January 14, 2009. Right in the middle of summer holidays in Australia's pointbreak bay. The beachside town known for sweltering heat, surfing and dolphins. One would expect it to be ripe with tourists, but it flew under the radar compared to areas like Bondi. It was a hidden gem the locals treasured.

And this year, 2009 marked the last year of high school for Icarus Perri. Your typical beach dweller coconut girl who was never seen wearing something dull. She was dreading this year, she'd never been great in school. Dyslexia beat her ass every year and pulled her grades down, but she needed to pass this year. She needed to graduate. Although she was also a master procrastinator, so while it was still summer holidays she figured she'd not worry about any of that and enjoy her last school holidays before going back. This was also the final year she was able to go to summer camp, before getting too old for it.

She stopped going around 12 years old, because as she got older her beach volley ball games and school got in the way. But since this was her last chance, she took the leap and went back to camp. Although she didn't really have at friends to go with, she still found it enjoyable as it was packed full of beach activities. Although the final activity of the week had her regretting all her decisions.

"Ahhh! I should never have agreed to this camp, I hate orienteering" she sighed.

Looking down at the map, then up at the surroundings she was confused. Taking a glance at her watch she let out a frustrated groan.

"Damnit I was meant to meet the group an hour ago!" She said.

She gazed out upon the area, coming up with an idea. The sea breeze blew her curly hair about, tamed only by the hibiscus clip keeping it out of her face.

"Get to high land. That's what the guide said. High land" she muttered, turning to run up the sand dunes.

She mentally cursed herself for wearing jelly sandals and not sneakers, getting sand stuck in her shoes and making it a lot more uncomfortable to climb over the dunes and rocks. But, she was a fashionisa. Everything she wore had to be fun and bright, even when on camp.

Some might say jelly sandals, a tank top and terry cloth skirt wasn't appropriate for hiking over rocks and dunes, but Icarus would argue that it's beach appropriate and worthy of being on a magazine cover.

Reaching the top of the sand dunes and climbing onto the rocks that lined the shoreline, she stood tall above the coastline and looked around for any sign of the path back to camp. She had no idea how far she'd wandered, but judging by the slowly setting sun she'd wandered far enough for the afternoon to escape her.

"No no no! I can't see camp anywhere. I don't remember which way I came, I can't read the damn map! It's getting dark shit what do I do..." she muttered.

Approaching the edge of the rock formation to get a closer tool at the coastline, she was starting to freak out now.

"No no no I'm gonna die out here I have no food or water or-"

In her panic she fails to notice how close to the edge she'd gotten and her foot slips, fear immediately filling her body she screams as she falls off the edge and right into a rock pool underneath. Falling too fast she failed to notice the presence of another person standing right by the pool.

"What the fu-" Aries exclaims, rushing to the edge of the pool and looking in.

Aries, a 19 year old new to the area was here for a reason. A very non-human reason. This pool was of particular interest to them, as it was unlike any other Rockpool on the coast, and in the human realm altogether.

Icarus doesn't break to the surface, Aries just stands there in shock.

"Come on, break the surface..." they mutter.

After a moment of waiting, the girl still hasn't come up. Clearly the fall and impact with the water knocked her out. Aries drops their bag, diving into the water. They swim after the sinking girl revealing their long tail.

That's right, Aries wasn't human. But a siren. Something you don't usually see in the human realm, but luckily for Icarus the exact type of person she'd need right now, as she's knocked out and not responding.

Aries had a long blue-green tail, which would appear when in contact with water. They've been this way since their birth, they were born a siren and lived that way for long as they've been alive.

Grabbing Icarus by the arm and pulling her body back up from the bottom of the pool, they pull her back up to the surface where they tread water holding the girl up watching as she starts to glow. Aries looks up at the sky, then back at the girl. They put two and two together.

"No way-" they mutter.

The girls legs vanish, being replaced with a long pink mermaids tail.

The siren is beyond confused. They didn't think magic like this even existed. Humans don't have any magic in the DNA, so how the hell can one just turn into a mythic in two seconds flat like that?

Aries stares at the mermaids tail shock as the sun goes down over the horizon and the darkness starts to set in. They pull the girl out of the water onto the edge of the pool. Listing for a heartbeat and thankfully, hearing one.

"Oh thank god she's still alive" Aries sighs.

The two Merfolk are left in the darkness of the night in a rock pool area, one unconscious and one very confused. They couldn't just leave the girl there and hope she'd figure the whole mermaid thing out. That could lead to some major problems for magic kind.

