"My god my mum's gonna be so freaked" Icarus said.

"Just stick to the cover story, I'm sure it'll be fine" Aries replied.

"Right. Wow I feel so... new. Like seeing my tail for the first time was so nerve wrecking but once we started swimming I just go so exited. I feel like a little kid who's dreams have all come true"

"Told you the mermaid life isn't that bad"

"Mum will probably want me home for the rest of the day after everything that happened. But I wanna know more about this whole mermaid thing" Icarus said.

"Tomorrow morning. I'll text you, Meet me at the docks and I'll explain as much as I can" Aries replied.

Turning up to a front yard of her house house, they approached the door and Icarus went to knock.

"God I better not get in trouble for this" she sighed.

When she knocked, almost immediately someone opened the door. Her mother gasped and pulled her into her arms.

"Oh my god you're ok thank goddess. What happened? I was so close to calling the police..." she said.

"I got lost orienteering and slipped on some rocks and hit my head. But I got so lucky because Aries here found me and stayed with me until I woke up. They would have called for help but we were so far from the camp and any roads there was no service. I just got lucky they knows the beaches around here" Icarus replied, gesturing to Aries.

Her mother looked over at her and Aries gave an awkward wave.

"Thank you so much. I was so worried, I'll have to have a little chat with that camp manager..."

"I'll see you around then Aries" Icarus said.

"Yeah I'll see you around"

And with that, they parted ways. Icarus mother closed the door and gave her daughter a hug.

"You ok?" She asked.

"Yeah. Luckily I didn't get too hurt. Just a bit of a bruise" Icarus replied.

"Good, I was so scared. But on the bright side, look at you finally making friends"

"They're actually pretty cool, I think we'll get along"

Breaking the hug, her mother sighed and proceeded to playfully whack her daughter.

"Ow! Hey!" Icarus yelped.

"How the hell did you get so lost you were out of cell service?" She asked.

"No idea. You know me though I can barely read to save my life"

"Oh you worry me to death sometimes honey... Why don't you go take a bath and go get some sleep. I'll wake you up for dinner ok?"

"Ok, thanks mum"

Icarus headed to the bathroom, turning on the taps and letting the bath fill up.

She finally had some time to just sit and think about everything. In under 24 hours her whole life just got flipped on it's head. She's a mermaid... there's some kind of magic pool on the coast, she might be one of the only mermaids left and she had to keep it all a secret.

Also there's a difference between sirens and mermaids? How many rules were there to this? So much to think about and so many questions she needed answers too.

As she waited for the bath to fill up,the water suddenly stopped running.

"Huh? Is something in the pipes?" She muttered.

Going to reach for the taps she held out her hand, but unbeknownst to her the position her hand was in was significant. Before she could grab the tap, the water suddenly sprayed all over her. She gasped, stepping back and within seconds, popped a tail falling to the ground.

"Ow- I really gotta get used to that... wait-"

She looked down at her hand, then back at the tap. Slowly she extended her hand again in the same position. The water turning back on. An exited smile broke on her face.

"Woah... superpowers?" she muttered

Meanwhile Aries is back at the spirit pool and looking around for any kind of mermaid evidence.

"Damnit this place must be old... no sign of recent use apart from yesterday"

Sighing they look around at the bare area and kick the sand in disappointment, looking over at the still water an idea suddenly forms in their head. They dive into the pool and swim to the bottom to look for any thing magic that may have been left behind by the pod, only to come up empty handed. Breaking the surface they sigh again.

"Not even a gem or some lost jewellery? Unbelievable"

Leaning on the side of the pool they groaned in annoyance.

"A whole mermaid is literally created right before my eyes and there's no evidence of the pod anywhere apart from this old ass pool? Damnit this is gonna be harder than I thought..." they muttered.

They'd only been in the human realm a few days, so they really shouldn't be so quick to jump to conclusions. There was still the whole coast to search. But after years of using complex spells to track down a source of magic in the human realm, they were rather impatient.

But finding this pool was still a big step, it was proof that the missing pod  WAS here at some point. And the fact Icarus got turned into a mermaid just from touching the water in it was a massive discovery. Humans aren't meant to be able to use ANY magic, they didn't have the right DNA for it. So how was Icarus able to become a mermaid?

