Aune

She had been watching the human girl for some time, hidden back behind some rocks only a few dozen meters from the shore. She'd seen humans before, and had on more than one occasion gotten in trouble for getting too close. Her family, was of the opinion that none of them should be seen by human eyes. Contact was forbidden.

Aune had always found them fascinating however, and her curiosity was strong. So strange they were, standing upright on two legs, most of them barely able to swim worth a damn. This one however, captivated her in ways she could not explain. Her heart beat just a bit faster as she watched the woman wade into the shallows.

She wore a skirt that she'd bound up with some woven cord, leaving her legs bare to the upper thigh. Her hair was thick and pale golden, falling in messy waves down to her hips. Her skin was freckled and fair, although a little more tanned on her face and shoulders. She searched for shells, picking them out of the sand and putting them in a basket made of some sort of land plant. Aune, well hidden, low against the rocks, could make out her face once she came closer, the fullness of her lips, the shape of her jawline and the bright blue of her eyes. Thinking quickly, she slipped down into the water, and swam out, a few hundred meters, and then dove.

She moved quickly along the sea floor until she found several large and lovely shells. The ones on the shores often ended up chipped and broken, and the better ones were almost always found quickly. Once she had picked out what she thought were the best ones, she made her way back to the rock, and surfaced again.

"OH!" Wide eyes, bluer than the crystalline waters themselves, stared back in surprise. The girl, had made it out as far as the rock, and clung awkwardly to the other side. Aune too, froze. Now she'd gone and done it.

"I did not know anyone was out here. Do you live nearby?" The blonde girl asked. Aune realized, since she could not see her lower half.. the girl had assumed her to be a human. "Yes.. No.. Well. Sort of. I am.. Visiting?" She said, still clutching the shells.

"How did you get that lovely color on your hair?" the girl asked. "Is it some sort of dye?" Aune was confused just briefly before she realized the girl was referring to the way her hair faded from brown, to teal. Come to think of it, all the humans she saw had much more boring singluar colors to their hair. She did not think this girl's hair was boring however.

"Yes. Dye." She was not exactly sure what that meant, but she thought it best to agree.

"Damara." The girl said, and Aune blinked. "My name.." She giggled. "It is Damara."

"Aune." The mermaid offered back, finally smiling. "I saw you were gathering shells. So.. Here I brought you some." Damara, seemed a bit surprised by this, but she accepted the shells with a slight gasp. "These are lovely, thank you!" Her gaze wandered downwards. "Oh.. I feel a bit.. Overdressed." She said, to Aune's bare chest, and her cheeks colored. "Here.." Blushing more deeply, she set the basket down on the rocks, and untied the cloth she'd bound her upper half in, chewing her lip a little as her breasts were bared.

Aune had been aware for some years now that she was attracted to both mermaids and mermen alike. Such a thing was not frowned upon in her culture. It was simply seen as natural. However, that open-mindedness did not extend to other species. If any of her family, or her people had known she was gazing at a mostly nude human with desire in her eyes, she would have been punished, and forbidden from coming within half a mile of the shore. Her thoughts were interrupted by another startled ‘oh!’ from Damara.

“You are.. glittering… erm on..” she gestured, and now it was Aune’s turn to blush. Around her eyes, her lips and the swell of her cleavage had all taken on a glittering iridescence. She could do it willingly, as her kind had done in the past when trying to lure a sailor to their doom.. but it happened on it’s own in the presence of sexual attraction.

“I should go!” Her voice was louder, and higher pitched than she’d meant it to be, and she turned and dove into the waters, swimming out to sea and down as quickly as she could manage, only realizing after the face that there was no way that Damara would have missed seeing her tail, as she fled.

Safe beneath the waves, she floated, trailing a hand through smooth sand, gazing up at the surface high above. What now? Could she risk going back to find her again? What if this human girl, told others what she’d seen? But, what if she wanted to see her again? Frustrated, she went to find her spear, and take out her frustrations on the dinner she had been sent to hunt for in the first place.

