Chloe took a frustrated sigh. "You can't be serious, Damon. You don't seriously expect us to just wait around and hope some merperson finds us. Do you?"
Damon shrugged. "What else can we do?"
"Well, the first thing we can do is to swim around. We may be in the water but we're still close enough to the beach to be at risk of being caught by a swimming human." Monica said.
"Good idea." Said Ana.
Tim tried to move with his tail but could only manage a few strokes before falling and being caught by Ana before he landed on the ocean floor.
"This is going to take some time getting used to this body." Tim commented.
"Seriously, Tim? You were in the army and you're that clumsy at swimming?" Chloe complained.
"Hey, back off!" Ana butted in. "Listen, Chloe, I know you're mad but that's no excuse to insult my boyfriend like that. He's a new merman, cut him some slack.
Chloe took another breath, this time calming her mind a bit. "I'm sorry, Ana. I just don't want to be a slimy fish. Especially with my date on the line"
Chloe turned to face forward. "I'm going ahead to look for answers. You four can catch up if you want."
With that, Chloe flicked her tail and swam ahead.
Damon and Monica followed Chloe as Monica kept the baby close to her arms.
Tim and Ana were the last the follow but Ana didn't mind as she held her boyfriend close and taught him how to swim with a tail.
For the next half hour, the group of five swam farther to the ocean, with a baby on board as if this was The Hangover but underwater.
Chloe recoiled and was disgusted with some of the human trash in the ocean. In contrast, the merbaby cooed and giggled at the schools of colorful fish and pods of dolphins that swam past.
Monica couldn't help but smile as she found the baby's amusement adorable.
"See those fish over there? The ones with the orange and white colors? They look like Nemo." She said to the baby as she pointed to a group of fish hiding in sea anemones.
Ana's nursing instincts kicked in and decided to chime in to help the baby's mood.
"Those are clownfish. They’re called that because their bodies look like a clown's face paint. Aren’t their tails pretty, little baby? Though, they're not as pretty as your own."
The baby laughed in joy, prompting a few "awwws" from the girls, except Chloe, of course.
Damon was a bit less happy. He wasn't upset about the whole parenting thing, quite the opposite, but he was getting a little worried about the lack of merfolk in the ocean.
Just then, Damon saw a distant glow from the distance. It was a light pink color that seemed to be getting closer.
Damon peered closer and saw the figure of another mermaid. The mermaid's silhouette seems to be the source of the glow, as if her body had the power of bioluminescence.
Her glow was weak at first but the light soon became strong enough that the entire group of friends all noticed it.
"Hey! What's going on?" Chloe said as she stopped swimming to cover her eyes.
The glow eventually weakened to reveal another new mermaid swimming up to the group.
The mermaid's strawberry blonde hair crowned her face like a soft yellow beam of light. Below that, her FF cup breasts sat proudly on her chest, her nipples cloaked by seashells. From her waist, her skin dissolved into pretty purple scales, which ran down her entire lower body, and ended in a pointy-like end, with two transparent purple fins flapping gently to keep the mermaid hovering underwater in place.
The mermaid smiled. "Well, I haven't seen you all around here before. My name is Cura and I live in the village nearby."
Cura tilted her head as she looked closely at Chloe, Damon, Monica, Tim, and Ana.
She soon chuckled lightly. "You aren't from around here, are you? What are your names and how did you all get such intriguing-looking fish tails?"