Phoebe Under The Sea
Phoebe and Gary Ravenswood were splashing in the surf. They had goneup the coast on an unusually warm spring day. Neither had any thoughtsof schools, tests or papers. They were just frolicking in the surf, laughing, falling over each other, horsing around and even exchanging an occasional kiss. The free-spirited member of the Halliwell's was in her element. Gary started chasing her across the sand, but never caught the nimble Phoebe. She ran by their beach things where Gary fell down on the towels looking up laughing at her. Phoebe gave him a "deserves you right" look and ran into the surf. Gary picked up a towel, started to dry himself off while Phoebe ran out further splashing water at him.
"Come on and get me!" she called to him. Gary just waved at her trying to get his breath.
Phoebe jumped into the water and waved again. Then she disappeared beneath the waves. When she came up, she appeared to be in distress.
Gary heard no cries for help while she waved her arms wildly.
Heading for Phoebe, he swam out towards her. He knew that Phoebe was a strong swimmer, but she was definitely in trouble. He dove where he last saw her and found nothing. He dove again and again. Where could she be, he thought? When he got tired he swam for shore to call the emergency squad.
Phoebes had been swimming and jumping in the water. She could see Gary on the shore. She wanted him to come out again. She wasn't through with him yet. They were having a marvelous time. Then she found herself being pulled down, but nothing was caught on her foot. The water just seemed to force her down. She fought it and came up a twice waving her arms at Gary. She couldn't tell whether he saw her or not. Then she went under for good.
"Is this it? After all those demons am I going to end drowning off the California coast?" thought Phoebes as her lungs burned trying to fight and get some air. She kicked and kicked trying to get back to the surface.
"I am a goner," was Phoebes last thought when she ceased struggling. But
something was wrong, she realized that she was breathing fine. Her swimming became very easy as she headed to the surface. But some current caught her and she felt herself being dragged away from the shore and away from the surface. Still she was breathing fine as she reached the sea floor. No longer was she doing a double kick with her feet. She had one single strong stroke using her entire lower body. Looking down she saw herself covered with scales and she had a large tail where her legs used to be. Her top half was the same, but her bottom was now half fish. She had been turned into a MERMAID.
Somehow this did not bother Phoebe. She was overjoyed as she swam along the bottom. Swimming faster and faster she headed south with the current. There were fish swimming all around her. It felt like she was in the largest aquarium in the world. In fact, it was her world now. Cruising along the bottom, she turned upward, ever upward, twisting and turning. Then down, down, down she went. She did somersaults and flips and twisted and turned. Never before had she felt so free. Never before had her free spirit broken out as it did today. She had no worries, no cares. She was warm, there was plenty to eat, plenty of time to play and NO worries. Heading south she could she boats passing overhead.
THOSE HUMANS, she thought, were to be avoided. Swimming with the dolphins and sea lions was fun. They played with her, she was one of them. Near the bottom she could play among the shipwrecks and things those humans had discarded. Whole schools of fish would swim by her passing her tickling her scales. Eating the raw sea life seemed to come naturally. She WAS one of them now!
For days Phoebe swam and played and made new friends. She was having the time of her new life. The water had gotten much warmer from her traveling south. The sea life was more varied and so was her diet. Though she preferred being near the sea floor miles off shore, she did venture to watch those humans playing and frolicking in the sea. The waters were too dangerous and rough for her to swim in too close to shore, though that was where most of the humans were. They still held a certain fascination for her.
As she adapted to her underwater world, there were dangers she had to face. Staying away from humans was the first thing. She also had to watch out for those large ships and fishing nets and other large sea creatures like whales. Though they would not harm her, their size was almost as dangerous as those human ships.
One day Phoebe was swimming among the dolphins, being pulled along,waving at the other fish and mammals when the school turned away and scattered. Phoebe could not see what had spooked them. She headed for the imagined safety of the sea floor when a large shark came swimming toward her. SHARK, she thought. Not a good thing. She swam away as fast as she could. She thought she was faster than the shark, but he was gaining on her. He chased her for was seemed like miles. Phoebe was starting to tire. Couldn't he find something a little tastier? Life in the sea was not as idyllic as she thought. Everyone was at some point on the food chain, including pretty little mermaids.
Phoebe heard a swoosh go by her head and looked at the shark. A harpoon now stuck from his mid-section as he twisted in pain and swam away.
