But Rani wasn’t afraid. She knew that the mermaids were waiting for her at the top. And she thought about how much fun they would have at the party.
It can be just like the Fairy Dance, Rani thought happily. I’m sure the mermaids can do flips in the water as easily as we can in the air. I’ll teach them the steps to the Fairy Dance. And I can do it with them! It will be just like flying. In fact, it will be better!
Suddenly, a large rock loomed up before Rani. She squinted. There it was—the bottom of Starfish Gap! Sure enough, in the pale light cast by the seaweed lantern, Rani saw a small circle of gold set with a purple stone. She swam toward it.
But just as she reached for it, the light overhead went out.
Rani paused, holding still. What happened? she wondered. “Oola?” she called.
There was no answer.
Rani’s heart thudded in her chest. She looked up. All she could see was deep black velvety darkness. “Voona?” she shouted. “Mara! Where are you?”
She waited, listening hard. Rani thought she heard the far-off sound of a giggle, but none of the mermaids shouted down to her.
Don’t be afraid, Rani told herself. There’s nothing down here.
Rani bit her lip. She knew she was alone. Still, the hairs on the back of her neck were standing on end, as though someone were watching her. A picture of the water snake flashed through her mind.
“There are no water snakes in Starfish Gap,” Rani said aloud. Her voice sounded strange and echoey. How could she be sure there were no water snakes down there? And what if there was something worse? Like a giant crab? Or a fish with huge teeth?
“Oh, stop it,” Rani scolded herself. “You’re here to find the ring. Just get it and swim back to the top.”
Swallowing hard, Rani reached out her hands. In a moment, her fingers touched the smooth, round ring. She hooked it over her shoulder and began to swim toward the top of the gap.
The seconds seemed to crawl by as Rani swam through the darkness. She couldn’t tell how far she had come or how much farther it was to the top. Rani traced her fingers over her bubble necklace nervously. She reminded herself that she had plenty of air.
After what seemed like forever, Rani noticed that the walls around her had turned a dark, shadowy gray. A little higher, she saw a cluster of seaweed that looked like a bunch of trumpets. With another kick, Rani found herself at the top of the gap.
“I’m back!” Rani called. “I found it!”
But the mermaids weren’t there.
RANI SWAM OVER to the yellow rock. The seaweed lantern was overturned beside it. Brilliant pink seaweed lay scattered where it had spilled from the shell.
“Oola?” Rani called. “Mara? I found the ring!”
There was no answer.
Rani’s heart thumped wildly in her chest. She knew that the Mermaid Lagoon held many dangers. There were lightning eels, which gave off an electric shock whenever something touched them. There were the small but fierce saberfish, which had teeth that were longer than their fins. There were tusked Never sharks. These sharks usually left others alone. But when they were angry, they could be ferocious. And, Rani thought, there were probably other dangers, too. Ones she hadn’t heard about.
Rani felt certain that the mermaids needed her help. They wouldn’t have left me alone unless something happened, she thought.
Just then, Rani heard a faint splashing noise coming from somewhere above her. Without thinking, she began to swim toward the sound.
Rani swam as hard as she could. She kicked her legs and strained her arms. If only I were a mermaid, she thought, I could swim so much faster! A bed of clams snapped shut as she swam past. A small school of scissorfish chased each other through a red and orange coral forest. But the mermaids were nowhere to be found.
Finally, Rani stopped and looked around. She wasn’t sure which way to go.
Suddenly, there was a splash overhead. Then another splash, and a shriek. Rani looked up. Something large and silver was heading toward her. With a quick kick, she swam to the side. The silver thing dropped past her.
Then a flash of yellow-green darted by, like a ribbon in a fast breeze. It took a moment for Rani to realize that the yellow-green flash was Oola. She was chasing the silver thing.
Below her, Oola stopped. “I got it!” she shouted happily.
“Oola?” Rani called.
Looking up, the mermaid noticed Rani for the first time. “Oh, Rani, there you are!” she said in a rush. Oola swam over to the fairy and held out a large, heavy-looking silver mirror. “Look at what Peter Pan brought us,” Oola said. “He stole it from the pirates—isn’t that exciting?” She held it up and looked at herself.
