I wondered if I could break the glass of my tank; mermaids’ tails are very strong. I hurled myself against the glass time after time, and put a tiny crack in the thick, clear wall. When Natalie woke up, we discussed escape plans – telepathically, of course, and made attempts to escape. It was Cass who thought of an idea.
“I think I know what to do,” she mused, across the link Natalie had provided as usual.
“Taho has no idea what I am, but I know. I’m what’s called a Kameleon, or a Kameleonne, in my case. We can do all the stick-to-walls-and-ceiling bit, you know that, but we can also do this,” She pulled her hood up and tucked her arms in. For a moment we stared at the place where she was… or she had been, just a second ago. Cass had vanished. Then she reappeared, pushing her hood down.
“We can camouflage ourselves,” she grinned at us. An idea popped into my head. Cass nodded at me, and I knew they had all seen it – the perks of telepathy. Cass could camouflage herself when Taho next arrived, and make him think she had escaped. Then he would open the tank door and she could sneak out, taking the keys at the same time.
The plan almost worked. Cass was halfway out of the door when she brushed against Taho. He whipped around and – somehow, caught Cass’s hoodie. Her hood slipped down, and she became visible again. A number of hissed curses whispered around the room as Taho dragged Cass back into the tank and slammed the door in her face.