"When I said give me a mermaid this is not what I meant-" Aries sighed, propping themselves up on the edge and blankly looking down at Icarus.

What the hell did they do now?

What just happened?

Aries came here to investigate this exact pool, but had no idea it had this ability. You see, Aries was the last known siren in the realm of Izroulia, their homeland. Over a decade ago when Aries was just a baby, a war induced by the current ruthless dictator of Izroulia broke out. Merfolk were the victims, with other aquatic creatures fearing they'd be next. The merfolk that hadn't been unfairly and brutally killed in the war had escaped into the human realm and were never seen again.

Aries, having survived and being the only one known to be alive in the realm was determined to find the missing merfolk and bring them back. Although they definitely weren't expecting what they assumed was just a meeting point to be enchanted so powerfully, a human could grow a tail.

The next morning, Icarus wakes up. She stirs in the sand and listens to the sound of the beach in the distance. She sits up shielding her eyes from the sun. Again, she fails to notice there's another person right by her.

"Oh good I though you died or some shit" Aries said.

Icarus jumps, scrambling awaiting from the siren slightly.

"Wha- where am I who are you?" she exclaims.

"Chill chill. you're hella lucky I was here last night. You fell from the overhang and landed in the water. Almost drowned" they says pointing to the overhang above.

Icarus looks up, the events of the night before starting to come back to her. They look back over at Aries who seemed tired. They had short, fluffy black hair and wore a tank top and board shorts. At first glance, Icarus couldn't tell if they were a boy or a girl.

"Wait you jumped in after me?" She asked.

"I'm not just gonna let some random person die" Aries replied.

"T-thank you? Why didn't you call for help though?"

"Two reasons, one... no service out here" they began.

"Damn I wandered that far?" Icarus replied.

"And two... uh... that pool, it's kind of not normal" Aries explained.

Icarus gave them a confused look. Who was this? And what were they being so cryptic for?

"What do you mean? What were you doing here anyway?" Icarus asked.

"Promise you won't freak out?" Aries said.

"Ok?"

Pulling their water bottle from their bag, Aries took the cap off and Icarus just watched in confusion. That was until Aries simply poured the water over her legs.

"Hey! what the-" Icarus began, cut off by her legs starting to feel strange and tingly.

And in a matter of seconds, they weren't legs. It was a tail.

"Wh- how did- you just-" Icarus began to panic.

"You said you wouldn't freak out" Aries cut her off.

"HOW CAN I NOT FREAK OUT?! WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME?" Icarus exclaimed.

Aries sighed, knowing this would happen. Although they weren't surprised Icarus would freak out.

"I didn't do shit. The pool did. I told you it wasn't normal, I'm not exactly sure how it works myself but as soon as you fell in this kinda just... happened" they said.

Icarus starred down at her new tail, completely frozen and having no clue what to say or do. This isn't exactly something that happens every day, becoming a mermaid and all.

"What... I mean..." she muttered.

"You're a mermaid. At least now you are, It goes away when you're dry" Aries said.

Icarus looked up at Aries, the situation suddenly hitting her. Some random person pulls her out of a magic pool she fell into and stayed with her all night until she woke up. And somehow knows all this information? What was that all about?

"Who are you? How do you even know all this?" Icarus asked.

"Aries. And yes my star sign is also Aries" Aries introduced.

"Wait- Aries from Greek mythology?"

"Yeah"

"No fucking way. My name is Icarus, like flying too close to the sun Icarus" she snickered.

"Oh shit, we match" Aries snickered back.

Amusingness of the matching mythology names aside, she was still really confused.

"But still, how do you know all this?" Icarus asked.

"Because I'm a siren. And yes there is a difference between mermaids and sirens. Kind of like how wolves and dogs are both canines big different types of canines" Aries explained.

Icarus gave them a skeptical look, and Aries just sighed expecting her skepticism.
She watched Aries get up, walk over to the pool and jump on fully clothed. Popping back up a few moments later with a tail, different to hers in colour and slightly in shape, but similar enough it was obvious they were both of the same species.

While Icarus had a bikini top that matched her tail, Aries didn't have anything. Two scars lined their chest, a sign of surgical intervention.

"See?" Aries said, leaning up on the edge of the pool.

Icarus looked at them confused again for a moment. Everything was confusing her right now...

