Pebble was swimming across the ocean with her mom, looking at the glittering fishes and sea turtles. In the middle of the swimming, her mom suddenly tensed.

“What is it?” Pebble asked.

“Don’t move a muscle,” her mom whispered. Pebble looked up, and gasped in horror. A dark shape was looming above them. The shark was swimming closer and closer, but didn’t notice the two tensing dolphins. Suddenly, Pebble sneezed. The shark turned sharply over, and started to swim to them as fast as a sailfish.

“Run!” her mom screamed. They turned tail and started to run away, but the shark was too fast for them. They raced through the sea, diving under rocks, twisting and turning, but the shark was behind them by one fin length.

“Pebbles, dive under there,” Her mom panted. “Don’t worry about me.”

Pebble started to cry. “NO! Don’t leave me alone!” she wailed.

Her mom replied, “It’s okay honey. It’s my time. I have to protect you. I knew this was coming.” She turned around and started to lure the shark away from her. As she watched behind the rock, she suddenly saw her mom disappear. Then, she saw the shark swim away. Slowly, she crept forward. As soon as she saw her mom, she cried in horror.

“Mother!!!” she wailed. All that was left with her mother was her bones and her precious sea blue skin. She was mad and miserable at the same time.

With all her strength, she yelled into the open sea, “WHAT HAVE I DONE TO YOU THAT I DESERVE THIS???!!!!!!!!! WHY IS LIFE SO HARD!!!!” She was so angry that for no reason, she started to summon a water tornado. The more she cried, the more powerful it got.

She yelled in misery, “If you hate me that much, then it is my turn to destroy you!” She used her fin to push the tornado into the ocean sea. Suddenly, she was even more lonely than ever.

In the middle of nowhere, she suddenly heard a voice that said, “This is your gift I gave you ever since you were born. That is why I never explained why you have this power.”

“Mother?” Pebble sniffed.

“Don’t worry. You’ll find two other powerful friends that will help you fulfill your destiny.” With that, her mother’s spirit left her.

Chapter 1

“You can’t catch me!” Waterfall yelled cheerfully. She was propelling across the water super duper fast. Behind her, was Pebbles, trying to catch up to her.

“I can’t make it,” she panted. “You’re too fast for me.”

Waterfall smiled her big, happy,  smile. “Oh, don’t worry. Ask Lily. She is even slower than you.” She glanced at Lily, who was talking quietly with the sea turtle beside her. Lily had green eyes, which was rare for a dolphin, and a sky blue skin.

Pebble’s gaze was distant. She remembered when her mother died and her last words she said to Pebble: That she needed to find two powerful friends. And she did. She found them. They were Lily and Waterfall. Lily looked a bit like her mother, but quieter. The same sky blue skin and green eyes. Pebble sighed deeply, thinking about her mother. As far as she knew, Lily had the power to communicate with sea animals. She glanced at Waterfall. Yes, she was sometimes annoying, and ALWAYS chatty, she was still a good friend. She never got angry. The last time she was, she practically summoned the biggest tsunami in the world. From that time on, almost everyone was scared she would summon one again.  

Suddenly, a sharp shriek was sounded behind them. Lily, Waterfall, and Pebble turned swiftly around. All they saw was a herd of fishes slamming up to them. A blur of color slammed into them. Soon, all was left was the poor dolphin friends twirling dizzily around from the sudden slam of fishes.

“What the heck…” Lily murmured.

Suddenly, a loud, trumpet call of triumph sounded in the Cave of Light.

“Come on guys! We’ve got to find out what has happened to the Flower of Life! Someone’s in the Cave of Light!” Waterfall yelped.

Chapter 2

They raced through the ocean floor, trying to find the quickest way. Even Lily had become faster.

“AMAZING! LILY ACTUALLY CAN SWIM FAST!” bellowed Waterfall.

Lily just glared at her. “Seriously? There is a more important thing in front of us, and you’re happy that I am swimming so fast right now?” She sighed deeply and continued swimming.

After a short time period, they finally came to the Cave of Light. The jewels were shining so bright that it was impossible to see through. Rubies, sapphires, diamonds, and many more! All the gems were placed all across the warm cave.

There was another booming sound that came out of the cave. It was so loud that poor, weak, Lily was nearly tumbled backward and into the rock.

“Oohhhh!! Hear that! It’s amazing! I bet that guy over there has won a screaming competition!” Waterfall was cheering and clapping her fins. Pebble bet she was thinking in her mind what was it like to be in a competition like that.

Pebble sighed. “When are you ever going to grow up? Ever since I met you after the accident, you’ve never changed. Always laughing, and never getting to know what the situation you are in. Come on, Lily and Waterfall. We are going to see what kind of maniac is in this cave.”

Lily, shaking with fear, nodded reluctantly, and started to swim forward. The sky blue colored dolphin was at the very end of the line, startled to almost every single sound. As for Waterfall, she was still jumping up and down, laughing at every reflection that the jewels had for her.

As for Pebble, she always needed to think the most. If I gave Lily this job, thought Pebble, I’m sure she will freak out. Doesn’t have the mind to do challengeable things. As for Waterfall, the only thing she would do to think of a plan is to laugh. Shaking her head, she left that thought behind, and started to focus on her surroundings.

