Ideas and Rejects

Tiny Mermaid pt 2

August finished his well-earned shower with a gratified sigh. His dive today had been so successful. Two tasty black crabs for supper, several intact lightning welks of notable color, a couple scotch bonnets, some pretty bivalves and fighting conchs, a rare junonia, and best of all a magnificent, intact Queen's Conch almost as big as his head.

August was a twenty-eight-year-old roofer and part-time dive instructor who lived and worked near the Caribbean. His grandfather owned some beach houses and had bequeathed one to him upon his passing. Sure, the taxes were outrageous and hurricane damage was always prompting maintenance, but August loved the place. It was private, away from the hungry tourists, and best of all he could fulfill his passion of diving and collecting shells without being bothered.

In fact, a lot of his collection was prominently displayed in his quaint beach house on nearly every flat surface. Given his buff, tan physique, short stylish brown hair, piercing blue eyes, and faint scruff about his chin and jaw, one would never guess his passion was collecting pretty shells.

After washing the salt water and sand from his body, he dried off, and donned a T-shirt and cotton boxers for the evening. He'd already washed his shells, discovering his prized Queen's Conch was full of odd trinkets. A ball of tinfoil, several rubber fish lures of varying colors, and on top of that a gold ring. He wasn't sure what creature had stashed away all those things in the empty shell, but it was indeed an odd assortment.

Probably a crab of some sort looking to impress a mate.

The gold ring was particularly exciting since it might be worth something. He hoped so. It was expensive to maintain a beachfront property.

He reentered his kitchen to retrieve the big shell and find a place to add it to his collection when he spotted something odd sitting on the towel next to the Queen's Conch. It almost looked like a little doll sitting on the counter. At first, August thought it might be something else odd that had been hoarded away in his shell. But when he approached the kitchen counter near his sink he was startled by the life-like quality of this "doll".

Dare he think it...was it breathing?

It looked like a tiny woman with snow white skin, glowing blue dots along her legs and arms, and a thick shock of fuzzy black hair that went down to the middle of her pale back. Her face was tipped downward so he couldn't see what she looked like.

Was it a doll...or was it alive?

He reached out to poke it and was astonished when it felt warm and squishy. Not plastic...not rubber...

...

The Kraken was right beside her, looming like death itself. Junia could almost feel the weight of its shadow as it darkened her and everything around her. The little Serrani instinctually froze, not daring to move. From the corner of her eye she could see the bulk of the Kraken's enormous body. But strangely the Kraken wasn't all black anymore. It had changed color.

Was it like an octopus, able to change its skin colors at will?

It didn't matter now. Junia knew movement triggered predatory instinct. Some predators had poor detail vision so movement was the one thing they could distinguish. Maybe if she held still long enough the Kraken wouldn't be able to distinguish her...or at the very least lose interest and move away?

But then movement entered her periphery. Her eyes moved and much to her horrified surprise an enormous hand, designed much like hers minus the webbing, was reaching toward her.

Every instinct was screaming at her: Swim away! Hide! It's going to eat you!

But still, Junia kept absolutely still. And then a heavy warm presence touched her shoulder and the fluff of her hair. She couldn't help but tense seeing the huge finger extend out and begin prodding her.