"I'm sorry," said Clia. "But Aaron already used up the only necklace we had in our village."
"But I really need to contact my family and let them know what's happened to me!" said Anna. "How do I find another one?"
"Well you could travel to another village and see if they have one," suggested Clia, "but that could be dangerous. All the other villages are very far away. It can take months to reach the nearest one."
"That's no good," said Anna.
"Or you can just wait."
"Wait?"
"Wait for the currents to bring a new one."
Anna was confused. "The currents bring you . . . magic necklaces?"
Clia smiled. "There's a flat sand-bed on the south side of the village, about a league out. We call it the 'Tide Bed.' It's where the magic starfish and the golden rocks appear, as often as we need them. But the necklace—only one of those ever comes to us at a time, and once it's used up, it won't work on the same person twice—but it always comes back to us again, after a year or so."
Anna's head fell into her folded arms and she groaned. "Oooh, that's even longer! My family will think I'm dead!"
Clia couldn't help herself; she embraced Anna and patted her back comfortingly. "There, there. It happens to every human who converts to mer, but they get over it. Just be happy that you're among people who love you now, and look forward to the day when you can tell your family what's happened. They'll be hurting now, but in a year's time you can take that pain away from them again."
Anna sniffed. "Yeah. Yeah, I guess that'll have to do." She looked up at Clia, and found the beautiful mermaid gazing into her eyes. Anna felt heat rising in her cheeks and in her breasts, and she suddenly felt flushed all over. "What's going on?" she asked.
"Well it *is* still the mating time," giggled Clia. "You want me, just as much as I want you." Then Clia froze, remembering how Anna had reacted earlier. "But, you know, only if you *really* want to. I would never—"
"No, it's okay," said Anna. "I was just a little shocked, is all. See, the thing is, I like you well enough, but I don't love you. I love Eric—even though I just met him—and it would feel kind of like cheating. Especially with you."
Clia giggled again. "It can't be cheating if we're both girls!"
"That is not how humans see it."
"But you're not a human. You're a mermaid." Clia didn't sound like she was trying to be pushy; she was merely stating a fact.
And it was true enough, Anna realized. Right now, she was a mermaid. Which meant that she was not a human being. Could she judge these people by her own former species' standards? On the other hand, could she take what Clia was freely giving, knowing how badly her mate Eric had wanted that very thing?
Her internal debate was silenced when Clia asked, "Is there anything else you want to know?"
"Yeah," said Anna, grateful for the change of subject. "How many more eggs am I gonna lay? How many babies will me and Eric hatch? How long do they take to hatch? Why can we only make love during this 'cycle' thing, and once it ends, what do most mermaids even do with their time? I just—I wanna know everything!"
"All right, all right," said Clia with a lovely laugh that set Anna's heart suddenly aflutter. (Whoa, thought Anna, what is even happening to me right now?) "You really do want to know everything. How about the short, short version?"
"Okay…"
"Your eggs form in your belly between mating cycles, so you can only 'blow your load' once each cycle. This right here," she indicated Anna's nest, "is all you're going to lay this month. And it happens every month, so we mermaids don't guard our eggs too closely. That way we don't overpopulate. Once the cycle ends, just leave the nest be, and if you're lucky, you'll have a kid, maybe (rarely) two. But if not—and it's probably going to be 'not'—it's hardly the end of the world, because there's always next month. Understand?"
Anna nodded.
Clia continued, "If an egg does survive, it takes about a season to grow into a mer-baby and hatch. Check back here in about a month, and if you find an egg or two, it'll be safe then to take it home to guard. In the meanwhile, you can stay with your nest all week, and most mermaids who do that like to keep mating with their partner or partners while they still can."
"So I *can* keep having sex, even after I've laid my eggs?"
"Oh of course!—until the cycle ends," said Clia. "What did you think I was trying to do with you earlier?"
"So, what happens in a week then?"
"Well… the hormones down inside your fish-tail that make you want to mate just sort of, stop, and your body won't respond the same way to a partner after that. You can still kiss your lover, and feel them, and try to make them feel good—but it just won't go anywhere, because you only really have your human half to feel, and that can only take you so far."
"I see," said Anna. "So my human half will always crave sex, but my fish half can only have it during the right time of the month."
