Max Wyatt was one of the top oceanographic photographers in the world, a fact to which he took great pride. He'd been on countless dives and had taken pictures of over three thousand different species of sea life.
Yet in all of this time, there was one animal that he'd never been able to capture on film: the giant squid. It was his white whale—which, incidentally, he had several dozen different pictures of in his collection. Herman Melville was a bit of a hyperbolist.
Indeed, Max used to joke about the fact that he'd just as soon get a picture of a giant squid as he would have a picture of a mermaid. Which made it all the more ironic that both of said subjects were floating right in front of him at this moment.
“Hello? You there?” The half-fish woman smiled at him, waving a webbed hand in front of his eyes. The giant squid trailed behind her protectively, its body easily twenty times her length.
She was beautiful, something completely surreal. With red hair and twinkling green eyes, he'd have mistaken her for a human—except for her pointed ears and iridescent azure tail. And the fact that she was alive without a scuba system, of course.
“Hello?” The mermaid chirped, tapping on Max's goggles.
Oh, and she could talk in these depths.
Max instinctively tried to garble a response through behind his breath mask, only managing unintelligible sounds. He couldn't believe his eyes! He snapped a half dozen more pictures, just on the off chance that this wasn't a dream.
“'Ong arbly burbl'? You having some trouble talking?” The mermaid swam a little closer to him, her azure eyes twinkling. “I can help with that, you know.”
Before Max could reply, the woman tugged the respirator from his mouth. Her hands were quick, and she had his oxygen tank undone and drifting downward in seconds.
Today was a day of many firsts for Max. He'd seen a giant squid, talked to a mermaid... And now he was drowning.
It was a funny thing, really. He didn't quite realize his peril until the first gulp for air yielded nothing more than a lungful of acrid salt water. The novelty of the sensation soon turned to dread, and his eyes widened as he dropped his camera to frantically cover his mouth and nose with both of his hands.
“Oh! Damn!” The mermaid gasped. “You need gills!” Her eyes seemed to brighten as she placed her hands on either side of Max's neck.
Max felt a lance of pain along where her fingers were, then just like that he was able to breathe again. He took in a great gulping breath, coughing reflexively as he realized he was inhaling water.
“Hey, easy! Easy! It's okay!” The mermaid laughed quietly at the stricken expression on his face.
The photographer looked back up to her in surprise, rubbing the sides of his neck. To his surprise, the tips of his fingers made contact with slitted holes across his throat that could only be gills.
“What?” Max gasped, his eyes widening as he realized that he could now hear his own voice as though he was above the surface. “How is this possible?”
The redhead smiled, running her hands along Max's shoulders. “Really? You do know you're talking to a mermaid, right?” Her hands slid down to grip his, and she laughed at some unheard joke.
“I mean... I know that, but this is all...” Max was at a total loss for words. First he sees a giant squid; then a mermaid; now he has gills? There were far too many things to ask and not enough time!
He took a deep breath to clear his thoughts, trying to center himself. First he'd ask why she was with the squid. Then maybe about how she changed him—though he suspected the answer would be 'magic'. Oh, and while he was at it, he'd need to ask her her name...
An ache between his fingers brought his impending interrogation to a screeching halt. Max looked down at the skin between his digits, his eyes widening as he saw it begin to extend. It was like his hands were webbing over just like the mermaid's.
Max asked the only question that could come to his mind. “What now?”
The mermaid laughed. “I'm making you into a friend, silly.”
Her hands quested lower on Max's body, against his groin. Again there came that sense of change, and Max floundered in distress as he felt a pair of lips sprout in his groin and slurp up his cock like a wet noodle.
The experience wasn't painful, but that didn't make it any more pleasant. One second Max was a man, the next... Well, it was a lucky thing 'Max' wasn't a gender-exclusive name.
“What?” Max gasped, her legs clenching instinctively as water briefly tried to enter her new hole. She blushed in distress, staring at the mermaid in shock. “What was that for?”
“Well, it's like I said.” The mermaid trailed her right leg along Max's, that smile still on her face. “I'm making you into a friend.” Her smile widened as she put her hands on either side of Max's head, and the new woman shivered with apprehension.
“Why a mermaid and not a merman? You have a thing against male company?” Max asked, her eyes wide as she trailed her fingers over her groin.
“Whatever made you think that I'm making you into a mermaid?” The mermaid asked with an impish smile on her face. She winked at Max impishly, her touch instilling a new wealth of sensations along the sides of the human's head.
It felt like someone was slowly stretching her head, widening it and lengthening it at the same time; until she had almost a triangular tip atop her skull. Her goggles popped loose from her twisting head, though the woman's eyes didn't burn from the salt water.
