The Truth About Them
The Australian airport nearest to the Gold Coast was always a busy place. Lots and lots of tourists visited that area every year. Sometimes, people were coming to the country for a vacation and other times, people were coming home, or at least where it all began for them. That's exactly why the blond young woman who was currently stepping off the planning was doing. She was coming back to where everything started for her even though she was now living in France.
She got a message from one of her oldest and best friend inviting her for a special event she did not quite know about. Everything was a mystery, but her best friend said it was important, so that's why she was also meeting a couple of other friends during that vacation on the Gold Coast.
They've all been pretty busy with their life. They might have been best friends, but life choices tore them apart and they had to separate. This was the first time they all saw each other since the parted ways in a sad goodbye.
The woman walked to the carousel to get her luggage and then pass security and the frontiers. She walked to the end of the line and waited for her turn. Coming back here brought all sorts of memories and it upset her more than it should have. Her life changed drastically with her friends a couple of years ago and they all got so much closer that they felt like actual sisters. She chose to leave her friends for an opportunity you could not dream of passing and since that moment, she had not seen them. For the others, college separated them.
"Alright, Ms Gilbert, everything is in order, you're free to go." The custom officer said.
"Thank you." Emma said to the man behind the glass.
She took her luggage and exited the airport. She was now waiting for one of her friend to pick her up.
That friend also flew to Australia, but she came from the United States where she decided to study marine biology with her boyfriend who was studying the same subject. Although, she got to Australia the night before and she stayed with her father, her sister and her stop-mother.
When Cleo first heard about the invitation to the Gold Coast for 'something very important', she was a bit skeptical since she did not have more details. She did decide to go because she missed her friends and she really missed the Australian waters. Swimming there always felt more natural and like home.
Emma noticed a blue car stopping in front of her and it's only when the person got out that she recognized Cleo.
"Cleo!" She said excitedly.
"Emma!" Cleo returned. "It's so good to see you again."
"Likewise." Emma responded.
The two old friends caught up on everything that happened in their life since they last saw each other during the car ride to Cleo's place where Emma would be staying for the week.
"And then, Rikki saw Lewis walking down the stairs towards us. After that, I never let go of him and that's why I decided to study with him in the States. Marine biology is so cool; I get to learn so much about the ocean and now I understand more about the sea creatures' behaviour when I go swimming in the ocean. Although, I'm pretty sure their reaction is different when they see a mermaid than when they see a human in diving equipment." Cleo blabbed for numerous minutes.
"I'm very happy for you, Cleo. You deserve to be happy and to study what you love." Emma answered honestly.
"What about you?" Cleo asked.
"As you know, I've been visiting the world, but my family and I decided to stay in France for a while and since it's the southern part, there are beaches where I can swim. I'm attending university and I am studying to become a nurse."
"That's great." Cleo said.
Rikki's last mermaid friend, Bella, was not actually far from the coast. She had been attending a university nearby to become a music teacher and she had been living with her boyfriend of long term, Will. It would not be too long since she would join Rikki, Cleo and their friend Emma who she's heard a lot about. She seemed like a very nice girl and Emma was happy to find out there weren't only three mermaids in the world.
Bella would be leaving her apartment in the morning of the day after to join them, so she was not in a hurry. She decided to enjoy her time with Will. They had been going strong and he even proposed a couple of weeks ago. She had accepted eagerly; she's had eyes for him ever since they first landed on him in the moon pool the night they met.
Bella was very surprised when she got a letter from Rikki asking her to join her on the Gold Coast for 'something very important that can only be mentioned orally, but she was ecstatic to see her best friends again since Cleo left for the U.S. And Rikki had been far too busy with her dives, writing her book and the book signings.
Rikki was comfortably sitting at the Ocean Café where she was waiting for her best friends to join her. Her life had been crazy ever since she decided to retrieve artifacts from the bottom of the ocean and write books about them to earn money. Her ways are obviously a secret to everyone except her mermaid friends and a few exceptions, but it's working out. No one is really asking questions about how she dives to the bottom of the ocean and she's happy about that. She had been earning quite a lot, so she was the one who paid for her friends' plane rides. She really wanted them to see the other mermaids and to know what a real mermaid was like.