Suddenly Pebble bumped into a dark blue thing. No. It wasn’t a thing. Or a dark blue object. It was a living thing. Following behind her tail was Lily and Waterfall, who was unconscious about the things around them.

“Wow! Some little visitors I suppose. I know why you are here. Trying to save the precious and powerful Flower of Life, aren’t you? Lucky you today. Welcome Fury, the world's most powerful sea dragon!” The three tiny dolphins looked up, and saw the enormous dragon. Fury had dark blue scales, with red eyes, and a slithery tongue like a sea snake.

As soon as Lily saw the blue scaly sea dragon, she squeaked in terror and ran behind a rock. Waterfall, for once, was quiet and was trembling a bit. Pebble was the only one who tried to stay calm. With all her strength, she tried to take in some courage.

“What do you want?” The sea blue dolphin said with uneasy courage. “Give us back the Flower of Life.”

The powerful sea dragon just laughed. “Are you kidding me?” Laughed the Fury. “Give you back that powerful flower? IMPOSSIBLE! I always wanted to take control of this powerful item ever since I was born.”

Fury laughed so loud that Lily almost fainted with fear. Waterfall came to her aid, helping her back up.

“Let me give you a warning little creatures. Until you come to my cave and get the Flower of Life back, you will NEVER EVER get your precious, safe life back again!” With a loud cackle, he swam as quick as a sea snake out of the Cave of Light.

Chapter 3

Lily was still shaken up by the appearance of Fury. Pebble knew that to her, puffer fish can be scary sometimes when they turn into big spiky balls. But seeing a dragon, Pebble knew she was really shaken up when she shuddered in fear.

“What should we do? The ocean world will only get darker and darker and more polluted. I don’t know what to do. If we go into that part of sea,” Waterfall shuddered, “we wouldn’t have a chance of surviving. Legend says the Sea of Darkness is where Fury lives. Only one dolphin went in there before, but never came back out. Some dolphins say that he got burned up by all the lava. Others say that a sea dragon ate him up.”

They all stood silent for a moment, thinking of what to do. It was so quiet you could hear a piece of seaweed drop onto the ground.

“Umm, guys? Do you think we should ignore this for now? I know we can’t hide this forever, but what can we do? We are barely just adults,” Pebble quietly mentioned.

“Yeah,” Lily spoke, trembling. “We can’t do it. Can we just go home?”

Waterfall silently nodded in agreement. They left the Cave of Light, and soon, the three dolphins were slowly swimming their way home. It was quiet, and darkness was slowly looming all across their home. Where there was beautiful patch of seaweed glittering in the sunlight like jewels, is now officially changed into a patch of gloomy darkness. Everywhere they went, fishes were hiding in their homes, and the plants were hidden in the darkness. Where there used to be loud and noisy crowds of fish, were now quiet. It was dark and miserable without the Flower of Life.

They soon got home, where the woven seaweeds were sheltering the door. They went in silently. All they saw was gloomy darkness. Their shell beds that used to be glittering with bright light was dim. Lily slowly made her bed on the shell, and soon was snoring asleep. As for the cheery blue dolphin, she laid down on her bed and started to push the thought away of funny clown fish.

The only dolphin outside was Pebble. Pebble couldn’t understand it. She was supposed to protect them. She was supposed to keep the ocean safe from harm. Her mother told her that she had a great duty; to keep the ocean and her friends safe. And now? She was a failure. She thought back about the time when her mother’s spirit was with her. All she remembered her mother saying is that she had a destiny to fulfill and that because she was the most powerful dolphin, she had to protect the ocean.

Pebble sighed deeply. Oh well, she thought, now that I am a failure to anyone, there is nothing she could live for. And besides. If she went to confront the dragon to get the Flower of Life back, she’d be burned into ashes. There is no way the ocean could get back to what it used to be.

She slowly went to her bed, careful not to trip over anyone. For a long time, she couldn’t sleep. All could she think of that she was the worst dolphin in the world. At last, she fell into a deep sleep.

Chapter 4

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” Lily yelled, trying to run over to the entrance of the house.

“What the heck…” Waterfall murmured. “Stop yelling. I was having a perfect dream of dancing clown fishes.” But as soon as a she felt the earthquake, her eyes opened wide. She started to panics . Waterfall was soon swimming all over the place frantically, knocking everything down. Only Pebble was the calm one.

“GUYS! CALM DOWN! YOU’RE NOT GETTING ANYWHERE WITHOUT A PLAN YOU IDIOTS!” Pebble shouted. Fools! Don’t you even know that running around like maniacs are the worst thing to do in an earthquake!

But they didn’t listen to the dolphin. They were still swimming around, bumping into walls. Suddenly, there was a creaky voice coming from nowhere. Lily stopped immediately and hid under her bed. She was totally freaked out. She couldn’t take it in. Too many things happened today. She hid under the soft seaweed blanket.

Then the voice came suddenly came back again, booming:

“The light is gone, and now is dark

The flower gone, and darkness comes

You’ll find your way to the darkest sea

Death or life, you will see

If you don’t go to seek what you seek

Then you will lose what you love the most

Mountains crumble, fishes dying

Nothing will be left in the ocean sea”

With that, the earthquake stopped as soon as the voice finished speaking.

