Page 7 of Chasing Tail
Chapter 5
Taron appeared to be fascinated with whatever he discovered behind that large plant. He kept making strange noises that were oddly titillating. I’d think he was done, but then he would start again.
Drying off was a strange sensation. It was a little uncomfortable. My tail itched like crazy. I kept scratching but never got any relief. I felt sick when my scales tore when I was trying to get some relief. There was no blood. There should be blood. There was finally a break in Taron’s strange moans, so I called out to him in a panic.
Taron sounded like he had been enjoying himself. He might be in an entirely new form, but he was still Taron. He came charging through the woods as soon as he heard me and fell to his knees at my side.
“What is it, Kishi?”
“Something is wrong. Look at my tail. Maybe they lied to us, and I’m dying.”
Taron’s hands fluttered along my tail and checked the long rip. Finally, he sat back on his heels and grinned at me.
“You aren’t dying, Kishi. Your legs are under there. You’re like a little mermaid oyster. You have to peel that off to get to the legs.”
“What if it’s permanent? What if I peel my scales off and don’t get them back? What if that’s the entire reason the council didn’t want us coming? Because once you have legs, you don’t get a tail anymore!”
I didn’t think this through. I needed to do this.Someoneneeded to kill the druid king, but I absolutely didn’t want to stop being a mermaid. The sea was in my blood. I was never one of those mermaids who was obsessed with all things land. I wanted to do this and retreat back to the ocean, even if I wasn’t welcome back home.
Taron kissed me right on the mouth as I had done to him. He pulled back and tucked my hair behind my ear.
“This isn’t permanent. Talora was clear about all the prices we would pay. She would have told you. She laid out every reason for us not to do this. Why would she tell us the magic she gave me was permanent, and both of us might be banished if you couldn’t go back to the ocean?”
“Because she’s a sea witch, and that’s what they do?”
“Just tear it off, Kishi. I’ll throw you back in the ocean so you can see you have your tail back, then we can do this whole drying off thing again.”
I took a deep breath. Taron was right. Talora had given me no reason to think I couldn’t trust her. She had been brutally honest about all costs of what we were going to do. She lived among mermaids. Talora knew me, and she knew Seira. Banishment should have been enough to get me to drop this if I wasn’t totally serious about it. She knew way more about runaway mermaids than I did. She gave us every reason not to do this. If we didn’t balk at banishment and permanently changing Taron, she would have brought out me being stuck on land.
“Help me?”I asked.
“Always. That’s what I’m here for.”
It was pretty disgusting. Taron and I peeled my scales off. It was different when I was doing this to something I intended to eat. There was this nasty feeling in my stomach like my last meal wanted to come up when I was doing it to myself.
When we were done, I had two legs like Taron. I really wanted to use them to make my way back to the ocean to prove to myself this wasn’t permanent, but Taron and I really needed to practice using these things. I imagined people were already going to treat us differently for not speaking. Falling all over the place was definitely not going to get us close to the druid king.
Taron helped me to my feet, and this was definitely strange. Taron was wrong. I definitely thought about this. I was weightless in the ocean. I wasn’t here. My feet were pressing into the sand. I willed one foot in front of the other and collapsed into Taron’s arms. He definitely figured this out much faster than I did, and I prided myself on my grades in school.
I heard voices and laughter from the beach. That had me figuring this out quickly. I ambled over to the tree line and saw a man and a woman. Their bodies were covered in strange things. I remembered them from the paintings in the ships. We didn’t bother with that in the ocean. Were they going to find this offensive?
They fell into each other kissing. Then, they stripped off their clothes and ran into the ocean laughing. I placed my finger over my lips and looked at Taron.
“We need to steal those and put them on. I think everyone here wears those.”
“Gross,”Taron said.
“I know, but I don’t think we have a choice.”
The couple was splashing and laughing in the ocean. Then, they started making the same moans Taron had been doing. The woman was making noises that almost made me think he was hurting her, but the entire thing made me feel strange, so I doubted it.
Taron and I were both clumsy, but we managed to get out onto the sand and steal from them. We went way further into the woods this time because I imagined they would come looking. Instead, I realized Taron had stolen more than just the skin coverings. There was a basket there.
Taron opened it and pulled out a fish. What the fuck did they do to it? They ruined it. It was totally dried out, and it was way too small to be worth eating. Taron raised it towards his mouth.
“Do not eat that. That’s disgusting, Taron.”
“What? I’m hungry. It’s still fish. We’re going to have to eat like they do while we’re here. Maybe we can teach them the right way to eat seafood.”
