The Butterfly Girl: A Star is Born

The Catalina Marino

[Sophia]

The hole just keeps going further and further down and I could hardly see anybody in front of me. My night vision didn't seem to be kicking in.

"Teri, how long is this tunnel?" Fleetfoot asked.

"Yeah, I'm starting to get tired." Flyboy said. Teri looked back at us, but I couldn't see her.

"Don't worry, it's just a bit further. We can rest once we're there. Just stick close to me, we're almost out." Teri said.

I blew a heavy burst of bubbles and kicked harder. It really wasn't much further until the hole widened and we all spread out. Teri at the lead (obviously), Apollo just beside her, the Twins lagging behind. And then me.

Finally, I could start to see again. Everything was blueth and I could see dark outlines of everyone in front of me. It felt really, really weird. I stopped and took a moment to just look at everything. Everyone swimming ahead of me. In a deep, dark blue. Like we were swimming in a different plane. Somewhere entirely new.

But I had to keep up with everyone, because they were just starting to get out of view. Then something came into my mind. I opened my wings a little bit and tried moving them up and down. I was basically trying to move like a stingray. Although, with the way my wings are shaped, they aren't really the best for swimming in water than they are in the air. But it did push me forward a little so I just kept doing it.

"We're really close you guys. Just hang in there, we're almost there."

A few moments after Teri said that, I suddenly started to see something come up in my gaze.

A light?

Something bright is in my line of sight.

No, that's definitely a light. Wait, what is that?

Something is definitely glowing in the distance. I tried swimming a little faster, but my muscles were already really exhausted. I did my best until, within the glow, I saw something else. The outline of... a tower? Suddenly, almost in an instant, I could see a whole castle. It was still kinda hazy to see the details, but there was a whole castle underwater! From where we were, it looked small. But as we got closer we all started to slow down and observe what we were seeing.

"Sophie, can you see that? I can't see it from here, what is it?" Apollo asked.

"I can see a castle, I think. It's amazing," I said.

"What? Really?"

We got closer and we could start seeing things in greater detail. I could see the seafloor and small fish swimming around. And a few other sea creatures I didn't recognize at first glance. I was glad to know there wasn't anything big down here.

"Teri, what is this place?" the Twins asked.

"This is my home. Everyone, I welcome you to The Catalina Marino!"

Catalina Marino? Reminds me of Catalina Island.

We all stopped and stared at the kingdom below us. From where we were, we could only see the castle. It almost felt like we weren't underwater anymore.

"Follow me to that tower over there." Teri pointed to the tallest tower in the distance. When we got there, it turned out to be Teri's bedroom balcony.

"You can rest here for a moment and I'll catch you up on everything." Teri said.

Ava and I floated on top of the balcony overlooking the kingdom.

"I cannot believe there is an entire underwater kingdom right here," Apollo said.

"Yeah, I never imagined it'd be this close. I thought it was like, way out in the ocean," I said.

Although I wasn't entirely thinking about the location of the kingdom. I was just taking in all the scenery. I wanted to know what it was like living out here. I never really knew this whole place was just a quick flight and swim away from the tree house. I turned away from the balcony and observed Teri's room.

There's a large bed in the center of the room. It looked strange to be a bed, like it was made out of sea sponge. Which made sense actually. But there was only one sheet over it. I wondered how it was made. A few starfish and sea cucumbers stuck to the floors and walls of the circular room. There was a large chest near the bed which looked to be containing Teri's personal items. And what looks like a wardrobe across the bed that I already guessed had Teri's clothes. A few tiny fish swam around the room before drifting away from us and out into the deep blue.

"This way everyone." Teri said, guiding us through an open door. We all followed behind. Although my arms were still really tired, so I tried to walk along the ground and pushed myself against the walls to keep up. Teri led us down a long spiral ramp that led us into a main hallway. Teri stopped a few feet away and we all gathered around.

"Okay, so here's the plan. We're gonna split up so we can cover more ground. Apollo, you'll come with me and we'll search in my Mother's room. You two," Teri pointed at the Twins, "I'll lead you to the library and you can search for anything in there. And Sophia."

"Yes?" I said quickly.

"You can search around the halls and see if there's any stray clues around. Let me know if you find anything."

So I just get to wander around here by myself?

"Oh Sophie, one last thing."

"Yeah?"

"Please try not to speak to anyone. I don't want you freaking anyone out, okay? No one but the guards here know you're here, but try not to let anyone see you. Are you okay with that?"

"Yeah, okay."

"Oh, another thing. You can look around in all the rooms you find. But if there's a locked door you cannot enter, come to me and I'll unlock it for you if it's okay for you to enter. I just don't want you wandering around any unrestricted areas, okay? Can you do that?"

"Um, yeah, I can do that."

"Okay great, everyone else follow me. Let's get moving."

Everyone started following Teri down the hall. Leaving me by myself. I looked around to see if there was another path to take, but it was just one straight hallway so I slowly start making my way down and searching for anything that might be of any importance.

Well, this'll be easy. I won't talk to anyone because I don't like talking to people anyway. Plus, wandering around by myself is one of my favorite things to do. This'll be easy.