Merri tried her best to remember which lake she had been told might possibly have mermaids. To be honest she should have just consulted the Care of Magical Creatures Professor, after all they would know best. However, Merri wasn't always the most logical sort because her curiosity often guided her, and what ever happen, well she just hoped for the best.

As she approached the lake she kicked away both of her sneakers and removed her socks then tip-toed up to the water edge. Merri eyeballed the lake much like a cat would then stuck the bottom of her foot into the water. "Eek! Why so cold?"

But there was no way a little bit of cold water was going to get in this girls way! Merri cringed and forced herself to place both feet into the water then slowly walked deeper into the lake. When the water was up to her chest she stopped, wait now what? "Hello? Mr. Mermaids? Miss Mermaids? Mrs. Mermaids?" She giggled then stopped and began again. "Can you come out and talk to me now?"

Chase was walking around thinking. He spot the perfect place to relax and probably take a nap. Finding a sunny spot next to the lake, he sat down and stretched out his legs. Gazing at the lake he sees a girl standing there fully dressed calling out something about mermaids.

He chuckled and shook his head. It looked like the girl from class the other day. Merri was her name if he remembered correctly. Chase opened his mouth to call out to the girl, then changed his mind. He'd let her have fun. No use spoiling it.

Rinoa was out in the fields today. She was already in a nice place to relax under a shade of a large tree. She leaned her back on the trunk as she moved her knees closer to her chest. She was enjoying the view as the sun kissed the grass and the wind gently blowing them.

She narrowed her eyes as she spotted someone who submerged herself in the lake. She realized soon it was Merri when she heard her call out for mermaids. Mermaids? Rinoa giggled in her place as she was also fond of such creatures.

She place her arms above her knees and rested her head on them as she watched Merri's little adventure.

Merri stared, eyes wide at the water for a few moments longer, but no magical creatures even bat an eyelash in her direction. She frowned and racked her brain for any clues on how to reach out and speak to mermaids. Her eyes grew wide as she got an 'aha!' moment going. Mermaids must not speak English!

She had no experience whatsoever on speaking mermish, but she had seen the muggle movie Finding Nemo, and mermaids probably spoke something similar to whale, right? She cupped her hands over her mouth and stuffed her face into the water. "Tahhh Lahhh!" The girl called out excitedly.

Her mouth filled with lake water and she jerked up, sputtering and spitting everywhere. The water had tasted, well pretty much awful, and now her hair was soaking wet, but something did happen! She bounced up and down splashing water everywhere as she grew more excited at the approaching dark shadow under the water.

Chase quickly stood up when he saw the girl go under the water, great she's going to drown! He started towards the water, but stopped short of taking off his shirt when he realized that she had purposely stuck her head under the murky lake water. He sighed in relief and tooks a few steps back.

Happening to glance back up the bank he noticed someone was also admiring the lake view. He grinned and walked towards the girl then stopped and laughed. Was he going to run into all of the same students from the other day. "Yo, Rinoa isn't it?" He shaded his eyes and peered up at the female.

Rinoa raised an eyebrow when she noticed Merri stuffed her head under the water. She thought she'd wait for a few seconds, before she'd rush over to help her since she may be in trouble. But alas! It looked like she did it on purpose and well, yeah, she looked okay.

Suddenly, she saw a young male student who rushed towards the lake and then stopped, then was now walking towards her. She looked up to him when he got closer, "Yes. Hello Chase" she greeted him back.

"Looks fun huh?" she said as she diverted her eyes from Chase to Merri.

Merri looked confused as a sickly green colored creature swam from the depths of the lake and towards her. The creature grinned and wiggled it's fingers then made some strange noise back in reply. She blinked a few times and slowly moved away from the ugly not mermaid looking thing. "Go away," she hissed and waved her hands in a shooing motion.

The creature did not listen, and chose to cling to her leg. "Eww!" Merri screamed and tried to kick away from it, but the creature just clung more. After a few minutes of struggling it began to make strange noises, which sounded a lot like the noises that Merri had made earlier.

Chase shook his head then turned to watch Merri. "I don't know about fun. She looks silly out there." He raised a brow as the girl began acting strange and muttering to something, probably herself. He thought Merri was weird, and he didn't know how to act around people like that.
"Doesn't she seem, I don't know, childish?" He jumped when the girl screamed and stepped towards the lake again. "What is she doing?"

"Childish, you say?" Rinoa answered when she leaned closer to her knees and hugged them as she looked at Merri.

"Hmmmm?" she was about to say something. Rinoa jumped out from where she was sitting and stood straight up when she was startled because of Merri's scream. "What? What's she doing?" Rinoa found herself repeating what Chase said as they now both watched what Merri's up to.

Merri stopped her struggling and listened to the creature babble away about something, but she couldn't hear it properly. "Eh? What?" She frowned and stared down at the creature, it had horns on the top of it's weird green head and looked vaguely familiar.

She shrugged and stuck her head under the water again and babbled back at the creature, "Sessss mooooo nahhhh!" The creature grinned, nodded excitedly and hugged her leg tighter.

Merri panicked and flailed her arms before resurfacing. "No! I told you to let go!" She paused and blinked a few times. "At least...I think that's what I said."

Chase felt his blood pressure rising as he panicked over the girl shoving her head back into the lake, "Crazy girl!" He called out and ran back down to the water while she flailed her arms. Just as he reached the shore she resurfaced again. He stopped and tried to listen to whatever Merri was talking about. "Are you okay?" He cupped his hands over his mouth and called out to the girl.

Rinoa dashed towards the lake when she saw Chase made his move. Worried, she ran as fast as she could passing by Chase since he stopped before he reached the lake. Rinoa already found herself submerged in the lake's cold water just as when Merri had resurfaced again.

