Have you read Mermaid Part Two - The Cup Coral Fields?
Storm started to swim into the cave, but something on the cave wall caught her attention from the corner of her eye.
“Wait!”
The others froze. She went closer to inspect. “I think there’s something written here.”
“Don’t do that! You gave me a fright!” Amaya said angrily.
“Cave… soul… depart… I can’t read this. Amaya can you?”
Amaya swam over to the cave wall. Marella floated closer.
“In the cave… beyond… before… you lies, a creature with most cur… curious eyes. Watching you as a person whale… no, person whole, to see if you are pure of… soul. If you are you may depart, closer … toward the truest heart.”
“What on earth does that mean?” Storm asked.
Amaya shrugged.
“It means we can only get to the coral heart if we are pure of heart!” Marella said.
Storm let out a frustrated noise. “Well since there is no coral heart I guess we don’t need to worry about the creature with curious eyes.”
“No, we don’t need to worry about the creature because we’re all pure souls!” said Marella.
Storm thought back to all the times she’d snuck past the palace guards, stolen unattended trinkets, and stayed out late downtown. She wasn’t so sure she was pure of soul.
“Yeah sure…” she said, “Well let’s get going.”
They swam into the depths of the cave. The white coral walls glowed in the eery red light. Storm glanced around her but there was nothing inside the cave. Other caves she’d explored had long green strands of sea plants at the mouth, colourful corals lining the walls, bright little fish floating around. But here there was nothing. Just white coral all around them and rocks littering the floor.
“Ow! What was – Ahhh!”
“Marel- Ahhh!”
The cave suddenly went black. Storm felt hundreds of small creatures crash into her. Marella’s shout had startled hundreds of fish that were hiding in the porous cave walls. There was confusion as the fish swam frantically in all directions, desperately looking for the cave mouth.
Eventually they all found their way out. As the fish cleared Storm looked around. Marella was sitting on the ground in front of a large boulder. But she couldn’t see Amaya.
“Amaya!”
Slowly she saw a dark ball by the cave wall straighten up.
“H… here,” Amaya whispered shakily.
“That was awful! What were those?” Marella asked.
“Dascyllus,” Amaya whispered.
“That was terrifying! Will there be more?”
“Probably not, they only shelter within the first ten metres of the cave mouth usually.”
“Ooo! Do you think that was the creature with curious eyes?”
“Well if they were, they did spend long checking the purity of our souls,” Storm said.
“Hmph!” Marella got up and continued into the cave.
They swam and swam but nothing changed. The red light got no brighter. Storm noticed all the deep cave creatures were also missing. There were no crabs scuttling along the floor, no sea snails making their slow way along the cave walls. She shivered. Something was wrong. She’d never seen a cave like this, the cave was dead. Suddenly she had a horrible feeling they were being watched. She spun around.
“What! What is it?” Amaya whispered.
“I… I’m not sure… I feel like we’re being watched…”
The three of them froze where they were, straining their ears. Storm heard something just on the edge of her hearing.
“Can… anyone else hear that faint… popping?”
Marella nodded furiously but made no noise, staring at her. Amaya was also staring at her, wide eyed in shock.
Storm sensed something moving next to her. Slowly she turned. She came face to face with a huge eye. A rectangular black pupil stared at her unblinking surrounded by bumpy red and gold flesh. Her eyes widened in shock as she raised them to take in the giant tentacled body spread out along the roof of the cave. The popping sound started again. Storm saw one of the tentacles detach itself from the roof and wind its way toward her.
They were all frozen in shock as they watched the tentacle. Was this it? Was this how she was going to go? Slowly it made its way toward Storm's head. One of the suction cups stuck itself to her temple. It was surprisingly soft. The tentacle draped itself over her shoulder and chest. Another suction cup stuck itself over her heart. She felt a soft warm pulse through her body. She stared transfixed into the eye. The fleshy eye moved around as it looked her up and down. Then it stared straight into her face. She stared back, her mind going blank.
She wasn’t sure how long they’d been there. What felt like an eternity later the suction cups unstuck themselves from her body and retreated to the roof. The large eye rose up away from her and the popping sound started again, and the octopus retreated. The three of them watched in silence as the huge shape shrunk up into the roof of the cave. They stayed frozen staring at the spot the octopus had disappeared.
“What was that about?” Marella whispered.
“I think that was the creature with curious eyes,” Storm replied, still staring at the spot where the octopus had disappeared..
“Well that must mean we can continue to the heart. Right?”
“I suppose so,” said Storm, tearing her eyes away from the roof to look at Marella. “Are you two alright?”
“Are we alright?! Are you alright?! You just got… got… suctioned by a… a giant octopus!” Amaya stammered.
