Tail of the Bear

by Unther

As if the Change hadn't made her life strange enough already, Signe's husband had to go and make it even stranger.

Larsdalen
April 8, CY 30, 2042 AD

Signe Havel strolled down the road leading from her house down through the Citadel town and toward the main gate set into the south wall. Few observers would honestly call her movements a stroll. But for a warrior-queen, it was about as close to one as she'd known in a very long time.

On that particular morning, however, Signe was certainly not relaxed. She stopped almost mid-stride and glared up at a familiar face on horseback. "I don't suppose you've seen Mike either, have you, Eric?" she demanded.

Her twin brother exhaled, visibly banishing his frustration, then dismounted. He placed a hand on her shoulder. "For the dozenth time, Sis, no. I have no idea where he is. You know him, he can take care of himself."

"But it's not like him to go wandering off at random." Her face twitched and her eyes widened slightly. "You don't suppose he...did it...do you?"

Eric gazed past his sister at nothing in particular, then shrugged. "Well...you know as well as I that he's never been the most predictable of sorts. In character, sure. But otherwise?"

"But do you think he actually did it?"

"I don't know," he said noncommittally.

"Yes, you do."

"Signe, would you relax? You're acting like Astrid. That's not like you."

"But I'm scared, Eric. I'm afraid he's really gone and done it. I mean, Mary did and..."

"First," he interrupted, "Mary was almost dead. She didn't have a choice and Mike really didn't either. Okay, he did have a choice, but you know as well as the rest of us that the other one would have meant one more headstone in the family plot. Second, what if he has? Would it really be that bad?"

"Yes!" Signe nearly shrieked.

"Why?"

"Because!"

Eric shook his head. "Well...between you, me, and the lamppost, I think it'd be funny as hell."

"I should slap you."

"I don't think I'd deserve it, though. And there'd have been a day I'd have slapped you back."

"Yeah. Except now we'd go at it with sword and shield."

"Or wands at twenty paces."

"Neither of us is a magic-wielder and you know it."

"Yeah. Bummer, too. How come Astrid gets all the fun?"

"Lady Bear?" A man ran up to the pair, clearly out of breath. He thrust a large bundle at Signe with both hands. "Found this by the river, Lady Bear."

Signe took it with both hands. It was all there: Mike's pants, shirt, boots, sword, all of it. "Damn that man!"

"Um..."

"Thanks, Tony," said Signe. "I'll handle it from here...I think."

"We can call off the search, then?"

Signe half-glared at Tony. "There was a search?" she asked flatly.

"Well, we...uh..."

Signe groaned, then looked sharply at her brother. "Did you put them up to this?"

"No. But you know how people are about Mike. They'd turn out to look for his navel lint."

Signe rolled her eyes. That much was true, at least. "Tony...go tell everyone else to get some breakfast...and some sleep...not necessarily in that order."

Tony nodded curtly, spun on his heels, and trotted off back toward the gate.

Signe exhaled heavily and tipped her head back. "You know, Eric, it's days like this I really wish the Change had never happened."

"Shift," he corrected.

"What the hell ever!" she snapped. "Sorry," she added.

"But, yeah, lots of days are like that." He led his horse around as he followed his sister downslope. "Especially back when we were still fighting Arminger."

"And how's now any better?"

"Besides that we're not fighting Arminger?"

"Oh, now, let's see." Signe's voice dripped with indulgence. Her footsteps landed hard on the gravel as she stalked toward the pool that sat a few score paces from the gate and beneath the shadow of the wall. "There's Boise. And the CUT. Oh, and let's not forget the several hundred billion stars all trying to kill us," she growled.

"Kind of hard to believe that last bit, though, don't you think?"

Signe leaned heavily against the retaining wall the bordered the pool. "Not a day goes by anymore when I don't see how Mike's practicality has rubbed off on you...and me, too, for that matter."

"Seeing is believing, right?"

"Something like that."

"Then I guess it's a really good thing we've seen so much really weird stuff. Otherwise we'd never believe any of it, much less a brewing intergalactic war." Eric chuckled.