She did go back, not the next day, but the day after that. She watched from the rock, waiting for several hours. She was just about to give up, when she saw Damara, in a long skirt, with a wrap around her chest, making her way out to right where the tide reached. Aune sank a bit lower, and pressed closer to the rock.

“Aune?” She called out. “Please don’t be afraid.” Aune could tell that the woman couldn’t see her, but she peered out in the direction of the rock, eyes searching.

“I made you a gift.” Something was clutched in the Damara’s hand. “If.. you are out there, just let me know. I can even just.. leave it on the rock for you?”

Aune was torn only briefly, but raised up so she was visible, and invited Damara to come to her. Blushing deeply, half hiding behind her hair, the golden haired woman left her clothing on the shore this time and waded out.

The gift was a necklace, smaller whole shells, with a larger one in the center. Damara wore a similar one. Aune, accepted the gift graciously. Her innocent curiosity about Aune, and what she was ate away at any remaining suspicion the mermaid had. Enthralled, her new human friend gently touched her scales, after carefully moving around to the other side of the rock. They seemed to be subtly shifting closer to each other, but it was Aune who first leaned in to kiss her. The kiss started out soft and gentle, just a brush against her lips. They both pulled away, a bit wide eyed, hearts fluttering. When they kissed a second time there was far less innocence to it. Their hands caressed over each other’s flesh, exploring, and their lips met for a third time. Damara drew away suddenly, looking alarmed. Off in the distance, back on shore, someone was calling for her.

“I have to go! I’m sorry!” She ran back toward shore, falling once in the surf, and scrambled frantically to get back into her clothes. Aune pressed low to the rocks once more, pulse still racing.

“Over here!” she called back only once she was properly clothed with her basket in hand. The man who strolled out onto the beach was tall, with broad strong shoulders and short dark hair. Aune could not make out what they were saying, but she felt a sinking sensation in the pit of her stomach, when the man put an arm around her, and they started back toward the path that lead to the human town.



For a while, it was how their friendship simply had to be. Damara would sneak to the beach, and spend an hour or so with her, not always ever day, but often enough. Sometimes they kissed and touched, other times they swam together, or found a secluded place and just talked about their lives. Aune’s heart sank when she discovered Damara was engaged to wed the man who’d come to fetch her. His name was Lendros. She said that she cared for him, even if it was an arranged marriage. He was good to her, and clever with words. His family was wealthy, far more than hers and wedding him would elevate the status of her family and assure her parents lived well, as they grew older.

Aune did not understand, and to be perfectly honest she felt jealousy surge in her heart, but she also understood she had no claim to Damara, and they did not have a future together, with one of them being of the sea, and one bound to land.

“Even when I’m married, Aune, I want us to stay friends..” she blushed. “I.. fear I may not be able to give up what we have together, even when I wed another. Does that make me a bad person?” Her blue eyes locked on Aune’s face, and her brow furrowed with uncertainty.

Aune thought on that for a moment. “Is it customary for land-walkers to be loyal to only a mate because of a.. ceremony..?”

Damara explained then, the land concept of marriage and loyalty as best she could.

“If you feel you would be breaking your vows, then I think we should cease.. that part of out friendship.” Aune said sadly. “But.. You are not married yet.” She leaned forward and kissed her friend, softly at first, but shortly with more intensity until they were both short of breath.

And they did begin ‘training’ themselves to not be so intimate. It was hard, for both of them longed for it. Aune had found something with Damara she’d not experienced with any merfolk, man or woman. A couple weeks before the wedding, they no longer did more than embrace each other like sisters, even if sometimes those embraces lingered.

They were laying in the shallows together, when Aune leaned in close. “… You smell like.. Another woman..?” She frowned. “As well as your finance.” Her sense of smell was far greater than that of a human’s, that she’d been made aware of when she was able to pick up dozens of scents on Damara’s skin and clothes.

