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Camping Trip by pawpiles

Camping Trip

“It’s just two more clicks southwest of here.”

The truck rumbled on, the bottles in the passenger’s seat clinking together with every bump in the road. The sound was cacophonous, drowning out all noise from the dinky FM radio in the front. Not that there was much to hear. The signal fuzz covered up most of the top 20 hits they were playing.

A bit of music would have taken my mind off things. All I had to focus on was the trip, watching out the side window as the smaller trees whipped back and forth in the wind. They brushed and scraped against the sides of the vehicle, the path we were on narrow and dark, far off the beaten path.

There was no complaining about anything, though. As much as a sigh set my “boyfriend” off, mumbling passionately about how he was “just trying to revive the relationship” by taking me on a camping trip to the middle of buttfuck nowhere.

The idea wasn’t terrible. There were a few thousand photos of couples, happily tucked into a tent, their feet poking out the bottom of their sleeping bags. They were overlooking a valley, with a sunset, their sandals left on the grass outside. They were horseback riding, cuddling near a campfire. It was picturesque. And therefore, it was unobtainable.

The main issue arose from the fact that these couples loved each other, and Matt and I did not.

Of course, it was more complicated than that. I suppose Matt “loved” me. He “loved” a lot of women. In this case, two, at the same time. He was a charismatic little snake, bending the people around him to cater to his wants and doing whatever he could to wipe away his lies.

I’d confronted him about it a thousand times in the last week alone. I had plenty of evidence. I couldn’t count on one hand the amount of times he’d come home in the wee hours of the morning to shower and sleep on the couch in the basement.

But he didn’t crack. He said I was delusional, despite everything and anything I told him. Breathless phone calls from a number I didn’t recognize, coming home in borrowed clothing. He was going to fight it all the way to it’s bitter end, and I had virtually no choice in whether I stayed or not.

Though his childish personality said otherwise, he was a powerful man. He had charisma, money, influence. His structure of power loomed over me.

If news got out, he could twist the truth. It would ruin me a thousand times more than it ruined him.

And he knew this. He twisted my arm into doing everything and anything with him, and I complied time and time again, purely out of fear of what would happen if news ever broke.

The truck rolled to a stop, the cooler in the seat next to me sliding off and banging onto the floor. Matt seemed unconcerned with it.

“See? I told you. Two clicks.”

I nodded silently. It had been “two clicks” away for a full hour, but I wasn’t going to complain about an opportunity to get out of the truck.

“There’s a clearing just up ahead, through those bushes, Y’see?” He jutted a finger straight in front of him. “Just haul the tent bag and cooler out there, set up wherever. I’ll join you later, I gotta call my dad and see if he can bring the grill up.”

I popped the back door of the cabin open, letting the stifling humidity from outside spill into the truck. The pine trees offered shade for the moment, but as soon I stepped through the bushes and into the open, the sun would roast me alive. The cooler was the next to come out, stumbling me with its unexpected weight as I pulled it into the open.

The tall grass reached beyond my crew socks, brushing over whatever skin wasn’t covered by my shorts. It felt like the earth was going to wrap itself around me and suck me deep into the undergrowth. In reality, though, it was just making my ankles wet. Which was infinitely less cool.

Matt’s phone buzzed as he held it to his face, rolling up his window and kicking his feet up onto the dashboard. His head disappeared from view as he reclined all the way back, basking in the air-conditioned cabin he’d locked himself inside of.

There was no telling how long he’d be on the phone. Judging by his hearty laughter and sultry talk, clearly audible through the thin walls of his old pickup, it wasn’t just “a call to his dad.”

No surprise there. It had gotten to a point where I expected it, like a part of my day-to-day schedule.

I climbed into the bed of his truck, fishing the camping stuff out from under a tattered tarp. It was old, it’s packaging barely intact, with the tent inside in only slightly better condition. The handles were broken off, so I slung the whole thing over my shoulder and took off down the road, cooler in tow.

The truck’s engine was still running as I got farther and farther away, but it got to a point where it was an inaudible rumbling amongst the sound of the forest, easy to ignore. It was nice, pretending that I wasn’t spending the weekend with him. Regardless of how unrealistic the thought was.

I shut my eyes as I parted the bushes, the soft, filtered light from before now bearing down with all it’s might. All tree cover had virtually disappeared, leaving only the sun and I.

Squinting, the sheer scale of the clearing became apparent. It stretched on for a good half-kilometer, split in half by a gurgling river. It was all flat, of course. Not a single hill seemed to rise from the earth. There were remnants of trees, stumps long grown over with moss, and bushes scattered throughout the landscape. The sounds of the forest died away as I waded farther away from the treeline, leaving only the rustling of the grass and the rushing water.

Matt had picked a nice spot, as much as I hated to admit it. There wasn’t much for services out in the bush, but he struck me as the “living off the land” kind of camper.

I dropped the tent bag and cooler, and sat cross legged in the grass, fiddling with my shitty flip-phone. Against all odds, he’d chosen a place just close enough to the city to still get cell service. Not great, granted, but it worked.
I dialed him up, taking in the environment around me. It was peaceful. I often found myself taking fresh air for granted, but after a few hours in his cigarette-butt scented truck, it felt like I was breathing actual oxygen.

The line was busy. It blooped a few times before I ended the call. He was still on the phone with… somebody, meaning that I had more than enough time to bugger off and do something else. God only knew how much longer that call was going to take him.

I killed a few minutes picking blades of grass, laying them across my legs in parallel lines. I weaved them together, stuck them in my mouth and made duck noises. It was silly, sure, but it was passed the time. It reminded me of an elementary school field trip.

The sun was overbearing. I could feel it burning the back of my neck as I sat in the grass, sweat beading my forehead. The humidity was so much worse next to the river, the disgusting wet heat making the air feel semi-solid. I could’ve cut it with a knife.

The phone rang. I fished it out of my pocket, sighing when I saw the number that I had just tried dialing.

“Yup?”

“Is the tent set up?” His voice was raspy until he cleared his throat. It felt as though I could smell the cigarette smoke through the speaker.

