"A smudge of pink...a splash of red...a wave of orange...a dash of blue and voila!” Skye grinned to herself, flicking her paint brush across the page in front of her. She leant back from her position on the floor to inspect the painting in front of her, lifting her eyes to examine the sunrise in front of her for comparison. Though the warm colors stemming from the rising sun were constantly changing as they danced across the morning sky, she was able to get a general idea of how it should look. “It’ll do” She decided wiping her fringe away from her forehead with the tips of her fingers, her full lips pulled into a smug smile. She jumped as a puff of warm air slid across the back of her neck followed by a wet nose as Selkie came to investigate what the young girl was doing, Skye chuckled softly turning to look at the inquisitive sea lion who was hovering by the railing at the edge of her habitat. “What do you think Selkie does it pass your incredibly high standards?” Skye asked the mammal, laughing as the chocolate colored sea lion nodded her head in a dramatic fashion, 'barking' in agreement. “Ah you’re just saying that to get some food" She chastised her aquatic companion, laughing harder as the sea lion waved her head from one side to the other.That timing was perfect Skye thought to herself as she got to her feet collecting the small collection of art supplies she had on her, she picked up her sketchbook along with the small stand it had been perched on before precariously balancing it all in her arms as she walked around to the staff room to clean up her equipment before she could tend to Selkie and the others.
As she cleaned up her brushes in one of the sinks she thought back to the night before last. Noah had been beyond furious with her when Jay had brought the four of them back from the island. She knew he'd been worried but there was only so much she'd take from him when he went all 'adult' on her, as it was they still hadn't patched things up...And what about her classmates? She hadn't for one moment expected them to continue talking to her once the project was over, but she couldn't help but wonder about them, especially Yuki after the cave incident...Skye sighed as she finished cleaning up, she quickly changed into her 'work' clothes now wearing dark blue tankini bottoms and a similar bikini top underneath her water park t-shirt and khaki shorts. She patted herself down making sure she hadn't slid her phone into her shorts...she'd lost countless mobiles to the water in Selkie's enclosure. She quickly made her way out of the door, realizing as she reached the enclosure that her cousin had already prepared the sea lion's breakfast she frowned walking over to the buckets.
A few moments later after feeding the majority of the hungry occupants she was sat cross legged at the water’s edge watching Selkie splash around playfully with a few of the other sea lions. Noah had saved her a lot of preparation time, he'd even filled the barrels. If he was going to do all the jobs anyway why am I here this early on a Saturday? She thought to herself idly braiding her hair, she didn't mind being here it just seemed...odd not being able to do anything. She was tugged out of her thoughts as her sea lion friend suddenly propelled herself out of the water besides her bringing forth a small wave of water that soaked Skye's bottom half pulling another bout of laughter from the brunette as she jumped to her feet. “Selkie! Watch-“ She was cut off as a very peculiar feeling passed through her, before she could register quite what had happened she lurched forward onto her front, her legs apparently unwilling to hold her any longer. Luckily for her she caught herself with her hands before she could smack her head off of the sloped floor, Selkie padded at the ground in front of her bobbing her head impatiently. “What just...?” She started flicking her hair back off of her face so she could look over her shoulder. “H-huh?!” was the startled response she gave as her eyes fell on what she could only describe as a large fish tail where her legs should have been. She all but held her breath as she tried to process what she was seeing, her eyes grazed the length of the tail taking in the silvery glint of the scales and the clear webbing of the fin at the end...What are you doing?! Have you forgotten this is where your legs should be? Her thoughts pulled her out of her relaxed trance as she pushed herself upright, looking down at her middle. “Oh...my...” She murmured, her eyes falling first on the scaling and netting secured around her chest for starters it looked like it was actually a part of her rather than a ‘top’ secondly...it gave her cleavage only slight but enough to bring a blush to her cheeks.
She squeaked in surprise as Selkie pushed her moist nose against Skye’s cheek, barking impatiently at her before she turned and slid back into the water. “Right, focus Skye!” She told herself sternly lifting a hand to her forehead, she splayed her fingers across her eyes peeking through them as she tried to move her ‘legs’ only to watch the large fish tail wriggle uselessly beside her. “Sugar honey ice tea...what the hell happened to me?!” She whined pulling her other hand to her face, she was daydreaming she had to be! The urge to run from this entire situation was almost unbearable but how could she run without any legs?
