[Anninja]: 428.Chimera

Alianne woke up. It was that particular moment of dawn when it was still dark at home but the sky flickered in sunlight. She was looking at the ocean dreamily, drawing each moment of the sun slowly lighting the water in her memory. Who knows when she'll see something like that again... Such memories always made her feel better. Must enjoy the last few moments before breakfast. And there he came- the man with the fish bucket. Around her again, like every morning, came a big crowd of curious, two-legged people, taking out the little metal boxes they called photo cameras. Alianne sighed. If you want to get food and a bit of peace, you must make a show- a simple, short and completely logical rule of survival of the exponent.
The opening chords of John Walter's Waterworld came like breezes of wind. Alianne knew them by heart now. Must get up. In the most emotional moment of introduction she flung her head out of the water, trying to look as beautiful and charming as possible. She turned, sprinkling the crowd with water from her long red hair, then dived, jumped out through a ring, the old routine... At the end of dance she lifted her eyelids slowly and looked her trainer straight in the eyes. Good. Three extra fishes. Mostly the start number- twelve- wasn't enough, no matter what dietetics say. When she'd bowed to the applause, Alianne disappeared under water. The same every morning- why doesn't it get on their nerves? It surely had gotten on Alianne's, but she had to do something for food...
The mermaid dived as deep as she could. There was only one place where she could escape the reporters and curious people of the beach. So Alianne sat there, at the fence blocking her from the open sea. She looked at her folk- the dolphins. They would never admit Alianne among them but the girl always held a fool's hope for it. hope dies last. The mermaid smiled as a bypassing shark looked at her with compassion. Look as they may, but no one will help. The sea is afraid of people. Saving Alianne's life could cost thousands of other lives, Alianne was left with the fool's hope that the humans will get bored and set her free.
Sometimes she thought of running away alone. Alianne had figured out various scenarious, but they always included a great deal of risk for the lifes of other ocean beings. People would search for the mermaid, they would drive through all the depths of ocean, killing a lot of fishes in their engines. It was done anyways, but the dolphin part of Alianne's mind didn't allow the mermaid to increase the number of such deaths, though the human side wanted her to run and hide, trying to forget the consequences. She couldn't simulate her death without help from a shark, which, most likely, would get shot for it. Besides, she must remember that men wouldn't just sadly forget that death, they won't give up- men would make more such mermaids, if the first had ran away. Like- what could stop them? Alianne sighed. She won't let men spoil the life of other two children...
So Alianne sat there every day, remembering the rare sunrises seen, the winter sky far away, where the ice wasn't tehnologically melted, some exotic fishes that came here in the summer, and let her mind run free through many thoughts, getting into conflict with herself often. Her human part urged her to make an adventure- to make friends with the guard or charm a guy standing in the curious crowd. But the dolphin was all right where she was, without any adventures, without a mistake that would spoil the entire rest of her life, even too much all right. The human laziness added to it all, and the dolphin girl hadn't started a thing for fourteen years now. Maybe when I get old, Alianne thought with a silent smile and silenced the rebellious teenager in her.

But the men on the shore of all this saw only the show, the beautiful black eyes and the dolphin tail of the mermaid.
Some knowing people could add: This is a chimera of dolphin and man. The first known succesful example of human mutation, a triumph of science. Date of creation: 19th of November, year 2069.