Pocket Stories: Into the Depths (Part 1)
This story didn't come from a writing prompt or story starter. It came from me, musing about how all these stories about mermaids let them breathe underwater and then breathe air just fine. Fish can't do that, so why should mermaids? Take a look to see where that led me. The surface was close, all she had to do was reach her fingers a little further and the water tension would break. The perfectly calm water lay like an ice sheet between her and the world beyond. Just a little further and she'd know for herself. Her parents' warning rang through her mind: You can't be seen. You will be hunted and killed or sold. The air world is not safe for our kind, stay in the water, where you can be safe. The water was all she'd ever known. It had fathoms yet to be explored. But she didn't want fathoms, she wanted stars. With rebellion burning in her heart, she twitched her tail fin ever so slightly, pushing her fingers upward, breaking the surface tension at last. Air s