QT: Gilded Waters

1: The Beginning

The first thing the girl saw when she woke up was shimmering water. It wasn't the hospital ward, with its faded, peeling wallpaper and the fan that made clicking noises as it turned its head around her room.

No flickering lights from the tv that was always on.

No nurse poking their head in the door, checking up on her.

No crying noises from the rooms around her, families mourning the loss of their loved ones.

No mother watching over her with that exhausted, hollow look in her eyes. The one that made her feel guilty, apologetic for being born.

Had she died, then?

The last thing she remembered was eating some apples her mother had sliced up for her, sitting next to her bed on a wooden stool. It was the best her mother could do for her, with her busy work schedule, as she tried to keep up with her hospital fees.

Near the end, her body felt weaker and smaller, the energy getting sucked away. It had hurt so badly to breathe, and her lungs were filled with water.

She could remember a crying voice and a relieved smile.

Was her mother relived that she'd died?

Or relieved that she was free from her suffering?

The girl doesn't know, and can't seem to remember. Maybe this was one last, lucid dream before she died.

All the girl could see around her was dark water, interspersed with ripples of white light from the glow of a shining film, veil-thing that surrounded her completely.

Since she was gone...

The young girl was glad that her mother was free from all of that. Her mother had loved her, she knew, but things had changed as she got sicker. Mom wouldn't meet her gaze or look at her when they talked, as machines beeped and whirred in the background. Was she that terrible to look at now, with the tubes connected to her body keeping her alive? It made the girl wonder if this kind of life was worth living. The longer you lived, the more pain it brought to your loved ones, the more toll it took on your physical body.

But she wasn't there anymore. She was at the bottom of a deep blue body of water, bubbles tickling her ears as they rose up around her with her movements. The ticklish feeling of long hair swirling around her felt strange on her skin too. All her hair should have been gone, since the nurses shaved it off for the surgery.

Where was she then?

From the corner of her eye, she can see strands of shining ebony hair waving with the water currents, thick, healthy hair that was so different from the dry brittle grey-black of her own hair.

Was she having some sort of fever dream, strange hallucinations before she was truly dead?

The confused young girl tried to speak, but no voice comes out. Only bubbles of air that kiss her lips as they lift themselves, up, out of her throat and passing through the veil. Around her were multiple small white pods, like a silk-worm's cocoon, with curled up creatures casting a shadow within. Tall walls of purple rocks surrounded what seemed like a small room with light streaming in from the ceiling.

Sounds of water stirring around her, and the girl was surprised to see a human figure swimming over to her.

She was beautiful. Was this woman a model?
Long, light-green hair the color of what she thought was like freshly-mowed grass. It might not be, since the only grass she'd seen was through the commercials shown on tv.  Her whole life had been spent in the hospital, battling the sickness that made her immune system weak, unable to interact with the outside world.

The light shines over the woman's features, illuminating her happy smile as she gazes back at the girl. Wide sparkling eyes, lined with thick lashes and a black kohl, giving her a mysterious, regal air. Sharp cheekbones and pink lips. And she was naked!

As the confused girl reached out her hands to touch the film to the person beyond it, the woman reached out their hand as well. Cold. That was all it felt like. This woman felt cool to touch, like ice.

And...

She looks down past the beautiful lady's waist. Something had been causing currents of water to swirl around her...making the pod that the girl was in shiver.

This woman had a fish's tail!

What a strange dream to be having. None of her other dreams had ever been this fantastical. Never in her life had she experienced being so totally immersed in water like this, to feel the coolness against her skin. Her body felt stronger, her hands moving the water around her-

Glancing closer at her hands, the girl stops. Her slender white fingers had skin stretched between them while long fingernails-more like claws, really.
They glittered under the light like opals in rainbow pearlescent hues.

It was the same webbed hands the woman had, except her claws were pitch black and curved.

Did-Did that mean what she thought it meant!?

With trepidation she forces her eyes to look down at her feet. Or where he feet should have been. Except all she saw was a giant fish tail, growing out from the area below her belly button, from her waist down.

It was a beautiful tail, silver white with shades of black and orange and red speckles that caught the blue light and waved in the opposite direction of the water currents being generated by the mermaid lady to keep her upright.

What kind of dream was this!??

Bubbles frothe out of her own mouth as the girl panics.

This wasn't Earth! Where was she?! What was she!?

Her arms stretch out as she flails in alarm, unable to control her jerky motions as she was unused to this new body of hers. Actually, she was unused to any body that responded to her mind so quickly, and with such power too.

The overwhelmed actions cause her tail to give one powerful flick, bursting out of the silvery sac and into the arms of the waiting woman.