The first obstacle listed below, I got inspiration from a Barbie movie titled "Mermaidia." The cave I saw in the movie is like I described below, except for the timing of the blasts. The cave obstacle inspiration also came from a story called "Beneath the Waves."
Chapter Four- The First Obstacle
It was almost dawn when the pair reached a deep cave and inside this cave were countless geysers issuing blasts of hot water at random and it wasn't a straight line of them. Some pointed up, some pointed down, and there were even some that were on the ceiling but pointed down diagonally. It, in short, looked like a crazy maze of hot water with no clear path through them. Amara gaped at them for a moment and then looked at Michelle. "Do we have to go through there to reach the mirror?"
"Well, yes and no. We do have to get through this, but there are obstacles between this cave and the mirror."
Amara stared at the geysers again. "We'll never get through. The blasts are too random."
"Actually, they're not. There's a pattern to the blasts. We just have to time them and go when they stop."
"Will they all stop at once?"
"No. They stop one at a time or two or more at a time. We just have to swim past a stopped one and wait for the next one to blast before passing it. The only thing is that some will blast longer or shorter than others and we have to move fast to succeed."
At that moment, the geyser in front of them went off. "There's the first one," Michelle said. "Let's go."
Amara followed behind her, staying close to insure she didn't get burned but staying back enough that she didn't swim past Michelle whenever she stopped. She felt another reason why merpeople didn't swim through the field: It was awfully hot and of course it made sense what with hot water shooting off all around them. Michelle stopped and Amara came to a halt right beside her. There were four geysers all grouped together. There were two on the bottom that pointed diagonally at the space above them and there were two on the ceiling also pointing diagonally at the same space the bottom ones were aiming at. The only way past them was through the space between the pairs.
"This one will be difficult," Michelle noted. "I've heard stories of others who ventured this way. They failed to time it right and were incinerated. There was nothing left of them after the water stopped shooting."
Amara swallowed hard. If they failed, then there would be nothing left of them, either. "Well, then we'll just have to watch them carefully," she stated.
Michelle nodded and the two mermaids floated there, waiting for the geysers to shoot so that they could count how long the blasts were. Finally two went off, one on top and one at the bottom and opposite of each other. Nonetheless, Amara silently counted until they went off again. "Sixteen," she announced. The other two went off at that exact moment and Michelle started counting until they went off again. "Ten," she said. Then, all four went off and then after a count of five, the first pair went off again.
"Interesting," Amara marveled. "We will definitely need to time it just right."
They waited until the cycle started again and then as soon as the first two stopped, Michelle and Amara sped through the gap and were just clearing it when the second set went off and Amara felt the water lightly brush her fins, yet it felt like it gushed over it. She yelped in pain and Michelle turned, grabbed her arm, and yanked her the rest of the way through the field. Once they were safe, Michelle had Amara sit on a rock so that she could examine Amara's injury. There were light burns on the fins and the hissing from Amara's mouth was enough to tell her that it was painful.
Michelle looked around and saw a plant nearby that she knew had a substance capable of cooling the burns, but the marks would remain until they naturally faded away. She grabbed a blade of the plant, broke it off, and squeezed until the thick substance dripped out. She rubbed it on the burns and the hissing sounds from Amara stopped and changed to a relieved sigh. She smiled at the blonde. "The burn marks will fade eventually, but at least it doesn't hurt anymore."
"You're right, it doesn't hurt now. I never imagined that hot water would hurt that badly, especially underwater."
"Well, now you know and it's something you'll have to keep in mind since you'll be living in the ocean once we got that mirror."
"We've only got two days and nights to find it, so let's get moving," Amara rose from the rock and started swimming off with Michelle right behind her.
"Hey, Amara. You might want to let me lead since I know where we need to go."
I know it's short, but the next one will be only a tiny bit longer.