All that was left was Lily trembling under her comfy bed. The waterfall was still swimming around. As for Pebble, yes, she was shaken up, but she acted confident.

“What do you think what that means?” Lily whispered, trembling. She was shaking from head to tail. Pebble shook her head, trying to take the whole thing in.

“What did that say again?” Pebble asked. “All I remember is hearing the last line, which was, ‘Nothing will be left in the ocean sea’. What in the world did that mean?”  

“Oh really? I think I memorized the whole thing,” Waterfall declared after minutes of bumping into walls. “Even though you may think it’s crazy, but I did. I could memorize it out loud if you want.”

Pebble just sighed in annoyance, and said to Waterfall, “ Yes, yes. Blah blah. Write that prophecy down, and let’s try to figure out what this is.” Waterfall nodded quickly, and picked up woven paper made out of seaweed, and started to right the whole thing down.

Later in the day, the three friends sat there, trying to figure out the whole thing.

“Let’s see. The first two verse, I totally understand. Without the Flower of Light, the whole sea would be in darkness. But what does this mean: You’ll find your way to the darkest sea, Death or life, you will see? I totally don’t get that,” Pebble explained.

“What is the darkest sea? Lily, do you know? You know the lots about the sea and maps,” Waterfall inquired.

“Well…” Lily said in an unsure tone, “The darkest sea in the ocean world is the Sea of Darkness.”

“So it does match up. Fury lives in the Sea of Darkness, and maybe the prophecy is emphasizing we should go to the Sea of Darkness and confront Fury!” Waterfall examined, clapping her hands excitedly.

“Umm, Waterfall, we got to start packing up if we want to go and start this quest,” Pebble said, rolling her brown eyes.

Everyone started to pack up, including Lily, though she was unsure if she actually wanted to confront the sea monster. On the outside, she looked calm and steady. On the inside, her heart was screaming, “Don’t do it! It's too dangerous!” But she had no choice but to follow her friends. A few minutes later, they were swimming quietly across the ocean sea.

It seemed like days before they rested. All they were doing were eating fish, sleep for one to two hours, and continued on. One day, while they were resting, Lily spotted a cave.

“Hey, guys! Check it out! There’s a cave over there,” Lily called to them. Pebble nodded and called Waterfall to come over. They slowly went in, afraid that Fury would come back again.

“Wow....” Pebble said in awe. The cave was full of jewels; just like the Cave of light. Rubies, emeralds, sapphires, diamonds, etc. But this one felt, different in a way. In the middle of the cave was a scroll.

“Do you think…” Lily asked quietly.

“What?” Waterfall said.

“Is it the trap made from Shock?”

“How can it possibly be?” Pebble said. “Look at it. Beautiful, splendid. How could it be a trap? Come on, let's go see the what’s the scroll about. Maybe it could tell us what this cave is about.”

Lily said uncertainly, “But legend says that if you read the scroll, it might reveal things that are very dangerous for you.”

“Who cares? The jewels are awesome. How can a scroll be harmful to us?” Pebble laughed. She surged forward and took the scroll.

“Life is hard in a quest. Be prepared to fight to the death,” Pebble read. Barely finishing the last sentence, a giant hole formed underneath the whole cave.

Chapter 5

“AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!” yelled the group of dolphins. It sucked them until they touched the ground. The whole closed above them, leaving the three alone, with a customer outside.

“Ah, new customers today. Welcome to the Dungeon of Loneliness. I am Shock, the legendary stingray that almost everyone knows about,” Shock explained, smiling brightly.

“LET US GO!!” yelled Waterfall, almost knocking Shock onto the wall.

“Well, that was rude. I guess someone doesn’t appreciate me,” Shock sighed dramatically. “I guess I need to do more of an introduction. As I said, my name is Shock. I built that cave up there, which was called Cave of Jewels. I built it because I am officially very lonely, and I need something to eat.” He checked his notebook made of rocks.

“Let’s see… Aha! Perfect schedule!” Shock exclaimed. “Let’s see. Okay, here’s the schedule for the next few days. Today, I’m going to let you rest for a bit, and give you some of my leftover fish. Then tomorrow, I am going to eat that dark blue dolphin over there, because she practically blew me up onto the wall. Then I am going to eat the one who was very impolite to me, and last but not least, the very quiet dolphin shrinking back onto the wall.” With that, he left them, humming a tune of some weird song.

Pebble started to sob.

“I’m so sorry. I wished I never took that scroll.”

“It’s okay,” Lily whispered, still on the wall. “If we can make it out before tomorrow, it would all be fine. And also, that scroll also gave you some wisdom on what are quest is going to be like later on.”

That didn’t comfort Pebble. She was still crying hard. The weight of the quest, being the leader, being a powerful dolphin, and now this. Her life was slowly falling apart.

“Come on Waterfall. Let’s go to sleep,” Lily murmured to her. Pebbles two best friends beside her, and went farther away from her. They knew she needed some thinking space.

Pebble started at the cold gray walls. Everything here made her feel lonely. Great name for this place. Soon after a long time thinks and staring at the walls, she fell asleep.

