Mermaid 1 by KeikoJade

5/24/2018 Mermaid 1 by KeikoJade

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MermaidBy KeikoJade

When I was in the Marines, I was stationed on a green tropical island,part of Japan, but far south of Tokyo in the middle of the turquoiseocean. I had never seen water that color before, and I was entranced byit.

I went to the ocean the first day I had off with a few friends. Theisland rose out of the water and was edged by sharp, steep, limestonecliffs. There was a hidden cave on the east side through which you

could descend to a secret harbor where the cave met the ocean. When Iplunged into the warm water, the blue underwater light filtered intothe dark, but crystal clear water of the cave. Swimming to the mouth ofthe cave with my mask, snorkel and fins, was like progressing towardHeaven.

I learned to swim in cold northern lakes and rivers where the fishflickered away like dark shadows and only clams and algae covered thelake bottom. Here, coral in every bright color carpeted the ocean floorlike a hard shag rug. Fish, just as colorful, inhabited the coral. Likethe population of a city, they stuck to certain coral 'houses.' Afamily of orange clownfish inhabited a swirling anemone. The 'daddy'was bright orange, and stared at me with brave defiance even though he

was no bigger than my thumb!

The ocean was calm, and I swam out further, where the coral bed plungedaway in a continuation of the cliffs. The ocean was deep azure andbottomless. My two comrades accompanied me. I dared them to see whocould dive the deepest, secretly knowing I would prove the champion. Myfriend Mike was a smoker, and Dave wasn't a strong swimmer. Wehyperventilated, and took the plunge.

I kicked my legs straight up, which helped me drive down faster. Iplugged my nose and exhaled against the pressure, which meant I wasabout 15 feet down. Mike gave up there. Dave kept going until I almosthad to plug my nose again. He reversed and went up. I felt fine,

though, and kicked slowly and evenly, thrust my arms forward likearrows, then put my fingers together and pulled myself deeper. I wantedto get something off the bottom to show them both up.

Soon the bottom was in view, but my lungs were starting to ache forair. I reached the bottom. Nothing but rock and sand here, too deep forcoral to receive light, I guess. But there wasn't enough sand to get ahandful. And the rocks were all continuous. My extra exertion was invain, and I absolutely had to go back up. My lungs started screamingfor air.

I lingered, though, knowing the trip up would be much faster than theone down. My body protested, and I was about to give up when a bright

glitter of gold caught my eye. I swam toward it. It was a goldmedallion and chain. The medallion was no bigger than a silver dollarand had some raised figure. I didn't have time to inspect it, though, Ijust grabbed for it.

I quickly threw the medallion over my head. I drew my body close to therocks and gathered my legs beneath me so I could spring upward.Suddenly, an electric shock surged from the medallion, and shot throughmy body. It was like having a live wire pressed to my chest! In horror,I involuntarily coughed out the air from my lungs. I sat there,


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squatting on the ocean floor, without the strength to push up, and tooshocked to move. My vision was tunneling rapidly and I knew I must staycalm to save myself. I tried to leap upward, but couldn't get my legsto move.

I suddenly felt very calm, and the explosive pain in my oxygen-starvedlungs faded. I heard a deep voice in my head. It said, "Breath."

My teeth and lips gripped my snorkel. Before I could think, I took adeep breath of warm seawater through it. It burned like fire as itfilled my lungs, and I suddenly gained control over my senses as I

coughed the water out, barely noticing the lack of bubbles. I had justcommitted suicide! But then, my tunnel vision cleared. My lungs feltempty, and my head cleared. Was I conscious, or already dead? I heardthat people grow calm when they are dying for sure, perhaps from abiological reaction. I started to feel the need for another breath. Iremoved my snorkel's bit from my mouth, and took another 'breath.'

The water came in easier this time. Shocked, I exhaled. A few bubbletrickled upward. I breathed in again. The water filled my sinuses,mouth, throat and lungs. I could smell it. It smelled salty, andreassuring, and alive. I was breathing underwater! I took a big breath,and exhaled. No bubbles this time. I was OK!

I suddenly realized I'd been down for what must have been a coupleminutes. Mike and Dave would be frantic. Not quite believing I wasalive, or this was happening outside of a dream, I started swimmingupward. About halfway up, I met Dave, who was diving down to retrieveme. I gave him the 'OK' symbol, and we rose up.

My head broke the surface, and I instinctively took a deep breath. Butmy lungs were already filled - with water. I breathed out, and coughedviolently, sending a spray of water everywhere. Dave and Mike wereshouting hysterically, and Mike grabbed me, trying to swim me to thecave.

"I'm fine, I'm fine, man," I said, coughing. I started to laugh. "I'm

alive?"

"Holy shit," Dave shouted. "We thought you were dead down there!" Mikenodded. We stopped, and treaded water.

"No, I - " I said. "Look at this thing!" I held the medallion up, andwanted to tell them it allowed me to breath water, but suddenlyrealized they'd think I was nuts. Or, they might want to try itthemselves, and I wanted to play with it more.

"Holy shit," Mike said. "That's bad ass."

"Look, it's got a chick on it," Dave said. I held it up and examined

it. The image was ancient, like a Greek coin.

"That's not a chick," I said, "it's a mermaid."

"Wow, that thing's probably worth a fortune," Dave said. "Man you'regonna split the money, right?"

"We'll see," I said. "I risked my life getting it."

Dave shivered. "Let's get to shore and check it out. This water's warm,


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but I'm still getting cold." Mike agreed.

