Chapter 22

Cleo had a brilliant idea as she woke up.

"Guys, we need to try mindspeak."

"Why didn't we think of that, the book said that it had no limit to distances, as long as you weren't in a magical area that blocks it"

All three of them tried for quite a while, yet no links were made.

"Do you think that this is a magical area?"

"No duh," Rikki replied, "something in this environment stops mermaids from leaving. Think about it: we can't swim out no matter how hard we try and we can't mindspeak either."

They all sighed.

After having stewed fruit for their breakfast, Rikki, Anna and Cleo were lying on the beach. Their skin was much more tanned than it was before they had arrived.

"We need some more firewood." Rikki announced, rolling onto her side to face her friends, "We can't just light it in mid-air,"

"I agree, but I don't really feel like trekking through the jungle right now," Anna said.

"What If we go to the lagoon first?" Cleo suggested.

"Cool,"

"I'm keen,"

That is what they did, they knew their jungle well enough now to know where the dangers such as quicksand pools, and crocodiles were, so they made their way without problem. They definitely enjoyed their swim and after a few hours, headed back towards the camp. On the way back to camp they stopped in at the plane crash site and grabbed a couple of blankets that they had found the first time they had looked at it. Closer to camp, they gathered forest wood, and then on the beach, driftwood. As the sun set, the mermaids swam in the shallows of the sea, thinking of the families they missed. Once it was dark, Rikki lit the fire with the wood they had gathered and they looked up to the starry sky, to the moon.

"Guys look, the moon is almost full, and this means within a few days, a full moon will be on our hands." Cleo said.

"Well, we knew we'd have to deal with it sooner or later."

OoOoO

"This should last us a while," Anna said as the three of them walked along the beach, back to their camp, their arms full of papaya, banana and guava. They had visited their fruit-gathering place. It was late afternoon, the girls did not realise that the full moon was slowly rising behind them as they walked the length of the beach. It was rising early.

A couple of papaya dropped from Cleo's arms. She stopped to pick them up.

"Sorry guys, wait up,"

"Come on Cleo," Rikki said as they both turned around. Anna and Rikki stopped staring up at the full moon, just a little above Cleo's head. The moon had caught them.

"Alrighty then," Cleo said, standing up with all the fruit again. "What?" she moaned when all their fruit dropped from their arms, scattering all over the sand. They were staring aimlessly into the sky.

"Guys? What are you looking at..." she stopped as she too got caught by the moon light. The fruit in her arms joined her friends'. Ghostly grins came across their features.

The moonstruck mermaids walked purposefully into the jungle, their powers going crazy. Anna and Cleo walked on either side of Rikki, water droplets hanging dormant in the air around them, as Rikki walked, she left a trail of fire behind her, and everything she touched was set alight. They walked straight to the island's moon pool. If the mermaids were conscious, they would have noticed something wrong about the moon pool, that something felt not quite right, the bubbling was nothing that they had seen before. The bubbles and water had a greenish tinge to it and miniature whirlpools were swirling in the water. Spears of water were shooting out of the pool – not into it and the magic seemed backwards. Regardless the mermaids entered the water. As the moon was over the moon pool, the bubbles were in a frenzy and a bright flash of light engulfed the cavern.

The following night...

Rikki's P.O.V

I coughed, there was sand in my mouth and a loud and painful pounding in my head. I felt around the ground, my eyes still shut. All I found was sand and rock – and then my hand dipped into the water. My eyes shot open. Ten seconds passed...and nothing happened. What the heck? That hasn't happened in fifteen years. What am I even doing here? Anna and Cleo lie on either side of me, still sleeping, covered in dust and sand. I probably look like that.

The moon pool? But aren't we stranded on a desert island? That's when everything came back to me – well not everything. The last thing I remember was Cleo dropping fruit on the way back to our camp. Oh no. We must of been moonstruck. I touched the water again – this time with both hands. Again nothing happened, my hands stayed dripping. I stretched my hand out and resumed my power position. Nothing happened, not even a little heat. I started to panic, sitting up. How? I feel...naked without them. I groan as my joints click and muscles protest. Note to self: try not to sleep on a rock cavern floor – it is really painful in the morning. Or night – actually, we must have slept a full day, drawing mermaid powers must be tiring on the body, I haven't felt this weak in ages.

I shook the others awake.

"What?" Anna groaned.

"We got moonstruck that's what." I said.

Cleo bolted upright at this. "What?"

I dipped my hands in the water again and flicked it all over them.

"Rikki!" they exclaimed. I was secretly hoping that we'd all transform, however, ten seconds later we were looking shocked at water that was still on our human skin.

Cleo immediately tried her power, it didn't work. Cleo then dived straight into the pool, followed by Anna and myself. All this would earn us was wet clothes. We pulled ourselves out of the pool and we lay down on the sand, our dripping clothes collecting sand.

"What happened to us?" Cleo whispered on the verge of tears. Anna and I were still in shock. I took a shuddering breath, "That full moon must have had some real special qualities," I said quietly. The three of us got up and trudged shivering back through the jungle - the sun hadn't quite set yet. We were not used to feeling cold while wet. In fact we were not used to this at all. Anna had to be coping the best out of us. Cleo and I were in shock. This had been a part of our lives for over half of it, for it to just be gone – just like that, just... it's impossible to explain the loss I was feeling. Back at the camp we gulped down the remaining fruit at the camp – the ones we were bringing back never made the journey. Without our powers, Anna and I both could not light the fire. We huddled close that night, very, very grateful for the blankets and spare change of clothes.

When we woke again it was late afternoon. Immediately we all ran into the sea. Unfortunately, now we just had another pair of wet clothes – only one dry pair left. Unsurprisingly nothing happened again. Great. Now we were stranded on a desert island without mermaid powers as an advantage. Whatever the moon and moon pool had done, it had drained our powers, and our energy. I definitely thought that we should go give the crashed plane's hold another look, there could be something there that could help us with our predicament. We were now forever grateful that we had taken advantage of our powers at the time and had equipment that we could still take care of ourselves. I definitely felt vulnerable now, and I knew the others felt the same.

A/N: Please review! :D