Chapter1

Once upon a time, there was a teenage girl who was far wiser than her parents - or at least, that was her opinion.

She lived with her mother and father on a hill above a stream. Often her mother would take a net and catch a fish for their supper. One evening, the girl saw that her mother's face was weary from work, and the girl said:

"Mother, I'll tell you what. Let me take the net down to the stream and I'll catch our supper in no time."

The mother flopped down in a chair and readily agreed.

When the daughter picked up the net, she saw that there were some holes in it. "For goodness sake," she tutted, "This won't do at all. No wonder it takes you so long to catch a fish every evening. They can swim right through the holes."

So she sat down and sewed up the gaps in the net. Then she held up her work and was pleased with it. "There!" She told her mother. "That's a big improvement. You should have asked me to help you before."

Then, she ran down the hill to the stream, where she flung the net into the gushing water, fully expecting to pull out a fish right away.

But she had no experience at casting a net, and it merely became caught up in some rocks. She hauled it back, with some difficulty, and saw that all she had caught were some stones. Worse, she had ripped a new hole in the net.

She flung the net back into the river, and this time she caught an old boot.

"Aah!" she said. "Third time lucky!"Just then, a boy who lived nearby saw that she was having difficulty and offered to help her.

"I don't need your help," she insisted, "I just wanted a couple of practice throws to train my eye. Just watch. I'll catch a big one this time."

A third time, she threw the net, and by luck or skill, she hauled in a shimmering, golden fish, easily large enough to feed a whole family. The boy was quietly impressed.

"Yummy, Yummy," the girl said to the fish. "You're going to feel nice in my tummy!"

Then the fish stopped wriggling and replied to the girl.

"If you don't throw me back in the river right now, you'll be sorry."

"Oh, I'll be sorry, will I? Tell that to somebody without any brains!" she said, glancing at the boy. "I won't fall for a trick like that. What can you, a fish, do to harm a young girl like me?"

"If you take one bite of me, you'll be a girl no more," said the fish. "You will turn into a fish and know what it feels like to breathe water!"

The astonished boy pleaded with the girl: "You've caught a magician! You'd better do as he says and chuck him right back. I'll help you catch a normal fish, so you needn't go hungry."

"What do you know? You're just a foolish boy," snapped the girl, and she bumped the talkative fish on the head with a rock. That shut it up, alright. Then she hurried back home with her catch as she was feeling quite peckish.

"Look at this whopper of a fish!" she said to her parents. "Didn't I say I would catch a good bite to eat without any trouble? I expect this one will taste extra delicious because he was a talkative fish."

"A what?" asked her father.

"Didn't you hear me? I said he could talk, and he made more sense than either of you ever do," insisted the girl.

Her father sighed. He was used to his daughter's lippy back-talk. He hoped that she would grow out of her strong-headed ways before too long. He took a knife and expertly fillited the fish for her. Then she tossed it into the frying pan with butter and parsley, and soon it was sizzling away. Meanwhile, the father buttered some thick slices of bread that he had baked himself.

When the fish was ready, the girl placed it on a large plate and asked her parents to admire her evening's work. They agreed that it looked and smelt impressive. She cut the fish into three pieces, and the family sat down to dinner. The girl was the first to prong a piece of fish on her knife and place it in her mouth. She closed her eyes and savoured it, saying, "Hmmm, delicious," but when she opened her eyes - What was this? A very peculiar feeling had come over her. Was she ill? The symptoms were mighty strange: a salty taste on her lips, a sense of lightness, multiple colours swirling before her eyes.

When she tried to move, her whole body flipped in a fishy swimming motion. At last, it dawned upon her that she no longer had feet: only a long shimmering tail. Then, she realised that the swirling colours were weeds, coral and jellyfish.

Of course, she now understood that the dastardly fish's curse had come true. She had turned into a fish, or at least in part. You might call her an unwilling mermaid!

"Oh, what an unlucky girl I am!" she declared. "Of course, none of this misfortune is my fault. How could I have known that stupid fish was speaking the truth!"