Max groaned aloud, her hands moving to cup her head. “N-no... What are you...” Her eyes widened as a cramping sensation assailed her gut. It was like she was a tube of toothpaste, and someone was rolling her up, pushing all of her organs upward through her body.
Max screamed in horror, feeling her organs migrating up through her body, entering her large head. N-no, not her large head... Her giant head. Through her watery eyes, she glared at the mermaid, who only laughed in response.
“Oh? You just realized?” The mermaid dipped back, her hair flowing around her head like a halo, even as Max's hair detached at the roots. “I am Lily Neptune, chief animal trader... And acquirer, in certain cases.” She bowed dramatically as Max continued to change, transforming at her behest.
Max's arms and legs started to withdraw into her body, her torso shrinking by the minute. But worse, her fingers and toes were lengthening, growing at twice the rate her limbs were dwindling.
With this sense of elongation came the horrid feeling of dissolution: of her bones disintegrating within her flesh, leaving her with nothing except for muscle. Max gurgled wetly as her vocal chords went the way of her bones, leaving her hardly able to speak, save for an odd high-pitched keening.
Her tentacles trailed below her body, and with a horrid sensation, she realized that she could move each of them independently. And, to her horror, she realized that her former thumbs weren't yet done changing.
Max stared on in shock as they grew to three times the length of her other tentacles, their tips flared and bulbous at the ends of her body. She brushed them up to wriggle at her swimsuit, small hooks inside of her suction cups letting her latch onto it.
While she wanted to keep it on as a reminder of her humanity, the changing woman had the distinct impression that her expanding body wouldn't allow for such niceties. Indeed, she could already feel that her neck was beginning to grow, widening as her mantle grew as well.
“Oh, this is my favorite part.” Lily beat her tail back as Max's form swelled and rippled. She swam back to the giant squid behind her, trailing her hands along its mantle with intrigue. “Soon, Chasm. Soon you'll have your mate.”
Max felt a thrill of horror at the thought of being a squid's mate; of being a mermaid's property. Her eyes bulged with terror, and she whimpered as they continued to widen, growing far beyond anything human. Her nose melted back into her body, her mouth trailing to the center of her limbs, becoming a new cephalopod's maw.
Then she began to bloat. It wasn't a slow process; her frame doubled in size every three seconds, growing and growing and growing until Lily was practically just a speck, a hateful little speck! Max felt the raw power of her new body, and she slowly concentrated on wriggling her tangled mass of tentacles, preparing to attack the mermaid; to swallow her whole.
But before she could muster the strength to attack the woman, the other squid moved—far faster than Max had suspected was possible. One second Chasm was trailing behind Lily, the next, it lashed out with its own tentacles, binding Max's limbs and pulling her close to it.
Max panicked, trying to work an alien body that made no sense. She couldn't move; couldn't escape! She tried to clench her tentacles, but only managed to clack her jaw. She tried to work her jaw, but that impulse caused her mantle to squirm. And focusing on squirming her mantle was... Wait.
She tried to tense her mantle again as the hungry Chasm drew her in ever-closer, pulling her in like some inexorable snare. This time, a muscle just under her gills spasmed, trailing a small amount of fluid from it. It must have been Max's ink sac, and she grinned mentally as a plan started to form.
Already the male squid's mating tentacle was extending from its body, and Max had to act quickly. She didn't know how cephalopods mated, but she knew that nobody liked to be sprayed in the eyes when they were about to stick their dick in something.
Max glared at Chasm as it drew itself ever-closer, its mating tendril almost pressed to her body. Then, when it wrapped her in a tentacly hug, she released her pent-up ink, releasing it in a cloud around them.
Chasm's grip slackened for a moment, and Max surged all of her thoughts to her many limbs, forcing them to propel her forwards.
“Well done!” Lily's voice chirped, the sound echoing in Max's ears. “But you've no idea how squids mate, do you?”
Her second sentence fell with the weight of a hammer, coming almost in time with Chasm's tentacles enveloping her form once more. Max's heart pounded within her head, and she sucked in a gasp of horror through her gills.
Then Chasm pulled her in close, its tentacle surging forward to spear the helpless squid in its grasp and easily entering her ink sac. Max's two bulbous eyes widened and she let out a loud screech in distress, feeling the squid inside of her.
Lily swam up to Max's eye with a smug smile on her face. “To him, your futile attempt to escape was nothing more than just a part of the mating process.” The redhead lounged back, her shimmering tail kicking beneath her.
Max shrieked again, though this time it was a cry of pleasure. Somehow Chasm's tentacle within her had hit some of her most sensitive nerves, bringing her to a feeling more intense than the best orgasm she'd had in her life. And this was just during the mating!
