Chapter 24

Cleo's P.O.V

We got to work straight away in lighting the fire. We had missed our hot meals of stewed fruit, plus there was one fish left, believe me, it does not taste good raw. I could not believe the luck we had struck. This was the first up in a while. I must admit I had been feeling rather depressed. I felt like a huge part of me was gone, a part that I can't remember when it wasn't there. This was added to the fact that I hadn't seen Lewis in two weeks, and Jennifer and Andy. I miss them so much. The others seem to be handling this better than me, but then Rikki has always been one for hiding emotions well, and Anna coped well in bad situations. We all felt lonely though at nights without our families. We were very grateful to be together.

Rikki reached into that treasure-filled box. She pulled out the nylon reel and the fish hooks. Using these as well as a long piece of driftwood, she seemed to have created a makeshift fishing rod.

I shook my head, amazed. Who knew she had it in her? She was amazing on this island. She kept Anna and myself calm, and she came up with the most ingenious inventions making life here much easier and bearable.

No-one's P.O.V

They caught the first fish the next day; the trio celebrated this small thing enormously (well there was a lot of jumping up and down like little girls by Cleo and Anna.) They used scraps of the fish to catch another the next day. A couple of days of course, they did not catch one, but that did not deter them from trying. Of course, the three of them still enjoyed swimming even without their tails. Life was actually alright for them on the island.

Three days later... (They have now been on the island for two and a half weeks)

A blood-curdling scream came from the direction of their camp. Anna and Rikki turned to each other.

"Cleo." They turned and sprinted as fast as they could in the direction of the continuing screams. They ducked under vines and dodged branches, jumping over logs and tree roots on the uneven ground. They came to the beach; she was not there.

"Cleo where are you?" Anna shouted. They heard a whimper and a moan.

"The stream." Rikki voiced and ran back into the forest. "Come on Anna,"

Cleo had gone to the source of their flowing water. She had found that it was not flowing as easily. She had gone up to find the problem, which she had removed. A collection of branches and leaves had fallen in was blocking the way.

"What happened Cleo?" Anna asked exclaimed when they found her in a heap on the ground, wheezing in agony.

"Snake. Snake...Bit. Me" she gasped.

Rikki looked around for the culprit. Indeed there was a large snake slithering further into the dense jungle.

"Oh no you don't," she muttered. She picked up a rock and ran towards it screaming a bloody war cry.

"Rikki, No!" Anna called after her. She then turned to Cleo; she was panicking.

"Cleo, calm down, breathe..."

The fearless Rikki jammed her foot down on its neck and it writhed as Rikki brought the rock down repeatedly onto its head. Finally, it stopped moving, dead. That snake easily could have bitten her too, Anna was surprised it hadn't. Rikki sat on her heels panting, staring at the rock in her hands. Anna stared open mouthed. Another moan from Cleo jolted them out of their shock; on the other hand, Cleo was going into shock.

"Okay, we need to get her back to the camp pronto. Hopefully there's something in the first aid kit," Rikki said quickly. They lifted her gently and as quickly as possible took her back to the beach. Cleo complained of nausea and incredible pain. They could see something beginning to ooze from the wound, and was beginning to swell (on her calf muscle.)

"This is so not good," Anna muttered to herself. Once they had set Cleo down on the sand, Anna got to work and removed Cleo's shoes.

"Rikki, grab the soap from the kit and water, we need to wash this out ASAP."

Rikki didn't argue and did what she was told, this was not her expertise, but it seemed like it was Anna's. Anna grabbed a bandage from the first aid kit and wrapped it not too tightly around the wound.

Rikki handed Anna the first aid kit.

"Thank God," Anna breathed, "Polyvalent Anti-venom." There were pictures of snakes on the cases, Anna administered the one with the identical picture to the snake Rikki had killed.

Rikki wiped Cleo's sweaty forehead with a cloth as Anna continued to doctor her.

"It'll be okay Cleo,"

Cleo tried to smile, she ending up wincing. "I know you'll take care of me the best you can."

Anna sighed shakily when she was done, and she embraced Rikki.

OoOoO

The snake incident really stressed Rikki and Anna out. They did not show it to Cleo but they were freaked and a couple of times they had to leave Cleo as they were crying. Without a hospital, they weren't sure whether she'd pull through. It turned out that Anna had done a couple of first aid courses in her lifetime and had learned all about snake bites. Her dad had taught her as he had almost died of snakebite once and he had had to survive by himself in the outback. This was the reason they never went camping – he was terrified of being bitten again. Miraculously, Cleo's wound seemed to be improving; the medical attention that Anna had given the wound had worked, she had saved her life.

Cleo wasn't allowed to move on Anna's orders, it would just make the venom spread faster. They left her on the beach but would only be gone for a few minutes – they didn't want Cleo to go into a sudden relapse or something. Therefore, either Rikki or Anna would always stay nearby, between the second person and Cleo if they had to go further.

Six days later, the swelling was much less. A week and two days after the event, Cleo could walk again – hobbling, but she wasn't immobile. All swelling was gone and she felt much better.

"This is truly a miraculous recovery," Anna said to Rikki. "You know she should have been getting worse, she hasn't had hospital treatment."

"Are you complaining?" Rikki replied.

"No! I'm just amazed."

"Do ya think that it is some random left over mermaid power? Healing quickly as a human. You know we were almost never sick during our time as mermaids. Maybe we still have a sort of health power?"

"I don't know,"

"Come on, look at how she recovered."

"Alright, we can keep it as a theory,"

"What are you guys talking about?" Cleo asked.

"Rikki thinks that we still have our health power from being mermaids. I agreed to keep it as a theory," Anna said.

"Hmm," Cleo said."I did think I was a goner though for a bit,"

Rikki and Anna hugged her.

"We're glad you're not,"

A/N:Hey, sorry if this isn't very realistic, it's all based on research, besides I live in New Zealand, and well, there are no snakes, let alone poisonous ones. So bear with me.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and thanks for reading. Also thanks in advance for reviewing, just 'cos I know you all will... [Hint hint]:D