"Rikki." A voice exclaimed from behind her.
"Hum… Hi." Rikki said as she turned around and looked at a young woman with brown hair that seemed to work at that café.
"I'm Evie." The girl said. "You've helped my friends get the dragon bracelet to save their mother." Evie responded in a hushed voice.
"Oh, I remember seeing you, are you..?" Rikki tried to ask in a subtle way.
"No. Not anymore. I lost it all a couple of months ago." Evie said.
"So, the moon took away your powers?" Rikki asked confused. "It's impossible since it can only happen every fifty years."
"What?" Evie asked clearly confused. "What happens every fifty years?"
"All the planets align and the magic is so strong it can take away your powers." Rikki described quickly in a hushed tone.
"That's not what happened." Evie responded to the older woman. "The dragon took my powers away."
"I'm sorry." Rikki said.
"It's okay, I've accepted it now and I don't have to lie to my family, which is great."
"Well, good for you." Rikki answered.
"So, what are you doing back here?" Evie asked cusiously.
"Your friends invited me to visit the pod and I want my friends to meet them. I want them to know the truth about mermaids." Rikki answered genuinely.
"That's right, they did. So you guys all fell into the moonpool?" Evie asked in a hushed tone.
"Three of us did. The other one fell into some sort of moonpool in Ireland." Rikki answered.
"There"s a moonpool over there too?" Evie asked amazed.
"Yes, it seems there are more than one moonpool around the world." Rikki stated.
"That is amazing." Evie responded.
"Rikki!" A blond woman with very tanned skin exclaimed.
"Bella!" Rikki said with a huge smile on her face.
"I'm so happy to see you again." Rikki said as she hugged her friend.
"Likewise." Bella responded while Evie just stood there awkwardly.
"I'll leave you to it." Evie said as she left the girl's table.
What Rikki and Bella did not know was that Evie, Zac, Ondina, and Wei Lan were looking at them from a far distance.
"Is she one of her merfriends?" Ondina asked.
"Probably. She told me that she invited her friends to meet the pod, so I'm sure she's one of them." Evie responded.
"You know, all of this makes me wonder, are there lots of human turned mermaids because of the moonpool?" Zac asked his friends. "I thought I was one at first, but I'm not. Does the pod know about them?"
"I asked Veridia not so long ago and she said that she did know about them. She said that she can feel everything magical that happens at Mako since she's the head of the council. She said that since they were mermaids and not merman, they were not a threat, so no one did something about them."
"That surprises me of her. She likes being in control and powerful and she hates landpeople, so I thought she would have taken their tails away or something. I'm sure there is something more to the story."
"But she didn't. I understand what you mean though. I guess Veridia is full of surprises." Ondina stated.
"Like that time she revealed I was Mimmi's brother in the chamber?" Zac laughed.
"Who was that?" Bella asked her blond friend.
"I'll tell you when Emma and Cleo get here." Rikki said to her mermaid friend.
"I can't wait to finally meet Emma. I heard so much about hear and she seems really nice." Bella answered.
"She is. I'm sure you two will get along great." Rikki said enthusiastically.
As the two blonds chit-chatted about this and that and about what their life has become, two women walked in the café looking for them. There was a blond woman and a dark-haired woman. They were best friends and the four of them were the best of friends during their teenage years. As soon as they spotted Rikki and Bella, Cleo and Emma joined them and sat at the same table.
"Cleo, Emma, I am so happy to see you!" Rikki exclaimed enthusiastically. "I've missed you so much."
"We missed you too." Cleo answered as she hugged Rikki and then Bella. Rikki then hugged Emma.
"Emma, this is Bella." Rikki said pointing to Bella. "Bella, this is Emma."
"It's so nice to finally meet you." Emma said as she hugged the long-term mermaid.
"Likewise." Bella answered. "I've heard so many great things about you. I never thought there would be more people like us in this world. It's so amazing to know that you're not even from the same continent as us."
