Unknown Depths.

Chapter 24

Wide-eyed, Olivia stood rooted in her spot, staring intently at the sea. Right at the spot where her friend just disappeared from.

At the same time Delia was panicing, thrashing around, trying to get herself back to the surface. With her legs gone and a new, relatively unknown, body part, she had no clue how to swim. In fact, it wasn't until she felt, what once were her knees, touch the bottom that she remembered just how shallow the water was.

Using her tail she tried muster all her strength to push herself up. As soon as her head broke the surface she inhaled deeply, quickly moving her soaked hair out of her face.

"Thank god..." Olivia muttered from the shore, dropping the shoes she was still holding.

Panting, Delia took a moment to calm herself, trying to figure out how to use the tail to stay up. Swaying it gently she was able to keep herself afloat, a smile slowly appearing on her face.

"Did it work?" Oliva yelled over to her, cupping her hands around her mouth to propel her voice.

Delia looked up at her, "I sure think it did." she replied as a soft chuckle left her mouth.

"Alright! Good!" Olivia yelled back, "Now see if you can breathe underwater."

"Breathe..." Delia muttered under her breath, "Under..." She looked down, "Water..." A soft and somewhat panicked chuckle left her mouth, "Easier said than done."

Pondering on how to proceed she simply stared down at the water and at her tail below. 'Should I just go underwater and try to breathe?' She thought, right before she took a deep breath and went back underwater.

It was only after she had taken a deep breath that she realised the irony of it. The second she was fully submerged she let the breath go and paused for a moment. Should she just take a breath and hope she wouldn't start coughing? Or just wait and see if she would even need to take a breath?

Suddenly she realised that her eyes were still closed. Slowly she opened them, fully expecting the usual blurry underwater vision. Surprisingly however, see could see everything round her crystal clear, as if she was wearing goggles. A smile spread on her face as she looked all around her, taking in her surroundings. When she turned her back to the shore and looked into the deep she saw all kinds off underwater life.

As she continued to look around she realised that she still had not taken a breath, and still was not in need of air... Slowly she moved her hands up to her neck, tentatively she moved her fingers over her neck, feeling something unfamiliar. Did she have gills?!

Somewhat panicked she decided to try and move towards the shore, towards Olivia. This time it didn't take long for her to figure out how the tail worked, and rather quickly she was swimming towards the shore, almost as if it were natural to her.

As the water got shallower and shallower she felt her body graze the sandy bottom before she could swim no further. Poking her head out of the water she was met with the sight of Olivia , sitting on a towel, with her shoes lying next to her.

"Took you long enough." Olivia jokingly said, raising her sunglasses. "And?"

"Does my neck look weird?" Delia asked, pointing at it.

"Oh my god..." Olivia exclaimed standing up and into the water, getting close to Delia, "You have gills..."

Delia's eyes went wide, apparently yet another bodily change that had occurred.

"So you can breathe underwater." Olivia said staring at her neck intently, "Interesting, anything else?"

"I can see clearly underwater." Delia said, laying on in the water on her stomach, resting her head on her hands, "And I think figured out how to swim."

"You think you figured out how to swim?" Olivia said raising an eyebrow.

"I mean I got back to the shore didn't I?"

"Alright, then go and swim a lap." Olivia said, sitting back down on her towel, and putting her sunglasses on again.

"What?" Delia said with furrowed brows, "I can't do that."

"Sure you can," Olivia said leaning on her elbows, "You're a mermaid aren't you?" She chuckled.

Delia shook her head before using her hands to push herself back into the ocean. Slowly she navigated herself back to the spot where she was before, her head still above the water. By now she was pretty certain that she could breathe underwater, but it still felt rather foreign to her.

She hesitated for a moment before diving down, resisting the urge to take a large gulp of air before she went down. The second she did so she kicked her tail hoping that it would propel her forward, which thankfully it did.

In fact, it didn't take long before she had figured out just how to use the new appendage. By now she was gliding through the water as easily as she would walk upon the land. She smiled as she moved around through the water, surrounded by all the underwater life in the sea.

It was then that she had an idea, or at least something she wanted to try, could she jump out of the water and do a summersault? Looking back up at the surface the light trickled down on her face and she decided to try it.

First she swam down a little bit deeper, before turning back again and building up speed. As she broke the surface she yelped in both surprise and happiness as she flew into the air before gracefully diving back in the water. A large smile was now plastered on her face as she swam around a bit more.

After a few seconds however, she stopped, suddenly it hit her just how easily she had learned this... How was that even possible, she wondered, her face creasing in thought. How would she know to swim like that.

I mean she could swim before, but not like that, not with such ease. The entire situation itself was just strange to say the least....