I was actually thinking of a fish mutant, but I guess a mermaid is acceptable.
"Haven't you seen one before?" She said and flipped her hair.
I closed my mouth then - not trusting myself to speak - and shook my head.
Her eyes cast downward towards the bota bags beside me and her eyebrow raised. "Getting some water?" She asked.
I nodded my head as my answer.
"Well then. Let me help you with that." With one powerful push of her arms, she hauled herself up, scooped the bota bags, and swam a semi-circle around the lake at an amazing speed before coming back again. "Believe it or not the water is fresher at the center. You're welcome." She said and placed the now-filled bota bags beside me. When I didn't speak, she started to frown. "What? Can't you talk?" She said.
This time, I tried using my voice so I wouldn't offend her. She's nice and it would be rude for me not to say thank you. "Um...Thank you." I said.
Her face seemed to light up and she did a backflip in the lake before coming to the surface again. "You can talk! And you have a very pretty voice." She said.
"Thanks...you too." I replied shyly.
"My name is Hira."
"Rose."
She rested her hands on the edge and stared at me. "Never have I seen a girl come into these woods before. And judging from those bags I carried I assume you're not alone? Are there more girls with you here in these woods?"
I snorted as I thought about the prince being called girls. "Yes, I am not alone, and no, they are not girls. They're boys actually."
At the mention of 'boys' I noticed a change in her facial expression. It became sour and bitter like the word alone was poison. "You're traveling with men?"
"Princes."
"And they're princes?" Her voice rose and I could see her face turning red. She started to swim around and mutter something that I couldn't quite understand. She was making me dizzy with all her movements.
"Are you alright?" I asked.
"Men. Princes!" She yelled and swam back towards me. "A pretty girl like you traveling in a group full of those.....creatures!!"
"Is....that a problem?" I was slowly starting to back away. I can sense a red flag when I am one. Trust me. I am an accident prone person.
"It is!" She exclaimed. "Men only bring misfortune to women! Look at you. They are making you bring water to them! Those lazy pigs." She snarled.
"Actually, I kind of volunteered for the job."
"Women should not do heavy jobs!" She hissed. "Women should be superior to men. They are the queen!"
With the way that she was acting right now, I was getting uncomfortable hanging out with this racist mermaid that I want to grab the bota bag and run the heck out of here. "Sure." I said as I slowly reached out to grab the straps of the bota bag without her noticing. "I think they should drop to their knees and kiss our feet or tail, right?" I said for the sake of humoring her.
Just before I could reach the bota bags her hands shot up and grabbed mine. And I screamed. "Exactly!" She said. "And you are not going back there again with those men."
What she said caught me off guard that I looked at her with a fearful expression. "What?" I squeaked.
"You're coming with me. We shall become sisters."
"Hate to break it to ya, but I already have a sister and she's very cut-" I yelped when she pulled me towards her and into the lake. The water hit me in the face first before the rest of my body followed. The lake is actually quite deep and I have to swim up to get some air. I wiped the water off of my face to see the mermaid swimming circles around me like a shark.
"You can swim. Good." Hira said and swam closer to me. "You will make a fine mermaid, sis."
Before I knew what hit me, she grabbed my hands again and dragged me under. My eyes were closed but I could feel her dragging me lower and lower before she changed courses. I didn't have much time to prepare and take a deep breath that my current supply was slowly going out. A wave of panic hit me and I started to struggle.
...why am I always in a situation like this? Why is it always me!? Why me!?
I felt her hands locking mine in a tight grip as she continued to swim. Not long after, we started swimming upwards and towards the surface again. The first thing I did was to take heavy gulps of air before wiping water from my face.
And that's when I noticed something creepy.
The place was like a cave with bright white light coming from pearls scattered everywhere lighting up the place. Seashells decorated the place and I saw a big shell-like bed partly drenched in water. We headed that way and she pushed me up until I sat on the shell bed. Then before I could face her, she threw some sort of dust on my face.
"There. I'm not sure what kind of men you are hanging out with, but if they have sensitive noses then they would surely have a sneezing fit."
I cough at the powder. "W-What t-the h-h-heck?" I was shivering but I was also fuming in my anger as I glared at her.
"You're safe here." She said cheerily.