“Waiting on you. It’s not a one-person job.”

“It’s really not that hard, Ver. You can set it up now, or you can wait for me. I’m driving back into the city to pick up the grill, though, so I suggest the former.”

“You’re just gonna leave me to do this by myself?”

“For like… 3 hours. Maybe a bit more. You’re not a kid. You’ll survive, cub’s honour.”

I rolled my eyes, the phone clapping shut. Even more time to kill until he arrived. It had only been 10 minutes, and I was already scraping the bottom of the barrel to think of things to do. Making it through the next 180 would be a nightmare.

There was nothing else left for me to do except set up the tent. Or, at least, try to.

I climbed to my feet, hauling the bag along with me as I approached the banks of the river. It was still quiet, even at it’s edges, the river mumbling as the fast-flowing water passed between the rocks. It was the perfect backdrop, just some mind-numbing noise.

It was certainly cooler by the river’s edge. Though the humidity remained, the soil beneath my feet was cold and wet, saturated with water. Too loose to build a tent on, but pleasant nonetheless.

I dropped the bag a few feet away, crawling around as I spread all the tools out. A massive, tattered piece of fabric, a smattering of magnetic tent pole pieces, a collection of stakes that didn’t match the number of corners on the tent. And a complete lack of an instruction manual. I was left staring at the spread of materials in front of me, my mind completely blank. It appeared as though it was composed of a thousand other tents, a complete mish-mash of parts.

There was no point in trying to call him back. The best I could do was click the tent poles together, arching them overtop of each other, trying to bury either end into the dirt. They refused to stay, no matter how firmly I stomped the stakes into the ground. After my third attempt to throw the tarp overtop, I gave up. With no one to hold down the other end, it was a futile effort.

“Fuck this.”

The wind seemed to agree, blowing over the part of the tent that was still standing. It flopped to the ground, landing with a metallic clang. There was no progress to be made.

I took a deep breath, resisting the urge to chuck the entire tent into the river. Only half of my frustration came from the work at hand. The other half came from the knowledge that my boyfriend had fucked off somewhere, leaving me to set up his tent by myself. It was feeling less and less like a couple’s camping trip, and more and more like busywork to keep me distracted from whatever he was up to.

As if I didn’t already know.

I stepped away from the tent materials, walking back towards the bank of the river. The cool mist helped soothe the burning on my neck, the wet earth squishing under my shoes. I slipped them off, socks and all as I moved further towards it, mud growing thicker as I moved towards the ledge. The cool mud and the sounds of the river were enough to calm me down, at least for the moment.

I plopped myself down on the top of the bank, letting my legs hang down into the rushing river water. The plants that swayed with the current tickled at my ankles, the afternoon sun shimmering across the water’s expanse.

It was melancholy. There was a gentleness to the breeze and the river, but my thoughts kept circling back to him. No matter how hard I tried to push them from my mind, they remained, like gum on the underside of a desk.

I dwelled on it for a while, absentmindedly tossing pebbles into the river. They landed with a splash, but the ripples were quickly dispersed by the current. It was nice to watch them sink beneath the surface, into the cloudy water near the bed.

I just kept tossing them. Single rocks eventually turned to handfuls, watching the patterns they made, the speed at which they fell. It certainly wasn’t high-class entertainment, but it kept my mind off things for a while.

I went to throw the next handful, but a peculiar sight in the water stopped me, leaving me with my hand outstretched towards the river. It was hard to make out what exactly it was.

There was a thrashing motion beneath the surface, a mass of plant matter and shining scales moving back and forth as it swam upwards. I removed my feet from the water slowly, afraid it would bite them clean off. Bubbles rose to the surface, like a human’s final breath as the creature grew closer and closer to me. My hand was trembling, still held in place, pebbles falling out and down the bank.

Despite how fast it all happened, her exit was smooth and quiet. She emerged from the middle of the river without so much as a sound, as though the waters had opened around her to let her through. At first, only her head appeared above the river water, looking confused, blank-eyed. What I was looking at was not a fish, and not a human, but something inbetween.

Her unblinking stare wandered for a while, looking for something, someone.

And then she focused on me.

That was my cue to leave. Without so much as a second thought, I jumped to my feet and tried to break for the treeline, only to slip when the loose soil beneath me fell away. I tumbled backwards into the river as she waded towards me, yelling something in a muddy, gargled voice. My head was under the water in a split second, the current rushing past my ears as I thrashed about and attempted to stand again.

I didn’t hear a word of her yelling, scrambling to my feet and up the bank, fingers digging into the cold soil as I tried my damnedest to scale it. I crawled up a few inches at a time before falling back into the water, the earth continuing to fall away beneath me. The space under my fingernails stung, and I was totally winded from the impact, but I was still trying.

I could hear her sloshing through the water behind me, at a casual speed. It felt as though she were stalking her prey.
My panic turned to yelling as her cold hands grabbed me by the sides, the monster trying desperately to get my attention. Everything about her grip was icy and inhuman, a slick substance covering the whole of her palm. My sneakers slipped in the mud again, falling forwards into her support before crumpling to my knees in the water around me. My yelling ceased as I said my final goodbyes.

“Oh, for god’s sake!” She hefted me up by the belly, trying to stop my whimpering. “It’s alright! You’re good, I’m not gonna hurt you.”

My legs slowed for a second, no longer pounding the earth in a desperate attempt to escape. I turned to look at her over my shoulder, out of breath and exasperated. The sheer size of her teeth made the statement hard to believe, my legs kicking faster involuntarily.

“No! No, no! Seriously! Relaaaaaax, deep breaths.”

I tried to take her advice, gasping in as much air as I could before exhaling shakily. After a few seconds of deep breathing, my spinning legs slowed to a stop, and I was left dangling in her arms. She waited a few minutes before releasing her grip on me slowly, making sure I wasn’t going to run off. I stumbled out of her grasp, planting my palms on my knees and heaving.

“All good?”

I was completely hunched over, sucking air into my lungs. All I could do was give a half-hearted nod. I wasn’t even sure the answer I gave was the truth.

