Once upon a time there was a lonely girl named Ashley who grew up all alone. Her mother, Scarlett, was a mermaid who had been banished from the Sea Kingdom at age 16 and stripped of all of her family, friends, and life before, in a fiercely ridiculing and devastating exile ritual. Scarlett was also deeply alone and broken when she swam up to the human world and tried to make a better life for herself there. Scarlett, who was to become the mother of Ashley, tried to make it in her new life, despite the continuing pain of her past. She tried to interact with humans, but they didn't seem to want much to do with her either. Eventually a man took an interest in her. Scarlett had no idea why the human Cecil seemed to like her, but she was delighted, so she didn't question it. He would visit her from time to time, and eventually they began an intimate relationship and the mermaid became pregnant. She was very distressed by this possibility, as she had never heard of a mermaid having a human child. Still, she loved children, and therefore was very excited as well. Perhaps this child would actually give her life some positive meaning. And maybe, just maybe, in raising a child with love instead of humiliation and fear, Scarlett could re-parent herself in a way. Cecil had promised to take care of Scarlett and the baby, and this delighted the kind-hearted, but traumatized mermaid still further. The handsome human reminded her of her brother back in the mermaid world, the only of her people she had ever felt accepted by and close to, at least most of the time. Cecil and Scarlett were wed in a small ceremony on the beach, and 6 months later, Scarlett gave birth to our heroine, a beautiful half-mermaid girl, who turned out remarkably human-like in appearance.
