Blackberry Bun's Journal: Chapter 27

[Blackberry Bun]

Chapter 27: The Untold Legend of The Lost Treasure


As the five mermaids left the sea serpent and her group, a shadowy creature secretly watched them from high above. Nobody seemed to realize the presence of the creature as it slowly descended down to the latter group.

"I should have realized it from the beginning..." the creature said with low voice. It continued to come closer to the group, and the sea serpent turned her head.

"Oh, you! No, don't come here! Please don't!" the serpent said with fear. The fishes around her also became afraid that all of them ran away leaving her alone.

"You know what you will get for getting in the way of my ambition..." the creature said, coming closer to the serpent.

"NO...!!!" the serpent screamed in agony, but there was nobody to hear it.

At a quite far distance, the group of five mermaids were swimming together in joy of having successfully reunited as friends they had been before. Because the day almost ended, they intended to go back to their homes and sleep. However, suddenly Strawberry stopped and looked back.

"What't the matter, Strawberry?" Coco asked.

"I don't know. I felt like I heard a scream," Strawberry replied.

"I didn't hear anything," Rainbow said.

"Me too," Seaberry said.

"Absoloo-tely nothing at all," Blueberry said.

"Maybe you just imagined it?" Coco said.

"Yeah, maybe it was just my imagination..." Strawberry said.

The group then continued to swim, but that didn't last long because suddenly a big red fish they recognized as one of the sea serpent's underlings came to their front and stopped them. Its face showed great fear.

"What happened?" Seaberry asked the fish, then the fish replied in a language only she could understood. After hearing those, Seaberry got surprised and started to leak tears as the fish left the group.

"What did he say?" Strawberry said.

"No... That can't be..." Seaberry said, lowering her head.

"What happened?" Coco asked.

"Something really bad?" Rainbow asked.

"We won't know if you don't tell us," Blueberry said.

"The sea serpent..." Seaberry said, pausing for a moment. "She died..."

"What?! How could that happened?" Coco asked in surprise as the rest became as surprised as her.

"Not long after we left her, she got attacked by a sea gorgon," Seaberry replied.

"Sea gorgon?" Strawberry asked.

"I thought sea gorgon is just a legend," Blueberry said.

"You know about it?" Coco asked.

"Yeah, a sea gorgon is a horrible creature. It looks just like us mermaids, but the lower part of the body is more like a snake. Snakes cover its head like hair, and any creature who look at its eyes will become stone," Blueberry replied.

"How horrible..." Coco said.

"Let's go back and help," Strawberry said.

"No! We have no chance at all against a horrible creature like that!" Rainbow said.

"Yeah, and he told us those because he didn't want us to come back there only to run into trouble!" Seaberry said.

"We can try to do something or go home and wait until the sea gorgon come into our home. What's your choice?" Strawberry said.

The last sentence Strawberry had said seemed to struck the other mermaids right into their heart. They fell into complete silence for a few moments until Rainbow spoke out.

"You're right, Strawberry. Let's go back there," Rainbow said.

"Yeah, count me in too," Coco said. Blueberry and Seaberry stayed in silence.

"How about the others?" Strawberry asked, looking at the two.

"Well..." Blueberry said, pausing for a moment. "I'd like to see a living legend for once. I'll go with you."

"I..." Seaberry said, pausing briefly. "I'll go too. You were right, Strawberry."

After everything had been settled, the five mermaids went back to the place where they had left the sea serpent. Once they arrived there, they saw a shattered stone statue of the sea serpent on open field. The face part of the statue showed a sign of great fear.

"No... Why should this happen to you...?" Strawberry said, leaking tears.

"Blueberry, do you know any way to get her back?" Coco asked.

"Well..." Blueberry replied, pausing briefly. "The only way to dispel it is by killing the sea gorgon. However, the statue has been destroyed so it will be of no use..."

"Indeed..." suddenly a heavy voice said from behind the mermaids. "Killing me is the only way to dispel my stone gaze, but that will never happen!" the voice continued, followed by an evil laughter.

"Oh no! Run away and don't look back!" Blueberry shouted, and all the mermaids did what she had told them. However, some snakes from the sea gorgon's hair quickly elongated and bound the tail of all the mermaids. Then they were dragged closer to the sea gorgon. They covered their eyes with their hands to prevent themselves from being turned into stone, but they knew that the situation was hopeless.

"Relax, little mermaids. I won't turn you into stone just yet," the sea gorgon said.

"What do you want from us?" Coco asked, still covering her eyes.

