Since the latest full moon incident, Rikki and I've been hanging out in the cavern, trying to figure out the water tentacle's reaction to us and what it was trying to tell us. I hadn't mentioned any of it to Cleo and Bella since promising Rikki that I wouldn't, not wanting to break the promise. Though the others were also trying to find out about the water tentacle. Will hadn't told them about it, neither did Patrick. I kept reminding Rikki that the others had our backs and would understand that the water tentacle had responded to our commands. But she didn't seem convinced. She trusted me more than the others for various reasons.
After a bit of time in the cavern, Rikki and I headed back to the mainland and met up with the others at Will's boat shed.
"Sorry we're late," Rikki apologized as she and I entered inside.
"Traffic," I fibbed covering our whereabouts.
"What's so important?"
"Ok, I want your opinion on something, and I want you to be honest," Cleo stated and turned to head to the table, "And I don't just want you to tell me I look fabulous because you think that's what I want to hear, 'cause it's not." She pulled something out of her bag.
"You brought us here to give you fashion advice?" Rikki crossed her arms.
"Not quite." Cleo turned around wearing a pair of glasses, "Ta-dah!"
"You look great," Will commented.
"You look gorgeous," Bella smiled.
"They're so you," I nodded.
Cleo grinned at our compliments, "What do you think, Rikki?"
"Yeah, they're nice," Rikki answered not actually interested, "They suit you."
"So weird. I can see everything so much clearer."
Cleo picked up a pair of tweezers. They suddenly were pulled from her grip and stuck to the cavern rock like a piece of metal on a magnet. If Lewis saw it, he would've been excited. I wished I remembered to bring my camera. Though, I recalled that my phone included a camera on it.
"Look at this," she remarked.
"What?" Will leaned over getting a better look at the rock, "It's like it's magnetic or something." He picked up a paperclip and it too was pulled magnetically to the rock, "It's never showed that property before."
"It's changing. That's impossible."
"Nope, it's definitely magnetic."
I picked up a couple more paperclips and they were drawn to the cavern rock. Next, I pulled out my phone and took a couple of photos of it.
"Wow, this is huge."
"The whole moon pool cavern is made up of this stuff," Bella pointed out.
"Who da thought," I mumbled.
"So, it's magnetic, big deal," Rikki shrugged.
The other girls turned to her.
"Rikki, this is a big deal," Cleo stated.
"Yeah, it might help us figure out what's going on out there," Bella agreed.
"Maybe some things can't be explained," Rikki guessed.
"Well, how else are we gonna destroy the tentacle if we don't know how it works?" Cleo wondered.
"I have to go. I'll see you guys later."
Rikki gave me an expression telling me that she would contact me soon before heading out the door. I had to guess she didn't feel comfortable around the others, even though I tried encouraging her to tell the other girls about the incident.
"I should get going as well," I informed everyone.
"Zoey, do you know what's going on with Rikki?" Cleo wondered.
"I can't say. She should be the one to tell you guys."
I left the boat shed before anyone could say anything else.
🌊
I arrived at the lifeguard tower seeing Patrick and Sonny ending their shifts. Once Sonny left, Patrick and I sat in the sand dunes after purchasing a couple Splices from an ice cream stand.
"I tried calling you a few times," Patrick explained, "Is everything ok?"
"I'm sorry. Been off the grid," I apologized as I sucked the pineapple and lime juice mix, "Since that night, Rikki and I've been trying to figure out what actually happened in the cavern."
"That's what concerns me, Zo. That water tentacle seemed to listen to you two sheilas. Have you mentioned it to the others?"
"No. I promised Rikki I wouldn't tell Cleo and Bella yet. Though I wish she would just tell them what happened."
"Rikki trusts you. And you don't wanna break that trust you both have."
"Yeah, you're right, Pat."
"What about that strange mermaid with the bunyip? Think she might know what's up?"
"Most likely. I've been keeping an eye out for Anahita for a while since that night a couple of months ago. She appears to be good at the whole vanishing act whenever I need to ask or tell her something important."
"Didn't you say she made herself at home somewhere on Mako?"
"Yeah."
"Maybe she'll tell you sheilas something. It's very likely she knows more about the water tentacle."
I felt glad I got Patrick caught up despite feeling bad I missed his messages. I even told him about the cavern rock being magnetic. Patrick had mentioned that he and his family visited a rock museum during one of their trips to New South Wales. He had learned that some rocks had a magnetism. I found all that fascinating.
🌊
The following day, at school, Cleo informed the rest of us that she showed the rock to a geophysicist named Ryan who worked for Samantha in the National Parks Authority. It didn't sit well with Rikki that she accused Cleo of telling him about Mako Island. I tried to calm her down and that the best thing was to trust Cleo's judgement since the latter was super careful when it came to the secret.
I followed Rikki to the moon pool once school was done for the day.
"You don't have to be here if you don't want to," Rikki turned to me as I surfaced.
"I wanted to come here," I stated, "And, we'll figure something out if this Ryan guy gets more interested in the island rocks."
"I know Zo."
"It can't hurt to tell the others. I mean, they're investigating the same thing we are. Plus, stranger things have occurred since the water tentacle made its presence."
"I'm not ready yet to tell them. Everything's been so confusing."
"I get it."
Rikki raised a hand up as if to use her powers on the wall fountain. Instead of steam, there was a glow, like there was a forcefield blocking it.
"That's new," I remarked just as Rikki placed her hand down making me realize that the last encounter with the water tentacle amplified her abilities.
Wondering if my abilities changed since that night, I held a hand up at the wall fountain. Suddenly, a blinding white light lit up the entire cavern. Seeing that it was too intense, I pulled my hand down and the light went out.
"Cool," Rikki was awestruck by it.
"I know right," I nodded.
