My bag was packed. I had my supplies. And it was time to go.

It was the day we would travel to our first destination, which was where we would find Brooklyn’s elemental source. We didn’t know where it was, and we were anxiously waiting for Mother Nature to give us the location. She warned us that there would be challenges in each place, but that we were ready for it, but that didn’t make me any less nervous.

Our backpacks were small and light weight, but still stuffed to the brim with medicine, food, water, and first aid. We set our bracelets to dial everyone at the same time, so we would be in contact with everyone.

“Are you scared?” I asked my group. Brooklyn turned to me, and spoke.

“Very,” Her eyes were filled with worry, rather than a nasty glare.

I nodded, and continued picking at my fingernails.

My parents were sobbing when I had to leave, and my sister was the last thing I saw before I was transported back to the Order. Her expression sliced my heart in half, and I couldn’t help but plop down on my bed and cry.

Now, I was going to a mysterious place, not knowing what was to come, anticipating the worse. I didn’t know if I would make it back or even see my family again.

It was all too much to comprehend, so I shook the thought away and focused on Mother Nature handing me a paper slip.

“Here is your destination. It is in the Atlantic Ocean, in depths that no submarine can access. You’ll come across a cave, and it’ll take a while to swim through, with many twists and turns. When you reach the elemental source, you’ll know without question you’ve found it. Only Brooklyn can remove it, with delicate movements, and store it in this,” She handed Brooklyn a small pod-like container. “Then, simply use your transportation to return. It should take you approximately 2 hours at least,”

“How will we breathe underwater? How will we swim for so long? I don’t wanna get prune fingers! Do we swim in our normal outfits?” Morgan was full of …questions.

“Easy, easy. Take this pill, and within 30 seconds, you should be able to be underwater for so long. You’re clothes will be back on your body when you return here.” Mother smiled, and handed us navy blue pills.

“What do these do to us?” August asked.

“Just wait.” She replied. “Good luck. Go to the boarding room, and you’re set.” She walked away, and we headed to the boarding room.

The boarding room was similar to a garage. It was a large room with a front wall that opened up. All the other groups were in there already, waiting patiently to leave.

The door slowly lifted up, and I looked over at Sol. He gave me a nod, and once the door was finally up, he murmured some words and zipped out in a sun flare. I was amazed.

“Ready?” Brooklyn asked. We nodded, and took out our paper slip with the address on it. Vepo Cavern. I watched as Morgan grew delicate wings and soared out. Water emerged underneath Brooklyn and she rushed out, riding on top of it. August shook a little, and a bolt of lightning struck her and she was gone. It was my turn. I whispered the words, and the world around me turned into an orange hue. I felt wind whip in my ears, and before I could say anything, I was treading water, the other girls across from me.

“Do we take the pills now?” I asked.

“I suppose,” August replied, and there the pill into her mouth and took a small gulp of the water.

I did the same, and started to swim toward the bottom. I couldn’t see much, and my eyes started to burn from the salt water. I was cold, and my ears were popping. 22,23,24. I was counting the seconds. Once I hit 30, my body started to tremble. A piercing pain shot through my legs and my chest tightened up. The sensation lasted for half a minute, before everything went black. I was still awake, but my eyelids had shut. I slowly opened them, and they no longer burned. I could see everything clearly, in fact, everything was slightly illuminated. I’d be able to see easily. Once my eyes adjusted, I saw that all the girls in front of me had tails where their feet ice were. Brooklyn’s was a baby blue with seaweed stretching up the sides of it, along with a big, muscular fin. August had shimmering scales on her mustard colored tail, and Morgan’s tail was a dark purple with shells on it. I looked down at my own, which looked like a normal tail, but the fin had the illusion that it had been caught on fire and burned, shaded black at the edges. It was incredible, both my tail and the scenery around me. I took it in, but Brooklyn grabbed my arm and pulled me, as we all swam straight downward. We followed Brook, for she had an instinct of where to go. The water got chillier, and I figured we were in deep deep parts of the ocean, but I only felt a mild summer breeze. It was pitch black everywhere except the good 10 feet of light I could see in front of me. The water began to buzz, and Brooklyn stopped suddenly. She held her hand out, stopping us, and turned to the left and continued to swim. We did the same, until a hollow echoing sound greeted my ears. Slowly, a dark hole shape emerged, and we continued to swim straight towards it. We reached it, and I ran my fingers along the sharp, rocky walls. There were fish that I’d never seen before, rocks that glistened and sounds that made me nervous. The echoing got louder, but it was no longer a hollow sound. It seemed like a snarl, a growl. It vibrated my ears. August spoke for the first time since we began to swim, “What is that?” She was referring to the sound, which I was certain we all heard. I shook my head and Morgan shrugged, but Brooklyn kept swimming forward. It was obvious she was nervous, but she tried her best not to reveal it. We swam through twists, turns, ups, and downs, when finally, the echoing growl was too much for my ears to handle.