Rani frowned. “I was worried that something had happened to you,” she said.
Oola’s yellow eyebrows drew together in confusion. “But why, silly fairy?” she asked. “What could happen?”
“Well…,” Rani began. Didn’t Oola remember that she had gone down into the dark gap to get her ring? “I was down in Starfish Gap, and the light went out, and—”
Just then Voona called Oola’s name.
Voona’s head broke down through the surface of the water. Her wild orange and yellow hair floated around her face.
“There you are.” Voona swam over, a pout on her full lips. “It’s just like you to hog Peter’s present all for yourself.”
There was a splash, followed by two more. Mara swam over with two mermaids right behind her. “What do you think you’re doing, Oola?” Mara demanded. “Give us the mirror!” She reached for it, but Oola held it out of reach.
“I was just talking to my fairy,” Oola huffed.
My fairy? Rani thought with a frown. But all the mermaids had turned to look at her. Clearing her throat, Rani pulled the ring off her shoulder and held it out in both hands. “I found the ring,” she said.
“Oh! My ring!” Oola dropped the mirror and looked at the golden ring with the glittering purple stone. She snatched it from Rani’s hands and slipped it over her slender finger.
The other mermaids gathered around. They oohed and ahhed over the ring. Rani couldn’t help noticing that they seemed to have forgotten all about the mirror. Just like they forgot about me, she realized.
“I love purple,” Mara said, running her hand through her blue and green hair. A comb with purple pearls was tucked into her locks.
Rani smiled. “So now we can have the party?” she asked eagerly.
But the mermaids didn’t seem to hear.
“Well, yes, I suppose purple is all right,” Voona said. She wagged her tail. “But it doesn’t look very good on Oola.”
Oola gaped at Voona. “It doesn’t?” she asked.
Voona sneered. “It clashes with your hair.”
Mara gasped. “She’s right!”
“Purple doesn’t go at all with green and yellow hair,” pointed out a mermaid wearing a coral necklace that went perfectly with her red hair.
“Oh, how horrible!” said a mermaid with pink hair.
Oola’s face turned a deep shade of green (that was how she looked when she was blushing). Yanking off the ring, she tossed it as far as it would go. It floated away and then down, down. It finally landed on a purple rock, where it bounced off—and dropped back down into Starfish Gap.
Rani stared at the gap in shock. The mermaids had sent her all the way down there for the ring, and now Oola had just thrown it back!
“Where did the mirror go?” Voona asked.
“I’ll get it!” Mara called, starting toward the bottom of the lagoon.
“Wait a minute,” Rani said. “Wait.”
Pausing, Mara looked up at Rani expectantly. “What is it?”
Rani didn’t know what to say. The mermaids were not going to say they were sorry for sending her into the gap, or for leaving her there. Still, she wanted to think that she hadn’t gone to all that trouble for nothing. “Well…uh…I was wondering…When were we going to have the party?”
&nb
sp; “Oh, that.” Oola shrugged. “Well, we could have it now, I suppose.”
Mara rolled her eyes. “But I wanted to look at the mirror!”
“We can have the par-tee quickly,” Voona suggested. “And then we can look in the mirror.”
Rani shook her head. “No, no—you don’t understand. We can’t have a party right away. We have to get ready for it. You all have to learn the steps to the dance, and we have to make the food and plan the music. There’s a lot of work to be done!”
All the mermaids were silent. Then, suddenly, they erupted into laughter. They hooted and guffawed, and chortled and giggled. Oola laughed until tears streamed out of her eyes, although, of course, no one could see that underwater.
“What’s so funny?” Rani demanded.
“Hoo-hoo!” Voona said to the other mermaids. “The fairy wants to know what’s—”
“—funny,” Rani finished for her. “Yes, what’s so funny?”
The mermaids laughed even harder. They chuckled. They howled. They snickered and snorted. Rani frowned. She liked the mermaids less and less by the minute.
“Mermaids don’t work!” Oola finally said.