But I was warm anyway. "You guys go," I said. "I wanna see if there'sanything else down there. I won't go as deep."

"Nah," Dave said. "Come on in, we should stick together." Even thoughwe were off-duty, he was still very formal, and Marines were told tostick together and use the buddy system when on liberty.

The last thing I wanted to do was go into shore. But, I gave in. Justthe act of swimming, without thinking of leaving the water, was fun.

But when we climbed onshore, I started feeling melancholy. My thoughtsdwelled on the sunlight beneath the waves, and during the drive back tothe base I couldn't think of anything but returning to the water.

That night, I couldn't sleep. I couldn't stop thinking about the oceanand swimming in it. Breathing underwater had been too intoxicating.Dave and Mike went out on the town, but I didn't want to go. I feltdepressed. I just lay in bed and stared at the medallion. We were goingon maneuvers in the morning, and I wouldn't get liberty for two weeks.Thinking about not swimming for that long made me feel like I wassuffocating.

It was five miles to the ocean, and I knew I could run there, swim for

a bit, and run back in just a couple hours. I was in good shape andloved to run. I burst out of the camp gates so fast I'm surprised theguards didn't check to see if I'd stolen something. I headed down theroad toward the ocean.

Soon, I was in a dead sprint. I knew I couldn't keep up the pace, butat the same time wasn't feeling exhausted. I felt the medallion bounceagainst my chest underneath my shirt. I increased my pace, and stillfelt strong. My breath rushed in an out, and my sneakers pounded theasphalt. A local truck passed me slowly. I couldn't believe how fast Iwas running!

It was a full moon and a clear sky. The asphalt was pale gray and the

shadows of the palm trees jet black. I leaned into the turn that led toa parking lot overlooking the cliff. It was empty. The parking lotended right against the cliff, and the calm ocean sparkled in themoonlight, stretching out into flat horizons. But I didn't slow down. Iwas filled with a wild spirit and laughed as I ran straight for thecliff edge. I skipped once, landed with both feet on the edge of thecliff, and sprang out into space. The wind whipped in my ears as I shotout horizontally, my arms to my sides. Then I tucked and brought myarms before me, palms flat to slice into the water, precisely as I'dlearned to off a three-meter diving board. Except this was a onehundred meter plunge.

I felt no fear as I dropped, and the water greeted me not with a

resounding impact but a bubbly, warm embrace. I slowed to a stop andjackknifed up. I was surrounded by bubbles and let them dissipate.Soon, calm water surrounded me, illuminated with soft moonlight. I hadmissed the coral ridge and sank beneath it, down the cliff side. Myvision was perfectly clear, as though I had a bubble helmet.

I purged my lungs of air, and took a deep breath of ocean. I was happy,because this time I knew I didn't have to go back when I didn't wantto. At night, the ocean was empty of swimmers and the cliff free ofsightseers. The water was calm and clear, and the bright moonlight


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illuminated the ocean to the depth of 30 meters.

A sea snake was swimming toward me. I froze. It was ribboned, yellowand black, like a handrail in an industrial plant. They were deadlypoisonous, with hidden fangs filled with neurotoxin. But it didn't seemaggressive. It was just swimming toward me. If I stayed still, Ifigured it wouldn't bother me.

The sea snake was kind of flat on its sides, and ribboned through thewater. It slowed as it neared me, and grew closer. I remained still,and its face stopped a few inches from mine. We remained there, staring

at one another. I was too scared to make a move. One bite could killten men, I'd heard. The sea snake started to move toward me, and passedover my left shoulder. For a second I thought it was gone, and thenwhile its body was passing my left, its head reappeared to my right.Playfully, it wound around my outstretched right arm. I could feel itssleek body pass around and over my skin. It passed through my fingersuntil its flattened tail left my grasp. Then it circled, came backtoward me, and paused for a moment. Cautiously, I touched its side,near its head. It pressed against my palm like a cat scratching againstyour leg. Then it swam away.

I wanted to laugh, but my throat felt sluggish and I couldn't makesound with my lungs and throat filled with water. I swam toward the

reef. The fish, just like city residents, were very still at night, andhung close the coral. There was no bustle like that of the daytime. Thedaytime color of the coral was lost in the moonlight, and everythingseemed to be in black and white. I swam back out into the deep, andsimply played in the water. It was like floating in space. My buoyancyseemed neutral at any depth, so staying still wasn't a problem. I keptmy feet together, put my hands out like the way Superman flies, andporpoised through the water. Just by a light planning of myoutstretched palms, I could roll. If I kept my arms to my sides, andreached out with my palms, they acted like fins. I swam through thewater, performing slow rolls, and then loops just by planning my handsthe right way. I rolled onto my back, and just with gentle nudges,brought myself closer and closer to the calm surface, which reflected

my pale, moonlit image. Just before I touched air, I would arch backand kick back down, then repeat.

I must have played like this for hours, without thinking of going back.I realized I was starving, and tired. But it seemed like base was lightyears away. I would have to climb the cliff to get out of the ocean,and I just felt too tired for that. Besides, breathing the water wasvery comfortable, and I didn't want the bother of coughing it up andhaving to go for air again. Air seemed so empty, vacuous, anduninviting, compared to the environment of water. And on land I wouldhave to walk instead of float, and glide.

