One Lucario's quest to become a mermaid forces her to face quicksand, high flying peril, and the crumbling of her very body.

A Lucario’s Mermaid Quest

On a shoreline far from human civilization, there was a small cove sheltered by a semicircle of tall stones taller than three Golurks stacked on top of each other on the land side. On the side of the ocean, there were a few smaller stones between which the waves gently washed through. The water that came in flowed in a mysterious circle around a perfectly round patch of golden sand. The alcove was only a few yards in diameter, and the circle of sand couldn’t be more than three feet across. Nevertheless, there was certainly something special about this place.

As the evening Sun shone down at an angle into the sheltered spot, a female Lucario came over through the nearby forest and through the rocky terrain, spurred on by the sight of the tall stones. With a knapsack on her back, the Lucario girl named Lani dashed over the sand and right up to one of the tall stones. She sprang up, using all the strength in her black smooth furred legs, and grabbed onto the side of the stone. She shimmied her way up, holding on tight with all four paw pads, until she made it to the top.

Once she was there, Lani looked down at the circle of sand below. Smiling, she reached into her knapsack and pulled out a sheet of old, yellowed paper. On one half of the paper was a map of the general area, while on the other half was a depiction of an overhead view of the tall stones, complete with the circle of sand surrounded by water. At the top of the paper was also an ancient looking drawing of a mermaid with a line of strange writing. Underneath said writing was a rough translation written later on in pen:

“Put feet to rest under sand; become of the sea, not land.”

Lani’s blue tail wagged with excitement, and she tossed the old paper aside before jumping right off of the top of the tall stone. She nailed the landing perfectly, superhero style, then stood back up and pulled something else out of her knapsack. It was a modern journal with a white cover, which was in turn covered with various stickers depicting seashells and different designs of mermaids. Lani flipped to one of the last pages of her journal and admired the drawings that she had made. On the left page was a crude drawing of herself, a Lucario with a big frown on her face. The drawing also had a big X over her legs. An arrow had also been drawn, pointing to the image on the opposite page. This drawing depicted a Lucario with a big smile on her face. Also, she had a sparkling blue mermaid’s tail with jet black fins, and was posing dramatically with her arms outstretched wide, ready to hug the entire ocean.

Lani sighed dreamily, looking extremely happy at the moment. Then she cast aside her journal and shrugged off her knapsack, tossing it behind her. The knapsack had plenty of buttons depicting starfish and seashells pinned to it; and when the knapsack fell to the ground, out fell a conch shell, some sand dollars, and even a mermaid doll.

Lani paid no mind to her belongings as she gleefully ran over to the round patch of sand, her feet splashing through the shallow water as she rubbed her paws together. When she finally made it to the sand and stood in its center, Lani gleefully raised her right foot up high in preparation to stomp her foot into the sand. However, she paused as she did so and gave it some thought. After some internal deliberation, the Lucario gently brought her foot back down, and then began to use it to dig at the sand beneath her. She dug around with the claws of her right foot until she made a hole about 8 inches deep. Once she was satisfied, Lan brought her legs together and hopped into the hole. She then used her paws to bring the sand she moved back in and around the hole. She patted the sand flat and admired her handiwork. Her legs were buried all the way up to her pinkish “heels”.

Lani sighed and remained there, smiling in silence and anticipation. After waiting for what she felt like was long enough, Lani sat herself down, planted her paws onto the sand on either side of her, and pulled her lower body up with all her might. Her lower half popped back up in a burst of sand, and Lani watched eagerly, only for her eyes to widen in shock and her smile to fade when she saw a familiar pair of black legs still attached to her.

Lani cocked her head in confusion, unsure of what had gone wrong. Then, she stood back up determinedly and hopped back into the larger hole she made. She pushed sand back into it and then twisted her body left and right, screwing her legs down deeper into the sand. Once she was up to her hips, she breathed out and looked down inquisitively. She waited another moment, and then planted her paws again and used a double Force Palm to pop herself out of the sand. To her disappointment, she landed on two feet.

Lani’s disappointment quickly turned to fury, and with an angry cry she turned and ran towards one of the tall stones. Utilizing her Aura powers, she ran up the side of it all the way to the top. Then she jumped off of the side of it and flipped in mid air, then came straight down feet first, slamming down with incredible force right into the center of the sand.