“What do you mean?” Aune, was just starting to feel the first twinges of hurt and anger, as the woman-scent was clearly of a carnal nature, and it was not Damara herself. However, the pure confusion on her friend’s face made her realize something.

“Damara...” She said, frowning. “Lendros has been with another woman.”

Damara shook her head. “That.. cannot be true..” But her voice sounded weak, full of dread. She already knew, deep down Aune told the truth.

“Why must you be loyal to him when he mates freely with others?” Anger was brewing in her now, but for the unfairness of it. Anger at this man, who betrayed her sweet Damara, and anger at being denied the intimacy that had bloomed between them, all for a promise the man held her to, and would not keep himself.

“You will speak to him on this?” Aune said. “I do not think you should marry such a man. If he lies to you about this, he will lie about other things.” She could not keep the heat from her voice.

Damara’s eyes glistened, tears threatening to spill. “I have already told you why I must wed him.” She looked away. “So it does not matter.” She stood up from the shallow sandy pool, ready to turn away. Aune caught her arm.”

“Damara..” She began.

The fair haired woman still would not look at her. “Are you sure you are not just looking for a reason, because of your own desires?”

Aune recoiled. Damara’s steps, carried her up the beach, and down toward the path.

It was a few hours before Aune’s temper had cooled enough, and she stopped being angry with her former lover. She realized two things, that Damara was just afraid of going back on the agreement for her family’s sake, and that to some degree, she had been right.

Aune had in fact been more or less hoping to find some reason, something against Lendros that would stop Damara from marrying him. She just had not expected something to fall into her lap so easily.

She knew that Damara would say nothing, but that also she would never be happy with such a man.

She swam home, all the while piecing together a plan.

It was going to require her to take human legs.

Her species could do such, but it was highly painful. Her lower half would slowly rip in two, and it would feel like her scaled flesh was tearing. Afterwards her new legs would burn the entire time.

Her people had once been able to take legs at will, and with far less pain, it was more of a discomfort that would quickly pass. It was said that a witch had cursed her people to be inflicted with pain during their shift, to discourage them from mingling with the land walking folk, that this happened many centuries ago when there was great strife between the people of land, and those of the sea.

It could have very well been myth, and the real reason was simply because none of her people had been doing it much at all for generations.

She knew the spell only because she’d been nosy enough to sneak a peek at one of the stone tablets kept hidden away in her Chieftess’ cave.

She arrived home only to be brought before the council. She’d been seen near a human. Their condencending glares set her teeth on edge. They spoke of her ‘not knowing the dangers’ of interacting with humans. They spoke of how she put them all in danger. She wanted to scream.

She was told that if she was seen again near a human, there would be serious consequences. She said she understood. As soon as no one was watching her, she gathered the ingredients into a reed basket with a latching lid, and headed for shore. The sun was setting. She needed to be quick.

In a shell bowl she mixed sand from the depths of the ocean, and crystals of salt. She mashed in a purple hued sea plant, rare and hard to find. She drug herself to shore so she could get soil that was not sand, and land-walker grasses and leaves, added that to the bowl, and eased back into the shallows. She ripped away one of her scales, gritting her teeth. Cutting her thumb on a sharp shell blade, the final ingredient, several drops of her blood fell into the mix. She spoke the ancient words over the bowl, then turned and dumped the mix onto her fish tail.

For a moment nothing happened, and she wondered if she’d done something wrong. Then, she felt a terrible burning, like the time she’d scraped herself against a dry coral reef. It was all over her lower half, and especially in a line down the center. It grew, until she was muffling a scream against her hand. It burned so much that she hadn’t even noticed the burn that had begun in her hands, til her webbing tearing away called her attention to it.

She sobbed as her scales melted away as though burned by acid. She clawed at the sand, baring her teeth and thrashed.