I resigned myself to going back, but first decided I'd see if I could

eat underwater. Between beds of coral were beds of coral sand, veryfine and soft. Earlier I'd found a grotto of such sand where I saw acouple tropical lobsters crawling around. I swam back to it. Thelobsters were there, poor things too dumb to look up. They werecrawling around on the sand, searching for food with their antennae. Igrabbed one from behind. At the store he'd probably have been a 10pounder, worth maybe 50 dollars. He couldn't claw me, and it was easyenough to give him a quick death by knocking his head against anoutcropping of limestone. I twisted his back open, and his shell gaveaway with an audible crack, exposing thick white meat. I tentatively


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put a piece in my mouth and chewed. Man, it was delicious! It was thesame temperature as the water, and tasted as though it'd been perfectlysteamed and dipped in melted butter. I hadn't eaten anything this goodsince joining the Marines!

I swallowed, and everything seemed to work fine. I didn't take anyseawater into my stomach. My throat seemed to work just like I wasregularly eating, it only carried down the food, not the air. Or, in mycase, the water.

Before I knew it, the lobster was just empty shells. A couple pieces of

meat floated around me, and I plucked them out of mid-water and atethem as though I was picking berries off a bush. I was gorged. Somesmall reef fish had come, attracted by the scent, and flicked past me,eating the tiny bits too small for me. None of them dared to stick witharm's reach of me, they just darted in and grabbed bites when theydared.

Now I knew I had to go back, but I was exhausted beyond relief. Ilooked up through the water, and saw the cliff standing high, highabove me. It seemed like I was looking into another world, one that waspretty, but cold. I didn't want to go, but had to. I just had to restfirst before doing the climb. The sandy grotto looked soft andinviting. The gentle currents had made wave patterns out of the sand. I

could just lie on the sand for a bit and maybe take a quick nap torestore my strength.

I gently kicked down into the grotto, and lay on my side on the sand. Ihad barely enough weight to keep me there. The other lobster was hidingunder a small outcropping. Maybe he realized he'd be breakfast, but ifhe did the thought didn't stick around long in his tiny brain, and soonhe was happily crawling across the sand, looking for bits to eat. Ifell into a deep, dreamless sleep.

I woke up feeling something tickling my face. It was dark, and for asecond I thought I was in my rack, waking up from a dream. But I couldfeel the water around me. I reached up and found my face was covered by

a thick clot of hair. I pushed it out of the way, and found myself inthe grotto. The reef was alive around me and bright sunshine was justpouring into my little abode.

I grabbed the hair, momentarily wondering if it was seaweed, and then Ithought it was a wig or piece of junk. I tugged, and felt pain in myscalp. It was my hair. My hair was blonde, like I was, but my hair wasshaved off, because I was a Marine. My face felt different. I sat upand tried to went to push off the bottom of the grotto, but instead Ithrust myself toward the coral. I spread my arms and stopped. My legsfelt weird, and I looked at them. Instead of two legs, I saw the finsand body of a huge fish. I was being attacked by a shark, withoutpain!? I rolled over and realized there was no shark, that I was the

fish. I could feel the tail and fins. From the waist down, I had thebody of a shark. Inwardly, I laughed - this couldn't be. But I couldfeel the dorsal fin, just where the back of my upper thighs should be.My tail fin was broad and flat, horizontal like a dolphin's. There weretwo horizontal fins on the sides of my fish body, just aft of thedorsal fin. I reached for the skin of this weird body. It was paleblue, and smooth, not scaly. That's when I noticed my forearms andhands had changed. The hands were smaller, more delicate, and theforearm tapered. I used to have scars on my right forearm from a dogattack. Those were gone, and my skin was hairless. My upper body felt


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thinner and smaller than before. My hands shot to my face. My lips feltfuller, but my face was smaller.

I still had my t-shirt on. The shorts I'd been wearing were torn toshreds and lay on the sand. Quickly, I pulled the t-shirt off. Insteadof the muscles I'd built over the years, I had breasts! They weren'tbig, and not small either. They looked to be about the size of mysister's. And my sister had long blonde hair, too. They were pert,floating with their own buoyancy in the water. I rolled on my back. Itdidn't feel good for my dorsal fin to have pressure on it, but I wasnearly weightless so it wasn't bothersome. The underside of my fish

body was a much lighter shade of blue than the sides and top. I ran myhands down my body, from shoulders, to breasts, felt my waist narrow,and then blossom. Right below where my legs would have bifurcated, onthe underbelly, was a nearly invisible seam only an inch long. Iwouldn't have noticed it if I hadn't seen it. Other than that, my fishbody didn't split into legs at all, it was just one firm tail. I put myhands where my buttocks would be. It felt like I had a very slight pairof cheeks, but between them was what felt like hard muscle orcartilage. The cheeks smoothed into the fish body and the thin 'middle'cheek rose slightly to the dorsal.

I grabbed the medallion, which was still around my neck. The primitiveimage of a mermaid was still there. I tried to take the medallion off

my neck, but it slipped from my grasp. I grabbed the chain with bothhands and tried to pull. The metal moved a couple inches from my skin,but that was it. An unmovable force kept it near my body. I struggleduntil my arms were tired, and then let it drop down between my breasts.I closed my eyes and rocked.

"It has to be a dream," I thought. "Wake up... wake up..." I pinchedthe skin on the back of my hand repeatedly, waiting to wake up in mybed.

Nothing happened. I was still there. Not realizing it was real, Ilooked for a seam where my slightly tanned, normal flesh morphed intothe blue flesh of the tail. There was no seam, it wasn't glued onto me.