“Good. Sorry for startling you. I guess you don’t see river monsters often.”

My body was somewhat under my control again. I stood up as straight as I could and spoke to her through weary breath. It sounded like I’d been crying. I probably had been.

“Not… really.”

She nodded, silently. She looked every bit out of breath as I did, her eyes still wide with her initial confusion.

“Well, if it’s any consolation… I don’t see humans that often, either.”

I held my head a little higher, getting a better look at her. She had a sheepish smile on, the kind that only comes out when you meet a distant relative for the first time. Even with her massive array of sharp, yellowed teeth, I could still feel the embarrassment emanating from her.

She wasn’t… terrifying. Or, at least, she was less so now. The context I’d placed her in made her that way, but it really didn’t seem to be the case. There was a distinctly human mannerism behind her actions, and her tiny, shy smile was impossible to ignore.

To be fair, though, I reacted the only way I knew how to when picked up by a mysterious river monster. I caught my breath for a few minutes, looking her up and down in stunned silence.

There was a uniqueness to her, unlike anything I’d ever seen before. Lanky, with bony appendages, her frame hidden by tree branches and plant life from the seabed that poked and hung from her scales. She must have been a full head taller than I was. Muscle still clung to her chest and arms, despite her frail-looking stature.

Everywhere the light hit her, she shone like the sun, her dark green fish scales reflecting everything. Even her eyes resembled great golden dishes, thin metallic irises like shining beacons.

Her legs were webbed together loosely, hindering her movement as she waded back into the current. She plopped down into the water just a few feet away, keeping most of her body submerged.

“Sorry, I’d sit closer, but I dry up quick.”

I shook myself out of a trance, blinking absently as I realized how awkward my silence was making things. I was at a loss for words, trying to find the right one to start a conversation. And, of course, there was still a part of my brain that spun in circles, trying to decide if what I was seeing was real or not.

“God, I really stunned you, didn’t I?” She broke eye contact, carefully considering her words. “That’s my bad. You’re my first human visitor, if you didn’t already guess that. I don’t have the… etiquette? Is that the word?”

I shrugged, my arms no longer quaking.

“I don’t have the etiquette down yet.”

A webbed hand reached behind her head to scratch at the scales. I could see the sun’s rays pass right through the translucent skin between her fingers.

“Nobody comes out to my leg of the woods, really. So, when someone starts flinging rocks at you, you have to go see what their deal is.”

I bit my lip, thinking about how many I’d tossed.

“Sorry…”

My voice was thin and weary, still weak from all the yelling and crying. It was a miracle that she heard it at all.

“Nah, it’s whatever. You seem nice enough, and I didn’t exactly make my presence known beforehand.” She sunk a bit deeper into the water, leaving only her head un-submerged. “it was a bit of an overreaction, in hindsight. My friends nearer the city get that a lot. Humans just like to throw stuff, I guess. You get used to it when you live that close.”

She coughed, wiping mud from the sides of her mouth.

“But I never got used to it.” A short pause, her eyes shifting back to me. “Why are you out here on your own, anyways? It’s hot as shit, and you’re already burnt to high heaven.”

“Well, I was out on a camping trip with my boyfriend, but…”

I pursed my lips for a second, considering ratting out Matt to someone I didn’t even know. The decision was a quick one.

“We’re having… relationship issues. He ran off somewhere else.”

“No kidding.”

She clicked her tongue and shook her head, mumbling unintelligibly.

“You know how long he’s gonna be gone for?”

I shook my head. “3 hours, apparently. Probably longer if he’s doing what I think he’s doing.”

The fish woman let loose a sympathetic sigh. She pushed away from the rock, moving against the current to stay in place while she talked to me. It seemed effortless, despite how fast the water was going.

“Well, let’s not stand around in the sun, yeah? You look like you’re about to combust.” She did a quick scan of me. “Here, just take off all your shit, there’s an overhang in the water not too far away that has some shade. We can talk more there.”

There was a bit of apprehension, but her toothy smile convinced me. It was so…. Friendly. Human, almost. And it wasn’t like I had anything else to do.

I stripped my soggy shorts off, tossing them into the mud. My shirt went too, leaving the river monster to laugh at my ridiculous sunburn. Wearing lace had been a bad idea, looking down at the checkered pattern across my entire upper chest. I felt my stomach rolling over, standing in near-complete nakedness, but she seemed totally unphased. It made some sense, though. It wasn’t like clothes for fish people were readily available.

I stepped over the rocks of the riverbed, moving towards the middle as the current did it’s best to sweep me off my feet. The water was frigid, but it beat the stifling heat that remained above the river.

She took my hand when I was in range of her, her bony knuckles turning white as she got a good grip on me. It was a comforting squeeze, like she was trying to put me at ease as she fell back into the current, floating on her back. I was tugged along without warning, the current taking her in a mere second. I rode along the water on my face until I could flip myself right-side up. She was giggling at my predicament.

The last thing I heard before we made a turn in the river was the first note of my ringtone of my cellphone’s ringtone, obnoxiously loud and somehow still functional despite it’s waterlogged state. It was already distant, though, and there wasn’t a chance in hell that I was going back to get it.

“You know, I didn’t get your name earlier.” She was a bit hard to hear, still trying to get the water out of my ears. But I caught the question, much to my dismay.

I sighed. “Veronica.”

She chuckled.

“Oh, come now. That’s not so bad. It’s the most charming 60 year old woman name they could have chosen. Out of a list of grandma names, at least you got stuck with a charming one.”

I cracked a tiny smile at the response. “Why the snarky attitude? What’s yours?”

“Marge.”

I laughed hard enough that the surrounding river water got in my mouth, sending me into a coughing fit.

“I KNOW, I KNOW.”

The next few minutes were incomprehensible giggling and mumbling back and forth, before a bit of quiet as nature sounds took over. The trip was alright. She didn’t talk much after that, save for a bit of chatter about the parts of the river she took residence in. I liked listening to her. Inbetween those periods, it was just her shallow, rattling breaths and the gurgling of the water.

