Leilani's Tail

The Discovery

Tears start escaping my eyes as I yell “No! No please tell me this is just some horrible nightmare! Please! This can’t be real!”. I swim closer hoping that I will just wake up from this soon. But deep down inside I knew the truth. I swam up to the edge of the island as she jumped into the water. We held each other in sorrow. Both of us knowing that this is real. She looks up with tears staining her beautiful face and says “Why! Why would you give up your beautiful legs? Why does this have to happen to us?”. I put my hand on her cheek and wiped away the tears while saying “I would give up anything to be with you.” I start crying again as I say “I’m so sorry. I just wanted to surprise you. I just wanted us to be together.” I saw determination flood into her eyes as she said “If you truly would do anything to be with me then prove it. Help me. We need to find a way fix this. We can get through this. I know that as long as I have you I can get through anything.” We locked eyes and I couldn't look away her eyes were far too captivating. But only then it I realized how close our faces actually were. As we looked into each other's eyes we slowly started leaning closer to each other. Our lips connected in a soft kiss. As we pulled away from each others lips I looked into her beautiful eyes and said “We can do this my love. We can fight our way through this hardship. I love you and I will never give up so we can be together, I promise you that. I would go anywhere and do anything possible to be with you Anuhea”. For a minute she almost looked like she would start crying again, but then I realised she was deep in thought about something, most likely our situation at the moment. We fell into deep silence while trying to find any possible way to fix this terrible misfortune. Suddenly she gasps and grabs me by the shoulders looking more excited than I have ever seen anyone look before. She practically screamed in my face when she said “I KNOW WHAT TO DO! There is a legend about a sea dragon near where I used to live, it's said that if your wish is pure hearted and is for the one you love, if you find him he will grant your wish. If we could just find him we could wish for some way to be together.” I gave her a concerned look. What if she got hurt? I would never be able to forgive myself if something happened to Anuhea. Almost as if she could read my mind she spoke up and said “Look I know it's not the best or most detailed plan but its the best chance we have if we want to fix this problem ok?” But that worried me so much “But what if you get hurt? What if we do all this only to find that the stories were false? And even if we did do this how would you get there? It would be impossible for you to swim that far with your new legs.” I gently place my hand on her cheek. “I love you like no one could ever imagine, which is why we can't use your plan. If you got hurt or worse I could never forgive myself.” She grabbed my hand off her cheek and griped it comfortingly. “I promise you there is no way I could get hurt. Cause believe it or not I've kind of lived in the ocean my whole life and happen to still be alive”. She said with large amount of sarcasm. “Besides I know he is real, my sister and I saw him once. It was quick because he swam by us super fast but we know it was him. So now we have to go find him so he can help us.” It must of just been my imagination but I could have sworn that for a second her smile grew sinister when she said “That way we could be together forever.”. As soon as she said that the sinister look went away so it had to have been my imagination. I start to get some hope for her plan until something pops into my head. “But how could you possibly swim for that long without a tail?” Her smile drops as she tries to think of something. All of the sudden I get an idea. “What if we go get my waʻa so you don't have to swim? I think you would be a lot safer that way.” She tilts her head and looks at me strangely, like a mix of excited and confused. “Why are you looking at me weird? Did I say something wrong?” She smiles and waves me off “No it's fine it just that I have no idea how to use that thing. It does look fun though! Although I guess you could just give me a quick lesson.” I smiled at her childish expression “Fine, but only since I HAVE to.” I said as sarcastically as possible. She just rolled her eyes at me and said “Of course you have to, cause you love me so much. Now hurry up and go get it. Maybe if we're lucky we can get going in a few days. Good thing we have plenty of fish to eat!”. I smiled and rolled my eyes at her “Well I just had to fall in love with the world's most sassy mermaid.” She just stuck her tongue out at me as I swam to get the waʻa, making sure to splash her with my tail before getting out of range for her to get me back. The second I get to the island pulling the waʻa behind me I feel something wet and slimy hit me straight in the face. That brat threw seaweed at me!. As we started to doze off together all I could think was that I hope that her seeing that “dragon” was a true story for her sake and mine.