"What's so funny?"

"Oh, just that I always thought space wars were going to be fought like in Star Trek or Babylon-Five. But the truth turns out to be stranger than fiction. Though sometimes I think our sister's...eccentricity...has actually been an advantage of sorts. In dealing all of this, I mean. You do recall how she squeed...I mean, really squeed...when she found out that things like magic and mermaids actually exist. Speaking of which..." His voice trailed off as he nodded toward the pool.

Signe twisted around. A bobbing, tow-haired head and shoulders greeted her. "Mary!"

"Good morrow, Mama," said Mary. She swished over to the side and heaved herself up out of the pool, executing a tidy, elegant twisting move to perch perfectly and daintily on the edge of the wall. Water cascaded off of her naked body. She exchanged an embrace with her mother.

"How are you, dear?" Signe asked.

"Oh, I'm fine, as usual. So's the husband...and the children." She glanced over her shoulder at what was clearly the beginning of a growing crowd of gawkers. She rolled her eyes. "And they're still not used to mermaids?"

"I think," said Eric, "they're still not used to seeing naked women."

Mary cocked an eyebrow at her uncle.

"Yeah, yeah. But I used to help change your diapers on occasion. And I'd have probably helped with your kids' diapers too, but..." He let the rest of the thought go unsaid. He and his sister and niece all knew mer-babies didn't use diapers. For that matter, none of the mer-folk ever wore any sort of clothing whatsoever. "How do you potty-train your kids, anyway?"

Mary rolled her eyes. "Uncle Eric, you're weird."

"Says the woman with a fish tail."

Mary laughed, then abruptly flipped her fin upward, sending a voluminous spray of water directly onto her uncle, which made Signe laugh, too.

"Thanks," said Eric flatly.

Mary visibly regained her composure. "I'm sorry," she said gravely, "that was...rather un-princessly of me. And for the record, it only looks like a fish on the outside."

"Whatever you say, pumpkin," said Eric, using one of Mike's terms of endearment for the twins. He leaned over and gave his niece a peck on the cheek.

"I don't suppose," said Signe to Mary, "that you might happen to have seen your father recently?"

Mary sculled her fin absently in the water. "Is he missing?" she asked innocently.

Signe cocked her head. "Young lady, it's been a good two decades since you've lived under my roof and you were only eight when you left. But I'm still your mother and I can still tell when you're hiding something."

"I still outrank you." At her mother's raised eyebrow, she continued. "And according to the terms of our treaty, this pool..." She pointed to the water. "...including the wall surrounding it and clear up to your living room is our embassy and therefore technically Cascadia water. So, yes, I may pull rank. I'd rather not, but..."

"Mary, he's my husband. Which makes this personal. It also means I'm pretty sure I know what he's done."

"Yeah," muttered Eric, "guy's only been talking about it for months."

Signe shot her brother a look, then returned her attention to Mary. "Either get on with it, or let me hold onto my denial just a little longer, would you?"

Two objects suddenly exploded from the pool and came to rest next to Mary. As the water cascaded off of them, they quickly resolved into two of Mary's children.

One of them, Abigail, landed on Mary's tail, swiveled on it, then caught the wall just before slipping across it.

The child's tail swiped Eric's legs, leaving a trail of slime across them.

"Thanks, junior," said Eric indulgently.

"You're welcome, Granduncle Eric," said little Abigail. She beamed up at her granduncle.

The other child, Nahum, nearly collided with Mary, who deftly caught him. She carefully spun him around and set him to breastfeeding.

Signe exhaled heavily. "Must they do that? Erupt out of the water without warning like that, I mean."

She looked down at her daughter. "Abigail? What's our rule about using telepathy around the humans?"

"Sorry," said Abigail sheepishly.

Signe melted, then stepped over to hug her granddaughter. "I'm sorry, honey. I didn't mean it. It's just...well, your grandmama's a little on edge...on account that your grandpapa's missing."

Abigail gazed into Signe's eyes. "No he isn't," she said.

