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- Herausgeber: Little Tiger Press
- Kategorie: Für Kinder und Jugendliche
- Serie: Mermaids Rock
- Sprache: Englisch
- Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020
Welcome to Mermaids Rock! The entrance to the mermaid realm in the deep, blue ocean…Marina is new in Mermaids Rock, having travelled the world with her scientist dad, and she can't wait to make friends! She meets a gang of mermaids who love animals and the environment as much as she does and the group soon face their first challenge… The beautiful coral caves nearby have been damaged. Who could have caused the destruction? And are they dangerous?From the author of STAR FRIENDS comes the first in an exciting new series about the wonders of the ocean, perfect for fans of RAINBOW MAGIC, Barbie Dolphin Magic and Holly Webb.
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To Bea Kenning and Belle ‘the best horse in the world’- I’m sorry there are no horses or ponies in this story but I hope a very cute seahorse will do instead! – LC
To everyone who helps keep the oceans clean – MO
Contents
Chapter One
The Deep‑Water Reef
“Watch out, Sami!” Marina exclaimed as a black gulper eel came swimming out of a gloomy cave with its massive mouth wide open. Sami, her pet seahorse, zoomed out of the way just in time. With a flick of her silvery green tail, Marina flattened herself against a coral tree and watched the eel swim past. Its gaping mouth looked almost big enough to swallow her up as well, but luckily it didn’t seem interested in eating a mermaid for breakfast!2
Sami whizzed up to her shoulder, curling his golden yellow tail and hiding behind a strand of her thick brown hair. They watched the eel flick its whip-like body and disappear into the thicket of coral trees, snapping up an unlucky spider crab as it went.
Marina tickled Sami’s chest. “That was 3close!” Sami butted his little head against her finger, his dark eyes shining. She kissed him, making his tiny horns wriggle in delight. He’d been her pet – and best friend – for a year now and she couldn’t bear the thought of anything bad happening to him.
“We need to be very careful down here in the deep-water reef,” she warned. “There are all sorts of strange creatures around and some of them will be dangerous. It’s not like the shallow-water reefs we’re used to.”
Marina shifted the seaweed bag on her shoulder. She’d travelled around the oceans with her merman dad for all of her eleven years. He was a marine scientist who specialized in studying rare species and they had been to some amazing places together – Pacific atolls, kelp forests in the Norwegian fjords, tropical coastlines… However, this was the first deep-water reef she had visited. The water was much colder this far below the surface of the sea. It 4was a gloomy world of mountains and crevasses and caves, and wherever she looked there were mounds of grey, dead coral topped with a blanket of living purple, yellow, blue and red coral bushes and feathery pale anemones.
Her dad had told her that some of the tunnels in the reef led to the Midnight Zone and then went even further down to the Abyss – the deepest trenches of the ocean. It was said that some incredibly ancient sea creatures lived in the Abyss but no one had ever been there – and returned. Marina shivered. She loved exploring but even she didn’t want to go that far down! The eerie, twilight world of the deep-water reef was exciting enough.
“I wonder where Dad is,” she said to Sami as they weaved in and out of the orange coral trees that stretched their branches up towards the surface. A shoal of large fish swam by, their fins flicking against Marina’s tail as they passed, and a couple of spiny lobsters picked their way across the sandy bottom.5
6Marina kept her eyes open for the pot of green mermaid fire that her dad always carried with him to help him see by. “I hope we find him soon,” she said to Sami.
“I don’t want to be late for my first day at school.” Excitement curled in her tummy. School! It had been a couple of years since she and her dad had stayed long enough in one place for her to go to school and she couldn’t wait. She was really looking forward to making friends and settling down.
Marina and her dad had arrived at Mermaids Rock a few days ago, moving into a large coral cave on the shallow reef where the turquoise water was warm and light and lots of friendly sea creatures lived alongside the merpeople – dolphins, turtles, octopuses and manatees as well as thousands of darting rainbow-coloured fish. It was a beautiful place. Her dad had said they were going to stay for a while so that he could do some research in the deep-water reef that was near 7to Mermaids Rock, and that suited Marina just fine!
Sami’s nostrils widened and he suddenly zoomed ahead of her. He raced off and then came charging back. He bobbed up and down in front of her nose and spun in a circle. Marina grinned at his excitement. “Have you found Dad?”