When it was at last over, she lay in the surf, trembling, her new legs feeling so raw and painful she expected them to be red and bleeding, with the muscle exposed.

Instead, she saw pristine smooth flesh.

The change would not last for long. She knew she had to get moving. It took her some time to work out how to walk properly, and she spent the first half hour, stumbling and falling on the beach.
She finally made her way down the path, and found clothing hanging on a line behind a house. She took a long white garment that was thin, almost see-through, with a square neck that barely covered her breasts. It kept falling down over one shoulder. It was meant for someone heavier of build than her, and she had not realized it was a mere muslin undergarment.

At first she was not sure where to go, and she wondered if she’d done all of this for nothing. She soon, however heard the sound of music and laughter, and following the sound she realized this must be the ‘tavern’ place that Damara had spoke of, the one Lendros sometimes visited in the evenings. She opened the door and stepped inside, still tottering on unsteady steps.

There were a few dozen people inside, men of quite a few shapes and sizes, and women, all wearing dresses that hugged tight at their middle, and pushed their breasts up almost under their necks. Most also had skirts split up to the thigh so they flashed their legs whenever they walked.

She got a few looks herself. Scoffs from women, and leers from men. Lendros she spotted almost right away, at the bar, laughing, with his hand on the bared thigh of a black haired woman. Aune’s expression darkened. She steeled herself, and with her legs still burning like fire, walked to the bar as well.

She barely had to say a word to him, and his gaze was on her, his eyes roaming. He bought her a drink, some sickly sweet thing that had a burn, she did no more than touch her lips to it. He laughed, jesting that she seemed like she’d had a few too many already. Boldly, he loomed in close. He put a hand on her hip.

“I’ve got a room here. How about we go up and get you undressed the rest of the way..?” She could smell the burning fermented scent on him. When she leaned back, scowling, ready to tell him exactly what she thought of his actions, he grabbed her by the hip, and tried to pin her against the bar.

“Don’t be like that..” He leaned in close to her ear, and licked her, his hand fumbling for her breast, and squeezing.

Her first instinct was to pull away from the unwanted touching, recoil at the disgusting slobbering on her ear. Instead, she grabbed him tight, one hand at his side, the other gripping his hair. He made a pleased sound.

“Oh I do love a woman who..” He never completed that statement, for he sucked in a sharp breath and screamed.

Aune’s pointed front teeth had sunk into the flesh of his face, right above the right side of his jaw. She bore down hard, his blood flowing into her mouth and running down her chin and neck. He slapped and shoved at her, struggling like a panicked animal, and her teeth tore free. Howling, he held his face. People turned in horror, someone yelled ‘Grab the bitch!’ but Aune’s bared bloody fangs deterred them. She walked, as best she could managed, out the door she’d just come in through. Out in the street, she broke into a shambling run. She managed to stagger between two buildings, and from there, make her way back toward the water’s edge.

It took hours for the spell to wear off. She lurked in shallows, hidden away, alternating between fury and tears. When at last she returned to normal, it was near morning. She stayed close to shore. She was not yet in a state to return to her people. She knew her face would reveal that something had happened to her.

When morning came, so did Damara, down to the edge of the surf. Aune swam up, and drug herself into where the tide churned and foamed gently.

“Damara.. I..” she began. The woman cut her off.

“I know what you did.” she said sharply. "Lendros had to have many stitches. He’s been heavily sedated." Aune had started to smile smugly, but the cold stare from her friend and former lover stopped her.

“I told you I am marrying him. That I cannot go back on the agreement. Why did you attack him? Why did you ruin my fiancee’s face?”

“Damara he was there with another woman! He grabbed me, tried to haul me off somewhere secluded.. You cannot marry this man..” Aune tried to ease closer to her.