Another ripple broke the surface and Signe saw the all-too-familiar face she'd almost dreaded.

"Mornin', Alskling," said Mike.

Signe's eyes widened. "Mike! Thank God you're okay!"

Mike swished over to the edge and grabbed it with both hands. "You worried about me, didn't you?"

He heaved his body upward, but faltered just before his arms had straightened, and fell back into the water with a great splash. A few moments later, he erupted out of the still-frothing surface and landed on his stomach with an audible smack. "Ow," he grunted.

He rolled over and pulled not legs, but a great, brown-and-red scaly tail out of the water, letting it fall heavily onto the rock wall with a dull slap. He sat up, propping his arms behind him.

"Damn, this thing's heavy!" He looked up into Signe's slack-jawed face and grinned.

Signe gasped. "Oh, Mike, you didn't!"

"Yeah...yeah, I did," Mike said flatly, a note of resignation in his voice.

Eric began to laugh. It quickly rose from a chuckle to an outright guffaw.

"What?" said Mike.

"Ah, Mike," said Eric through the laughter, "that's, without a doubt, the absolute most hilarious thing I've ever seen in my life!"

"What's so funny about my tail?" said Mike. That made Eric laugh even harder.

"Nice going, twinkle-toes," said Signe to her husband.

"Um," said Mike, as he twitched his fin, "a man has to HAVE toes in order for them to twinkle." He smiled smugly.

"Fine...twinkle-tail."

"My tail doesn't twinkle."

Signe pointed at it, grinning triumphantly. Sure enough, the light from a sunbreak sparkled on Mike's scales. Eric saw it and nearly fell over, tears rolling down his cheeks.
"Well, I'm glad someone's amused," Mike glowered.

"Oh, Papa," laughed Mary, "you really are funny!"

Signe crossed her arms and glared at her husband. "So, now what, Mister 'Every Bear Needs a Tail?'"

"Hey," said Mike defensively, "that was your sister's line, as I recall."

"What were you thinking?"

He looked pensively at his tail. "Well...I don't have to worry about those poorly-tracking knee-caps...or plantar fasciitis...or that twinge in my left ankle...or that nasty burr I'd been developing in my right ball-and-socket...or ingrown leg hairs...or the phantom pain from that tibia break...or toe-jam...or..."

"I know all that! You've only been complaining about it for years."

"And I get a free, all-you-can-eat seafood buffet for every meal!"

"Seafood? Seafood!?"

"I'm a pilot, alskling. I belong in the air."

"And this..." She gestured at Mike's tail. "...is your solution? How the hell are you going to get up there?" She gestured toward the sky.

"Mama," said Mary, "I've seen the plans for the ships. I don't understand a quarter of it, but it looks like Queen Rapunzel has it all covered. Don't worry, they'll just Bifrost him to Mars and take it from there."

"And just what are you going to do now?" Signe demanded.

"Well," said Mike pensively, "I thought I might..." He grunted as he tried to move his tail. "Damn. Thing doesn't even move like legs."

"No shit, Sherlock," said Signe.

"Mother, please," said Mary serenely. "Not in front of the children."

Mike exhaled and dropped his hand to his hip. He immediately picked it up again, gazing at the stringers of mucus bridging the short gap between his hand and his tail. He furrowed his brow, then poked at his scaly skin with a finger, slid it around in a circle, then pulled it away, a strand of mucus trailing after it. "And I didn't realize I'd be this slimy, either."

"The hell you didn't," said Signe. "You've only been handling our daughter...and her children...for years. We both have." She glanced at Mary. "At least until you got too old for it."

Mike gazed at his wife, then stroked his chin pensively.

"Uh-uh," said Signe, shaking her head. "You can forget about that..." She paused as she locked eyes with her daughter and granddaughter. "...you-know-what we were planning to have...ever again."

"You mean this?" Mike abruptly grabbed Signe by both arms and kissed her soundly. She initially resisted, but then instinctively leaned into it.

