A Whole New Underwater World

I was swimming very slowly, barely hovering in calm waters. My hair was suspended in the water, moving ever so slightly with the the movement of the water. Then Zephyr came close. My tail pulsed in different colors with the sight of him. His grey stormy eyes locked with mine. He slowly swam closer, wrapping one arm around my waist, and the other holding up my chin. He began to slowly lean in for a perfect kiss...

I woke up sitting straight in my bed. Uhh why did you have to wake up? That was perfect... but why him? Yes he is gorgeous and charming, but I have only known him for a day. I was even unconscious for most of it. That dream felt so real. It was almost....

"Harriet wake up we are going to be late!" I heard Sam yelling from the hallway. I sat up, swinging my legs to the floor "Ow!" The pain from being out of the water for so long was definitely real. "Violet are you okay in there?" Sam yelled through the door. "Yeah I just bumped my arm. I am fine." I hurriedly left my bedroom and hopped in the shower. The water made my legs feel slightly better, but I could still feel the pain. I got out of the shower and ran to my room getting ready for our morning routine. I got dressed got a Poptart and we ran to the bus stop. "What are you going to do for work?" I will put in my two weeks notice, and find a different job. They have no use for a life guard that can't swim." I said pointing to my arm brace. "I will find a different job, in the mean time we will just live off of instant noodles for awhile." I smiled at him, and he gave me a weak smile back. We waited a few minutes, and finally got to my stop. I ruffled Sam's hair. "Have a good day at school baby brother." I said. "Take it easy." He replied. I got off of the bus, and for the first time I didn't have to run to the beach for work. When I arrived Tony was already flirting with his first harem of the day. I went to the lifeguards post, and met with my supervisor, who thankfully was there that day. I filled out the papers for my two weeks notice, and was already on my way back to the bus station. An hour later I found myself at the secluded cove. I looked at the shore, the same water that changed my life. I took of my arm brace, and ran into the water, eager to relieve the soreness in my dry legs. I got to five feet, and just like that I began to change. Once again my tail came back, my scales were purple once again. "Hey!" I heard from behind a rock. My tail flashed red before I realized that it was Zephyr. "Hey why are you hiding?" I asked beginning to swim towards him. "Because I am a gentleman, and I know you are topless when you change." he said. My face turned red and my tail turned yellow, just now realizing how exposed I was. I covered myself with my arms. "Here, wear this he swam out from behind the rock. One hand covering his eyes, the other holding the shirt I had asked for the day prior. "Thank you." I said. I quickly put it on. "Okay you can open your eyes now." I said to Zephyr. He uncovered his eyes. I was expecting some sort of compliment, but he just said "Okay follow me." This meeting isn't as romantic as I thought it was going to be. Once we got deeper into the water though he turned his charm back on. He flipped to swimming with his back to the ocean floor and his crossed hands behind his head, keeping it up. "Okay newbie here is some common knowledge; never linger in the shallows. if a human sees you they will turn into a fish person too. Like you yesterday." He swam up vertically and and gestured to me. It is illegal to make a human turn into an aquatic creature purposely, it is very taboo and humiliating to do it on accident. So my dad is not in the best mood recently." I blushed in embarrassment, and my tail gained a few yellow scales among my regular purple scales. "Sorry." Zephyr laughed. Just then another fish person swam up from behind. My tail tuned yellow. "Wow Zeph! Who is she?" The girl swam circles around me. She had a tail that was orange fading to pink like a sunset. Her two blond braids whipping behind her as she sped faster around me. "Her tail changed colors! Like for real not like the sun hitting her scales making them look shiny." the girl said, "Hi I am Trixy!" She wrapped me in a hug. I looked at Zephyr very confused. "Trixy back off, she just turned yesterday. I think you are scaring her." He said in a joking voice. Immediately she unraveled her arms and backed off. "I am so sorry. I thought you were new here like from a different reef, not from land." She apologized speaking very fast. My tail went back to purple. "Ah it did it again! Who changed her? How do you do that? Can you control it? When did you change? How..." Zephyr pulled her backwards by her braids and covered her mouth "Sorry about Trixy she is easily excited." he said to me. Then he looked down at Trixy who was forcefully being held against his chest with her mouth covered. I envied her for a split second. "Okay I will calm down." Trixy said. "Now newbie, what is your name?" She asked more gently. I responded "I am Harriet Rivers, and to answer some of your other questions: I have no Idea how my scales change colors, I can't control them. I turned into a fish person yesterday, so I know almost nothing, and Zephyr's dad changed me." At that last bit her jaw dropped. She turned back facing Zephyr. "Milo Slade, Mr. All mighty ruler of all social conduct, and the most self righteous fish person EVER changed someone!?" She said in utter shock. "Keep it down my dad will kill me if word that a Slade changed someone gets out. Harriet it is best if you just say you don't remember who changed you." Zephyr said. "Why, I know it is taboo, but what is it that big of a deal?" Trixy laid her arm over my shoulders which made me wobble a bit. "Your buddy Zephyr Slade here is a social elite. A prince if you will, and his whole family for generations has been treated as celebrities or royals, because of their genetics." Trixy explained "You see your tail color isn't based on genetics, but the color that your soul is however; the Slade family here has managed to give every male heir a tail of silver scales for generations. Not only that, elders can't read their souls, so they are a mystery. This means there might in fact be a genetic component to our scales, but no one has figured out how for centuries." She told me this in a voice that reminded me of hearing a scary story. I thought about it for a moment. "What if instead of a genetic component your ancestors simply reincarnated back into the same family each time they died. Leaving you with the same tail color. Your soul may be unreadable because it has been through so many lifetimes." Both of them were still. They looked at eachother, nodded, and each grabbed one of my arms. We sped through the reef I could see passing fish people as we swam quickly through the water. "Where are we going!" I yelled. "We are taking you and your ideas to the elder." Trixy said. I was shocked, "Has really no one thought of this before?"

