Mermen on Accident (DNF Mermaid AU)

Underwater Cave

We follow Sapnap and Karl to an underwater cave. They talk as we swim behind them, about things I couldn't quite hear. They were much better swimmers than George and I, for obvious reasons.

We swim along the sand, going through seaweed and around rocks and coral. George looks at it all with animated features. I realized he seems to enjoy the prospect of being able to breathe and see underwater, then to actually be a merman. He was really upset with me yesterday about that and we had never really resolved it. We just moved on, but I had a suspision that he still blamed me for all of this.

At the same time, it was technically fate wasn't it? We were part of this prophecy. Even still, I much enjoyed being able to swim faster with a tail, and have webbed fingers, and colorful hair. We looked so cool as mermen.

Sapnap and Karl swim out of sight, underneath a big rock and through the seaweed. I hesitantly follow them, George right behind me. I push the seaweed out of the way and slip into a little hole in the rock. When I make it through the other side I notice we are in a sort of tunnel. I swim upwards and see Sapnap's orangish tail and Karl's purple and blue tail. I swim up to them and suddenly I am above the water.

"Glad you could make it," Sapnap remarks as my head pokes out of the water.

George emerges right next to me and looks around in awe. We were in a little cave above water. It was something I would've never known about, since it was only accessible via the underwater tunnel. It has a little lip of rock above water, big enough to fit my living room. Sapnap and Karl swim over to it and prop their arms up on the rock, Karl facing towards the rock and Sapnap facing George and I. It was like a personal, giant hot tub, without the hot.

"Here's what I'm thinking," Sapnap says, voice echoing around the watery cave. "I want to see what happened to you guys, which means I need you above land. Thought this place would be private enough. You know, because we aren't supposed to interact with humans for one, and because we aren't supposed to interact with you two specifically."

Karl's shoulders sink at the criticism.

Sapnap looks at us expectantly. "Well... you know, transform back or something."

"Oh."

George and I swim over to the edge of the rock and pull ourselves out of the water. Karl watches with curiosity while Sapnap tries to look uninterested. The curiosity takes the best of him as my tail slowly fades back into legs. Once I have fully transformed, I pull my legs into a crisscross position and look over at Sapnap. George scoots next to me, sitting on his feet.

"That's so weird," Sapnap confesses.

Karl giggles and I smile.

"Yeah, it is weird," I agree.

Sapnap nods his head. "Okay, so how did this happen?"

George cuts in and explains how we found ourselves in a magic cave, the ground disappeared underneath us and we woke up on the beach. "Ever since then we've been able to turn into mermen, but only in the ocean."

"What do you mean only in the ocean?" Karl asks.

"We tried swimming in a pool at my neighbors house," I add, "and nothing happened. We didn't know why."

"Well yeah," Sapnap says matter-of-factly. "You're not just going to change in fresh water. You only shift when you're in ocean water."

"Okay? Good to know."

"Oh! Also," George adds, "we haven't really been able to eat food properly. And we also get nauseous when we are in the wind for too long or something. And sometimes my whole body hurts when I get dehydrated. And-"