"The Lost Treasure. That's what I want," the sea gorgon answered. "By the way, can't you just look at me?! You all are covering your eyes and I take that as an insult!"

"But we will turn into stone if we don't do this," Rainbow said, still covering her eyes.

"Heh, that will happen only if I use my stone gaze, which I don't right now. Now open your eyes and see me! Or, would you rather being eaten by my snakes instead?" the sea gorgon threatened.

All mermaids took the message and slowly opened their eyes. Then they looked towards the sea gorgon. The size of the sea gorgon was quite larger than the sea serpent, and indeed its traits followed the description Blueberry had said. They looked at the sea gorgon's face, which was like a beautiful lady. But the beauty on her face was defeated by her pale blue skin, snakes on her head, and the gaze of her eyes which felt very evil. None of the mermaids were turned into stone after looking at her eyes so they knew that the sea gorgon hadn't lied about her ability.

"You said The Lost Treasure? Those sand dollar?" Blueberry asked.

"Not exactly, dear. The real Lost Treasure is more than just those silly gold coins. But indeed for now I want you all to gather those gold right here," the sea gorgon said.

"But most of them were lost in a sea quake," Seaberry said.

"I know. That's why I want you to work hard for me and gather EVERY SINGLE piece of the remaining ones!" the sea gorgon said, followed by her evil laughter.

And so, all the five mermaids were forced to gather the remaining pieces of gold coins. Some snakes from the sea gorgon's head had been separated from the sea gorgon to watch over the mermaids. As the five mermaids gathered the gold, the snakes swam around the area while occasionally gazing at the mermaids.

"Now we're back into this situation. Only that now the watchers are snakes," Blueberry said.

"And it all thanks to someone who somehow convinced us to run into this trouble," Rainbow said with upset face.

Strawberry heard what they had said, but she kept herself silent. While still gathering the gold, she kept thinking of a plan to defeat the sea gorgon. Everytime she picked up a gold coin, she saw a reflection of herself and that gave her an idea. However, she still couldn't think of a good way to pull it off so she kept silent and continued working.

The work took three days until all the remaining gold coins were gathered in front of the sea gorgon. During those three days the mermaids were only allowed for little rest, so they were quite exhausted. As the mermaids brought the treasure chest taken from the castle where the sea serpent kept her last gold, the sea gorgon waited with evil smile on her face.

"Here it is. The last of the gold," Coco said as they came close to the sea gorgon and put the chest on the pile of gold in front of her.

"Well done, my dears. Now that you have completed your work, I no longer have any need on you," the sea gorgon said, then the five watch snakes quickly bound them. Their hands were still free, but they couldn't move away from their position.

"What are you going to do to us?" Seaberry asked.

"I will just turn you into stone with my stone gaze!" the sea gorgon said. "However, I'm not someone without gratitude. I will let you see the real Lost Treasure before turning you all into stone," she continued, followed by her evil laughter.

After finishing her laughter, the sea gorgon started to concentrate with her hands put towards the pile of gold. The snakes on her head seemed to understand what she was doing, and they all gazed at the gold. There was a silence for the next few seconds, and then the gorgon's hands started to shine. The pile of gold also started to shine brighter than before. The sea gorgon then slowly lifted her hands, and then the mermaids saw that slowly the light of the gold started to separate from the coins. One minute later the golden light were completely separated from the pile of gold coins, which have lost their golden color and looked more like they were made from sand.

"This is much less than I expected, but it should be still enough," the sea gorgon said, looking at the golden light. Then, she concentrated once more and the golden light started to shrink. It kept shrinking until it finally disappeared, leaving an object behind which looked like a small crystal with gold color. The sea gorgon then took the crystal with smile of satisfaction.

"Is that the real Lost Treasure?" Blueberry asked.

"That tiny crystal?" Rainbow said.

"Indeed, my dears. This crystal contains incredible magical power. With this the world will be mine!" the sea gorgon said, followed by her evil laughter.

"We're done for..." Coco said.

"Now I will start by turning you all into stone," the sea gorgon said, looking at the five mermaids. Then she closed her eyes for a moment and opened them again. Lights came out from her eyes towards the five mermaids.

"Goodbye, dears!" she said, but at the last second each mermaid took a gold coin which she had been hiding in her dress and held it towards the sea gorgon. All of them ended up petrified along with the coin each of them held, but the coin managed to reflect some light back to the sea gorgon.

"No! Curse you, mermaids!" the sea gorgon shouted as her body slowly turned into stone. "You have ruined my ambition! That's it! I will put my final curse into all of you! You all will remain as stone forever even after I die!"

