#mersonas

For the last day of mermay, a little bit of self indulgence turned into an actual character design challenge! Drawing some Mersonas for myself was in my mermay list of last year, but unfortunately I couldn't manage to do it before the month ended, and I wasn't going to let that happen again this year!

So this is basically myself turned into each of the 6 mermaid species I use for my stories:

Iris mermaids are fabulous, iridiscent, fantasy mermaids with powers controlled by their singing.

Ikhtians are literally half human, half fish, and have features and powers inspired by the type of fish they are! (mine is inspired by a pink Betta fish).

Selkies have seal skins, which they can either remove to get a human appearance, or put on to look like regular seals!

Sharkmaids (by @neila_noen) are carnivorous mermaids who will enter a bloodthirsty frenzy at the scent of blood.

Narwhalis are pretty much unicorn mermaids, with pastel-rainbow palettes and ice/snow related powers!

Skalm•X are alien mermaid-like creatures, who can split their tails into legs to walk on land!

"It's a human."

"A human, out here?"

"Well considering he's just on a bit of drift, I don't think he meant to be out here." Hollyn peeked out from the seaweed they'd been picking to make ropes for jewelry with. "See? He's not doing anything, just laying there."

Kat frowned, staring up at the form on the surface above them. It was just one human, and he was on what looked like a frame made of odd human materials, although the ends of it were jagged as if it had been ripped apart. "He's slipping," she said after a second.

"Kat, don't-!" Hollyn started, but her friend was already swimming upwards to catch him. She rolled her eyes but followed, grabbing one of the human's arms from Kat so they each only had to support half of him.

He was lean, and his face and arms were red from the sun, and he kept shivering as they managed to pull him back across his bit of wreckage. At least he was asleep though, so they didn't have to worry about mesmerizing him so his memories would be fuzzy.

"Should we take him back towards shore?" Kat whispered. For once, she was frightened. Even she was wary of humans, when they might see one of the two of them.

Hollyn bit her lip. "It would be the kind thing to do, rather than letting him drown or starve. I wonder where he's from? No one's said anything about a wreck nearby."

Kat shrugged, and turned about. Looking through the air above the water was difficult. Everything was fuzzy, and too bright. "Shore's back that way though."

"Yeah, we're only what, three miles out?" Hollyn reached out and touched Kat's shoulder. She knew her friend wanted to help- she always wanted to help everything- but also that she was too skittish about humans to make a decision. She needed a distraction. "I bet you a week's finds that we couldn't make it back there before he comes to."

It worked. The idea of a challenge made Kat perk up a little. "Oh really? You're gonna regret that. We're both the best swimmers of our year!" She got into position so she could push the frame, and so she could reach out and steady the human if he started to slip again.

Hollyn's mouth twitched into a smile. "I suppose we are. Just be careful we don't get spotted as we get close." With that, they set off towards the coastline, barely visible at first but quickly swelling up into a cliffside beach. They headed for a small hollow, isolated but not always deserted. True to a challenge, they managed to shove the human up above the point where the tide would come in before he opened his eyes. He stirred a little as they let go after dragging him through the sand, but all he did was roll over without properly waking up.

"We should probably make sure someone finds him," Hollyn pointed out.

Kat nodded, and they retreated to a set of rocks where they could be out of sight as they both raised their voices in one of the haunting melodies humans remembered them for. Long ago, it had been a song to lure sailors in, but their tribe didn't actually do that anymore. Still, the song was passed down, and it did its magic easily enough. It wasn't long before they could see someone making their way down the path to the little cove, and the two of them silently dove underwater and swam away.