Looking where the harpoon came from, Phoebe saw three humans in scuba gear trying to surround her. She must not get caught so she swam down, but something stunned her and she blacked out. As she started to drift down, two of the humans grabbed her as the third came over and looked at her face. Acknowledging the others they put a net around her and took her to the surface.
Upon breaking the surface, the net was hauled on board as the three divers climbed up the ladder onto a fishing boat. The two who had captured Phoebe were a couple of middle-aged men who looked and marveled at their find. The last diver came up, removed her mask to reveal the face of Piper Halliwell.
"Prue, is she all right?" she called out dropping off her tank and removing her hood.
"We put her in the tank and she looks OK. I am just not an expert on marine life. She is still, um, frozen, Piper," Prue said.
Whoosh. Piper unfroze the mermaid as she went over to look in the tank.
"Phoebe, Phoebe! Can you hear me sweetie?" asked Piper looking down in the tank.
"Blimey, is that fishee for real? I never seen anything like that beastie!" said one of the divers.
"She is a beauty!" said the other diver.
Phoebe stayed at the bottom of the tank in the far corner. She was terrified of the creatures that had caught her.
"If you'll please excuse us," said Prue.
"Aye, go scrap some barnacles or batten down the hatches," said Piper not rally kidding.
"Yes, em," said the divers as they headed below.
"I don't think she really knows who we are OR who she is. Look at that poor scared face! Though it is definitely Phoebe," said Piper staring onto the tank.
"Let's get this over with. She's been away from us long enough. Poor dear," said Prue. Prue reached into a backpack and pulled out a container. Sprinkling it over the tank as the two witches recited:
"Return to us Phoebe,
Come back from the sea,
To those who love you,
Come back to the Three."
As the water turned blackish, Phoebe started to swim around and around disappearing in the murky water. The water seemed to boil, but gave off no heat. Then two hands appeared, Phoebes' head popped up coughing and gasping for air.
"Help! Help!" she called out until she realized she was could stand in the tank.
"What? Piper? Prue? I sure thought I was a goner. Where's Gary? How did I get here?" said Phoebe very confused.
"Here you are my au natural sister," said Prue throwing her a large T-shirt that said ' Acapulco' on it. "It's sure good to see you."
"Yep. We thought we'd lost you earlier this week. Settle down, Phoebes, you're safe with us now. You don't know how much we cried at your memorial," said Piper.
"Hey, what? I was dead?" asked Phoebes.
"No, just missing, drowned! We had had a quick service on the beach youwere lost on. Then I started having premonitions. You lost your power and I gained it. Standing on the shore I could see a water demon dragging you under," said Prue.
"And then you saved me?" asked Phoebe now sitting on the tank drying her hair.
"Not right away. You see you were swimming away from us. You had beentransformed into a mermaid." said Piper.
"A mermaid? Right! That's pretty wild!" said Phoebes now realizing shehad been picked up in the middle of the ocean. "Whoa. Could it be? Who did it to me?"
"A water demon like the one that drowned Mom. It seems he knew we had destroyed the other one. He wanted to break us up, but we got to him first!" said Prue.
"Besides we had all of our powers. We lured him out of the sea and zapped him like last time. Then using Prue as a mermaid finder, we tracked you down. And a good thing, too. A shark almost got you in the ocean just below here!" explained Piper.
"I still find that all hard to believe. But, I do believe that my sisters would come after me. Thank you, dear Charmed Ones., Phoebe said hugging them both. "What about these other guys? Finding a mermaid is one for the record or at least the Inquirer."
"Don't worry, they won't remember a thing! They'll just think that we were
just renting this tub to go fishing. And we caught one very special fish. My dear little sister, welcome back!" she said hugging her again.
Piper called out, "Captain, head for shore!"
"Si, senorita!" he replied.
"We're in Mexico?" asked Phoebe looking at her T-shirt.
"You did a bit of traveling underwater. But let's get you to shore, into some warm clothes and a good dinner in you before we head back tomorrow," said Piper. "I'm buying!"
"Sounds great but no seafood for me. I don't think I'll ever look at it the same way again!" said Phoebe looking a little queasy.
"Come on, Ariel. We're taking you HOME!" said Prue putting her armaround her free spirited sister as the ship turned and headed for shore.
THE END