Long blond hair all the way down her back, which she was brushing while she sang. The kind you read about in kids' stories. but it was! It was a mermaid! A real one! Where was it coming from? I clambered up a jagged rock and looked down the other side.

Had I imagined it? The water lapped against the pebbles, making them jangle as it sucked its breath away from the shore. The wet rocks shimmered in the moonlight, but there was no one around. Sitting back against a larger rock, I caught my breath. I wiggled my toes and shivered as I watched my legs come back. I pulled myself out of the water, my tail resting on some pebbles in the sea. Eventually, I made it to a big, smooth rock with a low shelf. I tried to flick myself along, but my tail flapped lazily and started to ache. I came up for fresh air and realized I was miles from home farther away than I'd ever been on my own. Soon the water got warmer again as I came to another shallow part. They were covered in prickly black sea urchins, and I wouldn't be thrilled to get one of those stuck on my tail. Then the water would suddenly get colder and deeper as I went over a rocky part. Wispy little sticklike creatures as thin as paper wriggled along beneath me, almost see-through against the sand. The fat gray fish were replaced by stripy yellow-and-blue ones with floppy silver tails, long thin green ones with spiky antennae and angry mouths, orange ones with spotted black fins-all darting purposefully around me.Įvery now and then, I swam across a shallow sandy stretch. It was like switching from grainy black-and-white film into color. As I swam around the rocks at the end of the bay, the water became clearer and softer.

The tail of emily windsnap book 1