Words: 2,208

Aurora's arrival at Mako. This is set in 1984, I have a timeline drawn up and will be in the AN note at the end.

Enjoy!

It was the fifth day of swimming that they finally reached Mako island. Marisol had at first been adamant about not stopping for too long wanting to get there as quick as possible, but after Aurora had nearly fallen asleep more than once while trying to keep swimming, she'd given in.

Marisol was in a far better mood than Aurora had ever seen before. She had even stopped to let Aurora collect some shells on their journey south as to replace the ones broken from the day before they left. Aurora had said she didn't want to go to Mako and Marisol hadn't reacted the best. Aurora still had the marks on her upper arm from when Marisol had grabbed her before smashing the shells that had packed in a bag for Aurora to take with her to Mako. It just looked like she'd bashed into some coral, so Marisol saw no reason to heal the bruises over.

Nguyet had seen those marks on her arm. Nguyet had said nothing about them, neither had Chelsea or Callie. Ambrose had waited until Marisol went off to speak to Chau before quietly telling her how he glad he was that she would be away from Marisol. She was too. Marisol may be her Mother, but those rare times she was away from her were the only times Aurora felt safe. The others didn't care enough to watch her constantly and report her movements back to Marisol, so she had meagre doses of freedom. They may not have liked her, besides Ambrose at least, but they didn't like seeing her hurt. She saw how they looked at her whenever Marisol lost her temper and she suffered the consequences. They looked at her with pity.

The waters around the island were the warmest Aurora had ever swam in and the reefs were so bright. She'd lived her whole life in Northern waters, the only time they were warm was the shallows in the Summer months, if Summer ever came.

Still, the closer they got to Mako the tighter she clutched her bag of shells, the closer she swam to Marisol and the more the eels in her stomach writhed. The gravity of the whole situation crept up on her - she was being left alone with a Pod of Mermaids she didn't know in an unfamiliar ocean halfway across the world from everyone and everything she'd ever known. It scared her.

Marisol took her before a group of three elder Mermaids in the Mako Moon Pool. Aurora had only been in a Moon Pool once before back when they had stayed in the Celtic Sea on the south coast of the land called Ireland. The one who spoke directly to Marisol wore an extravagant amount of shells tied and woven into her dark hair keeping it back off her tanned face. It was a kind face, yet Aurora was wary. Marisol had a kind face. Marisol wasn't kind.

"This is your daughter then?" The Mermaid with the extravagant shells asked. Marisol had explained she'd travelled South to see if there was any chance the Pod would accept her daughter, based on tales she'd heard of Mako's welcoming atmosphere towards other Mermaids from all waters.

"Yes," Marisol replied,"this is my daughter, Rita."

Marisol had told her wasn't allowed to use her name. 'Aurora' wasn't meant to be her anymore, she was 'Rita' now. She was supposed to loose her accent too and replace it with the local one that the rest of the Pod used. Until then she was supposed to speak as little as possible so that no Mermaid would be able to look back sometime in the future and remember she had once been different from them.

Aurora lowered her head and studied the water. She didn't like how the tanned, blonde Mermaid beside the Mermaid who was speaking looked at her. It made her uneasy, the same way she felt when she knew Marisol was angry. The other Mermaid seemed nicer. She had dark skin and black curly hair and had smiled brightly at Aurora, before she had lowered her head.

"What situation has made it so you have need to leave her with us?" the middle one asked.

"Things are changing up North, Selene. I'm worried for my daughter's safety. I want her to be safe and I believe this is the safest place for her."

Aurora lifted her head again. The blonde whispered something to Selene. Selene turned to the Mermaid who had smiled at Aurora, who also whispered something.

"Rita can stay with us," Selene announced, "She'll be accepted into the Pod as one of our own."

Aurora swallowed. She was free of Marisol. So why did she so desperately want to cry and beg Marisol not to leave her?

"I have to go now sweetie," Marisol smiled so sweetly at her before she hugged her,"Be good mija*, I will see you again."

Aurora hugged her back. She didn't want to be left alone. She'd rather be trapped in that cave again at the mercy of her mother's temper, than alone.

"You are welcome to stay and rest Marisol before you return North," Selene offered.

"Thank you for the kind offer but I have to return. It was a longer swim here than I had expected. The poor dear almost didn't make it," Marisol said, smiling at Aurora while she spoke the last part. Aurora hadn't been used to swimming long distances, she'd never been allowed to swim far and found the swim hard.

"Safe travels then. And don't worry your daughter will be looked after well."

Marisol smiled sadly, "I have no doubt she will."

The Mermaid slipped under the surface and Aurora felt the water brush against her fin as Marisol swam out. Aurora kept her head down and caught a flash of orange as Marisol left her.

"How old are you Rita?" Selene asked her.

Aurora hesitated slightly. That name sounded so odd. It wasn't her name. Yet it was now. She didn't like the whole situation.

"Six."

She inwardly winced at her voice. She sounded so scared and didn't think her accent had ever been so noticeable with just one word before.

"There are a few other Mermaids your age here, you'll fit in with them. They'll be training with you in Mermaid School. Has your Mother given you any training?"

Marisol hadn't. She'd gotten Ambrose to teach Aurora everything she knew, but Aurora wasn't allowed to mention Ambrose. Not many Mermaids liked Mermen and it would put Ambrose in danger. "You don't want Ambrose to get hurt because of you, do you? After everything he's done for you, it would hardly be fair to him."

"A little."

She could manipulate water well enough and could hold invisibilty for ten counts. She'd been starting to get the hang of freezing water but the last lesson hadn't ended too well.

"This is Kelby," Selene looked to the dark skinned Mermaid beside her, " she's one of the teachers for the Pod, she will be instructing your class on how to use your Powers.

