Wow, it’s been a while since I wrote a new short story in any of my fictional worlds! But since I’ve been hard at work on Coral’s novella (details coming soon, I swear) I’ve been inspired to create a little something extra in the Forgive My Fins series.
This story stars Astria (aka the queen conch of the Terrible Trio). There are small Just For Fins spoilers inside. If you’re super-spoiler-shy, you might want to read that first.
Enjoy!
A Shore Thing
Astria Rubicundum was about to do something she had never done before. Until recently, she had never even thought about it. Her world was perfectly fine how it was and she didn’t need to expand her horizons, explore her limits, or test her boundaries, thank you very much.
But something in her had changed.
It all started when she helped Thalassinia’s princess rally the rulers of the Western Atlantic mer kingdoms to work together to address ocean warming and climate change. Suddenly her view of the world was very different. She saw her place in it as far more connected than she used to.
She hadn’t been able to shake an overwhelming sense of responsibility for and connection to the rest of the planet.
Which was why, when she learned about the beach cleanup on Kelpberry Cay today, she decided to join the humans in their efforts. After all, dirty beaches and dirty oceans were two sides of the same problem.
At least she intended to join the cleanup. That was her plan when she left home that morning.
But for some reason, she couldn’t quite bring herself to leave the water. She had been floating in the gentle waves offshore for several minutes, mentally debating whether to go through with her plan.
The scariest part? She was doing it alone.
She hadn’t even told Venus and Piper about her plan. Her best friends wouldn’t understand. Not really.
They had been inseparable since guppihood. They were unwaveringly loyal to each other, brutally honest with the rest of the mer world, and at times—she wasn’t proud to admit—not exactly the nicest girls in the ocean.
Princess Lily had made her see that, too.
Now look at her. Floating offshore, about to transfigure and walk herself up onto a beach to help humans with a Clean the Scene campaign.
She barely recognized herself.
Then again, she hadn’t managed to transfigure yet. Maybe she would fraidy-fish out. No one had seen her. They wouldn’t even know she’d been there.
She could swim home, pretend like this never happened, and try to go back to the life of palace gossip and underwater fashion that she used to love.
Yes, definitely that. What was she thinking?
She was just about to kick off and dive for deeper waters when a dark-haired mermaid breached the surface just to her right. An instant later—because, lord love a lobster, Piper was always half a beat behind—a blonde head popped up on her other side.
“There you are.” Venus shook her head and then ran a hand through her thick black hair to squeeze out the water. “We’ve been circling this stupid island all morning looking for you.”
“All morning,” Piper parroted.
Astria was so shocked by her friends’ arrival that she wasn’t quite sure what to say.
“I don’t—” She shook her head and tried again. “Why were you looking for me?”
“Because we’re your best friends,” Piper replied. “Duh.”
The blonde flicked her long, curly hair over one shoulder.
If she weren’t so embarrassed to be caught, she might have smiled at Piper’s response.
Instead, she clarified. “I mean why were you looking for me here?”
Astria gestured at the island. She had never been to Kelpberry Cay before. There wasn’t anything remarkable about it. The offshore reefs were small and sparsely populated, and the island itself only had a few hundred permanent inhabitants.
Though the humans seemed to flock there in droves on vacation for some reason.
“I saw it in your planner,” Venus said. “8am, Kelpberry Cay, Clean the Scene.”
Her dark eyes studied Astria, daring her to dispute what they both knew was the truth.
“Circled in red,” Piper chirped.
She punctuated her sentence with an airborne twirl.
Astria and Venus lunged for her. Each grabbed a shoulder and yanked her back down into the water.
Her golden tailfin barely cleared the surface, but it was always possible a squid-eyed human might spot her gleaming scales.
“Girl, keep it below the surface,” Venus chided.
Astria glanced up toward the beach, where several humans were gathering trash into large blue bags. None seemed to have noticed the mermaid launch herself into the air.
She huffed a sigh of relief. She couldn’t speak for her friends, but she definitely didn’t feel up to performing a mindwash.
“Right, sorry.” Piper’s face fell, like she was going to cry.
Venus gave Astria a desperate look. Venus hated it when Piper cried.
“Hey, did you know this island is famous for it’s lace murex shells?” Astria told Piper. “I saw some on the far side of that sand bar on my way in.”
“I love lace murex shells!”
Astria grinned as Piper spun around and dove into the water, heading to the sand bar to search for empty lace murex shells.
When she turned back to Venus, her friend was giving her a serious stare.
