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More from wrathofautumn
Final version of this story! I swear to god! Mostly the same, except the plot holes have all been filled in, and even the naiad is given more character. :3
Edited by Idai Kitsune!
Inspired by a dream of mine. Will be working on a spin off of this in the near future! Until then, enjoy! :3
Part One:http://www.furaffinity.net/view/2906641/
Part Two:http://www.furaffinity.net/view/2953590
Part Three:http://www.furaffinity.net/view/3115139
________________________________________
“The Wonders of The Below”
By Wrathofautumn
What a great day for diving!
The wind blew in Clyde’s face as he stared out into the deep ultramarine of the Australian waters, the teal and cyan highlights of the Great Barrier Reef visible beneath the churning waves. It was a clear sky in January with not a cloud in sight, the morning sun illuminating his team’s yacht, the Dolphin, as if it had transmuted to gold from bow to stern. To Clyde, it was a good sign. Already he could see himself in the one place he felt truly at home, deep in the endless blue, getting glimpses of fish and coral in every shape, size, shade and hue imaginable. Sure, he was only collecting coral samples and checking the health of the fish, but it was a good enough excuse to keep going back. Heck, he might even spot a dolphin one of these days! Too bad his dive buddy, Dallas, had fallen ill and pulled out right at the last minute, he would have loved this. Nobody was available to replace him on such short notice, and since the team leader had wanted to stick to a tight schedule, it had set off with just the one diver on board. Clyde knew the risks of solo diving, but he would rather jump in the sea all by himself than incur the wrath of the captain of the vessel. Speaking of…
“Oy, Clyde! C’mon over ‘ere and git yer gear on real fast like!”
Clyde was abruptly brought out of his thoughts by the gruff voice. He wouldn’t want to keep his team leader waiting any longer. Climbing down the ladder from the helm, he went below deck and swerved right, where a weathered mariner was hunched over, arms crossed and his face twisted with a serious demeanor. It was Tormod, the one in charge of this expedition. He had an unshaven face of gray stubble with cropped hair taking on highlights of silver. His face was aged and wrinkled, with narrow hazel eyes and a pipe fastened between his fishy lips. He wore casual clothes, with shorts, old-fashioned high tops and socks extending up as far as his calves.
“Are y’ dun takin’ in the scenery, green‘orn?” He asked gruffly.
Clyde flushed. True he was still fresh out of college and had only recently joined up with the group of marine biologists, but it still bugged him how Tormod kept calling him “greenhorn.” He wasn’t that unfamiliar with diving. He’d been doing this since he was little.
“Nuff gabbin’, then. C’mon! Gotta lotta wurk to do, we ‘ave!”
Taking off his t-shirt and shorts, leaving only his black and blue wetsuit with the Sea World logo on it, he rushed to put on his gloves and boots. The suit he wore just about showed off his slightly toned muscles. He was no bodybuilder, his frame really just leaning more towards athletic and flexible. Finally getting his boots on and his fingers in the gloves, he winced as he felt a hard tug over his head.
“Bloody ‘ell, mate! I told y’ to get that hair chopped off. Now this’ll hurt an ‘ole lot more when you get it off!”
He wasn’t kidding, the hood pulling against his hair. Clyde grunted as he moved to pull it over his face, and fit his chin in place. Tormod wasn’t telling him anything he didn’t know already. His curly hair was thick and tough to cut. Getting those hoods on was always a hassle with his hair as long as it was. But he liked it as it was, and he wasn’t so eager to give it up to a local barber for a few dollars.
Rushing for his fins, mask and snorkel, Tormod pushed him out of the room so they could quickly get him up on deck again. The air tanks were all caged up in an iron crate on the starboard, for the divers’ convenience. With his ring of keys, Tormod unlocked the crate, pulling out one air tank and carefully placing it on the ground. Clyde worked on putting his fins over his feet as Tormod assembled the regulator, tank and BCD together, carrying it over to where Clyde sat. Putting the heavy gear on, it immediately felt like a large rock had been fastened to his back. Readying his mouthpiece and fitting his mask over his eyes and nose, Clyde now had the look of a proper diver.
“‘Ow’s it workin?” Clyde gave the mouthpiece a test, air getting through alright, then proceeded with checking all his other equipment. Satisfied, he gave Tormod the OK sign. “Right, then! ‘Ere. You’ll need this sack. Just git a few samples, check the ‘abitat, and remember! No goofin’ off, ya ‘ear me?”
