The Mermaid Tale

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Scooby Doo or any of the characters associated with him.

Chapter One – Daphne the Mermaid

"Daphne? Daphne? Where are you?" called Velma and she looked round Daphne's door. Her room was empty. Velma sighed. Well, if Daphne wasn't in her room, there was only one other place she'd be. Velma left the room, went along the corridor and headed off out of the undersea kingdom. Yes, she was a mermaid as was her friend, Daphne. The undersea kingdom was hidden from the human world deep underwater and the one main rule that mermaids were to follow, above everything else, was that they not show themselves to the humans. Humans were dangerous: they stole fish from the oceans and replaced them with poisonous substances. Humans weren't to be trusted so under no circumstances was any creature to break the water's surface and talk to one.

Velma had always followed this strict rule but Daphne…was very curious about humans and spent many hours above the water's surface, staring at the land. Oh, she never went near a human – she wasn't so stupid as to do that – but she went to a hidden little area where she could gaze at the boats yet never be seen. If Velma ever needed to find Daphne, she could count on finding her there. She swam for about 20 minutes until she reached it. This place really acted as a border: the palace faced the open ocean where anyone could go but behind it was a long line of land, forming a long island, and on the other side was human-occupied water which led to their little port-town. The mermaids never went into the human waters and the humans never went past the island border. They had enough water to swim and sail in.

The area Daphne went to was a little break in the island. It was like a little circle of rocks, with many rocks around underwater to hide behind. Enough land grew round the edges so that trees could surround it and shelter it, and overhanging branches and leaves created overhanging vine 'curtains'. So anyone in the area was well hidden on all sides. There were only two ways in (there were too many trees to be able to walk on the island): on the human side, there was a hidden little channel surrounded by vines which led to the clearing Daphne always went to; and from the ocean side, you had to swim through an underwater channel that few knew about as it was also well hidden. Daphne had only discovered it by accident when she was little and she loved it as she could be there peacefully without being disturbed.

Velma was swimming through the underwater channel when she heard it. That beautiful note. That song which could easily belong to a siren, a beautiful mermaid-like creature who sang to men on ships during a storm and would lure them to their deaths. Smiling, she followed the sound until she came to the clearing and broke surface. And there was Daphne, just a few feet ahead of her. In the middle of the clearing were some large, flat-ish rocks and this was where Daphne usually sat. Indeed, there she sat singing and brushing her hair – she hadn't yet noticed Velma. She didn't actually see her until Velma was right next to her and tapped her shoulder.

"Velma! You nearly gave me a heart attack!" Daphne cried, putting down her brush and glaring at her friend. Velma laughed and Daphne's face softened. She could never really be mad at Velma as she was, really, her only friend and often helped her keep out of trouble. "So why are you here? You only come here when you're looking for me and you feel uncomfortable when you come above the water's surface so I'm guessing it's urgent?"

"You bet it is!" said Velma. "It's your father – he wants you. You were supposed to meet him earlier for lunch, remember? With your new fiancé, I might add." Daphne's face fell and Velma sighed. "You know sometimes, Daphne, I don't understand you. If I was going to be married to someone as handsome as Freddy, I'd be thrilled. But you…you'd rather be here, staring across the water and watching the humans while they fish and swim and destroy everything."

Although the trees and vines hid the clearing from sight, anyone inside could easily look out and Daphne spent hours staring out at the humans, wondering what it'd be like to be among them. "Seriously, what is it with you and humans? You're fascinated by them! Why? They're monsters! They're cutting down their own world and slowly poisoning ours!"

"They're not that bad!" argued Daphne. "Yes, they do bad things but so does everybody! And they might not all agree with it. I mean, it's not as if anyone has ever talked to one and found out, is it? Who knows? There might actually be some nice humans."

Velma laughed. "If you really believe that, then you're crazier than I thought!"

"Hey! I'm not crazy."

"All right," Velma conceded. "Not crazy. Naïve, then. You believe everyone is nice and that the world's good but trust me, it's not all rainbows and seahorses! There are some bad lobsters out there – some real sharks!"

"Not all sharks are bad. Why, the nurse shark is rather small and tends to stay near the sea bed, feeding on the small creatures there."

"Okay, fair enough. But most sharks you would try and avoid, yes?"

Daphne frowned. "Well, I…can't argue with that."

"Right. Well, the same goes for humans. You may be right in the fact that there are some nice ones but I bet the vast majority are dangerous – so stay away!"

"You know, they say that fear of something is just ignorance. If you don't understand something, you're probably gonna be more afraid of it. And let's face it, we know next to nothing about humans."

"That's not always true. I know loads about sharks and I try to avoid them at all cost!"

"Well, that's just common sense," argued Daphne.

"Exactly! And it's common sense to stay away from humans."

Daphne went to make a retort but stopped herself. "I'm not gonna win, am I? No matter what I say, you're either just gonna twist my words or ignore them altogether, am I right?"

"At last! You're right about something! But seriously though, Daphne, stay away from the humans! I don't want you getting hurt or taken away. If they saw you, Daphne, they would take you away! It's said that humans do experiments on animals and I don't want that to happen to you! Now, come on. Your father sent me to find you and remind you about lunch. Let's go before we both get into trouble. It wouldn't do to keep your father and fiancé waiting for too long."

"Okay, I'm coming." Daphne watched her friend dive under the water before picking up her tiara and putting it on. She took one last glance at the human town before going after her friend. Velma was right: it wouldn't do to keep the king waiting or her fiancé, Prince Fredrick…