“Goodbye, Aune.” Damara said, tears welling. “I do not have a choice, and all you have done is caused me.. us.. more pain. I do not know how you managed to have legs, or why you could never do it for me when we were together, but you could do it to mutilate Lendros… But I never want to see you again. Go back to the sea. If you come on land again I’ll tell them all what you are and how to find you.” Her shoulders were shaking by then, her fists clenched. Tears poured freely and her chest was hitching.

Aune was too stunned to say anything else. Damara turned and walked away. She did not look back.

She could not of course understand Damara’s position. She did not understand that Damara had no choice but to go through with the wedding. She had no concept of human customs, or the lack of choices that women had in such a situation. She swam home, devastated, hurt and angry.

Banishment.

That was what awaited her upon her return. One of her people’s scouts had been sent to spy on her, and they had seen her speaking to Damara again, worse they knew she’d taken legs and gone into the human town. Her own family would not even take up for her, but they did give her some things, a spear, a seaweed wrapped bundle with fish it, a woven bag. Her mother was weeping openly, while her father just looked disappointed and hurt. There was no point pleading her case, it was her against dozens of merfolk, and they would physically drive her out if she did not leave on her own. She was allowed to stay only a couple days to make preparations, and during that time none would speak to her.

She was too numb to protest or fight back anyways. She left, with only a spear and a few belongings in her bag. She swam for only four or five miles or so, following the coast, before she stopped and just found somewhere to hide. She’d frozen up. She’d never been all that far from her family home. She’d never been into truly deep open ocean. The reality of her situation sank in, and she hid herself away in a cove, alternating between mourning and feeling a deep terrible anger. She was angry with Damara, her people, and herself for being so foolish, so stupid. She’d fallen head over tail-fins for the first human she’d ever really spoken to, and for what? Because she was pretty and had a sweet voice? Because it was exciting and daring to have a forbidden romance? Her anger was quickly brewing into hate for humans. She swam back closer to that town again, and feeling petty, spent around a week cutting fishing nets when they were put out, or cutting the ropes on them and letting them float away. She toppled a few crates of supplies from a dock into the waters. She was never seen.

She’d been planning on just leaving, once she’d taken out some of her hurt and aggression on them, when she noticed a small craft, a sailboat heading out into the open waters. A few people stood on the shore, waving to the passengers.

It was Damara, in a lovely white gown, with flowers in her hair, and Lendros, dressed in formal attire, with a still healing scar on his face.

The tiny boat caught the wind, and headed for deeper water. Aune, watching from behind some rocks, submerged and followed it. She came up alongside the boat, just the first half of her head above water. Unless someone specifically looked over the side in that spot, they would not see her. She listened in, Lendros seemed to be reassuring her that it was perfectly safe. She loved the sea, didn’t she? The little boat and the trip was his wedding gift to her. Besides, he thought it would be romantic if their first time making love as husband and wife was out at sea. Damara seemed uneasy, and kept looking out at the water. She insisted she did not want a long trip, and claimed she got ‘seasick’ easily. Lendros dismissed her complaints.

Aune thought she could try to sink the boat of she struck it hard enough, if she had something sharp and bashed away at the hull. She could possibly topple it if she tried hard enough. But, she realized there was a far more efficient way of dealing with them.

She lurked and waited until Lendros came to the side of the boat, she launched herself upwards, snagged the back of his coat, and drug him over the side. He gave a yell of surprise, and she had just enough time to see Damara’s wide horrified eyes before they both plunged into the water.

He struggled, but she was stronger. Her tail propelled them down, as he kicked and flailed. He even tried to get free of the tailed coat, but she switched her grip to his hair.

He tried to pry her hand loose, but to no avail. She pulled him down, easily fifty or more feet. He kicked desperately, and she let him go. She watched him struggle frantically to right himself, disoriented by the depths. She circled him as he started to try and swim back up. She watched the last of the bubbles escape from his open mouth. He did not make it far. She stared, cold and impassive at his floating body as he drowned. He would eventually, slowly float to the surface most likely, but still nearly fifty foot down, that would take far too long for even the most feeble hope of reviving.

