Suddenly something grabbed one of her arms. It started pulling her down!
Chapter Three
Electra gasped and struggled. The thing seemed to tangle further round her. It felt like a tentacle. Maybe it was a giant squid, trying to pull her into its underwater cave.
‘No!’ Electra cried, a wave of panic
sweeping over her. Yanking her arms this way and that, she fought desperately. The water was black all around her and there seemed to be things everywhere, grasping at her and tangling round her arms and hair.
Electra pulled herself free, and turned and kicked towards the surface as fast as she could.
She swam and swam her heart pounding in her chest. Reaching the surface, she burst through. The sunlight seemed to hit her in the face. She looked around fearfully, half expecting to see a giant squid or some other sort of terrifying sea monster shooting up beside her, but there was nothing. Still, she wasn’t going to hang around.
She plunged towards the reef and raced back to the safety of the shallower waters.
Sam was the first person she reached.
‘Hi, Electra!’ he exclaimed, holding up a small ball of green fire. ‘Isn’t this fun!’ His voice faltered as he took in Electra’s wide eyes and scared face. ‘What… what’s the matter?’ he asked in alarm. ‘You look frightened!’
Electra swallowed. She was never frightened of anything. All her friends thought she was really brave. She couldn’t tell Sam about what had happened. With a huge effort, she forced a smile on to her face. ‘Me? Frightened! Of course not!’ she lied.
Sam didn’t look convinced, but just then Sasha swam over with two of their other friends, Hakim and Nerissa.
‘Have you been diving down far out in the deep sea?’ asked Hakim, his brown eyes wide. ‘Sasha said you were going to try.’
‘You’re so brave, Electra,’ Nerissa gasped. ‘No one else would dare to do that.’
Seeing the admiration on her friends’ faces, Electra just couldn’t
admit to them how frightened she had just been. She really liked her friends thinking she was brave.
‘So, what was it like down there?’ Hakim went on.
‘Did you see any sea monsters?’ Nerissa asked.
‘No,’ Electra replied. ‘But… but I saw the caves where they lived,’ she invented quickly as she saw Nerissa and Hakim start to look disappointed. ‘And there were loads of other things. Sea dragons and really scary things, but I wasn’t frightened at all.’
‘Wow!’ Sasha, Nerissa and Hakim breathed.
‘Electra,’ Sam said slowly, ‘if you went all the way to the seabed, why haven’t you got any fire with you?’
Electra felt her face go red. ‘I… I forgot. I was so busy looking at everything down there.’ Then she added, ‘But I could have got loads of fire if I’d wanted.’
To her relief, just at that moment, Solon clapped his hands. ‘Right, Class Four!’ he called. ‘Come over here!’
Avoiding Sam’s eyes, Electra swam over to Solon’s side.
‘You’ve all been doing very well at collecting fire,’ Solon said, looking pleased. ‘So, I think we’ll have a competition. I want you to get into teams of five and I’m going to give you one hour to collect mermaid fire. The team with the most fire at the end of an hour wins.’
‘Will there be prizes?’ Nerissa asked eagerly.
Solon nodded. ‘Yes. There will be prizes.’
Sam, Sasha, Nerissa, Hakim and Electra immediately formed a team. ‘This is brilliant!’ Hakim said excitedly. ‘We’re bound to win with Electra in our team!’
‘Yeah!’ Nerissa put in. ‘You can dive down really deep again, Electra, and get loads of fire.’
‘Yeah,’ Electra faltered. Dive down really deep! She definitely didn’t want to do that.
‘Let’s get started,’ Sasha said.
They all plunged downwards into
the water. Electra froze. What was she going to do? Her friends were expecting her to dive down into the deep sea again, but she couldn’t. She just couldn’t. She imagined those horrible tentacles closing round her wrists, pulling her down towards the seabed, down and down…
Sam and Sasha surfaced. They each had a small green ball of fire in their hands. ‘What are you doing, Electra?’ Sasha asked in surprise. ‘Why aren’t you collecting fire?’