"Neither did I until I met Rikki and Cleo." Bella answered.
"So, how did you guys all found out about each other?" Emma asked curiously as the four mermaids sat at the table.
"Well, it all happened because Mako sent a water tentacle to attack us." Cleo started to say and she stopped herself when a dark-haired girl walked up to them to take their order.
"Hi, I'm Evie and I'm filling in for my friend Carly today. What can I get you?" Evie asked the four of them.
"A mango smoothie." Bella answered.
"An apple juice." Replied Cleo.
"A tropical juice." Said Rikki.
"A banana smoothie." Emma responded.
"Perfect. I'll make sure to add straws. You don't want to get wet." Evie said and winked as she walked away to get their order.
Three of the four girls looked at each other confused and terrified. How could that waitress know they could not touch water or something woud happen.
"Does she…" Emma said.
"How?" Cleo asked.
"She cannot possibly know about us." Bella said.
Then, they all looked at Rikki who was smiling.
"That's why I wanted you guys to come here." Rikki admitted.
"You revealed our secret to someone? Was it necessary to make us come here?" Emma asked mad.
"That's not why you are all here." Rikki said.
"Why are we here?" Cleo asked.
"Because I've found the truth about mermaids." Rikki announced quietly.
"What do you mean?" Bella asked.
"Last time I was here for one of my signings, I crossed paths with three mermaids and a merman." Rikki explained in a hushed tone.
"I think we should talk about this somewhere else." Emma suggested suddenly aware of her surroundings.
Rikki walked to the counter and addressed Evie.
"Could you make the juices to go?" She asked.
"Yeah, of course." Evie answered the older mermaid. "Are you taking them to Mako?"
"Not yet. I want to explain everything first." Rikki said.
"Good luck." Evie said to Rikki.
The four mermaids were now all sitting comfortably in Cleo's old room. Don, Samantha and Kim were gone for a family day, so they had the house to themselves. They were all sitting on the bed.
"Spill." Emma demanded.
"Alright, so, two months ago, I was having a signing here for my book and I ended up meeting three special girls. They walked up to me and said vague things about one of the artifacts that I found and they ended up accusing me of being a mermaid." Rikki explained to her friends.
"How could they have guessed?" Cleo asked.
"Because of my work. You have to be stupid not to realize that no diver can go this deep, but, somehow, everyone believed me except for them, because they were mermaids as well. One of them used her powers to propel a glass of water towards me. Out of instincts, I used my power to protect myself and I blew my cover." Rikki explained.
"So, other girls fell into the moonpool." Emma stated.
"Not exactly." Rikki said.
"What do you mean?" Bella asked.
"They did not fall into the moonpool. They were born mermaids." Rikki said.
"What?" Emma asked.
"This is amazing." Bella answered.
"Really." Cleo said.
"They live in a pod and there are pods all around the world. There are about a hundred mermaids per pod." Rikki said.
"I can't believe there are so many mermaids around the world. How come we never saw any of them?" Bella asked clearly curious about the situation.
"I was wondering the same thing, but I do know that they do not want to be found and that they have way more powers than us." Rikki said.
"More powers?" Cleo asked.
"Yeah. They can make themselves invisible they have all the powers we have and even more." Rikki said to her mermaid friends.
"Really?" Bella asked really interested by all of this.
"How come we don"t have those powers?" Emma asked.
"I don't know, but I know who we can ask." Rikki announced to her friends.
"Who?" Cleo asked.
"The head of the mermaid council." Rikki answered the brunette.
"There's a mermaid council?" Emma asked skeptical.
"Apparently there is." Rikki said. "I haven't met them, but I heard about them."
"From the three mermaids you met." Cleo said like she was only trying to convince herself that it was real.
"Wait, didn't you say you also met a merman?" Emma asked.
"I did. He's the brother of one of the mermaids and also the boyfriend of the girl you saw at the café." Rikki explained. "It turned out that one the the artifacts I found was necessary to them. Their mother was trapped under a spell as a water dragon."
"A water dragon?" Emma asked skeptical.