“Yeah I’m fine,” Storm touched her head and chest. The spots where the octopus had suctioned to her were tender. “Probably going to bruise a bit.”
Amaya continued to stare at her, her mouth slightly open.
“Don’t look at me like that! I’m fine. Let’s go.”
Storm swam on past Marella, leading the other two deeper into the cave. As they swam the red glow finally started getting brighter until the swam into a huge chamber. In the centre of the chamber was a huge glowing red and gold coral. The coral had large offshoots, like veins, spreading out from it, each one heading down a different cave connected to the chamber.
“Oh my gosh! That’s the biggest piece of Princess Coral I’ve ever seen!” Marella exclaimed.
“Piece of what?” Storm asked.
“Princess Coral! Don’t you know what that is?”
“Clearly not…”
“It’s the rarest and most expensive coral. I’ve got… I mean I’ve seen some people wear it as jewellery.”
“Well that’s stupid to spend so much money on coral jewellery. It must only be worn by the fancy pants rich people.”
“What’s wrong with being rich?” Marella asked.
“It would just be nice if they could use their money to help people more. It’s hard being poor.”
“Well people should work harder instead of expecting handouts from people who do work.”
Storm immediately fired up.
“How do you know they don’t work hard? My sister and I work very hard to provide for my four baby nieces and nephews!”
“Why are you so poor then? Why doesn’t their father work?”
“Because he’s dead!”
Marella stared at her in shock. “I’m sorry,” she said quietly.
“It’s not your fault, you didn’t know. But you shouldn’t be so ignorant. Many poor families in the reef aren’t poor because they’re lazy, they’re poor because something has happened that’s out of their control. Death, illness, disability, there’s many reasons, and the queen doesn’t provide enough to support us no matter how hard we work.”
Marella looked away awkwardly.
“Hey, look at this,” Amaya called out from the coral.
They swam over to her and saw the offshoot that went down the tunnel they’d emerged from had veins of white in it.
“This part of the coral is dying like the other corals we’ve found,” Amaya said. “It must be connected.”
“Hey, this offshoot is dying too,” Marella called out.
“We should follow one, see if something’s causing this,” Storm said.
They swam off, following the branch Marella had found. After a while clanging sounds floated down the tunnel to them. They stopped.
“What’s that?” Amaya asked nervously.
“No idea, but let’s move more carefully,” Storm replied.
They continued slowly as the clanging grew louder. At a corner in the cave Storm signalled to the other two to stop. She swam forward against the cave wall and peered slowly around the corner. Around the bend a group of merpeople were swinging pickaxes. Behind them was a cart, the contents of which was glowing red. She hurried back to the others.
“Well we know why the coral is dying now. They’re mining the Princess Coral.”
“We’ve got to do something!” Amaya exclaimed as they swam back toward the central chamber.
“I know. I can’t believe our reef is dying for some stupid jewellery. Why is it called Princess Coral anyway?” Storm asked Marella.
“Oh, um, I don’t know.”
“The coral was discovered the same year the first princess, Princess Talia, was born. The queen named it Princess Coral in honour of her. And she made the right choice, I’ve heard the princesses love the coral. Apparently they own the largest collection of Princess Coral jewellery in the reef,” Amaya said.
“Well we have to go to the queen then. If the princesses are causing this then he has to stop it!”
“I don’t think the queen knows much about what goes on in the mines. It’s Lord Beckett who runs them,” said Marella.
“Lord Beckett? Don’t think I’ve heard of him. How do you know it’s Lord Beckett? He’s hardly well known,” Storm asked.
“Um, I overheard someone talking about it once. It was a long time ago though, he may not run them anymore.”
“We’ll start with the queen anyway. He’ll be able to tell Lord Beckett to stop the mining.”
They got to the main chamber and turned up the tunnel they’d come down. They swam quickly, eager to get to the queen and tell him of their discovery. As they rounded a bend the mouth of the cave shone in the distance. It grew as they hurried forward and they burst out into the daylight. They all paused for a moment, shielding their eyes so they could adjust to the light.
“Ok the fastest way to the castle is back through Cave District, then Angelfish, then Laguna, then from Turtle District we’ll have to find some way into Pearl District and the castle.” Storm rattled off.
“It’s going to be hard to get into Pearl District, and they don’t let any old person in,” Amaya said.
“Well our sneaking around hasn’t been for nothing, we’ll just sneak past like we usually do,” Storm laughed.
“I don’t know about that. They’ve got guards at every entrance. It’s the most heavily guarded place in the reef.”
“Marella it sounds like you’d know someone who could get us in. Marella? Marella?”
Storm and Amaya looked around them, but Marella had disappeared.
***
Read Mermaid Part Four - The Revival now!