“Okay, I cannot stand this. What is that?!?” I complained, plugging my ears. Brooklyn opened her mouth, but just then, an explosion sounded, and the growling became maximum volume. Morgan and I screamed as the rocks under us blew up and the walls started to tremble.

“We gotta get out of here!” August yelled. The three of us quickly swam off, but Brooklyn stayed put.

“We have to find it guys!” She yelled back. We inched closer, and Brooklyn stayed put, anticipating what was to come.

The shaking continued, and there was a large hole underneath her. But the growling stopped, and instead, a high pitched whistle filled the cave. My heart sped up and I knew Brooklyn was in danger.

“Brooklyn get out of there!” I screamed. She swam back a few feet, and in a second, the growling resumed followed by a loud screech. A blur of black and blue soared out of the hole and pushed through the ceiling. Rocks began to fall as I struggled to get a clear picture of what the blur was. I turned to my right and noticed a small hole leading somewhere. I swam over to it and began to dig at the loose rocks, and saw it led to a much more open space. I continued and once the hole was big enough for me to swim through, I turned around to get the others. I began to call their names when I realized I was facing a large, unidentifiable creature. It resembled a snake, with loose flowing fins at the top of its head and a sharp point at the end of its tail. It had small beady eyes and a large gaping mouth, clearly filled with rows of fangs and a tongue that shot quickly in and out like a lizard. It screeched as it swam for August. I yelled for them and motioned for the hole. Morgan came to me and I motioned her through. Brooklyn came next, and finally it was just me and August against the giant sea monster.

“August!” I screamed out. I swam with all my might and clenched her wrist and swam towards the hole. We made it through roughly, August not being of much help.

Once we were on the other side, I said “You could’ve at least helped me swim August,”

“Uh, Kenzie?” I heard Morgan say. I turned around and saw August floating unconscious in the water, her mouth bobbing open and closed. Her eyes were still open, fear stricken, and blood was seeping out of her tail. I looked for the source, but I couldn’t find it. But then I saw an ant bite sized hole in the middle of her tail. Around the hole, about an inch was colored dark indigo blue. I gasped, picking up her limp body.

“Its that creature’s tail! It has a stinger on the end, like a stingray!” I exclaimed. There was a pounding at the wall which we swam through, and quickly, the wall burst as the monster came screeching in. We took notice that it was using a twisting technique like a snake to move, and its stinger flailed freely, hitting whatever it pleased. I attempted to shoot fire out of my hands, but it was useless. Same with Morgan. I quickly told Brooklyn our problem, but she said there was nothing she could do about it. Great, I couldn’t use my powers, for there was some curse put on this place. Morgan and I would have to use our other set of skills. Meanwhile, Brooklyn punctured small holes in the beast’s side, and tried to suck him into a whirlpool.

Morgan threw rocks at him while I searched for a way to take on the thing. Rocks. all there was were rocks, and Morgan’s throwing technique wasn’t very affective. I checked on August, who lay on the sand out of sight. I kept racking my brain for ideas, but nothing came to me. I tried to dig at the walls to find a way to trap the creature, but they wouldn’t budge.

I need a strong force to knock these walls down, I thought. Brooklyn and Morgan were occupied, obviously. Minutes passed, the two were screaming at me, and August was lying unconscious. Then it hit me. Lightning. Lightning could shoot the wall. I swam down to August and hoped she would wake up. How do you give CPR underwater. I lay by her for almost two minutes before she slowly woke up.