"Not that I know of." said Zephyr. We swam and swam until finally we reached a large podium with another cushion. On top the cushion sat an elderly fish person with a maroon tail. She was covered in wrinkles and age spots. She had to have been at least 90 years old. Both Trixy and Zephyr gave a quick light bow. I followed their movements in suit, very confused. My tail turned a deep yellow color. "Elder this peculiar newcomer has an idea as to what the Slade family scale mystery is." Trixy said. The elder raised her eyebrows, making her eyes a little more visible. "Hmm it seems she has brought a few mysteries. Sit down newcomer let me see you." She gestured for me to sit on the cushion beside her. She looked me up and down. "Yes you are a mystery all in and of yourself." She said while nodding. "Miss White please braid this newcomer's hair while we speak." She looked at Trixy. Trixy immediately started braiding my hair. "Now young one what is your name?" She asked. "My name is Harriet Rivers, mam." Trixy whispered in my ear "Call her elder or dear elder." I stuttered a bit "I..I..

mean dear elder." She gave an old friendly smile. "Rivers...sounds like you were born to live in water." The old woman pulled one of my scales off quickly and painfully, like ripping off a bandaid. My whole tail flashed multiple colors rapidly. "Ow! What the Hell old lady." I said. Trixy and Zephyr both had shocked expressions. The elder simply laughed though. "Been awhile since I was given an insult haha. Feels good to be talked to like a normal person every now and again." I nodded my head "Sorry elder.". She looked at the scale that she had plucked, but as soon as it left my tail, it turned white. "You are a mystery all in yourself little cuttlefish." I will have to see what the spirits have to say about you as well. "I can't control when it changes color though." I said "Sure you can it seems to be related to how you feel. It is purple when you are calm and yellow when you are nervous. I haven't seen any other expressions, but you have a different color for each feeling. Now what was this idea you have?" "Well I am new here and don't know much, but is reincarnation a possibility. If so maybe you can't read the male Slades, because multiple reincarnations of the same family line have become the next heir each generation. Multiple lives, souls, and personalities would make reading them difficult." I said. The elder appeared to be thinking. "I will take up this idea with the ocean spirits.". I was confused, but didn't question her. "We said our farewells respectfully then swam off. *It c*hanges because of emotion, that is horrible. People will be able to tell when I am lying about something, what if I get a color for when I am turned on. Oh God that would be horrible.

"Hey what are you thinking?" asked Trixy. "I am thinking about my cursed tail and how many white lies I tell to be polite will be useless, or embarrassing things I want to hide." Trixie looked at my tail. "What are you feeling right now?" she asked "I am upset." I replied. "Okay now we know your tail turns blue when you are upset. We dont need to fill anyone else in one what your colors mean, and if you start to feel something you don't want others to see, only you and me will know what it means." I smiled back at her grateful for the advise. "How about we ditch Zeph I looked back up at him and there were three women surrounding Zephyr. "Yeah he looks busy." I was a bit jealous, but luckily my tail stayed blue. So Trixie and I swam off.

"Are you sure Zephyr won't worry?" I asked Trixy. "We will be fine. No worries." She said "Ooh I'm hungry let's eat!" she yelled. then grabbed my wrist and we went to the nearest restaurant. Much like the other buildings and structure it was carved out of the coral reef. "I have never eaten anything from underwater before." I said meekly. "Don't worry I come here all the time. You stay here, I will order." She swam to another fish person who was standing behind a counter. There were a lot of similarities between aquatic life and life on land, but at the same time, it is completely different. I looked around seeing fish people swimming around going about their daily lives. I saw a fish person infant with an all white tail, then another. That wasn't the strangest though, there were fish people with tentacles instead of tails, and some were larger than the rest and had tails like whales. I watched what was a regular day at the reef in absolute awe. This world is so odd, but in reality I was the odd one out. Everything was magical, that is until I saw the food. "Eat up!"

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