There was something strangely intimate about it all, especially as the water slowed down enough for me to float side-by-side with her. She probably didn’t think too much of it. I was far closer to her now, admiring the fine detail in her scales, the chiseled form beneath the plant life and twigs. Her entire left arm supported my back as she guided me along, gently holding onto my side as we continued down the river.

It was a kind of intimacy that not even my boyfriend allowed. I had a momentary flashback to the bed we shared in his apartment, divided in half by a wall of blankets. All so I didn’t read his phone over his shoulder. Cuddling next to each other was a rarity, once in a blue moon, and when it happened… It felt like plastic. Ingenuine, manufactured love.

This didn’t feel like love in a traditional sense, not yet. At least, not a love I recognized yet. But I felt safer in her arms, far more than his.

We stayed like that for a while, a long while. I lost track of time as the current pushed us along at a snail’s pace, bringing us just beyond the treeline and back into the woods. As promised, Marge grabbed hold of a branch and brought us to a stop beneath a massive overhang. It was the one spot where the current was broken, water swirling slowly in circles just beneath the tree roots and hard earth that provided us with shade. It was vaguely unnatural and impossibly large, a near-perfect circle carved into the earth.

“There.” She waded in first, submerging herself beneath the loose leaves of the natural pool. “Just like a jacuzzi, except cold, and shitty.”

I was still sitting at the edge of the slow-moving pool, coming to a thousand realizations at once. Stuff I’d totally glossed over before.

“Well, what are you waitin’ for? Come on in, the water is about as you’d expect.”

She patted the water next to her with her webbed hand. I didn’t move.

“What’s got you so hung up?”

I slipped into the whirlpool, grimacing as my feet touched the squishy, plant-stuff at the bottom. I was neck deep in muddy water, but it felt nice being out of the sun.

“Well, I just… Suddenly, I have a lot of questions?”

Marge nodded. “Ok. Shoot.”

“You said you haven’t…. seen a human around this river, right?”

She nodded. I held up my hand, counting the points of my fingers as I rattled them off.

“Then… how do you know English? How do you know so much about human culture? Were you born here? Who in their right fucking mind names their child Margaret?”

She snickered at the last part, and then fell silent.

“Well, the first three have explanations. The fourth remains a mystery.” She cleared her throat, her voice becoming no clearer than before. “I wasn’t always… Uh… What I am now. In fact, I was in much the same position as you, at one point in my life.”

I dug some dirt out from under my nails. “So… you used to be a human?”

A bit of hesitation.

“Yeah. Used to be.”

She was clearly a bit distraught. Her eyes were glued to the murky water in front of her.

“Sorry, we don’t have to talk about it!”

She shook her head. “No, it’s all good! My life now, it’s a hell of a lot better. It’s the thinking about life before that puts me off.”

“Nah, I get it.” I moved closer, leaning up against the mud wall nearest to her. “Talking personal stuff isn’t fun with anybody, nevermind someone you just met.”

“I’d tell you all about my life before, but I’m not sure there’s much to it. I worked at an In-n-Out for half of my existence.” She exhaled deeply. “So, as you can probably guess, I’ve lived a life of luxury and hedonism.”

I laughed. Her rasping, mud-clogged voice only added to the dripping sarcasm.

“And I don’t even like burgers.”

I tried to think of a better conversational topic, but I came up with nothing.

“Sorry my life is so boring. There’s a few stories from when I used to babysit my drunk friends, but I’ll… save those. For now. Besides, no point in running out of conversational topics so soon. What about you?”

The river monster scooted up closer to me, the two of us touching at the elbows.

“I’d ask you about your boy problems, but I could probably already guess the state you’re in. Nobody runs off with a river monster unless they’ve got good reason.”

I snorted. “He’s a player with a lot of power. You already know.”

She rolled her eyes knowingly.

“I’ve been there. It seems like you have more in common with me than you might think.”

Leaves continued falling, collecting in the water around our necks. It was therapeutic to watch them swirl around slowly, never drawing any closer to the middle, like rally cars. It was quiet, but not eerily so. A gentle calm. I was hesitant to break the silence, but there was a growing concern that bubbled over inside me. I kept thinking about his face, his truck, his voice. The phone call I didn’t answer. It was grating on me.

“You know, I don’t want to go back to him. I really don’t.”

Marge turned to look at me, her eyes gentle, the bright gleam from before diminished in the low light.

“Well, you don’t have to go back to him.” She scanned the confused look on my face. “I didn’t really drag you out here only to bring you back, after all.”

She wrapped a long arm around me, her bony hand resting against my side. A deep sigh. I could feel the rise and fall of her chest as it happened.

“The place we’re in right now. You know why I brought you here?”

I shook my head silently.

“This was the same pool I was taken to. When…” She cleared her throat, voice audibly wobbling. “When my ex said he’d had enough of me, he drove me into the woods and dumped me out by the river. This river.”

There was a long pause. I was appalled, letting my mouth hang open in silence.

“I guess he was hoping I’d die out here, some punishment for calling him out for hitting me in front of everybody. Too much of a pussy to get blood on his hands, though. I walked along it ‘til I passed out, and then I woke up in this pool, in cold, scaly arms, just like mine.”

A webbed hand wiped at her undereyes.

“I talked to her as she did her best to keep me alive. The sun set, but she kept the conversation going, trying to distract me from the pain. She showed me love, true love and care. She fed me as best she could, then she asked me the question that made me who I am today.”

I moved even closer, locking arms with her.

“I’m sorry about what he did to you.”

I wish I could have said more than a simple “I’m sorry.”

She took a deep breath, smiling weakly at me. The smile fell away quickly.

“When I was talking, just a few seconds earlier, about how I used to be human… Would you ever…” She grimaced, mentally erasing the sentence and starting over. “She asked me the same thing I’m gonna ask you… And, what I mean to ask, is… If living like me, meant you never had to go back… would you let me… change you?”

There was a stillness. Marge slinked a little farther away, letting go of me. I decided to give her some space.