“August! Shoot your most powerful lightning at the wall!” I yelled.

Still half asleep, she groggily lifted a finger and sent a bolt zipping out of her nail, which collided with the wall. But before that, the electricity electrocuted the water, and a strong jolt ran through my body, making me shake uncontrollably. All sound left my ears except for a loud buzz as I clenched my teeth together, feeling the lighting craw through my bones.

I fell to the ground, and barely saw the rocks tumblr onto the creature, making its mouth open widely. It squirmed around and its eyes bulged before it was buried underneath the rockslide.

I stayed on the ground a minute before I gathered barely enough strength to lift myself up and swim towards the others. Brooklyn was slowly opening her eyes, and Morgan and August were shaking out their arms, which had red zig zagged marks on their limbs and red dots on their face. I looked at my own arms and realized I had the same. August was quickly swimming around, nervous and confused.

“Sh, its okay.” I assured her. “But we need to find the source.”

She nodded, and we all continued to swim through the cave, careful of each turn we took. Thats when Brooklyn stopped us.

“Its here,” She said. She swam up to the ceiling where rock was falling and dug at it. She clawed at the rocks for several minutes, but it was no use. She backed away and shot a burst full of water pushing through the rocks, where they slowly sunk to the ground. Amongst them, there was one that seemed to be glowing. She swam after it and held it in her hands.

“This is it,” She said. She cupped her hands around it and whispered something to herself, before she squeezed the rock and it burst open. Inside, she pulled out a small stone which was shaped like a water droplet. It was powder blue and shimmered like a diamond. It had slight fog around it and was glowing inside. She stored it into the container and tucked it under her arm. We began to swim out when we heard a rumble.

“Was that the creature?” I asked nervously.

Brooklyn shook her head. Rocks began to tumble, slowly, then one by one, faster and faster.

Her eyes widened and she yelled, “Go! We got to get out!” We swam as fast as our tails could take us, avoiding rocks as they tumbled down. The left wall collapsed, and I pushed with all my might to propel myself. Fish swam around us and several started to bite. I clench my teeth in pain as the teeth sunk into my flesh and stones pelted my head. We were almost out when the ceiling behind us fell. The entryway was small now, covered by rocks of all sizes, from boulders to pebbles. We all grabbed hands and pushed together with our tails. We were all screaming with pain and force and hope. Brooklyn made it out, then Morgan. August zipped out before I left, and right as my tail passed through, a rock slammed down, sealing the cave.

Brooklyn lifted up the pod, still safely grasped.

“We did it gu–“ Morgan started to say, but she was cut off by a bubble escaping her mouth. She tried to speak again, but nothing but water came out. I did too, and it was useless. I looked at the watch, and there was only 10 minutes left. Our mermaid characteristics were evaporating faster than the water itself. August threw her hand up, pointing at the surface. We all exchanged a look before quickly swimming upward, with just as much force than we had used in the cave. The light dimmed down and I wasn’t able to see well. My ears began to pop again after two minutes, and I felt little stubs on the end of my tail. 5 more minutes passed and my tail was completely gone. The surface was barely appearing, and the only thing left I could do was breathe underwater. 30 seconds remained and I felt my chest tightening up. I too my last breath before I was forced to hold it, still a minute away from the surface. I looked around me and the others had the same problem. I kicked my legs and pulled my arms, desperately trying to get air. My chest felt like it had weights on it and my throat as if someone had cut it in half. 10 more feet. I clenched my face and pushed, my lungs feeling like collapsing. My fist pushed through the surface and y head bobbed up, and I gasped for air. I looked at the others, who seemed to be in worse condition than me. We were out in the middle of the ocean and we needed to get back, but my head was pounding, our faces were red, and I couldn’t get a hold of my breath. My arms felt like noodles and so did my legs. I softly murmured and went soaring back to the palace.

I landed on the hard ground, surrounded by others. My hair was soaked and my mouth was full of saltwater. I spit it out and caught another breath before the world around me faded to black.