[center]» Bernadette «[/center]

The girl with furry ears and a furry tail wasn’t the only patient who liked raw fish for breakfast. Hers were small and silvery, where Bernadette’s was big and bright blue with lime green stripes, but the Angkrillian was still relieved to see someone else [i]finally[/i] choose the same item as she did for breakfast. Though she wanted to go introduce herself to the feline woman, Bernie had more pressing matters to attend. Just as soon as she’d finished wolfing down her meal, she just [i]had[/i] to visit the pool. Bernie’s skin was already itching from the lack of submersion. If she didn’t spend at least an hour every day in the water, her iridescent blue skin would crack and leak silvery blood.

The nurses seemed to like her blood: they thought it was pretty. Since it wasn’t red, they didn’t seem to realize that it was still her life flowing out of her crispy flesh. Or maybe they did, and just didn’t care.

The pool at Osmond’s Institute had clearly been designed with Earth’s mermaids in mind, but could be altered to suit the needs of most semi-aquatic species. The salt content of Engalaste’s seas was significantly lower, and it was laced with minerals that would only be found on worlds distinctly extraterrestrial. The staff at the Institute adjusted the water for her the first day, a small blessing she’d never stopped being grateful for.

After a brief soak (Bernie broke up her swims into five or six twenty minute increments a day) she was padding back through the hallways, barefoot and dripping wet. All her life she’d worn clothes that went easily from land to water and back again… taking them off and putting them back on to avoid getting them wet had been an incredibly difficult habit for her to get into.

She was headed back towards the Cafeteria, hoping to snag one more fish before they closed down for the hour between breakfast and lunch, when Bernie was blessed with a unique opportunity.

Early on in her stay at Osmond’s, Bernie had learned that one of the higher-ranking nurses (or at least she [i]thought[/i] he was higher ranking, from the way the others treated him) was very averse to water. Lo and behold, it was Greg leading a new blonde guy down the hallways. He was distracted, rubbing his fuzzy jaw, and didn’t see Bernadette heading straight for him, picking up speed.

He flinched a half-second before Bernadette bowled into him, tackle-hugging him to the ground and giggling maniacally before chirping, “Good morning, Greg!”

For good measure, she rubbed her wet hair all over his face.

“Damnit, Bernadette!” the bearded man roared, scrabbling frantically to distance himself from her drippy person. “You didn’t take your clothes off when you went in the pool! And you didn’t use a towel! STOP HUGGING ME!”

“Noooooh, Greeeeg,” the silvery-blue female whined, full of forced sincerity, “you are faaaaaavorite. Where I come from, you and I turn [i]into[/i] water, and flow in to the sea… so far away from land it be just bad memory.”

She stroked Greg’s hair, feigning fondness, making sure to get it nice and damp. When the male nurse started to feel where Bernie’s wetness had soaked through his clothes and was now in contact with his skin, he got serious about fighting to free himself. He was much stronger than she was, and flung her off to his left side.

Bernie landed hard on her right hip, and winced a little in pain, but it was gone as quickly as it came and she was left with only laughter. Her body slid to a squeaky, wet stop mere inches from Dante’s toes, her broad smile showing not one but two rows of razor sharp teeth. She looked up at him for a moment before getting to her feet. Greg had immediately gotten up off the floor and begun to walk in the direction of the nearest nurse’s station. 

“Greg! Where you go?! Your patient!”

In response, the nurse flipped her off, and kept right on walking.

Bernadette was still chuckling a little as she turned to the tall blonde Greg had abandoned.

“Ah-ha, made him real angry! Bastard deserve it!” She hoped she was using the word ‘bastard’ correctly… Bernadette hadn’t quite mastered the Earth-language, but she had been lucky enough to have vocal cords that were capable of it. Poor Jax sounded like a bird squawking no matter what he said!

“I am…” the noise Bernadette made instead of an English name sounded a dolphin’s echolocation intermingled with a song in what might have been ancient Etruscan. “But since your Earth-tongue cannot say my true name, you call me Bernadette like others do. Nurse has left you, so I will show you this place, if you like… but first tell your name.”