A/N: This is a fairy tale somewhat based on mermaid and selkie legends, although not derived from any one specfic story. Let me know what you think, good, bad, or indifferent. I really mean that, too. I'm not intimidated by trolls or flames, and I'm always looking out for anything I need to improve. Although gratuitous praise is always welcome. XD
No need for a disclaimer, despite how much fun I try to have in writing them.
Jimli ;P
Chapter 1
It started on the beach. She loved the beach. The smell of the water, the sounds of the waves not just crashing, but also the soft whisper as they slid over the sand, the feel of the sand, warm and wet, soft and squishy. The fact that she couldn't swim didn't matter. It was the ocean that drew her, not water.
This part of the beach was little visited by most; the ferocious riptides kept swimmers and surfers away, and the inaccessibility of the nook made it less-than-desirable for the party crowd. Why struggle down harsh slopes or around large rock features for a tiny slice of beach, no matter how private?
She sat at the very edge of the incoming tide, letting the water lap at her with every wave. This was wonderful, a little slice of heaven, especially with no one else around.
A shape briefly breached the surface of the water, garnering her attention. She frowned. There couldn't really be anyone foolish enough to swim that part of the water, not with the riptides. She stood, wading into the tide, looking for whatever she'd seen. Thigh deep in the water, she dared not go farther when a voice startled her.
"Looking for something?"
It was a male voice, a soft baritone as smooth as wet sand. She jerked, turning towards the source of the voice at her right. A handsome man was smiling up at her. She cocked her head curiously. She was standing in about two feet of water, give or take, so with as much of him as there had to be submerged, he must be lounging, for lack of a better term.
"Were you swimming out there?" she asked, feeling a little foolish.
He laughed.
"Sure. I swim out there every day," he answered, a mischievous look in his blue eyes.
Nonplussed, she stood quietly for a moment. The next wave splashed over her, throwing her off balance. She tumbled, landing under the water's surface. She panicked, all-too aware of her lack of swimming ability; she scrambled to get purchase on the sand behind her to crawl back to land-proper. An arm came around her waist, cinching her body to…something. The water flowed back from around her, and she abruptly broke the surface, somehow further up the beach. A warm laugh next to her caught her attention.
"Say, can't you swim? That wasn't even very deep, you know."
"No. Thank you for pulling me to shore."
She frowned. "How'd you do that anyway? Lying down like you were, you can't have had much leverage…."
He laughed again. "Leverage? I just rode the wave; a little flip will take you a long ways, especially with my tail."
She blinked at his face, then let her gaze wander downward.
"Are you one of those mermaiders?"
It was his turn to be confused.
"Mermaider? Is that what you call neptunes?"
She pulled away from his grip and scuttled a little ways from him, trying to take stock of the situation. He looked normal enough, except for the fishy tail starting at his waist. She frowned. No, actually, he didn't look exactly normal.
His skin had a faint blue-green tint to it, as did his hair. His eyes, ocean blue, looked a little odd. The irises were large, not obscuring the whites around them, but certainly larger than irises should be, with correspondingly larger pupils as well. His torso looked like every other naked male torso she'd ever seen, his arms had proper proportions, muscular and toned.
Things got a little strange around the navel; starting there, dark turquoise scales made their way down his form, covering a long, singular trunk instead of two legs. His tail, as he himself had called it, was bent at roughly where the knees should be, but inward instead of outward, as knees would. The tail continued narrowing to the equivalency of ankles, where it split into two delicate looking fins. From the position of the fins and the way his tail bent, he would have to use a perpendicular stroke - up-and-down - instead of a lateral like a normal fish.
Hardly crediting what she was seeing, despite her analysis, she looked back up to his face. He was politely waiting for something, she decided, based on his expression; she just wasn't sure what.
"I suppose I'm the first neptune you've met. That's okay, you're the first land seal I've met."
He looked her up and down, refocusing on her face.
"You have the most beautiful eyes; they look just like this sand. I have to say, you're kind of strange-looking, for a seal. Being sand-colored makes sense, since you're on land all the time, but the long split fins on the split tail? No wonder you can't swim."
"Why do you speak English?"
"I speak what I speak."
"What do you mean 'land-seal'? You're half fish, half human, you really don't have much room calling me strange-looking, you know."
"I'm not a fish or a human, whatever that is. I'm a neptune. And you know: land-seal, like a seal, only you live on land."
He flipped his hands in a shrug.
"I'm not a seal at all! I'm a person, a woman, a human being!"
"A human being what?"
That gave her pause.
"Not being anything. Just being, I guess."
"Not being a seal?"
"No!"
She frowned, remembering what he'd said.
"You call yourself a neptune? Not a mermaid? Or merman, I suppose. You're male, right?"
He grinned wickedly.
"I could show you if you like. You're female, right? A salacia?"
"I'm female."
"Okay, so you're a salacia-seal."
"And you're a merman."
She grinned, understanding he was teasing her, even if she wasn't exactly sure she got the joke. He frowned down at his tail.
"I need to get back into the water. If I don't go too far down the beach, would you come with me? We can keep talking."
She shrugged, then waded back down the beach. He jackknifed his body, waited for a wave, and launched himself forward. When the water receded again, he drifted forward, lounging on the beach below the tide line so that every wave crashed over his tail. There was something really beautiful about that, she decided. She plopped down in the sand beside him.
"So. What's your name, neptune?"
"Llyr, it's a traditional name."
There was something a little too quiet about the way he answered her before he looked up, smiling.
"What's yours, human being?"
She grimaced. "Psyche. My mom was a mythology and folklore professor, specializing in Hellenistic literature. She thought it was not only perfectly okay, but positively cute to name me Psyche. It's almost traditional to study myths and legends in my mom's family, but I really wish that Mom's field of focus had been something else if she were going to name me from her studies."
"Tell me about human being life."
She frowned. "We generally just say 'human'. 'Human being' is kind of an emphasis. What would you like to know? I'm a sales rep for a decent-sized advertising firm here in the city, I live alone, I deliberately moved a few hundred miles from my folks to be on the coast, and away from the Greek pantheon, and I enjoy sitting alone on the beach getting my clothes soaked in saltwater."
She looked at him, grinning.
"Tell me about neptune life."
"I am the younger son of the current monarch of our city. I swim where I like, spend lots of time with my friends, away from my brother and court in general, and I like land-seal watching."
"You're a prince? And what's 'land-seal watching'?"
"I suppose, though I really don't think about it much. My brother is crown prince, and he has had the bulk of the responsibility since our father has fallen ill. Land-seal watching: observing humans, learning about them, interacting with them occasionally."
"I thought you said I was the first human you'd met."
"You are. I didn't know I liked land-seal watching until a few minutes ago."
He was teasing her again.
"I've spent a lot of my life learning about land-seals, though."
"You've studied humans, but you didn't know what we called ourselves?"
He shrugged. "You know about neptunes, but you didn't know what we called ourselves. I guess all of our information is out-dated."
She laughed.
"You know, this is so much more fun than the last date I had."
"Tell me," he said earnestly.
She looked at him curiously, then she shrugged and started telling him about her very dull last date. After that story, he told her more about himself, his brother, and his father. She listened, fascinated, and when she talked, he drank in her every word. The sun had set, and the tide had shifted before they finally decided to bid each other farewell, promising to meet up again tomorrow. She rose, watched him launch himself into the water, and climbed up the steep slope behind the beach. From out in the waves, he watched her climb the slope and disappear from sight.