Clyde rolled his eyes; Tormod was never one to mess around. Couldn’t he lighten up once in a while? Well, Clyde was only partly listening to him anyway, too busy thinking about what he was going to see below the waves. Waddling over to the gap in the starboard railings and looking out to the horizon, Clyde clutched his mouthpiece and mask tightly, took a big step forwards and let gravity do the rest.
Kersplash!
The water roared around him, a veil of bubbles clouding his vision. He bobbed back up to the surface, letting Tormod know he was good to go and snorkeled away from the boat. When he was over the reef, he switched his snorkel for his regulator, deflated his BCD and began his descent. He sank beneath the surface and looked around, his baby blue eyes scanning the area.
It was beautiful! The reef was alive with activity today, all manner of creatures darting in and out of the fabulous city of coral. Anemones waved their arms in welcome as clownfish hid in the forest of tentacles, too afraid to venture out. A moray eel poked its head out of a gap in the rock, curious of the newcomer, mouth trembling in uncertainty. Fish swam in entire schools, paying no mind to the strange thing that came to their home. Crabs and lobsters, sea slugs and even an Australian trumpet scurried across the floor, hunting for their next meal and too busy to be bothered by the stranger. They shouldn’t mind Clyde so much, though. He was nothing more than another swimmer in the seas, after all.
Kicking forwards with his legs, Clyde swam to an area clear of any fish, and with his knife, scraped off a few samples of the golden-brown coral. He swerved to his left, seeing a nice red-green one. Oh, the diversity was endless! And the reef looked so healthy too, untouched by the hands of fishermen or tourists. Maybe it ought to stay that way. If this place attracted too much attention, the reef could end up being damaged beyond recovery.
What was that? He turned his head over his shoulder, but saw nothing. Strange, it was almost like something had just called to him. Ah well, must’ve been his imagination. Returning back to work, he grabbed a few more samples of the coral, his bag now half full. Suddenly, he heard that same cry again, this time more familiar. Could it be?
Turning around fully, he could see shapes moving in the water. Graceful, sleek shapes, chirping and singing as they swam in circles with one another. Their gray bodies, distinct snouts and dorsal fins were unmistakable. Dolphins. Bottlenose dolphins in fact, and quite a few, too. What were they all doing here, Clyde wondered.
They were getting closer now. It seemed as if his presence had attracted their interest, but Clyde wasn’t so sure what to do. He had volunteered to handle dolphins in the tanks before, and he was good at it, the staff saying he knew how to think like them. These, however, weren’t trained dolphins. Sure, they might be friendly, but they were still wild animals. Some tourists who mistook them to be naturally playful made a fatal mistake when the dolphins suddenly turned on them.
Swimming a bit further out into open water away from the reef, the dolphins swam in circles around him, nudging him gently with their noses and bodies. No, it didn’t seem like they were interested in attacking him or anything bad. It was probably one of their games. A game of tag, maybe? Dolphins were such intelligent creatures, and had even been proven to show limited cognitive abilities. If this really was a game of tag, Clyde could only assume that he was now ‘it’.
He petted one of the dolphins, ‘tagging’ it back, and could feel how rubbery its skin was. Almost like a wetsuit, only not synthetic. What would it be like to have skin like that? Would people ever need to wear wetsuits again? They’d most likely feel more at home in the water. That would be fine with Clyde though, since he absolutely loved it down here. If it weren’t for his inconvenient lungs and the limited amount of air on his back, he’d never leave.
All of the dolphins suddenly dispersed, with the exception of one. The lone dolphin and the diver drifted in the ocean, face to face. Clyde could see she was a female, based on the uterus near her tailfin, and she had a strange gleam in her eye. She nosed him back, then proceeded to run along after the rest of the pod. She must have been the dolphin that Clyde had just petted, making him ‘it’ once again. He was unsure though whether to follow it or not. He had his job to finish, but checking his gauges, he saw he had plenty of air to have at little bit of fun before heading back to the reef. Tormod would probably chew him out for wasting precious time and air, but then again, he didn’t have to know that he was playing around, did he?
The dolphin darted off into the blue, seemingly as fast as a torpedo. Clyde quickly picked up the pace, swimming after her as fast as he could. It was easier than he thought to keep up, in fact he was gaining on her as they swam past bridges of coral and fields of sand. The view would’ve been so breathtaking if he actually took time to admire everything.