After saying those, the sea gorgon casted her magic upon the five stone statues. Right after finishing the magic, the sea gorgon screamed in agony and her body completely turned into stone. Its petrified body then fell to the side and hit a rock, resulting it being shattered into pieces. The snake which bound the statues of the mermaids disintegrated right at the same time, and then the statues fell into the ground still intact.

Not long after, a lot of fishes including the sea serpent's underlings came. After realizing what had happened, they all mourned over the mermaid statues.

After all were done mourning, it was decided that the five statues of the mermaids would be preserved on the spot as memorials. For evermore, all sea dwellers would never forget the sacrifice of the mermaids.

--The End--



After I finished reading the untold part, I began to understand why Seaberry didn't want to tell that untold part. Even though it was quite a happy ending in general, for the five main characters the ending was not happy at all because they had ended up stuck in stone forever. Not to mention that the sea serpent had died not long after reforming. I then realized that it was already over bedtime after I had finished reading the book. I then put the book into my bookshelf and went to sleep.

At the next day I decided to visit Seaberry at her house to talk a little bit about that legend. So, after having breakfast I immediately got onboard Falcon and flew it towards Seaberry Shore. Once I arrived there I switched Falcon into underwater mode and let it to slowly descend down into the water. After I was completely underwater I piloted Falcon towards the cave where Seaberry's house was located. However, on the way I noticed Seaberry feeding seaberries to sea sweeties. She also noticed me, so with my hand movements I told her about visiting her house. She seemed to understand it perfectly and began to swim towards the cave. While on the way I wondered how Seaberry could hold her breath that long, but I decided to put that aside.

Soon after, both of us arrived right inside the cave. Seaberry welcomed me warmly and then we entered the house.

"So, what happened that you came here?" she asked.

"Well, I have read the whole book," I replied. "And now I understand why you didn't want to tell the untold part."

After I had said those, there was a few seconds of silence and Seaberry lowered her head.

"Is there something wrong? I mean, it's just a... legend, right?" I asked.

"Actually, there is something more to the legend," she said.

"Huh? What is it?" I asked.

"Come with me. I will show you," she said, walking away.

I then followed Seaberry outside her house. She then walked to the stairs behind her house which I had actually been wondering about but I had forgotten to ask. Both of us then climbed the stairs for a few minutes until we reached a door at the end of the path. The door had no handle, keyhole, or such, but I noticed an insertion at its center which looked like a group of sea shells. Seaberry then took her hair ornament and put it into the insertion. The hair ornament perfectly matched the shape of the insertion, and then the door opened inwards. Seaberry then took her hair ornament back from the door.

"Come inside," she said, putting her hair ornament back on her head.

I then entered the room behind the door, which seemed not so spacious at the first sight. However, I couldn't believe what I saw next. In that room I saw statues of five mermaids put in line, and all of them looked exactly like the friends I knew. Their positions were also the same as described in the legend: holding a stone sand dollar in front.

"The... mermaids? So that means..." I said, looking at Seaberry.

"I found these statues while swimming around, and I brought them here into my storage room with the help of my fish friends. And yeah, the legend is true," Seaberry said.

I then observed all the statues of the mermaids. All of them had petrified tears on their cheeks, and I could feel their deep sorrows and frights. Looking at all those made me feel very bad about them.

"Is there any way, to get them back?" I asked.

"You know it yourself, Blackberry. The curse will stay forever and nobody can change that," she replied. I then began thinking for a while until an unsure idea came to my mind.

"The crystal," I said. "The crystal has an enormous magical power. Maybe, just maybe, it can dispel the curse."

"You mean the Lost Treasure?" Seaberry asked. "But Blackberry, that crystal has been lost for long. There's no way we can find it again."

"I know. But still..." I said, looking at the five statues. "I wish I could do anything to get them back. They didn't do anything to deserve something like this..."

As I said those, I started to leak tears. I then wiped them immediately because it felt embarassing for a boy like me to cry.

"Ah, sorry. I don't know why I became a crybaby just now," I said.

"Blackberry..." Seaberry said, pausing for a moment. "Actually, there is something that might work."

"Huh? What is it?" I asked.

Seaberry then took her hair ornament off from her head. Then, she took something from the inside of one of the sea shells. It was an oval teal stone which emitted light of the same color.

"This is Cerulean Lapis, a magical stone. Of course this is not as powerful as the Lost Treasure, but this might still be able to dispel the curse," she said.