Max trembled, her tentacles going slack beneath her as she began to give into the pleasure. The sensations were sending tingles of electric sensation all along her body, and the experience was helping to acquaint her with her new form better than anything she could do on her own.
A little pleasure for freedom of motion—a small cost to pay if it meant getting away from this insane bitch of a mermaid. Max focused on that, slowly gaining control over each of her tentacles as they spasmed below her in pleasure.
If she tried to flex her right arm, then she could move her left set of tentacles... Trying to move what were her legs made them contract... It was like her body had been remapped thanks to the relocation of most of her limbs and organs, but Max was slowly but surely accommodating herself to the task at hand—or suction-cupped tentacle, in this case.
Another wave of pleasure gripped Max's body, and she shivered with pleasure as Chasm shifted itself to stroke her tentacles with its own. For a brief moment, she thought it might not be so bad to be the mate of such a strong, protective, and virile squid. Then she dashed the thoughts from her head, disgusted by the very concept.
What was she thinking? She was being assaulted by something that she'd tried to grab on camera! There was no way that she'd end up with it! Even if it was the best sex she'd had in her life...
Max trembled again as Chasm's thick member pulsed inside of her, filling her with more and more pleasure. God, it felt so right to have this thick bulge inside her mantle; to have a squid ravish her and fill her with bliss and delight!
A moan escaped Max's mouth, bubbles escaping from it and drifting up through her mass of tentacles. She might not end up with Chasm, but she'd sure as hell need to seek out other giant squids for fun. Come to think of it, squids didn't really have STDs, so she was free to flirt with as many cephalopods as she could... And, come to think of it, some of the giant squids might have once been human, too...
The thought sent a chill through Max's mantle; a chill that was soon warmed by the heat of pleasure. Still, the thought had been seeded: what if Chasm was once a person? The thought was oddly comforting, and Max quivered again as Chasm pumped its mating tentacle into her needy squid hole, filling it with its virile appendage.
If it was... Was it a male or a female human? And did it still remember what being a person was like? Was it trying to soothe Max by making the mating so pleasant?
Lily's voice intruded on her thoughts. “Sorry to shatter whatever dreams you were just having, but my ride here is a hundred percent squid. His parents were people, though—if that helps.”
Max sent her a glare, another squiddy yelp of pleasure escaping her maw. Well, so much for that comforting idea...
“That said, I do think that Chasm could be a little bit more tender with you...” Lily smirked impishly. “Hey, boy! Pleasure your mate more!”
Max's huge eye widened as her mate snared her longer tentacles in its own, their suction cups latching onto one another in what felt like a hundred kisses meeting at once. Chasm's other tentacles wound her body close as though it were some sort of embrace; trailing along her mantle.
Then one slipped into her anus too, and Max let loose a keening shriek of pleasure. There was so much stimulation to be had in these bodies; so much pleasure that the squid could give her! She felt herself building to an orgasm, and clenched her tight ducts around Chasm's tentacle, ink leaking out form her hole as she climaxed.
It was a warm flowing sensation that ran through all of her long limbs; coursing along her huge and alien body. Max quivered and shrieked again; realizing that her animalistic lover wasn't nearly done with her. After all, Chasm had yet to find its release.
It pumped its tentacle faster in and out of Max, its small suction cups leaving hundreds of hickeys on the inside of her love hole. She groaned, letting her mantle fall lip in its grasp as it thrust deep within her, again and again; filling her with such love and passion that she could barely stand it!
Max's giant eyes rolled back in pleasure as she let her maw hand open, panting through her gills with pleasure. Who knew being a woman could be so pleasurable; hell, who knew being a squid could be so pleasurable? She was still so tender after just having climaxed, and yet Chasm continued its onslaught, driving her body into a frenzied ecstasy.
Then, finally, the giant squid's tentacle pulsed within her, and Max squeaked at the feeling of her hole filling with his hot seed, no doubt impregnating her with their children. Their children... Max's eyes widened. She didn't want to have eggs! She had to escape!
Lily laughed, the sound oddly musical. “No doubt you're thinking about fleeing. Well, go ahead.”
Max's eyes widened as Chasm released its hold on her, letting her huge body drift in the cool ocean waters. What? Was the mermaid really letting her go; just like that?
“Of course, you'll need to find a way to survive on your own... It would be much better if you'd return to our city with us, enjoy a life in the stables. A little freedom isn't too much to give up, when pleasure and safety are your rewards, hm?” She cooed evilly.
