The Dominant Species
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2

A few days later, I met Giselle. We were on our way to the network of tubes to practice acrobats in a secluded area. Giselle looked angry.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

“It happened again,” Giselle shouted.

I knew what that meant. Giselle was a tomboy. The clothes she wore were more similar to those of mermen, not mermaids. She has never played with a doll. And, like me, she has never been interested in the art of making clothes for merpeople. A lot of people have told her that she needed to be more feminine.

“That’s ridiculous,” I stated, calmly.

“I know,” Giselle responded, waving her hands in agitation. “Do you think there’s anything wrong with the way I am?”

“Of course, not. Any mermaid is allowed to be a tomboy, if that’s who she is.” “I know, but people will always tell me that I need to be feminine.”

“Just ignore them.”

“Do you think that would work?”

“Well, it might not be easy at first, but give it a try.”

“I have half a mind to kill someone,” she said, angrily.

“Listen to the other half,” I replied, sarcastically.

Giselle looked calmer. That might be because she talked to me about her problem and not just because I offered a solution.

I took Giselle through the tubes on land. Each tube led to another and they were all wide enough for two mermaids to swim next to each other. Some of the tubes led to swimming pools. Every pool was as big as a lake and led to several tubes. It had taken Giselle and me several years to explore enough of the land network to be able to move around on land.

Merpeople didn’t like to swim in rivers or ponds because long-term exposure to freshwater wasn’t good for our skin.

Once, Giselle and I watched a male seahorse releasing his young from his pouch. They were so small it was ridiculous. The difference in size between adult fish and their children is the biggest of any animal. We saw a Whale Shark swim by and we swam with it for a while. It was twenty meters long. After growing up in the ocean I was still fascinated by the animals.

We looked at a lot of the land creatures too. Because of this network it had become easier to study these animals. It’s a good thing merpeople could breathe water and air or studying land would have been a lot harder. We have learned more since building that network than we had in the years before it.

I wasn’t exactly a bad student because I still knew that merpeople were the outcome of perfect evolution.

I can see you raising your eyebrows in skepticism, so let me explain.

We were physically strong. Fast. We could breathe air and water, even though we couldn’t hold our breath for a long time the way some animals could. We also couldn’t dive as deep as some animals do. It took us many years to be able to explore the Mariana Trench because merpeople just couldn’t stand the pressure at such a depth. We had flexible tails. It wasn’t just that we could swim fast, it was fun too. We even had a sheet of jelly underneath the skin of our upper bodies and tails that helped us sense everything that happened in the water. We were also smart. And we had magic.

Giselle and I went through the tubes as fast as we could without hitting anything. We went to an area outside the city where I liked to practice acrobats. It was a large area that was basically a swimming pool suspended in midair. There were many like those in the world and there were many that had been dug into the ground. This one was enormous and other sea creatures like fish and small species of sharks had found their way into it. Lots of creatures were swimming in and out.

I showed Giselle the last thing I’d learned in acrobats. We’ve both been learning from professionals for years. We performed quick and agile movements. We needed years to learn some of them.

I bet your jaws are dropping with fascination now.

We praised each other. I realized I was good at something. I was impressed with Giselle because she was good at a lot of things. We practiced magic again. I wanted to be the best at acrobats, but I was too shy to compete in a contest and find out who was the best in the city. I thought there was no way I would be good enough. Still, I wanted to be the best I could be, regardless of how good anyone else was. I also wanted to be great with magic. The more I practiced the more powerful I became.

I noticed something!

Out of the corner of my eye I saw something move.

I turned around.

There was a creature I had never seen before walking on land close to the pool. It had the upper body of a merman, but it was walking on two legs. “Look!” I said to Giselle.

She turned and saw the creature.

And he saw us!

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