"I know, I had a hard time believing it too, but it was real. They really needed the bracelet, but I refused because I was giving it to a charity." Rikki explained to her friends.
"Rikki." Cleo scolded.
"I know. It was a dumb move at first, but I was so caught up in my work and I did not want to think about magic anymore, so I just told them they were delusional." Rikki admitted a bit embarrassed.
"Didn't you remember the water tentacle and how it attacked us?" Cleo asked.
"What water tentacle?" Emma asked them.
"Right, we did not get to finish our story." Rikki stated.
"We found out about each other because of the tentacle." Cleo said. "It was created by the full moon to attack us, well, that's what we thought, but it was truly trying to get us to the moonpool to warn us about a comet that was going to hit Earth."
"What?" Emma asked clearly confused and a bit skeptical about the situation.
"Anyway, we used our powers and boom, the comet was gone. Anyway, the tentacle attacked Rikki and dragged her in the canal near Rikki's and it revealed her tail to Bella. I jumped in the water to go to Rikki's rescue and Bella dove in too." Cleo explained. "Anyway, that's how we found out about each other."
"That's an interesting story." Emma commented.
"To continue my story, the day after I met the three mermaids, I went to the moonpool to see it again and they found me." Rikki said. "I opened up to them about how I became a mermaid and how I missed you guys so m]uch. They made me realize that you guys are like my sister and that if I don't give them the bracelet, they would lose their pod, their sisters." Rikki said.
"Aww, you have a heart." Emma teased her blond friend.
"I do. I didn't want them to lose what I lost." Rikki said.
"What are you talking about?" Cleo asked. "You never lost anything."
"That's not what I felt." Rikki admitted. "Cleo, you left for the States. Emma, you left for France. Bella, you moved farther away with Will and I toured all around Australia. I did feel like I lost my friends. We weren't speaking to each other anymore and we were all doing our own thing forgetting what united us all."
"I'm sorry, Rikki. I did not know you felt that way." Cleo said immediately hugging her friend.
"I don't live that far away, we can still see each other often enough." Bella added.
"I was not planning on staying in the States forever. I just want to finish my studies." Cleo admitted.
"I was already looking for apartments here to move back to Australia." Emma said to her friends. "I love France, but I miss Australia's waters too much. I realized that I neglected the mermaid side of me to do my own thing, but the truth is, I miss swimming in the sea everyday."
"I feel like we've been neglecting who we truly are in the last couple of years and speaking with those mermaids made me realize that we cannot run away from our true selves." Rikki said to her friends.
"You are absolutely right, Rikki." Emma said.
"So, was the waitress at the café one of those mermaids?" Cleo asked curiously.
"Not exactly." Rikki said.
"But she knows about us." Bella added.
"She's the merman's girlfriend and she's been a mermaid for a short while." Rikki explained.
"How could she have lost her powers? It only happens every fifty years and it happened ten years ago." Cleo stated.
"Remember when I mentioned the water dragon?" Rikki asked. "The sole purpose of the dragon was to destroy mermaids, so it took away her tail and she can never have it again."
"Wow. I can't believe there is so much more magic than we thought in this world." Cleo said to her friends.
"So, she knows about us because she's friends with the three mermaids I met." Rikki said.
"Alright, everything seems to make sense." Bella stated.
"Anyway, I invited you all here so we could go meet the pod together." Rikki said to her best friends.
"Haven't you already met it?" Emma asked.
"I haven't. I only met a couple of members." Rikki said.
"Alright. I'm down." Emma said.
"Me too." Cleo added.
"I can't wait to meet real mermaids." Bella said excitedly.
"Hello?" Mimmi greeted as she answered her newly bought phone.
"Mimmi, it's Rikki." The older mermaid said.
"Oh, hey. I heard you were in town." Mimmi stated.
"Indeed." Rikki said. "Your friend Evie kindly gave me your number this morning."
"So, how can I help you?" The northern mermaid asked.
"I've gathered my friends and I want them to meet the pod, to know the truth about mermaids." Rikki explained.
"That's great." Mimmi said. "Do you want me to take you to the pod?"
"As a matter of fact, I do." Rikki answered.