I could feel and control the tail - it was me. The tail didn't bendwhere my knees would have been. The entire tail could bend, and I couldjust get the tailfin to reach my hands. I grabbed it with both hands,and felt the union in both the tail fin, and my hands. The tail fin wasrubbery and firm. Staying like this was like putting your palms on thefloor while keeping your legs straight, but these legs bent, not at theknees but the whole tail bent. Still, I had to stretch. The tailfin wasalmost twice the width of my shoulders, and looked a lot like adolphin's. I judged that the fish body was about 18" longer than mylegs had been, from hip to tiptoe. The tail, before it became a fin,was a thick band of muscle about the size of both my ankle together.

My hair stayed mostly out of my face, floating around my head like a

halo and swirling gently like seaweed. I reached to my back and twistedmy upper body. My dorsal fin was about a foot high and slightly less inlength at the base. It made a triangle that curved backward. I foundthat I could move it slightly, bending the whole thing to the left orright, and that the aft moved more than the leading edge. The flipperson my sides were just about where my knees had been. I could movethose, too, just like the dorsal. The fish body started just where myhips were. I had a navel, and from hip up I was a girl. From hip down,I was a fish. But I wasn't scaly there, the skin was smooth. I lookedat my hands. The skin wasn't wrinkled or paled by the water at all.


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"Fish, girl," I thought. "I'm a mermaid?" No one answered.

I looked up through the water. It was a little more turbulent than theday before, but I could still see the cliff. There was no way in hell Icould climb it with just my arms. But then I realized, what wouldpeople do if they saw me? I couldn't flop back to base and go see thedoctor and get fixed.

"Fucking hell," I thought. Why hadn't I put it all together? Mermaidmedallion, breathing water... I had just been so overjoyed with the

discovery, and loved the water so much, that I hadn't taken time tothink of what the consequences here could be. I suddenly realized thatI had made a huge mistake. Not just a mistake, but mistakes. But themedallion had been at fault, too. Hell, it lead me back to the ocean,gave me the confidence to dive off a cliff, allowed me to survive theplunge. Again I wrestled with it, trying to get it off me. I went at ituntil I was exhausted. The thing was attached. I was stuck like this.

All around, the coral had come back to life. Schools of neon-coloredfish were milling around, the clownfish were guarding their anenomies,and a sea turtle swam lazily by. They paid me no heed. A moray satrecessed in a hole in the reef, with his blank stare and grin, waitingfor breakfast to come by.

Suddenly, I realized I could hear. I heard not just the crash of theocean against the cliff, but also the movement of the schools of fish.Together, they sounded like laundry fluttering in the breeze on aclothesline. I drew close to an anenomie. Its clownfish stared at melike guard dogs. Very close up, it made a crystalline tinkle as itslimbs swirled in the water.

I realized that immediately, I was in deep shit with the Marines. I'dgone AWOL. Beyond that, I wondered about whether or not I could changeback to normal. What about my family? They'd wonder what'd happened tome for sure. Questions piled on questions and doubts, and again I justclosed my eyes and wished I would wakeup from this nightmare. I

screamed silently, and when I grew tired of that, I cried. I thoughtabout all that had been lost. I heaped worry on top of worry. I'dgotten laid, and now I wouldn't. I lay on my side for hours, until Irealized the sun had gone. It was twilight.

Somehow, spending the entire day in despair changed my attitude. Isuddenly felt guilty for acting like a crybaby. I was in trouble withthe Marines, but I knew that if I could somehow turn back, and providedthis medallion as proof of what happened, that questions would becleared up. I worried about my family worrying about me, but figuredthere had to be a way to contact them.

Besides this, I was starving. Fortunately, the lobster I'd spared the

day before was dumb enough to come back out when it started gettingdark, and I ate him. With food in me, I felt a bit better. But, nowwhat? I was used to doing things, in and out, all day. March here,target practice, chow time, PT, drill, chow time, hit the town, getdrunk, go to barracks, pass out, wake up, repeat.

Well, I could learn how to swim with my new self. I had built-inflippers and hadn't even left the grotto all day. Since I couldn'tgather legs beneath me and spring up, I swooshed both my palmsdownward, fingers together, and this lifted my upper body. I kicked


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with my tail, and shot up at an angle. The speed was nearly violent! Myhair streamed back behind me, its ends nearly reaching my dorsal fin.Kicking my tail was different from before - I wasn't jointed at theknees. The entire tail could move up and down in a wide arc that threwme through the water. The speed was exhilarating. I leveled out andswam toward the deep. I kicked gently, barely moving my tail, and thewater streamed by me. I found that by twisting my flippers evenslightly, I could roll. If I twisted my dorsal, I would changedirection, left or right. It was like my rudder. I could twist it andmy flippers and I would turn like a corkscrew. I leveled out andstarted kicking, hard. I had to purse my lips to keep the water from

blowing them open! I kept my head straight, looking 'down,' and put myhands to my sides, and simply kicked through the water with my tail.Soon I was going so fast that the pressure at the top of my head feltlike a wall. I put more effort into it, and started hearing bubbles.The water around my head was cavitating, I was going so fast. I pressedharder. I felt bubbles forming around my body, and my tail startedfeeling 'skips' in resistance. It was hitting too many cavitatedpockets of air to press against the actual water and give me thrust.The skips seemed to be the limit to my speed. But I had no idea how tojudge that speed.

