7 PLEASE HELP!

CHAPTER 7 PLEASE HELP! The thing behind Pip was small, and the front half looked exactly like a miniature horse with light gray fur. Its white mane waved gently as two tiny hooves paddled through the water. Right around where its belly button would've been, it turned from a horse into a fish. The bottom part of its body was covered in dark green scales, and its powerful fishlike tail moved up and down as it swam. Its

colors blended in with most things in the stream, so I doubted I would've spotted one on my own. I put both hands in the water and watched in awe as it swam gracefully toward me. Pip climbed out of the water and sat on my wrist, while the merhorse glided into the palms of my hands. I started to lift it out of the water to take a closer look. "Whoa! What are you doing?" Pip yelped in alarm. "The merhorse needs to be underwater to breathe!" "Oh!" I immediately lowered my hands. Now that they were back in the water, I could see flaps hidden by the horse fur on the merhorse's neck. They opened and closed over and over again. The

merhorse had gills. Of course! I leaned closer to it and said, "I'm so sorry! I didn't realize you had gills. I'll keep you in the water." The merhorse moved its mouth as though it were talking, but all I heard were some very strange, quiet sounds. I looked to Pip for help. "Ah, yes. You don't speak merhorse. I'll translate." Pip ran his hands down his purple skin and

brushed off the rest of the water. He cleared his throat and began: "He said, 'Dear human girl, thank you for coming to help me and my fellow merhorses. We fear something is very wrong with our stream.'" The merhorse continued talking. I turned to Pip. Pip translated, "'Many days ago, we all felt our fur and scales burning and itching. Our eyes stung. It was hard to breathe. This horrible feeling continued the next day, and a few days later we had trouble finding mayflies to eat. After a while, the stinging in our eyes seemed to get better, but this morning it began once more.'" Hmmm. I couldn't be positive yet, but from what the merhorse was saying, it seemed like the pollution was worse on the weekends. That could be a clue! "I'm sorry to hear that," I said, leaning down toward the merhorse. "I also can't find any mayfly nymphs in the stream. My parents and I ran some tests on the stream water, and we think someone might be dumping soap into the stream." The merhorse spoke again. Pip held a hand to

his mouth and gasped. My stomach tightened. "What is it, Pip?" Pip looked up at me with sad eyes. "He said, 'Can you find who it is? Can you get them to stop, please? I fear if things do not improve, we may starve. I do not know how many more days we can last here.'" My heart dropped. We couldn't lose the merhorses too! "We'll find a way to fix the stream water. We have to. I'll be back soon to let you know what we figure out." We had to save the merhorses. And quickly!