"You have something like that? Why didn't you use it from the beginning?" I asked.

"I believe you remember about what you asked two days ago, right?" she asked back. "About my differences."

"I remember of course," I replied, then I realized something. "Hey, did you mean...?"

"Yeah, by having this stone in my hair ornament, I can see well underwater, and I even can breathe underwater," she said, lowering her head. "If I use this to free them, it probably will vanish and I will not be able to see my fish friends. I even won't be able to leave this cave..."

"Oh..." I said, running out of words. There was a silence for the next few seconds.

"But... now I realize that it was just a selfish reason. They sacrificed themselves for others, why shouldn't I sacrifice this little stone for them?" she said, looking at the Cerulean Lapis.

"seaberry..." I said, and suddenly the Cerulean Lapis shined its teal light brighter than before. It then floated away from Seaberry's hands towards the five statues.

"What happened?" I asked, moving away from the statues.

"I don't know. I have no idea," she replied.

After the Cerulean Lapis had been right in front of the five statues, it shined even brighter that our eyes were blinded by its light. We could barely see anything under the blinding light, but we still could see that it started to crack and the crack quickly spread all over the small stone. Soon, the Cerulean Lapis shattered, but the next thing we saw was a shining gold crystal revealed under the shattered stone.

"A gold crystal...?" I said. "Don't tell me it's..."

"That can't be... the Lost Treasure? I have been carrying it all this time?" Seaberry said.

While we were still wondering, the gold crystal floated closer to the five mermaids and shined even brighter to the point that we had to cover our eyes with our hands. That kept going for the next few seconds until we felt that the light had faded slightly. We then opened our eyes only to see that the five statues had disappeared while the crystal was still there. The crystal then floated out from the storage room.

"Let's follow it," I said, running towards the door. Seaberry soon followed.

Both of us followed the shining crystal all the way to the water surface where I had parked Falcon. The crystal stopped above the water surface and then it once again shined so bright that we had to cover our eyes again. Once the light slightly faded, we opened our eyes and saw the five mermaids on the water surface, de-petrified, alive, and well. The crystal then slowly floated back to Seaberry's hands and completely faded its light.

"We're... back?" mermaid Blueberry asked, looking around her body.

"It seems so," mermaid Rainbow said.

"The sea gorgon's curse has been dispelled?" mermaid Coco asked.

"So that's the power of the Lost Treasure..." mermaid Seaberry said.

"Thank you berry much for bringing us back!" mermaid Strawberry said to us.

"No, it wasn't us. It was this crystal all by itself," Seaberry replied.

"We didn't do anything at all," I said.

"But still, we are grateful to be back," mermaid Blueberry said.

"Come play with us sometime," mermaid Coco said.

"I'd be happy to," Seaberry said, pausing for a moment. "Although, I don't know if I can," she continued, looking at the crystal in her hands which had almost completely lost its light.

"Why? Is there something wrong?" mermaid Strawberry asked, then Seaberry answered by telling about how the Lost Treasure, which somehow had been disguised as Cerulean Lapis, had enabled her to see and breathe underwater.

"Now that it almost lost its power, I don't know if I can do that anymore," she ended her speech.

"Hmm..." mermaid Strawberry said, thinking for a moment. "Maybe this can work," she continued, showing a golden sand dollar she had been holding.

"Oh, a golden sand dollar! That seems worth a try," I said.

"Let's try it then," Seaberry said.

All the mermaids then gave their golden sand dollar to me. I then held the five coins close to the crystal in Seaberry's hands. At first nothing happened, but slowly I noticed that the crystal started to absorb the gold color from the coins. Soon, the gold color was completely removed from the coins leaving them to become regular sand dollar, while the crystal started to shine and float from Seaberry's hands. There was a short moment of blinding lights, and when we regained our vision we noticed that the Lost Treasure had once again become a Cerulean Lapis.

"Oh, my Cerulean Lapis!" Seaberry said in excitement. The stone then floated back into Seaberry's hands and she put it into her hair ornament. Then she jumped down into the water and came back a few seconds later. "It works! Thank you very much!"

"I'm berry happy for you," mermaid Strawbery said.

Later, the five mermaids left the place to start their new life. I was glad that all had ended well for everyone. The mermaids had been given a second life while Seaberry hadn't lost her precious magic stone. Because there was nothing more to do, I decided to go home. After saying goodbye to Seaberry, I got on Falcon and departed back to Blackberry Bushes, my home sweet home.

Although, I still felt sorry for the sea serpent who died just after reforming...

--End of Chapter 27--