“I know. It’s a big question. But you really… can’t live in here with me as you are now. Your body isn’t adapted to the conditions. And, your journey back to the city would be treacherous on foot. You’d have to go back with him.” She took a deep breath, tears welling up in her eyes. “There’s no real roads for a 50 kilometer stretch, but you’d probably be safer in his truck. This river is dangerous, even to me, believe it or not. And your safety is a hell of a lot more important to me than companionship.”

I thought it over in silence, letting my mouth hang open for a while. I could picture his hand hovering over me already.

“It’s your decision, ultimately. I will tell you the truth.”

“I’m no safer with him than I am here. Hell, I’m probably safer here.”

Her face lightened up, if only a little. Her golden eyes shifted back in my direction.

“It’d hurt at first. The transformation, I mean. But that’s over quick. I just… You wouldn’t…” She interlocked her webbed fingers, twiddling them together. “Well, you’d end up looking like me, basically. Eating like me, talking like me, moving like me.”

I turned to face her, locking eyes across the short distance. They seemed vulnerable now, the luster sucked out of them.

“I don’t see the problem with that.”

She laughed, a sort of sour self-hatred behind it. Her gravelly chuckling was slow and breathy, like she was going to cry.

“Spare me the pity, please. I know what I look like. I know what I do, who I am.”

I moved closer to her, eyes still locked. I took a hold of her hand, watching her arms quiver and shake. She grasped my fingers tightly, failing to keep the tears in. They rolled down her cheek, snaking inbetween the scales.

“Well, I know what you look like too, don’t I?”

She sniffled, drawing in closer to me. We were pressed together now, chest to chest. An almost-hug.

“And I think you look beautiful.”

Her sniffling came to an immediate stop, replaced with tear-soaked laughter. It warbled with emotion, but it was genuine. She put her head over my shoulder as she cry-laughed, letting go of my hands to throw hers around me.

“What’s so funny?”

She could barely calm herself, a big grin on her face as she cackled. The tears in her laughter fell away as it picked up in volume. I could see the corners of her smile out of the side of my vision.

“THAT’S… SO CORNY! Well, I mean, I love it, it’s a good sentiment!” She made a vain attempt to cover her mouth before she laughed again. “But that’s straight out of a romance novel! One of those ones your aunt buys at a garage sale.”

There was a solid half-minute of silence from me as I tried to track the sudden emotional 180. I could hear her snickering on and off the entire time. It was a strange turn of conversational tone, but if it made her happy, then it was a good thing. And, it was nice to break that heavy atmosphere. She took a deep breath, desperately trying to stop herself from starting up laughing again. It seemed to be working, at least for the moment.

“Ok, sorry, sorry… I don’t do… emotions.” She cleared her throat, attempting to recompose herself. “Do you mean that, though? Or were you trying to make me feel better?”

“I don’t say things I don’t mean,” I proclaimed. “And I don’t stay this close to someone unless I really enjoy it.”
She was smiling at me, big and toothy.

“So, the answer is yes, if you hadn’t inferred that already. Yes to the transformation.”

Her grin got 8 times bigger. The streams where her tears had been moments before had already disappeared. “Right on! I’ll take good care of you, I promise. You won’t regret it.”

I knew I wasn’t going to regret it. But I had a final question.

“How does it… start?”

“Well… It’s kind of, hard to explain. Imagine the world’s worst hickey, then add big teeth to the mix.”

I did my best to imagine it, but came up with nothing.

“No idea what that entails.”

“I’m going to bite you, on your neck. Like a vampire. Not hard, though, and I’m not gonna pierce anything important.” She scanned my face, confused when she saw excitement instead of fear. “…I’ll give you a minute to collect yourself. Take a few deep breaths, try not to freak out.”

The thought of her teeth against my neck was making me sweat, even in the freezing water. Like a werewolf, or a vampire, but gentle and caring. Done with good intentions.

I was kinda into it. But I wasn’t about to tell her that.

“Ready?”

“…Ready.”

No need to say anymore. I took as deep a breath as I could, my chest puffed out in a ridiculous fashion. In one swift motion, she’d jumped on top of me, hands to my chest as she drove me under the water. I let my whole body lay still as she got to work, her long arms wrapped firmly around my back as we plummeted downwards. Her hold on me was tight, and I could feel the tip of every scale on her body.

She pressed her face into my neck as we continued to the floor of the natural pool, the mud around us growing thicker and thicker, the light above blotting out. Whatever she was doing had to happen fast, because I wasn’t particularly skilled in the field of lung capacity.

It was as though she’d read my mind. Her hand moved up my back, a supportive gesture as she pried her mouth open. Her jaws snapped shut, her front teeth driving into my neck, firmly, all in one fell swoop. The entrance was painful, but it was quick, performed with the kind of care that could only come from someone who’d been through it before. My eyes jolted open for a second, feeling the burn of the unclean water and her teeth still lodged into my lower neck.

It stung like a bitch, a fiery, burning puncture, but as promised, it hadn’t hit anything important. It was over quick, as soon as she pulled back out. I couldn’t make out much of her face in the low light, but I could see a twinge of guilt in her eyes. My own blood spiralled around in the water above me, like plumes of smoke as it dispersed.

The second her teeth pulled out of my neck, she buried my head in her chest, the rise and fall calming me down just enough to not notice the muddy water making its way into my veins. I focused on the space between her abs, listening to her slow heartbeat as the murky liquid spiraled through the toothmarks, worming into my bloodstream. The flow of blood from my neck stopped suddenly, the pain already a distant memory.

She surveyed my neck for a while, watching my face as I breathed again. It was a scratchy, muddy feeling, like there was gravel in my throat, but I found myself able to inhale for the first time. Every rise and fall was extremely shallow, but I was breathing all the same. I was excited about this revelation, but not nearly as much as Marge was. She clapped her webbed hands together, like she was watching a sports game.

When she finally spoke to me, her voice sounded far off, like she was talking through a fish tank. Water didn’t carry sound all that well, so she moved closer, shouting into my ear from only a few inches away.

“IT’S A TRANSITIONAL PERIOD, SO YOU DON’T DIE BEFORE YOU GET GILLS! YOU’LL BE RUNNIN’ ON LOW OXYGEN FOR A BIT, BUT IT’S QUICK, JUST HANG IN THERE. ALSO, LIKE… DON’T THINK TOO HARD ABOUT IT. TRUST ME.”