Chapter 6

Pebble blinked her eyes. Where am I? Pebble thought. There were tall rocks all around her. Oh… She remembered now. This was the last place she saw her mother. She swam to her hiding spot. She saw her old self, hiding behind one of the tall rocks. As her old self swam toward her dead mother, Pebble followed her over. As always, her mother lay down there dead. Of course, she saw herself summoning a water tornado after crying hard for her mother's death. Then, there was her mother’s spirit voice echoing through the ocean. But this time, the words were different from when she was actually there.

“Your destiny will be hard; filled with tests along your way. No matter what, always know that I will be there for you…” And with that, her mother was gone.

Her dream shifted. She found herself in a dark and cool place. She turned around and saw a small, blue, sea dragon with her mother, trying to jump on her tail.

“Now, now. Fury, stop it. You’re supposed to go to sleep,” the mother said. Fury? Pebble thought. I guess I was in his past.

“But I don’t want to mommy,” Fury protested.

“Then let me tell you a story. But promise mommy you’ll go to sleep after that.”

“Yessss, mommy. I promise.”

“One day, a little sea dragon named Light, was born. He was a strong and powerful dragon. As he grew up, all he saw was darkness in the oceans. There were no fishes playing around the reefs, or turtles chasing each other. One day, war broke up between the sea dragons and the fishes. The war couldn’t end, because either side wouldn’t give up no matter how much they tried. Light saw that the only way to keep peace between them was to give something that each side wanted; a beautiful ocean world. So, Light, using his powers, created a beautiful flower. To this day, it was called the Flower of Life. That flower is bright, and because of it, the ocean world is now filled with beautiful life.”

As soon as she finished her story, Fury was soon asleep. Pebble again shifted into another scene. This time, she saw Fury a bit older.

“Mom, why did we ever give the Flower of Life to the fishes?”

“Well son, we had to keep between the two sides.”

“But mom, couldn’t we just made the Flower of Light, and give it to ourselves? That way, we sea dragons, could rule the whole ocean! Not those stupid little fishes,” Fury argued.

His mother sighed. “Fury, we had to be fair. The Flower of Light is for all of us, not only for them.”

“I don’t care! When I grow up, I will steal that back. And once I get it back, together, the whole sea world would be under my rule!” With that Fury swam away and into his cave. The dream vision shook, and the dream world went blank.

Chapter 7

Pebble woke up. Lily was already up, studying the walls to see if there is a hole to let them go out. Waterfall yawned loudly.

“Good morning there! I hope you slept well. As for today, get ready to be my feast!” Shock said cheerfully. He opened the cell door and placed some leftover fishes. It was gross, but they didn’t have any choice.

“Ewww, what is that?” Waterfall grimaced. What was in the bowl was a bit of flesh and mostly bones.

“Come on you chatty pants. If you don’t eat it, you’d be starving,” Pebble said, taking a small bite. Waterfall sighed loudly, and soon they ate the whole thing. Waterfall nearly threw up though, which made Pebble and Lily feel very uncomfortable.

“What should we do now?” Lily asked.

“What can we do, you should say,” Pebble sighed miserably. They looked at each other, not knowing what to do.

“Umm, guys? Maybe we should look around here. Check out anything, starting from the rocks,” Lily said. They nodded in agreement, and started to look at everything they could find. It seemed like hours of quietness. They search high and low, but couldn’t find anything.

Before they started to lose hope, Waterfall yelled, “Hey guys! I think I’ve got something!” Pebble swam over, with Lily behind her.

“What is it?” Pebble asked.

“Look! See that hole over there near the corner of the wall? If we could try to make that whole bigger for us to squish in, maybe we could get out before the annoying stingray’s dinner time!” Lily examined it for a moment.

“It would take a long time. Even with our powers, it would be hard to blast this thing apart. This type of rock, quartz, is really hard. It is the hardest rock ever. But I think if I could ask someone…” Lily whistled in a high pitched tone.

“What the heck are you doing? You aren’t -” Waterfall was cut of by a sudden movement on the ground. From the ground, a small group of fishes came out. Lily whistled to them, pointing the sand ground near the hard wall. Lily backed up, and the small fishes started to devour the sand, spitting them out from their gills.

“THAT IS SO COOL! What type of fish is that anyway?” Waterfall asked, her eyeballs big as an orange.

“Oh, that,” Lily said shyly. “That’s a diamond goby. Their talent is to swallow some sand and spit them out from their gills.”

“COOL! How long does it take?” Pebble asked uncertainly. She clearly wanted to get out of here, fast. Lily thought about it for a moment.

“In their fastest pace, just a few minutes,” Lily answered. Pebble let out a big sigh. Minutes later, the diamond gobies finished drilling a hole that was big enough for them to move. Lily whistled a few more notes, and the fishes swam on their way.

“Come on guys, we don’t have much time left before Shock eats me,” Waterfall said nervously. Waterfall twisted and turned through the hole. Soon, she shot out of the hole, making it easier for the next person to go. Lily went next, using her full force to get out. Pebble watched from behind, looking around to see if Shock would arrive.  

“Come on Pebble! Hurry up! We don’t have much time left,” Waterfall yelled to her. Pebble took one more glance from behind and drilled through. It was easier now because the hole was bigger. As soon as she got out, her friends let her through, and she took the lead.

