Category: Children Publisher: YouWriteOn
ISBN-10: 1849238197
Type: Fiction
Pages: 52
Copyright: june 2009
ISBN-13: 9781849238199
Retishella mermaid finds a lovely shell on the seabed. But deciding to keep it gets her into more danger than she ever could have imagined.
"I want to go home! Please, someone, take me hooowwwmmme!" The beautiful shell groaned and wailed, even louder than before.
"Where is your home?" asked Retishella mermaid gently, trying to be helpful.
"Blackrock Ridge" came the whiny reply. "Do you know where that is?"
"Yes," said Retishella in a shocked whisper. Her mother had warned her about Blackrock Ridge, but what could she do if the shell needed her help?
Retishella soon finds out that the shell is not all it seems and is launched into another exciting and dangerous adventure on the seabed.
Retishella and the Pocket Shell is the second of Retishella's adventures that began with Retishella and the Dolphins, also by Linda Bond.
Excerpt
Chapter 2
That night as Retishella lay on her hammock trying to sleep she heard a disturbing noise. It started out as a high-pitched whimper that changed into wild, desperate moans and slurpy sobs. Retishella wondered if Seeley was having a nightmare and got up and swam to her sister’s hammock. But Seeley was sleeping soundly with great bubbly snores, her sparkling green hair showing she was dreaming deeply. She moved silently around the family cave checking on everyone, but all were fast asleep.
Puzzled, and wondering if she might possibly still be dreaming, Retishella went back to bed and closed her eyes but she could still hear the distressing noise; it seemed to be swimming around the cave and swirling around her head, becoming more upsetting by the minute. The sadness in the sound was extreme and emotional, as if it was coming from deep within the coldest depths of the heart of the creature making it. It was moving, touching and scary at the same time and Retishella found herself crying without even knowing why. She realised there was no point trying to sleep until she found out what it was, so she got up from her hammock, and groggily followed the sound trail of the sobbing noise.
Retishella floated into the main cave, still dimly lit by the dying glow of last night’s blazepebbles in the grate. Gradually she narrowed down the source of the noise. It seemed to be coming from the cupboard where her mother put the orange shell.
“Hello?” called Retishella, wondering if some small creature had become trapped in the cupboard. There was no reply. The sleepiness she had felt up to now drained away from her and blue flashes of nervous excitement sparkled in her green hair and eyes as she swam over and inched open the cupboard door.
The cupboard stood on the far side of the room where the light was faint. Retishella strained her eyes to peer at the shell on the shadowy bottom shelf of the cupboard. For a moment she wondered if it really was the same shell she had found the day before. It was the same shape, the same size, with the same spiral pattern that wound from the central point to the edge of the shell.
“Yes,” thought Retishella, “it certainly looks like the same shell. But something’s different, something strange has happened to it.”
Instead of a glimmering and sparkly orange, the shell was now a throbbing and shimmering purple. Retishella bent down to reach it and shrank back with a startled flash of red hair. The crying sound was coming from the shell. Dark green drips were oozing from the large oval hole at the end of the spiral like globby tears, along with a long moaning wail that shook the shell so violently that it rattled the shelf.
Retishella carefully reached in and quickly touched the shell to test it was safe before picking it up. As she lifted the shell from the cupboard the loud sobbing turned to a noisy howl. Retishella didn’t know what to do. She hugged it to her like her mother or father would have done if she or her brothers or sister were hurt.
“Whatever is wrong?” she asked and then felt silly talking to a shell. But she nearly dropped the shell through shock when it answered her in a small reedy voice; “I want to go home! Please, someone, take me hooowwwmmme!” Then it groaned and wailed, even louder than before.
“Where is your home?” asked Retishella gently, trying to be helpful.
“Blackrock Ridge” came the whiny reply, immediately calming down. “Do you know where that is?”
