Seas Of Passion

She swam as if she had always known how to do it, feeling her body handling most of the movements as she powered through the water. Even more overwhelming than the grace and ease of motion though, was the mind that came with the shark form: there was no fear whatsoever, not even a concept of it. All that existed was either food, an enemy, a possible mate or a curiosity. As she swam, information filtered into her mind, signals from things both near and far, as well as scents, even faint ones were picked up easily. She knew there was something large and wounded three miles to the southeast; she smelt its blood and felt the erratic signal it gave off. As she focused on it, her body turned towards it automatically. She came upon a human in the water that seemed to be drowning and rushed at it, her eyes rolling back as she closed her jaws and felt her teeth slice through muscle and crunch bone with ease. As she ate, she felt her view change, and suddenly she was the one being eaten, feeling herself trapped in the deadly jaws of the shark as it went deep, pulling her into the darkness of the ocean to finish its meal. The fear she felt made her wake up with a start, and as she did, she noticed her skin was no longer a deep mocha color, but was turning gray and growing rough as it became Denticles. She tried to call out to Alan, but found that her throat was changing and she was unable to speak. She shook him as best as she could with her arms that were quickly losing their definition as the bones in them became cartilage, barely managing to wake him up before they hung limp at her side as panic began to set in. Alan saw what was occurring and leapt up, pushing her toward the water as he spoke to her mentally.

“Shanice, it’s happening, you’re doing it! Don’t worry, you’ll be able to breathe soon, just stay calm, I’ll have you in the water in just a moment.”

Despite the panic, hearing Alan speak made Shanice proud, and soon he gently pushed her into the water and she felt her gills begin working, filtering the oxygen from the water as she felt her legs melding together, becoming the powerful tail she had spent so many hours reading about as a child. Soon a tall dorsal fin sprouted from her back and she felt her face transform, growing wide as her mouth filled with teeth. She felt her brain altering last of all, integrating shark instincts with her human mind and feeling what she felt in her dream, only on an entirely different level. She smelled both her human form and Alan’s shark scent in the water, felt the schools of fishes that swam around outside of the cave and then the instincts began to take hold of her mind. She swam around in tight circles, hating the thought of being confined to a small cave all of a sudden and heading for the exit. She heard a splash behind her and fought the urge to turn and see who dared to enter the water so close to her, telling her shark mind that it was not to bother or even look at Alan.

“Alan…this is amazing, I can barely stop myself from swimming out of the cave, there’s just so much out there! I have to just swim for a moment; I can come back in a few minutes.”

“It’s fine Shanice, I got some of the money and your other skin, I’m bringing them out, just control you instincts and don’t attack me while I’m a human please.”

Shanice normally would have worried about how much money they needed to bring or what she would do about clothes, but as she saw and felt the endlessness of the ocean around her, every care she had for her human life faded away. Things like car troubles and finding a place to stay felt laughably unimportant, the entire ocean was her home. Food was free and plentiful, all she had to do was swim onward and it would come to her. After another ten minutes of blissful swimming, she heard Alan call to her mentally from the shore.

“Shanice, we should get going now, how long does it take to get this gas?”

Shanice turned back and swam to the shore, wishing that she could somehow get Alan to give up his mission and simply swim with her forever, but she knew he wouldn’t ever be happy even if she did get him to agree to do it. She wistfully began trying to shift back into her human form, missing her shark body before the changes even started.  She felt the dorsal fin disappear into her back as her tail shortened and split, becoming her legs. The most jarring change was the lessening of the shark instincts, which she quite enjoyed, though she was thankful that they didn’t leave entirely. Soon she was herself again and stepped out of the surf, no longer feeling self-conscious about being naked. She walked to Alan and he tossed the wetsuit to her; she noticed that he had filled it with money and then zipped it up when they left the cave and smiled at his ingenuity. They walked together to the dune their clothes were at and put them on and then Shanice dried the money out and counted it, separating the hundreds into one pile and the fifties into another.

“Wow, you grabbed only big bills didn’t you Alan?”

“It seems like they would be better because they have more of the symbols on them, is that how it works?”

“Basically. We have a little over four thousand dollars here, but we have to wait until the money dries or it will seem suspicious, especially since the bills are mostly hundreds.”

“Is that enough to get the gas?”

Shanice laughed and nodded as she folded the money and pocketed it. On their way back to the parking lot, Shanice felt a jolt run through her as a mental map of the parking lot appeared in her mind without her willing it to. She saw and felt a signal similar to hers and the newly awakened shark instincts in her began pumping adrenaline into her blood as she grew enraged that there was another female shifter near her. Alan noticed and put his hand to her shoulder to calm her down and Shanice felt frightened by how strong her instinct was to lash out at him.

“Shanice, calm down please, things will be difficult if you go into a frenzied state here, you’re too far from water. That’s Lara’s signal for sure, she’s been here, and not long ago.”

“I know, I can feel her. She was here, she went into the store too, and I don’t think she touched my car, but she was…ah, I think she was here to get gas as well,” Shanice said, learning quickly how to read the signals she sensed to form a trail. Her instincts told her to find the woman and simply kill her, but the human part of her mind recalled Alan’s warnings earlier: this woman had decades of experience and knew how to use all of her abilities, Shanice knew she wouldn’t stand a chance against her. During the whole process of filling up the gas tank, Alan watched as if it was the most interesting thing he had ever seen until the smell of the gasoline hit him. He backed away while grimacing and coughed several times, walking further away and thinking to Shanice rather than speaking.

“What a horrible odor, why does your car drink such a terrible thing?”