It's been a few weeks and Anuhea and I are starting to get used to our new forms, but not enough that we would want to stay this way. Anuhea is getting much better at sailing so we will probably be able to get set off soon. I really hope we can get through this safely and just be happy. Anuhea is asleep on the wa’a right now, she is just so perfect and I love her so much. As I look at her sleeping face all I can think is that everytime I look at her I get yet another reason to love her. She is just the most amazing girl I’ve met and all I want is to be with her for the rest of my life. But I can't help but think about my family. Since I’m kinda a night owl I decided to swim up to my island to see how they are doing. As I swim closer to my home I can see my mother and father arguing in the window while my brother is sitting on the ground outside crying. I decided that I have to talk to him and comfort him. I can't just leave him. “Kai!” I yell, still hidden in the water as he looks up to see where I am “Kai, Don't be scared just meet me at the cove”. Suddenly I feel someone’s hand come over my mouth and pull me under water while Kai just sits there confused and scared. I fight back till the hand lets go and as I turn around to see who it is I come face to face with the angered face of Anuhea. I instantly become scared, confused, and angry at her. Why is she mad at me? I'm just trying to help my brother, why would she try to stop me? She pulled me further away from my home till we were hidden behind a large rock. I quickly yanked my arm out of her grasp “Why did you do that! Why do you look so mad? I was just trying to help my brother!”. She looks at me seeming more angry than I would think possible “Do you know how much I sacrificed to be with you! Do you know how well off I would be if I never saved you! Do you know how badly it hurts when you are willing to give up hope for us being together all for nothing but a disgusting little brat! I gave up everything for you!”. That was it, all throughout my parents physical and mental abuse the only one who has ever been there for me was my brother. If I have to abandon the one person who I know would never abandon me just for someone who dares to call my brother a brat, then I should be considered the villain in this story. I slapped her and growled “If you ever dare say that about anyone I love ever again consider yourself dead to me.” After the surprise left her face extreme anger replaced it as she got right in my face. She grabbed my chin as I tried to backup and swim away “Are you truly willing to leave me for this little fuckker!” she violently pointed toward the figure of my crying brother. “I loved you! I didn't give up everything just for you to leave me!”. Suddenly bright purple sparks started to come frome her hand she looked at me with an insane smile on her face “Good thing I didn't give up my magic. I won't allow you to leave me that easily love”. Her insane smile grew bigger as the sparks shot from her finger which was still pointing at Kai, as soon as the sparks reached him he fell on the ground, not moving. I looked at her in horror “Did you just?”. She smirked at me “Kill him? Well of course I did darling, if I didn't we couldn't be together.” She just smiled and reached out for me and I started to back away in horror. I swam under the water still watching her. She smirked and pulled a strange necklace out of the pocket on her skirt and put it on as she swam a little deeper into the water. I watched in surprise as her legs were surrounded by sparks of light and they slowly mended into a tail. I instantly became terrified as I tried to swim as far away from her as possible. She was quickly gaining on me, her eyes filled with anger. I stopped swimming and turned around to come face to face with her. I was filled with rage and sadness due to my brother's death. “How dare you! How dare you still act like you expect me to love you after you killed the one person who was ever there for me! After you killed him right in front of me! You are dead to me! You are nothing!”. (And if you look closely you can pinpoint the exact moment when Anuhea’s heart breaks) Her expression was full of sadness for a moment but it was quickly replaced with pure rage. (If you listen to the song I Hate Everything About You while reading this part it just fits in so well) As her rage was obviously getting greater she gripped my arm tightly “I thought you loved me! I thought you would never leave me!” I pulled my arm away out of fear but I looked her in the eye and said “Honestly I thought so to. But now I realize you are nothing to me.” Tears of anger started to fill her eyes, but I had no pity for her. “You brought this onto yourself Anuhea. You made this happen.” The second she lifted her head to look at me I knew I had said the wrong thing if I wanted to get away from this safely. “Even if what you say is true my love, and I have brought this upon myself I will not be the one to pay the price.” She looked at me with the most terrifying look I've ever seen in my life. She wrapped her hands around my neck and started to swim to the surface, dragging my struggling form with her. “I think it's time for you to pay for betraying me darling.” I did my best to struggle but she soon had me pinned down on the small coral island as I was slowly dehydrating. It took almost everything I had in me just to form the sentences “If I must pay, then so do you!” as I reached up and stabbed her in the chest with a sharp piece of coral. The last thing I saw was her giving me a smirk and saying “If I must die then let it be by the hand of the one that I love.” before everything went black.