Chapter 10
"Can I borrow the book?" Rikki asked Lewis. She wanted to have a look over some things that had caught her eye a few days before.
"Sure – but don't do anything stupid or rash…should I really be letting you use this?"
Rikki rolled her eyes. "I'm not a kid anymore Lewis, I won't do anything too bad…"
She saw his weary expression and laughed, "Don't worry Lewis, trust me, I won't do anything rash."
"Okay…I am trusting you," He gave her the book cautiously.
Rikki would be looking after the younger kids that day while the older ones were at school and the adults at work. The kids sat on the living room carpet in pairs or threes, depending on their ages. Rikki chuckled to herself as she saw Stefani shoving one of Leila's Barbies into her mouth and Amelia crawling all over the game that her sons were playing with. She took the Barbie off Stefani and sat down on the couch.
"Mum!" Alex yelled, "Get her off our game!"
"Alex," Rikki said calmly, "Don't shout," she looked back down to the book on mermaid mythology.
After a few more minutes of Amelia continuing crawling all over the game much to the boys' horror, Alex came over to his mother with prompting from Jay and asked her nicely to get Amelia away. She got up and picked Amy up and took her over to where Stefani was and they ended up playing together with a couple of glasses of water that Rikki provided freezing and turning it into jelly.
Once all the kids were settled, she opened the mythology book. She turned to the contents page.
Chapter 1: Mermaids
Chapter 2: Basic Powers
Chapter 3: New Powers
Chapter 4: Weather Control
Chapter 5: Wish Giving
Chapter 6: Healing Potions
Chapter 7: Plants
Chapter 8: Communicating Telepathically
Chapter 9: Moon
Chapter 10: Animals
Chapter 11: Time Travel
Chapter 12: Abilities
Overview
Rikki skipped the first chapter turning to the 'Basic Powers' Chapter.
It talked about the four main powers over water which are gained when the woman or man first become a mermaid or merman.
'Hydrokinesis is the power to move, shape, and bend water at his or her will.
Hydro-Cryokinesis is the power to freeze water and water molecules and also to cause things to become brittle enough for him or her to break.
Hydro-Thermokinesis is the power to boil and heat water, this power can apply with anything containing liquid, ranging from human skin and body temperature to even the water molecules in the air. This can even be used to make people sweat. Because this power deals with heat, this is the most dangerous power that can easily get out of control. Some mermaids along with this power can also have the power of Pyrokinesis at a low level of strength, this is when the mermaid can start and put out fire.
Gelidkinesis is the power to turn water and any liquid substance or moisture of any kind into a jelly-like compound. A mermaid's allergic reaction can trigger this power to get out of control.
Substanciakinesis is the ability to harden water into a substance similar to glass or crystal. Uncommonly this power can also have a derivative of turning the water into an elastic-like compound, this particular power is usually only possessed by the offspring of a mermaid or merman with the power of Substanciakinesis.
Mecokinesisis the ability of combined Substanciakinesis and Gelidkinesis, which equals the ability to make water or jelly, explode, and is used to glue objects together and to manipulate and mould mud or slime.
These powers can be used by the mermaid or merman that possesses them by certain hand movements…'
Rikki then flicked to the next chapter on gaining new powers, it mentioned planetary alignments, and the full moon as sources to receive an upgrade, or new powers. Rikki found out that if she wished to gain Bella's powers she would have to go to the Irish Moon pool on a full moon where she received her basic powers. If the mermaids were in a different moon pool during a full moon, they would gain new powers; it does not work if in the pool where they gained their original powers.
She read that certain planetary alignments would give mermaids weather control, an upgrade of their original power(s). With this, she turned to the fourth chapter.
'Aerokinesis- The power to create and control wind and air currents. This is an upgraded version of Hydrokinesis.
Cryokinesis is the power and ability to manipulate generate and control ice and snow at will, create unusually strong blizzards, snowstorms and snowfall, and freeze an entire area, room or building with solid ice and create a variety of shapes out of solid ice. This is an upgraded version of Hydro-Cryokinesis.
