OH my goodnss I'm so sorry that I disappeared for so long! There have just been other stories I had to write and some family problems, but I'm back now :) To apologize, I have decided to expand this story. This will NOT be the last chapter. Something exciting will happen soon :D I hope you will enjoy this.

- Lollie

Cal's POV

I took a sip of the wine Captain Morgan had given me. This was so awkward. Even more awkward than the trip back to the ship! Russell hadn't spoken AT ALL to me since what happened. Wait… what did happen? Was he mad that I didn't hug him and tell him how scared I was that I thought he could have died? Peri said that to Thomas. That couldn't be it. I was embarrassed, so what? He still didn't thank me for rescuing him… that's it! He was ashamed that I had to rescue him!

That was when I just snapped. I dropped my glass back on the table and took off toward the back of the ship. He didn't care about me… he only cared about how good he looked compared to other guys… and 'how much of a man' he is.

I heard someone call my name, but I ignored them. I honestly didn't care at that point. I just had to get away from everything.

Russell's POV

I feel like complete crap. I know why Cal didn't hug me before…

She was ashamed that I needed to be rescued. I had made her think that I was a real man… that I didn't need support… that I could handle everything on my own. I couldn't handle it. I couldn't handle anything. If I had just tried harder, then maybe I could have saved Thomas myself. As I thought about this, I saw Cal sprint from the table.

"Cal!" I chased her.

I turned to where she ran and stopped when I saw her standing at the edge of the ship. She lent her elbows on the rails and dropped her head, looking into the water.

"Cal?" She ignored me once again. "Cal! Just let me explain!"

"Why?" She turned toward me and I finally noticed tearsflowing from her eyes. She hiccuped a few times and then continued. "Why should I? You were the one ignoring me in the first place! What did I do? I'm sorry that I helped you and saved you're life! Happy now?"

I blinked. "What?"

"What?" She snapped back.

"What did you just say?"

"I said I regret saving you. I'm sure you could have managed on your own." She rolled her eyes sarcastically.

"You… saved me?"

"Who did you think saved you? Nathan? He can't swim. Peri is petrified of everything. Captain, Eduardo and Christopher were pulling the rope. Who else would bother to help you?"

"But… I thought…"

"You thought wrong."

Cal tried to run away, but I grabbed her wrist.

"Listen for a minute." I attempted to calm her down a bit and talk to her ut she payed no attention. Heck, what was I thinking? This is Cal. You can't argue with Cal.

"No, you listen!" She pointed in my face. "You've made me feel like utter crap since I saved your life, all I did was help you, and you just…"

"That's the thing…" I interrupted calmly. "I didn't know that you were the one who rescued me. I thought you were staying as far away from me as possible after I got out of the water because you thought I was… you thought I was…"

"What?" She tilted her head at me. She said this with an unexpectedly calm and concerned tone.

"Weak…"

She looked at me with loving eyes and then hugged me. "I would never think you're weak. You're the only one here who protects me, Russell."

"I'll always protected you, Cal."
I realised that was the first time I actually called her by her actual name. Not jerk or woman.

"You promise?"

"I promise." Then we shared the most special moment of our relationship. Our first kiss.

Cal's POV

"Okay, so here's my theory…" Peri took a deep breath, probably getting ready to rant. I dried a dish with the tea towel and handed it to her.

She stacked the dry dish on top of the others and turned back to face me. "What if the other mermaids are dead?"

I almost dropped the glass I was drying. "What?"

"What if they're like… not here. Where would they be?"

"What are you talking about, Peri? Why wouldn't they be here?" My eyebrows knotted in confusion.

"No, I mean… our mission is to find the two girls who control Earth and Water, and bring all the powers together to stop the evil pirates Serpentine and Tourmaline, right? Well, what if they're dead? Would we have to fight them ourselves?"

I set the glass back down on the table. "I… I don't know. I never really thought about that before."

Peri sighed, collapsing on a chair. "Where would they be?" She asked herself.

"What if they're dead…" I whispered. I could feel the blood draining from my face.

Peri set her hand on top of mine. "We can't give up hope, Calcite. We'll find them. We promised Obsidian… and Cal and Peri don't give up." She grinned.

"Yo, Cal, Peri; we're here!" Captain told us.

"Where?" I asked.

"We didn't tell you?" He stumbled into the kitchen, clutching his head. Goodness knows that Captain is the only person who can get drunk at 11 in the morning. "MoCaro island. You know, that place where… y-yeah. We decided early this morning."

I put my hands on my hips, glaring at him. "And no one bothered to tell me?"

"Yer, *hic* uhmmhm…" He made his way slowly out of the kitchen.

"Come on then, slow poke." Peri grinned, clutching onto Captain's arm and leading him outside.

Shaking my head in shame, I followed.

We got of the ship and split into groups when we reached the island. Nathan and Thomas went to buy ingrediants, Christopher and Eduardo went to find medicanes, Captain went to the bar to drink (again) and Russell was goodness knows where. When I caught his eye, he just ran off somewhere. It hurt to think that he was avoiding me after that kiss last night.

Peri and I went to look for chocolate. "You're wasting our money on chocolate?"

"Cravings." That was all she said before she shoved sweets into her mouth. I just rolled my eyes.

That was when I realised. "Hey, Pez?"

"Yeah?"

"You know that story Mum used to tell us? About the mythical creatures?"

"Yeah!" She nodded. "How Serpantine's minions would kidnap young children and turn them up on MountMoCar… oh…"

"That's here." I whispered to her.

"Oh my goodness…" Her pale face went even more pale, if that was possible. "Do you think we should…"

"Take a look around?" I suggested.

"I dunno…" She bit her lip. "I was going to say sneak back onto the ship, but okay… Do you think the other two mermaid will be there?"

"That would explain a lot." I told her. "That's why they didn't come looking for us… They might be prisoners in Tourmaline's castle."

"Well," Peri said. "There's only one way to find out."