They swam all across the sea. Everywhere, it was all dark and black. It was pretty much lonely. A few fish swam here and there, hiding in the rocks when they saw the dolphin friends.

“Where are we anyway?” Pebble asked. Lily shrugged helplessly and went deeper underwater. Pebble and Waterfall looked at each other curiously and followed her down. When they got there, Lily was clicking to a sea turtle. As soon as Lily saw them, she swam back up to them. Her face looked worried and distressed.

“Umm, guys? I think we are…” Lily trembled.

“Come on Lily! We can’t do anything about it if you keep doing this!” Waterfall said, annoyed by her. Waterfall always felt annoyed to Lily. Not active. Whenever there was danger, all she would do is hid under the covers, and never ever help her friends.

Lily gulped. “We are here. We are in the second most dangerous place on earth. The Sea of the Dead,” Lily said, looking around nervously.

“WHAT!” Waterfall screamed, clearly not aware of the life around them. “YOU MEAN WE’RE GOING TO DIE HERE?”

“Shhh!” Lily whispered, looking around frantically. “If you yell this loud, you may wake up it!” Waterfall stared at her.

“What? There’s nothing here. No plants. A few sea creatures. That’s basically it! What the heck are you talking about?” Waterfall said.

“Are you serious!? Do you ever read books? This is the Sea of the DEAD! And do you know what that even means?” Pebble asked, astonished.

“Uhh, well of course no. Do you ever see me read? Of course not. I’m more interested in racing. Ane plus. We are already going to die anyway. It’s the Sea of the DEAD,” Waterfall said sarcastically. Lily and Pebble sighed.

“Oh my goodness. Well, if you really don’t know, well… The name of this monster is -” Pebble was cut off by a sudden slithery voice behind them.

“Well, well. What do we have here? Another prey for me to feast on,” said slithery voice.

Chapter 8

They turned around slowly. Lily yelped and hid behind the rock as soon as she saw the monster. The waterfall was trembling with fear, while Pebble was trying to gather up her courage. A snake-like thing was behind them. It had orange scales with blue eyes.

“What the heck…” Waterfall said.

“Ahh, I see. You don’t know who I am. Well, welcome the great and powerful sea monster!” The sea monster said. “You could call me Serpent if you wish.” Lily was still trembling from behind them.

“What do you want? Just let us pass through,” Pebble said, snarling.

“Oh, mind your manners please,” Serpent said, starting to coil around them with its long orange snake-like body. “Well, sorry little creatures. These were my orders: Capture 3 dolphins and kill them. So basically, get ready to die!” He lunged forward toward the three friends.

“AHHH!!!” They yelled swimming away from Serpent. He turned around and stalked them again. But this time, he opened his mouth, and electric bolts shot towards them. The bolt nearly got Lily. She scrambled out of the way with a yelp, trying to get out of the wrath of Serpent.

“Leave us alone! We are only passing!” Pebble yelled at him while scrambling out of Serpent’s way.

“Fury told me that there will be three dolphins coming this way. I have to obey his wishes,” the sea monster hissed. He shot another lightning bolt at them.  

“What!” Pebble yelled in shock. “You listen to that guy! He is like the worst enemy in the world!”

“Why would I care! And plus, you woke me up by that yelling. I would eat anyone I wish anyway.” Now, Pebble was really getting angry.

“HOW DARE YOU! YOU’LL NEVER LISTEN TO FURY! HE IS NOT WORTHY TO BE THE KING OF THE OCEAN!” Pebble bellowed to Serpent. With anger, she started to summon a water tornado. As soon as Serpent saw the tornado, he slowly backed away.

“You will never ever defeat me. Not in a million years!” Serpent yelled. He started to summon his own tornado, but this time it was made of electricity. It was now a combat of water and electricity.

Pebble touched her tornado with her fin and pushed it toward the sea monster. Serpent blew his tornado toward hers. It crashed into each other, making a bright, big, ball light. Lily and Waterfall hid behind a rock, trying to avoid it; the collision was too powerful. Waterfall peaked over. Pebble was trying her best to keep her tornado in control and making it stronger. As for Serpent, he looked as if he was a sloth. He barely moves his snake-like body.

“PEBBLE!” Waterfall hollered at her loudest voice, trying to let Pebble hear her words. Pebble turned over. She was sweating madly.

“What?! Can’t you see that I’m trying to win this awful monster who works with Fury?” Pebble shouted. She was growing weak. Waterfall knew it. Controlling a water tornado was hard. If she controlled a tsunami, well, that would be challenging. A tornado? Probably even harder.

“I was thinking,” Waterfall yelled, “maybe we should combine forces. While you make the tornado, I will make the tsunami. Maybe that way, we can defeat Serpent!”

“Well, maybe that would -” She was cut off by the sudden spasm of pain. “That would work. Hurry! I don’t know if I can control this any longer!” Pebble was really struggling now. Her tornado was growing weaker in every second.

“I’ll try, but the fastest will take at least one to two minutes!” Waterfall yelled, starting to use all her willpower to make a fast, powerful tsunami.

“I’m not even sure if I can even make it with a few minutes!” Pebble yelled over, trying to push the sea monster’s electric tornado towards the monster. The sea monster was laughing hard now.