She started for the surface, fully intending on doing the same for Damara, but not before she told her how much she now despised her.

A spear stabbed into the water, grazing her scales. Damara, face streaked with tears, raised it again. She was soaked, her flower crown gone, and Aune realized she must have dove after them before simply giving up.

Aune dove under the boat. Damara screamed.. it was a sound full of both grief and rage. Several more times Damara tries in vain to run a spear through the body of her former lover, before she gave up, sobbing and threw the weapon into the water.

“Just kill me and get it over with!” she finally sobbed out, slumping into the bottom of the boat.

Aune.. found she could not. She pictured looking into Damara’s eyes as she drown, and realized she did not want her to die.

She dove down, and found some long strands of kelp, severing them and weaving them together. She fashioned a makeshift rope, and then tied it to the front of the boat.

As the sun sank in the sky, she hauled the small sailboat through the waters, until it was within reach of land. There, she left it to gently drift to shore, within sight of Damara’s town. She swam back out toward open water, and did not look back.


She headed for open ocean, hundreds of miles from any sort of civilization, above or below the water. She found a small island that was flanked on one side by coral reefs, she claimed it as her territory and for years, simply lived alone, almost as a wild creature, hunting, and sleeping in a small cave beneath a section of reef.

For almost forty years she lived there, stewing in her bitterness. She was alone, the only other mer-folk she found were a different species from herself. They did not care for outsiders and she was driven away.

She adapted however, and endured. She became a much more fearsome huntress. She learned to make her own weapons from bone, coral or shell, whatever she could get her hands on.

It was a hard life, but a fulfilling one, in some ways. She was independent, self sufficient and had became a near expert in survival tactics. If she could not kill it she knew how to out maneuver or hide from it. Her only interactions with humans became her habit of foiling fishing vessels, for little reason beyond being petty. She cut any nets she came across, regardless if whether they had fish in them or not. She cut away life boats from the sides of ships if she got the chance.

She’d been alone like this for a long while, until she encountered the sea serpent.

She had been hunting near a large reef, just off the coast of some scattered small islands. She swam around a section of coral, and saw it, about twenty meters ahead.

It was mottled yellow-ish and green, all murky dull colors. It looked like an eel but was well over thirty foot long.. Big enough to eat her certainly. It seemed large enough to prey on sharks or smaller whales.

Aune began to swim backwards slowly, hoping to not be seen. The large head whipped around suddenly. It opened a mouth filled to the brim with sharp jagged teeth, and shrieked, taking off toward her at an alarming speed.

There was no cover to dart into, she wound up using a minor illusion, leaving a fake version of herself behind in the water, one that swam toward the large predator. It gave her enough time to dive down deep, and find a gap she could swim into.

The eel caught up, and one large yellow eye peered at her. It bit at the coral a few times, slapped it with it’s tail, and swam away.

She waited for a while, before coming out. This was a good hunting ground and she did not want to give it up easily. She hoped the massive creature was just passing through.

She encountered it two other times on different days. Both times it shrieked and lunged at her, although she noticed it never chased her far. It seemed like the attacks where a bit more defensive or territorial than out of a desire to kill her. Still, she wanted no part of the sea serpent’s maw of horrifying teeth. She’d been bitten by an eel once, one the size of her arm, and it had hurt something terrible, and bled far longer than it should have.

She was planning on leaving and finding herself another hunting grounds. She actually would have left that very same day, and had merely been catching a few hours of rest in her hidey-hole, when she was awoken by awful screeching. It sounded like the the very same monster, but far more distressed, and off some distance away. Cautiously she eased out of her tiny coral cave.

She found the beast laying on it’s side, about a hundred meters further down. It had gotten tangled in an old net, so badly that the net was biting into it’s flesh in places. There had been holes and rips through the massive fishing net, and it just made the tangling worse.