“Skye?” A masculine voice called out to her, Skye felt a cold chill race down her spine. Ah! He can’t see me like this...think, think! Her thoughts flew around her mind in a chaotic swirl of confusion as her eyes fell on the pool of water in front of her. Without thinking it through she near enough threw herself into it plunging into its warm depths, on instinct she held her breath as she spun in the water finding it surprisingly easy to move her...tail. With a quick flick of her fins she swam up to the surface just as Noah stepped into the enclosure, she tucked herself as close to the edge as she could making sure only her head was above the water. “N-noah...hi” She stuttered, her heart was beating ten to the dozen at this moment. “Fancied a dip huh?” He chuckled clearly trying to make small talk as he rested a towel over the railing of the enclosure, Skye smiled faintly at him grimacing as he took a few steps forward. Please don’t come any closer... “Right well, look I wanted to apologize for going all ‘overprotective brother’ on you the other night” Noah started as he crouched down a meter or so away from her.
Thank you karma! “To make up for it though I’ve got your shift covered for the day. No work for you to do” Noah grinned at her “Really? That’s...great thank you” Skye answered him, she was ashamed that was the best she could do but she was preoccupied. “To boot I’ve also rented out your favorite movie and got toffee popcorn so don’t make plans for this evening” He told her getting to his feet, Skye rested her hands on the edge of the pool smiling up at her cousin, he must have been feeling really bad over their tiff... “Toffee popcorn included? Who are you and what have you done with my cousin?” She jested, her smile only growing as he poked his tongue out at her playfully. “Haha she’s so funny” Noah sarcastically answered. “Anyway get your butt out of there, the parks going to open in 5...go find something to do you deserve to relax after the other night, maybe go find those other girls and give the ‘friend’ thing a try...you’re not a hermit crab” He teased her, before heading back out of the enclosure. “Catch you later” He called back over his shoulder, Skye’s tail flicked as realization hit her. The other night, that cave! Whatever this is has to be connected to that weird...thing that happened. I wonder if this happened to the others Skye’s heart was still pounding in her chest so fast she could in fact hear her own pulse in her ears.
She looked around cautiously before pulling herself back out of the water despite her panic, there was a small part of her that had wanted to explore what she could do with a tail. But with the park opening in 5 minutes she couldn’t afford to. She had too many problems to contend with at this moment like...was this tail trick even reversible? “Half human half fish...you read enough books to know something about this” She told herself as she dragged herself clear of the water, trying desperately to scrape something from her extensive knowledge of fiction. “Dry...need to get dry” Skye told herself, mentally making a note to stop talking to herself after this, people thought she was weird enough without adding madness into the mix. She wriggled towards the rail grabbing the towel Noah had left on the rail, she hastily dried her tail gasping in surprise as she watched her tail morph back into her normal legs, relief flooded through her chest as she reached down running a hand along her calves in turn as if to check they were in fact her legs. When she was sure she could support herself she slowly got to her feet, glad she was no longer of any interest to the sea lions she quickly made her way out of the enclosure heading for her things she retrieved her bag tucking her sketchbook under her arm she headed for the exit to the park, her mind abuzz with thoughts as to what had just happened. As she walked she fiddled with her phone, sliding her light blue skull candy headphones out of her bag she pulled them on hoping Paramore would help calm her nerves, she had already decided to head for Nixie first...which meant travelling up to the lighthouse. She wasn’t even sure the other girl would be up at this hour, she could probably immerse herself in drawing somewhere close to the lighthouse for a few hours...which is exactly what she did.
Pushing all earthly worries aside Skye had settled herself on a small collection of rocks just along from the lighthouse, yes it was a strange place to be but she knew for a fact she was probably visible from the lighthouse...and as strange as it may be if Nixie left she’d be able to quickly catch up with her. She hadn’t been able to remove her headphones since putting them on, she’d always found Hayley William’s voice to be oddly relaxing, which was exactly what she needed right now. She was bent over her sketchbook, a pencil tucked into her hand which flickered across the page as she tried to focus. Her eyes occasionally lifted to inspect her surroundings curiously. Come on...I can’t be the only one She thought to herself, she had hoped if the others had experienced the same as her that they’d all think to head here...Nixie was the expert on Mako island it was fact, she must know what was happening. Skye frowned down at her page shaking her head as she realized the drawing she was working on had ironically turned into a mermaid she was in the process of shading in the tail...