“Oh, you little things. You think you can defeat me? The most powerful sea monster that ever lived?!” The serpent said, laughing hard. “You’d better give up now and surrender, or else I’m going to defeat you completely!”

“NEVER!!” Pebble yelled though she was still growing weaker. The electric tornado was taking over. The waterfall was trying her best to keep a fast pace. The water’s surface started to grow higher and higher, but it wasn’t fast enough.

“Ha ha ha!! You guys are never going to defeat me! I’ll slowly eat you guys one by one!” Serpent cackled.

“Never!” yelled a voice behind them. Lily emerged from behind the rock.

“You will never, ever hurt my friends! Even though my talent is the smallest compared to them, I will always be loyal to them!” Lily screamed at him. The sky blue dolphin whistled a few notes.

“HA! See, what can her whistling to do defeat me?” Serpent laughed. But as soon as he finished speaking those words, a huge army of sea snakes came swimming over. They stopped in front of Lily. Lily whistled in a low tone, and soon, an army of snakes went inside the whirlpool.

“What are you doing?” Pebble yelled in horror. “You’re going to kill them!”

Lily smiled slyly.“No worries. Keep controlling your part. You’ll soon understand.” Pebble shrugged curiously and controlled even harder. Waterfall’s tsunami soon grew taller and powerful from above them. The ground below them was shaking.

“Are you ready?” Waterfall asked them, struggling to keep the height of the water.

“Yes!” They answered at the same time. A huge wave crashed onto the sea monster. Serpent loosed control, and his electric tornado grew weaker.

“Now Pebble! Hurry! I don’t know if the snakes can stay in the tornado for any longer swimming in circles!” Lily cried out. Pebble nodded and pushed harder. Soon, Serpent’s tornado was left of nothing.

“Push your tornado toward Serpent! My snakes can kill him with a few bites. Their bites are poisonous!” Lily called over.

“Okay! I’ll try my best!” Pebble yelled back. She surged forward, with her tornado becoming powerful. Pebble’s power was growing stronger. The sea monster was still a bit dazed from the crash of the tsunami. As soon as the monster fully woke up from the daze, it was already too late.

“NOOO! You can’t defeat me!” bellowed Serpent with anger and fear. The tornado crashed into him, and he flew back onto a large rock. Boulders came tumbling down on him. The weight was too much for Serpent to handle. As the orange-snaked monster tried to get up, Lily’s sea snakes came over and started to bite him furiously. Serpent’s breathing became shallower and faster.

“Oh, you little brats. I will hate you forever. I may die from this situation, but I promise you. My master will defeat you. He will be the king of kings. He will rule the ocean, and everyone will bow at his feet,” Serpent gasped. At the last word, his orange body twitched and laid still.

Chapter 9

The three friends stood still for a moment. It was silence. The sea snakes were quiet, standing behind Lily, waiting for her order. Lily whistled a few quiet notes, and the sea snakes were off.

“We should cover him up with rocks so that nobody would know what happened here,” Pebble said quietly. They took some large boulders and threw it on top of Serpent. They were silent for another moment. Waterfall broke the silence.

“Can you guys believe it!? We killed this sea monster!” Waterfall cheered. And from there on, she started to blabber on and on how great they were. Pebble, of course, tried to ignore her, which was practically impossible. Lily tried to shut her mouth up. Of course, it didn’t work. Waterfall kept blabbering on the whole way on their trip. Soon, they finally came to a stop to rest.

“Finally! A place for me to sleep well,” Pebble sighed. Lily nodded, and went deeper into the ocean to help her friends catch some fishes to eat. Waterfall still kept talking, keeping some very annoying company with Pebble. With a sigh, Lily fell asleep, along with Waterfall. Pebble looked at them for a while before she fell asleep.

***

Pebble looked around. This time in her dream, she was in a dark and gloomy place. There were underwater volcanoes  with lava pouring out. It was hot as if she was in a hot desert. In the middle of the volcanos, there was a black cave made of coal. What is that? Pebble thought. She swam closer to it. Inside, there was a noise. Somebody was snoring.

Curious, she swam inside. The snoring got louder and louder. Suddenly, she bumped into a dark blue thing. She glanced down and up. She backed up slowly. It was Fury. He looked cozy. So, Pebble swam forward. Suddenly, she was sucked into an unknown world. Where am I this time? She wondered. She looked around. It was bright, with lots of beautiful corals and fishes.

Suddenly, a gentle voice behind her said, “Welcome to the place where we die; the Heaven of Wonder.” Pebble turned around.

“Mother?” Pebble trembled. “MOTHER!” Pebble cried in delight. She raced toward her. Her mother nuzzled her, and Pebble looked up. She looked beautiful. Bright green eyes with sky blue skin.

“Hello, little one. I’m sorry that you’d had to survive without me when you were so young,” Her mother whispered. “But it was your destiny to walk this path with you and your friends.”

“Mother? Before I came here, I was in a dangerous place full of volcanos. I saw Fury too. What does that mean?” Pebble asked, trembling against her mother. Her mother thought about that for a moment.

“I think that is the place you need to go. To meet Fury. You will need to fight him in order to earn back the Flower of Life. You need to win, or else we are all doomed,” her mother answered.

Pebble nodded and promised, “I won’t let you down.”

“Now that’s my daughter. Sleep well now before you go…” Her mother started to fade away.

