"So..." Lewis turned the ring over in his hands. "You think the ring is responsible? Cleo, that makes no scientific sense."
"Lewis." Rikki said sarcastically. "We are mermaids who were changed by the magic of a moon pool. Do you really want to talk about scientific sense?"
"Ah, point taken." Lewis held the ring back out to Cleo. "Put it back on."
"I don't know..." Cleo took the ring but didn't slide it onto her finger. "What if it's permanent this time or something?"
"I'll do it." Rikki swiped the ring from Cleo's hand and put it firmly on the fourth finger of her right hand.
Instantly, Rikki's fin disappeared. Her two legs, clothed in blue soaking wet shorts, kicked in the water.
Rikki immediately yanked the ring off her hand. Her fin reappeared only a second later. She looked at Lewis with wide eyes and thrust the ring into his hands.
"Here, you take it." She panicked. "Go figure out how it works. Go be a scientist. Go!"
"Hey, hey." Cleo reached out and stopped Lewis from leaving. "Let's all go. You'll need test subjects."
Lewis nodded and helped both of the girls out of the water. They each made a phone call as they headed towards Will's boat shed.
Each of them hung up their phones as they reached the front door.
"Will said the spare key is under the mat." Rikki said. "He told us to go on in, he'll be here after he finishes training."
"Great." Lewis quickly opened the door. "Zane is on his way here now. He seemed really interested."
"Oh good," Rikki was anxious to show her boyfriend what they had found. "Bella is coming over after the band finishes rehearsal."
The group settled around the large wooden table in the middle of the familiar shed. Lewis set the ring in the middle of the table and left it there. All three of them just stared at it for a while.
"What else do you think it does?" Cleo murmured.
"No idea." Rikki answered.
Lewis poked at the ring with a pencil. "Ok, first things first." He picked up the rink, sliding it onto the tip of his pencil. He picked up a clear glass cup and filled it with tap water. He tilted the pencil, letting the ring plink down into the water. He slid the glass to the center of the table and pulled out a pad of paper and a pencil.
"Hey guys." Zane hurried into the shed and shut the door tightly behind him. He gave Rikki a quick kiss on the cheek before joining the huddle around the table. "Fill me in."
Lewis quickly told Zane what little they knew about the weird little silver ring. It was still in the cup of water. Small bubbles had appeared on the surface of the ring. As they watched, the blue stone very gradually turned to deep black.
"Now what?" Zane was staring at the glass without blinking. "Do we take it out?"
"Yes." Lewis didn't move a muscle. "But I don't really want to touch it."
"Me neither." Zane agreed.
"Well Cleo and I can't touch it." Rikki shrugged. "It's in a cup of water."
Lewis grabbed a pair of tongs and a hand towel from the counter. He carefully fished the ring out of the water and dried it off with the towel. He picked the ring up carefully and held it up to the light.
"The stone is black..." He said slowly. He gestured to the girls. "One of you should put it on."
"I don't know about that." Rikki took a step backwards. "That ring freaks me out."
"Hey everyone." Bella breezed inside and walked over to join the group. "What's all this about a ring?"
"Bella, perfect timing." Lewis held the ring out to her. "Put this on right quick."
"Ok." Bella said simply. She took the ring from Lewis and put it on. "It's pretty..." She admired it on her finger. "What's it supposed to do?"
"Um..." Lewis said thoughtfully. "You see, Bella, it's supposed to-"
Before Lewis could finish speaking Zane stuck his hand in the glass cup of water the ring had been in and flicked it at Bella, causing water to splash all over her.
"What the hell, Zane?" Bella tried to dry herself off as quickly as possible.
"It's ok, you're not going to change because you have the ring on- WHAT THE-" Zane disappeared under the table all of a sudden just as Bella fell to the floor.
No one in the room knew where to look. Their eyes flicked back and forth in unison and their mouths hung wide open.
Bella was the only one who seemed unaware that anything out of the ordinary had happened. She lay on the floor, her golden fin extended behind her. She propped herself up on her elbows. "Hey Lewis." She tried to get his attention. "Can you hand me that towel..." Bella stopped talking as her eyes focused on Zane.
