Amongst The Water-Fresh Waters

Chapter 10: Questions! Part 3

(First Uploaded: 2014 Dates updated: January or February 2018; October; Jan. 13, 2020; June 27,2021; January 18, 2024)

She walks over to her desk and texts Lexie about her Marine Biology class and about the cave she explored. Kylie tells her to call her ASAP. Then she flips the lid open on her laptop and turns it on. She stares at it as it loads. Her mind is oddly blank for once.  When everything loads, she types her password and immediately searches "mermaids in Australia." Then she deletes it all. That's not going to narrow down anything. It'll likely bring up TV Shows. She hovers her fingers over the keyboard. "Caves on Moanie Island in Australia." She types in the search bar. According to the article in the library, she's not the only person who noticed the glowing cave, and hopefully not the only mermaid in the world. Several links are related to the search. But she is drawn to a specific link that says, "The Caves and Mermaids on Moanie Islands." She blinks a few times shocked. She hesitates for a moment. Then she clicks on it. She stares at the screen as it loads. Impatiently she taps her foot. She desperately hopes it's not a page full of dozens of weird theories and people coming up with bazaar things to get attention. Like the Fiji Mermaid Hoax.

She's surprisingly relieved that the link is a blog from a famous and former tour guide and Geologist in Sydney. That is when they had tour guides and when the Island was newly discovered and popular. She clicks on a page on the top right that says "Moanie Caves". According to the page, there are a few caves on the Island. But one description, in particular, sounds like the one she found. The cave she found was discovered 40 years ago by 2 Geologists. She reads through the description to be sure it's the cave. It is, so she goes on to how it was discovered.

According to the blogger, The Geologist/ Marine Biology enthusiast; he and his friend discovered it by coming across a hill full of unique and rare rocks and minerals. Moanie Island is notorious for its spectacular Minerals, Flora, and Fauna. Several of the Minerals they were interested in, were lumped together, so they were hammering them to separate them from one another. They heard that it was hollow. So, they kept hammering and hammering. Soon enough they had to dig a little bit and they walked into the steep and dark tunnel and came across a magnificent cave with a pool of clear blue water and rocks and minerals on the walls of the cave. They ended up safely mining most of the minerals. Kylie sits back shocked. "Wow! But why didn't they get the rest?" She questions. Then she continues to read. The blog says the men couldn't mine the rest because they heard a few noises coming from the pool of water and they saw the water moving. So, they left the cave. The next day, all the minerals were gone and the cave was oddly colder.

She continues to read a little and the two men were said to have placed some rocks and minerals around the cave's pool of water to make it more attractive for tourists. "That makes sense. And I knew it wasn't a natural setup." Kylie mumbles, understanding why he and his friend set it up like that. They both were temporary tour guides for Sydney events. They probably became full-time tour guides after they discovered the caves. But the other stuff she read about them saying something about an underwater entrance; she doesn't understand how they figured that out. They were only there twice, and both times they didn't go in the water.

She silently wonders if someone else found the underwater entrance. Or maybe they came back again and found it. She huffs frustrated she hasn't found anything out about mermaids or weird glowing water yet. She scrolls to the bottom of the page and finds nothing. She goes back to the top of the webpage and she notices a tab that mentions 'Mermaid Myths of Moanie'. Her eyes widen in excitement. She clicks on it, bringing her to a page about the beginning myths of mermaids on Moanie. Turns out the Island was founded by a Polynesian mermaid Moana and her trickster of a friend Maui. Maui continuously tricked Moana and one day Moana had enough and caught his fishing hook in hopes of keeping it from him. But the mastermind Maui kept a tight hold on his hook and pulled her toward him and took her to land to try to dry her out. But fish poachers and mermaid hunters were on the very beach Maui planned to take her, so he had to flee from them and he took Moana with him as a prisoner, hoping someone would come after her and they'd have to exchange her for some rare fish. But no one came. They kept in the run and ended up migrating to a mysterious and uncharted island in Australia. Moana and Maui found it safe and peaceful and called it their home. They named it after themselves. Kylie gasps in shock. "Holy crap!"