Chapter 4-Unexpected Visitors
"If I could face them. If I could make amends. With all my shadows. I'd bow my head and welcome them." ~Excerpt from I of the Storm, Of Monsters and Men
A/N: The excitement will begin soon, and I'm really falling in love with this story. I'll probably update at least once each week when school starts, but I don't know for sure. I would like to promise that I would update, but with Chinese class every Sunday, school on weekdays, and guitar class on Wednesdays, I can really only update on Friday or Saturday. Maybe Sunday. Now, on with the story! Enjoy. ;)
A lone figure sat on a large, flat rock. He shifted his position as the pre-dawn light hit his peripheral vision. Hard. He winced and mentally chastised himself. Get it together, Erik, get it together. The boy, Erik, inhaled the blissful scent of familiar sea water. His blue eyes, always vivid, cut through the infinite blues of the ocean. The gray-blue sky was now tinged with violet, and Erik enjoyed the sight.
He often liked looking up at the sky. Whether it was the pale gray-blue of the pre-dawn, the bright, vivid azure of afternoon, the ethereal, fiery oranges mingling with violets and reds of the sunset, or the dark night sky framed out by the moon and stars—stars that seemed to dance around the moon—Erik enjoyed it. The beauty was enough to distract him from any sort of worries, and Erik often found himself staring upwards for hours.
Again, memories flowed through Erik's restless mind, easier than currents, faster than streams, quiet as creeks. Mako, trident, land entrance, full moon, merfolk... Again and again, the thoughts flowed restlessly, not helping Erik's growing headache. Erik froze as he heard footsteps—albeit quiet footsteps—head his way. Erik turned slightly, and through his peripheral vision, Erik saw a boy about his age with messy, dirty-blonde hair and eyes the color of the pre-dawn, which was making its way towards dawn. "Who are you?" Erik called out.
"No one's usually here on Mako Island this early in the day," the boy responded.
"Then why are you here?" Erik demanded, standing up now.
"Fair point," the boy answered breezily. His gray-blue eyes twinkled. "My name is Cam. Cam Mitchell. And who might you be?"
Erik paused for a moment but immediately dismissed any lingering thoughts. It didn't matter if he didn't trust this Cam person. A name wouldn't really mean anything. Then, Erik's interest was piqued. If Cam was here on Mako early this morning... could he possibly know something? "My name is Erik," Erik answered glibly. Then, he glanced upward. "Do you know anything about Mako?"
Cam seemed pleased that Erik had asked that question. "Sure. Loads."
Erik waited for Cam to elaborate, but when he didn't, Erik said, "Any legends?"
Cam laughed. "Oh, there are plenty of legends. Some speak of mermen and tridents..." Cam murmured, smiling devilishly. "Some speak of land entrances..." Then, Cam's gaze, now shadowed so that it looked dark and gray, flicked to Erik. "Why?" The question was innocent enough, but Erik knew that Cam knew something. For one, Cam didn't dismiss the thought about there being 'mermen' out there. Erik needed to take advantage of that.
"Just curious," Erik said smoothly. "Do you believe the legends?"
"Sure," Cam said, gaze revealing nothing and everything. "I mean, what's not to believe in?"
"What about mermen?" Erik pressed. Then, he realized that he sounded too desperate. "I mean, out of curiosity, of course."
"Of course," Cam murmured, voice dangerously low. Then, Cam smiled. "You're one of them, aren't you?"
"What do you mean?" Erik said, shooting Cam a quizzical look.
"A merman. That's why you wanted to know about Mako. You reacted when I talked about land entrances and tridents." Erik had to give Cam credit: he was observant. Erik had only reacted slightly, but Cam seemed to have caught it. "I'm on your side, mate," Cam said smoothly. "I mean, there's another merman here. Kind of my enemy. A traitor nonetheless. And four mermaids, too."
"Really?" Erik's eyes flashed at the new information.
"Yeah," Cam said, smiling devilishly. "I can tell you all you need to know. All I ask for in return is your help."
"Cam's up to something," Zac said.
"Oh great. What are you—master of obvious?" Nixie answered back sarcastically.
Zac turned to Lyla. He trusted her the most—and Nixie retorting snarkily to everything he said lowered Nixie's points on his mental trust list. Lyla frowned a little, her azure eyes flashing. Then, she finally said, "If he's up to something, we have to find out what. I mean, if he wanted to expose us, he would've done it already." She shrugged. "But there's really nothing we can do. He won't speak to us."
