Merfolk on Mars

Chapter 1

Here is a line for those who like to note if they are First Time Readers (FTR) or Re-Readers (RR).

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"Once upon a time, in a land far, far away-"

"Wouldn't it just be easier to say, 'Quite recently, on a small, watery moon orbiting Mars'?" I interrupted.

"That's beside the point, Lucy," Aunt Millie said, turning her head to frown at me. "My way uses more words and is more traditional."

My younger sister grumbled under her breath and swished her pale green tail, upset that I had interrupted her morning story.

"Admit it," I said, spreading my arms in a theatrical flare like the seventeen-year-old I was, "it's overused and almost as bad as the books that start with the person waking up to an annoying alarm clock."

To emphasize my exasperation with such a beginning, I flopped backward on my clamshell bed – or rather – I tried to. Such a movement really loses its statement when it takes almost a solid minute to accomplish. The lack of gravity on this tiny moon sucked sometimes. Like right now. Being underwater wasn't helping any, either.

"This is important for Beryl to remember," Aunt Millie insisted as I still drifted towards my bed. "She may only be eight now, but in sixty years, Beryl will likely be telling this very story to her own grandchildren. You two don't realize just how historically significant this will be to the merfolk in a century or two. We're approaching the end of our first year on Sealantis!"

"Why do we have to turn it into a story, though?" I asked her. "King Trident is recording everything. Like, actual facts. He already filled forty-two waxed scrolls with the fine details. And no one is going to care about how hard it was to keep clams alive during the first few months. If they do, they can read the scrolls."

"Forty-three," she corrected. "He finished another one yesterday. Besides, Beryl wanted a story. If you're going to be so fussy, you can read one to her before you change out of your sleeping top."

Beryl sat up in excitement, curling her tail around the inner edge of her giant clamshell bed. Being forced to share a room with my sister was annoying. The coral that made up our home hadn't grown enough to give me my own room yet.

With a resigned sigh, I swam over to the bookshelf filled with plastic books and pushed my long, brown hair out of my face while I skimmed the titles.

"Let's see... Oh! Here we go! A hairy beast with temper issues kidnaps an innocent young woman and takes her hostage. While forcefully being confined in his castle, she falls in love with him!"

"Lucy! I told you to leave your werewolf stories upstairs!"

"I did! You gave her this one."

"I've never given any of you a werewolf book! Let me see that." She darted over with two quick flicks of her tail and snatched the book from my hands. "Beauty and the Beast? But that's not what... oh."

I sighed. If adults were supposedly so wise, why didn't she see the similarities since she detested werewolf stories so much? I turned to the bookshelf again, wondering if there was actually anything readable here. Printing books on plastic pages wasn't cheap, so the selection left something to be desired. It also had to be something my sister would like – and that really limited my options.

"Hmmm... What about Tangled? It's about a princess with long hair who didn't know she was a princess." My eyes widened as a thought occurred to me. "Oh! What if I was a princess and just didn't know it? I could relax all day and have my pick of food! Think about it! It happens in so many movies and books!"