"Fish to Feet"

Rune Factory 3: A Fantasy Harvest Moon

By, Vivat Musa

WHAM!

"Take that!" Sakuya yelled. Bang! She hit the tree viciously against its stump with the mop. The leaves rustled each time she would strike. The sun was hot on her back, and a drop of sweat trailed down her forehead. "Stupid monsters! Stupid customers! STUPID lack of taste!" With each sentence Sakuya hit the tree with the mop again.

She had gone into the Privera Forest all of yesterday to collect insect skin and what did she get for it? A whole lot of sweaty running and no customers! In other words: wasted time and gold. All of the customers were too busy trying to win the attention of her mother, Shino, to pay her hard-earned goods any thought.

So after a long, boring day of waiting for customers, Sakuya was taking her anger out on a poor tree. She circled the tree, pretending it was a threating monster. Then using the skills her warrior mother had taught her, she lunged.

"HIYA!" The tree was no match for Sakuya's mighty mop. Following a loud thwack, the tree slumped and several more leaves floated to the sand. Sakuya breathed a sigh of victory.If only I could do that to real monsters, she thought sullenly. Whenever she was actually near monsters she would freak out and run. They were just too scary! She had no idea how her mom had the courage to fight enemies. That was, of course, a time before her mom started to run the inn. Now the two of them lived peacefully in the town. Well, mostly peacefully.

"DIE!" Thwack! She was interrupted from her mop-assault when she heard a splash behind her. She turned around to the ocean. All she saw was the cool, blue water crashing against the shore. She couldn't hear anything besides the normal bugs chirping. She shrugged and returned to venting her anger. Bang! Thump! Boom!

Splash!

There was another splash, louder this time, and Sakuya's outfit was suddenly wet. "Hey, who did that?" she called. "Carmen, if that was you I'm not giving you any more discounts!" Carmen always liked to pull pranks on the town residents, so it wouldn't have been a surprise if she was the one who splashed her. Sakuya looked around for a head of green hair or tanned skin, but she saw no one. Instead, she heard someone giggle.

"Hello? Carmen?" she called out tentatively. "Carmen, this isn't funny!"

That's when she noticed her squid sashimi was missing. She frantically looked around for the meal that her mom had packed. Her food was nowhere in sight.

Okay…now she was getting scared. She held the mop firmly in her hand and pointed it out like a sword, just like her mom had taught her how to do. Out of the corner of her eye she caught a flash of pink by the water. She turned to it and noticed the pink was actually…hair? The owner of the curly strands of hair raised their head. Pink eyes looked up and stared at Sakuya. A girl was swimming in the water a little ways out so her stomach and below was hidden underwater.

"Hi!" the pink-haired girl said happily. "This is yummy!" she proclaimed. In her hands she held out Sakuya's squid sashimi.

"H-hey! That's my food!" Sakuya cried. Who was this strange girl? And why is she eating my food?! she thought.

"Let's share then!" The girl smiled and swam to the shore. Somehow she managed not to get the sashimi below water.

When the girl got onto shore she had to use her arms to pull her body out of the water. With a shock, Sakuya saw the reason why. The girl didn't have any legs! Instead, from the waist down was a long, scaled fish tail.

"You're a mermaid!" She gasped.

"Yeppers!" The mermaid grabbed another piece of squid and tossed it into her mouth. "What's this thing that makes the evil squid so YUMMY?"

"Er, soy sauce..?"

The girl looked as if she won the lotto. She started to sing in a high-pitched voice. "It's AWESOMESAUCE! Lala-la! AWESOMESAUCE! Squid. Squid. Squid. AWESOMESAUCE! YUM!"

Sakuya stared in disbelief as she grabbed a piece of sashimi and sat down by the girl. "You sure like squid…and sauce."

The girl nodded and in a grave voice she said, "Squids are evil! They ate poor Mr. Tuna."

"Oh, I'm sorry. Was he a good friend?"

"Yep. He had the best sense of humor. I shall avenge him by eating every squid! So what's your name?"

"Oh, my name is Sakuya."

"I'm Pia."

"It's nice to meet you Pia."

Sakuya grabbed another piece of sashimi from Pia. With a start, she dropped it in the sand. "Eeek!" Pia's tail was suddenly gone and was replaced with a pair of pale legs and feet.

"Sheesh. You'd think it was like you've never seen a mermaid before!" Pia said.

"That's because I haven't!"

"Well, now you have."

"Is that supposed to happen?" Sakuya asked nervously.

"Yeppers. The legs change back when I get into water again."

"That's pretty convenient."

After that, they ate their food in silence. Once they were finished Pia laid back and sighed contentedly. Suddenly, a loud burp rumbled through the girl's mouth. Her face turned a bright red.

"Excuse me."

Sakuya laughed. "I suppose that means you liked the food?"

"Abso-duh-TUTELY! I've never had squid like that before."

"Really? Sashimi is pretty easy to make. I can show you how to make it later if you want."

"Yay! That's AWESOMESAUCE!" She started to sing again.

Sakuya shook her head. She's seen a lot of strange people from working in the inn, but none as strange as the girl next to her. She didn't mind that though. Pia seemed really nice—odd and a little ditzy, but nice.

They talked to each other for a long while. Pia talked about her life at sea. She explained how the fishes were her friends, but she couldn't really talk to them. She told the story of how she fought a gigantic squid from eating a school of fish. There was enough squid for her to eat for an entire week. Sakuya, on the other hand, told Pia about the inn and bathhouse where her and her mom worked. She talked about her love for strange sovereigns and all of her travels. Sakuya talked about how one time she sold some poison powder to the town witch, Marian, and it was the worst mistake she had ever made. The two of them exchanged stories with each other until the sun was down. It wasn't until the sky was nearly dark that Sakuya noticed how late it was.

"Oh, I suppose I have to get back. Mom will be worried otherwise."

"Okay," Pia said. "Do I need to walk there or swim? And how many squids will I need to take?"

"Huh?" Sakuya looked at the girl in confusion. "Aren't you going back into the ocean?"

"Nope. I'm going to stay with you and Shino."

"Wait, why don't you want to go back?"

Pia shrugged. "I dunno. It just doesn't feel like home anymore. Besides, if I stay with you then I can learn how to cook more evil squid."

Sakuya considered this for a moment. She doubted her mom would like the idea of a mermaid staying at their inn, but really; who listens to their parents anyways? She got up, wiped the sand off her outfit, and went over to where her mop laid. She picked it up and plopped it into Pia's lap.

"If you want to stay then you'll have to work. I'm not going into the red because of a lazy worker," she said sternly and crossed her arms.

Pia looked at her with those big, pink eyes in surprise. "You're going to let me stay? Even though I'm a mermaid?"

She shrugged. "It will leave me more time to scavenge for things to sell. And if that doesn't work, I'm sure mermaid scales can make a good profit."

Pia jumped up and hugged Sakuya in a tight grip. "Fish buddies for life!" She sang in her ears.

"CHOKING!"