Silver Tails
Prelude
"Bring it in, now! Steady... steady... God's sake, don't drop her! Easy... Good. Now let
her into the water. Bring her to the edge and introduce her to it; she'll find her way in or die from
being dry." There was a long silence, then the sounds of dry, leathery skin rubbing slowly against
stucco cement floor, finally followed by a splash. The five doctors looked at the Olympic sized
pool in astonishment; what they had just discovered was simply fascinating. Approximately five
foot two, swimming with the speed of a barracuda and eyes deeper than the ocean. And a long
silvery tail. She was an extraordinary creature; a rare find indeed. And held more secrets to life-long mysteries than the five could ever imagine.
She circled the whole area of the pool in mere minutes, trying to get her bearings.
Memories of the day were fuzzy, and her last truly clear memories were of her fishing and
finding several schools of fish all together. She swam too close and got caught with them in a
fisher's net. But halfway up, she had managed to cut a hole through the wire and escape, but
ended up beaching herself due to exhaustion. She saw one old man approach her, followed by
four others. Speaking a gibberish she couldn't understand. After that, all was a blur. Strange loud
animals that shone in the sun and were too hot to touch; a world of trees and a black river passing
by her faster than she could swim; the cold of wind to wet flesh; frightening grotto-like rooms
with shining objects that pierced her skin and made her bleed, then feel all mellow and sleepy...
Then here, in a large pool filled with ocean water, surrounded by the men who found her. What
had to be the strangest and scariest day of her life...
"She is amazing," said Dr. G, staring into the water at their new find. "But what will we
do with her? Train her to do tricks and jump through hoops?"
"Not quite," answered Dr. J. "We will keep her for a while. See what we can learn from
her, what techniques we could use in battle, study her, play with her... Just see what we can see.
Besides, what are the odds of finding another like her? Hm? A zillion to one, that's what. We
have that one, so let's make good of it!!"
As the five discussed what was to become of her, she had swam the whole of the pool and
found that there was a little underwater gate that she couldn't fit through. But she would worry
about that later. For now she had perched herself on a set of steps near the fifteen foot end of the
pool. As she sat on the steps, she raised a slender arm and brushed a lock of hair out from in front
of her face and bit her lower lip. She didn't know where she was, or who these strange creatures
were, or why they had brought her here, but she knew one thing; whatever reasons they had, they
couldn't be good, and she wanted to go home. She was scared, tired, and hungry. And they
couldn't understand her or vice versa. Her hands slid down her arms and fell to her lap, gingerly
tracing the silver scales as a tear trickled down her cheek and dropped to the salty water.
"Aren't any of you curios as to what we could learn from a mermaid??"
