Just one favor, part 1

Just one favor (Part 1)

"Dad! Over here!" says Rick as he gestures for his father to arrive to the camping spot he selected.

"Heading there, son" said his father trying to regain his breath "Wait for me Rick. I'm not the hiking type you know" he was actually an administrator in his mid 40's, sort of explaining his lack of physique.

"Ok, dad" says Rick rolling his eyes "For starters, it was your idea to stray off from the usual camping area, I don't think it is safe to have come so far from there" comments looking around, they did certainly strayed far from where they parked, hopefully they weren't lost.

"Come on son, one has to take in the hardest challenge to grow in the process. If everyone chose the easy way out, no one would discover what we did." says as he catches up with Rick. One thing he never understood all this 18 years was why his father always chose the hard way out while everyone chose the fastest.

"Dad, really was it necessary to come all the way?" complained.

"My boy, in my life I've learned that every path chosen has a reward of some sort, sometimes even when not expecting one" says between pants. Rick was occasionally annoyed when his father spoke as if he was all knowing, maybe there was something wise in his words but he could not see them at first. For instance take a look" says moving a branch and showing his son a view of the landscape they would have missed having stayed at the hill's base with the rest of the campers.

"This hiking trip did have its rewards…" mutters while gazing. They had climbed an entire hill not noticing it and now were looking at a forest that extended in a ring of mountains and a lake was in the center of it. It was true his father was an adventurer and the travel was certainly worth it, it was indeed a breathtaking picture, as a matter of fact took out my camera for the occasion, He would sketch it later. Turning back saw my dad was still catching his breath from the trip, he certainly made an effort on coming all the way here for just a view, still he was quite resilient in that.

"Ok Rick, we'll prepare the camp on that clearing" said his dad pointing at a space nearby. Rick nodded and started checking the place.


A small presentation is needed; Rick was the usual 18 year old kid, brown haired, not much of a sport person but no couch potato either. When he was still in high school he was already a bit of a middle class in its society, not standing out as much there. He wasn't much of an overachiever, actually his grades were above the average, but what kept them from going up was mainly his lack of interest. One of the few things that he was committed to was his drawing and honing his art skills, he liked to draw and see the result, that's why he carried a camera with him at all time. Now that he has graduated there were several things to be done, one of them was choosing a career but everything seemed less important… he was indecisive.

---

"That's my order" says a shady figure through the smoke inside a crystal ball "You have some days before I arrive to check the progress and I expect you to be ready by then."

A female voice answered to the crystal ball "But, we can't do it sir… we do not fill the requirements…"

"I don't care what means you use but the enchantments and the decorations need to be ready so when the gathering begins." Says the voice in a dominant tone and the smoke dissipated and the ball ended as transparent as any common glass.

The girl spoke with exasperation "That moron, we can cast those spells without a third mermaid" splashed the water with her hands in frustration.

Another voice spoke behind her "Calm down, the master will enforce the bond otherwise, we just have to be resourceful about it"

"How do you expect me to calm down when there is much at stake" Says the first mermaid says obviously stressed.

"How about we use the …blessing on the first lost hiker" proposes.

"Are you crazy?! You know the penalty we'll get for doing that?!" complains.

"Remember how much we have to lose and what he did at the Alita, the previous mermaid." Says trying to calm down the first mermaid "and we can always remove the blessing before it becomes permanent…"

"*sigh* ok, I'm still not ok with this but it is our only shot" says accepting "the problem we'll be to get the hiker."

"Yeah, If we're lucky one of them is around we'll just have to lure them here and change him, we just need one more singer"

"I still don't like the idea"

---

"Rick, how is the fireplace going?" asks his father while preparing the tent.

"It's going ok, but I may need some timber" says Rick, who was preparing the place for the campfire as he prepares to wander around the camp area.

"Ok sonny, just don't stray too far." Says while struggling with the tent, he wasn't the expert camper or ex boy scout but for some reason he insisted in doing this sort of stuff with his only son. As any teenager he wanted to spend time with his friends back home or even go to third base with his girlfriend.

"Sure dad" said as he wondered the forest.

He considered a place like this was perfect for exploring and decided to take a stroll deeper into the forest.

---

"I sense a soul around" says a female voice taking her hand off a crystal ball. The figure lets out a sigh as she turns towards her partner.

"What's wrong Marina?" asks the other figure.

"I partly hoped no one would come" says with a hint of sadness. "I don't want anyone to be trapped like we are…"

"Don't worry dear, we're doing this for a good cause" says swimming closer to her partner placing her arm on her shoulders "You know what it's at stake and we can change her back before the boss comes."

Marina remained silent.

"Please Mari, we won't get another chance, no hiker comes around this area...you know what the costs can be with the new boss" says the other worried.

"Silvia, you know I'll feel sorry for the poor soul. But you are right."

Silvia claps her hand "I'll call Meg to lure the hiker closer, we'll get him closer with our chant and use the mermaid's blessing once in range..."

---

Rick wandered around, this was certainly serene place to wander, silent yet vivid. For some reason, the place lacked any fauna, but there was something in the place that emanated a presence. He kept on walking around taking time to be away from his dad as well as too explore around.

A branch snapped and fell to the ground. Rick turned to see what caused it. He was surprised as a giant bird creature, almost the size of a person flew up and sped in the forest down the hill. That was some sort of record.

Was it by curiosity or because he wanted to take a picture of the creature Rick followed creature. He sprinted after the creature, trying to catch up with it. For some reason he wasn't losing sight of it, considering the flying was faster than running.