Wait a minute, what is this place? Clyde came to a halt and looked around, seeing he had reached a dead end in the middle of the towering coral, having been too preoccupied with the dolphin to check his surroundings. Looking up, he saw the surface gleaming a clear white from above with the fish swimming around like clouds. The dolphin was gone though, and Clyde really wasn’t sure how far he had strayed from the yacht. What time was it? Did Tormod leave without him? All these questions flooded his mind, and he knew he’d let his excitement get the better of him. Slowly, doubt and anxiety urged him to go back to the ship, wherever it was. He pulled a GPS tracker out of a pocket on his BCD and activated it, hoping that Tormod would bring the boat to his location.
A sudden clicking and squeal from above him grabbed his attention and he looked for the source. There was a tunnel going through the coral, and the sounds seemed to be coming from inside there. Inflating his BCD, he swam up into the alcove, pushing his way through the coral tunnel with his gloves and accelerating with his fins towards a light source that he presumed to be the other side of the coral reef just a few yards away.
He was proven wrong when he exited the tunnel and saw more coral surrounding him on all sides; he’d gone and entered a cave instead. It was quite a big cave though, about as large as a small house. The dolphin was waiting for him there though, floating near the ceiling where it looked as if the water didn’t quite reach the top. There was an air pocket in here! What wonders nature keeps secret from mankind, Clyde thought to himself, getting a good look at the cavern’s interior.
The source of the cavern’s light was what appeared to be some pale yellow anemone, hanging on the wall at the surface like a dim lamp. He’d never seen a bioluminescent anemone before, and it looked beautiful, like everything else in the cave. He could see a wide variety of mussels and echinoderms lining the floor and walls. Scallops clapped at the air as small shrimp crawled along the walls of brown and gold. What a discovery! When he got back to Tormod, he ought to tell him about this place. This could be a whole article in the National Geographic! Clyde could imagine himself now, on the front page of the latest article. His parents would be so proud of him!
Hold on a sec, where were these other bubbles coming from? Deflating his BCD, Clyde dived down toward the floor of the cavern and saw what looked like a large triangular-shaped orifice, he estimated to be about a meter and a half in diameter and resembling a closed mouth that had three lips. Was this some kind of new organism? He’d never seen anything like this before. A few bubbles were coming out the hole and little strands of coral and other things floated around it. There were strange markings carved around the orifice, something like runes. Could they be the remnants of a lost civilization, perhaps? Clyde took out his camera and aimed down at the mouth. He just had to get a picture of this to show everyone back at the lab.
Without warning, the orifice erupted open, spraying the diver with bubbles and sending him soaring to the top of the cave. Clyde was able to stop himself from hitting the ceiling with his gloves, the coral itself not sharp enough to pierce through them, but he then gazed at the orifice again as it closed back up, the runes around it glowing. What on earth was going on? He wanted to find out what those runes meant and what exactly they were doing, but slowly, he started losing interest in them. In fact, he was getting quite hungry. He could use a nice fish about now. Huh? Fish? Clyde had only eaten not so long before he had headed out on the voyage.
Something pressed against his lower back, almost stretching behind where his rear was. Whatever it was, it was so uncomfortable it made him want to tear his wetsuit off! The force was too great, and his wetsuit ripped open, exposing a thickening tail ending in a couple of knobs, flattening out into something familiar.
What the hell?! A tail fin?! Clyde started to panic and flailed in the water. But the female dolphin swam up to him, brushing her head against his mask. Clyde didn’t know why, but the nuzzle felt quite affectionate and seemed to reassure him. He rubbed his head against her neck, only to notice something weird; his mouthpiece didn’t seem to fit in his mouth as well anymore, and he couldn’t breathe air from it. Spitting it out, he watched in some strange fascination as his face stretched out into a proper snout like the female. But then he grasped his thickening, gray neck, coughing up bubbles as his tail fin swung back and forth desperately. He needed air!
Tearing off his mask and hood, surprised that he could take them off easily now that his long, thick human hair was gone, Clyde rose up to the surface and took a deep breath out of the newly developed blowhole on his neck. As his body stretched and thickened, his legs and arms growing stubbier and his hands webbing out into pectoral fins, Clyde’s mind continued to simplify, thinking less on how important it was to get to a human boat and more interested in searching for food and others like him. But this strange human stuff was so constricting. Why couldn’t he just take it off and feel the ocean touch his graying skin?
Something started pressing against the tank on his back, and Clyde knew this was another fin, his dorsal fin, growing out for sure. Stretching his body back and forth, he squealed to the female dolphin to help, the tank pushing painfully against the fin. She obliged, biting and tearing off the human material and metal thing from his body as he finished transforming. Clyde watched as they drifted to the cavern floor with some interest, wondering why he had ever been wearing those in the first place. A dolphin never needed those kinds of things. Ah, well. All that work tearing off those human objects made Clyde hungry.
