Quest For The Key

Chapter 20: Time For A Swim

The water dark and murky,

shields us from your eyes,

our hair like winding seaweed,

braided into lies.

No one of your kind denies,

that you avoid us out of fear,

come my sister’s and join the fight,

for travellers journey near. 

The two followed Sparks instruction directly and sure enough there it was. A bed of murky water probably the home to millions of mosquitos. It was nothing Maple had been expecting. She had visioned it to be shinny and bright blue with sparkles and beautiful wild life but, the water was actually something quite fowl. The colour was a sort of pukey green and there were bubbles instead of sparkles. As far as wild life went, if any animals still lived there, they were probably off somewhere committing suicide. Around the edge of the pond grew tall weeds. There were cat  tails and high ferns that wayd up to your thighs. Maple doubted There was no way you could swim in that without getting stuck. You couldn’t even see the bottom. Who knew how deep it was.

Pepper and Maple were discussing about finding the water element somewhere else when Maple saw something move in the water from the corner of her eye. Spark was right, this pond was a real danger. They wondered why Sparks friend would want to live here. Unless this was all a trap. But that didn’t really make any sense.

Half and hour had crawled by and then finally Pepper had decided to go in.  Sometimes Maple’s kindness got her into trouble. Being kind hearted she agreed it was only fair that she come in too. The pals slunk into the water. It smelled really bad and clung to there clothes as if begging them not to go. Farther and farther they went till it was becoming quite deep. 

Just then something swept by their feet and Maple saw something move again. Pepper cried out claiming she stepped on something sharp. The angry fairy dived under before Maple could stop It was awhile until she came up again. There was green slime covering her hair as her head bobbed out of the water.

Her face seemed pale as she said “ There were claws. I saw something resting on the bottom with claws.”

Maple decided to take a look but when she went under she didn’t see a thing. Probably because the water was so dark. Maple swam around looking for anything strange and that was when she saw it.  She had a green scaly tail and long thin wavy hair. Her eyes were glazed over and white. She had super long finger nails and had a light dangling from the top of her head. It was a mermaid! Now it turned in circles flicking it’s razor sharp tail like a mace. Maple scrambled for the top hoping she hadn’t been seen but something slimy wrapped itself around herself  keeping her under. She was running out of breath and her head began to feel dizzy as her vision blurred. Maple’s lungs screamed for air. When a hand took hold of her arm and pulled her up to safety. It was Pepper. Maple got a quick glance of her distressed face and just had time to catch her breath before she was violently pulled under again. This time, deep. She caught a glimpse of the mermaid’s face up close. Her world went upside down as the mermaid played with Maple’s body. There was a sudden sharp pain that made maple scream. Water rushed into her mouth embracing her lungs yet, she couldn’t  cough. Maple looked right to see that the upside down mermaid had  her long nail dug into the flesh of her upper right shoulder.  

Pepper swam under and saw the mermaid. She grabbed at maple and caught on to her free arm. Pulling with all her might the mermaid lost her grasp. Pepper carried Maple’s limp body to the surface and to the bank. There she forced air into Maple’s lungs. After seconds of CPR Maple gasped loudly but seemed all right once she got her breathing back under control. Somehow they had to get to the cave. Pepper said that she had gotten a glimpse of it when they were under. The two began to form a plan.

Two hours later It was time, time to put their plan into action. Maple would swam under to get the mermaids attention while pepper was suppose to swim to the cave. Maple would swim back to shore while Pepper talked to the fairy inside. The plan probably would have worked to but, there was something that lie beneath those murky waters that neither maple nor Pepper was expecting.

As Maple swam down, she saw the mermaid a little farther off. She swam right up to in and started to hit and punch it. The mermaid didn’t attack though. She simply swam away. Maple feeling pleased with herself swam towards pepper as they made there way towards the cave. Passing all the seaweed and sticks the two had almost gotten to the cave when the mermaid swam from beneath them in front of their path. They would have retreated had there not been three more mermaids behind them, one on their right and one on their left. The girls were completely trapped. Maple looked at pepper and Pepper looked at Maple as the mermaid army started to close in. Then just before it was too late the two swam down. Straight down as it got darker and darker and darker. When Maple heard a sucking sound, feeling grains of sand cover their feet and pepper realized what was beneath them..........