‘I’m just going to,’ Electra lied, feeling sick. ‘I’m… I’m just deciding the best place to dive from.’ She saw Sam start to frown. ‘I’ll… er… be back soon,’ she said. And before he could say anything, she plunged away into the sea.
She swam until she was a good distance from them and then stopped. OK, so now what was she going to do?
Chapter Four
There was a splash in the water and a grey head surfaced, the mouth opening in a wide dolphin grin. ‘Splash!’ Electra exclaimed in surprise. ‘What are you doing here? I thought you’d gone home.’
Splash shook his head. ‘I didn’t go through the gate. I just hung around by the reef,’ he said. ‘Don’t worry, though, Solon hasn’t seen me. I’ve kept out of his way.’
Electra stroked his smooth head. She was very glad to see him. ‘Oh, Splash,’ she sighed. ‘I’m in real trouble.’
Splash looked at her curiously. ‘What’s wrong? I thought you weren’t looking happy. That’s why I came over.’
Electra knew she could tell Splash anything and he wouldn’t laugh at
her or stop being her friend.
‘I went diving…’ she began, and then told him the whole story about how she had got frightened and come back to the surface. ‘Now I’m too scared to dive down again,’ she finished off. ‘But everyone’s expecting me to and I don’t know what to do. I don’t want to tell them I’m scared.’
Splash’s black eyes looked confused. ‘They wouldn’t mind. They’re your friends.’
‘But they think I’m really brave. They think I’ve been to the bottom already and…’ Electra’s voice faltered as her worst fear rushed out, ‘and they might not like me any more if they find out I’ve lied and that I was frightened! I’ve got to get some fire from the seabed, Splash. Lots of it.’
Splash thought for a moment, his head to one side. ‘I know,’ he said suddenly. ‘How about I dive down for you?’
‘But dolphins can’t collect mermaid fire,’ Electra pointed out.
‘Yes, but I could find a safe place for you to dive down to,’ Splash said. ‘I can go down to the bottom and check it’s safe. Then you can follow me, collect some fire and come back.’
Electra frowned. She didn’t like the idea at all. ‘But what if something happens to you when you dive down? There were all sorts of shadows moving around near the bottom, and there was that thing that grabbed me. What if it gets you?’
Splash shrugged. ‘I’ll be careful and
I can swim faster than you.’
‘It’s too dangerous…’ Electra protested.
But Splash ignored her. ‘Don’t worry. I’ll see you in a bit,’ he said. Flipping downwards, he dived towards the bottom of the ocean before she could stop him.
‘Splash!’ Electra gasped. But he had already vanished from sight.
Heart racing, Electra bobbed to the surface. What was she going to do?
‘Hey! Is that dolphin yours?’
Electra swung round. The Year Seven mermaid with the blonde plait had seen her and was swimming towards her. Electra nodded, her mind whirling. All she could think
about was the fact that Splash had dived down to the seabed. He might well be in danger.
‘Well, don’t let him dive too far down,’ the older mermaid warned. ‘There’s a forest of giant sea firs on the seabed just below here.’
‘Sea firs?’ Electra echoed. ‘What are they?’
‘They look like trees but they’re actually a type of sea creature. They’ve got tentacles instead of branches. Their tentacles wrap round anything they touch. It’s not so bad for merpeople – we can use our hand
s to untangle ourselves, but dolphins get completely tangled up.’
Electra stared at her in horror. That must have been what grabbed her before. But what about Splash? If he got tangled up he wouldn’t be able to get back to the surface, and dolphins couldn’t stay underwater forever. They needed to come back to the surface to breathe or they would drown.
‘But… but…’ she stammered. However, the older mermaid didn’t hear her; she was already hurrying back to her friends.
Electra didn’t know what to do. Maybe I should go and get Solon, she thought desperately. But Solon was all the way over by the reef. It would take ages to reach him. She looked after the older mermaid. She had reached her friends now, and they were already
heading off swiftly through the waves, their tails letting them swim far faster than she could ever hope to go with her two legs.
Electra’s heart pounded. There was no one around. What was she going to do?
She looked at the deep water. Fear raced through her at the thought of swimming to the seabed, but Splash was in trouble. He needed her. Electra knew she didn’t have a choice. Taking a deep breath, she dived down.