🌊
Both of us were out of the pool trying to come to terms that our abilities had suddenly upgraded.
"I was hoping I'd find you two here," Will arrived in the cavern.
"Don't you knock?" Rikki frowned.
"There's no door."
"That's because doors weren't invented yet when the island first formed," I stated.
"Well, you shouldn't sneak up on people like that," Rikki told Will.
"OK, I'm sorry," Will apologized, "Look, I think we need to talk."
"About Cleo?"
"That too."
"What else?"
Rikki sounded a bit annoyed, but knew Will meant well to check in on her.
"What happened here on the full moon? How you two controlled the water tentacle?" he replied.
Rikki turned to him, "You promised you wouldn't tell the girls."
"I haven't. And I won't. But I think both of you should."
"I can't. Not until Zoey and I figure out what's going on here."
"But that's what Cleo's trying to do, too. Why can't you make sense of it together? We're all worried about you. You're spending all your time out here alone?"
"I like it here. It's comfortable. And I'm not alone. Zoey is here with me most of the time."
"More comfortable than with Cleo and Bella? As far as I can see, you all want the same thing."
"Please, Rikki. I know things are so confusing right now," I begged her, "It's gonna take all of us to solve the water tentacle mystery. We don't have to tell the others everything at once."
Rikki nodded at me.
🌊
We returned to the mainland and met up with the other girls at the boat shed. Cleo hugged both Rikki and me as we entered inside. The plan was to experiment with the rock. Cleo had borrowed a magnetometer from Ryan hoping to get some reading from it.
"Well, are we ready?" Will asked as all of us approached the table where the rock was.
"Ready as we'll ever be," Cleo answered set to find out.
"Let's do this," Rikki nodded.
Will held the magnetometer at the rock. The device let out some chittering as it read the magnetic activity at a high rate.
"Whoa," Will gaped and showed the results to Cleo and Bella.
"It's completely off the scale," Bella pointed out after reading the device screen.
"That's impossible," Cleo remarked.
"Not according to this," Will placed the magnetometer near the rock rereading it again, "And I've done everything by the book."
Cleo went over to the other side of the room.
"What are you doing?" I wondered.
"There has to be some explanation," Cleo replied as she opened her laptop.
"Maybe there doesn't," Rikki stated, "Maybe it just is."
"No. Look, we have to find out what's causing this. It's the key to everything."
Cleo resumed searching the web on the laptop.
Some minutes went by after reading the magnetic activity from the cavern rock. Cleo still was looking up information of various rocks that were magnetized.
"It should be a scoria or a basalt, but it's not," she shook her head, "It's--"
"Better left a mystery?" Rikki inquired.
"Well, this mystery is making our life hell."
"And it's got us fighting with each other," Bella pointed out.
"It's true, Rikki," I nodded agreeing with everyone.
That second, Cleo's phone rang, prompting her to answer it. It turned out Ryan had called her to see about discussing more about the rock thinking it was a school project Cleo was doing. She placed him on hold and turned to all of us explaining Ryan wanted to help analyze the results. Rikki told Cleo to turn down the offer, but the latter expressed that we were getting nowhere despite doing all the research.
Rikki was worried Ryan might look more into the cavern rock and find the moon pool at the same time. Just after Cleo replied back to him, Rikki left. If it was Lewis, Rikki would be fine with him examining the rock since he had kept our secret the longest.
🌊
The next day, I met up with Rikki at the cavern. She had started practicing her newfound forcefield ability. I had my turn at using my white light capability. I made sure to keep it at a moderate brightness to prevent blinding both of us.
"Hey, you're gettin' good at it," Rikki smiled at me.
"You too," I nodded at her.
Just after a little bit, Bella and Cleo surfaced in the moon pool.
"Oh, we thought we'd find you two here," Cleo told to us, "Okay, you're never gonna believe this. Mako Island is made out of some sort of moon rock. This ties everything together. The full moon's effect on us, its effect on the tentacle, and its involvement in turning us into mermaids in the first place."
"Slow down," Bella stated trying to wrap her mind around it.
"This whole place follows the cycle of the moon because its the same as the moon."
"And I suppose Ryan told you all this," Rikki crossed her arms.
"As a matter of fact, yeah, he did," Cleo nodded.
"I still think you're playing with fire by involving him."
"Well, if I hadn't involved him in the first place, we wouldn't know that we're standing on moon rock right now."
I found it surprising to learn that Mako Island was a huge piece of moon rock. Most of the continents and islands on Earth were formed from volcanic activity. And there were cases of meteorites entering our atmosphere. It was possible that some moon rocks fell to the earth.
"Look, Rikki, we are this close to finding out exactly what powers the tentacle," Cleo continued.
"Look, if you wanna go out with this guy, go out with him. But don't use Mako as an excuse," Rikki snapped at her, "And don't put the rest of us at risk in order to do so."
"Rikki, how could you say something like that?"
"Believe it or not, I'm just trying to protect Mako along with Zoey."
"Protect it from me? Look, I don't know what's gotten into you. I don't know who you are anymore."
Cleo was hurt that she submerged back under the water. Rikki turned the other way just as Bella gave me a saddened expression before following Cleo underwater. Knowing Cleo, she was extra careful regarding our secret. I figured she didn't tell Ryan any of the details.
"You know she's on the same side as us," I turned to Rikki, "My guess is Cleo didn't give him any of the deep details about all of this."
"Maybe you're right, Zo," she shrugged, "If he knows anything about us, we will need to be prepared for anything."
I sighed and nodded at the same time.
Rikki resumed practicing her forcefield ability. It got to a point where she was able to move it around with a movement of her fist. On having my turn, I found that I could move the light around the cavern and brighten and dim it at the same time.
I wished I could tell the others about it. I figured it would be after Rikki admitted to them.