I wasn’t planning to. The woman who had previously been turned into a fish probably knew more about it than I did.
My breathing wasn’t becoming any deeper, but I could feel the murky river water crawling through my veins. It pulsed and writhed as it moved along, as though it were living. It was repulsive, but it didn’t hurt. It just felt as though something was tickling under my skin.

Marge pointed at the area around her bite mark excitedly, smiling like a child at a carnival. I was just happy to see her happy, even in the odd circumstances. I screwed my head to get a good look at it, surprised to see the skin flaking and breaking apart like dry land. I brought my hand to my neck to rub at it, surprised at it’s roughness. It resembled elderly tree bark, the tips of the new scales sharp as nails. The skin continued to crack down to my shoulders and arms as Marge swam up to me.

She grabbed a hold of both my hands, around the wrists, and held them out in front of me.

“OK! KEEP IT CLOSED INTO A TIGHT FIST, IT’LL MAKE THIS PART A LOT QUICKER.”

I balled my hands into fists, watching as she clasped hers overtop of them. She was looking me right in the eyes, her golden irises catching whatever light they could. It was easy to get lost in them.

My eyes narrowed in confusion as that same, sludgy feeling beneath my skin reached up my arm, spilling into my hand. It was cool, not warm, about the same temperature as the water around me. Pins and needles stretched crossed my palm, extending up the length of my fingers, pinpricks of energy manifesting at the tips.

Her webbed hands rubbed overtop of mine, the fish woman looking down at my fingers and beaming. The prickling resembled electricity, quick jolts from a weak battery. I could see very little, my view obscured by Marge’s hand, but I could feel the changes happening all the same.

She looked me over, top to bottom, before pointing to the changes happening on my sides. She pulled her hands away for a moment, leaving me to look at the form my own were taking. They were far less bony than hers, but every bit as long and skinny. It was as though they’d grown an extra inch. Flipping them downwards, pieces of skin inbetween the fingers became apparent. They were clear as cellophane, and fast approaching the tips.

I was caught off guard by her touch, a webbed hand moving down the right side of my torso. Her hand over my skin was calming, her gentle fingers encouraging the emergence of my new scales. She opened her mouth in a gasp, but the noise wasn’t present. I twisted myself to look at what she was so surprised about.

Little slits. They were growing, quite rapidly, along my sides. They were still oddly fleshy beneath their surface. Resembling long knife wounds, they were rough and ragged, split unevenly through the mass of scales I had now collected.

“GILLS!”

I felt the air filter into my lungs, slowly, like someone had turned on a tap. Second by second, my breathing became deeper and deeper, slowly returning to normal as my body gave up on breathing through my mouth entirely. I smiled at her, and she smiled back even wider, her eyes fixed on a point below my nose.

“AND TEETH! IT’S HAPPENING SO QUICKLY! I WISH I HAD A CAMERA, OR A MIRROR, OR… I WANNA SHOW YOU WHAT’S GOING ON! YOU LOOK SO PRETTY…”

She was just rambling excitedly, and I had no plans to stop her. Clearly, I was the very first person she’d transformed. Why rob her of that joy?

I opened my mouth, and flicked a finger over my teeth, feeling their sharp points. Every tooth seemed dangerous, each growing into a pointed peak as more and more pushed out from my gums. They were long, and relatively thin, spaced far apart from one another. I hesitated to shut my mouth again, not knowing if they still fit. I wasn’t about to poke 20 holes through my lips.

Marge shook herself out of the blank stare she’d been stuck in for minutes, finally taking notice of the bizarre, jaw-locked position I was in.

“OH! YOU CAN CLOSE YOUR MOUTH, IF YOU WANT. THE TEETH ALL FIT, I PROMISE.”

I did as I was told, closing my chompers. The sensation was off-putting, but caused me no pain. It felt as though the teeth were sliding into pockets, like swords into sheathes. I opened them again, giving each one another once-over with my oddly-shaped tongue. It was all horribly awkward, unnatural, like everything was too small.

Her muddy voice gurgled through the water again.

“GIVE IT A FEW MINUTES TO WORK ITSELF OUT. IT FEELS ALRIGHT ONCE YOUR JAW UN-FUCKS ITSELF.”

As if on cue, the whole of my head began changing. My ears collapsed back into my skull, flush with my body. Flaps grew overtop in a split second, covering the exposed slit. My entire face sloped backwards, my nose disappearing beneath the avalanche of skin, as though someone had thrown a net over my head and yanked it. I watched my field of view expand as my eyes pulled to either side of my face, doing their best to adjust to the low light.

Marge grabbed a hold of my head, moving it from side to side, getting a better look at the developments.

The space around me seemed fuller, less like I was trapped in a dark box, and more like we were at the bottom of the natural pool. I could see the far walls, the entire area lit with brown-tinged light from above. I was seeing further, but far less clearly than before. Everything was blurry, warping if it moved away from the central point of my vision.

Luckily, Marge was close enough for me to get a clear look at.

I felt my long hair falling out in clumps, tumbling down my shoulders and to the bed of plants. The falling motion was impossibly slow, a storm of stringy black hair spiraling around my feet. As the process slowed to a stop, I could only assume I was completely bald.

The river monster brushed a hand over the scales on my head, playing with the fins that had just begun poking out from beneath. The feeling was pleasant, like a lover running their hands through my hair. She played with the fleshy membranes for a while, watching them move with the snail-pace swirling of the water as they grew outwards.

“YOU LOOK SO NICE…” The gentleness of the statement was slightly lost in her yelling.

Her face was very close to mine, now. Our foreheads touched, both of our eyes closed. It was the closest I’d felt to someone in years.

“IS IT… ALRIGHT IF I GIVE YOU A KISS?”

I looked to the woman before me. Her smile was small and sweet, the teeth behind it gleaming. It hinted at that same shyness she’d displayed upon our first meeting. The idea danced across my head for a few seconds, caught up in her face. She was irresistible.