“But the work is half the fun,” Rani protested.
Finally, the mermaids stopped laughing. They all looked at Rani as though she were crazy. Rani felt herself blush.
“I’ll go get the mirror,” Mara said, and she swam away.
“Would you like to look in the mirror?” Oola asked gently. Rani wondered whether the mermaid felt a little sorry for her.
“Don’t be silly,” Voona snapped. “Why would Rani want to look in the mirror? She isn’t half as pretty as a mermaid! Besides, she’s too little to hold it. She’d probably break it.”
A wave of embarrassment rolled over Rani. She wished she could climb into a clamshell and hide. She couldn’t help it that she didn’t look like a mermaid. She was a fairy! And of course she wasn’t as big as the mermaids or as graceful as they were in water. How could she be?
For a moment, Rani hoped Oola would disagree, but she only said, “You’re right, Voona.”
Mara swam up with the mirror in her hand. “I’ve got it!” she cried. Then she swam away, and the other mermaids swam after her. Rani was alone.
RANI SAT DOWN on a rock to think. “It looks like I don’t really fit in anywhere.” She sighed. She watched a fat blue blowfish dart behind a large tree of coral. “But I do like it down here. It’s very pretty.”
Soft light filtered through the water. It reminded Rani of the sunbeams that sifted through the Home Tree’s green leaves. Two chubby striped brown flitterfish swam around and around a rock. Rani giggled. The fish looked like the chipmunks that lived in Pixie Hollow. A slow brown turtle swam past, as purposeful as a beaver on its way to build a dam in Havendish Stream.
Rani swam along, noticing other things that were like those in Pixie Hollow. There were corals shaped like twigs, a flying fish that looked like a sparrow, and anemones that looked like bushes.
Rani swam over to the flitterfish.
The two fish paused, gaping at her with huge round eyes. They were perfectly still, unable to decide whether Rani was dangerous.
“Hello,” Rani said.
The fish darted away. In a moment, Rani couldn’t even see them anymore. A cloud of bubbles floated where the fish had been.
“I guess they’re shy,” Rani said aloud.
Next, Rani paddled over to the brown turtle. Rani wasn’t an animal-talent fairy. Still, she knew that the Havendish beavers were very friendly. “Excuse me!” Rani called. She tried to catch up to the turtle.
The turtle glanced at Rani out of the corner of his eye. He didn’t stop or even slow down.
Rani tried again. “Pardon me. May I swim with you?”
The turtle kicked his flippers. He darted far ahead of Rani. She couldn’t catch up. “Gee,” she said to herself, “the creatures around here sure are unfriendly.”
Just then, Rani caught sight of a patch of bright blue seaweed. It was shaking back and forth.
Is the seaweed caught in a water current? Rani wondered. Or is this some strange underwater plant that can move by itself?
Rani swam over to take a closer look. She stared at the seaweed, then reached out to touch it. The moment she did, a long snout popped out and batted her hand away.
Rani darted backward. The leaves of seaweed parted to show a golden pink sea horse thrashing about. His eyes were wild as he looked at Rani. He was still for a moment, then shook back and forth, rearing his head and whipping his tail.
Rani moved a little closer to the sea horse, and he thrashed again. He clearly was afraid of her. Why doesn’t he swim away? Rani wondered.
“What’s the matter, sea horse?” Rani asked in the tone of voice she had heard animal-talent fairies use when talking to a skittish animal. “Let me see,” she said gently.
Rani felt a little nervous. If she had been in Pixie Hollow, she would have run for Beck or one of the other animal-talent fairies. Then again, Rani thought, I am a water-talent fairy, and this sea horse is a water animal. Maybe I can help.
Reaching out, she touched the rough surface of the sea horse’s body. She expected him to buck, but he didn’t. He was perfectly still. Rani looked at him more closely and saw that his tail was caught in a length of fishing line. The line was tangled in the seaweed, and the sea horse couldn’t escape.
“Oh, you poor thing,” Rani said. “You’re all tangled up! Don’t worry, I’ll help you.”
