Two Tails, One Rotten Heart

Pulled to the past

She didn't look like Ula, not really. This girl, whoever she was, looked dangerous, like a predator and so far from the image of the weak willed sister Nala carried in her mind. It was the face. She had the same high eyebrows and cheekbones that both girls had possessed, the brown hair, the shape of her mouth, it was all the same. The problem was the whole picture, it threatened to ruin the small hope Nala had that this was her sister because the girl had a tail like she did but hers was larger, thicker. It was black yet had a large white spot underneath and slick like it could shoot you through the waves while barely making a noise. It almost resembled the whales Nala remembered from her youth...

It wasn't just the tail but also the black claws extending from slim fingers and the rows of pointed teeth that could be seen from the slightly opened mouth. It was the gold slitted eyes that seemed to expand and contract every few minutes and the skin, covered in scales that seemed to change color or reflect off the water going from green to purple to blue in a matter of seconds. It couldn't possibly be Ula but Nala asked again.

"Ula?" It was a hoarse whisper, that hesitant hope flaring just a little.

"What are you doing here?" the girl snapped. She darted her gaze from left to right as if expecting an ambush.

It was Ula. That voice echoed through Nala's memories and before she could stop herself she was flinging herself in the other girls arms. Nala had never been one for affection and she tried to remember the last time she had given her sister a hug but came up blank. She also tried to remember the last time Ula ever pushed her away because that is what she did now.

Ula slithered out of Nala's arms and held her away, her claws clamped not the soft skin of Nala's shoulders.

"Nala you have to leave."

"Leave? I just got here, I just saw you and now you're telling me to leave? Do you have any idea —"

Nala didn't get to finish the sentence because Ula cut her off, "I know but try to understand, for once in your life just listen to me, you can't be here, go back."

Ula had always been the one who thought it out, the careful one and Nala missed the old recklessness that had been her constant companion. She detached herself from Ula and sat down on the sandy floor once again.

"I am not leaving until you explain. I thought you were taken, first by the villagers then by the sirens, then I thought you were dead and now here you are, safe and sound, and you aren't even curious as to why I am here. Don't want to bother explaining how you came to be here. Do you have any idea what I have been through?" Nala's voice rose to a crescendo and she didn't care who heard.

Ula flinched and flicked her tail in a sharp smooth movement, it reminded Nala of Cari and how comfortable she was with her tail. Ula had a tail but Nala didn't think she was siren, she didn't look like the sirens and if Nala was telling the truth...she was jealous. Ula looked like a force of nature, a typhoon given skin. Nala looked like a pretty doll.

"I will explain," Ula said finally, "just not now. Please. Go back and we can meet again tonight. Just go." She pleaded, hands clasped and her eyes practically begging Nala to listen. So she did. Nala watched as Ula swam away, she never once looked back though it wouldn't matter if she had because Nala's eyes were firmly stuck to her tail anyways. Nala began to slowly swim back to the sirens, her body aching in ways she had never experienced and never wanted to again. The encounter with sister played in her mind in an endless loop. It kept getting stuck at one part, the first thing Ula said. What are you doing here? Nala had never heard that tone out of her sister's mouth. She would have thought the twins had somehow switched places, Ula looked like what Nala felt she was on the inside. A wild animal in human skin wanting to escape oh so badly. Just then Ula had sounded like Nala too, almost like she had changed in a matter of days. It had only been a day but already Nala felt as though she had lived a thousand years.