There was a moment she almost considered leaving it, or perhaps even being ‘kind’ and trying to put it out of it’s misery with a long spear, so that it did not lay there until it starved or was torn up by sharks. But she could hear the fear in it’s voice.. Her voice. She got the impression the animal was female. The big yellow eyes were wide and desperate. Pity for it welled up in her. She swam close, it lashed and struck at her the first few times, panicked, but after she managed to cut the first few sections of net away it seemed to realize she was helping, and it stilled.

When the net was cleared away the giant eel creature wiggled free, and swam off, heading for the larger reefs off to the west. For five days Aune never saw a sign of it. She wondered if it had left for good. She of course felt no regrets in saving it, and was glad it had not died in such a horrible fashion despite it being a nuisance and a threat.

She was hunting for crab in a stretch of sand bank, when the sea serpent finally made an appearance again. It shrieked, and swam toward her. She dropped her basket and bolted for cover, heart thumping. She made it into a space between two sections of coral. It was just large enough for her to slip into, and press against the back of.

It peered in at her with one eye, making low clicking and high pitched vocalizations. It was odd, as she’d never heard an eel make any such sounds. She thought that.. perhaps it wasn’t trying to hurt her, but the size of it and the sight of those teeth, easily as long as her hand meant she couldn’t take the risk. Even if it now meant her no harm, what was to say it wouldn’t misunderstand and intent to play or show affection, and accidentally take her arm off or tear her open. It could have bitten her in half with little effort.

The creature vanished for a short while, and Aune was just about to creep forward when it reappeared. She recoiled. The blunt nose pushed at the opening, and she realized it had her basket, and was pushing it into the hole. It deposited it there, and left.

Puzzled, Aune pulled the basket to herself. A few moments later the eel was back, this time with a large crab, still alive. It shoved that through.

She realized it was being friendly but it was just so huge it was hard to work up the nerve to come out in the open with it. What if it was baiting her? That did not quite make sense as it clearly wasn’t going hungry and could effortlessly catch it’s own prey.

It came back again with a large fish, mangled and dead, and shoved it through the gap as well. The next gifts were long strands of fresh kelp, a mostly dead sea turtle, a large smooth rock with some shimmery flecks in it, and a clam that was bigger than her head.

Finally she worked up the courage to come out. Tense, she exited the hole. The Eel was nearby, rooting around in the sand as though looking for something else to bring. It blew some bubbles, and moved toward her, graceful as any sea snake despite it’s size.

She clenched her teeth, instinct screaming at her to flee from the massive apex predator. The almost rubbery nose butted at her The creature was not slimy like an eel, but more smooth like touching a dolphin or small whale.

“Hello there..” She said quietly in the aquan tongue. The eel made a strange trill and swam a slow circle around her, and rubbed past her, jostling her a bit. The large snout shoved against Aune’s midsection, and she found herself laughing nervously, reaching out to pet what was apparently her new friend.

It took some time before she got more relaxed with the large creature. For weeks after, a sudden movement from the Eel would have her flinching back or jumping. One time she snagged her forearm by mistake on a tooth while they were digging for clams, and it burned and bled badly. Her large and dangerous friend seemed upset and guilty over it, until Aune felt the need to comfort her over the accident.

She was taken to the creature’s lair, which was nestled down in the thick kelp garden. She started calling her ‘Kelp’ do to the way she blended in so perfectly with the yellowish green water plants.

Kelp was a valuable asset. She hunted eagerly for them both, and shoved so much food at Aune that Aune began to worry she’d start putting on weight. Kelp drove off sharks and barracuda and other possibly dangerous creatures. Only once did they ever encounter a creature that frightened the eel.

The sea serpent had to have been over a hundred and fifty foot long. It was black, with vivid blue and yellow markings and a draconic head. Two pairs of curling twisting horns jutted from it’s skull, and it’s teeth made Kelp’s seem small in comparison.

