Blue in Green

Nerina realized that she said too much. Félix made her feel too comfortable. She forgot that humans couldn't breathe underwater.

"Uhm, I swim," Nerina began feebly. "My family's been diving for seafood for generations, you know. It's totally normal. The Ondos were really great pearl divers back on Albany Island. So um, I have a reputation to live up to." She added a little laugh that sounded like a small babbling brook.

It still didn't exactly explain why she would be swimming with sharks in the darkest and deepest of waters. Even if the Ondos were pearl divers, which they still were, they would search in the daytime, with specialized wetsuits and boats awaiting them.

She sighed.

"I'm not human." She didn't want to tell him in what aspects she wasn't human, but by now it would be easy to guess, judging by how close she lived by the sea and how long her hair was. "But it's not really a power. It's more like a curse. It's... Complicated."

"No," She protested faintly. "I can't speak about it." She didn't want to say anything about being the result of some horrible abomination with a human woman and someone that dwelled in the sea. Her own mother didn't want her, regardless of conjoined legs or not. She felt much shame in that and she never wanted to put it into words. It was something unspeakable to her.

"I'll..." Her coloration darkened. It even looked like her hair was a tinge darker. "I'll show you my curse, and you show me yours."

In the daytime she could still transform at will. She took Félix's hand and directed him outside to the beach again. They didn't go to the sandy shoreline where the red and yellow flags pointed out where it was safe to swim.

Instead, they went a little further to the cliff face, where the rock pools where. The waves crashed relentlessly, like a creature possessed by both worship and fury, coming back to the land for more. Beyond them, there were sure to be powerful rips that would pull people out towards the ocean, never to be seen again.

Nerina took off her dress. She advised Félix to take his clothes off too if he didn't have spare ones. The energy of the waves were incredibly strong, and she took him by the hand still, walking towards the deep ocean calmly. Scales started to appear on her legs.

She leapt in, dragging Félix with her. There was no shallow water, no pool bottom. At first there was darkness, as water would fill his nostrils and ears. Nerina had let go of him. The saltiness of the sea made it difficult to open his eyes.

It was very easy to panic, and then drown.

Since his eyes would come in contact with salt water if he opened them, the only sign that there was something else out there in the water was when something long and slippery passed his legs. Then hands took him up to the surface, helping him stay afloat in the strong sea current.

With their heads above the water, the waves would pass over their heads and cause Félix to experience the unpleasant sensation of a very salty and unsteady bath.

"Sorry. Do you even swim? I should have asked you before–" Nerina commented before a wave rushed over them again, cutting their conversation short. It was a little embarrassing for her to ask that of him. She still held onto Félix. "Scull your legs. Like you're riding a bicycle."

Unlike Nerina, Félix still had legs to scull if he wanted to keep his head above the water. It would feel silly and somewhat tiring, but it would work.

"Do you want to see more?"

"Oh," When Félix mentioned demonstrating how far down she could dive was out of the question for him, Nerina felt somewhat embarrassed. She was glad that Félix told her. "I'll think of something else, then."

Nerina observed her surroundings carefully. She had swam parallel to the tides, but she observed the flow of the surf. She then decided it was probably best to show him now than later. People would start to come in to catch some early waves. "We're going to go into a rip to get to an ocean cove. Keep calm and hold onto me if you're scared."

As expected, even if Félix was holding onto her back, Nerina was an incredibly strong swimmer, and once they were caught in the rip, the current became incredibly fast. It felt almost like how some girls would dream about riding on a dolphin, but Nerina didn't make any squeaks, clicks or fantastic leaps. She then swam away from it, parallel again to the formation of the white crest on the waves.

"Since you have powers, I trust you. Please don't tell anyone. Eric knows, but I'd um. I don't want you guys talking about it."

There were pieces of the cliff that jutted out like a ledge for them, made by the crashing of waves against rock over millions of years. She let Félix get off first, and then she hoisted herself onto the rock. Nerina's scales started out like a shimmery champagne, and then as one got closer to the fin, it was a lovely gold-shifting copper, and the tips of her fins were tinged red. Her tail was longer than traditional depictions of mermaids. It looked incredibly powerful compared to her weak human legs.

She gave a light shrug, flipping her tail playfully.

"This is me."

"I'm nothing special," Nerina said. "I'm just an ordinary girl that's half-mermaid." To be honest, most of the attention she got was unwanted when she was on land. She only owned a small hand mirror that she took with her when she went away into the ocean. She never saw herself as how others saw her. She sighed. "But I will never have a normal future with somebody else, in a pretty house with lots of neighbours, a pet cat and a child." She wanted to have that kind of life.

Félix's powers however, was much more different than her own 'curse'. There were many things in the sea that looked like that. She knew; she never went down too far to be caught in the snares of one of those creatures. She froze in fear, and shivered when he curled his tentacle around her tail. She could feel the pressure of his grip. Only a whimper escaped from her mouth, not even a scream. He could have hoisted her upside down and tear her apart.

"Félix stop, please," she begged.

She cowered under him, shielding her eyes from Félix. Whether she liked it or not, this was him. She never wanted to say what he was. Félix gave her awe when he saw her in her entirety, but she was repulsed by his touch and became withdrawn.

"I'm sorry... I was scared."