"How about we meet at the café in an hour?" Mimmi suggested.
"Works for me." Rikki said. "I'm so excited."
"Great, I'll see you then." Mimmi said as she hung up.
Mimmi was sitting at a table at the Ocean Café waiting for the woman who helped her save her mother and her three friends to show up. Honestly, Mimmi was really excited to meet land girls turned into mermaids that had no idea real mermaids existed. She was really excited to get their side of the story.
"Mimmi." A voice called from behind her.
"Rikki." Mimmi answered. "I'm so glad you took my offer."
"Me too." Rikki responded. "So, this is Cleo, Bella and Emma." Rikki said as she pointed to each girl.
"I'm so happy to meet you all. Your story is fascinating." Mimmi said to the girls.
"So is yours." Cleo answered immediately.
"Alright, so you are here so I can take you to the pod, right?" Mimmi asked.
"Yes." Rikki said.
"Then, follow me." Mimmi said.
Mimmi took the four girls to a secluded part of the beach and they all dived in. Cleo, Emma and Bella were so happy to finally dive in Australian's waters again. It felt so good, so natural. It felt like home.
Mimmi led the way to the Northern reef of Mako, where the pod usually was. The swam for a good fifteen minutes before they surfaced again.
"So, the pod is usually around here." Mimmi said and simultaneously, Veridia and most mermaids of the pod appeared near them including Nerissa, Rita, Ondina, Wei Lan, Sirena, Nixie, Lyla and Zac.
"Mimmi. I see you've brought company." Veridia said with a not so genuine smile.
"They are the land girls we told you about." Mimmi responded to her leader.
"Yes, I know." Veridia responded.
"You knew about us?" Cleo asked as she swam closer.
"I don't mean to be rude, but who are you?" Rikki asked.
"I'm Veridia, head of the mermaid council." The older mermaid introduced herself. "And yes, I've known about you since you turned into mermaids."
"How?" Emma asked nervously.
"I'm the most powerful mermaid in the pod." Veridia said.
Mimmi cleared her throat as to indicate what she said was not true.
"One of the most powerful." Mimmi said as she looked at her mother, but she didn't miss Veridia's death glare. She still did not like Nerissa.
"Anyway." Veridia said dryly. "Since I'm the leader of the pod, I can feel Mako's magic and I felt it when you were in the moonpool under the full moon."
"Why didn't you do anything about them?" Ondina asked curiously and honestly, she wanted to know Veridia's real motives.
"Well, they are mermaids and not mermen, so they aren't a threat." Veridia said.
"There's more to it." Rita implied.
"Can we please know the truth." Emma demanded.
"Alright, so, the truth is, you girls had a destiny." Veridia said.
"What do you mean?" Rikki asked.
"When I became the leader of the pod, I learned lots of amazing things about mermaids and their history. Of course most of it consisted of the war between mermaids and mermen, but then I found a very interesting book. It was the story of a land girl turned into a mermaid hundreds of years ago. That girl saved the world from destruction when she stopped a comet from colliding with Earth using her powers." Veridia started to explain.
Three of the four girls looked at each other with wide eyes.
"Is the girl called Eva?" Bella asked.
"Yes." Veridia answered. "How did you know?"
"I found her story online when we faced the same situation." Bella answered.
"Right, that's how you found out how to save all of us." Veridia said.
"Wait, why couldn't we do something about it?" Ondina asked suddenly insulted that she couldn't complete such a noble task.
"Ondina, do you remember that time all sea creatures started to act crazy and we all hid at the deepest part of the ocean?" Veridia asked the fierce mermaid.
"How could I forget? We all thought we would die." Ondina added.
"Do you remember how our powers were going crazy?" Veridia asked. "Somehow, the comet was having a huge impact on Mako Island and its magic. Therefore, we could not use our powers properly. When Erik tried to suck the magic out of the moonpool, every mermaid was affected except for one."
"Evie." Mimmi said.
"Mako magic doesn't always affect landpeople turned into merpeople. That's why we could not do anything about the comet, but these girls could." Veridia said proudly.