Clyde squealed and clicked for the female, but she was nowhere to be found. Did she decide to leave without him? Then someone called to him from behind, a human’s voice, only more calming and not sounding like gibberish. Swimming to the source of the sound, Clyde saw something on the ground, something like a mix between a fish and a human female that sat amongst the remains of the stuff he had been wearing earlier. By the smell of her though, he wasn’t so sure if she was a very tasty fish girl.
She darted up to him and stroked his snout, sending shivers up his body. “So do you understand now?”
“Understand what?” he squealed. “Are you a fish?”
She giggled quietly. “Not quite. I’m a naiad.”
“Is that like a… uh… what is it… oh, a mermaid?”
“Possibly. I’ve heard humans call us those at times. Sometimes I can appear as the mermaids in legends humans often speak of. Other times, I can be other sea creatures.” She demonstrated by shifting from a mermaid into a playful sea otter, then to a terrifying great white shark and then to a very familiar dolphin. Thankfully, she changed back to a mermaid, making Clyde feel less estranged. She stroked his back, playing with his dorsal fin. “All you really need to know is I’m a friend.”
Clyde gaped at her for a while, till his mind clicked. “Oh, a friend! I know what a friend is. Hello, friend. I have lost my pod of fellow dolphins. Can you help me find a fish?”
She giggled, almost amused by his simple resolve. “Well, may I ask what your name is before I do that?”
“It’s… um…uh…” Clyde had to think really hard about this. It was like he just had cotton stuffed into his brain. Then he remembered something faint, like it was a distant memory. “Clyde, I think?”
“That’s correct. I’m glad to know that you still remember your own name, at least. I’m glad to meet you, Clyde.” She swam around the cave, the dolphin following her movements in the water, wondering how she knew his name. “This place was once the home of my ancestors before ancient fishermen drove them out. Before they left, they established a warning here to any who intruded that they would be enlightened by our ways, depending on their thoughts. Though I guess you couldn’t have understood what the runes meant, since they’re written in a language that has since died out.” After pointing to those strange squiggles around the mouth that served as the warning, she sighed, putting her hands to her chest. “I’ve scoured the oceans for ten years in search of others like me, but to no avail. The creatures of the sea often talk of possible sightings, but they’re nothing but lies. I’ve been very lonely all this time, and wished I just had a friend, one who won’t leave me. When I started seeing you dive, and hearing you converse with other humans, I thought you might understand the love for the sea, but I knew you couldn’t live here. That’s why I brought you here. To be friends with me.”
Well that explained how she knew him. Clyde wasn’t quite sure what to make of all of it though. Somehow, he knew what she was talking about was terrible, but he couldn’t quite understand it. Still, it tore at his heart to see her sad, so he rubbed his snout against her cheek. “It’s okay. I’m here now, aren’t I, friend?”
She petted his nose, smiling thinly. “Yes, you are, Clyde. Of course, you wouldn’t understand as you are now, since you have been blessed with a dolphin’s innocence. That means you came here with no intent of malice. But you still have the intelligence of a very smart dolphin. You might be able to remember old friends and family, some things about being human, who knows? They might even try coming looking for you, and if you really were mischievous enough, you could lead them back here and have more than just me to play with. Well, I think I’ve done a good amount of talking with you, my new friend. Come on, then. Let’s go find you some food.”
She swam out into the tunnel leading to the outside world, and Clyde went up to follow her. “Food! Yay for food! Um... that is fish, right?” he chirped.
A sigh escaped her lips, before she giggled again. “Yes, Clyde, that is fish.”
**********************
Clyde’s body was never found. Following the tracker as soon as it had been activated, Tormod had been the first one at the scene. When Clyde failed to surface, he raised the alarm and rescue divers arrived as quickly as possible to look for him. When they combed the area, they found the mysterious cave, as well as the remains of his equipment lying at the bottom of it next to some kind of dormant never-before seen organism. There was no blood or traces of flesh, but the bite marks on what was left of the suit led to the assumption he was attacked by dolphins and drowned, although they had yet to find any explanation for where his body had vanished to. A funeral was held over by the Sea World Park in memory of him.
On the plus side, however, the cavern that they found actually attracted the attention of the National Geographic. The discovery of the cave was credited posthumously to Clyde, but his crewmember, Tormod, took all the publicity for it, with his face on the latest cover.
No one would ever forget Clyde, though, for they knew he had died doing what he loved best: observing the wonders of the below.
