“Then you three will still be free to try to save us.”
“But I thought splitting up is never a good idea,” said Grace.
“It is when I’m keeping you safe,” said Mom. She swam away into the lab lair. There, she found Ruth in the cage.
“Mom!” said Ruth.
“Where’s the key?” Mom whispered.
“The evil octopus has it.”
Just then, the evil scientist octopus swam into the room. He grabbed Ruth’s mom, unlocked and opened the cage door, and threw her in. This time, he was careful not to let Ruth swim out.
“Ha, ha! I’ve got you now, and I will get the mermaid’s secret!”
Chapter 4
Meanwhile, outside, the kids saw the friendly octopuses.
Robbie called to them. “We’re over here.” The octopuses swam over to the kids. Robbie told them about Ruth and their mother.
“What are we going to do?” asked Sammy.
“We can go check to see what Uncle Naturae is doing,” said Iaculari. The young octopuses swam into the lab lair. The mercats followed them.
What nobody knew was that the mermaid’s magic had made the cats smarter. It had happened slowly so that even the cats didn’t know it at first. The family didn’t know it either. But, now, the cats could understand what the children and the octopuses were saying. They realized that they could talk too, if they wanted to.
They found both Ruth and her mother in the cage. Scientist Naturae wasn’t in the room.
“I’m sorry Uncle Naturae captured you again,” said Iaculari.
“Do you know where your uncle put the key?” asked Mom.
“No, we don’t know where he put it,” said Iaculari.
Without saying a word, the mercats swam off to look for the key.
“Oh, no! The cats are wandering off again,” said Ruth.
“We have bigger things to worry about,” said Mom.
***
The mercats swam deeper into the creepy lab lair. There, they saw all sorts of horrible experiments: robotic-looking devices and glowing creatures in jars. There was also a large cage of sea dragons!
A blue sea dragon spoke. “Cats. Hey, Cats! Over here!”
The mercats looked at the cage full of dragons suspiciously. Just then, they heard the evil scientist octopus swimming towards them.
A red sea dragon said, “Come hide in here. If you hide behind us in the cage, the octopus won’t see you.”
“Is that a good idea?” asked Kitty.
Blackie darted into the cage. But Kitty swam in the other direction. The octopus swished passed and he didn’t see the mercats. A dark gray dragon tried to take a chomp out of Blackie but a green dragon stopped him. Blackie darted back out of the cage.
“See, I was right,” said Kitty. “You shouldn’t have gone in there.”
“I didn’t die,” said Blackie, “so I was right too.”
“But you nearly did. That creature tried to eat you!”
“Nearly doesn’t count,” said Blackie.
“We’re not creatures,” said the blue dragon.
“Of course you are, silly creature,” said Kitty.
The blue dragon said, “If we’re creatures, you’re creatures.”
“We’re cats,” said Kitty, haughtily.
“Mercats, to be exact,” said Blackie.
“And we’re dragons,” said the blue dragon.
The red dragon said, “I agree.” You see, the red dragon was very agreeable and liked to get along with others.
“Can you let us out?” asked the green dragon.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” said Kitty.
“We wouldn’t eat you,” said the dark grey dragon with a sly grin.
“Well, most of us wouldn’t, anyway,” said the blue dragon.
“I agree,” said the red dragon again.
“If you let us out, we’ll help you!” said the blue dragon.
“How do we know we can trust you?” asked Kitty.
“How do we let you out?” asked Blackie.
“The second question is easy,” said the blue dragon. “To let us out, you just press the red button on the wall over there.”
Blackie darted over to the wall and pressed the button with his paw.
“Blackie, what are you doing!?” cried Kitty.
There was a metal click as the lock on the cage released. The blue dragon shoved the door open and swam out. “Well, thank you, Blackie.”
The dark grey dragon swam from the cage, with a roar and headed straight for Kitty.
The blue dragon pushed the dark grey one into the wall. “Do you want the scientist to hear us?” he demanded. “If you want your freedom, just swim away.”
“Or we’ll put you back into that cage!” added the green dragon.
“I agree,” said the red dragon.
The dark grey dragon turned and swam away towards the exit of the lab lair.
Two other dragons swam out of the cage. They were both teal and they had red spikes on their tails. Flames sprang from the red spikes. One was a grown-up and one was a little baby. The adult teal dragon asked the cats, “Who are you?”
“I am Blackie.”
“And I am Kitty. We are rescuing our owners.”
“They are in a cage. Do you know where the key is?” asked Blackie.