They both fled down into the thick forest of seaweed, and her friend put her own body over the top of Aune’s as though trying to hide her further. Aune had been fond of the giant Eel before, but at that point she felt a swell of love and appreciation for her. She seemed like a simple feral creature, but her devotion to Aune was deeply touching.

They had been together for a month and a half before Kelp began acting a bit strange. The Eel butted again Aune excitedly, swam in circles around her, and then would stare with a look of bug-eyed focus. Aune had to fight not to giggle. “What is it friend?” She asked. “Do you have something to show me?” She thought perhaps her strange friend had found them an injured whale, or maybe just a shiny rock, there was really no telling, but Kelp did not lead her away, but instead continued to make that expression of deep concentration.

Suddenly the Eel’s body shimmered and pulsed with a yellow-green light, and her form shrank dramatically.

Aune’s eyes went wide. Before her was now a mermaid, but with Kelp’s mottled colors and a long eel tail rather than fish. Kelp, had the same wide luminous yellow eyes however, but now she also had a waist length thick hair, wild and unkempt looking. Her form was thin and willowy, with small breasts. Her mouth opened in a wide awkward grin, the same dangerous eel teeth filling her mouth, only smaller.

Aune was dumbfounded. “Kelp…. How did you learn this?” Kelp had never been able to speak to her, but she seemed to understand simple words and phrases in the Aquan tongue.
Kelp’s wide eyes stared back at her for several long seconds. Then, she spoke, in broken aquan, back. “No, Learn. Remeemer.”

“Oh.. You remembered how to do it?” Kelp nodded happily.

While Aune had felt a close bond of companionship to her giant eel friend, something about her being able to take a mermaid form just made the bond that much closer. Aune began teaching her more words. Kelp was a slow learner, but she did pick things up little by little. Kelp, with a bit of practice got where she could shift more easily from one form to the other. She seemed to prefer being an Eel, but also seemed to realize that being Aune’s size made her friend happy.

For over two decades they remained at each other’s sides and Aune was content, until one morning, when Aune had spotted a large ship out in open waters, with it’s nets cast out.

She could hear the distress calls of nearly a dozen dolphins, and she quickly sprang into action, seizing a large knife and heading right toward the nets themselves. Whilst she was not against a creature hunting a dolphin, Kelp had occasionally caught and killed one, this was different. This was humans. They would kill animals in the hundreds for little reason. She’d seen them catch dozens of sharks and throw them overboard with only the fins cut off, left to die slowly. She’d seen them catch seals just for their pelts. Humans, as she saw it were wasteful and greedy. It was anger and spite that drove her to start sawing the struggling animals free of their bonds before they could be hauled overboard.

Kelp was at her side in a flash, and started gnawing the nets as well. Aune assumed it was for no other reason than she was mimicking whatever she did.

She was not expecting more men to circle around with spears and smaller nets. She was not expecting an arm to get snagged with a long pole, with a loop of rope on the end.

She was yanked backwards, and then upwards out of the water. A net tangled around her.

Kelp shrieked and lunged, starting to shift. In her mind, Aune saw exactly what would play out.. Kelp impaled on dozens of steel tipped barbed spears as she fought.. They would never capture her alive.

“Kelp no! Swim back home! I am following!” She cast an illusion of herself on the edge of the boat, jumping in. “I am following! Hurry do not look back!” She yelled in Aquan, panic overwhelming her, fear that Kelp might not listen.

Relief flooded her when the Eel believed the illusion. She could only cast it forward a short distance, enough where it would look like she was still following for a short while. She stopped struggling as she was tied down to the boat, she went limp, hoping silently that the boat was gone before Kelp realized the truth. Tears began well in her eyes, sad for her friend who would now be alone. But, it was far better than her being dead.

Aune knew nothing of what her own fate would be, not for quite some time. After more than a week in a small holding tank in the belly of the ship, she finally arrived at the Golden Tether, and a slave collar was placed around her neck, before she was transferred to another cramped holding tank in the establishment’s underhall.