Thank you so much to all for waiting for this story! School has been crazy and life has been crazy, and I'VE HAD SEVERE MAKO WITHDRAWLS ON NETFLIX! Anywho, please enjoy this chapter and tell me what you think! Enjoy!

In a dazed sort of unbelieving panic Zac pushed back to the end of the dock, wincing as his scales were scraped. Scales… he had a tail. As he splashed back into the ocean he gasped in relief. His tail had dried out a bit and he'd felt uncomfortable and scratchy.

He hovered a few feet below the surface, staring down at this strange appendage. He guessed that touching the water had caused him to form a tail, but how? He had been completely normal just this morning. Was it Mako Island? He knew something had happened to him there, but what? Thinking and racking his brain, he tried to remember but all he kept getting was a strange cave, the sense of falling and then being pulled underwater.

He needed answers, but where could he even start? He stared down at the giant blue fish tail – taking note that he didn't even have to hold his breathe. Zac had no way of getting to his room to search the internet, and his phone seemed to have vanished with his clothes. Maybe it was lying at the bottom of the ocean somewhere, lot of good it did him. The only other way to get answers was to talk to someone who could figure this out. That also meant exposing the mythical creature he'd suddenly become. Who in their right mind would believe this had really happened to him, let alone help him figure it out?

Cam would be his safest bet, he knew that. Sure he hadn't believed him this morning when he'd tried to make the water move, but who could blame him? He hadn't had any real proof. Now swishing his new appendage back and forth, he had ample proof. His best mate had always had a more open mind than most and Zac knew that Cam would love to solve a mystery as big as this. He just had to wait for his friend to come looking for him. Eventually Cam would get curious and work his way to his boat house. Until then, Zac was going to get a hang of his tail and water moving powers.

-MAKO-

Three young mermaids hovered just out of sight a few piers down, spying on the land-boy turned merman. They watched as he swam in circles and flexed his tail in different directions to see how it moved.

Sirena turned to the other two, giving them a look of them being in deep trouble. After Aquata had confronted them this morning they knew they had to figure out what really happened to the land-boy. Imagine their shock when he fell into the water and grew a tail! They were even more shocked when he tried to dry off and it never went away! None of them understood what had happened, and worst of all, they didn't know how to fix it.

Lyla kept wondering how they could corner the boy on dry land. If they could get him to dry out enough, they should be able to remove his tail. In theory she had no idea if anything would really work. Now that they knew what had happened, they really did need to return to the pod. They would need to know so more experienced mermaids could fix this.

Nodding her head, Lyla pointed towards Mako. The other two nodded and sped off after her. Nixie wondered, as they left the boy behind, if there was worse trouble waiting ahead for them once they told the mermaid council what happened.

-MAKO-

"Zac?" Cam walked along the water front, towards the pier leading outside his friend's boat house.

He'd never come back to their table after he'd tried to show him some weird hand trick. Evie was a little bit worried since he'd never shown up after her shift like he'd promised. It just wasn't like Zac to blow off his girlfriend.

"Zac!" He knocked on his friend's door then walked inside. The place was a mess, as usual, but Zac wasn't there.

Cam was just about to head around to the house to see if he was swimming in the pool when he heard a splash.

"Cam!" Zac had just poked his head above water, and had seen his best friend walk out of his room.

Looking around, the blonde haired boy couldn't figure out where the voice was coming from.

Frustrated, Zac lifted a ball of water from the ocean, and using the technique he'd just learned from practicing, tossed it at his friend's face.

"Down here!"

Sputtering and wiping water from his face, Cam gazed down, confused, as he walked towards the pier. "Zac?"

Zac stretched out in the water and flicked his tail a few times, swimming back and forth so Cam could get a good look. "I told you something happened."

His mouth hung open and gaped as Cam stared to where his friend swam. "You…you have a tail." It came out as a half question. Cam knew what he saw, but his mind kept telling him it was a trick. Yet, the way Zac was swimming… If it had been a costume, no way could he have bent and moved like that. His motions were too fluid and, well, fish like.

"And check this out." Wanting to prove his earlier point, he held out his hand and drew some water out of the ocean. It hovered between them in the shape of a ball but he let it fall back to the water. He'd already soaked his friend enough.

"How did you do that?" Cam rubbed a hand through his wet hair. Was that where the water had come from?

Shrugging Zac only smiled and then shook his head. "Honestly, I have no idea."

Swimming closer to the dock Zac pulled himself up onto the wood as far as he could go. Cam took a few steps back, trying to make room. His tail was so long! After a minute of heaving and huffing, Zac was stretched out on the dock, breathing heavily.

