When I awoke the next morning, for a moment I wasn’t sure where I was or whose arm was wrapped around me in a protective embrace. I almost panicked again when I realized that I was underwater, until my sleepy mind dredged up the memories of the day before. Once I had, it was easy to push those fears aside. I was Naiya, and I was a Naethari now so I had no reason to fear the depths, at least not in this pool.

It was Kara whose arm was wrapped around me protectively, almost possessively, as she slept. It was funny, I had thought that it would be her sister that she would be holding like that, and Jenny was on the other side of her. Maybe she got turned around in her sleep or something. I certainly wasn’t going to complain. Kara seemed nice, she was beautiful, and it was nice being held by someone and realizing that that was okay. I didn’t have to put on the act or hide behind Jon’s mask any longer and that realization made me sigh happily and snuggle closer.

So until the others awoke I just enjoyed the contact. A look toward the nearby corner of the pool showed that Kieshala seemed to be still sleeping as well, hanging from her manacled forearms several feet above the floor of the pool. That couldn’t have been comfortable. I hoped that we could con Pierce into thinking that we were good and obedient little mermaids and that Kieshala was ‘under control’ so he would at least remove the chains.

Kara was the first of the others to wake, and after a curse muttered under her breath she attempted to remove her arm from around me without waking me. Did she have to? It felt so nice being held by her. Rather than letting her know that I was awake and enjoying her holding me like a total creeper, I pretended to stir as she removed her arm.

Almost immediately she spoke into my mind, probably so as not to wake the others, and I could sense her embarrassment in the projected thought. ~ Sorry. I… must have moved around in my sleep. ~

I turned around to face her, carefully replying, ~ It’s okay… I mean we were all sleeping in a group so it’s not…surprising. ~ Her face was bright red and I could feel my own cheeks flushing as she looked away. I had almost said ‘unwelcome’ but I had changed the word at the last moment so I wouldn’t make her feel weird or anything. “Letting myself crush on her would only make things uncomfortable for all of us,” I told myself firmly.

Female Naethari or not, I was still attracted to girls, and she was definitely a catch. Get it? Ah, fish humor is never going to get old. Seriously though, from all her embarrassment and awkwardness at our situation when waking she probably wasn’t a lesbian and I didn’t want to make her uncomfortable around me. I mean, if she was into girls she’d be totally okay with that, right? Maddie was the only lesbian that I really knew but she was always super forward and really touchy-feely with the girls that she was interested in.

~ Oh. Okay then. Well, as long as it wasn’t… bothering you… ~ She trailed off as she looked over her younger sibling and Kieshala, both of whom were still slumbering.

~ N-no! ~ I protested, perhaps a bit too vehemently. I needed to do some damage control. ~ I mean, it’s okay. It’s not like you… meant anything by it, right? You were asleep, after all. Besides, I’ve been a girl and a Naethari for like a day. What do I know about proper social behavior? This was kind of like a sleepover situation, right? We’re all girls here and all that? ~ Way to go, Naiya, make things more awkward.

Kara seemed uncertain and even a little sad. Did she suspect that I was attracted to her? She seemed to brighten up a bit as I tried to reassure her though. ~ Yeah… like a sleepover. We’re all girls here… so it’s okay, I just didn’t want to upset you, Naiya. ~

~ Who has two thumbs, magenta scales, and lilac fins, and is totally not upset at all, in any way? This girl, right here! ~ I told her with as big a smile as I could manage without showing my fangs and pointing at my chest with my thumbs. Ouch! I misjudged and poked myself in the breasts, still not quite used to having the girls around yet. Thankfully, I had managed to do so with the pads of my thumbs rather than my claws.

What I said was true though, I wasn’t upset, with her anyway. I mean it wasn’t her fault that I found her attractive and couldn’t stop gazing at her every time that she looked away. At least the feeling of euphoria that I got from looking down at myself or when I heard her speaking my name prevented me from staring at her. Poking myself in the boobs made it all seem more real and permanent too and I couldn’t help but grin at that. Now that I realized that I was a girl inside, everything that said ‘girl’ on the outside made me giddy.

Fortunately, the other two Naethari awoke around that point and the awkwardness was over, for now. We discussed how we were going to play up the dumb animal act and yet still look cooperative enough for Pierce. We decided that we were going to have to start establishing ourselves more when Dr. Emerson came with our breakfast. We needed to make it look like we were bonding with her fast, but not too fast. Until then, Kieshala continued our lessons on the porpoise language.

At first, I didn’t think that we would be able to reproduce those sounds, many of them couldn’t even be heard by humans. Kieshala taught us a few tricks though, and it was starting to get easier. Apparently, Naethari have really good memories too so she told us that we should be able to learn and retain knowledge much faster than if we were mere humans.

