A/N: This is a really, really short update but I wanted to post this before I went to sleep. The other half of the chapter will be up soon! Thank you for reading and reviewing!

edit; I've edited this chapter a little bit. I wasn't one hundred per cent sure how the mermaids were going to converse with dolphins, but I've written it in italics to show that they are communicating, just through their minds and their noises. I can't really explain this, it worked in my head I swear!

CHAPTER FOUR

"Let them miss you. Sometimes when you're always available, they take you for granted because they think you'll always stay."

He can't be dead, he just can't be, Lyla frantically repeated in her head as she looked from the boat to Zac, lying in a grotesque serenity on the ocean floor with the dolphin. She couldn't believe that she completely missed the fact that a boat had approached the dolphin pod. We were probably seen, she thought. She shared a panicked look with one of the older, motherly dolphins, who looked at the two unconscious sea creatures with a look that only a mother would recognise.

"This was my son," her eyes seemed to say. Lyla stroked the dolphin's smooth face reassuringly. We've got to get them out of here, she thought, and with that, she tentatively swum over to where Zac and the dolphin lay. There was a harpoon lightly dug into the soft flesh of Zac's stomach, which had streaked past the dolphin so quickly his stomach had a deep slash going from one side of his body to the other. Lyla had no idea what to do. She checked for a pulse in the crook of Zac's neck, and was relieved when he found one.

"You have to take him to the pod," the mother dolphin suggested. She looked at the dolphin sadly.

"They don't want him. They won't help him." Lyla looked at Zac again, then at the dolphin.

"You must. It's the only thing you can do, otherwise he will die". The dolphin's words echoed in her head. Lyla closed her eyes and tried frantically to think of another option. The mother dolphin, however, was right. There was no time, and Zac needed to be saved. Mako was just a short swim away, and the pod would be there, she knew it. She opened her eyes slowly and the dolphin looked at her questioningly.

"I'm taking him", she told her, and then went doen and scooped up Zac's lifeless body from the floor. The young male dolphin had regained consciousness enough to flap his fin weakly. Lyla's heart raced, and the mother dolphin sped forward.

"You're okay, you're okay", she could hear the dolphin repeat as she worried over her baby. Lyla looked at them both.

"If I'm taking Zac to the pod, your son is coming with me as well," she told the dolphin.

"Very well, be safe young ones. We will wait in safer waters for your return," the dolphin communicated as she gathered up her family, ready for the travel ahead. Thank you, Lyla, she clicked as she turned tail and began swimming away, her pod following behind her.

Lyla draped Zac over her shoulder, and held onto the fin of the young dolphin.

"Are you okay to swim?" She asked him cautiously. He acknowledged her with a flick of his tail, and slowly, they began their procession down to the secret depths of the Mako pod's home.