She swam as she always did. With grace?
She smiled as bubbles slipped past her face when she exhaled.
Her tail, her flipper, it glided through the water, as she ran her fingers through the sand while she swam.
"Where is it." she said, barely moving her lips.
The cave. She was looking for the cave. She was looking for her prince charming.
She grew worried as her search grew closer and closer to shore. Father had always warned her to stay away from the shallow end, and sand hills.
But the cave. It was around here somewhere.
A fish latched on to her fin and she batted it away. Rolling her eyes, she continued swimming forward.
She found it!
The cave.
It was just ahead, not to close to the beach, but not too far away either.
Her speed picked up, for she was excited to meet her mate.
She was outside the cave. Just then, she got nervous.
She looked up, the cave was high. It reached all the way to the surface. Anything could be in there, but her instincts told her it was her husband.
So when the butterflies went away, she decided it was best, to just swim in and greet her fate with an open mind.
Once inside, she was feeling confident.
"Prince? Prince? Hm, are you here darling?"
She shrieked at the sight of him, just like she feared she would.
He wasn't a merman, like she had always dreamed of. He was a sea beast!
"Impossible!" she shouted. "You are not mine!"
Tears sprouted from her eyes and floated away.
She was half-expecting her dream man, but all she found was an ugly monster.
He chased her.
She felt shallow for not wanting to be with the unsightly octopus, but once he started attacking her, she was alright with running away from her instincts.
He stretched out his arms, and captured the beautiful mermaid.
"My love..." It growled.
She screamed and broke free.
She panicked, and swam straight up, towards the sunlight.
"Oh no" she thought.
She headed up to the forbidden surface, trying her best to quickly escape from the beast.
Her head poked through the water...