“Naturae has it,” said the Red dragon.
“How can we get the key?” asked Kitty.
“We won’t need the key for the cage,” said the blue dragon. “We can just smash that cage open. It wasn’t designed to keep us out.”
“I agree,” said the red dragon.
The mercats and the dragons went back through the lab lair to the cage where Ruth and her mother were trapped. Ruth’s mother screamed when she saw the dragons.
“Oh, don’t worry about them. These dragons are friendly,” said Blackie.
“Mostly. Probably,” said Kitty.
“What?! The cats are talking now?” exclaimed Mom.
“Of course the cats are talking. Dolphins can talk. Dragons are real. It only makes sense!” said Ruth.
“Stand back!” said the green dragon. “One cage-smashing coming up!”
Ruth and Mom moved to the back of the cage. All the dragons started smashing the cage with their tales. The pounding broke the hinges and the door fell open. Ruth rushed out of the cage, with Mom right behind her.
“Let’s get all the way away this time,” said Mom.
“Yes, let’s. I never want to see this horrible place again,” said Kitty.
“But I’ll miss the dragons,” said Blackie.
“I like the dragons too,” said Ruth.
“We can’t stay here,” said the green dragon.
“What are we to do? Bring us with you,” said the blue dragon to the mermaids.
“I agree,” said the red dragon.
So they all swam out of the lab lair together. They found Grace, Robbie and Sammy, right where Mom had left them.
“Time to go!” shouted Mom.
The evil scientist octopus came out of the lab lair just as they were making their getaway. But he stopped when he saw the dragons.
“Oh, no! What have you done? The dragons are uncontrollable!” cried Naturae.
Chapter 5
No one paid any attention to the octopus and they swam away as fast as they could. Pretty soon, they reached the kelp forest. There, they found the dolphins waiting for them.
“There you are!” cried Luna.
“We were so worried,” said Swimmy.
“What are those creatures?” asked Current.
“For the second time today, we’re not creatures. We’re dragons!” said the blue dragon.
“Are they safe?” asked Luna.
“Probably. Mostly,” said Kitty.
“Yay! The mercats are talking now!” Swimmy clapped his fins together.
Current patted Swimmy. “We must hurry to reach the Mermaid Kingdom. Our ti
me is running out!” said Current.
“This way,” said Luna. The dolphins turned to enter the kelp forest.
Suddenly, there was a boom in the distance. A shockwave ripped past them in the water, pushing them down to the sea floor.
“What was that?!” asked Robbie. They all looked in the direction the sound had come from. In the distance, the seaweed was on fire.
“Oh, no!” said Grace.
“How can there be fire under the water?” asked Mom.
“Sea dragon fire,” said the green dragon.
“Well, now we know what direction the dark grey dragon went in,” said the blue dragon.
The teal mamma dragon pulled her baby dragon close. “He’s a very bad dragon,” she whispered. The fire was getting larger.
“How do we put out a fire under water?” asked Ruth.
“Air or sand will put out a sea dragon’s fire,” said the mamma teal dragon. “And we must put it out or it will burn down the whole ocean.”
“No way. We have to go back to the lab lair again?” asked Robbie.
“We have to go back,” said the green dragon.
“I agree,” said the red dragon.
Current nodded. “We’ll have to go back to put the fire out. Otherwise, the whole ocean may be in danger.” Reluctantly, they all turned back towards the lab lair.
When they got there, they found the scientist octopus and the two young octopuses frantically throwing sand on the fire that was near the lab lair.
“You came back,” said Naturae.
“We need to work together to put this fire out,” said Mom. “Do you have shovels we could use to help?”
Iaculari darted away. “I’ll get shovels for you.”
The dolphins and dragons swam up to the surface and gulped air to spray at the fire. Iaculari came back with five shovels so that the mermaids could help.
“I don’t know if this is going to work,” said Sammy.
“It has to work,” said Mom. “We must save the ocean.”
The cats scooped up sand with their tails and flung it at the fire. “I’m helping,” said Blackie. Kitty glared at Blackie. She didn’t like helping but she was anyway.
Soon, the good dragons and dolphins returned and sprayed air at the fire. With everyone working together, it didn’t take long to put the fire out.
“Now, where is that dark grey dragon?” asked the blue dragon.
“He’s much too dangerous to be out here,” said the teal mamma dragon.
“I agree,” said the red dragon.
The scientist octopus looked at everyone. “I need help getting the grey dragon back.”
“I hope you’re not planning to get us back too,” said the blue dragon.
