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The Gull cries warning, but Gwyneth is late to work in the Manse’s scullery. She’s agreed to pay off Auntie Shallah’s debts from drink and gambling. Shallah had bet her tailfin; she’s now imprisoned by Pastor Johnson.
Gwyneth steps from the water and sheds her own skin, trading it for the thin blue shift she hides in the cave downstream.
The minister’s boy watches—he’s watched all month. He wants a girl, a magical mermaid for himself.
Gwyneth hastens to the scullery.
He slips in the cave, takes up and sniffs the pelt, still damp and salty, like her.
© Liz Husebye Hartmann (2019)
Carrot Ranch Prompt (06/07/2019): In 99 words (no more, no less) write a story that makes a big splash. It can be fluid, or you can play with the idiom (to make a big splash is to do or say something that becomes unforgettable). Go where the prompt leads!
Valley of the Trolls 
I like your choice of words.
“Salty” I’ve used that one myself a time or two.
Wonderful tale.
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Each layer peels away, more and more (well, I guess literally, too, peeling away tail and fins). The creep factor is high but it’s a powerful story. Got under my skin!
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As long as it doesn’t get under your fins… 😉
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I’m thinking there’s something creepy about the minister and his boy too.
I’m also thinking there’s much more to this tale of tails.
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You’re thinking is in the right neighborhood of wrong goings-on…
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Ack!! “Your”, not “you’re”
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Intriguing.
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To each his own. What an interesting take!
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