AAAAAAAAHHHHHH!
My foot slipped and now I'm falling. Falling off a cliff to the water below. Normally, that wouldn't be a problem; I do play water polo after all. However, this cliff is at least 50-60 feet high, and I was shoved off the cliff, rather roughly. All I hear is my own screaming and my friend, Jared, screaming my name as I plummet to the water below.
"Ellerinn!"
The last thing I see before hitting the water is the man who pushed me falling off the cliff towards the rocks below and Jared's face appearing over the edge of the cliff. Unable to orient myself into a proper dive, I hit the water flat on my back. Before I could do anything else I hit my head on a rock and pass out. My last fleeting thought is of Jared and the irony of a water polo player drowning.
**Jared's POV**
I rushed at the man, yelling in fury. How dare he push Ellerinn off the cliff? Without thinking though, I do the same thing, pushing him off to the side to the rocks below.
"Ellerinn!" I call after her, watching horrified as she struggled to get herself into a position to prevent a back- or belly-flop. Being pushed off backwards took her by surprise though and she is unable to position herself. I cringe in horror as she slams into the water flat on her back. I sighed briefly, knowing that she landed in the water and would soon resurface. After about 20 seconds though, she still hadn't come up. I rushed down the cliff as quickly as I could, trying to get to her. Just as I reached the bottom of the cliff and started running towards the beach, I finally saw her head poke up above the water. I breathed a sigh of relief and called out to her. She turned her head towards me, a horrified look on her face. I paused for a second, confused, and watched dumbfounded as she ducked under the water and swam away! I started to go and swim after her when I saw a bright flash near where Ellerinn disappeared.
What is going on here?
**Ellerinn**
I wake up soon after hitting my head. I'm surprised I do because I've been inhaling water.
What is this? Why am I not drowning?
My legs start to itch and crawl. I look down at my legs and to my surprise and horror, I see them fusing together and becoming an iridescent, scaly tail. I jerk backwards in shock and confirm that yes, I can and am breathing underwater, and then I end up finding my head above water anyways. I look around dazed—then I hear my name. I turn and see Jared coming down the beach, waving at me and calling my name, relief on his face. I panicked, not knowing what he would think of my strange transformation. Instead of going towards him, like I so desperately wanted to do, I ducked back underwater and swam away, terrified of what he would think, and terrified of myself.
No, no, no! This can't be happening to me! I am alive, that is true, but why did I have to become this? I think as I swim out of the small bay and towards the ocean, but still staying semi-near the beach. What am I? What the hell is going on? What would Jared think? People don't just turn into mermaids or whatever when they fall into the water. This never happened to me before, why now? Why here? Am I stuck like this? How can I change back? Will I be able to change back?
I stop my swimming, my back and arms suddenly in a lot of pain. After a few seconds of what feels like my skin tearing apart, the pain recedes. I look back to find a dorsal fin running down the entire length of my back, connecting with the one that was already on my tail, tearing my shirt with its appearance. I look at my arms. From what I can tell, it looks like there are fins coming off the far edge of them (if that makes any sense), but they're much larger, almost wing-like. I stare at them for a few seconds before I realize that the remnants of my clothing that were still holding on during my transformation have fallen off in tatters. I look down and find that scales are covering almost my entire torso now.
I continue swimming parallel to the coastline once I'm satisfied that nothing else will be growing off me for a while. I don't know where I'm going; I just feel a type of pull, urging me to swim in that direction. I poke my head above the water and look around. I see a dock about 50 yards in front of me. I start to swim towards it when I spot something out of the corner of my eye. I turn to get a better look at it and freeze in alarm—shark. I look a few seconds longer and see two, no, three more dorsal fins following the first one. It's then that I realize that my head is bleeding a bit from hitting the rock. I swim towards the dock in a panic, briefly forgetting that I didn't have legs anymore and that I wasn't going to be able to get up onto it with my tail.
Swim Ellerinn!
I hear the voice in my head, but it's not my voice. However I don't have time to think about it before one of the sharks makes a leap towards me, teeth ready to take a chunk out of me. I dive beneath him and start swimming away from the dock. I remember something I read at school and start swimming in a zigzag style, trying to lose the sharks on my tail (no pun intended). One of them slams into me from the side, sending me into a spin. I'm running totally on adrenaline and instinct now, so I don't immediately notice when I try to fend off one of the sharks with my hand and what I guess would be a shockwave emits from it, sending the shark "flying." I have almost no time to analyze what happened before the other three sharks rush towards me. Acting almost purely on instinct, I send those three flying in the same manner as the first. Apparently they decide that I'm more trouble than I'm worth because I don't see them after that.
By this point, I am several hundred yards out, way beyond the edge of the surf. I start to swim back to shore to see if I could identify the voice that I heard in my head, when something catches my eye under the water.
Are you coming back? The mystery voice asks me. Not yet, I think back, I thought I saw something buried in the rocks below me. I'm going to go check it out.
Ok.
I shake my head, bewildered at what just transpired, but then I see what looks like a chunk of metal sticking out from between two big rocks. It's covered in seaweed, but it looks like it might have some letters on it. I slowly swim down towards it. I clear away the seaweed and find out that the chunk not only has some letters, but the full name of a ship.
"The Morning Seabird" the letters read.
Impossible! I looked at the name again, to make sure I had read it correctly. No doubt about it—I had found the remains of the ship that went missing 6 years ago. No one had ever found the ship. Until now.
I look around and can I see why no one had found it though. The ship was completely buried by huge boulders, most of them so huge it would take a lot of machine effort to move them. I look around a bit more and find a smaller rock off to the side with blood on it. I swim closer, and after seeing the body of a shark nearby, I realize why I was the one who found it. The first shockwave I launched at the first shark sent it crashing into this smaller rock, killing it, but also shifting the rock enough to reveal a large enough piece of ship for me to notice it.
What did you find?
If you can talk to me like this, surely you can see what I'm seeing?
I could, but I'm keeping my distance and only connecting enough to communicate because I can sense that you don't want people in your head.
Got that right.
So, what did you find?
You're not going to believe this, but I found The Morning Seabird.
There was a pause. Huh. I can hear the astonishment in his thoughts.
I swim around inside the ship, having pulled away a chunk of the hull big enough I could get through. I swim past the kitchen when something inside causes me to freeze and do a double-take. I stare inside, unable to believe what I'm seeing.
You there, sir?
Yes.
There's someone still alive down here.