Sami nodded and led the way. As they rounded the corner, Marina saw a stone pot of glowing green mermaid fire next to a cave entrance. Her dad was crouching beside it, gently scraping a sample of sea moss into a collecting jar. His tail was a similar silvery green to Marina’s and they both had the same thick brown hair.8
“Dad!” Marina called. Her dad jumped and looked round. “You forgot this,” she said, opening her bag and pulling out the packed lunch she had made him the night before. Her dad was great but he did sometimes get so caught up in his research that 9he forgot about normal things like eating.
“Oh, did I?” Tarak Silverfin looked surprised. He peered inside the bag that was lying next to him. “Barnacles! I did.”
Marina sighed. Sometimes she thought her dad would forget his own tail if it wasn’t part of him! She handed him the sandwiches. She had brought him some seaweed biscuits as well.
“Thanks, sweetie,” he said. “Are you going to stay and help me?”
Marina gave him a hug. “No, it’s my first day at school, remember?”
“School?” her dad echoed, looking surprised. “Oh yes. I’d forgotten that was starting today. Should I be coming with you?” he asked slightly uncertainly.
“No, don’t worry. It’s fine.” Marina was used to doing things on her own that other mergirls and merboys usually did with their parents. In fact, she was so used to looking after her dad that sometimes she felt like she was the parent 10and he was the child!
“I’ve got everything sorted. Sami’s going to come to the entrance with me and then he’ll swim home and wait there.” Sami nudged her hand hopefully. “No, you can’t come into school with me. I’ve already told you that,” she said. “I know you want to but I’m not allowed to take a pet.”
Sami’s horns drooped.
“You can come and meet me afterwards though,” Marina added.
Sami’s horns pricked up again and he turned a happy somersault.
“Right, well, be good, study hard,” her dad said vaguely. “All those things.”
“I will.” Marina kissed him on the cheek.
“I hope your research goes well. You can tell me about it this evening. Watch out for gulper eels though – Sami and I almost got eaten by one just now.”
Her dad looked excited. “A gulper eel? Are you sure? They usually live in deeper water than this.”11
Marina nodded. “I’m sure that’s what it was. It had the biggest mouth I’ve ever seen!”
“Then that probably means that somewhere around here there’s a tunnel leading to the Midnight Zone,” said her dad. He rubbed his hands together. “This is going to be the perfect place for my research.” A frown crossed his face. “You will be careful when you’re down here though, won’t you? I don’t want you to get hurt.”
“Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine,” Marina said. “See you later, Dad!” Swishing her tail, she headed back up towards the surface. She felt like turning a happy somersault just like Sami had. School… New friends… She could hardly wait!
Chapter Two
New Friends
With a flick of her tail, Marina headed in the direction of Mermaids Rock. The merpeople lived on a shallow-water coral reef in a remote part of the ocean, far away from any humans. The entrance to their reef was marked by a huge, submerged rock shaped just like a mermaid’s tail. A magic whirlpool swirled round at its base. The merpeople could use it to get to any ocean in the world. All they had to do was touch the rock and say where they wanted to go and then the water would swirl faster. When they dived into the whirlpool, they were transported away. The merpeople used it to travel to different 13oceans to help birds and sea creatures that were in danger and to repair damage caused by tidal waves or earthquakes. There was always something to do in the ocean!
Two guards swam on either side of the rock, keeping watch for any dangers approaching the reef. One was a merman with brown hair and a beard; the other was a mermaid with dark hair that fell just below her shoulders.
14“What are you doing out so early on your own?” the merman asked Marina as she swam over.
“I’ve been out to see my dad. He’s doing research on the deep-water reef. He’s a scientist – Tarak Silverfin,” Marina explained.
“Oh yes,” said the mermaid, giving Marina a warm smile. “You’ve just moved here, haven’t you?”
Marina nodded. “A few days ago.”
“Look out for my son, Kai, at school. He’s about the same age as you. I’m Indra, by the way.”
Marina smiled at her. “Hi, Indra. Nice to meet you.”
The merman was looking concerned. “I’m not sure it’s wise for a young mergirl to be swimming out in the ocean on her own. There have been sightings of sharks near here during the last day or two.”15
“You don’t need to worry about me,” Marina reassured him. “I’ll be fine.”
She had learned on her travels that most sharks tended to ignore merpeople and leave them alone. There were some