I nodded my head enthusiastically, giving two thumbs-up.

After a few seconds of working up the courage, the fish woman planted both hands on my shoulders, pushing me even deeper, into the muddy bed of plant matter. It had a give to it, like a firm mattress, and it caught both of us with relative ease. She landed on top of me, our heads pressed firmly together, a goofy smile painted across both our faces.

And then she kissed me.

Despite the number of teeth we had, collectively, it was gentle, quiet and slow. Awkward at first, sure. It was to be expected on a first date, but it was especially awkward with the bizarre facial structure I now possessed. She helped me along as best she could, using the hand that wasn’t held to the back of my head to guide the movements we were taking. Her webbed fingers were pressed flat to my cheek, tilting my head whichever way accommodated the both of us best.

It wasn’t particularly graceful, but it was filled with energy and newfound love. And, sure enough, she was right. Everything in my mouth felt… correct, now that everything had locked into place. It all fit, working as intended.

Marge was the one to break the kiss, pulling away for a second to close her eyes, almost savoring the moment.

“THAT WAS MY FIRST… I’VE WANTED TO DO THAT SINCE WE GOT HERE! UH, HOW…” She went to wipe the mud off her lips, but hesitated. “…HOW’D I DO?”

I opened my mouth to talk for the first time since the transformation, feeling the water in my throat gargling with every word. I was barely intelligible. What was quiet to me must have been inaudible to her, even though we were an inch away from each other.

“GREAT!”

She had no response. She looked at me quizzically, like she was asking me to speak up.

There was no need. I kissed her back, planting a peck right on her forehead. Neither of us could blush, but we were both flustered beyond words.

“THAT’S GOOD, THEN!” She pulled herself away, floating a few feet before kneeling on the bed near my legs. “OOOO! LOOKS LIKE YOUR SCALES ARE FINISHED! LIKE, TOTALLY FINISHED! WHICH MEANS… HERE, HOLD STILL FOR A SECOND.”

I hadn’t been paying much attention, but she was right. I looked down the front of my body and was nearly blinded with it’s newfound reflective quality. The keratin had done it’s work quickly, making every single space on my body gleam, even in the murky lighting.

Marge rubbed her hands together excitedly, holding my legs down against the bed while they underwent transformation. Her grip on them was firm, but gentle, fully trusting that I wouldn’t thrash around while she worked.

“OH! YOU CAN SIT UP, IF YOU WANT! GET A GOOD LOOK.”

I planted my hands into the mush behind me and sat up, looking down to my feet. They were webbed, just like my hands, but a little thicker. It was amazing that I hadn’t felt them change, seeing as each toe was about as thick and long as a small tree branch. They resembled the kinds of flippers they gave you at hotel resorts, but fleshy and flexible, a little ragged and out of proportion.

I moved them up and down, feeling the drag and resistance underneath.

“HEY! DON’T FREAK OUT FOR A SECOND, OK? OR YOU’LL END UP WITH WEBBING THAT’S ALL HOLE-Y, LIKE MINE.”

I closed my eyes, letting whatever she was so concerned about happen. It certainly didn’t feel like anything special. It was the same kind of tingling felt around my fingers, that same pins and needles sensation. There was an odd tugging from both sides of my inner thighs, as if the skin was trying to get away from my body.

It stopped after a few seconds, and continued just a level below it. It seemed to be a slow, mundane process, so there was no point in keeping my eyes closed.

I opened them again, admiring the odd sight before me. The skin had, in fact, stretched towards the middle, meeting to form a mast of scaled skin. Spiderwebs of stringy flesh pulled towards each other, the holes growing smaller and smaller as it all wove together. The thin mass of flesh kept my legs level with one another. It was all healing quickly, especially with Marge’s assistance. She had her hands underneath the massive flipper-thing, keeping everything aligned.

“YOU’RE DOING GREAT!”

My voice still gurgled with mud and water, but it was audible to Marge, so it was good enough.

She giggled, a far off noise, keeping her attention glued to my… tail… thing. It was half done now, but I still couldn’t figure out what on earth it was meant to be. It most closely resembled human legs, with opaque saran wrap keeping them together. It was a little grotesque, especially as it grew in, but a fish-human hybrid transformation was bound to be an odd affair. I wasn’t surprised by it.

And, if it worked for her, then it’d probably work for me.

I was undergoing my final changes now, last minute tweaking to my form. My chest and belly flattened some, the same flimsy fins that had formed on my head now streaking down my back.

I felt the cold, murky river water pulse a final time deep within my body, as though it had entered my heart. One last surge of muddy water pulsed through every inch of my body, A shiver radiating to every corner. And, as the shiver flowed out through my fingers and toes, everything slowed to a gentle crawl. Nothing felt unusual. No more rearranging. It was done.

I laid back a little, testing out all my new parts. Despite how fresh in my mind everything was, I could control my movements just as before. Nothing felt out of place. I swished my webbed hands through the water, kicked my feet, and lifted my massive tail towards the surface. The skin connecting both legs had healed flawlessly… But I still didn’t understand why it was there.

“SO… WHAT DOES THAT… LEG… TAIL DO?”

She pursed her lips, trying to come up with a concise answer.

“IT’S LIKE…. YOU’RE HALF HUMAN, HALF FISH, RIGHT? IT GIVES YOU THE SWIMMING GRACE OF A FISH, BUT ALLOWS FOR…. LIMITED WALKING. SO, YOU CAN GO ON LAND FOR A FEW MINUTES. TO CONFRONT PEOPLE THAT THROW ROCKS AT YOU, FOR EXAMPLE.”

I laughed. It seemed so long ago, already.

Marge swam backwards for a second, admiring her handiwork. Everything had gone smoothly, or at least, as smoothly as one could have imagined turning into a fish monster would go.

“YEP! IT’S ALL DONE! MEET ME BACK AT THE SURFACE, I’LL SHOW YOU WHAT I MEAN.”

She planted her feet on the bed of plants and crouched, firing up through the water with grace, exiting without so much as a ripple, as she had done the first time. I followed in her footsteps, planting both of my webbed feet to the ground, squatting, and pushing down as I jumped.