I started to tire, and realize that I was in the middle of the deep.There was nothing around me but blue, no surface and no bottom. I

wondered which way was up. Diving, I could just blow some bubbles, butnow I had no air in me. My instincts told me 'surface = safety,' butnow things were different. I could feel that the water was cold, theway you know a day's air is cold, but I still felt warm. The deep waterscary. In the deep, I couldn't see above and below, which are alwayssafe areas for a human, and if I hadn't been testing how fast I couldswim, I wouldn't have come out here. I felt claustrophic. No, thereverse - there was too much space. Would I have to worry aboutpredators, like sharks? Slowly, I felt instinctively the direction thatwas 'up.' It was actually to my side. I swam quickly in that direction,and the dark blue gave way to lighter gray. I swam for the surface,then at the last minute saw something that made me arch back and cometo a stop.

The sun was at the horizon, and cast just enough light in the air forthe underside of the water's surface to make a strong mirror. The oceanwas dead calm. About a meter below the surface, I could see myselfperfectly, as I looked up. I looked a lot like my sister at firstglance. But then I looked longer. I wasn't her, but I was a female withtraces of my old self. Transfixed, I stared at this blonde girl. Thecombination of female human and sharkish dolphin was mesmerizing.

"This is me," I thought. "For now, anyway."

The image faded as the sun set.

I broke the surface. Wow, the land was far away, almost to the horizonit seemed. The cliffs were visible but very small, just taller than afinger held horizontal on an outstretched hand. If I'd kept swimming Iwould have lost sight of it. It was getting dark, and I wanted to finda place to bed down. And I didn't want to be in an area that would bevisited by humans. The cliffs had been empty today, but today wasFriday. Tomorrow would be Saturday, and I expected there'd be people.

I knew from maps that the main island was surrounded by many littleislands. I started swimming just under the surface out toward the


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ocean. I picked up speed, and kept an eye on the bottomless deep. Iheard a rustling, and looked up. There was a school of mackerel justahead of me and slightly below. I wondered who was faster, me, or thefast mackerel? I arrowed toward them and poured on the speed. Theydidn't break up until the last minute. Turning my body and fins, I wasable to chase one segment, which broke up into smaller groups. With apowerful flick of my tail and a quick reach, I grabbed a mackerelaround its tail. Its brethren fled. The mackerel struggles, but I hadit by a tight grip. I realized it might be a good time for a snack,anyway. I was feeling kind of hungry after my fast swim. I grabbed itshead with my other hand, and brought it to my face, biting the thick

side where I would have shaved off a good filet. The meat was tenderand really, really tasty, like the ultimate sushi. The fish struggled,but I held it, and started swimming and eating. Soon it was nothing butbone and guts. My belly felt packed, and I was sated. Feeling relaxed,I kept swimming.

I started to 'feel' that there was ground below me. The water aroundthe main island was almost a mile deep, immediately, and rose back upto make small islands. I dove down and closed my eyes. The sense of'surface' and 'ground' seemed to be more definite. I kept divingdeeper, and then saw a vague grayness. I was seeing the bottom, eventhough there was no light source. I blinked, wondering if my eyes weregetting stronger. The bottom was sloping up, a rocky surface at a sharp

angle. I reached the bottom and followed it. There was a shipwreck - alonely wooden fishing boat crumbled to timbers and rusty nails andbedecked with rotting rigging and netting. I passed it and kept goingup the slope. Soon, I could hear the sounds of coral sand stirring inthe waves. There had to be a beach nearby. I could feel the surfacedrawing closer, and then saw it. This underwater mountain was going tocrest into an island. Around the island should be some nice shallowswhere I could find safety. Or maybe there would be a deserted island,and I could chill out on the sands. Then I thought, perhaps I couldeven get my legs back if I dried out, and this magic wore off.

I passed dark coral, and came right up to the surface. I guess the tidewas high, because the water barely covered the reef. The land was

protected by the reef, and the coral was too sharp to drag myself overit. I swam along the edge of the coral, and found a small opening, justwide enough for me to go through without touching the razor coral.Then, the bottom gave way to a huge bowl of sand. I swam to its centerand surfaced. There was a beach that circled around me like a crescent.A lagoon! The beach was empty, and gave way to dark jungle after about50 feet of white sand. The water was calm here, the reef absorbed theocean waves. I swam to the beach and soon the water grew to shallow. Icrawled up the sand, dragging my tail. I looked and listened. Therewere no signs of people or wildlife.

I realized I'd been holding me 'breath' since climbing out of thewater. But, the water was denser than air, holding more oxygen, I

guessed, so I didn't feel like I had to switch to air. I wondered if Istill could, actually. But I also wondered how long I could hold abreath of water. I lay there on the sand, waiting. I leaned my head onmy hand, elbow in the sand. I didn't feel the need to cough up thewater for a long, long time. Finally, after what must have been fifteenminutes, I felt like I needed fresh water. The need wasn't urgent atall and grew only slightly with each passing minute, but by now I waslooking for an excuse to breath. I 'breathed' out, and water pouredfrom my mouth. I started coughing violently. Long strings of snot andseawater poured from my nose. I pictured a mermaid coughing violently,


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with big snots running out her nose, and started laughing while Icoughed. How elegant a beached mermaid was! Real sexy and cute as Ifloundered around drooling, coughing, with a tortured face covered insnot.