"What are you doing?" she asked Merri while her eyes scanning the girl if she's okay or not. She grabbed Merri's arm helping her to steadily get up.

Merri leaned against the older female and caught her breath. "Thanks," she whispered, still taking deep breaths. "I was trying to talk to my new friend." She explained as she wiped water from her face and pointed towards the green scaly creature still attached to her leg.

The creature grinned with it's creepy green teeth and moved it's hands in a waving like manner before snuggling closer to Merri. She giggled and patted the strange water animal on the head then looked up at Rin and said in a confused manner, "I don't know why he won't leave me alone."

Chase stood on the shore of the lake, debating what he should do. Rinoa had charged into the water without thought, but he wasn't so sure about following suit. "Are the two of you okay?" He stuffed his hands into his pockets and waited to make sure they were not going to need help.

Rinoa heard Merri's story. She looked at the green creature attached to her leg. She took a closer look. The creature grinned and clung more to Merri's leg. It seems that the creature likes her. "I think it likes you" she said. "But what creature is that?" she followed up.

Then she heard Chase from behind asking if they were alright. She looked back at Chase, waved and smiled "Yes, and I think you need to see this!". She motioned her hand inviting Chase to come closer.

Merri worked on trying to remove one of the hands from her leg. "I think it might be a grindylow?" She giggled as the creature finally released then swam over towards Rin and clung to her this time. It made some gurgling noises then looked back at the shore.

"But I thought that they were dangerous and sometimes ate people!" She wrinkled her nose for a moment. Even if they were dangerous this little guy was strangely kind of cute.

Chase kicked off his shoes and wadded into the cold water. He flinched as the water splashed up onto his shirt and towards his face. Whatever those two were looking at better be interesting.

He huffed a bit then stopped when he saw the creature that both of the other students were observing. "A grindylow you think?" He could not remember anything about the creature and hoped that one of them would be able to explain further. It looked friendly enough, but if it were a predator creature then it could just be using that to lure them into a trap. "Maybe we should leave it alone."

"Uh-uh" Rinoa smiled weakly as she watched the creature clung to her this time. "A grindylow? I've read about them in the library but this is the first time I've seen one" she answered still her eyes looking at the rather "friendly" creature.

Rinoa looked at Chase, who was now standing next to her and Merri. Raising an index finger she she explained what she had remembered reading "Aggressive towards witches and wizards and muggles alike, the Grindylow has only ever been tamed by merpeople as pets" she paused for a moment and looked back at the creature, checking if he was still behaving himself, she added "Or at least that's what I can remember".

Merri heard the word merpeople and was instantly distracted from the task at hand. She scanned the water hopefully, believing that a merperson must have lost their pet. "Merperson where are you?"

She splashed at the water impatiently then stuck her head back under the water. "Lahhh Nahhh," she yelled and waved her hands frantically.

This caught the attention of the grindylow, and clearly upset him. The creature grabbed onto Merri's hair and pulled as hard as it could, jerking her back above the surface of the lake. Once the girl was back above the water, the grindylow began to babble and make clicking noises.

"Owwie," Merri complained while rubbing her head, "What was that for?"

Chase frowned at Rinoa's explanation. From the sounds of it, they shouldn't be messing around with this creature. "I think," he paused to watch Merri shout something under the water again. It made him anxious, she really shouldn't do that.

He gasped and reached over to pull the grindylow away when it began to attack Merri. Once he grabbed a hold of the creature, he sighed in relief, "I don't think you should do that again."

Rinoa's eyes widened as she saw the creature attacked Merri. She was about to help her out. Good thing Chase managed to grab the little creature. She sighed in relief as Merri was not hurt. She nodded to Chase's remark and added "What were you trying to do Merri?"

Merri looked back and forth between the two students, her face wearing an odd expression, "You don't know mermish?" She giggled and pulled the grindylow away from Chase and began to pat him on the head. He wasn't a bad creature she had just scared him. At least that is what she thought.

"I was trying to call a mermaid. Since mermaids keep them as pets, they would know what to do with this little guy," She looked down and smiled, "I am going to name you Tobie!" Merri hugged the creature and listened to it make clicking noises.

Chase stood there for a few minutes. His face was plastered with a look of complete disbelief. What kind of student even knew mermish? Was she certain that she was even speaking it correctly. He definitely had his doubts.
"Oh Merri, you can't name him. He can't be your pet." He tried to gently convince the young girl that she was not thinking clearly. Maybe she had swallowed some of the murky lake water while she was down there.

"Mermish?" Rinoa repeated as she raised an eyebrow. "Where'd you learn such language?" she asked getting a bit curious. Rinoa's also interested in merpeople thus, when she heard Merri's trying to communicate with them, using mermish she was quite excited. She looked at the creature whom Merri named Tobie. "Tobie, can you understand Merri?" she asked the little creature as she pointed at Merri.

The little creature grinned but Rinoa wasn't actually sure if it was a yes, no or maybe. Rinoa scratched the back of her head and looked at Chase. Chase looked kinda not convinced with Merri's ideas. "Well, Chase.. What do you think?" she asked.

Merri continued to hold the creature, rocking it back in forth in her arms as if it were a baby. "I taught myself from a book in the library," she tilted her head at Chase. He seemed upset at her behavior, but she honestly didn't know what she had done wrong. The grindylow yawned, stretched and seemed to fall asleep after a few minutes of being held. "That's a good Tobie," she cooed at the creature, "Are you sure we can't keep him, maybe in a bathroom? Nobody hardly ever uses the girl's restroom."