Valerie tilted her head as she narrowed her eyes toward Marina's midsection. "Were those side fins always there? I didn't notice them before."
Marina's head felt like a bobbing buoy as two waves of worry struck her simultaneously. She swallowed hard. She didn't want Valerie to find out the "wetsuit" was actually fused to her body, and she was also nervous about what more changes were in store for her.
When the lightheaded feeling ebbed, she followed her gaze down her colorful body and saw what she was referring to. There, at a point just past what were once considered her hips, were a pair of fins. They were kind of triangular, with the thinner part of the triangle connecting to the main part of her body--or her suit--whatever. They were thick like her rubber monofin. She reached toward them and her heart skipped when she noticed a fin twitch toward her hand.
Thinking quickly, she shimmied her waist to disguise the fin's independent movement and grabbed it. She felt the touch in two places simultaneously, in her fingers and the fin itself, which cemented its reality in her mind. This was yet another new part of her.
"Umm..." She glanced up at the woman. "You mean these?" she said as innocently as she could. "Yeah, of course they were. They're part of the suit. It's cool, right? There are little servos I can control by moving my hips." She "demonstrated" this by shifting her hips while also testing the new muscles that seemed to control her fins. She was surprised to see the new appendages follow her commands, albeit a little janky. Hopefully the awkward movements would sell the idea that there were electronics inside her "suit."
Valerie scratched her honey blonde hair. "How much money do you 'mermaids' make, anyhow?"
She had to think quickly again. She furrowed her brow to look convincingly disappointed. "Not as much as you might think. I still live with my parents when I'm not at college." She mentally chided herself not to reveal too much true information to this stranger. It was also painfully clear now that the longer she sat in plain view, the more likely Valerie was to notice further changes...
As much as the prospect of changing even further bothered her, it still sent a shiver of excitement up her spine.
"Err...," she croaked. "Speaking of my parents, I should check my phone to see if I got any messages from them." She started to push herself backward by her hands toward her boat.
"Oh, um, let me help you," the woman blurted out. She stood up and quickly shuffled to her side.
"Thanks, but I've got this. I know I can get in and out of my boat in this get-up."
"Nonsense. You're bound to bruise somethin'. Here, ready?" With a huff, she scooped her up with both arms, one behind her upper back and the other in the middle of her tail. The slippery material that was her new skin started sliding over the arm holding her tail half. Marina instinctively hooked her tail onto her arm before it fell through. Luckily, it would have seemed to Valerie like her arms had just found the natural crook of Marina's knees.
She moved with surprising grace. Despite her clearly fit body, Marina hadn't expected someone of her size and build to be able to carry an entire person, much less step down into her boat without faltering too much. She only needed a second to regain her balance, not coming close to dropping her. She set her down in the steering chair.
Marina held into the steering wheel and shifted her "butt" until she was in a position where she wouldn't slip off the pleather upholstery like she almost had on the ride into the cove. The moment Valerie had carried her was brief, but the feeling lingered, stirring in her the memories of seeing mermaids being carried in movies. She always wondered what that would feel like. Being a majestic creature who ruled the sea, but had no ability to walk on land and needed to be toted around...by a gorgeous hunk in the movies, but Marina herself had no such stereotypical preference, and Valerie's lithe but strong figure was more in her wheelhouse.
Besides, as long as she was being taken somewhere she wanted to go, what did it matter?
Her tailfin felt cramped where it laid. It was mostly flat on the floor but its tips bumped and warped against the fore "wall" below the steering column. It hadn't been like that last time she sat in the chair. Marina glanced down at it. It looked bigger. The edges of the fins seemed more elongated. She couldn't tell if the growth had just happened or if it had come with her new side fins. She wondered how much better at swimming they'd--
"Where's yer phone?" Valerie asked behind her. "This bag here?"
She turned her head a quarter. "Yeah. There's a plastic baggie." She watched the surfer fish out the bag and unzip it. It was a little unsettling watching her ruffle through her stuff, even though it was clear she wasn't intentionally looking through everything she had brought. She handed her the phone.
"Here you are. Can you use it in those, uh, gloves?"
"Y-yeah! They've got little gripper...things...in the fingertips." She remembered she needed to concentrate to activate the screen, and did so, tapping to unlock the phone and holding it up to him with a smile. "See? I love this suit."
She really did.
The woman nodded in bewilderment. "Well, I'm, uh, staying until I can catch a few good waves. If you need me to help you with anything... I mean, out of the boat and into the water, or anything like that. Just holler and ask." Valerie hoisted herself back onto the dock and returned to her surfboard.
She thanked him, watching her shapely legs as they carried her off the dock and down towards the beach, and then breathed a sigh of relief when she was out of sight. All too late, it dawned on her just how highly compromised she was like this. It was pure luck that this girl was good-natured...at least, seemed to be so far. She shook her head. Stop thinking the worst of people, Marina. She's fine. You're fine. You'll...be fine.
Her attention returned to her phone. Checking for responses to her post about the medallion, she found...