"Amy?" A quiet voice came from the bottom of the stairs, causing Amy to jump. She saw the bleary eyed and confused face of her sister, Emma, poking through the gaps in the stair railing. She stared down at the purple tail flopping on the floor. "What are you doing? What is that?" Amy opened her mouth to answer but a lump caught in her throat and she felt herself begin to cry again. She curled her tail close to her body and hugged it, allowing the tears to flow down her face again. Emma's face turned from confusion to shock and she quickly padded down the last few steps to ground floor. She ran over to her sister and wrapped her arms round her head, holding her against her body. "It's okay, I think you make a really pretty mermaid." This really opened the floodgates. Amy returned Emma's hug and cried into her Peppa Pig nightie. Emma just stroked her hair and whispered reassurances, as Amy had done many times for her.
After a while, Amy was able to regain her composure. She looked up at her sister and gave her a smile. "Thank you , Emma. I needed that." Emma gave her a quick kiss and another hug, before sitting down next to her sister. Together they looked at the tail, now extended in front of them. Amy saw Emma's hand raise up then back down. Despite the situation, she couldn't help but smile. "Do you want to touch it?" She asked. Emma nodded so fast, it looked like her head may come off. Cautiously she reached out and stroked her sisters tail, feeling the scales that were silky to the touch. The tail was more sensitive than Amy had imagined and she felt an involuntary spasm shoot through it and made Emma quickly withdraw her hand. She thought for a moment she had scared her sister, but then Emma looked up at her, a massive grin on her face. "That's so cool!" Amy giggled at her sister. "Well I'm glad you like it so much." Emma resumed stroking the tail. "But where did it come from? I didn't know you were a mermaid!" "Well neither did I until about ten minutes ago. I'm not even sure why it happened." "Did you go in any moon pools, talk to a sea witch, drink funny potions?" Amy shook her head and smiled. "No, nothing like that." She didn't feel that she should tell her sister that her mother was a mermaid too. Coming down and seeing her sister sporting scales was probably enough excitement for one night.
Amy was positive that whatever had happened to her had something to do with her mother. Regardless, she couldn't spend the night like this. "Emma, I need you to do something for me." Emma jumped to her feet and placed her hands on her hips, doing her best to look super but just coming off as even more adorable. "You can count on me, Amy."