The sea horse eyed Rani nervously while she pulled at the stubborn knots with her tiny fingers. Once, she yanked a little too hard. The sea horse bucked.
Rani patted him. “Quiet down now, and I’ll help you,” she told the sea horse in a low voice. “We’re almost there.” The sea horse settled down, and Rani went to work on the knots again.
Over, under, through the loop. A tiny knot here, leading to a bigger knot there, then three more tiny knots. Finally, there were only two strands left. Rani pulled the fishing line away, and the sea horse was free.
“I did it!” Rani cried. “I did it!”
But she didn’t get to celebrate for very long. The moment he was free, the sea horse raced away. He didn’t even look back in Rani’s direction.
Rani burst into tears. She couldn’t help it. After all that work, even the sea horse didn’t like her!
RANI CRIED AND cried, and her nose began to run, and then she got the hiccups. This was very uncomfortable underwater, and it only made her cry harder. It seemed as though no matter how hard she tried, nobody had any use for her!
Just then, Rani felt a gentle nudge at her hand. When she looked up, she saw the sea horse. He was carrying something in his mouth.
“Oh, hello,” Rani said uncertainly.
Ducking his head, the sea horse dropped the object at Rani’s feet. It was a large golden pearl. He looked up and nudged it toward her with his long snout. Then he looked at her again.
“A present?” Rani asked. “For me?”
The sea horse swam around in an excited circle. He nudged the pearl again, so that it was a little closer to Rani’s feet. Rani reached down and picked up the pearl. It was large—about the size of an acorn. When Rani held it up, she saw that it glowed softly with its own golden light. Rani knew instantly that this was no ordinary pearl. It was magical.
“It’s beautiful,” Rani whispered. She turned to the sea horse. “Thank you.”
The sea horse butted his head against her hand and turned so his back was facing her. He looked over his shoulder at Rani.
“Do you—do you want me to ride on your back?” Rani pointed to herself and pointed to the sea horse.
The sea horse turned another circle. He pulled up next to Rani. She took that to mean yes.
Rani giggled. “Well,” she said, “I’ve ridden on the back of a dove. I guess I could ride a sea horse.” Cradling the pearl in her left arm, Rani carefully climbed onto the sea horse’s back. She leaned forward
and wrapped her right arm around his neck. The moment he felt her holding on, the sea horse took off.
He swam quickly, headed for the deepest part of the lagoon. Rani clung tightly to his neck. She remembered flying with Brother Dove and felt a pang. She missed Brother Dove. She missed feeling the wind on her face.
The truth was, she missed Pixie Hollow.
Soon they entered an underwater garden. A small school of bright blue fish swept through an orange anemone. A yellow fish with purple spots scooted over a cluster of green seaweed. Everywhere she looked, Rani saw a rainbow of brilliant colors—purples and blues, greens and reds, spots and stripes and patterns she had never seen before.
“It’s lovely,” Rani whispered.
The sea horse seemed to understand what she had said, because he turned in a happy circle and moved forward through the garden.
In a few minutes, they left the underwater garden behind. The sea horse swam quickly toward a large shape in the distance. At first, Rani wasn’t sure what it was. It looked like a mountain.
When they were a little closer, Rani gasped. Now she could tell what the mountain was!
“A sunken ship!” Rani exclaimed. She stared at the huge Clumsy ship as she and the sea horse swam past. It was larger than she ever could have imagined—even larger than the mermaid palace!
The sea horse swam up to a wall of rock with a small opening at the bottom.
“A cave?” Rani asked.
In answer, the sea horse ducked into the opening, which led to a long tunnel. It was very dark, but Rani wasn’t afraid the way she had been when she was at the bottom of Starfish Gap. After all, she wasn’t alone now. And she was starting to understand that the sea horse wanted to show her something.
A soft glow came from the end of the tunnel. As the tunnel brightened, Rani noticed that the walls glowed.
All at once, the tunnel opened up into an enormous cavern. It was so large that all of Pixie Hollow easily could have fit inside. Fingers of glittering rock dipped down from the ceiling of the cave.
Disney Fairies: Rani in the Mermaid Lagoon Page 3