Eric, having mostly recovered from his fit of laughter, squirmed visibly. "Um...guys?"

The Havels ignored him. Mike pulled Signe into a tight embrace, which she reciprocated. Without breaking contact, he slid his tail off the wall. Its weight pulled both of them into the pool. Signe put up a brief struggle before they both vanished beneath the frothing surface.

"Signe?" said Eric. "Signe!"

"Relax, Uncle Eric," said Mary. "She won't drown."

"But..."

"I said, she won't drown."

Eric watched as the surface of the water calmed, Mary looking off somewhere else.

"What's he..." Eric began. Then, "oh, no, he's not!" He began to strip off his clothes.

"Uncle?" said Mary flatly. "What did I just say?"

"But he's..."

"First," she interrupted, "he's not turning her. And even if he were, it would already be too late to stop it. Second, I really don't think you want to go down there."

"Then what..." His voice trailed off. "Oh, that's...ah, crap. He's not...he is, isn't he?"

Mary raised an eyebrow. "And that bothers you?" She turned to Abigail. "Abigail, dear? Please use your mouth-voice."

"Sorry," said the girl.

"Now what is it you want to say?"

Abigail giggled. "Grandmama's going through Grandpapa."

"What?" said Eric.

"Oh," said Mary dismissively, "she just means we can hear Mama's mind through Papa's while they're...connected."

"What?!"

"Something like...'Mike, what are you...oh, God..oh...oh! Oh, Mike! Ah, what the hell...yes...oh, yes...'"

"Stop!"

"Why?"

"He's doing my sister!"

"She's his wife."

"But he's doing her right in front of me!"

"Under a good ten feet of water," Mary pointed.

"And that part doesn't bother you?"

"Why would it? I'm a mermaid. I'm used to doing it under at least..."

"Mary!"

"That's 'Princess' to you," she teased. "And besides, why do you think I'm even here to have this conversation at all?"

"Yeah, yeah, I know that. It's just..." He finished his thought with a vague, waving gesture.

"It's like thinking about your parents doing it, isn't it?"

"Yeah, kind of. And there are children present."

"They're not looking. Unlike you."

"What?"

"You're staring at my chest again, Uncle," said Mary flatly.

"Sorry."

"You humans really are twitchy about nudity."

Eric laughed. "You know, a decade and a half ago, I might have called you nuts for saying something like that. But now that we're practically surrounded by non-humans..." He shrugged.

"It's like you're living in...what's that called...oh, yes, Star Trek?"

Eric nodded. "And when they're finished with Mars, maybe I'll get to show you all that."

Mary smiled. "I'd like that. For practical reasons, too." She laughed. "And really, Uncle, ever since Queen Rapunzel's announcement five years ago, it's been 'Wrath of Khan' this and 'Stargate Command' that and 'if you only knew the power of the Dark Side' the other thing." She rolled her eyes. "I've nearly lost count of how many people have been wondering what it is with you pre-Quieters and your so-called 'pop culture' references. And apparently the parallels between what Her Stellar Majesty has been planning and what's in all those movies of yours are quite striking."

"So they tell me. Supposedly there are going to be non-stop movie marathons just to bring people up to speed on things like interstellar travel, zero-gravity operations, gravimetrics, extra-dimensional dynamics, and so forth. Not to mention illustrating just what supposedly happens when a star explodes."

Mary cocked an eyebrow.

"Oh, don't worry. 'Star Trek Generations,' 'Stargate SG-1,' 'Stargate Atlantis,' and a few others. Don't know if that's how it really looks, but I think everyone will get the point."

"They're about to Bifrost the first batches of seed up there, you know."

"Already? That didn't take long."

"Apparently there's enough water. But just barely."

"Huh. I studied terraforming right before the Change. Not seriously, mind you. In more of a...nerd sort of way. Can you believe the fuss the Ingarians made over grass?"

Mary chuckled slightly. "Can you blame them?"

"It's grass," said Eric flatly.

