Chapter 7 - Gardens and Mines

Siren shot out of the cave, propelled by a spiral of water. She landed in a large seaweed-bush. Meow and Seidon hurried through the tunnel opening after her. Seidon helped his sister out of the tangle of seaweed, but Meow just stared around in awe at the enormous garden of coral and seaweed. Unlike the wild, unkempt coral of the reef, all the formations of coral and the seaweed plants were perfectly shaped as though a thousand people had spent hours shaping and maintaining the garden.

"No time to enjoy the scenery." Seidon told her, grabbing her wrist and leading her through the fronds of a large, yellow seaweed plant. The seaweed seemed to be a gateway to another coral garden, much like the one they had just left, but much smaller. In one corner of the garden there was a mermaid with short, silver hair and a long silver tail. She had her back to them but Seidon swam up to her, throwing his arms around her shoulders.
"BOO!" he shouted.
"Seidon! You startled me!" The mermaid giggled. Then her face turned serious. "Did you find out the cause of the disturbance on the surface?"
"This Sailor Soldier's Starship landed in the water." Seidon explained. Seidon and the mermaid swam over to Meow and Siren.
"I am Mermaid, the princess of the planet Mermaid." She intoduced herself. "What brings you to our planet?"
"It's an honour, Your Majesty," Meow bowed. "I'm Sailor Meow from the Moon Meow of Planet Mau. I have run out of fuel for my ship."
"What makes you think our planet has fuel?" Princess Mermaid asked Meow. Meow didn't know what to say. The princess continued.
"Because of the asteroid field, many people from many different worlds crash into asteroids and fall to our planet, but I am unable to provide the right kind of fuel for most of them. As for repairs, there isn't any mermaid qualified, or even interested in repairing a broken Starship. So the people who find themselves stranded here very quickly adapt to life underwater."
Seidon sneered at Meow's puzzled expression. "She means they become Mermaids."
"That's right." The princess nodded. "In fact, Siren and Seidon's own father came to our planet in a Starship many years ago."

Princess Mermaid suddenly noticed Meow's bleeding arm. She broke a piece of seaweed off one of her plants and wrapped the wound.
"So, are you sure you don't just want to stay here?" Siren asked Meow.
"Yeah, you could help me look after Siren." Seidon agreed.
"Thankyou,"Meow said, "but my mother is very sick, in fact she's dying. I have to find something called the Silver Imperium Crystal, so I need to continue my journey."
"Very well." the princess sighed, "I'll take you to the Crystalcoralite Mines. However, we haven't had anyone working at the mines for quite some time..."

The princess led Meow, Seidon and Siren through a mass of seaweed to the edge of her garden. They swam out into a vast expanse of sand and water. Meow was shocked at how plain the ocan looked without any coral or seaweed. The four swam along the huge plain until they reached an underwater cliff. Meow looked over the edge, but all she could see was dark blue water.
"In this pit there are many small caves, all of which have Crystalcoralite growing in them. There are very few things on our planet that need to be powered, but Crystalcoralite always works." The princess swam over the edge of the cliff and began to float downwards. Meow and the mermaid siblings followed. They sank downwards for about ten yards until they reached a small cave. Meow stared into the cave. The inside glowed an eerie purple.
"Does Crystalcoralite glow purple?" Meow asked the princess. The princess frowned, and looked into the cave.
"Let's try another cave, shall we." The princess hurriedly swam a few yards to the next cave. Then she swam to the next cave.
"What's wrong, Princess?" Seidon asked.
"I'm afraid every Crystalcoralite cave is infested with poisonous sea slugs."
"Will they attack us?" Siren asked nervously.
"They're more interested in eating the Crystalcoralite. However, if one touches you, it will inject its poison into your blood." The princess warned.

Siren picked up a sharp rock from the entrance of the cave.
"I'll get you that Crystalcoralite!" She swam into the cave.
"Siren!" Seidon shouted after her. Meow followed Siren through the cave. There were glowing, purple slugs everywhere, hungrily gnawing on shiny, black crystals.
Over in one corner of the cave there was a small clump of the shiny black crystal that didn't have sea slugs crawling all over it. Siren swam over to it and started hacking at the black crystal with the sharp rock. Meow swam to Siren's back as the purple slugs noticed the intruders. They crawled towards Meow and Siren, oozing purple slime.
"Kitten Whirlpool!" Meow shouted. Her attack blew a small group of the disgusting slugs backward, but most of them just stuck to the cave floor.
"My attack isn't working, Siren! We've got to get out of here!"
"I've almost got it, just keep it up!" Siren urged. The slugs creeped closer and closer.
"Kitten Whirlpool!" Meow shouted again. The slugs kept coming.
"Kitten Whirlpool! Kitten Whirlpool! KITTEN WHIRLPOOL!" Meow kept blasting the slugs.
"I've got it!" Siren cried. Meow grabbed her arm.
"KITTEN WHIRLPOOL!!!" Meow aimed her attack at the cave wall, and she and Siren hurtled out of the cave.

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