I took deep gasps amid the coughing, and soon my lungs settled down.The beach was very peaceful and the air fresh. I noticed the stars -millions of them. But I couldn't roll on my back - it hurt my dorsalfin. So, I dug a hole in the sand with my hands, scooted past it, andgently rolled onto my back, putting my dorsal fin in the hole. Thatseemed to work, it was comfortable. The hole quickly filled back up

with seawater and the sand closed in around my fin. I hardly noticed itwas there, as long as I didn't move. Then again, I wasn't completelydry as long as my fin was wet. And the water seemed to be coming upwith the tide.

Reluctantly, I rolled onto my belly, and crawled all the way up thebeach, to where the sand was fine and dry as powder. I dug another holeand rolled onto my back. Here, the palm trees blocked some of thestars, but at least I was drying out.

Lying there, I picked up the medallion. Maybe it'd come off now that Iwas on land? Nope. Still stuck. In the starlight, the medallion wassilvery. The moon came over the horizon, and it regained a tad of its

luster. I stared at the image of the mermaid, and thought about whatI'd become, and whether I'd become normal again. I realized the moonwas making shadows on the beach. It was already a quarter of the way upinto the sky. My hair was finally dry, but I was still fish-girl. Tootired to care, I fell asleep.

I awoke with a blinding flash of pain searing from my forehead. Igrabbed my head and rolled, unable to even see straight. I tasted blooddripping from my nose. I heard a girl scream in pain. What the hell?Blinking slowly, I opened my eyes. It was morning, and the beach wasbathed in clear sunlight. There was a green coconut lying next to myhead.

I grabbed my waist and looked. The fish tail was still there. I stillhad the upper body of a girl. The medallion hung between my breasts. Myhead was in pain and I heard buzzing in my ears. I had fallen asleepbeneath a coconut tree and gotten a painful wakeup call. Worse, I wasstill a mermaid.

"Bah," I said, pausing at the sound of my voice. It was very girlishand high. I laughed, what did I expect? The previous night it hadn'teven occurred to me to try and speak. I grabbed the coconut. "Stupidthing," I said, chucking it. Well, I had been the stupid one, sleepingbeneath its tree.

I tried lifting the medallion, and found the same affect. Neither the

chain nor the medallion would move more than a few inches from my skin.I was hungry. All around me, though, were coconuts. I took a couplewith brown husks, held them in the crook of my arm, and dragged myselftoward a rocky outcropping. I knew the coconut was inside the husk, butgetting the husk off was like peeling layers of rope off a thick lineof hemp. These things were tough! Still, I had nothing to do. I couldgrab fish, but I had my mind set on coconuts.

As I worked, I listened to the jungle. The night before, it had beenpretty loud with insects. Now, there was just an occasional rustling


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and the cry of a bird. The sun was getting strong. I realized I wassweating from the waist up, but my tail wasn't sweating. It was growinguncomfortably warm. I moved into the shade to work, which was muchbetter. After what was way too much time and effort, I had the coconutshusked and cracked. I ate the white flesh off of the shells until I wasfull of the sweetness.

I was tired of crawling around in a handicapped fashion, and made forthe water. The tide was high so it wasn't a long crawl. Wow, swimmingwith barely noticeable movements of my tail was a far cry fromstruggling for ground with just my arms. I exited the lagoon through

the hole, and started swimming around the island. Just being in thewater eased the pain in my head by a lot. I surfaced and kept breathingair as I followed the outline of the reef.

At first it seemed that the island connected to a larger island, butthen I found that my lagoon island was quite small, and there was alarge channel to another, larger island. Dipping below the surface, Iheard a motor thrumming through the water and felt its vibration. Iturned in its direction and surfaced. There was a passenger ferrymaking its way for the larger island from the direction of the mainisland. It was far too far for anyone to see me, though.

I decided to go and explore the coast of the larger island. Switching

to water breathing was easier than switching to air breathing. A slightcough, and my lungs were waterlogged. I didn't have to breath water atthe same rate I breathed air. Resting, I'd say I was down to about fourbreaths per minute.

The ocean floor dipped far down between the islands. But soon, I was atthe outer edge of the reef of the larger island. The boat had docked inthe harbor, and from a quarter mile out I could see Japanese passengersembarking and disembarking. A couple cars rolled onto the dock as well.The island's town seemed very small and quaint. I really wanted to goup and check it out. I suppose they hadn't seen many gaijins there, andit'd be a great place to explore. But I wouldn't be walking the streetsanytime soon.

It took me about an hour to get to the other side of the island. Evenfurther off, on the very edge of the horizon, I saw another island.This one had almost no residents. There was a tiny town and a couplehouses on the coast. Limestone cliffs shot up in the middle of theverdant jungle, making miniature mountains.

Here, the water was clearer than anything I'd ever seen. Visibilitymust have been almost 200 meters. It was a diver's paradise of reefsand underwater wildlife. I kept my eyes out for sharks, not knowingwhether they'd ignore me or snack on me.

The reef here was so amazing and teeming with life that I kept

exploring it. About forty feet down, I was so surrounded by color andlife that I was starting to think of how great this experience, ofbeing a mermaid, really was. I wondered if these sites could ever getdull. I came around a coral corner and about twenty feet below me was ascuba diver. I looked up and saw the hull of a small boat on thesurface. It was held in place by sea anchors. The diver was clad in ablack wetsuit and was moving slowly across the bottom, not unlike alobster. He had some tools around him - a camera, and a grease boardfor writing underwater.


