a distant figure
You stare at the distant figure curiously; who or what could it be? You beat your tail, and almost do a somersault.
With a giggle, you get yourself back under control: it looks like swimming with a tail isn’t as easy as it looks! More carefully now, you start swimming toward the distant figure; you can’t really make out its shape in the water, it seems almost to be shaped like a bell for a moment, but then its outline changes, and then again, making guessing impossible.
Still more curious, you swim faster to get closer, and it grows bigger before you, its outline blurring as you draw nearer. Confused, you come to a halt, idly flicking your tail to stay afloat in place, but the figure continues to get bigger; after a moment, you realize that it is coming toward you!
You start to turn away, then hesitate, not knowing what it is, but you look at it and you get a bad feeling from it.
You turn and start to swim away, beating your tail; you glance over your shoulder, but the figure still gains on you: now it has changed again, turning all black, and you see long tentacles stretching out of it toward you!
You swim as fast as you can away from it; ahead of you is a coral reef, rising up out of the sandy ocean bed; you swim toward that as fast as you can, hoping to find someplace to hide.
You dive down toward the nearest part of the reef; you see several dark holes almost like small caves; your heart pounds in your breast, your breath is ragged in your gills; you are growing tired, and you can feel the thing behind you drawing closer, its bow wave already reaching you.
Then before you, you see other mermaids! They are lounging on the rocks and corals, scattered about the reef before you.
“Help!” you cry. Please help me!”
The mermaids look up and see you and the creature chasing you; with a scream, they scatter, running every which way to get away from the creature.
Written by J-B-Hickock on 02 December 2014