Max looked to Lily; then back to Chasm; then back to Lily again. On the one tentacle, it did sound tempting. But on the other nine, she had to remember that Lily was a poisonous bitch who probably would try and break her mind. And who's to say that the rest of her kind weren't like her?
No, Max would be much better off on her own. She squirted a cloud of ink at Lily, then flicked all of her tentacles, forward and back again, propelling herself forward.
To Max's delight, the mermaid retched behind her. Then the girl laughed and shouted to her retreating victim. “Have it your way! But just remember; if you ever need a home, my kind would be more than willing to help!”
Max rolled her eyes, pushing herself further forward with her tentacles. To hell with that; she'd rather live life on her own than be some mermaid's pet! She swam for what felt like hours, keeping up the pace until she could swim no longer.
Her new body was nothing if not powerful, and Max caught her breath while she drifted through the gentle current of the ocean. It was like she was a marathon runner; she must have eaten up a dozen miles just now.
Max panted a little more; then checked around herself to gather her bearings. The ocean floor had come into view a little under an hour ago—no small surprise, since she'd angled herself downward. She had originally dived in the Indian Ocean—yet there wasn't a wealth of coral around her, so she hadn't hit the Great Barrier reef... Which meant... Meant what, exactly?
Max trembled, her eye widening as she realized what she'd just gotten herself into. She was no survivalist! Hell, at home her routine had mostly consisted of watching sports and jerking off! What was she going to do for shelter; for food?
The thought of food sent a rumble through her giant head, and Max groaned as her stomach cramped. She shouldn't have swam so hard; now she was lost in the middle of the ocean, and on an empty stomach... Max groaned again in time with her belly's next grumble, and she looked around herself for fish.
She was always a fan of sushi... This wouldn't be much different, right? The squid checked her surroundings again, this time looking for animals. But there weren't any in sight—it seemed that everything around her had decided to move away once they'd found a giant predator in their midst.
Max sighed to herself, then pushed herself gently forward with her tentacles, waving the flaps on her mantle to give her a little extra speed. She'd just coast along the bottom of the ocean, gliding along until she found something.
Her mantle cramped again, and Max shivered; her limbs contracting. This was a different pain, though—it felt like there was something full in her mantle and trying to escape...
Oh, gross. She had to take a dump. Max quivered with distaste, looking around herself again to check for modesty. Then she groaned, flicking one of her huge tentacles up to slap her giant forehead. Modesty? What was she thinking? She was a squid now; not a person!
The giant squid shivered, closing her eyes as she started to push the object from her body. It wasn't quite willing to move at first, and she hissed with amusement. Of course she'd be constipated.
Max tried a little harder, feeling her hole dilate as the object started to slide its wet way from her, inching from her body until with a small bubble of air, it slid from her mantle, drifting down towards the ocean.
There, that was better... Max paused, her tentacles drifting curiously. Only that turd didn't feel like it had come from her anus. No, it had felt like it had emerged from her ink sac, which meant...
Her eyes widened and she looked down to the large object. It was an egg! She hurriedly sent her longer tentacles down to it, grabbing it with both of them. She couldn't believe it; she was laying eggs already? It was barely her first day of pregnancy!
But even though she wanted to disbelieve it, she could certainly feel something squirming about inside of her; other eggs growing within her egg sac. She shivered with apprehension, then searched around for a safe place to lay her offspring.
Coral, rocks, sand... A cave! Perfect! Max hurriedly swam to it, laying her egg down gently and closing her eyes again, feeling that same cramp as another egg began to make its appearance known.
This time, she was ready for it, and Max brought up two of her tentacles to cup the ovoid object as it slid from her body. Sure, a real squid would probably just lay its clutch and forget about it, letting the eggs fall to the ocean to remain unattended.
But Max wasn't a real squid—at least, not in mind—and she wanted to make sure her offspring were well cared for. The egg slid out from her with another faint pop, and Max let it join its brother, working out another big child.
Each of these eggs had to be at least as wide as a person was tall, stretching her elastic hole as much as Chasm's had! She shivered and contracted her body, trying to remember if she knew anything that would make her birth easier.
Nothing came to mind, and she felt herself stretching again as a large egg crowned, showing its shell to the aquatic world it would grow to call home. Max groaned as it didn't make any further attempts to leave her body, and she lifted a suction-cupped tentacle to it to latch onto the egg.
The sucrion cups were another oddity of being a squid. She hand't really held anything in them before, but now that one was on her egg, she had the chance to realize how much it felt like her hand was dotted in hundreds of mouths. She latched them onto the egg and tugged her tentacle free, pulling it from her with another elastic snap.
Then, to her surprise, she realized that it was the last of her progeny, and Max gingerly laid it down with its two siblings. Apparently giant squids had far fewer children than most of their kind. That explained why there weren't more of them...
