Have you read Mermaid Part One - Opal Lagoon?
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Amaya went flying, her backpack opening and papers going everywhere. Storm rubbed her head and looked around.
“Ow! That hurt!”
A mermaid with a bright pink tail and matching bright pink hair was sitting on the street rubbing her head too.
“Sorry,” Storm said.
She swam over and pulled the other mermaid up. She stopped rubbing her head and looked at them suspiciously.
“What are you doing out here?” she asked.
“I could ask you the same thing.”
The pink mermaid pouted. “It’s none of your business why I’m out here.”
“And it’s none of yours why we’re here either.”
The pink mermaid continued to scrutinise Storm, but then her face broke out in a broad grin.
“Well if you must know I came out here to see the Cup Coral fields. My sisters were telling me all about them and how pretty they are and said I should come out here and have a look for myself, and she said that I could pick a bunch and bring them back to the house for when our parents came home and they’re really love them because Coral Cups are mums favourite and –“
“Shut up!” Storm hissed.
The pink mermaid pouted again. “But you asked me why I was out here and I was just telling you what you asked because I thought you wanted to know and –“
“Oh my god would you shut up! You don’t have to announce everything in the loudest voice possible!”
Storm glanced behind her at the rows of silent houses, but no one seemed to be coming to investigate the noise. She turned back to the pink mermaid whose face had fallen.
“Look, I’m sorry, but it’s not safe around here. You shouldn’t be on your own.”
“I’m not afraid,” said the pink mermaid, puffing out her chest.
Suddenly a strange scratching noise floated towards them from down the street.
“Whatever, let’s just stick together and we’ll come with you to these Cup Coral fields.”
Storm hurried over to help Amaya pick up the last of her papers and the three of them swam out into the fields away from the houses. They swam along in silence over wide plains of hard white coral.
“So where are these Cup Coral fields uh…”
“Uh… Marella. My sisters said they were just on the outskirts of the town, but I’ve been swimming around for an hour now and still can’t find them.”
“What do they look like?” Storm asked.
“They’re beautiful,” Amaya interjected. “I’ve read about the Cup Coral fields in my botany books. They’re small orange and yellow cups and when it’s dark they open their tentacles, kind of like anemones. They grow on large flat plains and can stretch over hundreds of miles.”
“What? You mean large flat plains like this?” Storm asked, looking around them at the vast expanses of white coral.
“Yes, just like this- “
Amaya stopped. She stared around them.
“No…”
“What! What is it? Tell me!” Marella demanded.
But Storm stared around them too, her eyes wide. “Oh my god…”
“Tell meeeee!”
“Well we’ve found the Cup Coral fields,” Storm said in a hushed voice.
“No we haven’t! There’s nothing here but desert.”
“Storm… I think you were right about visiting the Cave district,” Amaya said.
“What is going on!” Marella wailed.
“You’re so demanding!” Storm snapped.
“But why aren’t there any Cup Corals!”
“Because they all died!” Storm shouted. “Amaya, this is serious. This is huge. We haven’t seen coral die off at this scale before!”
“I know, I know. We need to keep following it.”
Storm looked at Amaya in astonishment. “You’re not going to tell us to go back?”
“This is too serious,” Amaya said grimly. “What if this spreads further into the city? What will we do? Where will we live? The city will be destroyed!”
Marella gasped. Storm turned back to her.
“Look Marella, it was nice to meet you, but you should go home. It’s not safe out here.”
Marella crossed her arms and frowned at Storm.
“You can’t tell me what to do. I’m coming with you. I want to find the Cup Coral fields.”
“There are no Cup Coral fields!” Storm said, flinging her arms in the air in exasperation.
“Well then I want to help find out where it’s gone.”
“Marella, I really think you should go,” said Amaya quietly, “Your sisters will be worried about you.”
“They won’t care. I’m coming with you. And if you won’t let me the I’ll just follow you.”
Storm rolled her eyes. “Fine.”
They continued swimming in silence over the vast barren plains. The edge of the reef loomed above them. As they got closer they could see it was pock-marked with caves. Ahead of them was a large opening, a web of white coral spreading from its mouth. They stopped.
“This doesn’t look good,” Amaya said nervously.
“I think you mean this looks perfect! This could be the source of the…” Storm trailed off as she noticed a dim red glow coming from deep inside the cave.
“Ooo it’s so pretty!” Marella squealed and rushed off towards the cave.
“No! Stop!” Storm swam after her and grabbed her tail. “Are you mad! You don’t just go rushing off into an ominously glowing cave!”
“It’s not ominous, it’s pretty!”
Storm rolled her eyes again.
“No, we need to make a plan.” She turned to Amaya. “What should we do?”
“What, what do you want from me? I don’t know what to do!” Amaya spluttered.
“Surely you’ve read about glowing caves at some point?”
“Well, yes, but they’re just children’s stories.”
“Are you talking about The Heart of the Cave? I love that story!” Marella squealed.
“Yes, The Heart of the Cave,” Amaya said.
“The Heart of the Cave? I haven’t heard of it.”
“Ooo it’s a beautiful story about a merman who’s out working in the fields when he sees a beautiful mermaid. It’s love at first sight, but when he goes over to talk to her she disappears into a cave. He follows her down a long, dark tunnel until they reach the centre of the reef. At the centre there’s a beautiful garden and the mermaid is sitting on a large red coral at the centre. He begs her to marry him, share her life with him and he will provide for and protect her. But she can’t. She is guardian of the Coral Heart, the life force for all the coral in the reef. He says he’ll stay with her, help her protect the coral and build a new home for them in the beautiful garden. But he can’t. The life force from the coral heart is so strong that no merperson can stay close to it for long before the life is sucked out of them to give to the coral. The guardian is the only merperson who’s immune to it and she must protect it or the reef will die. He decides to stay with her anyway and they fall in love. He builds them a little home in the garden, and they live in happiness for years. But one day the merman starts to get sick. She begs him to leave, to get better, but he refuses. He dies and she is so broken-hearted she never leaves the cave again. It’s so romantic and tragic! I can’t believe you haven’t heard of it!”
“Well no wonder I haven’t. What a ridiculous story.”
“It’s not ridiculous, it’s beautiful!”
“Whatever it is, it’s not very helpful. There is no coral heart, the coral gets its nutrients from the algae.”
“I don’t know Storm,” Amaya chimed in.
“What do you mean, you don’t believe this ridiculous story could be real?”
“It’s a very old story. It’s actually the oldest story in Opal Lagoon’s history. It’s originally from The Book of Tails, the oldest book known to merkind.”
“So what if it’s from the oldest book, doesn’t mean it’s real.”
Amaya shrugged her shoulders. “It’s all we’ve got to go off. It’s a cave and it’s glowing red. The coral heart in the story is red…”
“That’s stupid! There is no heart.”
“There could be…”
Storm sighed, “Ok, so let’s say the coral heart is in there. What do we do?”
“We go in there to find the beautiful heart gardens of course!” Marella says. “I may not get to see the Cup Coral, but the heart gardens would be even better!”
And she hurried off into the cave before Storm could grab her. Storm rolled her eyes at Amaya.
“I suppose we should go after her…”
Amaya gulped, hitched her bag further up her shoulder, and gestured for Storm to go first.
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Read Mermaid Part Three - The Heart of the Cave now!