"Em, c'mon! You have to come down to the beach with me! Mum said I couldn't go alone, but I wanna go!" Elliot whined. "While we're here in Ireland, on the coast, not next year... Please, Emma! Please please please!?"
"Fine, I'll go... But we will not stay down there long, understood?"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah... Whatever, Em! I'll be good!"
As Elliot and Emma walked down to the beach- more rocks than sand, of course- it began to rain. Emma pulled her jacket more tightly around herself, keeping her head bent, and her hands in her pockets. In doing this, Emma actually managed to stay dry... Until they got to the beach, where Elliot slipped on the slick rocks and fell. Emma tried to grab his hand, not even thinking about the rain getting her wet, and missed. She then realized it was raining, and ran away from Elliot, towards the shore. When she was actually relatively close, the ground disappeared from under her.
"Ahh! What is this?" Emma exclaimed.
"Em, you ok?" Asked Elliot.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Go find mum and dad. I'll be a while, I don't know how I'll get out of here... And don't you come down, I'll have enough trouble getting out on my own." Emma replied, looking around the cave- for that is what it was- and wondering how she was ever going to get dry enough to get her legs back. She sighed and readjusted her position a little, knocking something loose from the wall in the process.
Looking down to see what her elbow had knocked, Emma discovered it was a journal of some sort. Gee, I wonder what it says in it... Or if it is even legible still. Opening it, Emma found that there was writing in it- and that she somehow could read and make sense of it, even though it was not English by any means.
The first entry read:
I have received this journal for my 12th birthday. Oh, how grown up I feel! Me, with my own journal, my own pen, my own way to record my thoughts for centuries to come. I do not care what Father O'Connell thinks- a woman is indeed lost without a confidant, a place where she can write her innermost thoughts, even if the Bishop himself dislikes educated women. I care naught. For I often like to record my adventures on scraps of paper, even if they are burned in the fireplace for fuel that same day. It makes me feel important. Which is why I am sitting here, in this beautiful cave, watching the moon rise as I write this.
I sometimes wonder what I will become, one day. If I will ever amount to anything more than a girl who lives in a small, narrow-minded village on the cliffs of the Emerald Isle, overlooking the sea.
Emma finished reading that entry, and, finding that she still was not at all dry, turned to the next. It read:
Oh, what a wonderful morning, this 13th of December of 1812! For I have found the answer to my question last night- I am indeed meant to be more than just me, a coastal cliffs child-bearer. Last night was the full moon. It looked so beautiful, reflected in the water of the pool, which began to bubble and boil. I felt compelled to look into the water, then to dive in. When I dove in, I felt healed- truly healed, not as I felt back when I was 7 years of age and received my First Communion. I felt as though, instead of staving off any sins I had, I was completely free from sin, free from everything earthly. I looked up at the moon, as it rose and continued to watch it as I climbed into the pool. The water sung to me, making me feel warm, loved, and safe. Which is a far cry from what I'll have waiting for me back home, what with me being the only child in my family who is not a twin. Three sets of twins- my mum has been pregnant 5 times, the one other time it was only one child, a boy, he was a stillborn- and myself make up my very Catholic family. Oh, and my parents. Or, at least, my mum and my stepfather. My father disappeared long ago- when I was but a wee lass, and my younger brother (the stillborn) yet to be born. All that my older sisters (all four of them) do is whinge. All my two older brothers do is play games, as they are barely men. Yet, I am the one who has to do anything- me and my parents, that is.
If you were a real person, dear diary, you would have departed from me long ago, gone and run away from me. All that life seems to be, for me, is one story that even I get bored with. Well, at least this... tail... will spice up my life a little. For, after falling asleep in the water (there is a step, I sat down on it and soon fell asleep), I woke up to find that I had a mermaid's tail. I hope that this has not made me into much more than I am- if it has, then I am sort of doomed, as the Irish are notorious for two things: their belief in magic and Catholicism. I guess I would have to find somewhere to go, if I were ever to be found out. Mayhap I could do a crime, and go to Australia. Or I could just go there... Now I am waiting to see if I can dry enough to lose the tail. Or if I am stuck with it forever, and therefore have to swim away, now.
The next bit was slightly charred, but Emma could read it.
I just made a fist, of sorts,... and the paper burst into flames! I quickly leaned down, over the pool, and put it into the water, before it was engulfed in flames. Happily, I was able to keep you, dear diary, safe, except for one burnt out page. But it is ok- all I did on that page was whinge, whinge, whinge, and worry. But I needn't have worried- I tried to dry myself just now, with the heat that I somehow created, and I was able to make the scales disappear. Now to get back home...
Emma looked at her tail and sighed. She wondered, aloud, "Why can't I have Rikki and Cleo here with me, just this once? I wish they were here..." She then heard footsteps above her.
"Em, you still down there?"
"Yeah, Elliot. I'm fine, though. I'll be up in a little while, I may have found a way out... Or it could be blocked. I'm looking now." Emma then pulled herself and the diary, which she coated in ice (not dry ice, but it wasn't ice made from water, either) over to the side of the pool, and slid in, just as the moon rose over Mako. The cave became as dark as the cave had been at Mako, right before a full moon shone into the volcano top. The water began bubbling, and Emma looked around in awe. The cave had lit up to be rather brightly blue, just like Mako. A shelf appeared in the side of the pool, with a blue crystal in it, which was soon lighting up the pool even more, projecting an image on the wall. As Emma watched in amazement, she saw Cleo, Rikki, and another girl, whom she assumed had to be Bella (Cleo and Rikki both had emailed her, telling her about how things were going for them, just as she told them about some of her travels) jump into the Moon Pool. The moon was directly above the three girls, and she could see them as though watching from the ledge of the aquatic entrance, and when she looked around, it was as though she were looking around there, instead of a pool in a cave in Ireland. She noticed that the walls were stripped deeply, as though they had been stripped away to be the same as the walls in the cave she was in- for those walls sparkled dimly and bluely. She sighed, realizing that the Moon Pool had changed, as had her friends. She watched in horror as the girls lifted something out of the water, lifting it higher and higher and higher, and watching helplessly as they grew weaker and weaker and weaker. She shouted to the cave "Give them my strength as well! They are my friends, and I don't want them to die!" Instantly Emma felt fatigued. She sat down on the ledge that the girl- whoever it was- mentioned in her diary. Emma felt her strength draining away, going almost completely around the world to help the three girls at Mako. She sighed, and closed her eyes, mere seconds before falling into a deep sleep.
When Emma woke up, the moon was almost at the top of the mouth of the cave. She looked around, and realizing that she had to go, or else her family would come look for her, she swam out of the cave. As Emma swam around trying to find a secluded beach upon with to swim onto with a wave, she began to feel as though she were being watched. Looking up, Emma saw someone standing at the tip of a cliff. That person jumped from the very top- a jump that, Emma knew, could kill a human, or show someone as a mermaid. Wanting to rescue that person, Emma swam over to the ledge, and found a young child, maybe 8 years old, swimming calmly.