Chapter Five
Down and down Electra went, hardly noticing as the waters changed from turquoise to dark blue. Where was Splash? She kicked onwards, her eyes straining through the gathering gloom.
At last, she reached a point where she could hardly see at all. The water was very cold. ‘Splash!’ she shouted, trying to ignore the flickers of shadowy movement beneath her. The seabed with its strange inhabitants must be just down there. ‘Splash, where are you?’ she yelled.
‘Electra!’
Hearing Splash’s familiar whistle, Electra’s heart leapt.
‘I’m over here! I’m all tangled up in something,’ Splash called from a little way off. Electra swam towards the sound of his voice. Suddenly, in the gloom, she saw a dolphin-shaped shadow struggling to pull free from a mass of rope-like tentacles.
Electra remembered what the older mermaid had said. ‘You’ve got caught in a giant sea fir, she said. ‘Hold still, I’ll try and untangle you.’
She started to pull at the tentacles,
but it was too dark to see what she was doing and Splash only seemed to get more and more tangled up. It didn’t help that all the time Electra kept imagining things creeping up on them – big hungry things. Her fingers fumbled with the tentacles.
‘I can’t do it!’ she exclaimed in
frustration. ‘I can’t see anything.’
‘What about getting some mermaid fire?’ Splash suggested. ‘If you get some of that you’ll be able to see.’
‘But there’s no coral this far down and the only other place I can get it from is the seabed,’ Electra told him. She looked downwards. The shadows were still moving in a sinister way.
‘Electra, I’m going to need some more air soon,’ Splash said, sounding worried.
Electra knew she had no choice. She would have to go down to the seabed for some fire to see by. ‘OK,’ she told Splash. ‘I’ll be back in a minute.’ Screwing up all her courage, she dived down towards the dark seabed.
Her hands touched sand and rock. She was at the bottom! ‘From the deep of the sea, mermaid fire come to me,’ she gasped.
A wave of warmth swept over her from her head down to her toes. Her fingers tingled and then suddenly, from the rock, came a flood of green fire. More and more of it, until Electra had a huge glowing ball in her hands.
‘Oh, wow!’ she gasped as light sparked off the ball.
Looking up, she saw Splash caught in the red tentacles of the sea fir. Swimming up to him, she placed the ball under one arm and began to pull the tentacles away. When the stubborn ones rewound about him, she touched them with the ball of fire and they instantly drew back. ‘That’s it!’ she exclaimed at last.
‘I’m free!’ Splash cried, plunging away from the sea fir. ‘Thanks, Electra!’
Electra felt a wave of relief. ‘Come on,’ she said. ‘Let’s get back to the surface.’
‘Hang on,’ Splash said. ‘Have you seen what it’s like down here? Look around. It’s amazing!’
Electra looked and her eyes widened. She’d been so busy thinking about Splash that she hadn’t noticed what the bottom of the sea looked like, but now she could see that Splash was right. It was incredible. There were strange twisty rocks covered with living sponges in different shades of purple, orange, pink and yellow. Giant blue basket sponges
with mouths as big as a person jutted upwards, and all around them were shoals of green and turquoise fish. They had huge eyes and underbellies that flashed and sparkled with glowing lights. Beside them, jellyfish with long tentacles floated, their see-through bodies lit up with bright displays of rainbow-coloured lights as they drifted in and out of the enormous
red sea firs that grew majestically out of the sand.
‘Wow!’ Electra gasped. Now she had light to see by, the seabed didn’t seem scary any more. It looked beautiful and mysterious and she wanted to explore it.
Splash seemed to read her thoughts. ‘Come along, let’s have a look around,’ he urged.
‘But don’t you need to surface for some air?’ Electra asked anxiously.
‘I’ll be OK for a while,’ Splash replied. ‘I want to explore.’
Electra didn’t need any more persuading and the two of them swam on, weaving through the craggy rocks.
‘Look, there’s a shipwreck!’ Electra said suddenly.
She and Splash swam towards the old ship. It was covered in sea anemones, their white fronds waving in the water. As they peered in through the windows an enormous
greeny-grey octopus swam out. Electra and Splash jumped back, but it just peered at them curiously with its large eyes and then waved a tentacle gently at them before swimming on its way.