"That's a lot harder when you have a dead wait hanging off of you." He lifted his head and looked down at his tail, keenly aware Cam was staring.

Cam knelt next to his friend and just stared at the scales and the fins and how it all connected seamlessly at his friend's waist. "Dude!" He looked at Zac's face but he was staring at his tail, trying to avoid eye contact.

Shaking his head Cam grabbed the towel that was sitting nearby and ran it over his hair, trying to dry off a little. After a second he noticed Zac watching him kind of funny. Was he jealous?

Chucking the towel at him, Cam nodded to the fin. "Do you mind explaining to me how you're suddenly half fish?"

Zac threw the towel back at Cam, not bothering to even try drying himself off. He didn't want to feel that scratchy feeling of dry scales again. It was weird and uncomfortable and he'd much rather just leave himself as wet as he could.

"That's the problem, I have no idea. I knew I wandered off last night at Mako, but the memory is so fuzzy I'm not sure what happened." He flicked his tail again, trying to rest so the fin on the back was squished under him.

"You really think that creepy island did this to you?" Cam wasn't convinced. They'd gone camping there before and nothing had ever happened.

Zac just shrugged in response. Out of curiosity Cam reached out a finger and poked Zac's thigh. He jerked back when Zac's tail twitched. It felt real and slimy.

"So, how do you get your legs back?" No response from Zac, who still avoided his gaze. "You can get your legs back, right?"

"I tried drying off and I waited and I waited, but the tail just stays." Zac finally met Cam's eyes.

"Weren't you normal this morning?" Cam stood and started pacing.

"Yeah, but as soon as I touched water after you walked away at the Café, I've been stuck like this." Zac felt a deep worry begin in his stomach. It was making him sick and anxious. "We need to fix this."

Cam nodded, pacing back and forth. "Obviously. It's not like you can go to school as a fish."

"I'm not a fish!" Zac's tail fluke flicked in agitation.

"Look at yourself mate! What are we going to do? This shouldn't be real!" Cam gestured wildly to his friend. "Your dad's a doctor, we should tell him!" Cam reached for his phone.

"We can't tell them!" Zac threw up one of his hands to try and physically stop that train of thought.

Cam crossed his arms as he paced, trying to think. "You're stuck as a fish, which is a big problem. Never mind how you got that way." Cam turned and stared hard at his friend. "I have no idea what we're going to do."

"Great!" Zac pounded a fist on the wooden boards beneath him in frustration. "If neither of us can think of anything, then we really do have a problem." Zac flicked his tail again and marveled at how instinctive and natural that was already starting to feel.

-MAKO-

Lyla, Nixie and Sirena all hovered together under the pier next to the one that Zac was currently stretched out on, far enough away that they hopefully wouldn't be noticed. The three mermaids who were admittedly to blame for the land-boy's predicament couldn't help but stare in anger. They had been cast out of their pod. Aquata had talked to them, trying to help them understand. Sirena was heartbroken while Nixie and Lyla both agreed they needed to fix this now before the pod left. If they could take away the boy's tail and powers, like Lyla had mentioned to them, then the pod would have no reason to banish them. They had to make sure they made this right and now.

"What are we going to do?" Sirena wanted to make sure they all knew what their rolls were.

"Well, we're going to make the land-boy a land-boy." Nixie rolled her eyes.

"We don't need your sarcasm right now." Lyla turned on the other mermaid. "If you had just done what you were supposed to, none of this would have happened!"

"Well if you had been nicer to us maybe I wouldn't have been so reckless!" Nixie was not going to take the blame for their banishment.

"Stop it, both of you!" Sirena held up her hands between them. "Arguing isn't going to fix anything."

Nixie and Lyla glared at each other for a moment longer then both looked away.

"Fine." Nixie looked back up at the boy. "So we fix him then go home." She noticed the other boy. "Does it matter that the other boy is here?"

Lyla held up her hand. "The other boy is just a normal human. As long as we're focused on the right one, we should be fine."

Sirena still wasn't convinced any of this was going to be that easy. "Do you really think this will work? I mean, aren't we drying him out? Mermaids have died from that."

"What other choice do we have? Besides, he's not a mermaid, nor a real merman." Lyla was starting to concentrate.

Sirena gripped the lanky mermaid's arm. "If it looks like he's hurting, you have to stop."

Nixie stared at her friend. "Sirena, he's a land-boy. I hate to say it, but Lyla's right. How could this hurt him?" Nixie coxed the other mermaid's hand from Lyla. "We don't really have very many options right now and this is our best bet."

With her arm free, Lyla stretched it out of the water and up towards Zac.

