I surfaced inside the cave and eagerly looked around while I made my way to the edge. Already I was feeling more at ease in my changed body and more confident with the way I could move in the water. This big tail instead of legs had felt and seemed clumsy at first but already that wasn't the case anymore.

Unless I compared myself to how Matt moved. He was sleek like a shark when he cut through the water after me and then easily draped himself half over a ledge of rocks. There was a step or bench surrounding the entire pool, creating a comfortable seat and as he settled himself on it he spread his arms wide on the stones of the cave floor, owning the place.

I settled on the ledge to his left, curling on my side, one elbow on the flat stones surrounding the pool. Like that it was almost like sitting on the couch with your legs curled up beside you and despite the much thicker and longer tail I was flexible enough to be comfortable that way.

"So..." Matt murmured, while sliding his eyes over my face, focusing on my ears and then the sides of my neck before sliding lower to take in my bikini clad chest. Defensively I raised my free arm to cover myself and struggled to fight the heat rising in my cheeks. "Yeah sooooo...." I drawled to cover my unease. "This pool turned me into a mermaid. Did it change you too?"

He didn't immediately answer, instead he took a moment to slide the strap with the harpoon over his shoulder and place it on the rock beside him. The canvas bag followed after and he started opening that one up, showing me that it was completely waterproof. He pulled out two Tupperware boxes and raised an eyebrow at me in question, "You hungry? I packed lunch for us."

"You packed lunch for the both of us? How did you know I was going to be here... like this?" I gestured at my tail. My heart in the meantime thudded wildly, feeling flattered that he'd thought of something like that and intimidated at the same time.

He grinned, "A hunch, Dev's been keeping an eye on you and mentioned how you've been avoiding water." He handed me one of the two boxes and a set of actual (look at him, being fancy!) cutlery, inside the boxes was a pasta salad with seafood, a sliced mango and two tuna sandwiches. It was a huge lunch but my empty stomach told me I could probably eat all of it no problem. "Swimming burns a lot of energy," he nodded knowingly as if he'd understood just fine the direction of my thoughts.

While I dug in he did the same and it was silent the next few minutes. Then when I was nibbling on the last bits of mango he turned his body toward me and cocked his head. "So... Do you like it?" I didn't immediately get what he was talking about, did he mean the lunch? Or was he talking about whether I liked being a mermaid, of swimming like this.

"The tail, I imagine it takes some getting used to..." he expanded and when I nodded he cocked his head to the side clearly inviting me to say more. I shrugged casually but still caught him dipping his eyes down to my chest with the movement. Fighting another awkward blush I said, "It's amazing if a little scary. Do I have to worry about sharks? I petted one right before I ran into you but it was smaller than me..."

That was obviously my biggest worry, I didn't really think any other creatures would bother me, most seemed interested and nice even. But seeing Matt with that knife and the harpoon gun... Did that mean it was dangerous to swim without? My eyes must have given me away, since they'd darted to said weapon. He reached a big, webbed hand out to curve around the weapon looking amused.

"No sharks shouldn't bother you if you appear confident enough. Though it would in your case be safer not to swim out into the deeper trenches until you've gotten a bit more experienced. The harpoon is because I planned to catch some fish on my way home." I still felt a little nervous, he wasn't just carrying a harpoon, he was carrying a knife too. Though maybe that was just a practical thing.

"Alright, no deep water," I murmured and then went on louder, "So how did you become like this? Did you see that silver moon over the tunnel and the water going all iridescent? How come your whole family is like this?"

He laughed, "Oh no, I was born this way Dani. It was one of my ancestors who accidentally experienced what you did." He gestured at his ears and gills, "Hence my slightly more advanced form." "Oh, so that's why all of your family is like this? Dev too?" I frowned in confusion, hadn't I seen both Matt and Dev in the water at various moments since I'd met them? Could they touch it without transforming?

"Yeah, my dad, both my brothers, just not my mom and Orly's wife. It's from my dad's line that we've gotten the fish gene." He spread his mouth into a cheeky grin, showing me straight even white teeth. He'd lost me though, who was Orly?

"Oh right," he said as though reading my mind, "You haven't met my older brother Orlando yet... Orly for short. He and my dad run a very successful salvaging company, specializing in especially deep and hard to reach shipwrecks." He wiggled his eyebrows, "Piece of cake for one of us to do jobs like that. I help out whenever they need another set of hands."

"I see..." It had to be really simple as a merman to swim down and scout out a wreck that normal divers couldn't easily reach. Which made me wonder, "How deep can we dive? Or is it different for you and me?"