Edited by Idai Kitsune!
Inspired by a dream of mine. Will be working on a spin off of this in the near future! Until then, enjoy! :3
Part One:http://www.furaffinity.net/view/2906641/
Part Two:http://www.furaffinity.net/view/2953590
Part Three:http://www.furaffinity.net/view/3115139
________________________________________
“The Wonders of The Below”
By Wrathofautumn
What a great day for diving!
The wind blew in Clyde’s face as he stared out into the deep ultramarine of the Australian waters, the teal and cyan highlights of the Great Barrier Reef visible beneath the churning waves. It was a clear sky in January with not a cloud in sight, the morning sun illuminating his team’s yacht, the Dolphin, as if it had transmuted to gold from bow to stern. To Clyde, it was a good sign. Already he could see himself in the one place he felt truly at home, deep in the endless blue, getting glimpses of fish and coral in every shape, size, shade and hue imaginable. Sure, he was only collecting coral samples and checking the health of the fish, but it was a good enough excuse to keep going back. Heck, he might even spot a dolphin one of these days! Too bad his dive buddy, Dallas, had fallen ill and pulled out right at the last minute, he would have loved this. Nobody was available to replace him on such short notice, and since the team leader had wanted to stick to a tight schedule, it had set off with just the one diver on board. Clyde knew the risks of solo diving, but he would rather jump in the sea all by himself than incur the wrath of the captain of the vessel. Speaking of…
“Oy, Clyde! C’mon over ‘ere and git yer gear on real fast like!”
Clyde was abruptly brought out of his thoughts by the gruff voice. He wouldn’t want to keep his team leader waiting any longer. Climbing down the ladder from the helm, he went below deck and swerved right, where a weathered mariner was hunched over, arms crossed and his face twisted with a serious demeanor. It was Tormod, the one in charge of this expedition. He had an unshaven face of gray stubble with cropped hair taking on highlights of silver. His face was aged and wrinkled, with narrow hazel eyes and a pipe fastened between his fishy lips. He wore casual clothes, with shorts, old-fashioned high tops and socks extending up as far as his calves.
“Are y’ dun takin’ in the scenery, green‘orn?” He asked gruffly.
Clyde flushed. True he was still fresh out of college and had only recently joined up with the group of marine biologists, but it still bugged him how Tormod kept calling him “greenhorn.” He wasn’t that unfamiliar with diving. He’d been doing this since he was little.
“Nuff gabbin’, then. C’mon! Gotta lotta wurk to do, we ‘ave!”
Taking off his t-shirt and shorts, leaving only his black and blue wetsuit with the Sea World logo on it, he rushed to put on his gloves and boots. The suit he wore just about showed off his slightly toned muscles. He was no bodybuilder, his frame really just leaning more towards athletic and flexible. Finally getting his boots on and his fingers in the gloves, he winced as he felt a hard tug over his head.
“Bloody ‘ell, mate! I told y’ to get that hair chopped off. Now this’ll hurt an ‘ole lot more when you get it off!”
He wasn’t kidding, the hood pulling against his hair. Clyde grunted as he moved to pull it over his face, and fit his chin in place. Tormod wasn’t telling him anything he didn’t know already. His curly hair was thick and tough to cut. Getting those hoods on was always a hassle with his hair as long as it was. But he liked it as it was, and he wasn’t so eager to give it up to a local barber for a few dollars.
Rushing for his fins, mask and snorkel, Tormod pushed him out of the room so they could quickly get him up on deck again. The air tanks were all caged up in an iron crate on the starboard, for the divers’ convenience. With his ring of keys, Tormod unlocked the crate, pulling out one air tank and carefully placing it on the ground. Clyde worked on putting his fins over his feet as Tormod assembled the regulator, tank and BCD together, carrying it over to where Clyde sat. Putting the heavy gear on, it immediately felt like a large rock had been fastened to his back. Readying his mouthpiece and fitting his mask over his eyes and nose, Clyde now had the look of a proper diver.
“‘Ow’s it workin?” Clyde gave the mouthpiece a test, air getting through alright, then proceeded with checking all his other equipment. Satisfied, he gave Tormod the OK sign. “Right, then! ‘Ere. You’ll need this sack. Just git a few samples, check the ‘abitat, and remember! No goofin’ off, ya ‘ear me?”
Clyde rolled his eyes; Tormod was never one to mess around. Couldn’t he lighten up once in a while? Well, Clyde was only partly listening to him anyway, too busy thinking about what he was going to see below the waves. Waddling over to the gap in the starboard railings and looking out to the horizon, Clyde clutched his mouthpiece and mask tightly, took a big step forwards and let gravity do the rest.