-MAKO-

"Maybe I could go to the library and do some research." Cam was sitting next to Zac, who had just pulled water magically from the canal and dropped it onto his tail to keep it wet.

"Like the library is going to have books on merman transformations. Google would probably be more helpful." Zac rubbed his stomach. It was growling and he had this strong craving for prawns.

"The internet is full of wives' tales. We can never be sure what is real and what isn't." Cam dropped his hands into his lap in frustration.

"What's real and what isn't?" Zac rolled his eyes. "None of this should be real!" He pointed dramatically to his tail. "I shouldn't be able to just randomly become half fish!"

They sat there in silence. They'd been arguing like this for the last half hour, running themselves in circles.

Zac rubbed his tail absentmindedly and gulped. He was suddenly feeling funny – funnier than having a fish tail instead of legs. "Did it just warm up out here?"

Cam looked up then shook his head. "No." He eyed his friend as Zac cleared his throat again.

Something weird was going on and not just the whole merman thing. Zac was suddenly feeling dry and itchy. He scratched his arms and tried to clear his suddenly dry throat. A cough erupted from him and he lay down as he hacked on the air in his lungs.

"Hey man, are you okay?" Cam watched as Zac's skin grew pale and then started to redden.

"I feel kind of weird, like I'm heating up on the inside." He coughed again and tried to sit up. If he could get back into the water, it should help. "I think I'm too dry."

Hidden a pier over, Lyla kept pulling the water and energy from the land-boy. She could feel the energy draining out of him, but it felt familiar, not human at all. She stopped for a moment, catching her breath.

"Why did you stop?" Sirena glanced from Lyla to the pier. "Is he okay?"

"His energy, it feels different." Lyla put her arm down.

"You're just tired. I'll do it." Nixie held up her arm and started to pull the water from the land-boy as well, ignoring how strong it felt like the ocean around them. Only mermaids had energy that felt like that.

Zac coughed again and collapsed on his back. His skin was starting to crack, and the scales on his tail were hardening and peeling off, leaving red welts behind. He bit his lip to try and keep from wincing at the pain it was causing.

Cam stood and tried to lift his friend by the arms, hoping he could push him into the water. Zac gave a shout as his tail caught on the rough wood, scraping off huge patches of dried skin. Horrified, Cam let him lay back down.

Zac was barely able to keep his eyes open as his breathing grew heavy. "Go get water." He could feel himself losing consciousness.

"Nixie!" Sirena hissed at her friend and forced her arm down, breaking the magic.

"Hey! I almost had him!" Nixie tried to put her arm back up.

"No, Nixie, look at him." Lyla this time was pointing as the other land-boy tried to push his friend off the pier.

"We've made him sick. We were drying him out!" Sirena started to swim forward. "Something is wrong!"

"Stop!" Grabbing her arm Lyla pulled her back. "We can't let them see us! He may have a tail but that doesn't mean they should know about mermaids."

Together the three of them ducked underwater and swam off, headed back to Mako.

With a great heave Cam finally pushed Zac off the wooden platform. He fell into the salty water bellow with a splash. Anxiously Cam watched as his friend sunk farther and farther down. What was he thinking? He was about to jump in after him when he watched Zac stretch out then start to swim back towards the surface.

Zac pushed through the surface with a loud gasp, sucking in a deep breath of air. His face was red and his hands were shaking as he tried to pull himself back up onto the pier. After two tries he flopped back into the water, his arms tired. Without giving it another thought he swam for the shoreline.

"Zac!" Cam raced back down the pier and ran to meet his friend who was dragging himself onto the grass of the deep slope. Sliding he made it to the water's edge, standing up to his knees in the brackish water.

The merman just laid there, half in the water and half out. He had never felt this exhausted before. It was almost as if something had just sapped all of the energy from him. If he wasn't so covered in water, he would have thought he was severely dehydrated.

"Water, Cam. I need water." He was barely able to turn his head to look up at his looming friend. "And some prawns would be nice." Then he laid his head down and seemed to pass out.

Cam shook his friend's shoulder, trying to wake him. "Zac?"

His friend was breathing heavily and his skin looked blistered and bright red. Not knowing what else to do he felt his forehead and quickly withdrew it. He had a fever! He watched Zac's breathing, which seemed to be getting shorter by the second.

Panic started to set in. His friend was suddenly half fish and it seemed as if his body was shutting down on him. He needed to get him help but he knew of no one who was expert in merman physiology.

But, he did know one person who was a really good expert in human physiology. Oh, Zac was going to kill him for this later but if it saved his best mate's life then it was worth the repercussions. With sweating hands he pulled out his phone and dialed the number.

It rang a few times then the older man's voice finally came through on the other end.

