Chapter 00.001: Goals

Gen 00 || Chapter 00.002

I never thought that things would end up the way they did. I always thought I’d end up living life stuck in my hometown until the day I died. I don’t wanna talk about how awful my childhood was, or why I wanted to leave so badly. But through an unexpected series of events involving a lawsuit against the people who “raised” me, I suddenly found myself coming into enough money to move from my birth country all the way to SimNation. The islands of Sulani, to be precise.

I didn’t have enough money to buy a house, but I was able to purchase a small plot of land near the lagoon in the Ohan’Ali Town neighborhood, for which I was extremely grateful. I was certain I could earn myself enough money to build a little house and raise a family. Having a loving family of my own was my top priority.

I decided to travel to the local restaurant, a little beach hut called the Sand Bar. It was in the same neighborhood as my plot of land, so I walked about five hundred paces to the restaurant and began trying to chat with the locals. Most of them didn’t seem to want to talk to me, but one young woman stopped for a small chat.

“Hi, I’m Marina! I just moved to town!” I said. “I’m looking to make some friends! What’s your name?”

“Oh, I’m Teulia,” the woman said, a little dismissively. “Look, I’m kinda busy. All the mermaids have left the islands for cleaner waters because all the pollution is disgusting to them, and without the mermaids to draw in tourists Sulani will go bankrupt!”

“Mermaids?!” I couldn’t believe my ears. I LOVED mermaids! Most of my happy memories from my childhood involved reading mermaid books, watching mermaid movies, and pretending to be a mermaid in the bath. I’d always had dreams of becoming a mermaid.

“Yeah, we’re trying to find some people to become mermaids and attract more tourists, but nobody wants to put in the work to find the kelp that turns people into mermaids,” Teulia said. She sounded a bit frustrated. Maybe the people of Sulani had been having this problem for a while.

“I’ll do it!” I said eagerly. “Where can I find the kelp?”

“It’s in a cave in Mua Pel’am, but nobody wants to go in there and look for it,” Teulia said. “It’s dark and there’s bats and glow worms, and there’s rumors that there’s a Kraken in there.”

“Do you know how to get to the cave?” I asked. “I’ll risk anything for the opportunity to become a mermaid!”

Teulia seemed to sense my sincerity, because she offered to take me to Mua Pel’am. “But I’m not going into the cave!”

So about half an hour later, I found myself in front of a dark and rather spooky-looking cave. I almost chickened out, but the thought of achieving my lifelong dreams pushed my fear aside. Raising a loving family was no longer my top priority. Now I just had to become a mermaid! And I wasn’t going to leave without that mermaidic kelp!

Gen 00 || Chapter 00.002