“Mother!” Pebble started to swim toward her.

“Don’t worry. I’ll always be with you.” And with that, she woke up, with her friends sleeping beside her.

Chapter 10

Pebble sobbed quietly remembering her mother, and the day she died. As her friends started to awake, she wiped away her tears and tried to act normal.

Waterfall yawned. “What should we do now?”

“We’ve got to start traveling before we run out of time,” Pebble replied.

“Where? That’s the whole point!”

“Well, I had a dream last night, and I think I may have an idea where it is…” and she started to explain her whole dream, excluding the parts about her mother.

“Oh… I guess we know what we are looking for,” Waterfall said.

“And it's totally correct too,” Lily chirped in. “Even though we don’t have a lot of information about the Sea of Darkness, the only thing that we do know that there are lots of volcanos there. That place is pretty obvious that Fury lives there because nobody could live there.”

“So, we continue our journey?” Pebble asked. Her friends nodded, and Pebble took the lead.

It seemed liked hours of roaming around the sea, not knowing where they’re going. Lily asked here and there, but the creatures just kept saying that they are still at the Sea of the Dead.

Lily sighed. “It's no use.”

“The only thing we can do is to keep swimming around until we find anything that is like the Sea of Darkness,” Pebble said, sighing with depression. Lily nodded with agreement. It was night by the time they got to rest. As soon as Lily and Waterfall found a place to rest, they immediately snored into sleep. Only Pebble felt restless… She felt like there were beady eyes watching them everywhere. It took a long time before Pebble slowly fell into a deep sleep.

***

Pebble and her friends woke up when they hear a sound from behind them. They turned around, but found nothing.

“What the heck… I thought I heard something,” Waterfall muttered to herself.

“Yeah. I was pretty much sure that I heard something from behind us,” Pebble said gazing curiously all around.

“Oh well. Let’s continue finding the Sea of Darkness,” Lily said in a nervous tone. Pebble nodded quickly and set off.

Their journey didn’t go as well as they thought. They were being watched from everywhere. Every time they heard a sound, they turned around. But the result stays the same: they saw nothing.

“Guys, this is getting weird. I’m sure I heard something,” Pebble said, gazing all around her. Lily nodded.

“It's true. We all heard it, right Waterfall?” Lily asked Waterfall, who was twirling around in circles.

“Mhmm,” Waterfall said, though she wasn’t actually listening.

“Come on guys. I don’t know how long until we find the Sea of Darkness,” Pebble said, leading on the way. They swam for hours, peaking behind them every time they heard a noise.

Suddenly, they heard Waterfall yelp. “Ouch! That burns!”

Lily and Pebble came over to see what happened. “Are you okay?” Lily asked, examining her fin.

“Yeah, I guess. Give me a few seconds, and we can continue our way.”

“Actually, we don’t,” Pebble said, looking around the environment. There volcanos everywhere. Lava was pouring out everywhere. It was actually really dark, but the bright red of the lava made the whole world bright.

“Omg…” Lily murmured. “We are actually here in the Sea of Darkness.” Pebble and Waterfall nodded in agreement.

“So… Should we go into the cave you were talking about and confront Fury the annoying sea dragon?” Waterfall asked.

“Oh, no you don’t. I’m already here,” A mysterious voice said behind them.

Chapter 11

Trembling, they turned around. Above them, was Fury. “Welcome, to the Sea of Darkness. My home,” Fury said lovingly.

“Were you following us all along?” Pebble asked, snarling with hatred.

“Oh, of course not. Are you guys that dumb? You couldn’t even figure out who was following you?” He cackled with laughter. The whole sea was shaken by him.“Oh you idiots. It's my minions of course. I needed to know where your location is. FYI, those were rock gobies. They change color wherever they go. Oh my goodness. I thought you’d figure it out sooner or later.” Fury laughed and laughed non-stop. He thought it was ridiculous.   

“I should have known,” Lily said angrily. She was mad at herself. Only she knew about all the sea creatures in the ocean sea. But there’s nothing she can change now.

Pebble was trembling with fury. “GIVE US BACK OUR FLOWER OF LIFE! You don’t deserve this precious jewel. You don’t deserve being loved by your mother. And you totally don’t deserve being the king of the oceans!”

Fury stopped laughing. His eyes suddenly glittered with pure hatred. “Oh really. You don’t even know my mother. She barely cared for me. If she did, she would’ve given the Flower of Life back to us.” His eyes were blazing like wild fire.

“What! How can you say those things to your mother, you selfish creature! I may not have met your mother, but I have saw your past in dreams. Your mother took care of you! She raised you! Your mother told you bedtime stories. Your mother even tried to reason with you the importance of sharing the Flower of Life!” Pebble was trembling. “What did I have? NOTHING! My mother died when I was young. She never, EVER, took care of me! I had to take care myself! My mother never told me any stories. AND CERTAINLY, I didn’t have a parent to rely on! And what do you do? All you did was arguing with her. You never ever took the time to even thank her.”As Pebble finished speaking, tears welled up in her eyes.

