Trapped

22.

I was shocked at the sight of her rainbow coloured tail, my heart constricted and for a moment I was convinced that it was the same person. After I took a longer look I realized that they didn't look the same, the other woman had red hair, the pearl had purple hair. The other difference was that the pearl's tail was very glossy and more metalic in colour than the other woman's tail.

I didn't ask about it, fearing that I might anger her and then she wouldn't help us. She led us into a large and very bright pearly room, in the middle there was a clam-like throne with small pearls around the outer edge of the clam. She sat down on it and let out a deep sigh and looked at Zac.

"So, as you know Zac, there is a price to pay when you ask me for a favour," she said.

"But we don't have any money," I said.

"Well, then you can thank the stars that I am not after material possessions, I want an emotional reward," she said. I was very perplexed by her answer but I didn't protest. I needed to get my legs back in order to save Megan and Erin.

"So, what do you want?" Jeremy asked.

"I want each of you to tell me your biggest secret, in return, I will give you each a pair of legs" she stated.

"Well, I wasn't expecting that," I said, more to myself than to anyone else. The pearl laughed at my comment but quickly put on a serious face. I wasn't too worried about it, Jason, Jeremy and Angela knew what my biggest secret was. Zac is the only one who didn't know about it.

"Who's first?" She said. Jeremy flinched and I wondered what he could be hiding that made him react that way.

"Wait, can't we pay you in some other way?" Zac asked and he looked nervous.
"Yeah, isn't there anything else you want?" Jason asked before she could answer.

"No, I want to know your biggest secret and nothing else," She said sternly and then smirked before continuing, "Actually, let's spice things up, you have to tell me your biggest secret and the story that goes with it."

I could see all their faces fall, this made me extra curious to know what made them so nervous about telling their secrets.

"I'll ask again, who's first?" The pearl said.

"Wait, how is Angela going to tell her secret if she's unconscious?" I asked.

"Great, Luna will be going first then," she said, again not answering my question.

"Okay, fine. But could you please heal my friend first?" I asked.

"Tell me your secret and I will heal your friend and give you legs, how does that sound? It's a great offer, two favours for the price of one," She said, lifted her eyebrow and gave me a smirk. Why couldn't she just tell me that from the beginning?

"Okay, my biggest secret is that I -" I was interrupted by the Pearl who said: "No wait, you have to hold this stone on your palm while you tell me, so that I can be sure that you're not lying. The stone will light up if you lie."

"Ugh," I said and took the lime coloured stone from her, then I proceeded to tell them all my secret: "When I was fourteen years old I snuck out of the house to go to a party without my dad's permission, at the party I was bullied into smoking a cigaret. The attention that I got from smoking made me feel so cool that I became addicted to it, but thanks to Angela I sobered up and kicked the addiction about half a year after that."