Amanda laid face down in warm but wet sand, she could feel warm water splashing up against the edge of her feet. Slowly she rolled over and looked upwards, she had just had the craziest dream, she was awoken in her cabin to the sound of someone singing, when she followed it she found herself sitting on the edge of the boat before going over all the while following the sound of now multiple people singing. Then she remembered someone or a group of some ones grabbing her and moving her fast under the water. She somehow could breath underwater as well…but that was madness.
She looked upwards with her dark eyes expecting to see the cabin ceiling instead she saw large cliffs which had had to go up at least 60 or more feet straight up and a crystal-clear night sky which was breathtaking beautiful.
“Ah…your awake.” Said a voice to her left as she saw something which should have been impossible, there laying on her belly on a low rock was a woman, with short brown hair who had to be in her mid to late 50s but was still breathtaking beautiful. Then she noticed the bronze color pants she thought she was wearing was in fact a fish tale.
Amanda bolted upwards and began to stumble backwards away from the mermaid only to find herself going into the water and smashing into two more figures. One was a man, a Japanese man judging by the look who was a similar age to the mermaid with the bronze tale and another man, who looked to be early 40s. Amanda turned to push them aside only to realize she was in the water as well and these men had fish tale. She bolted away from them and stumbled onto the sand bar. She was breathing heavily as she looked around.
She was in the middle of a large chamber with open sky above her and nothing but water and cliff around her. There where a couple of islands in this tiny lake, but they where just large enough for a person to lye on and mermaids and merman of multiple different ages and types all where there watching her.
“What is happening?” cried Amanda
“Well you called us….well you called the island that is.” Said the bronze mermaid as she slipped off her rock and dove underwater for a moment before coming up in front of Amanda pulling herself up onto the beach. “This island for the lack of a better term is magical, whenever a person calls for it or is in desperate need of safety it appears within the human world. When it isn’t it and all who call it home live in a separate magical world. My name is Elizabeth by the way but call me Liz.”
“Hello…I am Amanda.” Said Amanda as she looked around. “Why did you take me?”
“We didn’t, you called the island and we came to get you…I must admit we haven’t had fresh people in a while so new additions will be greatly welcomed.” Said Liz “What year is it now?”
“What year?” inquired Amanda
“Well when you become a mermaid or merman your aging slows down…I was born in 1899 for example and Kiyoshi over there.” Said Liz as she pointed to the Japanese merman was born in 1907, he joined us after he was washed ashore in WW2. Our daughter is off somewhere making trouble I know but she was born in the 1950s your time but is about your age in our years.”
She went on to indruce more people/merpeople they all looked to be far younger then what they claimed to be. The oldest women, looked to be in her mid 90s and was helped by another mermaid but she was born a mermaid over 200 years ago and claimed her father and mother where new arrivals after they had jumped off the ship which was carrying them to slavery in then British Colonies Americas.
A lot of the mermaids and merman had fish like tales, some however where different, some had shark like tales and some had fins on their back or flippers on their front or both. She didn’t see any eels or octopus like merpeople.
“This can’t be real.” Said Amanda
“It very much is and you have a choice before you.” Said Liz as she pointed directly behind Amanda, for some reason she hadn’t noticed that she was standing on the edge of another pool. This one was raised up a bit and was shaped like a fin, it had to be 20 feet long and 20 feet wide and the pool was crystal clear, so clear in fact she wondered if it was water in there and not air. “That pool with turn you into a merperson.”
Amanda’s eyes widened as she wanted to back away from the pool but didn’t.
“If you bath yourself in the pool it will over a course of a few hours of soaking transform you into either a mermaid or merman.” Said Liz as Amanda looked at her.
“Merman…this thing can change my gender?” inquired Amanda
“If you wish…you some control over the changes if you go in nude or if you let it, it can be totally random. You can even age yourself up or down if you wish.” Stated Liz “Go in with your swimsuit or any cloths on, the pool takes those cloths and uses them as a base for your new merperson body.”
Amanda looked down she was wearing her favorite swimsuit, a deep dark blue one piece with lavender sides with some silver separating the two. She imaged it as a tail and liked it with her long dark hair and dark eyes it would look good but so would other color combinations or maybe let fate decide.
“We plan to offer this to all your friends, however the pool can only hold two at a time…so what do you choose? Do you want to become one of us and live free and explore the seas or return home?” inquired Liz