AAOOOSC! Wheatie Bits!

The group of mermen follows Brett through the vast space of blue, gliding toward the surface. The waters become lighter and warmer as the sun rays grow closer, notifying them they are near the edge.

The surface bubbles and splashes outward as each merman pops into the air and into sight, treading water to avoid sinking.

Brett peers around the blue and silence surroundings then turns back to the other four mermen.

“Anything?” he asks, moving his arms at a steady pace as water laps over them.

Kale shakes his head, his plastered hair covering his eyes. “Nope, I can still feel my tail.” He whips his head back again, throwing his hair away from his vision.

“Yay!” Reid pumps his fists in the air, pulls water along with his movements, spraying it into the air.

Jake stares at his bestie with big, trepidatious eyes. “What are we gonna do then?”

Brett scrunches his eyebrows as he peers down, rattling his mind for another idea. “What if…” He slowly peers up at them. “...we get out of the water?”

Reid shakes his head slowly with horrified eyes. “Oh no, no, no—”

“Do you wanna play this season or not?!” Nolan roars, whirling to him and smacking his hands against the surface, throwing water in all directions.

“Ugh.” Reid cranes his head up, a weary expression coming across his face. He then lowers his head back to its regular position. “Right.”

“Alright, let's get outta here!” Brett calls out. “Follow me!” He then smoothly dives back into the water.

The others follow him below the surface.

The group swims west in the sun’s rays. They gradually approach an ominous, gigantic wall of rock appearing to jut through the surface with its bottom lost in the darkness below.

Brett glides upward toward it and slips through one of its numerous crevices of all shapes and sizes. One by one, the others cautiously come after him.

The waters inside are dusky, almost completely black. Fortunately, Brett is still able to be spotted due to his bright scarlet-coloured tail.

Brett turns parallel to the wall, approaching the dimly lit surface.

Above the surface is a shallow, circular cave with the bright afternoon scenery being displayed through its opening. Around the dark waters is a narrow floor of rock, as if a massive hole has been made on the ground of the cave.

Brett’s head explodes from the surface, his thick hair staying in good shape. He paddles toward the edge on his left, near the opening, and pulls himself out of the water. He settles on the rocky edge with his fin dipped in the water.

Then the rest of the mermen come along, sitting by him: Jake, Nolan, Reid, and Kale, who sits by the opening of the cave.

“Nothing,” Nolan spits out, swaying his fin back and forth in the water.

Kale is gazing down at his trunk. “What if we dry ourselves?”

Brett’s eyes light up at the suggestion. “Great idea!”

“But how?” Nolan asks brusquely.

As a response, Jake shakes himself at an alarming speed, spraying all the water on him in all directions to remove it from himself.

Nolan immediately leans away from him, blocking the sprinkles with his hands. “Eeewww!”

Brett also is craned away from him, his eyes narrowed for protection with a disgusted expression. “Jake Dog!” His eyes immediately widen at the sight of his friend. “Whoa! You're back!”

Jake halts shaking and looks down at himself. Sure enough, he has his two long legs once again along with his amethyst-coloured, white polka-dotted swimming trunks.

He gasps at the sight. “I am!” He peers at the others. “Drying works!”

“So how do we dry ourselves?” Kale asks with knitted eyebrows.

“By shaking!” Jake gives him another short, quick shake.

Nolan has a look of revulsion at him. “I'm not a dog, thank you very much.”

Reid gapes at the goalie with sadness. “So you're no longer a merman?” He oscillates his fin through the water.

Without saying a single word, Jake leans over and dives back into the water. He instantly resurfaces, his brown hair plastered on the left side of his face. “Still am!” He throws his marvelous fin through the surface, back into view. “But…”

He sculls to the rocky edge and lifts himself on the rock, sitting on the other side of his bestie. He then shakes himself once again, spattering water off of him and onto his friend and the cave.

Once he stops his swift motions, his legs have reappeared with his swimming trunks once again.

“Not anymore!” Jake throws his arms into the air with his feet in the water in a showy fashion.

Nolan has inquiring eyes at him with his hand on his chin. “Weird…”

“So you weren't a merman when you completely dried yourself,” Brett explains slowly, eyeing his bestie. “Then you became one again when you went into the water.”

Kale turns to Jake. “What if you touched the water?”

Jake kicks up the water with his feet. “I don't feel anything!”

Brett’s eyes light up as the conclusion comes to his mind; he has an index finger in the air. “So that means we turn human when we’re completely dried and merman when we’re completely wet!”

Reid gazed at the others with a thrilled expression. “So that means I can have the best of both worlds?!”

Nolan then belts out “Best of Both Worlds” by Miley Cyrus:

You get the best of both worlds!

Reid joins in, leaning toward him:

Chill it out, take it slow.

Nolan finishes off, drawing closer to him:

Then you rock out the show.

Kale eyes them with surprise. “I can’t believe you guys still know the lyrics.”

“They are permanently stuck in my memory forever,” Nolan tells him sheepishly.

Reid raises his hand in the air. “Me too!”

“Same for me, unfortunately,” Brett mutters with a grumpy expression.

Next to him, Jake wraps up the chorus of the song with the motion of mixing.

Mix it all together and you know you got the best of both worlds!

“Okay, okay, okay…” Brett pats his bare shoulder multiple times. “Thank you, Jake Dog.”

Jake gives him a massive, bright grin. “You’re very welcome, bestie!” He nuzzles the side of his face against his head.

Brett tenses up with uncomfortableness in response.

Reid gazes at the two friends tentatively, rubbing his wrist. “Do you guys have any of those sandwiches left? I’m getting hungry.”

“Same here,” Kale pipes in.

Brett slowly pulls away from the goalie and turns to him with a scowl.

Jake instantly dips his head down with a guilty expression. “I’m sorry.”