"Wait, I did not do anything for the comet." Emma added.
"But you have. You might not have known how much you've helped, but you have." Veridia said to Emma.
"How?" Emma asked.
"Do you remember your trip to Ireland?" Veridia asked.
"How could I forget, it was a really special and eery place." Emma said.
"How come?" Bella asked suddenly interested since she turned into a mermaid there.
"I found another place that looked like the moonpool." Emma said.
"That's probably where I turned into a mermaid." Bella said.
"I was in the cave the night of a full moon and when the full moon passed over the pool some kind of magic beam was propelled into the sky. I didn't know id I was responsible for it, but it was just plain weird."
"Let me tell you what happened. That was the cave where Eva was when she saved the world using her magic. When you entered that pool under the full moon, it sensed your magical energy and used part of it to send the signal to Mako Island. That's how the whole mechanism with the water tentacle started and that's how Rikki, Cleo and Bella were warned against the comet."
"Couldn't we just tell them?" Lyla asked. "You knew about it. We could have warned them and trained them to save us from the comet."
"They have accomplished the task on their own and that's what was needed." Veridia said.
"What do you mean?" Nixie asked her leader. "Would it have changed something if they knew about real mermaids and the threat that was coming?"
"Do you girls always have to contradict me?" Veridia asked Lyla and Nixie dryly.
"There was a prophecy." Nerissa added. "It was said that the saviors would uncover the secrets of their magic by themselves to save us all and that any born-mermaids interfering would ruin their chance of saving the world."
"And you believed that?" Wei Lan asked.
"Magic is a really powerful thing and it has to be used the way it wants to or something bad might happen. If the girls knew about their true destiny, magic might not have worked the same for them." Rita added.
"Alright, I guess that makes sense." Rikki added.
"One thing is still bothering me though." Cleo said and Veridia looked at her amused. "Rikki said that you guys have more powers than us. How come?"
"We don't have more powers than you." Veridia said.
"All mermaids that were born in the ocean have one power that is learn naturally and it depends on each mermaid. They learn how to use their other powers throughout mermaid school. For example, the first power I developed was to boil water." Lyla explained to the four girls. "Sirena learned to move water first and Nixie learned to move objects with her mind first."
"Once you've acquired that power, you need to be taught to use the others. That is why you girls could only use one power in particular." Sirena said to the four girls.
"Could we ever learn how to use our other powers?" Cleo asked curiously.
"Of course with time and practice." Rita responded.
"Can someone teach us?" Emma asked.
"I think Rita and Ondina would be happy to teach you guys." Veridia said.
"Yes, of course." Rita said. "I love to teach."
"It will be a change to teach mature mermaids and not the little ones." Ondina responded.
"We can start right now." Ondina said happily.
"Well, we need to get back to our lives on land, but maybe when we are done with schools, we could take a long vacation and live with you guys for a little while." Emma suggested. She's always had a thirst for knowledge and born-mermaids were fascinating to her.
"I'd like that." Rikki said.
"Me too." Bella added.
"That would be amazing." Cleo said.
Ooo
"I can't believe that happened today." Emma said to her friends.
The four of them were sitting in Cleo's bedroom and were reflecting about what they have just lived.
"I know, right." Rikki added.
"I always thought we were the only mermaids out here. I never thought there would be more, yet alone hundreds of mermaids." Bella said.
"I wonder what it's like to live as a mermaid in the ocean." Rikki asked.
"It would be nice to not worry about jobs, money and school." Cleo said.
"Well, there would still be mermaid school." Emma said to her friends.
"That doesn't count, it's not regular school." Bella said.
"Do you really want to live with them for a while?" Rikki asked Emma.
"Why not? It would be fantastic to learn more about what we are and how real mermaids live." Emma said.
"We are real mermaids." Rikki said.
"You know what I mean." Emma said to Rikki.
"I think it would be an amazing experience to live with them." Cleo added.
"Me too." Bella said.
And that is it. I am so excited for that story. I was so happy when I saw that Rikki would appear in the third season of Mako Mermaids. I hope you all enjoyed it :D
Peace out :)