Susan slowly sat up as she rose from her sleep to the warmth of golden sunlight from the natural skylights in the cave ceiling above them. She tucked a strand of brunette hair behind her ear and smiled as she gazed down at her emerald tail. A part of her feared that the change could be temporary, or worse, that she’d rise back home in her bed to discover that all the events of the last night were a dream. Instead, she was rolling over on her side and resting on top of Mira. She winked playfully as the ex park ranger slowly came to with Susan squeezing their buxom chests together.
“Mhmm… you know how to wake a girl up, don’t you?” Purred the cyan haired mermaid as she kissed her tenderly on the lips. Susan and Mira sat up and began languidly making out in the central chamber, until they were interrupted by a splash of water that soaked the two of them. They both turned their gaze to Amber, smiling innocently as she waved her ruby tail in the nearby pool she’d just emerged from. Akiko surfaced beside her and placed a hand on her shoulder. “You didn’t have to interrupt them like that, surely?” She asked.
“I just wanted to say hello.” Amber replied, pulling her upper body out of the water, before getting pulled into a hug by Susan. “Still a rabble rouser I guess!” The brunette chided playfully as she kissed her good morning next.
“And who’s this?” Asked Amber as she offered a hand to Mira, which the mermaid kissed the fingers of. “Mira now. You knew me as Mark last night, guess I’m one of the gals now though… and it feels *good*.”
“Speaking of gals…” interrupted Akiko as she pulled her koi fish tail onto dry land. “We’ve got another new girl, please let’s give a big warm welcome to…”
“Oh, right that’s me!” Squealed a new voice as the albino silhouette of Heidi leapt up from the tunnel and flopped on the rocks and sand. “Hi! I’m Heidi! Thank you all so, so much for helping me out of that car… this. Is. Amazing!” She rambled out in a stream of consciousness. “I look so freakin’ hot… but in kind of a scary way too, and the tail is so strong-.” She traced a hand over her breast. “Oh… and we’re all a bunch of sex goddesses, aren’t we? That’s so hot.”
“And at least one god.” Replied Melina as the blond mermaid was next to rejoin the pod. “Girls… may I introduce… the new and improved John.”
The agile yet muscular merman John crawled onto the surface. He coiled his black tail up in a circle around himself. Trying as much as he could, he made an effort to cover up the nerves he was getting from having six gorgeous mermaids staring him up and down, one of them being his former male coworker no less.
“So…” Melina started as she crawled into a sun ray and started brushing her shiny golden mane with her fingers. “It’s a new dawn, new day. I guess we have to figure out what that means for us… what are we planning to do today?”
“A better question might be who are we doing…” giggled Susan playfully as she and Mira continued snogging, now with Amber playing a third part in their play.
Her joke got a laugh from the pod, but once it died down Akiko said, “true, true. But being serious for a moment, we really do need to keep our eyes on the task.”
“Akiko’s right.” Nodded Melina. “There’s a time and place for pleasure. A lot of it, but it won’t be much fun if we end up dead or captured. We need to see to the essentials too, food and shelter.”
“Are we sure about that?” Asked Amber. “I’ve been thinking about it… are any of you actually hungry? I think most of us probably skipped dinner. I probably haven’t eaten in like… eighteen hours and I’m not even a little peckish.”
The other merfolk shook their heads. She was right, none of them were hungry. “I think maybe our metabolisms have changed or something… probably good for crossing huge stretches of ocean for what could be days on end.”
“Convenient.” Mentioned John. “What about shelter though? Don’t we have the cave?”
“We do…” said Mira, “but it’s close to the shore. We’re hidden from the humans, but for how long? They might send searchers eventually.”
“Or they could quarantine the coast and not let anyone nearby… in which case no harm or risk.” Susan called back.
“Good point, it seems like if we really wanted, we could go nomadic. Just keep swimming, never stay in the same place twice.” Suggested Heidi.
“Plus, I would like to see home again one day. Wandering does sound strangely appealing.” Akiko said.
“Get a chance to look for our families… say our goodbyes.” Added Melina.
“Or help them into the sea if that’s where they end up…” Susan replied.
“Either way, we’ll be much harder to catch if we keep on the move.” Thought John.
“And we’ll meet so many pretty merpeople in our travels. We can keep growing our pod!” Heidi cheered.
Melina began laying out a plan. “So it sounds like we’re planning to up and move soon as we can. If we’re going to actually do that, I propose we plan a direction. We should all take day one to go different directions, see what’s out there and see which way we should go. Then we come back here before sunset and decide on where to move the pod.”
Susan added, “we’ll possibly find more mers out there too… we should offer ant solos we find an invite to the pod. There’s safety in numbers.”
“And other benefits…” Mira sighed.
“It’s settled then… today is scouting, more recruiting, and we end it off with an evening’s mating... what’s not to love?” Melina asked. “Let’s break off into pairs to make sure no one’s alone. Susan you go with John, Amber you’ve got Heidi, and Mira, Akiko and I will be a group of three. First group heads north, second heads south, and the trio will go east out into open waters.” Taking on her role as the impromptu pod leader, Melina began drawing a diagram in the sand with her fingers. “Any objections?”