The Butterfly Girl: A Star is Born

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Apollo and Teri looked behind them to see the Twins swimming around the corner.

"Hey, did you guys find anything?" Teri asked.

"We didn't find a lot, but we found this book on the floor and we thought you might know something about it."

"Let me see." Teri said.

Just before they could hand Teri the book, Sophia came around the other corner with other items in hand.

"Oh, Sophie. Did you find anything?"

"Yeah, I think so." Sophia said, unsure if it was really important. She held up the crown and the little slip of paper. Teri gasped at the sight of the crown and she took it out of Sophia's hands.

"Where did you find this?" Teri asked sternly.

"I found this in a chest." Sophia said. "I found this too." Sophia held up the tiny slip of paper. Teri took that too and examined it. The markings on both sides made it impossible for her to read.

"Ugh, I don't understand..."

"What do you mean?" the Twins asked.

"I can't read this, it doesn't make any sense." Teri's eyes squinted at the letters, trying to figure out what the symbols meant.

"They just look like little squiggly lines on both sides." she lowered her hand and suddenly Sophia thought of something.

"Wait, give me that for one second?"

"What is it?"

Sophia looked for the nearest source of bright light and held the little slip of paper up towards it. Soon the lines and circles matched up with the lines on the front and she could make out a short sentence. Teri looked over her shoulder, confused at what she was doing.

"Hold this up to the light. Then you might be able to read it." Sophia said, handing the paper back to Teri. Teri did exactly what Sophia did and noticed that the lines and markings were starting to line up and make letters.

"You're right. There's something here."

"What does it say?" Apollo asked. Teri read aloud.

"My dearest," she began. "I may be gone but do not fear for me. I have every faith in your capability to handle things by yourself. But there are still things that must be learnt. See with your mind and listen with your heart and I will soon return." Teri finished. Everyone was quiet.

"Oh wait, there's markings here."

"What is it?" Apollo asked.

"I don't know, it looks like a symbol of some sort. She held up the note higher for everyone to see.

"Wait," the Twins said. They held up the book and brushed off the remaining bits of sand. The symbol on the book matched the one on the note.

Tiny bubbles escaped Sophia's lips. Clues were starting to take form.

"Did you find anything else with this symbol on it?" Teri asked. The Twins shook their heads.

"No, this is the only book we found with a symbol on it."

Teri stared at the book and looked back down at the crown in her other webbed hand.

"Okay, follow me." Teri swam ahead of everyone and waited at the end of the hall for everyone else to catch up. Again, Apollo got to her first, followed by the Twins who were carrying the book and Sophia lagging behind, still moving her wings up and down like a stingray to push herself forward. The more she swam, the more she didn't feel as cold as she did when she first jumped into the water.

Teri led them to the library and brushed away the sand on the table, putting down the crown and note.

"Here, let me see that." Teri held her hand out for the book the Twins were holding. They handed it to her and she set the book down in front of her as everyone crowded around her. She opened the book and the pages fell slowly to the sides.

Sophia was the last to get inside and she tried to float above everyone to get a better look at the book, but she kept having to adjust herself so she didn't accidentally kick anyone, or even touch anyone with her wings. She didn't really get a good look at anything.

To everyone's surprise, when Teri opened the book and flipped through the pages, they found that most of the words had been scribbled out, corners of the pages had been torn, and some pages were just entirely blotted out like an ink bottle was poured onto the pages, making it impossible for even Teri to read.

"I can't believe this. None of the books we have here are this badly damaged. This doesn't make any sense."

When Sophia finally found a spot where she could see, she knew that there had to be a reason that this was the only book that was ruined.

"Well, whatever it is... Something might've known about this book and didn't want anyone else to see it," Sophia said. Speaking up and having everyone look and listen to you was still a thing Sophia hadn't gotten used to. Especially with this many eyes in the room.

"That's right. Either something or someone didn't want us to know about what was in this book. Maybe that's why her Mother's room was so torn up. It was either destroying all the information we needed or it could've been trying to look for the book." Apollo added.

"But if it was trying to destroy anything of importance, why was the book in a separate room?" Fleetfoot wondered.

"And if it was looking for the book, how did the book get damaged in the first place?" Flyboy added.

"Ah, that's true. And if so, then there's a lot we have to figure out here. Even I can't seem to understand these clues. They just don't make any sense to me. Are you two sure that you didn't see another book like this?" Teri turned to the Twins.

"Well, we can't read any of these books, but we didn't see anything else like this." the Twins explained.

"I guess we'll have to double check then. If that's okay? Maybe there's something that got overlooked?" Apollo added.

"Yeah, okay. Let's look around here some more and let me know if you've found anything." Teri perked up and swam to one of the ends of the bookshelves, as did everyone else. They all started picking up books, examining the covers and flipping through the pages one after another. Although, underwater you had to actually turn the pages by hand since you can't just thumb over them like most people would so it took a little bit longer to look at all the books.

Except for Sophia, who floated down to look at the ruined book on the table. She wanted to get a better look at it. She turned page after page, not really paying any attention to the ruined pages, but she occasionally tried to look closer to see if she could make out anything. Unfortunately, the words that had been scribbled or blotted out were way too ruined for her to see anything, so Sophia just looked at whatever could catch her gaze.

She couldn't understand what the words might be talking about, nor could she guess what they might've said. But there were some lucky pages that had small sketches and drawings on them. Some had little drawings of different shapes of crystals. There looked to be different shapes of plants that almost looked familiar to common plants, but also looked way too out of the ordinary to be common plants. And on other pages, there were light sketches of unrecognized objects that sparked Sophia's curiosity and she wondered what they might be, what they do, and for what purpose they would be used for. Again, unfortunately the words that might've been able to describe and be further understood were scratched out and unreadable.