I glided effortlessly through the murky waters, propelled towards the surface with next to no drag. My arms, legs, and fins all seemed to slice through the water behind me, like I was a rocket leaving the atmosphere.

When I emerged again, it was nearly nightfall. I really had been under for hours, even if it hadn’t felt like it. The sun was no longer overhead, squeezing between the branches of the trees to our west. The light was beautiful, cloaking whatever it touched in a deep red.

“Not so bad, huh? I told ‘ya.” She reached over to me, sweeping a few soggy leaves off my shoulders. “Lemme show you how this works.”

She dipped into the water, and hoisted her massive flipper-legs into the air behind her. The skin between was torn in places, but looked much the same as mine.

She took off the second her tail-thing was back in the pool, swimming around the massive, swirling crater of river water. A few laps in, she slowed to a crawl, noticing that she was moving too fast for my eyes to follow effectively.

“So, I basically- Well, here. Come swim next to me.”

I did as she asked, pulling alongside her as I flopped around. I was trying to swim like a normal human, hand over hand, legs kicking up and down. She’d stopped moving entirely, watching my lack of progress.

“It’s not easy, don’t worry about it. It’s got way different rules than human swimming. Watch.”

Her legs kicked together in unison, both going at the same time, up and down. Her arms were flush to her body, reaching out only to turn left or right.

“You could describe the movement like a dolphin, or a weird boat… I guess? I mean, you are the boat, in this case. Like. Uh… Fuck this analogy, just avoid any resistance as best you can when you move forwards, let the tail do the work.”

I gave it a try, wiggling with both legs at the same time, feeling my head dip further and further into the water, making little progress. Little, but more than before.

“Smooth movements. Long strokes, like a paintbrush.”

I stopped my little movements, letting the tail rise and fall as much as possible. Sure enough, I was gaining some speed. I still wasn’t moving at her pace, but I was moving nonetheless. I pressed my arms to my sides as I continued, head down.

And then I ate dirt, forgetting to turn and smacking up against the bank of the muddy river.

“OK! See, that was great! Just… remember to turn, and you’re set.”

She swam over, standing up in the knee-deep water near the bank I’d smacked into.

“Let’s try… walking. You already know how to do that, but with everything all meshed together, it’s a little difficult. You know those potato sack races? It’s like that, except you can’t jump. Just… waddle.”

A strong arm grabbed mine, wiping the mud from my lips with her other hand. Marge yanked me to my feet, holding onto my hips as I walked alongside her. I stumbled on the first step, not realizing just how stiff the material between my legs was. It had some give underwater, but on land, it only seemed to flex as much as thick rubber, the kind you see on car tires.

Sure enough, we were waddling along, now. I was dragging my feet through the mud, barely enough flex to lift my feet.

“That’s perfect.” She laughed. “Don’t worry about getting it perfect. It’s not possible. The fastest I can go is maybe… twice that speed. Like, a casual walk.”

She led me over to the edge of the pool and looked over the top, across the grass and through the tree roots. The forest was dark, now. The red light was too weak to pierce between the tree trunks, leaving only the suggestion of shapes in the trees. The animal noises had quieted down since we’d last left them, only the occasional bird call, or the rustling of a bush.

It was nice standing next to her. I’d grown without noticing, but I was still only up to her shoulder in height. Her breathing was gentle and calm, the rattling in her throat mimicking the wind as it passed through the trees. I felt safe beside her.

“You know, I’ve been meaning to ask you some questions. About like, human stuff. You don’t have to answer them, but, I figure you’d want to return the favor.”

I nodded. “Sure! What do you… want to know?”

“Do people still like The Jonas Brothers? Like, are they still a thing?”

I laughed and shook my head.

“Shit. I thought they were on forever. What about…” She clicked her tongue, eyes rolled back in an attempt to summon boyband knowledge. “No, nevermind. That’s the only thing I remember about music in 2005.”

“Ok. Any more questions?”

“Yeah, actually. Since I don’t remember anything about pop culture, I’ll just. Skip to a more personal note. Nothing bad, hopefully.”

I nodded, motioning for her to continue with my hands.

“Was that your first kiss… with a girl?”

“Hm!” I really had to think on it. Matt was really the only “partner” I remembered having. “Yeah… I guess so? I don’t really remember. Shit, it might have been my first kiss… like, period.”

Marge seemed blown away. “Really? If that was your first time… than you totally killed it! Like. I’m looking forwards to more of that in the future.”

We giggled, turning back towards the view of the forest.

“You like your new form?”

I nodded. “Walking’s a little awkward. But I look cool as shit.”

She laughed. Her eyes wandered aimlessly from branch to branch, but I was focused on something far off in the distance, beyond the treeline, back from where we’d came. A faint glow where there shouldn’t have been one, the dim light dancing, smoke rising from above the trees. I knew who’s fire it was.

“Do you wanna get back in the water? It’s dry out tonight.”

I think she saw it too, and knew what I was thinking. My eyes peeled away from the glow, the smoke. That wasn’t my life, not anymore.

“…Yeah.”

“Right then.” She turned on her heel, waddling back into the pool. She slipped under, leaving only me above the surface.

I couldn’t help but feel a sense of pride as I turned my back to him. I was moving away, distancing myself from him forever, in favour of someone who really, truly wanted what was best for me. I was not a pawn to her, not like I had been in Matt’s grasp. I wasn’t replaceable to her.

I slipped under the surface to join her, bonking into her on the way down, causing a fit of giggles. She grabbed me with both arms, bringing me close and placing her lips on the crown of my head in a little kiss.

Blue moonlight pierced through the murky waters, just enough light for Marge to guide her hand across the back of my head. Long, gentle strokes, all the way down my neck.

The last thing I remember before falling asleep in her arms was an exchange of words, quiet and intimate.

There was a breathy “I love you” whispered right into my ear, just barely audible. A gentle smile.

And then, an “I love you too” in return.

Camping Trip

pawpiles

another recent one from FA! 2 more reuploads and then I'll stop spamming you guys, sorry.

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