“Yes,” said Retishella in a shocked whisper. She fingered the white dolphin-shaped stone in her tail purse that had been given to her by the Dolphin King. It was her most treasured possession and somehow touching it helped to calm her nerves, but her hair gave her away by turning a fretful blue.
The words Blackrock Ridge had set off a memory of a warning from her mother and in her mind she heard her mother’s voice repeat the words. “My children, never go near Blackrock Ridge. It is a place of great darkness and danger. Merpeople disappear there and are never seen again.”
The shell started talking to her again and the sound brought her back to reality.
“Well if you know where it is,” it said bossily, “then please take me there at once.”
“I can’t take you there, it’s too dangerous,” said Retishella sensibly, “I’ll get my mother or father to take you in the morning”.
The shell wailed louder and cried tearful droplets again, making drab green clouds in the cavewater.
“I can’t wait until the morning,” it howled. “I came over this way to get some breakwater weed for my mother who needs it to make a medicine. I must get it back to her before dawn, and now I’m lost.”
“Well I suppose I could take you near to Blackrock Ridge,” said Retishella thinking out loud, “ but I’m not allowed to go all the way there.”
The sobbing stopped suddenly, as if it had been switched off. “Thank you kind mermaid,” whined the voice, “my mother will reward you well.” There was a brief pause and then the orange shell continued more urgently; “Come on then, let’s go, please hurry!”
“I must just tell someone where I’m going, or at least leave a note,” replied Retishella sensibly, her hair turning an anxious darker blue.
“We haven’t got time,” insisted the shell. “The morning sun will begin to break the surface of the water in an hour, and we have a long way to go. When we get there I’ll ask someone to send a message to your mother and father and they can come and get you. Now hurry!”
The shell sounded desperate and determined and Retishella felt that she couldn’t say no. She tied her seaweed tail purse around her middle, slipped a bright young glowfish into a new crystal jar, picked up the shell and with a push of her strong tail, swam silently out of the cave.
Chapter 3
Retishella swam on in silence for some time by the light of the glowfish. As she headed towards Blackrock Ridge she held the shell out in front of her, where she could see it. Her mind was racing. There were a lot of questions she wanted to ask, but didn’t want to seem rude. She imagined herself in the shell’s position. If it was her mother that was ill, she would do anything she could to help make her better.
“Shell, how did your mother get sick?” asked Retishella, “what’s wrong with her?”
“I don’t really know,” replied the shell with a hasty sob, “I only know that I have to get the breakwater weed to her soon. And by the way, please stop calling me shell, my name is Balonicka.”
“Nice to meet you Balonicka,” Retishella replied. She was glad that the shell had started being more friendly, but she felt that something was still not quite right.
A little further on Retishella realised what had been puzzling her all this time. “Balonicka,” she asked. “Where is the breakwater weed you collected?”
“Breakwater weed?” replied Balonicka.
“Yes, you know” Retishella continued, “the breakwaterweed you said you need to make a medicine for your mother. Where is it?”
There was a stunned pause and a small choking sound from deep within the shell before Balonicka added quickly, “Oh, that breakwater weed, I’ve, er, I’ve got it hidden in my shell to keep it safe.”
“Oh, yes, of course you have,” replied Retishella, not sure if she believed Balonicka.
Retishella swam on deep in thought. She held the shell a little bit further in front of her and studied it carefully as if the clues she needed to put her mind at rest were all there in this strange shell, like a puzzle she had to solve. She knew that the noble, mermaid thing to do was to help her fellow sea creature, especially one that had been given such an important job to do. But as she looked around in the inky black water of the ocean at night, she couldn’t stop herself from shivering. She could see no other creatures by the halo of light coming from the glowfish in the crystal jar; it was almost as if the rest of the world was avoiding her.
She wondered what Blackrock Ridge would be like. Her father had told her about the towering mountains of sharp-edged, black shiny rock and forests of swirling seaweed that he had been told about through the stories of brave travellers and explorers that had returned from dangerous adventures.