"True," Zac agreed. His gaze landed on Nixie. Nixie's blue gaze narrowed to azure slits, but this time, she had no snarky response. Zac felt triumph, but it was short-lived. He glanced up as someone entered Ocean Cafe. The guy was quite handsome actually with blonde hair styled to perfection and blue eyes the color of the oceans. No doubt someone who was a player. Or a heart breaker. And he had attracted the mermaids' attention, too.
"You jealous, Zac?" Lyla teased him, watching him eying Erik.
Zac scoffed. "No, I..." He scoffed again. "No."
"Because he's handsome and blue-eyed—qualities you blatantly don't have?" Lyla teased.
Zac frowned at that. "You think he's handsome?" Somehow, that bothered Zac to levels he didn't know. It did a little more than just irk him. He glanced wearily at the guy before turning back to Lyla. Her blue eyes sparkled with amusement, and a flush crept over her cheeks, which made her look prettier—not that she needed any help in that department.
"Sure," Lyla said, watching his reaction carefully. Zac noted that. Zac grimaced. He didn't mean to, but he could help it. Lyla smiled and squeezed his hand, something Zac did not expect. But it was comforting, and Zac suddenly became conscious of Sirena's and Nixie's gazes on them. Lyla smiled coolly at Zac. "Don't worry, land boy," she murmured, tone teasing. There was a faintly sensual note to her voice.
"I never worry," Zac declared, her tone radiated the same sensuality.
Nixie and Sirena exchanged glances—like they could tell what was going on. Zac was just teasing Lyla, he was flirting with her. Zac suddenly felt guilty as he remembered his last discussion with Evie. Shifting uneasily, Zac cockily tilted his head to the side. Then, he frowned. "Who do you think he is?"
"Some random land dweller?" Lyla offered.
A smile lit up Sirena's face. "I have to practice with David!"
Zac chuckled at Sirena's girlish enthusiasm. It was contagious. He watched her go. Then, he frowned and leaned closer to Lyla and Nixie. "Look, that new guy's talking to David." He was once again unnerved by his closeness with Lyla. Not so much Nixie. "What does he want?"
"A job?" Nixie mused.
"That's actually not bad thinking on your part," Zac mused.
Nixie gaped at him. "Excuse you?"
Lyla laughed. "He's right, you know?"
Nixie scoffed, scowling. "Thanks a lot."
Zac took a deep breath. He didn't like this mysterious guy. Sure, Zac had some personal reasons as well as political. But there was something about him that Zac couldn't trust. Zac frowned as he watched Sirena head back to them. Her face was careful, and her naturally bright blue eyes were solemn. "His name is Erik. He was applying for a job at Ocean Cafe."
"Strange," Lyla mused.
Strange indeed.
Lyla dove into the calm waters outside of Ocean Cafe. Nixie, Sirena, and Zac followed her simultaneously. Lyla felt a strange sort of tranquility flow through her as she sped into the moon pool. She surfaced, and her friends surfaced after her. Lyla saw Zac's gaze landed on the trident stone. She felt a wave of sympathy for her friend as Zac's gaze darkened. Zac saw her watching him, and he smiled sort of sheepishly. His unease added more to his cute boyishness.
"Tell me again why we're checking this place again," Nixie said with a roll of her eyes.
Lyla hid a smile. "Patience."
Nixie stared at her incredulously. "Where have you been for the past few months? You should know that patience isn't my strong suit." Nixie cocked her head almost comically. Then, she sighed. "Can we get back to Ocean Cafe now? The prawns were calling my name."
Lyla gasped as a splash sounded through the moon pool. Her incredulity and surprise grew considerably as she saw two mermaids surface through the water. She recognized these two... Lyla gaped at them. What were they doing here? "Mimmi?! Ondina?! What're you guys doing here?!"
Mimmi and Ondina exchanged a glance. Finally, Mimmi said, "Well, I guess you could say that we were summoned here."
Lyla exchanged a glance with Zac, who was floating protectively in front of her. Lyla squeezed his hand. "Zac, don't worry. They were our old pod mates." When Zac didn't falter, Lyla sighed exasperatedly. She was touched by his concern but didn't need him to start an unnecessary battle. "Please. They won't hurt us."
Her plaintive cry finally broke him. He moved back to his spot next to her, but she could see that his guard was still up. Lyla turned back to Ondina and Mimmi. "I think you two have your fair share of explaining to do. Come on. Let's go to Rita's."
"Rita's?" Mimmi echoed.
"Yeah," Sirena said. "Rita's a friend."
