A/N: The cover art is by syls_ntsme_319 on twitter and is the inspiration for this story.
Pain racked her body as she swam. It was a combination of hunger, lack of sleep, and fatigue from fighting the ferocious currents continuously for days. Stubbornness had kept her going for a while, but even that was beginning to wane. There was nothing on her mind but the ache of her muscles and the groan of her stomach... and a memory.
A hand grabbing her own from behind her. A voice choked with tears.
"Sister... please don't go!"
"Sorry..." She said, and shoved the hand away.
She gritted her teeth and kept going. Where? She didn't know - only that she could stay there no longer. She just had to get away.
So she fought through the pain. She didn't notice the changing pressures, the warming of the lower waters, the decreasing salinity, the depleting oxygen. A storm was nigh, and it was a big one. By the time she realized it was already too late.
The turbulent water battered at her body. It was hard to breathe. She could no longer tell forward from backward. Debris and small fish flew everywhere. An uprooted coral rammed into her head, and a new pain flared through her already addled mind. The scent of iron briefly filled her nostrils before being swept away.
She was too tired to fight anymore. She was too tired to think, except that she had failed. She had failed at everything, even running away. So what had she left to lose? Finally, she succumbed to the darkness.
"Stupid vocal lessons…" Lisa mumbled, kicking away washed-up debris and dead wildlife from her path. "Stupid Yukina… stupid dad."
The sand was cold beneath her feet and the clouds of the storm yesterday had yet to retreat.
Ordinarily, she would have loved to feel the hot sand beneath her feet, the water lapping at her ankles, and the sun on her back. She wasn't allowed those simple pleasures today though.
But she took her stroll anyway. If not a swim, a stroll on the beach always calmed her down. She carried her sandals in one hand and a small backpack in the other. No one else was around due to the aftermath of the storm.
Lisa didn't know how long she spent walking. Before she knew it, she had wandered well beyond the designated beach area. The sand grew gravelly and coarse, the waves pounded more and more violently on the shore, and the water bottles, trash bags, and dead fish were replaced by larger and larger rocks. To her side, the ground rose sharply like a cliff. Above it was a road - one she took often between home and every part of her little town.
A particularly large wave crashed against a boulder, tossing a salty spray into Lisa's face.
"Blegh…" Lisa said, wiping her eyes. Then she looked around at the jagged rocks around. Her eyes drifted to the sun, dipping below the horizon. "Oh shoot! This late already?"
Right as she was about to turn and jog back, something shimmering in the distance caught her attention.
It was by a cluster of rocks several meters away, nearer to the sea. From the road above, it would appear to anyone as merely a pile of rocks. But from Lisa's angle, she could see what appeared to be the tail of a large fish.
She was ready to dismiss it at just that, but something about the odd way it reflected the twilight told her that it was something more. She had to investigate.
To free both hands, Lisa strapped her sandals onto her backpack. With care, she clambered over the wet, jagged rocks and slowly made her way over. She was moving closer to the water, and the spray from the waves wetted her clothes. Lisa hardly noticed though. Her gaze never strayed from the shimmering light longer than a few seconds.
As she drew near, the appearance of the fish tail grew ever clearer. It was larger than she expected, covered in iridescent scales, and ended in a sheer lunate fin. However, the remaining portion of the creature was still hidden - but not for long.
She came upon her target. A wide half-ring of rocks near perfectly concealed the view of its concave side. Lisa was slightly winded from the trip, but she couldn't help hold her breath in anticipation. Wasting no time, Lisa whirled to the other side of the rocks.
"Oh... my god." Lisa gasped, eyes-wide.
Before her was a creature straight from her childhood fairy tales, yet nothing like she had ever imagined. The tail did not belong to any fish, but connected to the torso of a young girl.
It was a mermaid.
She was lying on her side. Jewelry adorned her head, on top of long, sea-green hair tangled with seaweed and seashells. Over her chest and arms were clothing whose design and material she had never seen before. They would have been beautiful, had they not been caked with wet sand. Occasional waves washed over her body, as if the ocean was trying to reclaim the creature to its rightful home.
Then Lisa saw a gash on the mermaid's head. It was already scabbed over, but definitely fresh. Worry quickly chased away the awe.
"Ah! What do I do? What do I do?" Lisa wondered out loud.
She knelt down next to the creature, and she noticed more wounds on her arms and torso. Her hands reached out, then hovered over the body.
"Wait... what if I shouldn't touch her?"
She hesitated, but only for a moment. Lisa decided that attempting something would most likely be better than not doing anything.
Luckily she always carried rudimentary first aid supplies on her person. Lisa hurriedly removed them from her backpack and set to work.
She came to slowly.
First was the feeling of her own weightiness, along with the air she breathed. So she was on land.
Soon after came the pain. It was throughout her entire body, including a gnawing headache. She attempted to move her tail, but the pain quickly intensified. She just as quickly gave up, gasping as the pain receded. It was enough to put her back to sleep.
Or perhaps she didn't. Or perhaps she already was. All sense of time was lost.
Her consciousness later surfaced again, bringing new sensations - the sound of splashing waves, a foreign taste on her tongue, and of being constricted. Something was wrapped around her upper body, as well as her head, abdomen, and parts of her arms.
She tried moving her body again, and this time she settled for just an arm.
She groaned. The pain was still there, but it was tolerable at least. Her headache was mostly gone too, with only some nausea left behind.
Finally, she risked opening her eyes.
The stars greeted her. By habit she scanned the constellations and estimated her bearings. It took barely a few seconds.
"You're awake!"
She startled at the sound, and looked to her left.
A human!
On instinct she tried to swim away, but the movement only left her writhing in pain again.
"Hey it's okay! I won't hurt you. It's okay. Just stay still. You're hurt."
The human's voice was soft, on the edge of a whisper, and devoid of malice. So she remained as still as she could for now. She didn't really have a choice. She took shallow breaths, willing the pain away. Her headache was coming back.
In that time she noticed what was wrapped around her body - thin bands of a rough, white fabric. Laying over her was a large, thick piece of cloth with a colorful design. The waves have calmed with the transition into night, and the fabrics were more or less dry.
"How are you feeling? You had a lot of injuries. I cleaned you up and treated you as best as I could."
She turned back to face the human. It sat a few paces away. A small smile was on its face.
"Can you understand me?"
She gave no response. She only continued to observe. After a moment the human's smile waned a little.
"No? Aww, that's too bad."
The human turned around. It then withdrew from behind it a container.
"Do you want to eat?"
It opened the container, grabbed a portion of its contents, and put it in its mouth.
"See? Food. Want some?"
It slowly held out the foreign food to her mouth. Its smell made her grimace.
"I was afraid not… I'm not sure what mermaids eat. But I fed you some soup when you were unconscious."
Her eyes widened in shock and panic.
"I hope that's okay… I thought you might need the energy. At the very least it didn't harm you, haha."
The human's laughter turned into a sigh.
"My mom's gonna be so upset. I haven't even told her where I am. I've never been out this late."
Mom… mother… memories rushed back to her. That's right. She had ran away. She had barely left a word. What would her family think?
"But here I am talking to some creature who can't understand me… just because I have no one else."
No one else… the words repeated in her mind. Was this human just the same?
"By the way, I moved some more rocks over. Just to make sure others won't see you. Got a few annoying cuts myself on my-"
"Human," she spoke, her voice hoarse. Nevertheless it elicited a gasp, along with its hands flying to its mouth.
"Thank you."