Carmen was surprised by the surreal feeling of her very skin sloughing off her legs without as much as a twinge of pain. She wiped away the discarded flesh, expecting another set of shiny and colorful scales beneath. Instead, molting from below was new, tough, rubbery layer of dermis. It was a deep gray, darker toward her back and lighter where it climbed up to her stomach, meeting and blending with her caramel skin.
“Huh, no fishy parts so far. What’s the story, Theo?” Carmen asked with a raised eyebrow. “A hunter shark, uncommon but not unheard of. You defy expectations, miss Carmen.” The mermaid replied, regarding her like a rare specimen. “Most mermaids, about nine in ten, have fish shaped tails like the type you see in paintings. Sometimes though, you get mermaids with different kinds of lower halves. You see your dolphins, your sharks, whales, even octopuses and eels.” Chiaki elaborated. “My captain, Akiko, she got the tail of a tiger shark. She can handle like a torpedo underwater.”
“You don’t say…” Carmen replied, grinning at the news. “Almost sounds like this was just for me.” The mottled gray coloration slinked over her waistline and up her body, ending at her breasts as she held them up in her hands.
“It sort of does,” Theodora answered. “As you might have guessed, personality impacts your transformation to a degree. Scientists who ended up landing here have started researching how and why this whole dimension works, and while magic resists the very concept of the scientific method, this plane itself seems to respond to the thoughts and emotions you’re giving off as you start to shift. It makes you the best mermaid you can be.”
“The best mermaid I can be is none at all…” Kelly grumbled, resigned at this point to backing away from the ocean and fighting through the waves of itchiness all over her body. Meanwhile Jenn and Olivia paused in their canoodling long enough to pull their long tails up on dry sand, taking in the show as Carmen’s transformation took shape.
Carmen swung her heavier legs into the water, barking in laughter as her legs clenched together and wrapped around her waist with great force. “Looks like I don’t know my own strength yet!” As she smiled at her own discovery, Jenn pointed at her lips and grinned too. “Be careful Carmen, you’ve got some teeth on you.” It was true, Carmen’s teeth had sharpened into a row of pearly white daggers, glinting as Carmen tentatively checked them with the tip of her tongue.
Kelly looked to Carmen, tears in her eyes. She dared to crawl a little closer to the waves she was avoiding like the plague so far, just to squeeze her hand as she goes through the biggest change in her life. “We’ve got to figure this out, Carmen. I still think these mermaids are full of shit, but if we’re stuck, then I’m not gonna run away now.”
“I knew you wouldn’t. That’s not your style, Kelly.” Carmen winced as her legs spasmed and snapped into one cartilaginous limb, her feet sculpting into a sickle-like tail. Her undercut hair drew down her back into a long under-shaved mane of jet black with a shock of white running through it. She squinted her eyes as her eyes teared up, the irises coming out dark gray. She caught her breath as her muscular frame rose and fell with each breath, as her new form finally took full shape.