A New Tail

A New Tail is the first overall episode of Tales of Dawn. In this episode, Dawn, the main protagonist, makes a fateful discovery that will lead her to find out what she really is and who her unknown father is.

Characters

 * Dawn
 * Leon
 * Esa
 * All of Esa's family (to keep it short)
 * Triton (flashback/silent cameo)

Plot
The episode starts with an early morning, just as the sun first peeked out. You could hear the sounds of a woman screaming in pain, followed by encouragements before the cry of a newborn baby is heard. Upon closer inspection, the new mother is Esa, cradling her baby girl with red hair (which Esa found a bit confusing, wondering if her father was a redhead). When asked what her name should be, Esa took a look outside as the sun rose, saying one name that stuck immediately: "Dawn."

Twelve years later, Dawn was seen on the beach, strolling around after trying to stop an argument between her uncles on who would get to teach her to fight today. As she looked at the shore, a sea snake's head popped out of the water, almost startling her. After introducing himself as Leon, Dawn asked how he ended up here, to which he responded that a strong ocean current sent him here. After explaining about the ocean to her, a fascinated Dawn jumped in to swim, not caring that she had a long skirt on. As she saw the beauty around her in the deep ocean nearby that she never saw before, she wished she could see more before seeing a flash. Looking behind her, she saw that her legs, to both her and Leon's surprise, turned into a teal mermaid tail.

Shocked by her discovery, Dawn swam back to shore to her worried family, who were all shocked by the sight of her tail. A seemingly innocent question from her about how she was able to summon a tail resulted in a tense silence throughout the rest of the day, resulting in confusion by both Dawn and her mother. It wasn't until later that night that her aunt Harmony decided to secretly yet reluctantly tell Dawn the truth.

Using her powers to create visual flashbacks, Harmony explained to Dawn that her mother did not 'know' her father because she removed her memories of him out of grief after he divorced her. Apparently, she was pregnant with Dawn before it happened and had not displayed the symptoms yet. When Dawn asked her father's name, Harmony replied, "Prince Triton of Atlantis." However, she did not have all the answers to Dawn's questions about him, for she was not there for most of those events.

As she left her alone, she unintentionally sparked a plan within Dawn's head: ask Triton herself.

Trivia

 * The title is a pun on a phrase: 'a new tale.'
 * The episode reveals that Dawn never in her life swam out that far in the ocean, thus she never discovered her ability to change her legs into a tail sooner.

Transcript
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