“But I’ve promised!” she scolded herself. “Anyway,” she continued, tossing her hair to help get rid of her scary thoughts, “I said I would take Balonicka near to Blackrock Ridge, I don’t actually have to go all the way there. I’m sure I’ll be home before anyone even notices I am gone.”
She sighed as she wished herself back to the peaceful warmth of her comfy seaweed hammock, dreaming cosy mermaid dreams in the safety of the family cave.
She tried hard to control the zinging whirl of thoughts and feelings swirling around her head that she was certain were trying to tell her something. For a while she tried to work it all out but gave up when she began feeling more confused than ever.
Retishella shook the fear from her deep blue hair and by concentrating hard on the task she had to do she managed to change her hair and eyes to a determined orange. She took a deep breath and nervously swam on still thinking hard, pushing Balonicka’s purple shell even further out in front of her. The water gradually turned darker blue and got noticeably colder as they travelled and the sea bed sand changed from golden yellow to mud brown and finally to gritty black.
Retishella realised with a creepy shiver that they had arrived at the edge of Blackrock Ridge.
“We’re here, Balonicka,” said Retishella. “I don’t dare to go any further. This is where I must leave you.”
“It will be daybreak here very soon,” moaned Balonicka, suddenly beginning to sob again, “I can’t swim as fast as you; I’m worried I won’t get there in time. You’ve very kindly carried me all this way; it’s only a little bit further. You know I wouldn’t ask if I wasn’t desperately in need of your help. I only hope I’m not too late to save my mother already.” Balonicka’s sobs became more frantic. “Please Retishella, just carry me a little bit further,” she insisted, “PLEASE!”
Retishella hesitated for a moment, and looked all around. She could see the ocean gradually brightening to a deep blue haze far behind her, but couldn’t see much ahead of her; it was too dark and gloomy. Shiny black rock rose and fell in jagged peaks and blankets of swaying black seaweed spread in front of her to the horizon.
The only feature she could make out was a large flat-topped boulder on the seabed in the distance. It didn’t seem too far away, but Retishella decided it was most definitely as far as she was prepared to go.
“Well I’ll take you just as far as that big black boulder over there, and then I’ll have to leave you.” said Retishella, but she wasn’t happy, and it showed in dark blue and black flashes in her orange hair and eyes.
Balonicka stopped sobbing, and Retishella felt she could almost hear her thinking. Then the sobbing started again, but it had changed.
“Oh kind, dear mermaid, that will be perfect!” cried Balonicka, scarcely able to hide the joy in her voice.
Retishella continued uneasily on her journey. She swam more slowly now, using all her mermaid senses to warn her of danger. Bit by bit she inspected the mountains of black rock and screens of snaky seaweed that seemed to reach out and grab her every time the swelling tide swirled them in her direction. She shivered, and not just because it was colder here than in her own corner of the ocean. Retishella had the eerie feeling that hundreds of black slimy eyes were staring at her from behind rocks and through flowing seaweed. She reached for the calming feel of her dolphin stone in her seaweed tail purse and trembled as she stretched her ears to listen to an unfamiliar sound.
The sound started off so quietly that she felt it before she heard it, like little prickly bubbles bursting on the skin of her arms. As it got louder she realised what it was. There was a constant whispering coming from all around her. The whispering was not clear enough to understand, but the tone of it was urgent and alarming. Retishella sped up and as she did, she had the terrible feeling that the seaweed and black rocks were moving with her. She looked behind her but could see no creatures, just murky sea, the black rocks and waving seaweed that by now surrounded her like a creepy forest full of shifting shadows.
“Yaaaaar!” roared Balonicka without warning and the seaweed forest closed in on Retishella on all sides. Retishella dropped the crystal glowfish jar and watched in dismay as the only light in this bleak landscape raced off into the distance. In a panic she swam upwards to get away, but her head hit a seaweed and rock ceiling and she realised with a flash of black hair horror that she had been trapped.
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