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I was curious as to what he was doing, and part of me wanted to play. Ididn't think it wise to reveal myself, but I could swim so quickly thathe could never catch me - even on film. I dove down until I washovering right over him, staying careful to keep my shadow away fromhis field of vision. He was gently prying muscles from a bed of siltwith his knife, measuring them with a small ruler, and then writingprecise notes in Japanese on his grease board. Every once in awhile,he'd take a picture of the muscles. As I drew closer, I could hear himhumming to himself. His short black hair had no gray, so he must beyoung. I guessed he was a student, or researcher. What I reallyconcentrated on, though, was his knife. It was a diver's knife, with a

sharp end, good blade, and of course wouldn't rust. He also had a waistbelt and a small nylon net bag, and a watch compass. I wanted all thosethings for myself. Taking them would be easy. The poor human washandicapped in the water. A few quick movements and his mask would beoff and his regulator plucked from his mouth. I could then takewhatever I wanted before he could recover. But, stealing was wrong, nomatter what I was.

I thought of something I had in value I could trade. Finally, Irealized I was valuable. Some photos from a scuba diver surely wouldn'tconvince the world that mermaids existed. They would always think hehad some photo-shopped images or that he was part of an elaboratestunt.

I kicked down and scooped up his camera. Then, I came to a stop abovehim, and tapped on his shoulder. His humming ceased and he rolledaround. I could see his dark eyes through the mask. They opened to thesize of dinner plates! Bubbles flew out of his regulator and he shoutedin alarm. My hair spread around me like a halo, and I hovered there,holding the camera in both hands.

He shook his head. I waved at him. I pantomimed taking a picture ofmyself, but still he stared. He started floating upward, but I kept outof arm's reach effortlessly. His breathing accelerated. I noticed he'ddropped his grease board, and I had an inspiration. I swam down andgrabbed it and the grease pen. On the reverse side, I drew his knife,

compass, and bag and belt. Then an 'equal' sign, and a crude sketchthat hopefully looked like a photograph of me.

By this time he had started swimming toward me again. I handed him theboard. He stared at it for a second, and then quickly surrendered theitems. I took them greedily, and gave him the camera. He took a fewphotos with trembling hands. Then, he motioned upward. We swam up towhere it was a bit brighter, and he kept snapping. He motioned for meto come closer. He focused on my waist, where fish and girl merged, andtook a couple shots. I figured he would just take a few snapshots, buthe was being very scientific. Must be quite a mind on him. He came alittle close for comfort, but I had the impression he wouldn't harm me.He motioned for me to pull my hair back, which I did, then came in

close and took photos of my fins. I circled around for him, wonderingif this was going overboard. I figured one picture would be enough.Finally, he ran out of film.

He made a movement with his hair as if he was plucking a strand, andthen gestured to me. I guess he wanted a sample of me. Well, the gearhe gave me was probably expensive, so what the heck. I plucked a longstrand and handed it to him. He tucked it under a tank strap, andstarted taking notes on his grease board. He made a swimming motionwith his hands. I swam a ways out, then swam back and did some rolls.


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Since he was getting so much out of me, I figured I'd get something outof him. I swam out, then swam straight at him as fast as I could. Hestruggled to get out of the way, and at the last second I turned at analmost perfect right angle, then looped up and around him. I returned,laughing silently, and heard him chuckling.

While he kept taking notes, I cut the belt down to size and put itaround my waist. The net bag would be very handy for collecting things,and the belt held the knife's sheath as well. The wrist compass wasdigital, and as the diver studied me, I played with it, quickly findingthat it was also a clock, a depth gauge, and thermometer, with a

'lifetime guarantee - 3000 meter depth - kinetic energy - by Sankyo'written on a stainless steel plate on its back. I suddenly was glad Ihelped this guy out with his studies of me, this thing was probablyvery expensive.

Finally, he'd covered his grease pad in notes, even writing over hisclam studies. He just hovered there, watching me. I felt a bituncomfortable, and a little bored. I drew close to him, and took hishand. I placed it on my hip, where the human skin was, and slid it downwhere the skin turned blue. The blue skin felt just like my human skin,no more sensitive than my thigh. I let his hand go, and he reachedcautiously and touched my face like a blind person. He wasn't so rudeas to reach for anything else.

Something on him started beeping. He took a glance at his pressuregauge, and reluctantly pointed upward. I nodded, and backed off, wavinggoodbye. Since I knew Japanese bow to say 'thank you,' I gestured tothe knife and watch and bowed. He bowed also, and waved. I kicked away,and I lost site of him around a corner of the reef.

I felt better with some gear. I didn't think I'd be fending off a sharkwith a knife, but at least I could take revenge on the stubborn husk ofthe next coconut I saw.

I kept moving around the island. I wasn't sure if the scientist wouldcome back with a flotilla to catch me, but I doubted it. He seemed more

interested in observing. Heck, he was even putting clams back in theirsilt bed. I grew hungry, and started searching for something to eat.

Days passed. The chain of islands was pretty expansive, an archipelagoI guess you'd say. Some were completely barren, and others were barrenexcept for a tourist hotel and dive trips. I saw other divers, andfishermen. By the compass, I was heading south. I didn't dare go forthe real, deep deep ocean, between major islands. But finally, about amonth after my initial change, I figured I'd past the southernmostJapanese island, which had just been a wild mountain jungle stickingout of the azure sea. The further I got from the main island, the morecrystal the waters, and more lively, too.