"Cam? Aren't you and Zac hanging out in town today?"

Taking a deep breath and giving a nervous glance to his friend who was still struggling to breath, he gulped. "Dr. Blakely. It's Zac. You need to get home now."

"What about Zac? Is he hurt?" On the other end, the graying Dr. Blakely glanced over at his wife. They were on a lunch date before he had to go back to the hospital.

Mrs. Blakely gave her husband a curious look. What about Zac?

"Look, I don't really know how to explain what happened. But Zac is passed out on the grass by the pier. He can barely breathe and I can't move him." Cam stared at the long blue fish tail. How heavy would that thing be on dry land?

"What? Cam what happened?" He looked at his wife and whispered to her. "We need to leave. Zac has been hurt."

"Like I said, I can't really explain it. It was weird, well it's still really weird," Cam paused in his ramblings. "You just need to get here. I don't know what to do and I think he's getting worse."

Mrs. Blakely was already up and talking to a waitress about their situation, handing her the money for their lunch.

"I need you to calm down Cam. Call an ambulance and ride with them to the hospital. We will meet you there." He was about to hang up when Cam shouted at him.

"Mr. Blakely, he can't go to a hospital! Please, just get here as fast as you can and you'll see why." Without giving time for Dr. Blakely to reply he hung up the phone.

Dr. Blakely shook his head in frustration. Cam should know better! Without the hospital's equipment, he was going to be of little use to his son. Together with his wife they rushed out of the restaurant.

"Rob, what's going on with Zac?" Lauren jumped into the passenger side of the car as her husband climbed in.

"Cam says he's unconscious on the grass by the pier behind our house and that he can barely breathe." Rob looked nervous as he started to drive back home. "I don't know what happened, Lauren." He reached over and grabbed his wife's hand. "What if it's more serious than Cam said?"

Lauren gripped her husband's hand tightly. "We're only five minutes away. We'll get there and you'll know what to do. Let's not worry until we see him." While she was trying to be calming, inside she was extremely close to panicking.

Back on the grass Cam was debating if he should move Zac or not. Didn't he need to be in the water? Wasn't it being out of if too long that caused him to be like this? Well, that was his theory. He had a fish tail, and fish weren't supposed to be dry. Maybe mermen were the same? Zac had asked for water before he had passed out. He was going to have to risk running to the boat house for a moment to grab some for him. But would Zac even be able to drink it? Cam knew from his lifeguard training that you never forced anything in someone's mouth or down their throat when they were unconscious. He would just have to keep trying to wake Zac up until Dr. Blakely could get there.

He most certainly wasn't about to call any medical professional like he had been asked too. It was bad enough that Zac's parents were going to see him like this. But having someone who didn't love him find out would be a disaster.

"Cam?" Zac was finally stirring.

Kneeling back down in the water Cam felt some relief as his friend was blinking his eyes.

"What am I doing in the water?" Zac tried to sit up but his head began spinning again and he lay back down on the grass.

"Just rest there. Your mum and dad are on their way. Your dad will know what to do." Cam tried to glance over the hill to where the house was. How long was it going to take them?

Zac shook his head. "Why did you call them?" His head was foggy and he was having a hard time moving his legs. He could feel them kicking together, but he was so weak.

"Can you get me some water?" Zac tried to turn over so he was at least not face first in the ground.

"Sure thing, mate. Be right back." Cam took off, leaving Zac to work out his jumbled thoughts.

Rubbing a hand over his face, Zac kicked again in frustration. The resounding splash made his eyes widen. With clarity his memories clicked into place and he turned his head back to look at his bright blue tail. Had he passed out? A piercing headache was starting to build behind his eyes and his throat was completely dry and swollen.

Coughing he could hear running coming in his direction. Looking up he expected to see Cam racing back with a bottle of water. Well, he did see Cam, but he also saw his mum and dad who both looked extremely anxious. His dad in particular was yelling at Cam.

"You should still have called an ambulance! Just because he's conscious again doesn't mean he doesn't need to go to the hospital." He had yet to look down in his direction.

Cam was trying to block them. "Please, we can't call them. Just take a deep breath. Once you see him you'll know why, but you need to keep an open mind about what's going on."

Lauren ignored Cam and pushed around him, wanting to see her son. She glanced down the hill and could see him lying in the water. "Why did you wrap so many towels around his legs?"

Carefully making their way down the hill all three approached Zac. Cam hung back a bit, hoping that Zac wouldn't throw any water at him for what he had just done.

"Zac, are you okay?" Dr. Blakely was nearly to his son when he stopped. His wife had assumed those were towels, but now they were close enough and clearly, there weren't any towels around his son.