"Pretty much," said Clia with a shrug. "Except, craving it all the time must be an ex-human thing. Aaron seems to be like that too. I'm hoping that part will fade away a little bit after the cycle though."
"Why? Don't you like making love to him?"
"Oh, I do, believe me!" said Clia. "I just … hate to see him suffer through all the time we *can't* do it. This is his first cycle too, after all."
"Oh." Anna though about what it would be like to simply *not* crave sex. Given her young life and her full academic career, had been plenty of long dry spells where she'd been without a boyfriend or a lover, but even during those times she'd at least been able to jill off when the mood struck. "So—can mermaids not—you know—" Anna made a vague flicking motion with her fingers.
Clia mimicked it. "I don't know what 'this' means."
"You know—how does a mermaid flick the bean—jill off—paint the—"
"Oh, you mean self-pleasure!" said Clia.
"Yes!" exclaimed Anna. "How do we—?"
"We can't," said Clia with finality.
"Not at all?"
"Nope."
"Not even with just the boobs…?"
"Do you mean during the cycle, or in between cycles?"
"In between."
"Doesn't work. You can feel good, but you can't get off."
"Well, crud." After a sullen pause, Anna asked, "How long do you think it'll take Eric to come back with food?"
"Oh, he'll be gone for another hour at the least," said Clia. "My Aaron too. He's not much of a hunter yet!" she giggled.
"Well at least I sent my guy out shopping instead of hunting," laughed Anna. "That should be easier on him!"
"You'd think," said Clia, "but even mermen hate shopping!"
The bout of giggles that followed had Anna embracing Clia again, and once again that heat flushed her insides. Everywhere her skin was in contact with Clia's, it felt *so* good, and this time she didn't resist. She couldn't. Something about the pheromones of her nest and this other mermaid—she was the one to kiss Clia this time, and Clia responded with gentle brushes of her lips and tongue on Anna's.
A short while later, the two mermaids were spinning in the water together, flicking their tailfins together (which was pleasantly ticklish but not erogenous), and feeling up each other's boobs. Clia kissed her way from Anna's ears down to her neck and gills, and then she lowered herself to suck on Anna's nipples while playing her fingers along Anna's lateral lines and occasionally flicking a finger at her egg-slit. "I believe you called this—flicking the 'bean'?"
"Yeah," said Anna with a gasp. "Human girls have—have a—a thing there, called a clit. Looks like a pearl. Like a nipple, but more sensitive."
"Wow," said Clia, pausing to run her tongue in an erotic circle around Anna's left nipple. "A third nipple, down *there*!? That would explain why humans always want sex. Aaron had something like that there too, but it was a lot bigger—and it grew when I put my mouth on it."
"You sucked his—(*gasp*)—his dick!?" giggled Anna. "Bet he was disappointed after he became a merman."
Clia swam up to kiss Anna on the mouth again, and then said, "He was, and I didn't understand why at the time. But now I think I do. To be able to feel like *this*, but whenever you want? Being a human must be… amazing. I think I'd like to try it someday, if I can."
"Maybe you will," said Anna. She now returned the favor, kissing her way down Clia's body until coming to her boobs, which she played with and suckled until Clia was quivering in her arms. Clia then spun herself around in the water so that she and Anna could suckle each other, and that eventually had them both gasping and crying out and at last climaxing, after which they embraced each other's torsos while still in their upside-down configuration relative to each other, and they hugged one another tightly until the ripples of pleasure faded away and the pleasurable muscular contractions around their egg vents ceased.
Anna looked at the two clouds of orange fluid that floated away from her vent and Clia's and she marveled at the strange ejaculate. She ran a hand through it; it was just a fluid, not thick or sticky like male seed. But it was definitely the same stuff that had accompanied her eggs earlier. "Will that happen every time?" she asked. She noticed that her voice sounded weak and tired again.
"Yep," said Clia, sounding equally fatigued. "You were wonderful, Anna." She kissed the other mer-girl on the lips and then said, "I'm going back to my nest now. But feel free to swing by any time. Just don't bring Eric."
"Yeah, sure," said Anna. Right now, she wanted to do nothing more than curl up around her nest and go to sleep. And so she did.