Brett turns to the three friends with a solemn look. “Jake Dog finished them up.”

Jake emits a pathetic whimper. “I’ll make sandwiches and give them all to you and never eat sandwiches again…” He begins to slip back toward the water.

Kale instantly shoots his hand out at him, signaling him to stop. “It’s alright, we’ll buy something else ourselves.”

Jake halts his movements and perks up at him. A hopeful expression comes across his face. “Oh, thank you!” He settles himself back next to his friend.

Nolan throws sharp eyes at his two former teammates. “But how can you guys can if you’re mermen?”

Reid’s eyes light up as he gasps. “That’s right! We need to dry ourselves!”

Kale peers at each hockey player. “Did anyone bring a towel?”

“I said you guys can shake the water off,” Jake states with a sad expression, filled with rejection.

Reid instantly shakes himself from side-to-side with harsh movements, attempting to pull of Jake’s same drying method. Yet he quickly stops after a few thrusts, his eyes rolling around with his hair disheveled.

“Ow, my head…,” he groans as stars whizz around his head with pitchy, tweeting sounds.

Brett gawks at Reid, then at the other two. “I’m thinking we’re gonna have to go back to shore to get the towels.”

“Unless we have Kailer bring them over to us,” Nolan suggests as a fact with a shrug.

Kale turns to him with furrowed eyebrows. “How can he if he doesn’t even know where we’re at?”

Brett whips his wrist in the air, revealing a sleek black smartwatch latched around it: his Wrist-Moto. “I’ll send him our location and text him.”

Kale gapes at the device as if it is a foreign object. “You brought that to the beach?”

He pulls it back to his view, gazing down at it. “Hey, it IS pretty cool…” He then presses on its little screen a few times.

Kale watches Brett send the text to Kailer from across the small body of water. “Well, I’ll admit that is smart.”

“But what if he gets sucked into the magical whirlpool and turns into a merman as well?” Reid blurts out with worry.

“Don’t worry, Yamma Mamma’s got it—” Brett presses the final button and perks up from his Wrist-Moto. “—he can teleport.”

Reid’s eyes fly open in surprise. “Whoa! Sick!”

Nolan rolls his eyes with an annoyed expression. “At least we got someone smart enough here to avoid the whirlpool.”

Reid turns to him a growing smirk. “So you’re saying you’re not smart.”

Nolan turns to him with a glower. He then proceeds to slap him.

“OOF!” Reid spins off from the rock and flies into the water.

The water splashes after him, spraying in all directions while creating harsh ripples on its surface.

Once the water calms down with Reid nowhere in sight, Nolan solemnly turns to Brett. “Anyways, how long do you think it’d take for Kailer to arrive?”

Brett peers down at his Wrist-Moto. “He’s nearby!”

Suddenly, a streak of blue energy with white in the middle zaps in mid air behind Jake and Brett; Kailer swiftly jumps out of it. The energy instantly disappears, leaving the room back in its natural light with a new visitor.

Kailer, who has beach towels folded neatly in his hands, gazes around his surroundings. “Ohhh, Howden!” He peers down, quickly spotting Brett sitting behind him, staring up at him.

“Ah! There you are!” He then perks up, spotting most of the rest of the group. “The rest of the bunch is here!” Confusion comes upon his face. “Wait, where’s Duke?”

Reid immediately appears through the surface of the water, facing Kailer.

“I’m here...!” he slurs out, holding a listless pointer finger in the air as his eyes roll around. “Better than ever...!”

Kailer gives him a tight smile. “Well, I’m glad I have found your location. And…” His voice fades off as he observes the aquatic addition to most of the hockey players.

His small eyes widen with shock at the sight. “Blinkin’ knickers, what occurred upon you men?”

“That’s why we asked for towels,” Brett tells him with a sheepish grin.

With that, Kailer begins ambling around the cave, handing each merman a towel. “I never knew merfolk were real!”

Kale receives a towel from the scientist. “If the supernatural is real, mermen should be real.” He then begins drying himself. Instantly, he regains his two legs and swimming trunk.

Nolan follows after Kale, swiftly turning back to himself with his lovely legs and swimming trunks.

Brett rubs the last bit of water from his tail. His legs immediately reappear along with his swimming trunks.

His eyes widen at the sight with delight. “Legs! My legs!” He tosses the towel aside and pulls his legs up to his arms with his head on his knees. “I’ve never been so happy to see my legs!”

Jake jumps in, cuddling with his bestie’s legs with a massive, innocent grin. “Me too!”

Brett gawks at his friend’s action. “Eeerrrmmm…”

Kailer halts next to Kale, peering down at Reid, who is still in the water. “Don’t you want a towel, Duke?” He holds the last towel out at him.

Reid frowns at the thick, folded, colourful cloth. “Aw, man…” He shrugs. “Well, at least I can turn back to one again.” He reluctantly paddles back to the edge, pulls himself to sit on the rock, and takes the towel.

Kailer gazes at his human friends with an inquiring expression and hands on his hips. “So, you men are permanently mermen?”

“If we are completely in water, then yeah,” Brett explains, his legs now outstretched ahead of him with Jake still lying his head on them. “But when we completely dry ourselves, we’re good.”

Kailer nods his head with a satisfied, understanding smile. “Good, good, at least you men can play hockey.” He then peers at all five hockey players, spotting that each one is back to human.

“Now, that everyone is back to themselves, who wants to play BEACH VOLLEYBALL?!” He instantly whips out a red, white, and blue-coloured volleyball from a slash of blue energy and holds it up with a proud grin.

With that, the six hockey players teleport to the beach and play a friendly match of beach volleyball to end their fun, fanciful day at the beach.


The End.

Notes

E.6 "A Fanciful Day At The Beach"
Part 10/10
Episode 6/10