Rikki felt the cool stone under her hand, her brain trying to make sense of the optical illusion. Ash and Emma had been right about it being hidden. It wasn't until you were within a meter of it that you could see the grand edifice shimmering slightly. It was like laying one image over the other, with the image of the building barely visible.

She walked over to the section the others were looking at. It was a huge column over ten meters tall, it was hard to tell as the image faded further up. One thing was clear though, it was a mermaid. The stone was carved with a scale-like texture for her tail, long hair draped down over her shoulders, and her arms pressed upward as though she were holding the building up. There was a similar column about seven meters to the right of the mermaid, this one a merman with shorter, but still lengthy hair, and arms pressed up to the sky.

"Woah," was all Rikki managed to say. She looked over to the others who shared similar looks of awe.

"Whoever made this, must have known about the magic here," said Emma. "It looks like its been here for a long time. It's why we thought it was a temple, if people knew about merfolk, they might have worshiped them."

"Maybe," said Lewis, "But this thing is huge! I mean it could even be a palace!"

Ash made a move up a set of stairs between the two columns. Rikki and the others followed him up to a veranda where he paused. "The entrance is right here." The sound of a heavy door opening echoed through the jungle.

A pitch-black void the shape of a door grew: a fair contrast from the grey-lit Jungle around them. Although it was night, gaps in the tree canopy allowed for a good amount of light to come through. Rikki looked up at the stars and got a glimpse of the waxing moon less than a week away from being full. She sighed, really not looking forward to the next full moon.

For the girls, full moons had begun to fall into a rhythm after they got their new powers. There were moments of extreme giddiness and lack of inhibition while under the moons influence, but they found that if they really focused they could have control. The Moon Pool still called to them, but Rikki found it to be like an annoying song stuck in your mind. Just put on some better music and power on through it.

The boys however, were a different story. Lewis prepared for the moon as he had every month, but this time the contingency plans he made were for Ash, Zane and himself. And no matter how much planning they put into keeping everyone home, safe and sane, something always went wrong. Three full moons. Three bad full moons with moonstruck boys.

They spent the first at Zane's house where they had covered up every crack a moonbeam might shine through. This ended up a repeat of Rikki's first bad moon, with Ash overheating, and risking to set the whole house on fire. They ended up locking him in Harrison's room while Emma snowed on him the whole night. Zane had had an interesting time explaining to his dad that a pipe leak was responsible for the waterlogged carpet.

The second, was spent at Emma's while her parents went to a funeral out of town for a distant but wealthy relative. Lewis must have caught a glimpse of moon somewhere because he ended up pouring an entire pitcher of water over his head in the middle of the living room. He was stuck in his tail, but like a child, had found joy in freezing anything he could until he fell asleep.

The third moon they split the group up, with her and Zane holed up at his house. Everything was fine at first as they settled down for a movie. In retrospect, she should not have been surprised when he escaped after she left the room to use the restroom. Honestly, it wasn't the worst moon, but spending the whole night chasing her essentially drunken boyfriend around the ocean near Mako was not what she had originally envisioned for their night alone.

'Just a few more days' she thought to herself bringing her attention back to the dark hole in front of them. When no one made an immediate move, Rikki pushed her way through, her flashlight pointed firmly in front of her. Zane was right behind her, the others following until they all stood in the lobby of a dark and enormous hall.

The thin beams of light allowed them some impression of the space. Walking from the foyer into the hall she noticed twin staircases at the end leading deeper into the building. The walls were lined with intricately detailed torches as well as murals reflecting oceanic images. The murals continued up toward the ceiling. Curious if the ceiling was also painted, she shone her light upward. It was so high and dark she couldn't tell.

Suddenly chandeliers from high above lit themselves, bathing the room with a soft blue glow. The torches also lit up as though beckoning them to come further in.

"Okay, that's not creepy at all." Zane commented, a tinge of fear in his voice. "I know that its magic, but that just seems to make it worse."

"Are you scared?" She asked, now gripping his hand.

"No of course not!" He replied way too quickly.

"'Cause I'm a little scared," she stood on her toes, leaning up to give him a quick hug.

Suddenly the door they had entered through closed with a resounding slam. "Okay, now I'm a lot scared!" she shouted the same time Cleo could be heard giving a short scream.

Ash ran back to the door and gave it a firm pull, only for it to open again easily. "It's okay guys, we're not trapped in here."

"Shouldn't we go then?" Cleo asked slightly cowered behind Lewis.

"No!" said Emma firmly, "We need to know what this place is and why it's here!"

A splashing sound from behind caught her attention. She looked toward the twin staircases and saw there was a waterfall fountain starting to gurgle between the two. The image of a face seemed to form in the cascading water, just as they were all fully unnerved by a gentle but eerie voice.

"Perhaps I could be of some help?"