Secrets of the Island (Sequel to Mysteries of Mako)

Chapter 5: The Siren

I was out helping Mimmi and Ondina gather some seaweed. We decided to make some ice cream that day, but all the seaweed we were finding wasn't the best. Still, it would be good enough though. We were also lucky to find any of it, since there wasn't much around where we looked. Taking what we had, we returned to the Moon Pool.

"There doesn't seem to be much seaweed around." Mimmi says when we surface.

"The dugongs must've hogged it all." Ondina adds. "We hardly got any."

"I'm sure we can still make do if needed." I say.

Suddenly, Sirena surfaced behind us.

"Where were you?" Mimmi asked curiously.

"You were supposed to help us gather seaweed for making ice cream, remember?" Ondina adds.

"Ice cream?" Sirena responded, although she didn't exactly sound like she usually does.

"Yeah, your favorite." Ondina says, seeming to ignore this.

"David had to leave." Sirena says.

"Oh, you mean the exam." Mimmi says. "Zac had to go to that too."

"So did Erik." I add. "I think Jasper did, too."

"It must be so weird sitting in a building to do an exam." Ondina wonders.

"I know, how do they stand it?" Mimmi adds. "Mermaid exams are much more fun."

The three of us laughed at this as we started talking about our exams we had back in mermaid school.

"Remember when we sat our test for navigating ocean currents, and that cranky old sea turtle tried to take a bite out of your tail?" Ondina asked Mimmi.

"Yeah, that was hilarious, minus the snappy turtle part." Mimmi replied, not seeming to happy about that.

"Remember that baby ray that wouldn't leave me alone?" I asked them.

"I think it followed you through most of the exams." Ondina replies. "Those were the days."

"Well, I guess we'd better go and collect more seaweed." I say.

"Are you coming?" Mimmi asked Sirena, but the blonde mermaid didn't respond as we swam off.

After another long search, the three of us returned with more brown seaweed, and no sign of Sirena since we left. Something felt very off.

"Nice of Sirena to join us." Ondina complains when we surfaced again."

"It's not like her to make us do all the work." Mimi adds.

"Didn't she seem a little... off to you earlier?" I ask.

"What do you mean?" Mimmi responds.

"I don't know, something about her seems... different." I say.

We heard someone surface behind us, and we turn to see Sirena.

"Hey, we were just talking about you." Mimmi says.

"Are you three gonna be here long?" Sirena asks.

"Well, this is our home, so yeah." I answer.

"Let's get started on the ice cream." Ondina says as we go through our seaweed.

"That old, tough seaweed won't make good ice cream." Sirena says behind us. "It's far too bitter. What you need is young, fresh seaweed."

"We looked everywhere and we couldn't find any." Mimmi says.