"Of course it's just grass. But it's really less about what it is and more about what it represents. The Ingarians have a home, but they still lost their world. They're a little sore that we're building Mars in Earth's image. To them, we're going to have two worlds, when they still have none."

"I thought we'd come to a consensus."

"Oh, we have. Deposit both Earth and Ingary seed and see what happens. Besides, Ingarian grass isn't as aggressive a colonizer as Earth grasses."

"And aren't they still afraid we're going to screw up Mars like we screwed up Earth?"

Mary shrugged. "It's not like Mars has an ecosystem to destroy. The one we're building is totally artificial anyway and for a single purpose."

"Yeah...to function as a giant factory, I know."

"It's not really about the grass, you know. It's more that they're homesick. And it's also just a vocal minority or older people anyway."

"It's still going to take a while longer. The pioneer plant communities, along with their pollinators, have to establish, then build soil for the next phase, and so on. Dad says the oxygen plants'll still be going full bore when we begin work on the manufacturing infrastructure."

Mary frowned. "I thought Queen Rapunzel was taking care of the oxygen."

"Oh, she is...some of it, at least. She may have nudged a bunch of stuff out of orbit, but it'll still take a while for the Martian landscape and so on to settle. Speaking of things taking a while..." Eric gestured vaguely toward the water.

"It takes as long as it takes. You're married. You should know that." Mary cocked an eyebrow, then giggled. "Though I must say I appreciate Mama's...enthusiasm." She sighed. "She really does love him, you know? It's quite sweet...and inspiring. Now, where's that husband of mine?"

Eric locked eyes with his niece. After a few moments, his eyes flicked down to her chest, thence to just below her scaly waist, then abruptly to the citadel wall. He groaned. "I don't suppose it would be too much to ask to at least flop your hair over your breasts? At least the one that doesn't have a baby on it?"

"Yes, it would. I'm a mermaid, Uncle Eric. We don't wear clothing...of any kind...ever. Get over it."

Eric sighed and looked over at the few people hovering nearby and waved. "The boss is back, everyone. Nothing to see here. Move along." He must not have been that convincing, for only a couple of people moved. Eric shook his head and groaned.

A disturbance in the water caught his attention. He turned to see Mike and Signe rise from the surface. Signe paddled over to the wall while Mike bobbed after her. She grabbed the edge of the rock and pulled. Mike lifted her up from behind and she flopped onto her belly, then spewed far more water out of her mouth than any human had the right to spew. Eric stepped over and offered her a hand. She waved it away, then rolled over onto her back, panting, the wide, nearly-vacant smile of complete satiety spread across her face.

"I'm good," she said dreamily.

"Damn right you're good," said Mike, a goofy grin spread across his own face. He heaved himself out of the water and awkwardly settled himself next to his wife, his own tail dangling next to his wife's legs.

Eric cocked an eyebrow at his brother-in-law. "Must you?"

Signe looked at her husband. "It's a good thing I love you. 'Cause sometimes you make me mad as hell. And then you have to go and...well, you're lucky you're so good at that." She blushed a little. "And you owe me another round of that, mister."

Eric rolled his eyes.

Mike's grin widened. "Well, I had to make sure the equipment still worked and..."

"Gah!" said Eric. "Would you two just stop that?"

"He has a point," said Mary. "Technically, you two just had sex in our Embassy."

"Mama?" asked little Abigail, "What's sex?" The girl cocked her head at her mother. "Grandpapa...overflowed."

Mike grimaced. "Sorry."

"Overflowed?" said Signe.

"It's a...telepathy thing."

Signe cocked an eyebrow. "What...sort of telepathy thing?"

"She...may, or may not have heard me...and you...what was going through our minds when we...you know."

Signe smacked herself in the forehead and groaned. "My life's way too weird."

"To answer your question, Abigail, it's what your father and I were doing..."

"Stop!" said Mike.

"But you and mother just..."

"You're my daughter!"

"So?"

"Guys!" said Eric. "Can we not talk to each other about our...um...amorous encounters?"

