Mermaids are not really my theme, I would have never thought about it if not for a friend of mine - Georgia Alice. Thank you for the idea, your help with the writing and the expert advice. ;-)
I hope that other mermaid lovers will enjoy my approach to the theme and not bash me too hard on my lack of "professional knowledge". :-)
Please, leave comments and suggestions.
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Everybody knows that the elves live in the woods, right? Many of them indeed do, maybe even a majority, but definitely not all of them. There are city dwellers as well or domesticated elves as their wooden brethren call them. Aeriella was such a domesticated elf; she lived in a court, not in a city, but she preferred a feather bed, stone walls and a roof over her head instead of a forest canopy. But she was also a sorceress and as such conducted a lot of research and travelled in search of knowledge and ingredients. Her excursions sometimes took her to remote places of different landscapes and climates; such was the case this time.
Aeriella and her four drow companions had spent the last two weeks travelling towards the seaside; the road was uneventful and they fought the boredom with sex. The elf was bound to board a ship, while the drow would await her on land. The sorceress was accustomed to all kinds of travel and was not afraid of the sea either, but the dark elves were creatures of the underground, they would only be a nuisance on the board. The sailors would serve as a sufficient protection.
Aeriella undertook the entire expedition for a specific reason, she wanted to meet mermaids. There were reports of those creatures being spotted not far from the coast of a nearby island. These were not the evil sirens who lured sailors to their doom, but friendly mermaids with whom a contact could be established.
Human sailors believed that a woman on board brought bad luck. The sorceress was aware of that superstition, that was why she had hired an elven ship; sea elves had superstitions of their own, but that was not one of them. The captain's name was Saelethil, he was tall and lean as the surface elves went, he had a dark complexion darkened further by a strong tan, long black hair and large dark eyes; it was not extremely uncommon that Aeriella shared his cabin. The ship, Amaranthae, was a unique one, designed for special missions like transporting important passengers or cargo; it was fast and armed relatively well for its small size. No-one expected to fight on this particular mission, but at sea one had to be ready the entire time.
They reached the island within one day, spent the night in the port (once again Aeriella and Saelethil shared a bed) and on the morning set off to search for mermaids. Amaranthae found the creatures after merely three days, mostly because the mermaids were not hiding and surfaced voluntarily to wave to the sailors. The crew launched a jolly boat to get closer to the mermaids, on the surface they were greeted by a friendly pair of these creatures. With the bottom parts of their bodies under the water they somewhat resembled elves, their facial features were gentle and their ears were long and slender, although not as pointy. Their skin was a lovely shade of blue that served as a camouflage beneath the sea, but looked surprisingly attractive on the surface. The male was bald, but the female had long purple hair that clinged to her shoulders and upper back.
The language barrier was the first obstacle to overcome, but Aeriella had a spell for every occasion. She did not know the etiquette though, so she tried to make her greetings polite but neutral. It soon turned out that such care was unnecessary, the mermaids were open, friendly and somewhat wild, but most of all they were surprisingly talkative, at times even to a level of babbling.
Aeriella's elven crew sat patiently as she continued her conversation with the mermaids. Special missions were their... speciality and they were used to uncommon occurrences and as most sailors were in general patient. Nevertheless all were shocked when the sorceress turned to them and spoke in the common language:
"They want me to go with them."
"What?! Where?"
"Under the sea. They can cast magic too and will make it possible for me to breath underwater."
"You're in charge here" the officer quickly cooled down "when will you go?"
"Now."
"For how long?"
"A day, they I'll return to the surface and decide on the further course of action."
"Aye-aye. I'll repeat that to the captain and we'll wait."
"I'm so excited, wish me luck!"
Aeriella put away all her ingredients and stripped naked, she gave the crew a good view of her fit but curvaceous body before she jumped into the water. She surfaced quickly because the mermaids have not yet worked their magic. Their spells did not use words, but the gestures were far more complicated and required the motions of their whole bodies. The casting took almost a minute during which the elf patiently floated on the surface as the mermaids swam beneath. The crew shamelessly ogled her huge naked breasts.
Finally the sorceress could sense her body tingling and altering, she would not have thought that breathing underwater could be such a complicated spell. Only then she realized that it was more that just breathing, she must have misunderstood the mermaids; she was turning into one of them! Aeriella was not afraid, she knew that the creatures meant her no harm, but her excitement reached new heights.
The whole transformation lasted another minute, the elf eventually ended up with a tail fin instead of her long limbs. It felt... different, significantly different, but not wrong or awkward. The sorceress was still floating on the water, but the bottom part of her body was beneath the surface; she looked down but the sight was not clear.
"Dive" said Kairius, the man, in his tongue.
The excited sorceress obeyed; for a moment she held her breath, but then Talia, the woman, added:
"Breath."