Mimmi didn't like animals—ocean creatures excluded. She thought that land animals were kind of crazy and all. And all of the fur they had—well, some of them had fur, others were exceptions. It was just kind of weird and freaky. So you can imagine Mimmi's surprise when she met Poseidon. Mimmi screamed and ran out of the room. It took the others two hours to find her and coax her out. Poseidon, on the other hand, seemed thrilled at Mimmi's displeasure.
"It had its fur bunched up so it looked like some hairy monster with glowing yellow eyes!" Mimmi exclaimed.
"Poseidon's not a monster," Sirena said.
"And his eyes are yellow-green," Ondina added, absentmindedly stroking Poseidon.
Mimmi shot a look of betrayal at her friend for stroking the evil puffball of death. How could Ondina not be afraid of that evil ball of white fluff?! Okay, sure Poseidon was fluffy. And sure, he was cute. But still, underneath that fluffy personality was a pure evil and darkness. Mimmi shivered, turning away from Poseidon.
Rita smiled and turned to Mimmi. "This reminds me of when Lyla, Nixie, and Sirena first met Poseidon. They were scared, too, as they had never seen a cat before, but they had grown fond of him." Rita's gaze turned affectionate as it landed on the long-haired Chinchilla. "Poseidon won't bite."
"But he can," Mimmi pointed out, stepping back nervously.
"Of course he can," Nixie scoffed. "He's a cat."
"But he'll treat you the same way that you treat him," Lyla said. Then, she frowned. "Actually, that's not quite right. In your case, he seems to adore you pain." She laughed a little. "He's a sadistic little fellow." But Lyla smiled at Poseidon affectionately. The cat purred a little and sat down on his haunches, looking very pleased with himself.
Rita frowned. "Ondina, Mimmi, what're you two doing here?"
Mimmi exchanged a glance with Ondina and sighed. "It's not easy to explain."
"Actually, it is," Ondina said. "Sort of." She shifted uneasily. "I mean, we were sent here to help remove the land boy's powers." Ondina made a face, grimacing. "And he knows where the moon pool is. Fantastic. Just great." The sarcasm in Ondina's tone shielded some of her uneasiness, but Mimmi could sense it. Ondina had an uncanny ability to shield her emotion, thus why she hadn't seemed all that surprised or scared when she had met Poseidon.
"We've tried," Sirena said softly. "Nothing really works."
Mimmi scoffed. "Then you aren't trying hard enough!"
"We're doing the best we can, but it's not an easy job to do," Lyla retorted sharply, azure gaze narrowed to ocean-colored slits. The girl had a fierce personality, no doubt. "If you were here, you'd know. Besides, if you can't get rid of his powers, you shouldn't be complaining."
Zac sighed. "You can't blame them," Zac defended. "After all, what with Cam plotting revenge, it's not that easy to fabricate new ways to get rid of my powers."
"Who's Cam?" Ondina inquired, interest piqued.
"He's a traitor," Lyla said. "That's all you need to know."
Mimmi noted that Nixie shifted uncomfortably at the mention of Cam. "Wait... does he know? Does he know that you guys are merfolk?" Mimmi inquired, feeling a terrible sense of foreboding. From bad to worse. She hadn't expected others to know. This job was going to be a little harder than she had previously anticipated.
"Yeah," Nixie said, rolling her eyes.
"Does anyone else know?" Ondina demanded.
Everyone shifted uncomfortably, and Mimmi groaned. "How many others?"
"Just Evie, but she won't tell anyone," Zac said. He must've seen the question in Mimmi's and Ondina's eyes because he added, "Evie's my girlfriend. She's a land girl, and... she's not bad. She'll help us protect the secret. She wouldn't betray us like Cam did."
Mimmi scowled. "That's all, right?"
"So what are you guys planning on doing to get rid of my powers?" Zac said dryly.
Mimmi took a deep breath. "We'll craft up a plan before the next full moon. Don't worry."
If only Mimmi felt as confident as she sounded.
QotD: What do you think the plan to get rid of Zac's powers will be?
2nd QotD: What do you think Erik and Cam's plans are?
A/N: Review your answer to the QotD! I'm going to try to stick to the original Mako Mermaids plot line, so a few things here and there are going to be the same. I honestly don't know how Mimmi and Ondina reacted to Poseidon in season 2, so... that's kind of how I did it. I originally planned on finishing this chapter yesterday, but time got away with me. So I'll try to post another chapter today, which will (hopefully) be easy.
Well, thanks for reading! Reviews are appreciated (criticism and praise) though not necessary. But what writer doesn't like reviews? ;)
~Darkwind