The chase went on for what seemed like hours and it was evident that Rick was lost, as the chase didn't went in straight line and the forest trees made it hard to know where one had been. Still, he was too distracted on keeping chase, as he started noticing the creature was no normal bird. He got to see the creature was wearing clothe which waved as it sped up. "Odd" thought Rick.

Eventually he was out of energy and panting from the run he decided to pull out a stunt: taking the picture while running, not his best idea as the moment he place the camera and was about to lock on to the creature until he tripped with a rock. His camera fell and rolled around until crashing against a tree and letting out a crack.

Sighing Rick stood up and dusted himself off, looking around her found out that, to his dismay, was lost, the bird creature was gone, and he apparently broke his favorite camera. Defeated, he stood up to pick up his camera and do some damage control, but stopped on his tracks as a sound entered his ears. It was a melody a voiced one, seemed to be lacking of lyric but it was a beautiful song and had a mystic echo all around it. Rick was captivated, forgetting the camera almost completely.

"Sounds so…" muttered unable to describe it in his own words and walked, not actually under a trance but enchanted by the sound.

Eventually he reached the main lake he saw from the hill side. It was a beautiful place, very spaced. The trees and lushes covered everything around except a small circular clearing by the side of it. The lake seemed to be the source of the ring of rivers and lakes around this place, there was a waterfall that gave out a relaxing sound as the water crashed and sprinkled on the rocks by it. It was simply as soothing ambient, so soothing that he never noticed the song stopped playing.

Rick approached the shore, panting a bit, completely tired from the chase. It was a pity he lost the creature and the camera in one run… but this place seemed to make up for it. He approached and cupped some water in his hand and tasted it. It was clean and tasted pretty good. He splashed himself a couple of times cleaning the dirt and sweat from the run.

"I better return to the camp, dad must be worried" said looking at the orange sky. "It's getting late… Uh?" looks into the water seeing something move near the center of the lake. It was a large fish tail waving at him. He stared at it for a few seconds and slipped into the water "What the…?"

Was interrupted as two hands came out of the water grabbing his face, they were slender and soft, women hand's. In a second he got pulled into the water.

Rick held his breath as he struggled, grabbing the figure's arms and trying to get himself off. Opening his eyes saw the image of a beautiful woman. She was gorgeous, seemed in her mid 20's and had a beautiful scarlet hair that gained a special shade under the water. He stared for a second before returning to his struggle as she dragged him deeper and deeper.

He managed to release himself from the grasps and was about to swim for the surface when another figure swam past around him turning saw another woman, this time he got to see all her body. She was cute looking, black haired, mystic green eyes and a heartwarming smile, she was naked, except for an adorned bra, and that's another thing that lured his attention, from the waist below she was a fish… she was a mermaid, swimming around him at great speed. The other woman joined her, revealing she was too a mermaid. Rick panicked and started swimming as the two were circling him like sharks, despite being a sight any man would love to see.

The mermaids spoke while swimming around, releasing an echo underwater and their voices were as clear as out of it. They started chanting as they swan around creating a special aura on he water between them, and hence on Rick. They kept swimming faster than how he could swim away and something seemed to restrain him too from going up.

A pulse hit him causing him to let some air go. Rick clasped his mouth trying not to drawn, and noticed the mermaids were closer.  He saw his hands, which looked a bit more delicate. He was about to swim out when…

Another pulse hit him, and the mermaids were a couple of meters away. Rick managed to avoid losing air and tried to swim when light teal colored hair got in his sight and trying to get it off his face he discovered to his dismay it was his. Again he tried to exit the perimeter when a third pulse hit him, this time hard. Causing him to spill all his bubbles as two mounds grew out of his chest and a sting in his crotch caused him to contort in pain as his dick shrank while his balls were absorbed leaving nothing but a smooth slit, and immediately afterwards her body shifted to match the gender, waist shrinking while her hips grew out.

Rick freaked out and swam out of the perimeter. Holding her breath as much as she could, little did she knew she had been inhaling water after the pulse, her pants and boxers were pulled during the rise but she didn't care, just wanted to get out of there. Somehow she swam faster and was now grabbing the shore of the lake.

Everything happened so fast she didn't have time to take in all the changes. So far her body was completely female, and a good looking one. She had a perfect figure, long pale teal hair as well as a cute face. But there were other details, on her sides a couple of slits opened, gills, allowed her to breathe underwater. Another thing she failed to notices was that her tail bone was rapidly growing and was developing a double fin at the tip of it. The new appendage was scaly, thick and already consuming her butt, she too failed to notice her legs were weaker and her tail did most of the job. The two mermaids stopped the chanting as Rick swam away.

As she reached the surface Rick struggled to run away, not cared what she was now, the only thing she wanted was get as a far as possible. But the moment she tried to stand up her knee snapped and bended sideways. She screamed when she discovered the fish tail growing behind her and more as she looked at her legs, they were smaller, like a 10 year olds, except that their toes looked less defined and some even missing. They started becoming less responsive as they shrank looking pathetic as they were those of a baby. Still Rick tried to drag himself as far as possible from the lake as her legs got sucked into her hips. Feeling the grass and dirt rub and scratch her chest through the wet fabric felt horrible.

"Dad…" she said as the exhaustion from the change reached her and fainted, laying only a few meters away from the lake.

---

Two figures surfaced from the water with worried look on their faces, the two shared glances.

"Silvia, that was unexpected… Sil what have we done?…" says Marina a bit scared of what they just did.

"There was no way…" her voice trailed off.

Marina sighed and swam towards the shore "We've already transformed her all we have to do is have her help us and get her out of here as soon as possible."
The other mermaid followed "It just a small favor…"

To be continued….