The following day, Icarus got that text she'd been waiting for and as quick as she could rushed down to the docks, after putting together the cutest boardwalk outfit she could that is. she had so many questions she wanted answers for. Icarus looks around the docks, spotting Aries sitting on the end of a jetty.

"Aries!" She called out.

They turn to face her, beckoning her over and Icarus comes to sit beside them.

"Guess what" she smiles.

"You're already caught?" Aries replies.

"No, I'm not THAT ditzy. I found a power yesterday"

"That was fast"

"Watch this" she smiles.

Icarus holds out her hand and a stream of water rises from the ocean. When she pulls her hand back, it falls back into the ocean.

"Oh so you're a water elemental. You don't happen to have a water sign for your zodiac do you?" Aries said.

"Scorpio. Your power is linked to your star sign?" Icarus asked.

"Yep. Obviously I'm an Aries, that's where my name came from. So I have fire slash heat related powers. Ok listen up-"

They turned to face each other, Icarus paying close attention and Aries starting to explain in depth.

"A very very long story short, our kind are from a whole other realm. There's literally thousands of realms out there, ours is called Izroulia. When I was about barely 1 this huge war broke out because this nut job Phoenix called Agnemetra killed the old queen and ceased the throne. She has this wicked grudge against merfolk so she killed them. All of them... expect for the ones who were able to escape into the human realm. That's why I'm here, I'm looking for them now I'm all grown up. I know they're here, that pool you fell into is proof enough, I just don't know where..." Aries explained.

Icarus blinked, taking all that in. It was a short explanation but answered a lot of questions, but also bought up more.

"You were 1? But you survived?" She asked.

"My birth parents give me to a fae to be raised in hiding. No idea what happened to them after that, I was literally a baby I don't even remember them. If I didn't have a tail I'd think I was a fae too" Aries explained.

"Merfolk... fae, phoenixes... what else exists?" 

Aries thought for a moment, trying to remember every mythic that existed in their realm.

"Uh... merfolks, fae, Phoenixes, demons, dragon people, Naiads, yokai, and all their sub-species" they said.

"Woah... that's a lot" Icarus said.

"There's more in other realms, too many too list. That pool though, it means at some point the merfolk WERE here, they were the ones that cast the enchantment on it. Only a sea person could do magic like that, it'd take a lot of them though"

The two are cut short by a beach ball hitting them, followed by a passerby apologising, grabbing the ball and running back off.

"This... probably isn't the best place to talk magic" Aries said.

"Yeah lots of people. We can go back to the pool" Icarus suggested.

"Let's find somewhere to transform without being spotted first"

The two got up and headed down the beach away from the crowds to dive under the waves and swim to the pool again. Icarus was still getting used to swimming with a tail, but it was so much fun being able to swim so far without coming up for air. And being able to swim among the fish without them swimming away from you, she already loved being a mermaid.

When they arrived, they sat on the edge talking about all the magic stuff Icarus needed to know. It took a while, but she was all caught up and on the same page as Aries eventually. Well, as much as she could be having been born in the human realm and never having seen magic before.

The existence of other realms, magic, mythical creatures and their kingdoms and societies would take months to learn about. But, she had the basics. That's all she needed right now.

"Ok, I get it but... What exactly do we do when we find the pod?" Icarus asked.

"Well...I'm hoping by then agnnemetra will loose power, or we'll have enough people to start some kind of uprising" Aries replied.

"We really gotta find those mermaids huh?"

"Yep, at least we have a start but it's gonna be harder than I thought..."

Icarus looked down at her tail, swishing in the water and pondered on all the information she'd just taken in. It was a pretty life changing thing, to just become a mermaid overnight like that.

"Well, you have to start somewhere I suppose. I just hope I can balance all this with graduating year. My dyslexic ass is barely scraping by as it is" Icarus sighed.

"As long as you don't get wet at school, you'll be fine. Being an umbrella everywhere you go" Aries replied.

"We'll make this all work, for izroulia?"

Icarus held out a hand, offering a reassuring shake.

"For izroulia" Aries replied, taking her hand and giving it a squeeze.

It was unplanned, but Icarus transforming might just be the key to unraveling the whole mess. Aries was glad that of all people to fall into the pool, it was someone who understood.