Chapter 57

Using the light, they entered. It was a tunnel that went descended steeply into the sea floor. At first it looked like any ordinary sea cave or tunnel; seaweed and shelled creatures on the walls. After a few minutes of swimming, they came to an obstacle. A massive pile of rocks. As try as they might, they wouldn't budge. As Anna came forward to help, the ball of light she was controlling hit the wall. Her hand went right through it – so did the others'. It was revealed that the rock wall was some sort of magical illusion. They all looked at each other before swimming through. This magic made them feel like they were in the right place. As they swum through they all felt tingly – as if the illusion was scanning them. After a few more minutes of swimming, they noticed the walls of the tunnel were changing colour and the passage had levelled – no longer descending. It was golden. More time passed as the continued swimming. How deep were they? Rikki and Bella – who were in front gasped. There in front of them were two golden pillars bearing that symbol. This must be the place. Again, they felt like they were being scanned as they swam through. Suddenly, the earth started shaking.

'Earthquake?' Bella asked.

'Booby-trap' Rikki replied.

The piles of treasure began sinking into the sand and an incredible screeching noise filled their minds. They all groaned in pain.

'Why is it always mind pain?' Anna moaned. All of a sudden their tails felt like stone, they sunk, unable to swim. The treasure had all gone but a few coins. The treasure trove continued to break apart. Jessie gasped. A pillar was falling slowly, ominously through the water towards her. There was nothing any of them could do. It trapped her, winding her as it crashed across her waist. At least the water took some of the weight. Anna tried using her powers on the pillar, as did Jessie. They could not move their hands in the appropriate action so nothing happened.

'Damn!' Jessie said.

'Cleo! We need help! We are all paralysed and Jessie is trapped under a broken pillar. The treasure trove we found is breaking apart!' Bella called to her.

'Jessie lost a lot of air when it hit her,' Rikki added in. She looked at her watch. 'Alan is due to arrive with the boat in like ten minutes,' she said.

'Fred, can you come down for the time being?' Anna asked.

Fred responded immediately, swimming quickly through the tunnel. However, as soon as he reached the treasure room, he too became immobile.

'Cleo, we definitely need the humans,' Rikki said.

OoOoO

As Cleo turbo-sped to the mainland, she saw Alan's boat. She popped up in front of him.

"What's up Cleo," he asked cheerily. His mood changed when he saw her worried face. She climbed onto the plate they had attached to all their boats – it made it easier for a mermaid or merman to get on-board. Cleo went over what was happening.

"These are the co-ordinates," she continued. "Do you have your scuba gear?"

"Of course," he smiled grimly.

"I'm going to get Zane and then I'll bring the ruby to you just in case to free everyone we need to return it,"

"Okay, good luck,"

"To you too," Cleo said as she dove into the sea.

OoOoO

Meanwhile in the cave, the mind pain had weakened but they were all still pinned to the floor. Rikki could tell Jess did not have too much air left. This was when she wished that they could actually breathe under water. She was a mythical creature yet she was wishing to be what the stories told of her species. 'Huh.' She thought.

Everyone was finding their position extremely frustrating.

'I have an itch on my nose!' Bella said exasperated.

'That's the least of our worries,' Anna thought.

OoOoO

"Zane we have an emergency," Cleo said as soon as she had entered his office.

Soon they were both racing out to his boat, leaving the reliable Rhonda in charge.

Cleo communicated with the others: 'Any change?'

'No!' She felt many voices scream at her.

She gave the coordinates to Zane before diving into the sea headed for Mako.

The jewel was still as ominous as ever. Wisps of black smoke ebbing around the ruby. The ball of water holding it alternated between black and clear. The gelatine gave it a strange texture. Cleo held it with her power as she turbo-sped back to where Alan and Zane would meet her. They were already in scuba gear. She handed them the encased jewel. They could see the jewel in jelly, but not the smoke – the poison.

"I'm not sure what you'll see when you are down there, but we encountered a rock wall. If you keep swimming believing it's not there, I'm sure you'll pass through – its just a very powerful illusion. After that, hopefully it will be easy…keep your heads up and please be home for dinner," she smiled encouragingly before contacting the others.

'Alan and Zane are on their way,'

All three of them had an earpiece for communication.

She waited impatiently for their return.

OoOoO

They swam as quickly and as safely as their gear allowed – they were pretty deep.

"Cleo, can you see if you can get Will? If we can't get to the depths, maybe he can," Alan said.

"Onto it." She replied.

They came to the rock wall as Cleo had said. Alan swam right through it. For some reason, Zane felt the solid rock and did not pass through.

"Believe Zane," Alan said.

"Its not there," Zane repeated to himself. He took a deep breath and charged at the wall expecting to be in pain from the force. He just went sailing through. They looked at each other and laughed. Faith was the key. They did feel like they were being scanned however. All of a sudden, a bunch of tiny white lights appeared and seemed to be assembling something. It was a message. Different languages were flashing as the lights rearranged themselves.

'Si c'est votre langue de dire oui?'

'ist dies Ihre Sprache?'

'האם זו השפה שלך?'

'¿Es su idioma?'

'Is dit uw taal?'

'är detta ditt språk?'

'Trata-se de sua língua?'

'Is this your language?

"Yes!" They said in unison.

'Do not go any further. Great danger lies ahead,' The lights continued to rearrange themselves. It continued as they tried to go past. They got a nasty electric shock. It looked like they'd be here until the end of the transmission.

A/N: Apologies if one of these is your first language and it doesn't make sense – I just used BabelXL (I just speak English and Māori) – in order: French, German, Arabic, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, Portuguese and English

Thanks so much for reading and for your patience. I know its been a while. My month has been hectic- still is. I should have been doing homework instead of typing this up.

I moved house two weeks ago, and have been unpacking boxes since, and my school musical (in which I am a lead) has been happening. Heaps of rehersals... but opening night was on Saturday and tonight is the last show. Its quite scary to be honest. After months and months working hard and then it will just be over...It will mean i'll get to work on my speech and my history internal...meh.

I cannot promise an update soon but I hope you'll keep reading.

Thanks so much to XxTigerlilyxX, YaleAce, Acgisme, PeacePinkSeddie, Pepper203, Zikki 3, Lauren111, tj, Quillcox, BlazingLegend, and Juliet Knighly.

Thanks so much! You guys (who review) are the reason I'm still writing this story.

Tu Meke! Have a good one.

A/N: 30/5/13: AH! Okay, Fred Jackson - the merman is FRED! NOT Frank. For some strange reason I keep writing Frank and then have to go back and change it. This is one of those times. So I have just changed Frank to Fred. So anytime you see Frank; I have written the wrong name! Sorry for any confusion!