Aurora lifted her head again and smiled slightly at Kelby.

"And this is Vanora."

The blonde Mermaid smiled, "welcome to our Pod Rita."

Aurora had always thought the whole idea of Pods and their importance wasn't real, that it was just something played up for some reason, but the sudden change in Vanora's attitude was enough to convince her it was real. And now she was a part of that.

Aurora swam slowly only centimetres above the sand between the outcrops of reef. She wasn't sure what to do. Vanora had left to get one of the other Mermaids the same age as her, Veridia, and had taken her bag of shells to one of the caves.

Aurora didn't like not having them with her but when Vanora had offered she hadn't wanted to refuse. Selene had said she could start exploring the reef, if she wasn't too tired from swimming. She had been but she liked the idea of going to the reef, there were so many different fish she'd never seen before and even a turtle. She hadn't seen any turtles before.

She stopped beside some branched coral. There were seahorses with their tails curled to the coral. One of the smaller ones came loose and tried to wrap its tail around her finger. She giggled slightly and a small stream of bubbles came out her mouth. She hovered her hand beside the coral and the little seahorse reattached to the coral.

There were sharks too. She'd seen sharks before, even been trapped by some until some dolphins scared them off one time, but the ones here seemed friendlier. Ambrose told her sharks that lived around Mermaids were more aggressive to humans but kinder to Mermaids. One of the Mako sharks had swum right up to her and gently bumped its snout against her hand. It swum off happy once she'd gently tickled its snout.

Aurora swam up to the surface. It was so warm here. The island loomed above her, the sloping sand shores giving way to jungle. This was the closest she'd been to land. Kelby told her they were allowed to go right up to Mako, some Mermaids often sunbathed in the very shallows, but they weren't allowed anywhere near the mainland to the West. Land people lived there and it was too dangerous for Mermaids.

Soft splashes behind her made her spin around quickly. It's rude to ignore people. There were three Mermaids, one looked slightly older than her with hair that looked vaguely red. The other two were both blonde.

"The new Mermaid. I'm Coral, what's your name?" the redhead asked.

"Au-" she began before remembering that wasn't meant to be her anymore, " my name's Rita."

"Why do you talk weird?" One of the blondes asked.

"Because she's not from here Ula," the other blonde said.

"Where are you from then, Rita?" Coral spoke again.

She didn't actually know. She'd lived in multiple places - the Celtic Sea, Irish Sea, the English Channel, the North Sea even the Barents Sea* for a few Moon Cycles.

"I don't know," she admitted.

"You don't know where you're from? Really?" Coral asked, apparently not believing her. Aurora backed off slightly. She didn't know these Mermaids, she didn't know what they would do, or if they were even a threat to her.

Another Mermaid surfaced, only she appeared in front of Aurora, facing Coral, Ula and whoever the other blonde was.

"Leave her alone Coral. She's already terrified, so you've won. Go and celebrate somewhere else and take your ramoras away with you."

Coral looked ready to say something in return. The newcomer made a move to swim forward and Coral backed off.

"We were only teasing," Coral said defensively.

"And now you're done. So go."

The Mermaids ducked under the water and disappeared.

The new Mermaid turned around to face her and Aurora was reminded instantly of Vanora. She had the same colour of eyes and a similar face.

"You're the new Mermaid aren't you? Rita, isn't it?" She asked.

Aurora just nodded.

"I'm Veridia. Vanora asked me to show you around Mako."

"Oh. Thank you."

Veridia tilted her head slightly. She seemed to be studying Aurora.

"Your accent is weird."

Aurora didn't know what to say.

"I like it though."

Aurora smiled slightly.

"I can show you where the sleeping caves are. Vanora left your stuff there for you. Do you have any cool shells?"

"Some." She picked up a lot of unusual ones on the way to Mako that she'd never seen before. Maybe they were common here though. She liked them though.

"I'll show you mine. There's a good place out past the reefs closer to the forbidden land that always has lots of shells. We're not really allowed out there but no one notices as long as you're not out there to long. I think I've got too many shells now but no one mind."

"You're allowed to keep all your shells?" Marisol had always restricted her possessions. Aurora wasn't allowed to hide anything from her, not even the smallest Cowrie shell.

"Yeah." Veridia said it as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, "At Mermaid School we have to take some in with us when Meredith asks us to and we all identify them. It's kind of boring but we start using our Powers soon so things will get more interesting then."

Aurora just nodded. Until today she'd never spoken to any Mermaid the same age as her, the closest had been Brooke, who was sixteen. She had no idea what to do or say.

"You don't talk much do you?" Veridia asked.

Aurora shook her head, "sorry."

"You don't need to be sorry. The others talk way too much, Cordelia and Ula are the worst - I've met seagulls quieter than them."

Aurora managed to laugh. If more of the Mermaids were like Veridia and less like Coral, maybe she would actually fit in at Mako. Mako could actually be a real home for her and Marisol would never be able to get to her again.

* "mija" Spanish - daughter

* The Barents Sea is off the north west coast of Russia

1978 - Aurora's born

1984 - Aurora joins Mako Pod

1998 - Mimmi is born

2000 - Zac is born

2004 - Mimmi is left at Mako by Nerissa and Zac is left on land

2004 (after Mimmi left at Mako) - Aurora/Rita leaves Mako

2004 - Nerissa is turned into the Dragon and destroys Eastern Pod

2015 - Zac falls into Moon Pool

2016 - Dragon appears at Mako

I know s1 of Mako was released in 2013 but I counted up how many Full Moons there were over the course of Mako and got 13 (including the two between s1 and s2 and I guessed there was one Moon between s2 and s3/4) which means the events of Mako all took place in just over a year, so for timelines sake I made it 2015 Zac was turned.