Chapter 78

Shaking her head, Rikki lifted Fi out of the pool, sitting her on the sand. She noticed that Fi looked rather put out. Rikki smirked as she hoisted herself up and out. She then dried herself and her daughter off. Rikki honestly did not know what to think. Gills. Was she born with them? Or is she developing into something else? Rikki could not help but think of that dream she had had during the problematic time of giving birth. Pushing that to the back of her mind, she crossed her legs and got Fi to face towards the water. Rikki stretched out her arm. Fi giggled as the pool erupted in large bubbles. The girl sighed in disappointment when Rikki stopped her powers. Rikki lifted Fi's arm gently.

"Okay, baby, I want you to try and do what I did,"

When Rikki released her arm, it dropped back down again. She repeated the action.

"Hold your arm there, Fi,"

Rikki proceeded to squeeze her hand into a fist, thus starting the boiling of the water once more. As Rikki had expected, Fi began to imitate what she was doing.

Suddenly, the surface of the water caught on fire. Rikki stopped Fi's powers in shock, opening her fist. How much power did this girl have? She now understood Emma and Cleo's worry about her powers getting out of control. Fi clapped her hands together. Rikki hoped she wasn't going to become a pyromaniac. Eventually the flames subsided. None of the other kids had done that in their first few tries; usually they would start off weak and their power and its control would slowly build, with the exception of a few mishaps.

Rikki pushed Fi's hand into a ball and fortunately, the little girl seemed to get the right idea. Fi started to boil the water. After a pause, Rikki began to un-bunch the girl's hand, holding it flat. Fi made a dissatisfied noise. The water was still boiling, but it was very weak. Fi tried to fist her hand again. Rikki released her hand. The girl was a fast learner. She began to open and close her hand, testing her powers. The pool bubbled and then it subsided. Rikki grinned. Her tactics worked.

After a few minutes of this, of Fi becoming more aware of how to control her powers, Rikki grabbed the handful of leaves she had brought in and put them at the far side of the cave.

"Fi, I want to try and set those leaves on fire," she said. The purpose was to try and get her to control the flames once they had broken out. With experienced skill, Rikki stretched her hand out and set the said leaves on fire, almost as soon as this happened, she pulled the flames away, stopping the fire.

"Can you try that Fi?"

Imitating her mother, the baby lifted her arm. Instead of starting a flame, a lightning bolt came from the sky, igniting the pile. Rikki went over and kicked the smouldering leaves into the moon pool. That lightning bolt had given her one heck of a fright.

"Okay, maybe that's all we should do for today,"

Rikki hoped that that training session had taught Fi that she should be in control of her powers. Maybe the mishaps would be less frequent now.

OoOoO

When Hunter went into work over the next two days, he brought his camera and hoped to be able to corner Jessie and wet her, transforming her into her true self. However, Jessie was not there. Both she and Anna had decided that it would probably be safer if she called in sick, to avoid Hunter, to let him cool down. They both hoped that he wouldn't do anything rash. Unknown to them, Hunter was planning how to get photographic proof of Jessie and keep it a secret so she couldn't destroy the evidence. Did Jessie even live in a house? She was a fish, after all. Jessie couldn't stay away forever and when she did come in to work, he would follow her to wherever she lived, whether it be on land or in the ocean. He told himself that the idea wasn't creepy. Greed overwhelmed his morals.

Hunter barely talked to Anna. She could tell that he was mulling something over. The light behind his eyes was angry and unforgiving. She hoped in vain that what was going on in the young man's mind was not about his mermaid colleague.

OoOoO

Rikki picked up Fi and carried her back to the village, going into the McCartney household.

"Lewis?" she called, "Are you home?" She put Fi on the floor before flopping into the couch.

He rounded the corner into the living room.

"Hey Rikki, what's up?" Lewis asked casually as if finding Rikki relaxing on his couch uninvited was the most normal thing in the world.

