A Tale of Tails

Off to a rocky start

The day was positively gorgeous as Ari floated on her back in the water, light glistening off her scales. Clouds floated by as she gently swished her tail back and forth near the seashore. The sky was blue and a gentle breeze was blowing, Ari couldn't have been happier. She only came up to the surface on days like these, which were even rarer now that the warm weather meant more humans were hanging around the coast. Luckily there were no humans in sight, all was calm as she dosed off on a rock. After an hour or so the sun was beginning to set as a person made their way down the beach and on top of the rock which Ari was propped against. "Good bye life, you always sucked anyways." As the human jumped Ari awoke from the water hitting her face to find the human rapidly sinking, thinking the human had slipped and was in danger she dove in after them, pulling them up to the surface with little difficultly. She wasn't exactly sure what to do, she'd never seen a human this close before and certainly didn't know what a live one should look like. Ari prodded the body with her finger and the human began sputtering and coughing up sea water. Ari wasn't really afraid of the human and stayed nearby to make sure they were okay. The human's eyes opened to find Ari's staring right back at her above her face. "Hello" Ari backed of and gave them room to sit up. It was a female human, her blonde hair hung damp and clung to her face. She looked at Ari and responded with a dry and cracked voice, "Hello." "You really took a bad slip there, maybe you should be more careful next time." The girl looked at her with dull eyes and responded bluntly, "I didn't slip, I jumped." Ari looked in the girls eyes, a bit puzzled, "Oh, well still try to be more careful, you could have been seriously hurt. The girl sighs and looks back at the rock. "That was kind of the point." Ari tilts her head still not understanding what the human means. "I... I was trying to kill myself." The girl looks at Ari waiting for her reaction. "Why would you do a thing like that?" She sighs and pushes some of the hair out of her face, "Because my life sucks and I don't want to endure it any longer?" Ari puts a hand on her leg and glances and the city beyond the beach. "I thought life on the surface was great for you humans. You have all kinds of neat things right?" Now the girl looks confused, "Humans? Surface? What are you talking abo-" She finally actually looks at Ari's whole body and notices the tail. "Oh shit, you're a mermaid aren't you?" Ari excitedly nods. "Wow, I bet your life is great. You get to swim around all day, not worrying about anything, just enjoying the ocean." Ari again smiles and nods, "Yeah I really love it." Suddenly the girls eyes light up and she talks excitedly. "Hey. Could you like maybe, I dunno, turn me into a mermaid?" "Turn you into a mermaid.... I... I don't know." An idea hits Ari and she begins talking with excitement as well. "Wait yeah! I know our healer, she knows some magic, she could do it!" Ari begins swimming back out into the deeper water grinning. "Wait where are you going?!" "Don't worry I'll be right back, I've have to go talk to someone."