Zane was laying on his stomach on the floor too. His top had disappeared and behind him extended a long blue tail. Wait- Bella squinted her eyes. A TAIL?
Zane pulled himself to lean on his elbows. He had a dazed look on his face. Suddenly realization began to dawn on him. He slowly turned his head to look behind him.
"Zane, you have a..." Lewis's voice drifted away.
You could hear Zane's yelling from two miles away.
"Zane, Zane, calm down." Rikki knelt beside her boyfriend and tried to get him to lower his voice. She held her hand out over him and steamed the water off of him quickly.
Zane didn't calm down. He jumped to his feet and then instantly fell back down. Rikki and Lewis helped him to a couch and laid him down on it.
"I had a- I was -, I mean-" Zane stuttered. "Lewis! Why did I have a- a- a-"
"I don't know." Lewis said uneasily. "Bella you'd better take that ring off."
Bella removed the silver band immediately and tossed it to Lewis, who dropped it onto the table as if it was scalding hot. She held her hand out and turned the water clinging to her into a hard gel and then brushed it away. Her legs reappeared a moment later. She quickly rushed over to where Zane lay on the couch.
"Is anyone going to tell me what in the world is going on?" Bella looked pointedly at Cleo and Rikki.
"Well, Bella." Cleo swallowed but couldn't bring herself to blink. She spoke in a monotone voice. "I found a silver ring with a blue stone at the bottom of the moon pool. I put it on and jumped into the water and I didn't gt my tail until I took the ring back off. Then the same thing happened to Rikki. So we brought the ring here to test and we put it in a cup of water. And then Zane turned into a mermaid." Cleo finished.
"Where is the ring?" Bella furrowed her brow.
"Duh Bella, you just took it off." Zane managed to speak.
"No I didn't, that ring didn't have a blue stone." Bella shot back.
"Wait-" Lewis grabbed the ring off of the table. "She's right. The stone is still black. It hasn't changed back to blue yet."
"Really?" Cleo peeked over Lewis's shoulder. "It changed back to blue instantly when we took it off in the ocean."
"Yeah it did." Lewis examined the ring closely. The stone had lightened a bit but it still wasn't the same light blue color.
"Ok." Zane stood up abruptly. "What just happened to me?"
Everyone turned to face him. "Uh..." Lewis scratched his head.
"Oh that's just great." Zane said sarcastically. "Fantastic!"
"Um, Zane, why don't you try again. Stick your arm under the sink and see if it happens again?"
"What? No way!" Zane backed away from Lewis. Unfortunately, he backed right into Cleo, who was prepared with a bottle of water.
She turned the bottle over Zane's head and quickly jumped away from him.
Zane sputtered as the water flowed down his shoulders. He ran towards the towel and began manically drying himself off. "Nonononononononono..." He said over and over as he tried to dry himself off.
"Zane!" Rikki called to him, but Zane was to preoccupied to notice. She quickly walked over to him. She couldn't touch him because he was still wet but she snapped her fingers in front of him. "Zane, look at me."
Zane's eyes focused. "Rikki I can't talk right now, I'm trying not to turn into a..."
"Merman?" Rikki finished. "You won't. It's been over twenty seconds."
"It's... what?" Zane stopped moving.
"It's past that time, you aren't changing." Rikki said clearly.
"I'm not changing." Zane said slowly. Suddenly his face brightened. "I'm not changing!" He wrapped his arms around Rikki in a huge bear hug and shook her back and forth.
"Aw, Zane-" Rikki got out before her fin appeared. Zane was still soaking wet.
"Oops, sorry Rikki." Zane said as he laid her gently on the floor. He looked himself over. "I didn't change!"
"What in the world?" Lewis looked at the ring once more as Zane continued celebrating. "I don't get it. Bella had the ring on. She shouldn't have changed at all. And Zane isn't even a mermaid, why did water change him?"
"It wasn't just any water though," Cleo pointed out. "It was the water the ring had soaked in for so long."
"You're right." Lewis frowned. "You know, I think there's a lot more to this ring than we realize."