Spring with Merfolk

The Easter Holiday was upon you. Once again, you had driven down to the beach with Brandy and Marnie. However, this time, after watching Marnie swim off you and Brandy drove round to a caravan park with your caravan. When you were parked up and paid, you grabbed your bags and got up into the saddle. You made sure everything was locked up, and Brandy trotted you over to the marina. You had been enjoying getting the occasional ride from Brandy.

The pair of you had hired a boat to join Marnie out in the open ocean and brought along some materials to build a raft. This was a Pelagic Merfolk tradition. They didn’t have weddings or engagements in the same way. When two lone Merfolk meet, after leaving their family they combine rafts. This is a physical representation of the bond that forms between them. They also bond socially and sexually. If they met other lone merfolk, they would decide to add them to their raft.

You had gotten a message out using the merfolk network for Marnie’s family to meet you closer to shore, so that you could use the anchor on your boat. You made it to the GPS location of the meeting point. GPS was one of the technologies that merfolk had embraced. Especially for tracking fish populations.

You were greeted by a large raft. You could see where the different styles of raft where they were combined. The merfolk were swimming around and playing, their colourful tails flicking in and out the water. Some has never been this close to shore before they probably were exploring the seabed.

There were two mermaids sitting on the raft on deck chairs with parasols providing shade and their tails dipped in the water through a hole in the centre of the raft. The first was an older mermaid with grey hair and wrinkles; her tail was a teal colour. The second was what you assumed to be an abyssal mermaid. She had dark reddish-brown skin and tail. She was wearing a dark-tinted diving mask to protect her eyes. Her gills were larger and more visible on her throat, even when closed. (Marnie had gills on her throat; however, when she was above the water, they closed to almost unnoticeable lines on her neck as her lungs took over.) She had no hair on her head; it was replaced with a lure like that of an angler fish. Down her tail, you could see spots. From your anatomy classes, you knew these would light up for a kind of visual language. Her teeth were long and sharp.

Swimming up to greet you was Marnie, her own raft having been tied loosely to the family one. Like all the merfolk, she was naked. “Come on in. Come on over and meet the family.” She instructed.

It was late spring, so the sea was just starting to warm back up after winter. You and Brandy had hired wetsuits. You had to help Brandy into hers, but before long you both dived into the cold water. Marnie swam over to you as you adapted to the cold and the wetsuits began to feel warm. Having met in the swimming pool and swam in the creek many times you were used to swimming together. However, this was the deepest you or Brandy had ever been in. Luckly the wetsuits also provided a bit of extra buoyancy. The three of you swam towards the raft.

You were intercepted by a number of curious and excitable merfolk children. They were all cousins of Marnie. She had a brother and a sister, but they were older. They all called her Aquamarine, and you could see Marnie cringing at hearing her real name. The children had never seen a centaur before, and most had never seen a human; the concept of wearing clothes, especially a wetsuit, was also foreign to them. They bombarded you with questions. You did your best to answer as you swam over to the raft. You noticed that some of the children had some traits of an abyssal merfolk, mostly sharp teeth or dots along their tails. Some would flash or dimly glow in seemingly random patterns, probably due to excitement.

Once you got to the raft, you found there was a ramp that helped to get up onto it. This was particularly helpful for Brandy, who needed some assistance getting up. You both decided to remove your wetsuits and go naked on the raft. You would have thought it embarrassing, but instead you felt overdressed.

Marnie slid around the central opening to come up next to the old mermaid. “Granny, these are the land dwellers I am going to marry.” She introduced you.

“It’s very nice to meet you both. I am Arial, Aquamarine’s grandmother.” Arial introduced herself.

“My name is Anglia, I am Aquamarine’s Aunt.” Anglia, the abyssal mermaid, introduced herself.

“Nice to meet you both. I am Carrie and this is Brandy.” You replied.

“It’s very nice to meet you.” Brandy added.

The conversation started pleasantly, asking about the trip here, asking about the boat and what it had on it. Then it became a grilling for information about your relationship with Aquamarine, how your studies were going, and what your specialist subjects were. The two of you answered the questions as best you could with Marnie chipping in. She had given up trying to get her family to call her Marnie. While you were chatting two other merfolk came up from the centre hole.

“MUM! DAD!” Marnie shouted in delight as they crawled over. There was another round of introductions. You found out Marnie’s mother was called Pearl and had red hair and a shimmering pearlescent tail. Her father was called Seafoam and had a similar aquamarine hair and tail to Marnie (when she didn’t dye her hair).

Arial and Anglia caught them up with what they had learnt about you with the odd interjection and correction from you and Brandy and a bit of Marnie’s input.

“Well, your probably getting a little chilly by now. I know you land dwellers normally wear clothes.” Anglia said. “and it’s getting late.” She added.

“It is getting cold.” You replied.

“Let’s head back to the boat.” Brandy added. You put on your wetsuits and swam back. Marnie got on the boat with you and you went to bed. You snuggled Marnie as Brandy spooned you. Sandwiched between soft warm fur and smooth, cool scales.