They Were Supposed To Be Fiction

This is Where it Begins.

I wasn't like the other girls and boys, I was fair skinned, much lighter than their own darker pigmentations. My hair wasn't thick and curly. It wasn't dark like theirs. It was thick, yes, but not as thick as my arms or the bushes by my hut. It's dark as the Boabab tree that I would be at frequently with Ayo meaning Lucid one, my best friend and brother-like figure, which meant my hair wasn't that dark. It was curly, but the curly that looked more like waves of the ocean that none dared to cross. I wasn't like the other boys or girls. My eyes were green instead of the normal shades of earth. My body was slimmer but I held a lot more muscle than it'd look like. I had a square face, strong jaw and high cheekbones. I had olive skin that tanned very easily in the warmer seasons and didn't really seem to lose that tan during the year. I had freckles all over my body, like my Mother. I am Ayodele, it means Return of happiness. Mother calls me Dele to not mistake me with Ayo. The tribe say we are going to be together for a long time, but what is a long time? Ayo and I are now young adults, both of us are sixteen. Many other girls are already wed with a babe of their own on the way and then there's me. I'm not wed but there are many strong men in the tribe my age, or a bit older, ready to make me theirs. Mother and Father don't let anyone touch me though. Father says he chooses who he sees fit but I think he wants to have me wed Ayo. Mother says she wants me to be happy but... How can I be happy when I don't know where my life leads me? Father says he will make the decision in the next few days, he just needs to finish one last thing before doing it.

I remember days later being told I'd be wed to Ayo and days after that were more pleasant than you'd imagine. Ayo and I made a great couple like Mother and Father thought, I even became pregnant with our first child. I do not mind if it is a girl or a boy, but I know Ayo would like a boy. Every man does because they can teach him things a girl "shouldn't" know, but I know Ayo will teach our child the same be it girl or boy. Our daughter was born nine moons later, before the White man from other lands came and took us from Ayo and our home. I remember that day clearly, Ayo and I fought like wild beasts to protect our daughter whom was only five, only to be subdued and thrown onto a ship in the lower levels together. Ayo kept men away from us, taking whippings from the crew members to do so. The other men put into the slave trade worked to keep us safe too, we were all animals here. But then... Things changed. I remember at the age of twenty-one getting chains attached to my arms and legs, the same with my daughter, and being pushed into the ocean waters. The fear and hatred that burned in my husband's eyes and the fear and tears in my daughter's were the last things I saw before I was surrounded by the deep blue, suffocating for air. I tried to kick my way free but with the dead weight of others struggling to do the same I couldn't get free. And.. that's when our new lives began. From a human on the surface, fair of skin and wild in spirit, to a creature of the deep, hiding under the water, plotting revenge on the ships that took my husband away, and made me and my daughter and a few other survivors into something new and different. We grew fins where are feet once were, gills to breathe the air from the water, and the webs on our hands grew out more to help us swim. It had taken time for this transformation and many didn't survive, or we couldn't find them. Amara, or Elegance and grace, my daughter, was the first to change. It was what scholars would call "evolutionary change", speaking on our how bodies forced themselves to change and adapt to the new world. It took several hours for us to change, and by then we were either dead, dying, or completely unconscious. My group chain had been lucky enough to swipe into an underwater cave were we could breathe some air, but not enough. The change had been excruciating. It was like being ripped apart with how our bodies adapted and morphed into something else. We were the first, or so we thought, of what would become legendary folklore. We were what you would call mermaids.

I told you before, I am not like the other boys and girls. Oh no, dear reader, I am something much more and I'll share this story with you. Share if you wish, but none will believe you. I am merely a piece of fiction, aren't I?