"I don't need saving!" I growled. "You're the one that I need saving from...if I ever do need saving!" I pointed a finger at her.
"You say that, but then you'll regret it later. Men are nothing but barbarians. They know nothing except fighting. They are emotionless and insensitive. They kill." She said. Frowning the entire time as she talked about men.
"That's not true!" I argued and I thought of Nate being emotionless, Fred a barbarian, Ren, and Dan insensitive, and Ace knowing nothing but to kill - which I am reconsidering. "Men are not all the same. They are unique in their own way."
Hira shook her head at me. "You are far too young to understand everything." She said and turned her back to me. "I have lived in this lake for 3 years now."
"Cry me a river." I rolled my eyes at her. "Take me back out. Now!"
She turned back to me again. "Aren't you even interested why I'm stuck here?"
"Not even a bit." I deadpanned. "Now, when are you going to take me back?"
"It all started three years ago."
"You're going to tell me the story anyway, aren't you?"
"I was a young mermaid about 18 years of land creature age."
I snorted. "We all were young 3 years ago. Now cut the crap and go to the ending! I don't have time for story telling!!"
"I fell in love with a land creature. He was very handsome with silver eyes and-"
"Faki Hell!" I grunted. This little mermaid just won't shut up! "Let me guess. He's the first land creature you have ever met?" Hira nodded, making me slap a hand to my face and grunt out in frustration. "Oh for freak’s sake! We got a real live Ariel over here! Don't you have a red-friendly crab to tell you otherwise not to go flirt with men who live on land and sing songs about under the sea? Wait no. Don't answer that. But anyways. Go on, but skip the description of the guy. I don't care anyway."
"Alright. So I fell in love." Pfft! Little Mermaid over here. "He's a fisherman. He captures fishes for his business. I know he's very poor so every time that he fishes, I would drop a pearl on his net. See, mermaids are gifted in getting pearls from clam. We can quicken the time in processing the pearls of every clam to get their pearls. I heard that it cost a fortune on the land."
"Please continue." I urged when I noticed her pausing. Can she just go to the ending?
"So the man noticed the pearls on his net and became curious as to where it comes from. One day, I made myself know and-"
So I am going to save you guys the trouble from her sad and tragic story. Basically, the two fell in love and they became a couple. The man then brought her home with him so they can live together. She makes the pearls for him to help him with the expenses, but not long after their stay together she noticed that the man became thirsty for money that he would threaten her just to get some. He even killed her sister when she attempted to rescue her from him. Not long after that, she saw the true side of the man; greedy, and power-hungry. So one night she made her escape, but since she was too far away from the ocean, all she managed to get was the lake. She had loved her ever since and was too afraid to go back into the ocean in case the man would spot her again.
See? Was that so hard to tell the story?
"Great story!" I said and gave her a slow sarcastic clap. "Now where is the closing curtain? I really need to leave."
"Weren't you listening to my story? I basically just pointed out that men cannot be trus-" She paused and swam towards the giant pearl sitting at the side of the shell bed. She waved her fingers over it and a mist suddenly formed and I saw two figures emerging from the forest. It was Ace and Nate. I gasped when I recognized them. "Nate! Ace! I mean PRINCE Nate! No, PRINCE Ace!"
"So they came here to look for you."
"You bet they are because they obviously aren't here for you. They don't know you."
"Well too bad. They won't find you. At least the real you that is."
"What do you mean? Ow!" She plucked a strand of hair from my head and wrapped it around her ring finger. She fished a pearl in one of the many ones that lay scattered on the bed and placed it on top of the strand wrapped around her finger. She kissed it and suddenly her face morphed and her hair color changed. Suddenly, I was staring at my own face.
"I always wanted a darker shade of blonde," Hira said in my voice and my face as she watched her reflection on the water and gently touch her - my face!
"Get off of my face!" I barked.
"I will. Once I get rid of the pest." She said sweetly, giving me one last grin before diving back in the water.
"Come back here!" I yelled and made a move to jump but stopped myself when I realized that it was a bad idea. There is no way for me to get out of this cave if the only exit I have is underwater. I can barely hold my breath and with my current speed in swimming, I would say that there is about 97% of me drowning before I could even reach the bottom.
There was a faint noise to my left and I turned towards it and let out a scream.