"I was trying to train this trouble maker to use her powers before and I discovered something," Rikki said. As Lewis sat down beside her, Rikki picked up said troublemaker and sat her on her lap. "Well, actually a couple of things. The most stunning is the fact that she can breathe underwater,"

"Breathe underwater? But how?" Lewis asked. "No other mers we've encountered have been able to," Lewis asked.

"I think she has gills," Rikki stated, aware of how ridiculous that sounded. "You see the tiny freckles at that bit in her neck?"

"You mean the jugular notch?" Lewis asked,

"Whatever," Rikki replied impatiently. "When she was underwater, bubbles were coming from those freckles. Look closer," she instructed. She waited for Lewis to realise.

"Holes," Lewis said. "Wow,"

"Do you think they could be some kind of gills?" Rikki asked.

"It's hard to be sure, but if she was breathing underwater, then there must be some kind of tiny water and oxygen filter in her neck, channelling what is needed into the lungs," Lewis said. "Maybe it is attached to the top of the trachea…we'd have to do an ultrasound to check, but that could be risky, and probably unnecessary,"

"So…"

"So, yes, I think that if she can breathe underwater, they must be. It's fascinating! I'm sure when she gets older it will be easier to tell,"

"How is this possible?" Rikki asked. "One minute we think she's human and the next she has gills! How is it that I am more fish than she is and I can't breathe underwater?"

Lewis shrugged. "You know that I don't know," he replied. "Perhaps it is a mutation? I'll investigate – maybe there is some folklore on it somewhere,"

A/N: Hey everyone! I hope you enjoyed this chapter! I'm still sorting a few things out in my own mind about where I'm taking this, so that's why it took a while to write. Hopefully the next won't be too far away, but I am warning you that in the next few weeks I do have quite a bit of Uni work, so if any of my stories are updated it will be a miracle...(or procrastination from uni work on my part, lol) but remember, reviews do remind and inspire me! so keep 'em coming! LOVE YOU ALL! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !(the exclamation marks would make that clear I hope :P )

Anyway, thanks so much to the following for reviewing!

zikki 3 - Thanks! I can always count on you for a review that makes me smile! I hope the storyline turns out the way you want it to :P

Mermaids Forever - Thanks! Two reviews again! I can always count on you to remind me to update - thanks :P (and maybe you're on to something ;D )

halfbloodbugsy - Thanks so much! It's always nice to have new faces in the review section :) I hope you continue to do so :) I'm glad you like it.

The Writer Es - Actually, yes, that was the next plan! :-) I think once the kids are older, it will be easier to write them. Don't know if I'll start it while the sequel is going or not - we'll see :P someday... Thanks!

YaleAceBella12 - No, I like you thoughting out ideas! I just thought maybe you were actually asking :P No need to apologise! Thanks so much for all your reviews!

Purple Angel Love - Yay, thanks so much!

CrazyHayniac - Hehe :P Yeah it would be nice if that happened! Then I wouldn't have such a large student loan! Thanks so much. I can always count on you to make me smile! Yay!

HybridsRose - Hooray! I aim to please! Thanks so much!

WannabeeAussie - Thanks for reviewing one of the older ones :) I'm glad you liked it. That plot is probably one of my favourite storylines in my Fishy Tale series :D

Starlightdreamer1 - Awesome! Thanks so much! Thanks for reading and reviewing and I hope you continue to do so :P

Guest - Well, the begging worked :P hehe. I hope you liked it!

Green DayLuuver - That's all good! I'm glad you still like and read my stories! Thanks for reviewing!

Sammiloveschocolate - and you will find out! in the future...hehehehe...or maybe when I come home next weekend :P Thanks, sis.

HeartlandFan101 - I'm glad you're liking it! Thanks so much!

WOW! Phew, that was a lot of responding, haha :P I'm tired now...See you all next time! Love you!

P.S I'm sorry it's so short