I, Daisy Dreamer, am now a mermaid in detective mode.
“Inky, have you tried retracing your steps?” I ask.
“No,” Inky says nervously.
“That’s okay,” I say. “What have you seen since you lost your friends?”
Inky looks at us with her big round octopus eyes as she thinks.
“Well, I remember a garden of orange and purple sea stars. Before that, I heard the sounds of a murky song. I also saw a treasure chest sticking up from the sand.” Inky looks down at the ocean floor sadly. “And that was the last time I saw my friends.”
“Those are great clues!” I say. “Let’s see if we can find them and get you back home.”
To start our search, Posey asks a school of sardines if they’ve seen any of the clues. But they flicker by without stopping.
“Those fish are too busy to answer me,” Posey says.
“That’s because they’re in school all day,” I say. “Get it?”
Posey shakes his head and rolls his eyes.
Suddenly Sir Pounce darts away again, probably chasing more fish. Doesn’t he know we are on a mission?
But Posey takes my hand and one of Inky’s tentacles. “He wants to show us something!”
We swim after Sir Pounce, who leads us right to a garden of orange and purple sea stars.
“You found the first clue!” Inky exclaims.
“Good kitty!” I say. Or should I say “good fishy”? Then I secretly apologize for thinking my cat wasn’t helping.
Inky holds a tentacle up. “The murky song was near the sea stars. Can you hear anything?”
We stop and listen quietly. Then a strange melody washes in.
“Woo-OOO-ooo!”
Something in the distance wails and echoes all around us. I look at my friends, and our eyes all grow wide. We stay quiet.
Now everyone hides behind me.
“It sounds like an underwater ghost,” Posey whispers. “And it will probably sting us!”
The song takes me back to a video I saw once about the largest animals in the sea. My eyes almost pop out of my head with excitement because now I know just what this sound is!
“That’s no ghost,” I say. “It’s a whale!”
