Prompt: Mark gets pulled into the ocean while fishing; Mermaid!Maddy is curious.

Once the bubbles cleared, Mark stared ahead in absolute wonder. He had first suspected this creature to be the damnable fish that had wrenched him off of the cliff and into the water, and that his fate was to be eaten. The fish was nowhere in sight; it was another sea creature, one that observed him curiously with warm brown eyes as he stared.

A powerful tail occupied the bottom half of this magnificent creature, striped with deep maroons and glossy golden scales that shimmered in the muted lighting. The fin was a wide spade with long spines fanned out with delicate webbing, and more protruded from the hips. Dark hair curled in the water, ringlets forming with each swish of the tail.

The upper body was human; she was beautiful.

Mark had heard the tales before. He had been so sure they were just ancient myths, or musical cartoons with singing crabs to entertain children… he had never once believed any of it could be real. Maybe he'd hit his head during the fall, or perhaps that damn fish really had eaten him. But... maybe there was some truth to those old fish tales."

I wrote this little drabbed because I have an obsession with mermaids. It's based off of the art I made as a prompt. I posted the prompt image over on the Terra Nova Livejournal Community for those who are interested, and it's posted to my own journal as well under the same alias. Feel free to use the image for inspiration; I'd love to see what anyone else comes up with :)