Page 16 of Not Your Ordinary Shifter

“I wish a man would rise up out of the sea, and... Hey, wait! Do I get more than one wish?”

“I’m not sure, but it wouldn’t hurt to try,” said the gull. “I got a quick tutorial on our way here, but I didn’t listen very carefully.”

“Okay, so, I wish a man would rise up out of the sea...” I paused, hoping for a miracle. But nothing happened.

“You have to say ‘please,’ and you might need to make it more specific, like ‘a handsome man’ or ‘an intelligent man.’” The seagull sounded totally bored. Was it rolling its eyes?

“Okay,” I sighed. “I wish a handsome, intelligent man would rise up out of the sea. Oh! And kind. He should be kind.” I took a deep breath, “Please?”

For a few seconds, nothing happened. Then, I saw a change in the sea, as though something was approaching the shore, forming a V shape as it approached, swimming very swiftly underwater.

The seagull and I watched as the V came nearer and nearer to the beach. A fin appeared above the waves, and shortly thereafter, a dolphin leapt out of the water before crashing back into it.

“That’s not a man!” I told the seagull, who gave me a look that said it thought I was a moron.

“Just watch, and quit jumping to conclusions,” it said crossly.

As I watched, gawping (probably unattractively), a form emerged from the water about five yards off the shoreline. It was tall and shaped like a man, but small blue and green sparkly scales covered his body. The scales were only from the neck down, though. Above that line, his skin was tanned, his eyes were green and his hair was longish and dark. He was definitely handsome, even with scales... but the jury was still out on “intelligent” and “kind.”

The man seemed to be waiting for me to speak, so I boldly walked up to him and introduced myself. “Hi! I’m Audrey.”

The man smiled a nice smile and held out his scaly hand. “I’m Marcel. I’m sorry about the scales. I was the only man-shape available today.”

Standing in front of him and shaking his sparkly hand, I looked more closely at his body and realized belatedly that he was nude; the scales had hidden his cock from a distance. Then, I realizedIwas nude, too. My hands flew up to cover my breasts, and I attempted to cross my legs to hide my pussy.

“Don’t be shy,” Marcel said softly. “Please, may I look? I haven’t seen a human pussy in ages, and mermaids have great tits, but their tails... well, you know. Lovely... but different.”

My face was hot, and I knew it wasn’t sunburn. Fuck! I couldn’t stand with my legs crossed forever, so I slowly changed position and dropped my arms from my breasts. I wondered how I compared to the mermaids he was used to?

Marcel knelt before me in the sand and gently parted my thighs. “Beautiful,” he whispered. “Did you ever dream of being a mermaid, Audrey?”

I stared at him. How did he know?

“Well it’s not quite the same, but I saw a show in Florida once where there were girls dressed as mermaids. They were swimming in a big tank in a restaurant. I wanted to do that sobad, but my husband laughed at me, and...” The bad part of the memory silenced me.

“And what, Audrey?” Marcel’s voice was kind, but insistent.

“And he told me I was too fat to be a mermaid, and that I’d sink to the bottom and never come up,” I whispered.

“Shame on him! You’re perfect in every way,” said the big, scaly man. He sounded so genuine, I was tempted to believe him for a minute.

“So, are you a merman?” I asked.

Marcel’s eyes roamed over my body in a very flattering fashion. “I am, indeed. My tail reappears when I reach a depth of four fathoms — that’s about twenty-four feet, by the way.

“When I’m off duty, I usually go back to being a dolphin. I’m only here because there’s a shortage of man-shaped beings on hand right now. There was one pirate available, but you specified ‘intelligent’ and ‘kind.’” He looked a bit embarrassed.

“But... where am I? Is this Heaven?” I asked him.

“Heaven is what you make it, Audrey. Rather like Hell, I guess. Actually, neither of those places exists. When a person dies, they get sent to a place they’ve always dreamed about. If you’re a good person, you get sent to a good dream. If you're bad? Well, your nightmares may come true, or your dreams may get twisted so that you suffer instead of enjoying yourself. Youhavedreamed about being stranded on a beach, am I right?”

Oh god. My favorite fantasy was being shipwrecked on a desert island with a handsome man — who was usually a pirate — and having amazing sex with him. On many occasions, there had been more than one pirate.

He read my mind. “I’m sorry, I’m not a pirate, but you could wish for a parrot next, if you want. There’s something of a surfeit of parrots.”

“I don’t remember a parrot in my fantasies. And, besides...” I was about to say that you can’t have sex with a parrot, but I closed my mouth just in time.

“The next available pirate, then? There may be an intelligent, kind one available any time. But I should warn you, it’s a common fantasy, and the pirates are kept very busy. There’s quite a waiting list!”

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