I got bored near the southernmost island, and figured I'd brave thedeep ocean. It took me a few tries. The first time, I went for it, andswam for about half a day before I heard a large flurry. I almost raninto a school of blue sharks. Even though they paid me no mind, I stillswam all the way back to the southernmost island. Between the compassand the time, and the position of the sun, combined with my depthsense, I was getting great at navigating, even out open water.

After getting frustrated with my cowardice, I again struck out forpoints unknown. I encountered another school of sharks, but this time


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just kept my distance, going off course a bit and then correcting.Again, the paid me no mind. I swam usually a few feet below thesurface, unless the waves grew too high, at which time I went downuntil I couldn't feel their effects. By this time, I'd learned to gaugemy speed. I figured that at my ocean pace, where I was going withdeliberate speed but at a pace I could maintain all day, I was doingabout fifteen miles per hour. But, I could sprint for up to half anhour to about fifty. The only problem with sprinting for thirtyminutes, was that I would be as hungry as if I'd swam all day, thengrow hungry. If I ate, I'd fall asleep for a nap, no matter what timeof night or day. It was impossible for me to fall asleep while hungry.

I had stuffed my net bag with clams before I left. They kept perfectlyfresh until I opened them at the seam with the knife, and it only tookfour or five good sized ones to completely fill me. I kept them as areserve in case I didn't catch a mackerel or baby tuna, or whatever Icame across. The clams gave off no scent as long as they were whole andalive, and I didn't want to be stinking up the water so that predatorshad a nice trail right to me.

My first day out, I caught a baby tuna no longer than my forearm, andate him quickly. I left the scene of the crime straight away, figuringthe tuna carcass would be more attractive to a shark than me. Keepingon the move was my key, I figured, until I knew whether or not sharks

ate mermaids.

Night fell, and I was growing tired. I dove to try and find a place tosleep on the ocean floor. At 300 meters there wasn't any natural lightleft, and the water around me took on a green hue as my eyes adjusted.The compass watch had an indigo backlight. Simply the light from thewatch gave me much better vision, but there was nothing to see, and Ididn't want to kill its batteries. At 900 meters, my belt slid right upto my armpits. My body was severely compressed. I paused, breathing thewater and feeling for effects. I could still sense surface and bottomdirection, but couldn't sense proximity. I was in the deep deep. I knewthat at 900 meters I was unlikely to encounter sharks, or so Iremembered from the books I'd read. But what else could be down this

deep?

The water was dead still, and cold. The compass read 8 degrees. Itsmelled as cold and dead as a February day. The green hue was eerie.But I recognized that the water was clean - cleaner even than the wateron the surface. It wasn't dead, just it was a vacuum. Sterile.

When I was a kid, I had to fetch wood from the cellar of our house forour stove. The cellar was creepy and dark, festooned with spider webs.Many times, I would simply sit on the steps, near the kitchen door, tooafraid to go down, and not wanting to return empty handed. When Ichickened out, my father told me that I had nothing to fear but fear,and to get my ass back down there and get some wood.

"I have nothing to fear but fear itself," I told myself. I kept diving.I refused to look at the watch. Finally, after a long time, I couldn'tresist.

1500 meters. Still, no sight or sense of the bottom.

Doubt filled my mind. Would I even find a place to bed down on thebottom? Or would it just be a bed of decomposing plankton, inhabited bysightless things that plucked at fish corpses? I prayed to God for


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safety. Only he would know what was down here. I tried to talk tomyself against the fear. I felt physically and mentally fine, andhadn't seen a sign of life. So, I was probably safer than on thesurface.

Suddenly, I saw a flash of pink light. I froze. I felt the water growwarm around me as I pissed myself. The light returned, outlining agigantic tentacle, twice as thick as my body in the middle, extendingforever into the deep. It came from above me. I kicked off away fromit. Another flicked to life ahead of me, glowing neon pink again. Ihalted, and switched course. Ahead of me, another. Then, like a neon

sign kicking to life in the twilight, a dozen tentacles surrounded me.I was trapped. The insides of the tentacles were covered in suckers,each the size of dinner plates. A giant squid had descended itstentacles around me, and then lit them up.

I looked up. The squid glowed pink. Then, it faded to bright purple. Abeak bigger than my body, precisely like a parrot's, was surrounded bea dozen tentacle roots. The tentacles moved in around me. I knew Ishould have tried to swim, but it was no use. I was nothing more than aguppy compared to this leviathan. I just hoped it wouldn't hurt.

The tentacles grasped me cautiously on all sides, and brought me towardthe beak. But instead of bringing me into it, they placed me next to

it. The suckers had been quite gentle, and released as if they hadbarely held me. Had it missed, or changed its mind? I was in the softwebbing between the massive roots of two tentacles. The flesh wasslightly warm, and completely soft. The tentacle roots closed aroundme, and then opened up. The flesh was illuminated, and it was like Iwas in a cavity of pink bubble gum. The light changed, mellowingthrough purple and neon green, then brownish. It was bright enough toread a book in here.

My heart pounded in my chest. I struggled to keep fromhyperventilating. Maybe it was keeping me for later. I felt theleviathan moving. I started hearing a ringing in my ear. No, it wasn'tin my ear, it was in my head. The ringing faded, and I heard a deep

voice speak inside my head.

"Saaaaaffffe."

"Safe?" I thought. "Is... are you the squid?"

"Lisssteennn tooo meeee... Caaaalm... Saafffeee."

I took deep breaths. My pace calmed. I thought allowed, directing mythoughts to the giant squid.

"You are keeping me safe?" I asked.

TBC

Documents

Mermaid 1 by KeikoJade