Max looked down to her clutch of three, for the first time feeling at peace with her body. She'd need to work out some of the smaller details like hunting, but for now... For now, she had kids; had a cave for them. It couldn't get much better than this.
Max turned to swim away, but a shockwave in the water gave her pause. She whirled back to her eggs, finding only two of them remaining in the cave where she'd left them.
What the hell was going on? Had it fallen? Had she knocked it off with a tentacle when she turned? Or did something take it?
The answer to her questions came as a long eel's head snaked out from the cove, its maw opening impossibly wide as it moved towards another of her eggs.
Max shrieked in distress, spraying it with her ink. To her horror, that didn't do anything to slow the creature down; apparently it could see without its eyes! Max swam back to the nest, shrieking loudly to try and distract the beast, but the thing was so fixated on its meal that it crunched down on the second of her eggs, crushing it in its maw.
At that, a tidal wave of rage flooding Max's mind, and she went from defending her lone child to attacking the monster that had killed two of them. She sent her two longest tentacles spearing forward, grabbing the eel by its neck.
It writhed and shrieked, but her suction cups held fast, small hooks within each cup digging deep into the demon's body and spilling its blood into the ocean. Max pulled it back towards her, reeling the huge creature towards herself with a war scream.
The eel thrashed harder, as though it was trying to pull away from the predator's grasp. But Max was holding on tight, and she would never let go of this monster's throat.
She dragged it up between the rest of her tentacles, using them to latch onto it and further secure her hold on the creature. Then she tugged it into her open maw, crunching down the muscles around its neck and tearing clean through its head.
Max crunched hard on its skull, tugging the body away from her closed mouth to take a bite out of the would-be predator. To her surprise, it actually tasted quite good, and she took another bite from it. And another.
No doubt the eel was a fearsome predator elsewhere, but when compared to a giant squid; it was nothing but a tasty treat. Max's strong jaw flexed and crunched through the eel, her circular jaw working to crush all of the bones, flaying the meat from them as she ate.
To her surprise, the bones fell from her jaw with every bite she took, while the meat drifted back up through her gullet. Apparently her body had a few instinctive reflexes when eating, making sure she didn't choke on any hard bits.
She crunched her way through the eel's body in a few minutes, hungrily rewarding herself for the kill. It was good sustenance, tough meat that proved no real obstacle for her monstrous form.
The encounter had cost her two of her children, but Max had learned a valuable lesson. She had to be careful about where to keep her offspring... The giant squid took her last egg in her arms, turning back to the ocean. She froze a moment later, seeing a massive shark.
The thing looked at her with hungry eyes, and she glared back to it, rearing back and letting a loud shriek escape her maw. The shark eyed her up for a moment more; then it turned and swam away.
Max let loose a sigh of relief, chuckling inwardly at the thought of the apex predator fleeing before her. It was right to run, too. While it might be able to take a bite out of her, she was sure that if she was able to get her tentacles onto it, she could easily break its body and make it into another meal.
The thought was a little amusing. She was apparently the top of the food chain, but her poor eggs were hardly as well off. Which meant she'd need to find some place safe...
Max set off again, fueled by the eel that was now being digested within her body. She'd need some place secure, somewhere that she could leave unguarded while she hunted... Or she could go back to Lily and see what the mermaid had in store for her...
No! Max shook the thought from her mind immediately, surging forwards to try and find a home for her eggs. There had to be some other way; she couldn't live with the monster that had made her into this!
The squid hurriedly looked around herself, eyes wide as she saw what looked to be a man-made door. She swam up to the metal plate curiously, seeing an old Chinese flag on the door, its paint practically eroded.
Somehow, impossibly, she'd ran into what looked like an old sub hangar. There was no way that she'd be able to work the panel to unlock it, but the locks seemed to be operated by chains.
So... Max swam over to one of the chains, wrapping her tentacles around it and yanking it apart with ease. It was like she was pulling apart a thread—all she had to do was tug, and the tough chains simply fell to pieces.
Max grabbed the door next, moving her egg to be held within her smaller tentacles. If she was right, the door should be unlocked—but it would be a hell of a task to pull it open.
Sure enough, her first tug barely moved it, simply cracking the built-up sediment. But the next tug pulled it open a few feet, and the next a few yards. With just one more pull, Max had an entrance into a huge hangar, one that looked wide enough to house her and her egg with ease.
Max smiled to herself, slipping into the chamber and tugging the door mostly shut behind her, leaving her room for just enough light to see. For the first time, things were looking up. She had an egg, and she had a home. It wasn't much, but it was a start.