At first, only Lani’s legs sunk into the sand from the initial impact. But then, Lani was suddenly sucked down into the sand up to her torso. The Lucario was surprised by this, and her shock grew when she felt herself get pulled down further. Lani feebily reached upwards with her arms, but they were quickly sucked down into the sand as well. Soon, only her head was exposed, and that too was quickly going under.

Lani tilted her head back in an attempt to keep her mouth and nose above the surface. She closed her eyes tightly and took one last gulp of air before she sank completely underneath the sand.

All was quiet for a moment. But then, there was low rumbling, and a powerful geyser suddenly erupted right at the spot the circle of sand was. This geyser blasted Lani up into the air, screaming all the way. Lani reached the precipice of her ascent, and she flipped forward as she began to fall back to the beach below. Lani screamed again and flailed her arms, flipping around and over again so that she hit the ground, spread eagle and flat on her back.

Lani lay still for a moment, smacked into the imprint she had made in the sand. Then her eyes opened and she let out a pained moan. Her body twitched, and she made an attempt to stand up, only to find that her body was somehow stuck fast and tight into her sandy imprint. Confused, Lani raised his head, the only part of her that wasn’t stuck, and stared down at her body, wondering how it could be.

Lani then noticed her toes wiggling at her, almost as if to mock her. Lani scowled at them, blaming her legs for the entire mess. Then, Lani noticed the gentle tide coming in, the salty sea water tickling her foot pads. Lani couldn’t help but smile at this, as the sea never failed at making her happy. Then, Lani felt her feet begin to go numb. Then, with a gasp, Lani saw her feet slowly began to turn into golden sand and crumble away at the water’s touch.

Shocked and dismayed at the sea betraying her like this, Lani desperately tried to get up or even move, but she was stuck tightly in her own imprint on the beach. Lani cried out loudly as she thrashed her head around, then took another look at her lower body. The tide was coming in more and more, and had now reached her abdomen. Her black legs were now completely turned into golden sand, and Lani watched as they fell apart before her eyes.

Lani whimpered, tears filling her eyes as she believed she was facing a horrible death. However, her mood made a sudden turn when she saw the sand her legs once were come together into a mound, and then reform into a very familiar shape.

Lani’s jaw dropped, and she used all her strength to lift the appendage up out of the sand. The sand fell away, and out came a long, blue, fish-like tail.

Lani cried out in joy at the sight of the gorgeous tail. Tears of joy replaced her tears of despair as she was certain that this would be the happiest moment of her entire life. She didn’t even mind that her tail looked slightly different than what she’d had in mind. Her new tail was actually a different color; a bright blue. It also had small pointed, pink fins around its hips and white tail fins that seemed to come out of a fluted dress-like structure on the end.

Regardless, Lani was eager to get up and enjoy her new tail. However, she found that the rest of her body was still stuck. Then, the tide came in up further, reaching Lani’s arms. Lani felt her arms tingle, and she looked to either side of her to see that they too were turning into golden sand and grumbling away. At first Lani wondered why, as her transformation was already complete.

The sand fell away, mounded back up, and Lani finally felt her limbs become free. She lifted them up and gasped when she saw that instead of arms, she now had long pure white fins with three digits each.

Before Lani could even make sense of this, the tide came in with full force, washing right past her head, causing the rest of her body to fully collapse into golden sand. The sand then piled up, becoming much longer and wider than Lani’s old body, and burst upwards in a cloud of golden sparkles.

Lying on the beach was not a Lucario, but a Primarina.

Lani gasped for breath and rolled herself over on her stomach. She then pushed herself up with her flippers and took a good look at herself. He even touched her long hair with her flippers, running them through her teal locks.

Lani then cried out in the most exuberant of joy and caressed her new body with her flippers, rolling around on the beach and laughing joyously. Then, she looked out at the ocean, gave a wide grin, and then crawled her way towards her new home. Soon enough, she was deep enough to swim out into the ocean waves. She hummed happily to herself as she swam, and her humming transformed into a glorious aria as she splashed in and out of the water, finally achieving her wildest of dreams.