"It all started when Colleen walked up to her little sister Macey wearing a bathing suit.
"I'm going for a dip in the lake." She said

"What?! No you can't! Mom and dad told us specifically not to swim in the lake if they are not around... and they are not around! They are coming back tomorrow. Can't you just wait?" Macey knew her hard headed sister probably wouldn't listen to her but she had to make an effort to stop her.

"It's okay! I'll be fine! You don't need to worry Macey. You should come too, get your bathing suit on, come on! It will be fun. Plus we can go as deep as we want now that mom and dad aren't here!" Colleen said and clapped her hands in excitement. 

"No! You can't! You'll get yourself killed! Please just trust me!" Macey begged.

Colleen thought for a moment. "Nope! Bye!" And she went down the stairs and down to the lake.

She got there and put her feet in the water. "Oh how refreshing!" She exclaimed.

She got in slowly slowly and put her head under. "Nothing better than a swim in the lake on a hot and sunny day!" She thought as she grabbed a sharp rock and put it on the side of her bathing suit. She came up to the surface and decided to go further in.

She swam to right to the center of the lake mocking her parents warning words. Suddenly a very attractive boy came up out of the water in front of her. He told her to come with him. She was so excited to be spoken to by a handsome boy. Then she realized that his appearance was changing! he wasn't an elf! He was a mermaid!

Her mind was spinning in a thousand directions at once. She knew she had to get out to safety immediately. She screamed for help as the boy smirked evilly at her, showing his precisely one hundred pointy teeth. His skin color turned green as it naturally was. She couldn't move. She couldn't feel a thing. She was terrified. The boy grabbed her by the hair with his fin hands and pulled her under.

Colleen was a just weak little twelve year old girl and she didn't stand a chance. She felt in her swim suit for the sharp rock she had gotten previously. Ah, good, maybe if she could cut her hair off quickly enough she could get away. But she was running out of breath now and had started to stress. How deep were they now? Thirty- forty meters deep? No elf would be able to survived this deep. So she took the sharp rock and cut off all her hair. The boy was shocked. He didn't expect her to get free and he wasn't going to let her either. He decided to wait until she had almost reached the surface to grab her again.

Colleen didn't have words to express her fear and hope as she swam as fast as she could to the surface. "Don't look back" she told herself. "Don't look back". She was five meters from the top when he grabbed her foot and pulled her back down. This time he was keeping her. He looked at her and slowly passing away and pressed his lips on hers. Colleen was almost unconscious. Just then she felt her body on someone else, her lips were touching other lips. The boy moved his face away from her lips. He felt sorry for her. His family would kill him if he didn't bring her and praise him if he did bring her. But he didn't want to eat her. So he took her up to the surface to the ground and lay her down. Colleen was no longer alive. Her little sister had heard her scream and had run down to the lake. She had been hiding behind a tree with her bow and arrow ready to attack. Macey was only eight but she was very smart and logical unlike her sister.

The boy looked at colleen in love with her beauty but not understanding the consequences to his horrid actions. He soon realized that his skin had started falling off and as he was going back into the water Macey took her aim and shot. Right where his heart would have been. But mermaids don't have hearts. When he was hit though, he was not angry and changed his mind about the girl, took her and swam back to his parents. As he swam he yanked out the arrow.

His parents were very proud of him. They placed the, now naked, girl on the table and let him do the honers of cutting the food. He took a knife and as he was about to cut, a strange feeling stopped him. He screeched to his family in agony that it wasn't right to drown and eat the elves and the fairies and the witched and that he wasn't going to let them ever do it again. His father was furious. And grabbed him by his wrist that was so fragile and burned from the sun that is merely fell off. Everyone froze and stared wide eyed as his hand became dust then fell to the floor of the lake. He cried in pain then swam away to shore where he died on the ground. Macey saw him disintegrate and lived to tell the tale."

"Woah..."the three girls said together.

"Yes, quite a dark story. The elves have wanted to start a war but don't know how many mermaids there are. We will probably be outnumbered..." the old woman's voice trailed off. "Anyway good luck finding the rest of your ingredients!"

The old woman went to the basement and brought back three jars. One with hairs, one with nails and one with scales. She gave one to each girl.

"Thank you so much!" Evangeline said gratefully and smiled.

"My pleasure! What would I do with all those mermaid parts now anyway?" The old lady said and shrugged. "Oh and my name is Beatrice Celedonia and I'm 143 years old. Did you know that the average life spam of an elf is 160 years?"

"Yeah, i-" angel said then stopped. Because she knew that no body liked a know it all.

They all waved a final goodbye and carried on forward.