Fury stood there, shocked. He didn’t say anything for a few seconds. His lips slowly curled into a snarl after calming a bit down from the shock. “Who do you think you are? Yessss, my mother told me bedtime stories. But did she ever listen to me? NO! All she did was say something like, ‘Oh honey, come over here and do some chores!’ Or, ‘Fury! Don’t argue with other sea dragons!’ What did I have to do? Of course follow her wishes. She never listened to me. I gave her some great advice to let us dragons rule the sea. But what did she do? She was like, ‘Oh sweetie, if we took back that Flower of Light, we would have war again!’ So what? War is war. The powerful ones win, which means the SEA DRAGONS! Not some pesky little cute dolphins who can’t even control the sea world.”

Lily and Waterfall stood there, shocked by the argument of Fury and Pebble. Pebble was trembling, nearly to the stage of crying. Fury was trembling with rage.

Pebble retorted, sniffling a little, “Well, if you don’t even appreciate your mother, how are you supposed to rule the sea world? Leaders must know how to care for others. NOT to be rude and stupid.”

“WHAT DID YOU JUST CALL ME?” Fury said, breathing in, about to blow some fire at them. “I am not stupid! Why would I care about what other animals think? They aren’t leaders. I am!” With that, he blew a poisonous fireball at them.

Chapter 12

“Scatter!” Pebble yelled, suddenly feeling really strong and determined to defeat the rude dragon. She felt pure energy flowing into her. She started to summon a water tornado. “Waterfall! You know what to do!” Pebble called to her. Waterfall nodded, and started to summon her tsunami.

Lily was too busy dodging fireballs. She soon saw her friends summoning their powers. The sky blue dolphin whistled a few high notes and a few low notes. Seconds later, a massive army of every kind of sea creatures appeared. Sea snakes, lion fishes, puffer fish, and stingrays came to her aid.

“I’ll distract Fury for now!” Lily called over to her friends. They nodded, and Lily went to the front. “ATTACK!” The fishes came rushing toward Fury.

“What!?” Fury turned around only to find a huge army of fishes heading toward him. He blew a massive fireball at them.

“Scatter!” Lily yelled. The animals swam away from them. “Hurry guys! I don’t know how long I can distract him!” She saw Pebble sweating harder than ever, and Waterfall trying as hard as she can. Lily glanced at her army. They were as strong as ever, but they couldn’t get close enough to bite the sea dragon.

“Lily! Tell your animals to back up! We are about to attack Fury!” Pebble yelled.

“Wait!” Lily yelled over. “Give me a second!” She whistled a few notes, and a part of her army came over. She signaled them to go into the tornado. They followed her orders and soon dissolved into the tornado. The rest stayed back, getting ready to attack.

Before Pebble and Waterfall let go of tsunami and tornado, there was a big flash of light, as bright as the sun.

“What the heck!” Fury yelled. The light dissolved, and there stood Pebble’s mother.

Time seemed to stop “Mother!?” Pebble gasped in astonishment.

“Yes, Pebble. I have come here to give you something I should I gave you a long time ago.”

“What? But I already have everything I need. I have friends, a home, and this power! What else do I lack?”

Her mother smiled and said, “But you don’t have this one thing.” She gave Pebble of her a necklace. It had beautiful designs that were carved on coral. It had the exact same color as their skin. It had shapes of the waves and some sea creatures carved onto it.

“Mom, what does this do?” Pebble asked curiously, still glancing at her necklace.

“I can’t tell you. What I do know is that this necklace has lots of different powers. The only power we know of is that it can change wave directions.”

“Oh… Ok. Thanks, mom!” With that, her mother started to fade away into the darkness.

Chapter 13

Pebble took a deep breath. “Are you ready?” Waterfall nodded. With that, they let go and let it crash onto Fury.

“Now!” Lily yelled at the other army. The army raced off toward Fury. Fury was a bit dazed already. The army attacked Fury furiously, leaving Fury unconscious.

“Now what?” Lily asked. “Do I ask them to stop?” Pebble nodded. Lily whistled a few notes, and the fishes left them.

“You win. You can have the Flower of Life back,” Fury said groaning, wincing at the pain.

“Should we kill him? Just to be sure that he won’t come back for it again,” Waterfall asked.

“Nooo, don’t kill me…..” But he was cut off by Pebble.

Pebble shook her head. “It’s okay. He learned his lesson. Let him live. Come on, guys. Let’s get back what was ours.” She took one last glance a Fury, who was asleep.

The three friends and the army of fishes came into Fury’s cave. It was dark and cold. As they got into the center of the cave, it became brighter. There stood the Flower of Light. Pebble slowly picked it up. The light shone brighter than ever.

“Come on guys. We need to get this back to the cave,” Pebble said.

“Should we try to use your necklace this time?” Waterfall asked gleefully.

“Sure. Why not?” She willed the currents to carry them home faster. With that, they swam home.

“Come on! Let’s place the Flower of Life to where it belongs!” Waterfall cheered excitedly. Lily nodded, and they set off to the Cave of Light. They went inside. The jewels in there were as bright as ever. They got to the middle of the cave and set the Flower of Life on there. It was glowing brightly.

“Come on guys. Our mission is done here,” Pebble said sighing with relief. She and her friends set off to their home. As they went home, they saw the animals returning to normal. Fishes chasing each other around, sea turtles greeting each other, and dolphins in pods swimming around the ocean. Everyone lived in peace from then on.