"We'd have to test that carefully in your case, first generation merfolk... They're different from second or third... And I'm a fourth gen merman. I can dive extremely deep without bothering with decompression time or anything like that. My dad gets uncomfortable on really deep dives before Orly or I might notice anything. We've not tested Dev's deep diving skills yet, he's not yet allowed to do salvage work."

I took a moment to process all of that and then couldn't stop myself from taunting Matt. There was just something about him that made me want to ruffle all his feathers or should I say scales? "So why aren't you guys fessing up to owning this place? Not that it is the best kept secret, took me all of two minutes behind a computer to connect your name to the island."

His eyebrows lowered into a dramatic frown, "You found out through the internet that we own Sharkfell? How?" He seemed more worried than angry though so I quickly explained the methods of my search to him and how simple it had been. When this had his eyebrows shoot up in surprise instead I explained that with my dad owning a software company, some of the technical stuff had rubbed off.

"So can we cover that up? We don't want people knowing..." he asked seriously and I thought entirely out of character but then I supposed that hiding what he and his family was was all about survival. If it was only him and his family, there wasn't any safety in numbers and people finding out would probably cause a panic... Raise all kinds of ethical debates and might even end up with one or all of them dissected in a lab somewhere.

"Yeah no problem, we'll get that taken care off," I assured him.

He slung his bag over his shoulder suddenly and grabbed the harpoon. "Let's head back," he said, sounding thoughtful. I didn't like our talk getting cut short like this, I had a million more questions to ask him but I admitted to myself that Dev might be a better subject to pelt with questions. Instead I followed him out of the cave, which he'd called the moonfell, and we swam in silence for a while, headed back to the mainland.

Every time I needed to get a breath of air he followed me up, though he didn't need to breathe himself. And after the second time I didn't have to signal when I needed another breath, he swam up himself with perfect timing. Above water he said, "Fifteen minutes is your limit right now." Tapping his diving watch to indicate that he'd timed it with that.

"Oh that's good to know I guess... Well I need to head more that way to get to my house. You're going there right?" I pointed in what I thought was the direction for the marina and his bar. He shook his head however, "I'll see you home first."

Which was sort of sweet and kind of awkward, not that I minded more time observing the way his body sliced the water. The smooth rippling motion of his black tail streaked with several tints of blue down the underside and in the fin. Of all the fantasy creatures that could possibly come to life, Matt the merman was absolutely fantastic.

We reached the secluded beach near my home shortly after and once we stuck our heads above water to check if it was still empty Matt gestured for me to get on land. I felt awkward doing that but hesitated to ask him how best to approach it. Once I asked he smiled and shrugged, "It is awkward but once you figure out how to quickly get yourself dry you'll at least be less vulnerable."

When he saw me frown he added, "You should be able to manipulate water with a thought." To demonstrate he raised a hand and a ball of water separated from the waves and floated up into the air between our heads. I stared, holy crap that was cool, especially if that worked minus the tail too.

He grinned, "Guess you hadn't figured that part out yet. Practice that at home yeah? I'll dry you up this time around." Then he gestured me to the beach and eager to try that out in the safety of a locked, windowless bathroom I braved getting onto the beach. I knew it was unflattering as hell, dragging myself to shore like a seal.

"Can you get to your stuff?" he was clearly enjoying himself, having approached the beach behind me until he was almost lying on his belly in the sand, only his tail half submerged in the water. "Not that I mind seeing you transform without them..." he wriggled his eyebrows and ducked his head when I splashed water at him with the tip of my tail.

"Behind that rock, I'll drape my wrap over me, does that work for you?" I asked while reaching out and tugging said item from the crevice I'd stuck it in that morning. "It works," he murmured a little more seriously while I pulled myself completely out of the waves and draped the wrap over my important bits.

As soon as I'd done that steam started rising from my body, it felt a little hot and tingly to my skin but didn't hurt. In a great big cloud it wafted from my skin and my scales and in less than thirty seconds I felt the wrenching shake through my body until I was back to a pair of legs. I immediately got to my feet, taking care to not flash Matt and tied my wrap around my waist so I was decent.

"Thank you!" I said as I turned to look at him but he'd somehow already disappeared back into the waves.

*

Anybody else thinking of seals when you imagine a merperson dragging themselves ashore? XD

Anyway hope you guys liked this chapter! If you did, I hope you'll vote or leave a comment, it means a lot to me. :)

Much love,

Robin