The Mermaid and the Phoenix

On an island in the realm of Fantasia sat a tiny fishing village where all the little fishing boats come and go, in that fishing village sat a small little tavern that had the prettiest little barmaid that old Jack ever had the fortune of laying his eyes on. He was a lonely old man who just wanted just a little bit of companionship, and was approaching the end of his life cycle, he knew this one was coming, and could feel the inner clock setting for the last hours of his life being set.

Kerry, the barmaid at the Tavern was a 20something young lady with long silky black hair, blue eyes and a smile that wouldn't quit, she was a small framed girl that stood at just over five feet tall, and had started to work at the Tavern just a few day before.

"Would you mind giving an old man the time of day?" Jack said through the soft jazz music that played in the background.

"Get lost," Kerry said with a bit of disdain.

"Just a few minutes,"

"Listen, I am here to serve drinks, not to fratenize with the customers," her face turned sour, like she had just sucked on a persimmon, "well, certainly not someone who is as old as you at any rate. You look like you are about to die where you stand!"

"Just give me a pitcher of dark Lager," he noticed a fair haired beauty sitting in a pool of water that was created by the one side of the deck, she was eating raw scallops and was beckoning him to join her in the cool water, "I'll drink it out here with the beauty in the pool."

"That's not--." Kerry cut herself off as she looked at the woman in the pool. Oh the surprise that was coming to the strange old man; it would be the death of him, that was for sure. "I'll get your pitcher of Lager."

"You do that," Jack moved away from Kerry and towards the woman in the pool, she had her chance with him, and she blew it. He stopped when he got into full view of the woman on the pool. She was topless, but her long blonde hair that was arrayed almost ornately with seaweed was draped over her ample sized breasts like a veil, and her bellybutton had a genuine black pearl in it. The lower half of her body which was hard to see until you were right on her was even more interesting to look at, and just as noticeable, once you see in the water that swirled around her, as instead of feet was one long massive pelvic fin. "I'm going to join this beautiful mermaid. "

"Ugh," Kerry groaned, "that didn't go as planned."

Jack waved Kerry off as he stepped into the pool, "in this incarnation, they call me Jack."

The mermaid wondered about Jack's choice of words, as if they were carefully selected, but paid it no mind as she let the weary old man join him. "They call me Coraline."

"So, you come here often?"

"Only when I want to meet someone special," Coraline said warmly. "It gets kind of lonely down there under the sea; there aren't as many mermaids as you may think, and even fewer mermen, and all of the good ones are already taken."

"I see," Jack smiled, he looked at Coraline, he played with her hair, "and you've come up here only to find companionship with an old man who is about to come to the end of his life cycle."

Again with the choice of words. "Maybe I can give you a new lease on life,"

"It's been known to happen before when I've come to the end of my life cycle, "

"I don't understand, "

There was no reason she should unless it was explained to her. He let just enough of the energy come out to support what he was about to say. "I am a Phoenix, when I die I can take on new life."

"I though the Phoenix was a type of bird,"

"In my original form, I was, but almost a millennia ago, I learned how to take on other forms -- other animals at first like cats and dogs, then I began to take on human form, because of their longer life cycles. Now if at all possible, I could become a mermaid like you."

"While I enjoy the pleasure that comes from being with other mermaids, I would prefer you to become a merman."

"Then a merman I will become and join you as you dance your way through the sea,"

Coraline laughed, "if that were only true, but the Phoenix is a creature of myth."

"They say the same thing about mermaids, yet here you are." Jack motioned towards the mermaid that sat there eating her raw scallops.

"And here you are," Coraline motioned to Jack, who was beginning to flow with energy, "a Phoenix who is about to take on a new form."

All at once, Jack knew that he could no longer contain the energy; he let it flow as fire and lightning danced around him changing his very being. Gone was the old man, in his place sat a much younger looking merman, complete with a golden pelvic fin.

Kerry finally got around to getting Jack's pitcher of Lager and brought it out just in time to see the tail end of the light show, her jaw dropped as she looked at the now attractive figure that sat next to the mermaid.

"Ah, just what I need,"

Kerry watched as the merman took the pitcher of Lager and chugged it down in one swig. "Very nice," now Kerry was being sociable.

"I think Jack's made his choice," Coraline wrapped her arms around the new merman in her life.

"By the way, new life cycle, new name. In this incarnation you can call me Morgan."

"Morgan," Coraline smiled, "that's a good strong name for a merman."

"And Coraline is a good strong name for a mermaid, "

"I prefer the name Ariel for a mermaid myself," Kerry said mindlessly and a bit dreamily.

"Ariel?" Coraline scoffed. "Ariel? What kind of a mermaid name is that?"

"Come Coraline," Morgan motioned to the sea behind them, "we have a whole sea to explore, why waste our time here?"

"Yes," Coraline lead the way away from the tiny Tavern towards the great coral reefs below, "we no longer need this place."

"Wait..." Kerry watched teary eyed as she watched Morgan disappear into the sea, "...come back, give me another chance, now that I know..." Kerry stood there alone as she realized that the little tavern and she was becoming nothing more than a memory, a memory that will very soon fade away into air...into thin air .