Electrokinesis can only be possessed by a mermaid who hasHydro-Thermokinesis. This power allows a mermaid to summon a bolt of lightning from the sky, and aim it at a spot on the ground or a target. It is extreme lightning and can cause power outages if used in a particular way. The mermaid who possesses this power along with the power of Pyrokinesis is the most powerful.
Pyrokinesis makes the mermaid to have the ability to easily start, control and put out fires (even on water), and can summon lightning from the sky. Pyrokinesis is the ability to create fire from the great amount of heat generated by the mermaid.
Combined Atmokinesis- This is a combined power that can only be used when three mermaids (one with each power) use their powers of snow, wind, and lightning together, they can have complete control over the weather. The three who have these powers can master and create huge electrical storms.
These powers all can be controlled by the mermaid's hand positions for their basic/original powers…'
Rikki then skipped the chapter on Wish Giving and turned to healing potions and plants.
She only looked at it for a second, Cleo and Lewis would be more interested in that kind of thing. What she took in were many recipes for potions and methods that would heal burns, mermaid flu, cuts and bone breakages and many other health issues that they could face. Rikki knew it was very useful. The next chapter on plants had diagrams of the sea plants that are needed for the potions. She skipped the communicating telepathically page and was about to read the chapter on the moon when she was interrupted by a couple of screaming kids. Arianna and Amelia Dove were fighting each other for possession of the hardened jelly mermaid sculpture that must have fallen from the shelf. She placed the book face down beside her and walked over to them menacingly. They looked up at her, eyes wide and then handed the sculpture to her without fuss. 'Well, that was easy,' Rikki thought to herself. The sisters went on to grab some crayons and draw harmoniously together. Rikki then put her sculpture back on the shelf before returning to the couch and book.
The chapter on the moon was about how its moonlight gained control of the mermaid. The chapter said that it was believed that the magic and the places where mermaids were first changed came from the moon. This meant that the moon created mermaids; this however was just a myth, even by the book's standards. Rikki then went on to read the chapter on Animals. This one shocked Rikki.
'Most mermaids do not try to use their powers over animals as they do not know they have this power. A mermaid can communicate telepathically with animals, the technique the same as 'Mind Speak' with fellow mermaids. Depending on the animal determines how easy they are to communicate with, for example, mermaids find dolphins the one of the easiest to communicate with.'
At this Rikki paused for a moment. All that time ridiculing Cleo for communicating with her fish and it turns out she was actually communicating with them without full recognition. Rikki remembered back to one of her childhood fantasies – to be able to have the power to talk to her animals – especially her dog (she had had a golden retriever before her mum left) and understand them, she laughed to herself at how she could possibly do that now. Rikki flicked past the Time Travel chapter to the one on abilities. It talked about the physical abilities of mermaid or merman, for example, how fast they can swim, the maximum amount of time they could hold their breaths for, the book said a mermaid recorded that she had held her breathe for just over half an hour, this was until she came up huffing and puffing, blue in the face. Rikki marvelled at this, when they were teenagers, they had been thrilled at the aspect of holding their breath for just over sixteen minutes. Suddenly a cold splash of water came down over her and the book. She gasped and soon had transformed.
"Who did that?" she growled. It turned out that Daniel had with the help of Andy. She steam dried herself after telling the two of them off and then the soaking book. As she did, she thought that she noticed letters appearing and then fading again. No, it couldn't have been. Nevertheless, there it was again! Rikki used her power again on it and a sentence appeared as if it was written underneath the original writing. It seemed like there was a hidden message. Rikki poured some water over the book and boiled it making it evaporate, she could quickly read the message underneath. It was about offspring, age, how to become a mermaid in detail, how to lose your mermaid powers forever and other secrets. 'Wow' she said to herself. Rikki decided to see if she could actually burn the book – it seemed sturdy – too sturdy. She picked a corner of the last page and heated it up slowly, nothing happened, no blackening of the edges – nothing. She intensified the heat. Still nothing happened. Rikki smiled to herself. The book was invincible to mermaid powers. She couldn't wait until she could show everyone her discovery.