Clearly she wasn’t getting out of this conversation.
Her first instinct was to deny.
“I wasn’t—”
“You don’t have to lie,” Venus said before Astria could get the whole lie out. “I understand.”
“Understand?” Astria echoed.
Venus gestured at the cleanup operation. “I feel it too. The urge to do something.”
Astria looked toward the shore. The humans had finished at the eastern end of the beach and were slowly making their way west.
She felt guilty that they were up there working to clean the ground where sea met shore while she floated out in the waves, watching.
“It’s like…” Astrai struggled to find the words to express what she felt. “It feels like everything is different.”
“It is different.” Venus floated closer. “Once you know something—like what’s happening to our oceans and how it’s connected to what’s happening to the entire planet—you become a different person.”
Astria nodded. That was exactly how she felt. Leave it to Venus to say it just right.
“Sometimes I wish I could go back,” Astria admitted. “I wish I could pretend like I didn’t know.”
Venus laughed. “It doesn’t work like that. The old Astria is gone.” She placed a hand on her chest. “Just like the old Venus.”
Just saying it out loud felt like a giant anchor had been released from her tailfin. She felt instantly buoyant. Knowing that Venus felt the same thing, that she understood, made Astria feel even better.
She had known her friends would support her. Piper, especially, was the most loyal merperson Astria had ever known. And she thought Venus would stand by her—to a point.
Knowing that they were truly in this together made Astria feel less alone.
“I found one!”
Piper popped up between them, holding up a pristine ivory-colored lace murex shell for them both to see.
“Um, sweetie,” Venus said cautiously, “that one’s still occupied.”
Almost on cue a slimy little head with two wiggly antennae appeared in the opening of the shell. Upon sensing that it was no longer in the water, the lace murex immediately retreated back inside.
Piper squeaked and dropped the shell in the water. Then, realizing what she’d done, she gasped, “Oh no. I have to put him back.”
She started to dive into the water, but again Astria and Venus grabbed her by the shoulders.
“He’ll find his way home,” Venus assured her.
Astria smiled. “And we’ll help you find the perfect, empty shell. After.”
“After what?” Piper asked, her still-occupied shell immediately forgotten.
Venus nodded toward the shore. “After we help clean up the beach.”
Piper followed Venus’s gesture and the stared, wide-eyed, at the group of humans. Her jaw actually dropped.
“Are those…” She broke into a massive grin as her blue eyes glistened. “Boys? Human boys?”
“Some of them,” Astria said, her grin spreading.
Almost before any of them could blink, Piper transfigured into her terraped form. Her golden tailfin had been replaced by a pair of heavily self-tanned human-like leg.
“Don’t forget your finkini,” Venus reminded her.
Good call. They didn’t want a repeat of last summer’s bare-bottomed visit to the human town of Key West. If Venus weren’t such a fast talker, Piper would have been arrested for indecent exposure.
Piper concentrated for a moment before some of her golden scales reappeared to form a pair of shorts. She started up the beach before either of the other two could stop her.
Not that they wanted to.
Astria centered her focus and performed the transfiguration, making sure that her own turquoise finkini scales covered her like a bikini bottom to match her cropped tank top.
When Venus had done the same with her mahogany tailfin, they followed Piper up to the shore.
As they climbed to their feet, Venus took Astria’s hand.
“You don’t ever have to do this alone,” she said matter-of-factly. “We’re best friends. Nothing will ever change that.”
Astria gave her a squeeze. Venus couldn’t know how much her solidarity meant.
Then again, this was Venus she was talking about. She probably knew exactly how much it meant.
As they followed Piper’s footsteps, Astria had a feeling that her life would never be the same. In the best possible ways.
If you’ve read any of my series, you know that I have a hard time leaving a bad girl bad. The same is true for Astria and her besties. They were pretty rotten in the last two Forgive My Fins books. But merpeople can change.
While you saw the beginning of their transformation in Just For Fins, I wanted to share with you a little insight into what really changed for Astria after that book.
I hoped you enjoyed this read. Let me know in comments if you want to read more about the Not-So-Terrible Trio in the future. I just might have some plans in that direction….
More Like This
Want more Forgive My Fins short stories? Here you go:
Want more Forgive My Fins behind-the-book extras? Check these out:
- The Forgive My Fins Novel Notebook (Part 1)
- The Forgive My Fins Novel Notebook (Part 2)
- The Pretty in Pearls Novel(la) Notebook
Find more short stories (and other goodies) on my Extras page.
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