chapter 1

Aurora felt euphoric as she propelled herself through the clear water toward the ATL Station, her long, silvery white hair swishing in every direction. She was so excited that her fin was basically just a blur of dark purple until she finally reached the entrance - a large circular hole that was in the bottom of a small room that stuck out from the wall of the rest of the station.

Swimming up to the roof of the room, she hit a button on the ceiling before quickly getting a tight hold on the metal beam above her. After several seconds, a grate slid out to cover the hole as water was slowly sucked out of the small room. Finally, when most of the water was sucked out of the room, a solid panel slid on top of the grate, locking out the water from the rest of the ocean.

Air-tight panels on the wall began to slide open and blast out hot air into the room, helping to quickly dry up the rest of the water droplets left in the room and on her body as Aurora's tail slowly smoothed out the thousands of scales, shifted the colors from purple to a more human skin tone, and split in two to reshape itself.

Aurora let go of the metal beam and landed onto the ground with her human-like legs as she let out a giggle. No matter how many times she shifted into her human form, she still felt like a small child playing with a new toy. She ran her hands along her slim, lithe figure and enjoyed the feel of the smooth skin beneath her fingers. She had what many humans called a 'hourglass figure', with a pretty decent pair of c-cups and wide hips that flared out from her flat, lightly-toned belly.

She reached into one of the panels in the wall to pull out an apron and wrap it around her naked frame before exiting the room to enter the clothing library - Where human outfits and accessories have been collected and updated over the centuries for merfolk to check out and return as they make their way back and forth between the surface.

Aurora decided to wear a simple pair of black yoga pants with a form-hugging pink tank-top and a pair of black flip-flops, since she didn't fully understand human fashion yet but wanted to show off her figure.

The mermaid slowly grew more and more excited has she made her way through security checks and currency exchange. Most merfolk first start traveling to the surface with their family around the age of thirteen, but, since her parents never liked humans, she didn't have any adult guardians to travel with.

Now that she was eighteen however, Aurora is finally able to travel up the the surface world she always dreamed about!
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Bright purple eyes the size of saucers gawked at the towering buildings around her with amazement. She could have stood there for hours just admiring the humans, cars, and land animals that surrounded her, but she paused as a unique smell started to fill her senses. Though she had never smelled anything like it before, for some reason it caused her stomach to growl, reminding Aurora that she had purposely skipped breakfast that morning so that she had more room to fill it with human food.

As she followed the delicious smell, she found herself walking into a building that had a large yellow 'M' on their sign.

"Welcome to McDonalds, what would you like to order?" the teenage human behind the counter greeted the mermaid with a fake smile.

"Um..." the mermaid looked the the menu with both awe and confusion. She had never seen or even heard of a hamburger before, but figured that she can come to the surface as much as she wants to now and can just try everything on their menu out one at a time. "I'll have the big mac."

"Okay, would you like the combo or just the big mac on it's own?"

Aurora didn't know how to respond. "Combo?"

"Alright, and will that be a small, medium, or large?"

She once again didn't how to respond, but since she was hungry and this would be her first human meal, Aurora figured she should just 'go big or go home' as the humans say. "Large."

After paying her total and waiting for her food to be ready, the mermaid sat down at one of the booths with her mouth watering. She wasn't expecting so much food for such a small amount of money! And it smelled so delicious...

Aurora unwrapped her big mac and slowly took her first bite. Her eyes grew wide as she quickly went in for another bite, and another. The burger was soon gone as the hungry mermaid started to munch down on the french fries, which disappeared just as quickly as the big mac did.

She let out a sigh of pleasure, her brain still buzzing from the happiness of eating the delicious meal that she didn't even notice the uncomfortable fullness of her stomach that wasn't used to such a large amount of food being put into it so quickly. She reached out to take a sip of her orange Fanta (she chose it simply because she thought it looked pretty), and found herself quickly slurping that down as well as her taste buds rejoiced in the sweet carbonated drink.

When she got up to throw away her trash, she was already finding herself craving more, but Aurora didn't want to spend her entire first day on the surface world in just eating food, so she worked up her will power to step out of the fast food joint and out onto the street again.

She didn't get very far at all, however, before she found herself in another building with a similar smell.

"Hello, welcome to Burger King! What can I get for you today?"

It had been barely five minutes since Aurora gobbled down that last meal, but her mouth was watering at the thought of eating more of those hamburgers. "Um, can I get a double whopper? A combo, large."

"Absolutely! Anything else?"

Anything else? She could order more? Aurora licked her lips. "Can I get extra french fries?"

The mermaid paid her total and impatiently waited for everything to be ready as she gulped down her Dr. Pepper, which was half empty by the time she sat down with her second large meal in the past half hour.

This is crazy. She shouldn't be doing this.

But Aurora couldn't stop herself has she ripped the paper off the burger and began to devore it even faster than she had her first burger. It wasn't long before she started to make her way through the fries, but the task of eating two burgers and three large orders of fries back-to-back was beginning to take a toll on her poor, tiny stomach. She loved the taste of all this human food so much, but Aurora wasn't sure she could take another bite.

*ERUUUP*

The mermaid put a grease-covered hand over her mouth with surprise. She had left out little burps underwater before, but she had no idea that burps could be so loud on the surface! Thanks to the sudden belch, Aurora left like it managed to clear up just enough room in her stomach to finish her double order of french fries and what was left of her Dr. Pepper.
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Aurora was out wandering around the town again, though this time with a belly that bloated out a bit more than before. Not that she noticed yet.

She had managed to walk around and visit many different types of shops around the town for quite a while without stopping by another fast food place before she found herself standing in a bakery surrounded by dozens of delicious looking treats.

Aurora's stomach didn't have much say in the manner as she ordered what the owner called a 'Sampler's Dozen', where she could buy thirteen different items for a discount.

The mermaid was already reaching in the small box before she even fully turned around to leave the store and pulled out an eclair. As the door shut behind her, Aurora bit into the sweet dessert and nearly moaned. As she walked around she greedily ate one dessert after another and just when her stomach thought it would finally get a break as she swallowed the final chocolate dessert, Aurora ran toward a vending machine with excitement.

She had only ever seen pictures of vending machines in the human movies she got to watch at school, she didn't think she would get to see one in person on her first day!

Aurora kept feeding the machine cash as she bought numerous bags of chips and candy bars to consume.
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After four hours of nearly constant eating, Aurora sadly realised that it was soon time for her to head back to the ATL Station since there was only so much time merfolk can spend on the surface before they need re-enter the water.

That didn't stop her, however, from making one last stop...

"Can I have a big mac in a large combo and an extra side of large fries please?"