The Little Merman- Philidosia

Chapter 3

Philip POV

I swam up to the human, seeing a flash of violet disappear into a crevice on the ocean floor. Taking a look at the human's face, I saw that it was a female. Humans need air, I need to get her to the surface, I thought to myself, grabbing the human and dragging her upwards.

We broke the surface for a split second, but we were pushed right back down as the waves were too strong. This human couldn't survive for long under the water, and with these waves there would be no way I could reach the ship without crashing into it. The only way to save her was to take her to land where other humans could find her. The same land that I was forbidden to ever go to.

Eh.

I knew there was land not far from here, with a human village on it, so if I took this human there, she would be found and taken care of. But the long fabric thing she was wearing was making me struggle to drag her along, so I grabbed the end of it, ripping it so it went halfway up her weird looking fins. Why did humans have two fins? They rarely swam anyway. I then put her on my back, and started swimming in the direction of the island, making sure to steer clear of Atlantis and it's guards.

It took me about 10 minutes to reach land, and thankfully there were rocks for me to stay behind. I made sure the human girl had her head above the water, and then peeked out from behind the rock. There were no humans in sight, but I could see the tips of their houses not too far from the beach, so I knew they would find the girl.

I grabbed her again, and making sure I was mostly underneath the water, I approached land. This was it. I was defying my parents, and the law of the kingdom. For a human. Susan was going to kill me.

I hoisted myself up onto the shore, struggling to do so with my tail, and then pulled the human up next to me. I checked her pulse, and sighed in relief when I saw she was breathing. I sat there for a few moments, catching my breath as I was tired from all of the swimming.

Wait a minute.

How was I breathing!? I had gills, they weren't suitable for air!

I frantically moved my fingers to my neck, where my gills were, but I felt nothing, just smooth skin.

Suddenly, I felt a tingling sensation in my tail. Well, it wasn't a tail anymore. Where my tail should've been, there were two tails instead. Human tails.

I started to properly panic, my breathing getting more frantic and my vision getting hazy. Was this a curse? I was snapped out of my state of panic when the human beside me started to stir. Her eyes fluttered open, and instead of diving back into the water like I should have, I made eye contact. Her eyes were chocolate brown, with specks of gold around the iris.

She started coughing and spluttering, and I finally realised I should get out of here. I pushed myself back into the water, ignoring the human as she called out to me. Thankfully, my fin returned to normal, and I was able to swim away.

***

When I reached Atlantis, I snuck in through the secret entry Susan and I had discovered as kids, and swam back to the palace. Making sure I stayed out of sight of the guards, I swam into my room through the window I had left open. I closed the window slowly behind me, and let out a thankful sigh. I had made it back.

"Philip Hamilton-Laurens, where the hell have you been?" A deep voice said from behind me.

I spun around, and nearly cried in relief. It was only Susan, imitating my father's voice.

"Don't scare me like that, Susie!" I said, hitting her lightly on the arm. "I thought it was Pops or Dad!"

"Don't think that you're not in trouble, you scared the life out of me! I went back to our hideout after dinner, and you weren't there, so I came back here, and you weren't here either! So where in the ocean were you?" Susan demanded.

"Uh, if I tell you where I was, will you promise not to tell anyone?" I asked. She rolled her eyes.

"For the hundredth time, Phil, I'm not going to rat you out to anyone," she said. "What kind of friend would I be if I did that?"

"Ok, ok, well I may or may not have seen a human machine-"

"Please tell me you didn't do what I think you did," Susan groaned. I scratched the back of my head sheepishly.

"Well, a human fell off it and wasn't moving, so I had to do something! So I dragged her to the closest land and put her on the shore." I summed up, making sure to leave out the part when I grew legs and made eye contact with the human.

Susan inhaled, before raging at me.

"ARE YOU SERIOUS? RESCUE A HUMAN AND TAKE HER BACK TO LAND!? YOU COULD'VE DIED, YOU COULD'VE BEEN SEEN!" she shouted.

"But that's the thing, Susie, I couldn't have been seen because as soon as I was on land, my fin turned into human tails," I said, lowering my voice to a whisper towards the end. Her eyes widened.

"Seriously? That's wicked!" she whisper-shouted. She continued to talk about how I'd made a life-changing discovery, but I zoned out, my head full of thoughts of the human girl. How her hair flowed in the ocean current, and how nice that piece of fabric looked against her dark skin. And her eyes, that beautiful shade of brown with gold flecks, were unforgettable. She was beautiful.

"-and we could make a peace treaty with the humans- hey, are you even listening, knucklehead?" Susan said, interrupting me from my thoughts.

"Huh?" I said.

"Of course you weren't listening, you never listen to me when I have something important to talk about," she rolled her eyes. She seemed to study my face for a moment, before her eyes widened again.

"I know that look, Phil, it's the same look you had when you were dating that boy, James," she said. "Please don't tell me it's that human girl?" she pleaded, even though I was pretty sure she already knew the answer.

"You should've seen her! She was more beautiful than anyone I've ever seen before, you would've fallen for her too," I tried to reason.

"Well," Susan said. "I guess I know where we are sneaking out to go tomorrow,"

"Sneaking out to go where?" A voice came from behind us. I whipped my head around, and saw my dads standing at the door.

I had only one thought as I saw them.

Oh shit.