The Talking Mullosk

Hannah grinned as she looked at the ocean in front of her. The sun was bright, only a few white clouds decorated the blue sky, and the sand wasn’t scorching hot beneath her bare feet. The water had also been nice and refreshing. It really was the perfect beach day. Hannah was so glad that she managed to get work off today so she could come here with her friends.

“Hey, Hannah!” Hannah looked over and saw Kimberly waving at her along with Jeremy. Then she motioned to the small cliff overhanging the ocean behind her. “Wanna climb that?”

Hannah thought about it for a second before she nodded. She had sunbathed enough for now.

“Sure!” Hannah answered as she stood up. She quickly put on a loose t-shirt and her new water shoes before racing over to Kimberly and Jeremy. A few minutes later, she was almost at the top of the very rocky cliff.

“Hah! I win! I’m the king of the mountain,” Jeremy boasted as he stood over them with a wide smirk before offering his hand out to Hannah.

“Yes, how very mature of you, my dear king,” Hannah said sarcastically with a teasing smile before taking Jeremy’s hand. He pulled her up without any trouble, allowing Hannah to properly take in the beautiful view. Granted, it wasn’t much different from her view down on the sand, but the extra feet the cliff gave her made things somehow...grander. She walked as close to the edge as she could and looked down at the bustling sea below her.

“Nice,” Hannah said with a smile. She then turned to head back to her friends when Hannah felt a small rock underneath her heel. It must have somehow gotten in her shoe. Unperturbed, Hannah took off her shoe and turned it upside down, causing the small nuisance to fall right out.

“Hannah! Jeremy won’t stop teasing me!” Kimberly cried as she all but jumped onto Hannah. Hannah yelped in surprise as she involuntarily let go of her shoe.

Hannah’s eyes grew wide as the shoe bounced right off the cliff and into the ocean below.

“Oh...oops,” Kimberly apologized as Hannah just stared. “I...I will buy you a new pair.”

“No, do you know how hard it is to find a shoe that fits?!” Hannah exclaimed as she pointed at her wide feet with pretty narrow heels. Then she threw Kimberly off of her. “I’m going after it!”

“No Hannah no!” Kimberly cried but it was too late. With a yell, Hannah jumped off the cliff and before she knew it, she was deep in the ocean. Thankful that she didn’t crash into any rocks, Hannah opened her eyes and looked around, only to see that her shoe wasn’t anywhere in sight.

Well, it couldn’t have gotten far.

Hannah swam deeper as she kept a sharp eye out, glad that the ocean was clear so she could see. In fact, it was so clear that it was like she was in Hawaii, and not on America’s east coast. And now that she thought about it, Hannah had been swimming for more than a minute now, and her lungs were still perfectly fine.

She didn’t somehow die and become a ghost, did she?

Then her leg became itchy, and knowing that ghosts don’t itch, Hannah scratched her leg with a relieved heart. Only for that relief to completely die when her fingers touched her leg.

Those...those felt like scales…

Hannah looked down and with horror, realized that her leg was gone. No, both legs were gone and were replaced with…a green, scaly tail.

A mermaid tail.

“What the heck?!” Hannah screamed as she kicked back in the water, before covering her mouth in shock. When nothing happened, she uncovered her mouth and took a deep breath.

She could breathe underwater.

“Just what is going on?” Hannah asked out loud, even though she knew she wasn’t going to get an answer.

“You’re the lost princess!” someone squeaked. Hannah turned her head and saw a scallop, exactly how one saw them at the store, bobbing up and down near her face.

“Aren’t you supposed to have a shell?” Hannah asked bluntly.

“Come, we have to go the palace!” the scallop chirped, ignoring her as it bumped into Hannah’s face with enough strength to push her a few feet. Hannah yelped but before she could wonder if all talking scallops were somehow this strong, she saw the scallop coming at her again.

“Oh no, you are answering a few questions of mine, buddy,” Hannah said as she easily grabbed the scallop in one hand. “First off, what do you mean, I’m the lost princess?”

“You’re the mermaid princess that got kidnapped when you were only a baby!” the scallop explained happily in her hand. “But I found you now, so it’s going to be okay! We just got to get you to the palace!”

Then the scallop pushed against her hand and Hannah yelped once again as the scallop pulled her away from the cliff and deeper into the heart of the ocean.

And away from her lost shoe.

“No!” Hannah cried as she let go of the scallop. “I am not some lost princess, and I don’t want to be one! I just want my shoe!”

“But what do you want with a shoe, you’re a mermaid,” the scallop said. Hannah groaned because unfortunately, the scallop had a point.

“How am I a mermaid?” Hannah asked as she tugged on her hair. “I had feet and working legs just a few minutes ago! And I was in the ocean earlier, so it can’t be some magic water or something like that!”

“Easy! You just finally reached puberty!” the scallop explained. Before Hannah could protest that she was a full-grown adult, the small scallop darted around her and pushed her forward. “Now come with me, princess! You will finally be home and I will finally be a knight!”

“So you’re not even doing this out of the goodness of your small heart?!” Hannah cried as they rapidly flew forward in the water. With gritted teeth, Hannah reached for the scallop and when she grabbed it once again, she threw it far away from her.

“Not today, scallop! I’m going back and I will find some way to-”

A great white shark suddenly appeared in front of her.

“Hello, how are-”

“Gah!” Hannah cried as she instinctively slapped it. However, instead of hitting flesh, she hit something that felt suspiciously like wood.

Hannah blinked and instead of being in the ocean, she was in her bed, with her hand pressed against the wall beside her.

Oh, it was just a dream. That...that made sense.

Hannah breathed a sigh of relief as she stopped pressing her hand against the wall and covered her eyes with her arm. She wondered why she dreamed of being a mermaid princess but then Hannah remembered that she had watched both Tangled and The Thirteenth Year in the last few days.

“Never again,” Hannah mumbled. “Note to never again watch those two movies in the same week.”

Then her phone chimed on her bedside table, causing her to pick it up and unlock it. A second later, she was reading a text from Jeremy in their friend’s group chat.

J: Anyone up for the beach sometime next week?

Hannah thought for a moment before she replied.

H: As long as I get to put some scallops in my belly, I’m down.