Chapter Seventeen

Emma's POV

Flashback

"Happy birthday to me," I muttered, cupping sand in my hands, then letting the small grains fall through my fingers. It's funny. I'd only been away from my best friends for a couple of weeks, and I already felt like a complete outsider, celebrating my birthday alone. I sighed. There hadn't even been a happy birthday text message from Rikki or Cleo. I knew that they were probably being kept busy with their secret, but still. On my last birthday, I woke up to Rikki bouncing on my bed like a five year old. I smiled sadly at the memory. I just wished I had someone to share that day with today...

I stood up, and walked towards the ocean. I allowed the breeze to blow my hair back while I stared out to sea. At least when I was on the beach, it felt exactly like old times. I looked behind me, saw that there was nobody there, and quickly dived into the sea, and started to swim at top speed. A smile spread on my face. Now this was what it felt like back home. I darted around for a while, doing underwater somersaults, but eventually slowed down, taking everything in. Sea life was beautiful.

Suddenly, I noticed something - an opening to a cave of some sort... A moon pool? I decided to go and investigate. As I got closer, I realised that it looked almost identical to the underwater entrance to the moon pool, and sure enough, when I surfaced, I was inside yet another moon pool.

"Who are you?" I suddenly heard a voice, and looked up to see another mermaid lounging on the sand around the edge of the water, her tail dangling down into the pool.

"Oh, um... hi," I said. "I'm Emma."

"Carys," the other mermaid introduced herself. "Do you live around here?"

"I'm travelling with my family," I told her. "I just got here last week. How about you?"

"Mm, something similar," she explained vaguely. "Which type of mermaid are you?"

"There are different kinds?" I asked, genuinely surprised. The thought had never occurred to me, I suppose. I couldn't believe I was even reacting this well to another mermaid.

"Oh, yes. Lots. I'm a siren myself."

"A siren... Aren't they those... singing mermaids?" I thought back to the time when Cleo had possessed that power during a full moon once.

"Mm hmm." Carys pulled herself back so that her tail was out of the water and, to my amazement, her tail disappeared, even though she was still wet.

"How did you do that?" I asked.

"Do what?"

"Well, you know. You're still wet but you don't have your tail."

"Ah, it's different with sirens. You see, we only transform in sea water, and we have to actually be in the water, or at least a considerable amount of us does."

I shook my head in bewilderment. It was hard enough to process the fact that sirens were real, and that I was talking to one at this very moment, and now this?

"Well... I'd best leave now," I said. "I don't want my parents to worry."

"Of course," Carys said, nodding her head. "I'll be here tomorrow," she called out as I left.

After that, I spent every single day with Carys. She was in the moon pool every single time I went there, and if I didn't know any better, I'd say it was her home. She was a very mysterious person. She would tell me hardly anything about herself; I never even found out what her last name was. No matter how much I asked her, she would never tell me where she was from, or when she was leaving. In fact, when she left without a trace, she didn't even say goodbye.

A/N: Sorry it's not very long, but I'm busy, k? I've also decided that I might just make my chapters shorter but update more often. I don't know, we'll see how it goes. By the way, the change in tense was intentional because it's a flashback.

I'm going to start another fanfiction soon, though I don't actually know what it's going to be about.

By the way, go check out the stories of my favourite Internet friend, Sunset17! ;) She's awesome! :D Also XxMeggyxX who is an awesome write (plus I'm editing her fic Can You Keep A Secret? Then go check out notNixie's profile (although she hasn't uploaded anything yet...) because she's like my real life bestie (well, one of 'em). Then Nemesis247, my new Internet friend! And lastly, come back to my profile, reread all my stories, etc.

Next chapter: Bella's flashback to meeting Carys!