Sophia flipped through more ruined pages and was starting to make her way to the back of the book and found light sketches and drawings of what looked to be creatures or animals of some sort. Large and small animals and creatures that could almost be described as monstrous, but Sophia couldn't really assume so much about things she didn't quite yet understand. Not yet anyway. Especially since you can't read a single word.

You'd think that something as important as this would even be remotely useful, but since this book was highly damaged and ruined beyond repair, it was pretty much useless.

Sophia flips through more pages, but doesn't find anything else in the book interesting and closes it and decides to look around with the others. She takes one last look at the symbol on the cover before turning away. She wondered if there were any fiction novels around.

Teri slammed a book shut and swam out from behind a bookshelf.

"Everyone put the books down. I have to get you back to the surface." Teri recalled.

"What? Why?" Apollo popped up from behind one of the shelves.

"The bubbles that I gave each of you are limited and I just remembered I have to get you back to the surface before the effects wear off." Teri explained.

"What? Can't you just give us another one?" the Twins asked.

"No, I only made one for each of you." Teri swam to the door and opened it.

"Let's go. There might not be enough time to get you back to the tree house. We'll have to stop at the lake."

Everyone filed through the door as Teri lead everyone through. Furiously kicking their legs, trying to keep up with Teri. Sophia was really lagging behind once they got up to the balcony. She was able to stay behind them at first, but now she could hardly kick her legs or move her arms from the already exhausting journey. Not even the stingray motion she was putting into her wings was helping. Her wings just weren't designed to move through water as well as they are to fly.

Teri noticed Sophia struggling and turned back to her position.

"Here, hold on to my shoulders," Teri insisted.

Sophia did so and Teri started pushing her tail up and down. She was a little slower with Sophia on her shoulders, but she was able to pull through and lead everyone up and up until the lights of the kingdom started to fade and became nothing more than just a bleak color in the water.

Everyone started to notice that their vision was becoming limited and everything started to grow dark around them and they started to worry that they wouldn't make it and started kicking harder and twisting their bodies up and down. They finally made it to the tunnel from which they came from. The tunnel wasn't big enough for Sophia to hang on to Teri so she had to let go.

"Keep going, it's not far." Teri directed to Sophia. She noticed Apollo was moving somewhat erratically and Teri went back to pull him through. His vision isn't as great as Sophia's when it gets dark, sometimes he needs to be guided through.

Sophia tucked in her wings, moved her arms to the side, and put her legs together. She started moving them up and down as if she were a mermaid. She moved slightly faster than she did before, but she kept in mind that Teri was born able to swim through water, while Sophia's skinny body was less experienced. Nevertheless, she did her best to mimic Teri's moves. She stuck her feet out, somewhat acting as a fish tail and twisted her body through all the curves and turns of the tunnel. Everyone followed behind, with the Twins squeezing through but starting to struggle, and Teri leading Apollo by the hand so he wouldn't bump into anything. Eventually, Sophia started to notice that her breath wasn't holding and the air she was holding was starting to become weak and soon her lungs were starting to ache for some fresh air. The pressure was starting to return and it felt like their bodies were about to be crushed and the water would start flowing through their ears at any moment. Until they finally squeezed through the tunnel and Sophia could see light sparkling down from the surface of the murky, green lake.

Sophia didn't hesitate. She started swimming straight up and everyone else followed. Teri let go of Apollo's hand and pushed him up, directing him to keep swimming. Soon the effects wore off of everyone and they desperately started swimming for their lives. They felt the pressure getting light the more they started moving upwards.

It was Sophia who let her breath go first, followed by Apollo as a great bust of bubbles started bobbling towards the surface faster than he could. And suddenly, one by one, they burst through the surface, taking in a lung-full of air and started treading through the water to keep themselves afloat. Sophia and the Twins felt cold wind blow against their faces and instantly started swimming towards shore. With Apollo's visibility restored, he started booking it towards land faster than anyone. Teri was down under, trying to hold the Twins afloat by the arms because they could hardly keep their faces out of the water anymore. Her face wasn't visible, but you could see the top of her puffy hair. Bobbing up and down. Sophia started moving her wings again, which pushed her up and down through the water and used her arms to keep her head above the water. Her ears hurt from the cold whipping against her.

Once they felt their toes touch the slightest bit of ground, they relaxed their muscles and started heaving themselves onto dry land. Apollo was first. As soon as his body was out of the water, he sat down to catch his breath and he sat there for a good while. Sophia came next and as soon as her whole body was out, she started to shiver and the cold striking through her made her jump around, trying to regain some of her lost body heat. She pinched her ears, the cold biting them hard and the wind making it worse. The Twins came last and they both helped each other out of the water, shaking out their hair, airing out their wings and taking a seat next to Apollo, who was still breathing heavily.

Teri walked easily out of the water, her tail transforming into her long skirt and legs that matched her skin tone. She sighed and walked closer to everyone.

"Sorry I made you all hurry up so much. But I'm glad to know you all made it. And I want to thank you all for helping me look for clues to find my missing Mother. It means a lot to me, so thank you all for your help." Teri smiled. Apollo looked up and smiled reassuringly.

"It was a pleasure helping you out," the Twins said politely.

"Hey, if you want to come back to the tree house with us you can hang out with us for a bit." Apollo offered.

"I would love to, but I think it'd be best if I headed back and cleaned up the mess back there. But thank you for the offer."

"That's alright, I get it. Come back whenever and let us know when you find anything." Apollo said.

"Of course, and let me know if you've figured anything out. I'll see you around." Teri nodded and walked back into the water before swimming underneath the surface. Sophia finally stopped jumping around and watched Teri swim away. But she was shivering. Soon they all started making their way back to the tree house.