Kersplash!
The water roared around him, a veil of bubbles clouding his vision. He bobbed back up to the surface, letting Tormod know he was good to go and snorkeled away from the boat. When he was over the reef, he switched his snorkel for his regulator, deflated his BCD and began his descent. He sank beneath the surface and looked around, his baby blue eyes scanning the area.
It was beautiful! The reef was alive with activity today, all manner of creatures darting in and out of the fabulous city of coral. Anemones waved their arms in welcome as clownfish hid in the forest of tentacles, too afraid to venture out. A moray eel poked its head out of a gap in the rock, curious of the newcomer, mouth trembling in uncertainty. Fish swam in entire schools, paying no mind to the strange thing that came to their home. Crabs and lobsters, sea slugs and even an Australian trumpet scurried across the floor, hunting for their next meal and too busy to be bothered by the stranger. They shouldn’t mind Clyde so much, though. He was nothing more than another swimmer in the seas, after all.
Kicking forwards with his legs, Clyde swam to an area clear of any fish, and with his knife, scraped off a few samples of the golden-brown coral. He swerved to his left, seeing a nice red-green one. Oh, the diversity was endless! And the reef looked so healthy too, untouched by the hands of fishermen or tourists. Maybe it ought to stay that way. If this place attracted too much attention, the reef could end up being damaged beyond recovery.
What was that? He turned his head over his shoulder, but saw nothing. Strange, it was almost like something had just called to him. Ah well, must’ve been his imagination. Returning back to work, he grabbed a few more samples of the coral, his bag now half full. Suddenly, he heard that same cry again, this time more familiar. Could it be?
Turning around fully, he could see shapes moving in the water. Graceful, sleek shapes, chirping and singing as they swam in circles with one another. Their gray bodies, distinct snouts and dorsal fins were unmistakable. Dolphins. Bottlenose dolphins in fact, and quite a few, too. What were they all doing here, Clyde wondered.
They were getting closer now. It seemed as if his presence had attracted their interest, but Clyde wasn’t so sure what to do. He had volunteered to handle dolphins in the tanks before, and he was good at it, the staff saying he knew how to think like them. These, however, weren’t trained dolphins. Sure, they might be friendly, but they were still wild animals. Some tourists who mistook them to be naturally playful made a fatal mistake when the dolphins suddenly turned on them.
Swimming a bit further out into open water away from the reef, the dolphins swam in circles around him, nudging him gently with their noses and bodies. No, it didn’t seem like they were interested in attacking him or anything bad. It was probably one of their games. A game of tag, maybe? Dolphins were such intelligent creatures, and had even been proven to show limited cognitive abilities. If this really was a game of tag, Clyde could only assume that he was now ‘it’.
He petted one of the dolphins, ‘tagging’ it back, and could feel how rubbery its skin was. Almost like a wetsuit, only not synthetic. What would it be like to have skin like that? Would people ever need to wear wetsuits again? They’d most likely feel more at home in the water. That would be fine with Clyde though, since he absolutely loved it down here. If it weren’t for his inconvenient lungs and the limited amount of air on his back, he’d never leave.
All of the dolphins suddenly dispersed, with the exception of one. The lone dolphin and the diver drifted in the ocean, face to face. Clyde could see she was a female, based on the uterus near her tailfin, and she had a strange gleam in her eye. She nosed him back, then proceeded to run along after the rest of the pod. She must have been the dolphin that Clyde had just petted, making him ‘it’ once again. He was unsure though whether to follow it or not. He had his job to finish, but checking his gauges, he saw he had plenty of air to have at little bit of fun before heading back to the reef. Tormod would probably chew him out for wasting precious time and air, but then again, he didn’t have to know that he was playing around, did he?
The dolphin darted off into the blue, seemingly as fast as a torpedo. Clyde quickly picked up the pace, swimming after her as fast as he could. It was easier than he thought to keep up, in fact he was gaining on her as they swam past bridges of coral and fields of sand. The view would’ve been so breathtaking if he actually took time to admire everything.
Wait a minute, what is this place? Clyde came to a halt and looked around, seeing he had reached a dead end in the middle of the towering coral, having been too preoccupied with the dolphin to check his surroundings. Looking up, he saw the surface gleaming a clear white from above with the fish swimming around like clouds. The dolphin was gone though, and Clyde really wasn’t sure how far he had strayed from the yacht. What time was it? Did Tormod leave without him? All these questions flooded his mind, and he knew he’d let his excitement get the better of him. Slowly, doubt and anxiety urged him to go back to the ship, wherever it was. He pulled a GPS tracker out of a pocket on his BCD and activated it, hoping that Tormod would bring the boat to his location.
