John had his head in his, well her new face tears where flowing down them. He didn’t understand how they could flow downwards considering they where underwater, but they did. He shuttered a bit, not sure what to really do, he was now she and a mermaid on top of everything. He didn’t feel it at first but a figure came and landed on the table beside him. He turned and looked pulling his hands away. He had to blink a few times.
“Mary?” inquired John
“Yes.” Confirmed his twin sister Mary
Flashback
Mary’s heart was racing as she felt the agent run though her body, she had read up on the process of the change. More then her brother had in truth but he was more worried about becoming a woman, she didn’t have to worry about that.
“You are doing great.” Said the green haired mermaid lover looking her. “Your gills should be coming in soon, but first.”
She reached over and pulled out a bronze mirror which allowed Mary to look at herself for the first time. Her birty blonde hair had lost all the blonde, something she was sad to see go. When she was a younger girl she had been totally blonde only to have it darken as she reached middle school. Still it was a rich cholate color brown. Her face didn’t change but her eyes did, they changed from a brown color to a deep dark green. Still it was still her face looking back at her, she winced a bit and looked away from the mirror down to the small amount of blood coming out around her rib cage. She knew what that meant.
“Goodbye air.” She thought as she let the airline be removed and without missing a beat she let the sea into her lungs.
“You are doing great.” Said the nurse
“Thanks I always dreamed about being a mermaid since I was a little girl.” Answered Mary
“Well you are getting your wish.” Said the nurse as suddenly more pain shot through Mary causing her to wince as a small cloud of blood came forth. She hadn’t expected that, she looked down and through the blood saw two spines shotting out of her hips.
“Fins.” Said Mary, some mermaids had fins on their hips and backs, not a big deal. Then she noticed the nurse waving over the doctor who had been going back and forth between her and her brother soon to be sister.
“Doctor…I think.” Started the Nurse only to have the doctor nod his head.
“Yes, we will have to operate at once.” Said the doctor as Mary looked at him with fear in her eyes. “Don’t worry you are alright, it is just you are becoming a rare type of mermaid my dear.”
“I am? Fins aren’t rare.” Said Mary as she winced in pain this time one both of her arms.
“No fins aren’t rare…but poisonous spines are.” Answered the Doctor as Mary blinked. “You are not just becoming a mermaid, you are becoming a lion fish mermaid.”
It took Mary a moment to process that, she looked back down to see her two fins had company, three additional sets of fins all smaller and in a perfect row with the top two had formed, they where connected by a thin reddish brown membrane. She looked at her arms and saw a matching set of four small spins all connected on each arm starting at wrist and going to midway to her elbow with the tallest one being the 3rd spine before shotting down. She could see that the spin was tipped with a very sharp looking point.
That is when she saw the mirror on the dock. She watched it instead of the actual transformation, still it was amazing to watch as her legs where pulled together as more groups of spins formed up. Her tail was banded in a repeating mix of reddish brown, bright red and creamy white with her feet forming a tail fin with more spins connected with thick reddish brown membrane . It looked rather good to her and then she noticed that her hair had changed, it went from a rich brown to a darker red, it went well with the reds of her tail.
“Flip her over.” Ordered the doctor which confused Mary wasn’t she done.
She wasn’t as they flipped her over, more spins and fin membrane all but exploded out of her spin all the way to her shoulder blades. She looked in the mirror and saw rows of spin covered fins.
“Am…am I done?” inquired Mary
“Transforming yes, but now we need to remove your poison spins…they are too great of risk.” Explained the doctor as he pulled one of her new spins and took off the poison filled tip. “You will have to get special training on how to care for them, they grow back and every month you will have to come in to have them removed.”
“Great…” moaned Mary as the doctor went to work.
“Don’t worry…while lionfish mermaids are rare they aren’t uncommon either and besides there is worse things.” Said the nurse as the doctor went to work. “It doesn’t take long, five minutes at most.”
“I’ll add it to my monthly to do list.” Complained Mary
“Well look on the bright side, mermaids don’t have periods so you will not have to worry about that.” Said the nurse as Mary looked at her. “Blood in water is not a good mix, with sharks around most of all.”
“I see.” Said Mary, the process didn’t take long at all and when she was done, she looked at herself in the mirror. She liked what she saw…then she turned around and saw her brother…no her sister sitting on the edge of her table crying. She swam over and sat down, he had changed so much, his brown hair was silver white, she was taller then him now, even sitting on the table John only came up to just above her shoulder. She looked good, as if she could have gotten the pick of almost any boy from their school but that was the last thing she wanted to say to him/her.
“Mary?” inquired John as he turned and looked at her.
“yes, you look good big sister.” Said Mary as tears filled John’s eyes, mermaid tears had oil in them and where denser then water so fell down even within water. Still John’s eyes filled with them as Mary pulled her new sister close and let her cry.