"Fine," said Signe as she swung her legs back over the wall. She picked up the bundle of Mike's abandoned clothing and grinned. "Race you to the living room," she teased, then took off uphill at a dead run.

Mike slipped off the wall, porpoised up toward the first of the many stair-stepped pools leading up to the Larson home, but faltered with a smack that sent him sliding back into the pool. A moment later, he resurfaced.

"It's not as easy as we make it look, is it?" said Mary.

"Nope," said Mike. He ducked back under, then burst back toward the small waterfall spilling from the next level. He heaved himself over the ledge before making for the next one.

Signe Havel sat in waist-deep water inundating the wide ledge built into one side of the deep pool carved out of one end of the Larson living room. She'd stripped down to her skin. The water was cold, fed by rainwater from an enormous cistern built behind the house. She didn't mind.

She leaned against her husband, reveling in the warmth of his body. He felt a bit warmer than she remembered and she didn't think it had anything to do with his slowing metabolism. Being in one's forties generally did that to a person. Being a merman, on the other hand, came with its own set of physiological rules. Signe just wished it had come with a handbook.

She brushed a toe against the leading edge of Mike's fin. That was an odd thought, her husband having a fin. But she was quite sure she could get used to it. She shifted onto her side, her leg brushing across the scales covering her husband's tail. It was hard to think of it as an actual tail and not as legs encased in a tail.

"So, now what?" she asked.

"More of the same?"

Signe giggled. "Oh, Mike. You're such a man...mer or otherwise. We've been in here all day as it is." She held up her hand and peered at it. "Much more of this and I'm going to turn into a giant prune. I already have enough wrinkles to pass for a sixty-year-old."

"Bull."

Signe picked up one of Mike's hands and held it next to her own. "See? I'm all waterlogged and pruney and you're not."

"Well," said Mike pensively, "there's always the edge of the wall. In this weather, I'm not likely to dry out, and you won't get pruney...er."

Signe laughed. The thought was appealing. At first, she'd been horrified at the idea of having Mike's slimy, scaly tail between her legs, his mer-manhood up her own nethers. It hadn't taken but a minute to break her of that and she had no idea why.

The sensations of his entering her were entirely different from the way they'd been when he'd been human. It was almost like making love to another man. Above the waist, Mike was still the same as he'd always been, though minus most of the wrinkles he'd begun to develop and half his grey hairs gone. From the waist down, however, was something else entirely.

She could have blamed it on the novelty of it all. But somehow she felt there was more to it than that, more than just the new, unfamiliar, and delightfully delicious ways Mike's altered physiology filled her and stimulated her.

Signe sat up, water swirling around her naked body. The chill air pricked at her skin as she twisted up and out of the pool, coming to rest in a kneeling position on the wall that held the pool. Its rough surface pressed into her knees. She shot Mike a come-and-get-me grin.

Mike grinned back, then and half rolled, half levered himself up to the wall. He lay there with his tail stretched out toward Signe, water dribbling off of his body. He twitched his fin in a beckoning motion.

Signe grinned mischievously. Instead, she rocked back onto her haunches, and swiveled around on her naked buttocks. She stuck her tongue out slightly between her teeth and bumped her eyebrows.

Mike chuckled slightly. "Oh, we're going to play that, are we?" he teased.

Signe said nothing, just spread her legs.

Mike took the not-so-subtle hint. He rolled back into the water and half paddled the two yards that separated them, looking to Signe rather like a river otter. Bracing both hands on the wall, he flopped his fin over it and raised himself awkwardly out of the water.

Signe almost had to physically restrain her laughter as Mike nearly plopped onto his ventral side and began inching toward her like an elephant seal. But the fire in his eyes ripped her back into the moment she'd begun. She held his gaze as he closed the gap between them.

Soon, his hands were navigating around her body. She felt her breath quicken, each of his touches like a brand upon her skin. She closed her eyes and moaned lightly, shivering as Mike kissed her belly button, working his way up between her breasts, across her neck, until he reached her mouth and took her lips in his own.