A sudden clicking and squeal from above him grabbed his attention and he looked for the source. There was a tunnel going through the coral, and the sounds seemed to be coming from inside there. Inflating his BCD, he swam up into the alcove, pushing his way through the coral tunnel with his gloves and accelerating with his fins towards a light source that he presumed to be the other side of the coral reef just a few yards away.
He was proven wrong when he exited the tunnel and saw more coral surrounding him on all sides; he’d gone and entered a cave instead. It was quite a big cave though, about as large as a small house. The dolphin was waiting for him there though, floating near the ceiling where it looked as if the water didn’t quite reach the top. There was an air pocket in here! What wonders nature keeps secret from mankind, Clyde thought to himself, getting a good look at the cavern’s interior.
The source of the cavern’s light was what appeared to be some pale yellow anemone, hanging on the wall at the surface like a dim lamp. He’d never seen a bioluminescent anemone before, and it looked beautiful, like everything else in the cave. He could see a wide variety of mussels and echinoderms lining the floor and walls. Scallops clapped at the air as small shrimp crawled along the walls of brown and gold. What a discovery! When he got back to Tormod, he ought to tell him about this place. This could be a whole article in the National Geographic! Clyde could imagine himself now, on the front page of the latest article. His parents would be so proud of him!
Hold on a sec, where were these other bubbles coming from? Deflating his BCD, Clyde dived down toward the floor of the cavern and saw what looked like a large triangular-shaped orifice, he estimated to be about a meter and a half in diameter and resembling a closed mouth that had three lips. Was this some kind of new organism? He’d never seen anything like this before. A few bubbles were coming out the hole and little strands of coral and other things floated around it. There were strange markings carved around the orifice, something like runes. Could they be the remnants of a lost civilization, perhaps? Clyde took out his camera and aimed down at the mouth. He just had to get a picture of this to show everyone back at the lab.
Without warning, the orifice erupted open, spraying the diver with bubbles and sending him soaring to the top of the cave. Clyde was able to stop himself from hitting the ceiling with his gloves, the coral itself not sharp enough to pierce through them, but he then gazed at the orifice again as it closed back up, the runes around it glowing. What on earth was going on? He wanted to find out what those runes meant and what exactly they were doing, but slowly, he started losing interest in them. In fact, he was getting quite hungry. He could use a nice fish about now. Huh? Fish? Clyde had only eaten not so long before he had headed out on the voyage.
Something pressed against his lower back, almost stretching behind where his rear was. Whatever it was, it was so uncomfortable it made him want to tear his wetsuit off! The force was too great, and his wetsuit ripped open, exposing a thickening tail ending in a couple of knobs, flattening out into something familiar.
What the hell?! A tail fin?! Clyde started to panic and flailed in the water. But the female dolphin swam up to him, brushing her head against his mask. Clyde didn’t know why, but the nuzzle felt quite affectionate and seemed to reassure him. He rubbed his head against her neck, only to notice something weird; his mouthpiece didn’t seem to fit in his mouth as well anymore, and he couldn’t breathe air from it. Spitting it out, he watched in some strange fascination as his face stretched out into a proper snout like the female. But then he grasped his thickening, gray neck, coughing up bubbles as his tail fin swung back and forth desperately. He needed air!
Tearing off his mask and hood, surprised that he could take them off easily now that his long, thick human hair was gone, Clyde rose up to the surface and took a deep breath out of the newly developed blowhole on his neck. As his body stretched and thickened, his legs and arms growing stubbier and his hands webbing out into pectoral fins, Clyde’s mind continued to simplify, thinking less on how important it was to get to a human boat and more interested in searching for food and others like him. But this strange human stuff was so constricting. Why couldn’t he just take it off and feel the ocean touch his graying skin?
Something started pressing against the tank on his back, and Clyde knew this was another fin, his dorsal fin, growing out for sure. Stretching his body back and forth, he squealed to the female dolphin to help, the tank pushing painfully against the fin. She obliged, biting and tearing off the human material and metal thing from his body as he finished transforming. Clyde watched as they drifted to the cavern floor with some interest, wondering why he had ever been wearing those in the first place. A dolphin never needed those kinds of things. Ah, well. All that work tearing off those human objects made Clyde hungry.
