The Aquarian

Chapter 4

This morning, the Medicinals where swimming to all of our dens, delivering news and information, according to our next-dune neighbors. They where wearing their usual bronze uniforms, acting in a matter of authority, even though they really did not have any authority over the Bay at all, only their medicine-related issues.
This was one of them.
It was after classes, a little while after sunrise when mom went to the front entrance after hearing the Medicinal's call, (it so like a melodic healing sound, and its a little overdramatic). I followed mom but stayed around the corner of the sloped wall of corral, listening to the conversation. I knew it was rude to eavesdrop, but this seemed like very important information.
A deep woman's voice answered.
"Hello, i'm here to notify our citizens of an issue-and opportunity- concerning a recently found and extremly fatal disease. Are you familiar with the the diagnosis Solaricis?" The woman asked. "Yes, im aware of the encounter." Mother replied solemly. The Medicinal went on-"Lately we have been doing advanced research on the disease and we have found many fatal side-effects. Therefore, we have also been searching for a cure.
Some of the elders have memory stones about a warning from the human's long ago; they told us that there will be long term effects from the air-pollution they have been causing. They worked with an elder (who I will leave anonymous) to try and find any possible diseases that could arrive in the Aquarian community.
A test was done on an Aquarian; yes they caught the disease, and our fellow elder believes it to be the same disease we recently encountered; Solaricis. The human who engineered the test quickly searched for a cure and successfully made one. Him and an alchemy scientist put more 200 pounds in an Aquamarine stone. The elder had a sample of the cure, and we tested it on a Solaricis patient, Nahla, and she is now beginning a full recovery.
They (the humans ) promised the elder it will be sustainable forever, and said they put it in a coral reef about 3 lengths of the bay south of Bay. We have never travelled there before, but we have an idea of where it is. It will be extremely difficult to find but we must make the long journey. Now that brings me to the main reason why I am here: we are looking for any researchers willing to go on this journey and I was wondering if there are any researchers in your dune who I may speak to." "No, none here." Mom replied. "Ok, everyone is welcome to the Gathering tomorrow at sunrise where this will be explained in further detail."
And she left, leaving my mom a glint of hope for Nahla.
                                   *
When I told Scarlett about the Gathering, her immediate response was-"Cool, lets go to the Gathering and pretend we're researchers!" I shook my head while laughing. "Scarlett, we couldn't pass as 18-a drops." I said. She looked at me in a disbelieving kind of way-"That's not true, you probably could." She retorted defensively. Oh, Scarlett, she has great charisma but to much imagination...
"All of the researchers know each other, Scarlett. Besides, we would need corral identification." Scarlett rolled her eyes.
"Whatever... I just think it would be awesome to escape into new land."
I couldn't argue with that.
I've always wanted to be a researcher to explore and define new objects or places. Scarlett's always wanted to go past the borders and have fun in new places.
But there is one problem; female Aquarians are not permitted to be researchers, and your punishment would be exile if you where to try.
The only thing close to a researcher that females can do is become a inspector.
Basically, inspectors take care of issues surrounding the bay by exploring the surrounding areas and have to do a bunch of tests and experiments on newly found objects or animals.
Researchers get to do a lot more, but this mermen are superior mentality would have to float away to a different ocean in order for me or my sister to become one.
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P.S. Hello wattpader's! Hope you are enjoying the story so far. If you are not, make sure you leave a comment so I can see your suggestion/inquiry.
I also wanted to apologize for the malfunction on the chapters photo. You'll have to click on it to see what I was trying to upload. Happy reading!
-Katt