you. You quickly make your way downstairs and out of your family’s mansion before any of your servants notice. Thankfully, your city is located on the shore, so it’s a relatively short walk to the beach.
When you arrive at the beach, you take a nice deep breath and smell the salty sea air. Since it’s still relatively early in the morning, no one else appeared to be on the beach, meaning that you’ll have the whole place to yourself. You walk down the beach towards the ocean before sitting down on the cool sand. As you take your shoes off, you notice that there’s another one of those blue objects on your left foot, but this time, there’s a bit more.
“What the hell?” you mutter to yourself. You take a look at your right foot, surprised to see the blue objects on it too.
“What are these things?” You ask aloud.
“They’re scales,” a voice in front of you says, making you jump. You lift your head to see a boy who looks to be about your age laying on the sand in front of you. He has short curly brown hair and vibrant green eyes. You can't exactly tell from how he was positioned, but he looked to be rather fit. However, the most notable thing about the boy is his green fish tail. You stare at the Merman in disbelief, never having seen one up close before.
“C-come again?” You stammer, making him laugh.
“Those things on your feet,” he said, pointing to the blue objects. “They’re scales, just like mine.”
Your eyes widen in shock as you realize what he just said.
“Oh no,” you say. “No no no no no no no! This can’t be happening!”
“Sorry cutie, but it’s happening,” the Merman says, making you blush. Why did he just call you cute, and more importantly, why did you like it?
“This...this is because of that transformation stuff...isn’t it?” You ask.
The Merman nods. “You’re going to be a Merman like me in a couple of days.”
“Wait...days?!” You exclaim. “I thought this stuff took weeks to finish!”
“For other species, yeah, it takes longer,” the Merman explained. “But for us Merfolk, it takes a lot less time. After all, the only thing that’s transforming is your legs.”
You sigh. “How the hell am I going to go home like this?”
“I don’t think you can,” the Merman says. “Too risky. You could transform and be stuck on land.”
“Then what do you suggest I do?” You ask.
“Simple: stay here with me! Oh! I’m Mark by the way.”
You try to think of an excuse to not stay here with Mark, but you can’t think of anything. There really isn’t any other option if you’re going to transform in a few days.
“Alright,” you say reluctantly. “I’ll stay here...my name’s Andrew.”
“Okay, I’ll call you Andy!” Mark says, laughing.
This is going to be a long couple of days.