"Zac?" Mrs. Blakely knelt down right by her son and ran a hand over his bare shoulders. She glanced down to where her husband was looking and froze.

"Mum, dad…" Zac didn't even know what to say. He coughed again, a huge racking sound that hurt his lungs. He put his head back down on the grass. "Cam, do you have that water?"

Cam pushed forward and handed him the open bottle. Zac tried to lift it to his mouth, but his head still felt too heavy.

Then his dad was there and so was his mum. They were helping him to twist so he was lying on his back and propped up in his mum's lap so he could drink the water properly. Within a few seconds he had downed the fresh cool water. His throat burned less, but he still felt exhausted and dry.

Taking in deep breaths he finally glanced back at his mum. She had her eyes glued on his tail, specifically where it melded perfectly at his waist. He turned his head and looked at his dad.

Rob, sensing his son's gaze, tore his eyes from the brilliant scales covering where his son's legs should have been. Zac stared at him with wide eyes that were blood shot. One eyelid was twitching and his cheeks were red. Doctor mode kicked in as he recognized the signs of severe dehydration, possibly heat stroke. If that was true they needed a lot more water for him to drink a place to cool him down out of the sun.

"Zac, we need to get you up to the house where I can treat you properly." Rob stood and walked into the water.

"But dad," Zac leaned back into his mom who was still unmoving.

"Look," Dr. Blakely stared at his son's face. "I have no idea what is going on and we can discuss it later. But we need to get you inside to a clean space and where we have cold water. You look like you have severe heat stroke and if we don't get you hydrated and cooled down properly you will need to go to the hospital." Pointedly he looked down at his son's….tail. "That isn't an option right now."

Taking a deep breath Zac nodded then turned and looked at his mum. "You're going to have to carry me inside. I don't know how to get my legs back."

Hearing her son shook Lauren out of her shock. "Right." She stood and motioned Cam over. "Zac we are going to lift you under the arms. Rob you grab his…" She trailed off and shook her head. "We lift on three."

At the signal all three humans lifted the merman out of the water and trudged up the slope back to the main house. Twice they had to put Zac down before he slipped from their grasps. He was a lot heavier than he looked with his tail being mostly powerful muscle.

One thing was sure – there was no doubt in anyone's mind by the time they made it to the house that Zac's tail was real. The scales were warm and coarse in Dr. Blakely's arms. They watched as it bent and flicked in inhuman ways. There were also Zac's protests of his Dad hurting the tender webbing of his fluke where it had cracked from drying out so much.

Inside the house they weaved their way around furniture only knocking over one lamp and a couple family photos as they worked towards the bathroom. There Zac was placed carefully on the tile floor as the small tub was filled with cold water. Cam and Mrs. Blakely stood squished against the walls. With Zac's length there wasn't much room in even a decent sized bathroom for a merman and three normal sized human beings.

"Alright, let's lift him again." Rob grabbed his son by the base of his strange new apparatus and with the help of his wife and Cam they heaved him into the water.

Water splashed all around them as Zac was submerged into the cold water. He gasped in protest, wrapping his arms around his chest. He flicked his tail, not liking the feel of such cold water on it.

"Zac!" His mum stood back from the tub, wiping splashed water off her face. "Calm down. It has to be cold to cool you down."

Cam nodded and noticed that his friend was already looking a little better, if not extremely uncomfortable. This was probably a good time for him to go. He nodded to his friend and then cleared his throat. "Call me later when, uh, you know, you feel up to it." Zac glared at him and Cam made his retreat.

Rob watched his son's friend leave then stared back at the tub. The space was definitely too small, but it was the only tub they had in the house. They would need to consider moving him to the pool once his fever was gone and he'd gotten enough water in his system.

Zac finally stopped moving around so much and lay there shivering. While he had been able to fit into the tub just fine as a regular boy, now his tail flopped over the end by a good foot and a half. It was uncomfortable, but he didn't feel so much like passing out now. Laying there he thought back to what Cam had down. He was a bit upset with him friend for calling his parents and exposing him like this, but it had probably saved his life. If he'd been left to the water he'd probably had ended up much worse off. In time he knew he'd be able to forgive him.

Right now a lot depended on how the next conversations went with his parents. Sure they had helped him into the house but now that the crisis was mostly averted, how were they going to react? There was no question that he wasn't human, that much was blindingly obvious. The worst part was he didn't even know how to explain to his parents how this situation was even possible. He himself didn't understand any of it yet. All he knew, was his life was never ever going to be normal again.

I hope you enjoyed that! I would love it if you checked out my H2O Story as well! It's called H20: Just Add Mermen. Happy Swimming!