She shuffled closer to the water to get a closer look, dipping her tail into the water over the edge. The water on a whole new limb felt weird at first, she'd never felt a tail let alone a tail in the water.

"And... you didn't do this?" She asked.

"Nope. Listen there's A LOT to explain. And I'm willing to of course but right now it's probably best we get back to the town before you end up a missing person..." Aries said.

In all the chaos Icarus as completely forgotten she was meant to be back at camp YESTERDAY and today was the last day of said camp. In fact people would be packing up to go home right now.

"FUCK- how long has it been?" She exclaimed.

"All night" Aries replied.

"ALL NIGHT?! I need to get ba-"

Completely forgetting she was a mermaid now, she tried to stand up only to fall right into the pool with a yelp. Struggling to stay afloat she had no idea how to swim with a tail. Aries sighed yet again, knowing this would happen and swam over to hold her up.

"Dolphin kick. You only have one limb remember" they explained.

It took a second for Icarus to get the hang of everything, but slowly she was able to tread water without the help of Aries holding her up.

"Listen, let's get back so you don't get caught up in a missing persons case. I'll explain everything I can once that's out of the way. You can have my number and we can meet back up at the docks or something later on so I can explain. But Icarus you cannot tell a soul about this ok? Humans aren't meant to know about magic" Aries explained.

"No one? What about my mum? She knows everything... I live with her how can I hide this?" Icarus asked.

"I'm sorry but it has to stay secret. If humans can't even accept each other based on gender and race do you really think they'll take a whole other species of intelligent life lightly?"

Aries has a point, humans could be cruel. She'd end up on a dissection table or in a fish and chips dish. Not to mention all the unwanted publicity that'd come with this.

"Right... god I'm so confused..." she muttered.

"I know, I'll explain everything. We need to get you back first though, follow me there's a way out though the ocean" Aries said.

"What? I can't hold my breath that long!"

"Icarus you're a mermaid now, yes you can. Just take a deep breath and follow me"

Aries ducked underwater, and hesitantly Icarus followed.

The second she was underwater and following Aries in movements to get the hang of swimming as a mermaid, she noticed a massive difference in her underwater performance. She could see really clearly, her eyes didn't sting from the salt, she could hold her breath a lot longer and as she followed Aries through the underwater tunnel and out to open ocean all the fear she thought she'd have seeing reefs full of wild fish and potentially dangerous Australian creatures, wasn't there.

Did mermaids not have fear when underwater or something? Or was she just too in shock to be scared. Whatever it was, she was glad. The more she swam through the reef, the more exited she got. She'd always loved the beach, the ocean and playing around in the waves. She spent most weekends at the beach as it was, she was always near the water.

But now she was seeing it from a whole new perspective. Every little girl dreamed of being a mermaid, and even if she had no idea how, she was one. She was living out the dreams she'd forgotten she had as a kid. She felt alive, exhilarated. The water was warm, the fish were pretty, the reef was beautiful. Maybe this wasn't so scary after all...

Swimming up to the surface to take a breath, the two shook the wet hair from their eyes and Icarus immediately began to ramble.

"Holy shit I've never held my breath that long!" She puffed.

"Told you it was possible" Aries replied.

"Dude the fish don't even swim away from us! I've never been so close to a reef before! When I was little I'd always pretend to be a mermaid, I feel like a kid again" Icarus laughed.

"Calm your tail, we still need to get back before we go nuts about how you're potentially the only other seaperson in known existence right now. I came from the west so if we keep going that way we'll probably make it back to the docks in like... half an hour?" Aries explained.

"Right, I'm still a missing person..."

Aries was about to duck back underwater to continue the swim back when Icarus grabbed their shoulder to stop them.

"Hang on" she said.

Aries looked back at them.

"I hope this isn't weird but uh... what-"

"Non binary" they simply stated.

"OOOHHHH! yeah that makes sense, sorry" Icarus replied.

"Don't worry I get it a lot. Come on let's go"

They ducked back underwater, continuing the swim up the coast back to the town. They'd have to get out and dry off a little earlier so no humans spotted them, and walk the rest of the way. But it wasn't a big deal, they could make it back before midday if they kept on track.

Icarus had just unknowingly been wrapped up into one hell of a life changing event. And Aries was almost as confused as she was, although the both of them were glad that there was someone out there like them to share the journey with. Icarus needed a guide to mermaid life, which Aries could be. And Aries needed a key to unlocking the mystery of where their kind vanished to over a decade ago. Icarus, and the pool she fell into might just be that key.