Finally, we could hear the door being worked, the lights in the pool room came to life, and Dr. Emerson’s footsteps approached the pool along with the slightly squeaky wheels of the food cart. The four of us returned to the surface as if curious, only our eyes above the water for a moment as we watched her watching us watching her. After a moment, Dr. Emerson began setting buckets by the side of the pool and called out cheerfully, “Good morning, girls.”

Once she had spoken, that was our cue. Kieshala, Kara, and I made a show of sniffing the air and going to inspect the buckets while Jenny trailed behind, playing shy. Breakfast was much the same as dinner had been the night before; fish, seaweed, shrimp, clams, and fruit. This time rather than oranges though, it was a bucket of fruit salad. I think I liked the cherries most, which was weird because I never really cared for cherries before. I guess it was to be expected since my taste buds had probably changed along with the rest of my body. I mean, I certainly never liked raw shrimp before but it was easily my favorite among the seafood that we had been offered.

As we ate, Dr. Emerson alternated between looking over a tablet and watching and talking to us, mostly about how eager she was to get to know more about us. Jenny, as part of the plan, kept glancing at our new caretaker as if curious but hesitant to approach her. If anyone was going to believe that Dr. Emerson was some sort of Mermaid Whisperer that afternoon, then we needed her to think that all of us liked her and Jenny was the only one who hadn’t ‘gotten her scent’ yet. We needed this to seem natural though so Jenny couldn’t just go up to her and start sniffing.

Kara’s younger sibling had been shy the evening before because she was unwilling to get too close to anyone connected with Pierce, with good reason. Kara and I had managed to convince her of the need though. We were all going to have to do things that we didn’t like, and if Kieshala could try to stop herself from killing her tormentor then the rest of us needed to put out the effort too. So we all had personae to play.

Jenny’s role was the simplest, she was the child. It would give her a lot of freedom to just be herself, or so I hoped. Kieshala was the nurturing and protective one, which would pair well with Jenny and allow her to act protective of us, so long as we didn’t think that doing so might further endanger us. As for me and Kara, she was the cautious and stubborn one and I was the friendly and curious one.

We all attempted to establish ourselves in these roles as we ate and afterward as Dr. Emerson observed us. It was as we were all letting our morning meal settle that the good doctor tried to approach Jenny. “Not too sure about me, huh?” she said with a smile as moved closer to the youngest of us, holding out her hand as she moved slowly forward. “You’re probably scared of us humans and wondering what your friends see in me, aren’t you? I won’t hurt you, I just want to get to know all of you better. My name is Natalie.”

Jenny took in a deep breath, making a show of getting Dr. Emerson’s scent, and then allowed her to stroke her hair and ears for a bit. While Jenny was keeping ‘Natalie’ busy I made my way out of the water and toward the tablet that our caretaker had been looking at occasionally while we ate and had placed on a folding chair out of splash range. I wasn’t actually going to try to do anything with it, just establishing my ‘curiosity’ about human things. I wouldn’t have been able to get past the password or fingerprint lock yet anyway.

I had already made my curiosity about the tablet apparent to her, watching her using it as I ate, and I had slid a good distance along the floor toward the device by the time that Dr. Emerson took her attention away from Jenny enough to notice my land-based movement and probable intent. She laughed and walked over to pick up the tablet. “Curious, huh? I can’t let you play with that though, it’s fragile. This contains a lot of names, and I’m supposed to choose one for you and your friends. We should probably do that before lunch, shouldn’t we? Mr. Pierce could arrive anytime between then and dinner.”

I watched as she swiped the screen and typed in her password. Good, password only, no fingerprint lock. That would make things a lot easier. I didn’t quite catch the complete password but I hoped that what I did commit to memory would be enough to extrapolate the rest with a bit of time. If nothing else, it would narrow it down in combination with the number of taps that I had counted.

“No time like the present. I’m warning you though, that a lot of these names are either terrible or pretentious. Some are both,” Dr. Emerson said with a slight sigh and a roll of her eyes. “Aphrodite? Really?”

I may have scowled a little at the thought of being given a name like some pet when I had finally discovered who I really was. I couldn’t really speak up and say, “My name is Naiya,” though. It was one of those distasteful things that we all knew that we were going to have to put up with when we decided to play along until we could escape. Still, that didn’t make it any more palatable.

It seemed that Dr. Emerson had caught my scowl because she laughed and stroked my hair. “Yeah, I don’t like that name for any of you either. Let’s see if we can find something that suits the four of you though.” That was a close call, I was going to need to be more careful about keeping up the act.

~ What’s wrong, Naiya? You looked pretty gloomy over there for a minute, ~ Kara asked in concern.

~It’s just sinking in what we are now, what we have to pretend to be. ~ I projected back to the others, letting out a physical sigh that I hoped Dr. Emerson would take as contentment. She was getting stuck into her task though so I extricated myself and made my way back to the water as I explained what was bothering me. ~ She has to choose names for us and I’ll admit that the hair-stroking and ear caresses feel kinda relaxing and she seems nice enough but we’re still being treated like dumb animals. ~

~ We are also acting the part, Naiya. This was your plan and you said that we have to commit to it, do not get stutter-fins now, ~ Kieshala replied. Whatever stutter-fins was, she was probably right, and she was the one who had the most reason to be against this plan.

