The First Swim ; A Mermaids Story

Part 5

"Hello? Wake up! WAKE UP!!" A pretty female shakes me.

"Who are you?" I ask.

"I am Oceana. Queen of mermaids." I look down. Sure enough, she has a tail. AND SO DO I!!! Everything goes black. When I wake up again, she's still there. And so is my tail. It is a shimmering dark blue fading into light blue. All of a sudden a thought strikes me.

"Where is Nitesha? I need to see her!!" I say in panic.

"Shhhh. Settle down. She's right next to you. And keep it down. She's sleeping." Oceana says in the nicest voice I have ever heard. "You look like you have no idea what or where you are."

"They don't exist. Mermaids can't exist, it's impossible." I murmur to myself.

"But they do!" The queen says in a cheery voice. Talk about excellent hearing! "Many people don't believe in mermaids, but a few do. If you would like to hear everything, I'll take you and your sister after she wakes up.

"Okay you two. Follow me." Oceana was leading us to the shell.

Whatever that is. "Now what you hear in here you must not share." She said as we approached a golden door. We entered a circular room. It was completely empty except for a big shell in the middle of the room.

"Speak!" Oceana yelled. At once the shell started talking! I almost fell over in surprise.

'A long time ago, a scientist was doing an experiment. She

was injecting fish DNA into other animals. She tried to inject a cat, but missed, and accidentally injected herself! Immediately she began to become thirsty and itchy. She quickly went home and got in the bath. She grabbed some itch relief soap, but before she could use it-her lower half became a short fat tail. From then on, whenever she touched water she sprouted a tail. Later in life she got married and had twins. The dad died the day they were born. She took it upon herself to protect them. During their first bath, they turned into half-fish just like their mother. One boy and one girl. Once they grew up, they got married to each other. Today that would be gross, but this was a long time ago before they knew any better. Their kids also had tails when they were wet. They had four kids-2 boys and 2 girls. As before, they married each other, had kids. This went on for many generations. Eventually, the tails started getting longer and more form-fitting. Soon, the kids were born with tails and they were permanent! They discovered they could breath underwater, and decided to live in the ocean. Now there are billions of them. Very few are born with the ability to become human again, unless the fish person married a human. Many humans did not like the fish people, so they took them, and sold them. Somewhat like the slave trade. This is how they got the name mermaids. Ever since then, the mermaids have had a rivalry against humans. Some mermaids believed things that others didn't, so they split themselves into different groups. Shallow-water, still deep-water, stormy-water, and calm-water. The different groups had many rivalries and wars, but when the humans were involved- they always fought side-by-side. Because the humans were such an enemy, any human that found the mermaid world would have to have their memory erased, and would have to become a mermaid. Some mermaids you must watch out for. The stormy-water and calm-water mermaids are very evil, and will harm whoever disobeys them. The other two groups usually get along, but not always. The conch shell went silent.

"That is the same story our mom told us, except only up to the

part about discovering they could breath underwater!" Nitesha said. "How did she know?"

"Well, I'll tell you, as soon as it's time." Without time to ask questions, she sent us off.

"Excuse me but we are kind of lost." I tell a young mermaid.

"You must be the new people! I'm Irena. And this is Kisa." She points to the mermaid next to her. "I remember where your rooms are, and there is a map of the ocean inside. Follow us." As she led us along, she talked. "You have separate rooms, but are in the same building. I really think you are going to like the houses. I am really good with names, and I remember that you guys are Mya and Nitesha. When we get to your house, I'll help Mya get situated, and Kisa will help Nitesha. Oh look! Here we are!" We came up to a house that was made out of coral. There were two doors, one labeled Myaand the other Nitesha.

"Meet back here in 20 minutes." Kisa said.

"Ok, sounds good. But first, I heard that there were four different groups of mermaids. Do you know what group we are in?" I asked

"You two are in the still deep water group." Kisa said.