“I will grant the rest of you your freedom if you help me recapture the grey,” said Naturae.
“But what about Mermaid Kingdom?” asked Mom. “They need us right away.”
Naturae sighed. “I’ll teleport you there after we recapture the grey.”
“How do we know we can trust you?” asked Robbie.
“We don’t. But if he betrays us, it will be all of us against one of him,” said the blue dragon.
“Uncle Naturae will keep his promise,” said Perdere. “Right, Uncle?”
Naturae sighed. “Of course.”
“I have a plan,” said Mom. “Naturae, bring a big cage out here.”
The evil scientist octopus wasn’t used to being ordered around. But he took one look at the dragons and he went to get a cage. “Boys, come help me carry it,” he said to his nephews.
“Now, we all need to gather seaweed,” said Mom.
“Why?” asked the blue dragon.
“You’ll see. Just hurry,” said Mom. The mermaids, dolphins and dragons started gathering the seaweed. Blackie tried to pull up a piece of seaweed but it was too hard for him.
Blackie gave up pulling the weed. “What can we do?”
“You cats will get to be the heroes,” said Mom. “I’m glad you’re so much smarter now.”
Soon Scientist Naturae was back with the cage.
“Put the cage right there,” Mom instructed. “Now, everyone put the seaweed all around so that you can’t see that it’s the cage.” In a few minutes, the cage was hidden behind the seaweed.
“Now what?” asked Kitty.
“Now you cats start meowing while the rest of us get out of sight,” said Mom.
“Wait a minute,” said Blackie. “Are we bait?”
“Someone has to lure that dragon into the cage. And you are the only ones that can get out through the bars,” said Mom. Everyone hid except for the mercats. “Start meowing,” called Mom. Kitty meowed softly.
“You can do much better than that,” called Sammy. “We hear how loud you meow every night at home.”
The cats started meowing loudly. A roar sounded in the distance. The dark grey dragon had heard the cats. Fiercely, the dark grey dragon charged.
“I’ll get you this time,” said the dark grey dragon to the cats. He swam at the cats. They scooted into the cage. The dark grey dragon followed them in.
“It’s working!” shouted Grace.
The blue dragon swam forward and slammed the cage shut. “You forgot to plan who should close the cage door. Luckily, I saved the day.”
The mercats darted out of the cage. “We did it. We are heroes!” said Blackie.
The dark grey dragon roared. “Let me out of here! I’ll get you for this! I’ll get you all!!!”
“Well, if you hadn’t tried to burn down the ocean, you wouldn’t be in there,” said the blue dragon to the grey.
The teal dragon looked over at the scientist octopus. “Now for that portal transport.”
“Yes,” said Current. “We’re late. We must get to Mermaid Kingdom now.”
The scientist octopus looked at the four big dragons staring at him. The blue dragon growled at him. Naturae looked at the mermaids and then at the dragons again. This time, all the dragons growled.
“Uh, right. Of course. Come this way to the portal machine.” Naturae led the group into his lab lair. When they got to the machine, he turned it on. A swirling blue light appeared in the room. It flashed, sucking in all the dragons, dolphins, mermaids and mercats. Blue light swirled all around them. The portal spit them out. They opened their eyes to a most wondrous sight.
“Welcome to Mermaid Kingdom,” said Luna.
You're at the end but still not through, please be kind and leave a review!
Coming Soon: The Tail of the Mermaids Book 2
Other Books by Celesta & Keziah Thiessen
Kitty Castle Books
Kitty Castle 1 – Nightcat – Free!
Kitty Castle 2 - Surprises!
Kitty Castle 3 - Answers!
Kitty Castle 4 - Mystery!
Kitty Castle 5 - Reunion
Kitty Castle 6 – Celebration
Other Books by Celesta Thiessen
The Super Seven
The Super Seven 1 – Gifted – Free!
The Super Seven 2 - Two of a Kind – Free!
The Super Seven 3 - Invisible
The Super Seven 4 - Fire
The Super Seven 5 - Strong
The Super Seven 6 - Listening
The Super Seven 7 - Made Right
About the Authors
Best-selling author, Celesta Thiessen, wrote this book with her daughters, Keziah and Priscilla Thiessen. Keziah, who is thirteen years old, enjoys writing stories, sketching and dragons. Priscilla, who is seven, loves playing with our cats, daydreaming and drawing inventions. Celesta, Keziah and Priscilla all love adventures!
Thank you for reading books on BookFrom.Net Share this book with friends