~ I know, ~ I admitted as I made my way back into the water to join them. ~It’s just… I just discovered who I am, and I’m happy being Naiya, but now I’m going to have to have a new name and I have no choice in it. ~

~ Kara suggested that I think of it as a secret identity, ~ Jenny offered, trying to console me. ~ All those people will just see Diana Prince, none of them will realize you’re really Wonder Woman. ~

~ Thanks, Jenny, I’ll try that, ~ I told the younger sibling. I could see why Kara used that analogy for Jenny but I wasn’t really feeling it.

Kara was suddenly face-to-face with me, cupping my face in her hands and giving me a serious look. The touch was electric and the somewhat intimate contact made my heart flutter and my cheeks flush as my gills began to pulse faster. ~ You will still be Naiya. You’re smart and beautiful, and you have a magical voice. They can’t take any of that away from you. They can’t take away who any of us are inside either, and we’ll all still call each other by our real names. Everything we’re showing them, it’s an act. These will be stage names, nothing more, and it is only until we can escape, ~ she told me, looking deep into my eyes.

I wished that I could be half as strong, confident, and determined as she seemed to be. Sure, I came up with a plan but it wasn’t a great plan, just our only real option. If anyone was going to keep us on task long enough to finish it though, it was probably Kara, not me. I tried to think about that instead of how nice her touch felt and how it seemed to linger before she realized what she was doing and pulled away. ~ I… thanks, ~ was all that I could manage to get out.

~ Yeah… anytime. I… we can’t have you all broody after all. You’re supposed to be the friendly one, ~ she answered awkwardly.

She was right and I suddenly felt bad that she had to try to cheer me up, especially since it looked like I had somehow made her uncomfortable. Jenny and Kieshala were giving us strange looks and I realized that I must have embarrassed Kara again somehow. Did I miss something important because I didn’t grow up as a girl? I needed to get the attention off of Kara’s part in whatever social blunder that I had just made so I mentally blurted out, ~We should practice our swimming! ~

I had given up on getting a chance with the tablet unsecured for the moment since Dr. Emerson was using it and I figured that practicing swimming with Jenny and Kara would be a good idea. Kieshala couldn’t join us, being chained up and all, but she was able to give us some advice on how to improve our technique and move our tails and fins more naturally. Apparently, our excess fins are for maneuverability and course control in the water while males are built more for raw power and speed. We could get some decent speed too though, as long as we tucked our arms in and wrapped our shalkai tightly around us to reduce drag.

We were playing a game of underwater tag when a sharp whistle got our attention. The three of us had been so busy playing that we hadn’t noticed how much time had passed, or that Dr. Emerson had apparently left and returned with our lunch. We joined Kieshala at the corner of the pool, where Dr. Emerson was offering her what looked like a raw tuna steak, holding it very still and being careful to make no sudden motions. “Here you go, Lorelei, nice and gentle please.”

The elder Naethari looked at her uncertainly for a moment. ~ I guess that Lorelei is supposed to be your name. She’s trying to get you to take the food gently. ~ I advised.

~ Probably trying to start reinforcing our new names for us too, ~ Kara added.

Kieshala delicately took the tuna steak and then started to eat, holding back the disgust and low-key anger that was evident in her mind voice as she sent us, ~You had better be right about your ‘friends’ being able to help us, Naiya. This is humiliating. ~

“Good girl, Lorelei,” Dr. Emerson told her, gently stroking her hair.

We each had our turns, gently took the steaks, and submitted to affectionate hair stroking as Dr. Emerson spoke to us gently and reinforced our new names. Kieshala was Lorelei, Kara was Nixie, Jenny was Marina, and I was Melody. None of us were too happy with the new monikers but I guess that mine at least sort of suited me.

With that task completed, we were allowed to dig into the buckets for the remainder of our lunches while Dr. Emerson took to her chair and watched us as she ate her own. As much as I liked the shrimp, I was going to get sick of raw seafood and seaweed so fast at the rate we were going. I could have really gone for a BLT like she had. At least it filled our bellies, and the fruit was always a nice treat after the rest of our meal.

When Dr. Emerson went to return the cart and buckets to wherever they came from we had another quick lesson on the porpoise language from Kieshala and then went back to ‘playing’, as we tried to improve our swimming abilities. To our surprise, Dr. Emerson actually came back in a swimsuit and got in the water with us. She had even brought along some pool toys and tried to teach us some basic games. Not that we made it easy, we couldn’t look too smart after all. All of that ended though when we heard the barrage of footsteps outside the room, followed by the door being unlocked. Pierce had arrived.