Signe spread her legs wider, anticipating what was to come next. She felt Mike's tail slide between her thighs, his wet skin slipping along her own. Her pulse hammered in her ears. He pressed his nethers against hers and she could feel his scales pressing against her.

Then she felt it. Up until that morning, she'd been used to him entering her in the usual way, sliding his firmness into her. That, too, had changed. She could feel him expand into her, almost like a balloon, filling up every bit of her, pressing against her everywhere at once. She instinctively arched her back and shuddered, even though their lovemaking had barely begun. When she felt his sweet pressure all around her, and when he'd filled every space there was to fill, Signe tipped her hips upward, feeling for...

She drew a ragged gasp as the first pricks of pleasure danced through her nethers. She felt Mike move back and forth, the mucilaginous coating of his tail making soft splurching sounds that only increased her desire. She grabbed Mike's buttocks, or rather, where they used to be, and pulled him toward her, the slippery mucus making a decent grip challenging. Each motion translated not necessarily into the thrusting she'd known since their wedding night, but into something else entirely, something that sent wave after wave of pleasure through her body, each one building upon the one before.

Signe wrapped her legs around Mike's tail and squeezed as hard as she could, the scales gently pricking her skin through the mucus. Something inside her suddenly exploded, setting every nerve in her body on fire. She spasmed, then stiffened, overcome by the sheer magnitude as everything else faded away but the raging sensual maelstrom consuming her.

After it passed, the two of them lay utterly spent, gazing into each other's eyes and breathing heavily. It had been the most incredible, earth-shattering lovemaking Signe had ever experienced.

Signe was about to say something, when a voice from the door derailed her thoughts. "Oh, there you are. I..."

Signe looked up to see Ken Larson standing slack-jawed in the doorway. "Dad, do you mind? My husband and I are...having a moment."

Ken blinked, then turned around. "Well, I'm not getting any sleep tonight," he muttered as he retreated.

Signe looked back and Mike and they both burst out laughing. "I think we broke Dad," she said.

"Yeah," Mike laughed, "looks like."

Once they'd recovered, Signe sighed, then let her limbs flop outward. "I think duty calls...or something."

"Sometimes, alskling, it's not so good to be the king, is it?"

"Being a grown-up sucks."

"Got that right." Mike leaned down and kissed his wife.

Mike pulled back out of her, the motion sending another shiver through her, then half-rolled off the wall and into the water.

Signe rose wobbly to her feet. Her knees buckled and dumped the rest of her onto the floor. "Whoa!" Then, "Ooph!"

"You okay?" Mike asked from the water.

"Yeah," she said, looking at him from flat on her back. "Never better. It's just...wow, Mike, you really wore me out that time!"

Mike grinned.

She rolled up onto her side and propped herself up onto an elbow. "Aren't you the least bit...sore?"

He shrugged. "Maybe a little."

"Yeah, well, you're also extremely smug about it." She groped about for her clothing and climbed into a chair. "Why don't you meet me outside? I'll, um, recommend we hold our meeting out there...seeing as you're...you know."

"A merman?"

"Yeah, that."

"And you can't just say it?"

Signe sighed and rose to her feet, pulling her pants up. "It's still...weird. The mer-thing, I mean. Look, Mike, don't get me wrong. That was the best sex we've ever had and I enjoyed every moment of it. But sometimes all this magic and mermaids stuff feels...surreal. You know?"

"Like the Change did during the first year?"

"Kinda, yeah."

"Tell me about it. Living in a Changed world was strange enough. Then everything had to go and get even stranger. And that was before I decided to go and become all...scaly."

Signe froze, then looked down at her hands.

"What?" Mike asked.

"I just realized I completely forgot to...clean up. And this time, I have slime all over myself, too."

"Welcome to the club."

Signe dropped her arms to her sides. "You have no sympathy for me whatsoever, do you?"

"Nope."

She rolled her eyes. "Men!" She hobbled over to the pool. "It's a good thing I love you," she said as she kissed him. "I'll meet you outside." At that, she turned and walked tentatively out of the room. Why wouldn't life just leave her alone?