Clyde squealed and clicked for the female, but she was nowhere to be found. Did she decide to leave without him? Then someone called to him from behind, a human’s voice, only more calming and not sounding like gibberish. Swimming to the source of the sound, Clyde saw something on the ground, something like a mix between a fish and a human female that sat amongst the remains of the stuff he had been wearing earlier. By the smell of her though, he wasn’t so sure if she was a very tasty fish girl.
She darted up to him and stroked his snout, sending shivers up his body. “So do you understand now?”
“Understand what?” he squealed. “Are you a fish?”
She giggled quietly. “Not quite. I’m a naiad.”
“Is that like a… uh… what is it… oh, a mermaid?”
“Possibly. I’ve heard humans call us those at times. Sometimes I can appear as the mermaids in legends humans often speak of. Other times, I can be other sea creatures.” She demonstrated by shifting from a mermaid into a playful sea otter, then to a terrifying great white shark and then to a very familiar dolphin. Thankfully, she changed back to a mermaid, making Clyde feel less estranged. She stroked his back, playing with his dorsal fin. “All you really need to know is I’m a friend.”
Clyde gaped at her for a while, till his mind clicked. “Oh, a friend! I know what a friend is. Hello, friend. I have lost my pod of fellow dolphins. Can you help me find a fish?”
She giggled, almost amused by his simple resolve. “Well, may I ask what your name is before I do that?”
“It’s… um…uh…” Clyde had to think really hard about this. It was like he just had cotton stuffed into his brain. Then he remembered something faint, like it was a distant memory. “Clyde, I think?”
“That’s correct. I’m glad to know that you still remember your own name, at least. I’m glad to meet you, Clyde.” She swam around the cave, the dolphin following her movements in the water, wondering how she knew his name. “This place was once the home of my ancestors before ancient fishermen drove them out. Before they left, they established a warning here to any who intruded that they would be enlightened by our ways, depending on their thoughts. Though I guess you couldn’t have understood what the runes meant, since they’re written in a language that has since died out.” After pointing to those strange squiggles around the mouth that served as the warning, she sighed, putting her hands to her chest. “I’ve scoured the oceans for ten years in search of others like me, but to no avail. The creatures of the sea often talk of possible sightings, but they’re nothing but lies. I’ve been very lonely all this time, and wished I just had a friend, one who won’t leave me. When I started seeing you dive, and hearing you converse with other humans, I thought you might understand the love for the sea, but I knew you couldn’t live here. That’s why I brought you here. To be friends with me.”
Well that explained how she knew him. Clyde wasn’t quite sure what to make of all of it though. Somehow, he knew what she was talking about was terrible, but he couldn’t quite understand it. Still, it tore at his heart to see her sad, so he rubbed his snout against her cheek. “It’s okay. I’m here now, aren’t I, friend?”
She petted his nose, smiling thinly. “Yes, you are, Clyde. Of course, you wouldn’t understand as you are now, since you have been blessed with a dolphin’s innocence. That means you came here with no intent of malice. But you still have the intelligence of a very smart dolphin. You might be able to remember old friends and family, some things about being human, who knows? They might even try coming looking for you, and if you really were mischievous enough, you could lead them back here and have more than just me to play with. Well, I think I’ve done a good amount of talking with you, my new friend. Come on, then. Let’s go find you some food.”
She swam out into the tunnel leading to the outside world, and Clyde went up to follow her. “Food! Yay for food! Um... that is fish, right?” he chirped.
A sigh escaped her lips, before she giggled again. “Yes, Clyde, that is fish.”
**********************
Clyde’s body was never found. Following the tracker as soon as it had been activated, Tormod had been the first one at the scene. When Clyde failed to surface, he raised the alarm and rescue divers arrived as quickly as possible to look for him. When they combed the area, they found the mysterious cave, as well as the remains of his equipment lying at the bottom of it next to some kind of dormant never-before seen organism. There was no blood or traces of flesh, but the bite marks on what was left of the suit led to the assumption he was attacked by dolphins and drowned, although they had yet to find any explanation for where his body had vanished to. A funeral was held over by the Sea World Park in memory of him.
On the plus side, however, the cavern that they found actually attracted the attention of the National Geographic. The discovery of the cave was credited posthumously to Clyde, but his crewmember, Tormod, took all the publicity for it, with his face on the latest cover.
No one would ever forget Clyde, though, for they knew he had died doing what he loved best: observing the wonders of the below.
Category Story / Transformation
Species Dolphin
Size 50 x 50px
File Size 55 kB
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