Mermaid Island

We were now very far away from the vicinity of the Fox's house. I don't know what happened to make them still chase us. 

"Who are they?" I asked Xavier and he turned his head with a nonchalant shrug.

"I don't know who they are," he said.

"We'd better get out of here," Axcellary said with a few glances back. To be honest, my heartbeat was beating erratically because I was still afraid of strangers considering this was not my territory. "Are you sure you don't know who they are?" I asked once more and Xavier shook his head.

"What are their characteristics?" "I really don't know who that person is!" he exclaimed with a very obvious frown on his forehead.

"I don't remember, but it looks like they have a face with pale skin so they could be either a vampire or an elf!" she replied. He nodded his head.

"Can they still smell us?" "I asked Daffa. 

'We have to run fast so they can't catch up with us!' Daffa said with an annoyed look at me.

'I'm already tired!' I don't know how long I ran and also wiped the sweat that always dripped onto my forehead.

"Are you tired?'"he asked and I rudely hit his hand hard.

"And you're still asking?' 

"Your words really annoy me!'" 

"Well we'll rest first, we've come a long way too!" said Xavier and we took a break. With a rush of breath, I looked up at the clouds that were slowly darkening. "Where are we going after this?" Axcellary turned to me and pointed with his chin towards the sea to get there.

"We haven't tried breathing underwater yet!" Daffa said with a faint smile.

"We'll try it, there happens to be a lake in this location not far from here!" said Axcellary, getting up from the rock and leaving the three of us. I exhaled heavily and then we immediately followed where Axcellary was going. 

In front of us now was a lake that was quite big and very lovely. Although we had to go into the forest first, there was a beautiful lake that left me stunned when I saw it. "Are we going to try this lake?" I asked and was answered with a nod. 

"Alright, we'll try there!" After that, Axcellary was the first to try. 

He slowly entered the lake. I felt uneasy when he disappeared from sight. We waited for almost an hour for Axcellary to appear but he never came out of the lake. "We have to catch up with him immediately!" I hurriedly went into the lake. Just as we were going inside, suddenly Axcellary came out with a normal breath. I stared at Axcellary; he was breathing normally. "Aren't you out of breath in the water?" I patted Daffa's head.

"Fools are kept!" I said while Daffa immediately put on a face of innocence.

"Let's not fight, so what?" Xavier asked, looking at Axcellary curiously.

"We can survive in the water for only an hour!" I gulped hard as I thought about what Axcellary had said.

"So the potion can survive in water for only an hour?" Xavier said, looking at Axcellary and nodding his head.

With a very uneasy feeling, I slowly began to submerge my head. I just looked at the sea world for the first time and I also realised that the lake is beautiful but there are many incidents that make our lives disappear nowadays. 

Suddenly my tail came out by itself, I was so shocked and also stared in disbelief." So this is also a fish tail?" I asked myself.

It had been an hour that we had been going here and there just to try it out but suddenly I felt that the airspace had thinned out. My eyes opened wide and I started to rise to the surface, also lifting my head. I stared, breathing heavily, and then looked around. Apparently, Axcellery was staring at me. "Looks like you're a wicked witch!" he said, and I immediately swore softly.

"Damn you if I don't help you and hit your head!" I said, raising one of my hands and glaring in exasperation.

"How about you guys, did you survive longer?" I looked back and there were Xavier and Daffa who had come out of the water and were breathing heavily.

"It looks like we can only last an hour on the surface because my chest is getting tight!" I nodded my head.

"Looks like we're going to make it this time." 

"So we're going straight there?" asked Daffa with a raised eyebrow in confusion.

"Yes, we will, because I'm sure we're on time!"

"But how do we know it's mermaid territory?" I paused because I was honestly still confused.

"Don't worry, I already know the location and we'll try it first," Axcellary said. We got out of the lake and without realising that we were currently being watched by someone who would not be expected.

We stared at the vast expanse of the sea, with our eyes gazing at each other, the four of us began to walk towards the centre of the sea. 

"Blup.....blup...," I closed my eyes with a feeling of fear. When I opened them, I looked towards the front; apparently the sea was so beautiful. One by one our tails began to appear. I hesitantly turned my head to the side and Xavier was looking at me with a look that I couldn't understand. "Can we swim yet?" Daffa asked in a loud voice that diverted our gaze.

"Let's swim all the way in!" Examer exclaimed with excitement before swiftly departing. However, we followed the origin's direction and upon turning back, we realised we had swum too far and it was gradually getting dark. We were now in front of the cave and Axcellary promptly instructed me to enter. "Are you certain?" I asked incredulously, to which he simply nodded and smiled slightly. "I'm sure you still have a friend in your heart, so try going in there for the first time!" I slowly began to swim and enter the cave but the deeper the cave got, the darker it got and even the sound began to feel loud. I could see a crack of light that made me curious so I immediately swam towards the light. When I was in front, I was astonished to see the true beauty of the sea. Shortly afterwards, they immediately appeared and he was as dumbfounded as me. "Is this the beauty of the sea?" Daffa asked me incredulously while I could only stare at the beauty of Mermaid Island for the first time in my life.

"Where are we going?" asked Xavier with a pat on Axcellary's shoulder. 

"We're going to infiltrate the mermaid palace!" he said and we immediately turned to Axcellary in shock. "What?" I was dumbfounded when I realised how we could get into the palace.

"You!" exclaimed Daffa.

"Really, is there no hurry?" Axcellary rolled his eyes. "If we linger or stall for time, what I'm afraid of is that the virus will spread further and make it difficult for us to overcome it!" 

"Alright, we'll infiltrate!" Xavier said.

"We could swim to the rural area first and start disguising ourselves as ordinary citizens first." "I'm a man who wants to wear women's clothes!" I sighed heavily. "Hurry up, we don't have much time!" I frowned as suddenly Daffa didn't want to wear them just because they were women's clothing. "Sud..." Before I could speak, a young woman suddenly emerged from her house.

"Thief!" She shouted so loudly that we immediately left with the clothes that Daffa hadn't worn yet.

"Damn it!" I said with a glare at Daffa.

Fortunately, the owner of the house did not pursue us, so we immediately moved quickly to leave the residential area. "I told you not to make too much drama!" I said with an exasperated look at him.