Leaving the wreck, Electra and Splash swam with the shoals of magical glowing fish and played a quick game of tag with a huge stripy eel.
‘This is fantastic!’ Electra said as they swished through the water, the glow from the ball of mermaid fire lighting their way. ‘I never knew the bottom of the sea was like this. It’s not frightening at all.’
‘I know. It’s great!’ Splash agreed. ‘But we should start going back now. I’m going to need some air soon.’
Electra nodded and, tightly clutching the huge ball of mermaid fire, she followed Splash up to the surface.
They reached the surface and looked at each other. ‘Wow!’ Electra said, shaking the water out of her eyes. ‘Just wait till the others hear about this!’
Just then there was the sound of a large gong being banged. ‘Five minutes left!’ came Solon’s faint shout from around the reef. ‘Five minutes to go in the mermaid-fire competition!’
Electra gasped. The competition! She’d almost forgotten about it! ‘I’d better get back to the reef!’
‘Grab hold of my fin,’ Splash said. ‘I’ll pull you through the water. It’ll be quicker that way.’
Electra didn’t need telling twice. She grabbed Splash’s fin with one hand and held on to the enormous ball of fire with the other. ‘Come on, Splash!’ she cried. ‘Let’s go!’
Chapter Six
Electra gasped when the spray from the waves hit her in the face as she and Splash zoomed through the water towards the others. Sam, Sasha, Nerissa and Hakim were swimming in the shallower water near the reef.
‘Electra, where have you been?’ Nerissa exclaimed as Splash swooshed to a stop.
‘You’ve been gone ages,’ Sasha said. ‘We were really worried about you.’
‘Yeah,’ Sam said. ‘Look, if you don’t
want to dive –’ He broke off as Electra lifted the glowing ball of fire out of the water. ‘Oh, wow!’ he gasped.
The others stared as if they couldn’t believe their eyes.
Electra grinned. ‘I told you I’d get some fire.’
‘So, you really went down to the seabed?’ Sam asked.
‘I to
ld him you would,’ Hakim said. ‘Sam thought you were scared to dive down. But the rest of us knew you wouldn’t be scared. You’re not frightened of anything.’
Sam looked shamefaced. ‘I’m sorry, Electra,’ he said. ‘I should have known you wouldn’t be scared.’
Electra hesitated. Should she let them carry on believing she was brave or should she tell them all the truth? Before she could decide, Solon banged the gong again. ‘Thirty seconds left!’
‘Quick!’ Sasha exclaimed. ‘We must get this fire to Solon or we’ll lose the competition! Hurry, Electra!’
Electra was already moving. She grabbed Splash’s fin. ‘Let’s go, Splash!’
Splash raced over to the reef. There were five large conch shells on top of the reef and Solon was standing beside them. The shells were filled
with all the mermaid fire that the five teams had collected.
‘Electra!’ Solon exclaimed as Electra and Splash swooshed to a stop, sending up a spray of water. ‘Why is Splash here? I thought I told you to send him home. I –’ He broke off as Electra pulled the ball of fire out of the waves. He stared at it. ‘Oh, my goodness! Where did you get that?’
‘From the seabed out in the deep sea,’ Electra replied.
‘From the seabed in the deep sea!’ Solon echoed. ‘Electra! Mermaids your age aren’t supposed to swim that far down. There are all sorts of things that could trap a young mermaid down there.’
‘It’s wonderful,’ Electra said, her eyes shining as she remembered what it was like at the bottom of the sea.
‘Wonderful!’ Solon exclaimed.
Electra grinned. Before Solon could say any more on the subject she held out the mermaid fire. ‘Can I add this
to my team’s collection, Solon?’
Solon looked at her rather dazedly and then turned to the shells. ‘You know, I… I don’t think it will fit.’
Electra looked at him eagerly. ‘So, does that mean my team are the winners, then?’
‘Yes.’ Solon nodded weakly. ‘I rather think it does.’
Not Quite a Mermaid: Mermaid Fire Page 2