Clara shook her head.

  “Double rats!” Lucinda said, righting herself and landing on the floor. “This time I’ll get it. I’m absolutely sure of it.” She squeezed her eyes closed and purred loudly for a few seconds. “It just came to me,” she said, opening her eyes. “You are 3,742 years old.”

  Clara shook her head. “I’m eight,” she said.

  “Triple rats!” Lucinda said. She flicked her tail back and forth. “Well, I don’t want to be a sore loser. Thank you so much for playing.”

  Clara reached down and scratched Lucinda behind the ears. The cat purred and twitched her tail.

  Aqua smiled at Clara and Lucinda. “I think it’s about time to go to the Sky Sea,” Aqua said. “Are you ready?”

  “I sure am,” Clara said, standing.

  “In that case, climb on up,” Aqua said as she kneeled. Clara swung her leg over Aqua’s back and gripped the pegasus’ curly teal mane.

  Aqua stood up and turned to her sisters. “I’ll meet you at Heart Island in an hour. Stitch, would you be willing to bring the flippers?”

  “Of course,” Stitch said.

  Then Aqua looked at Flip and Snow. “Why don’t you two meet me by the hatching pool just a little early for one final swimming lesson?”

  Flip sighed. “Fine,” she said.

  Snow nodded. “I know how much the Merthday Splash means to you,” she said. “I’ll try one more time.”

  “Fantastic,” Aqua said. “I’m sure you’ll be able to learn to swim. I just know you will. Especially because we absolutely cannot let anything ruin the Merthday Splash.”

  When Aqua wasn’t looking, Clara saw Flip and Snow both sigh, roll their eyes, and flare their nostrils.

  Aqua turned to Lucinda. “Do you want to come to the Sky Sea with Clara and me?”

  Lucinda blinked her large, emerald eyes. She looked at Aqua. And then she looked at Flip and Snow, who were both frowning. “I’ll come with Flip and Snow,” Lucinda said. “They seem like they could use some cheering up. Plus, I want to play a guessing game with Rosie right now. She promised I could try to guess her favorite flower. I’m still deciding whether to start by guessing violets or buttercups.”

  Clara giggled. “Are you going to guess roses?” she asked.

  “Definitely not,” Lucinda said. “There is no way that’s the answer.”

  Clara and Rosie looked at each other and smiled. Rosie winked, and Clara winked back.

  “I’ll see you all soon,” Aqua called out as she turned and galloped toward the front double doors of Feather Palace. The doors magically flung open to reveal a clear blue sky and a sea of green treetops below. Aqua leaped out of the palace and soared into the air.

  As Aqua climbed higher and higher in the sky, Clara turned her head for a moment and admired Feather Palace. Sunlight sparkled on the pegasuses’ castle, which looked like two silver wings surrounded by towers and turrets.

  “I can’t wait to show you the Sky Sea,” Aqua said. “And I’m thrilled you’ll be part of the Wing Realm’s first Merthday Splash.”

  “Thank you so much for inviting me and including me,” Clara said. “It sounds like you and the merfairies worked hard to plan it.”

  “We sure did,” Aqua said proudly. “I want it to be absolutely perfect. But,” she continued, her voice lowering with worry, “I’m getting nervous Flip and Snow won’t learn to swim in time. And if they can’t swim, they can’t dive to the bottom of the pool to sing while we watch the eggs hatch. And that will ruin the entire Merthday Splash.”

  “I can definitely understand how you feel,” Clara said. “My seventh birthday party was at a skating rink and—” Clara paused. “Do you have ice skating in the Wing Realm?”

  Aqua laughed. “Good question,” she said. “We do. Snow especially loves to skate, and she can even do all kinds of turns and spins in the air. But I can’t make it across a frozen pond without falling over at least ten times. Usually I end up using my magic to make a giant bubble that I can get inside. That way I can just slide across the ice, and I don’t have to worry about trying to skate. Anyway,” Aqua said, “keep telling me about your birthday party.”

  “Well,” Clara said, remembering the party. “I invited my four best friends—Neela, Ada, Min, and Natalee—to my party. I had a plan that the five of us were going to spend the entire time ice skating without taking any breaks. I didn’t even want us to stop skating to eat cupcakes or open presents. But do you know what happened? It turned out that Natalee and Neela had never skated before. They tried to learn, and I tried to teach them. But they both got so tired and frustrated that they decided to sit in the cafe, drink hot chocolate, and play checkers for the whole rest of the party. At first, I was sure my birthday was ruined. I even asked my mother if we could just go home. But then, as Min, Ada, and I skated and waved to Natalee and Neela each time we passed them, I realized we could all still have fun, even if the party didn’t go exactly the way I planned it.”

  “If I had been at your birthday party, I would have wanted to drink hot chocolate with Natalee and Neela,” Aqua said, laughing.

  Clara smiled. And then, gently, she added, “It might be that Flip and Snow feel the same way about swimming that you feel about ice skating. Instead of trying to rush them to learn to swim by this afternoon, I wonder if there might be a different way they could participate in the Merthday Splash.”

  “Huh,” Aqua said, sounding uncertain. “I hadn’t considered that. I guess I need to think about it a little more.” She sighed. And then in a bright voice she said, “The good news is we’re almost to the Sky Sea Gateway.”

  Aqua flew over a stretch of forest and then soared upward, higher and higher. “Do you see that cloud that’s exactly the same color as I am?” Aqua asked. Sure enough, in the distance Clara saw a teal cloud. “That’s the entrance,” Aqua said, flying even faster before she glided downward. She landed in the center of the cloud, right next to an archway made of rose-, peach-, and watermelon-colored shells. The air under the archway shimmered and glittered, and warm salty air wafted through it.

  Aqua kneeled. “Why don’t you climb off here?” she said. “I think you’ll have more fun with this next part if you’re on your own two feet.”

  Clara slid off Aqua. She expected the cloud to feel spongy and bouncy under her feet, but instead, to her surprise, it felt like it was made of hard-packed sand.

  Aqua looked at Clara. “Are you ready?” she asked with a playful smile.

  “Yes,” Clara said.

  “Follow me,” Aqua said. She turned toward the shell archway. She paused for a moment. And then she leaped through it. To Clara’s surprise, Aqua disappeared into the shimmering air!

  Clara stood for a moment and looked at the archway. The air beneath it swirled and glittered as a gust of warm salty air riffled through Clara’s ponytail. She inhaled and smiled. And then she turned, counted out loud to three, and jumped through the archway.

  For a brief moment, everything went pitch black. And then Clara found herself standing next to Aqua on a long stretch of glittery bright pink sand. Mauve crabs with pale wings skittered and darted near Clara’s feet. Magenta sea oats and fuchsia beach grass swayed in the breeze on a nearby row of high sand dunes. The strong smell of salt water hung in the air. Clara heard birds calling and waves crashing.

  “Welcome to the Sky Sea,” Aqua said. “It’s my favorite part of the Wing Realm.”

  “I can see why,” Clara said. “It’s beautiful here.”

  “It sure is,” Aqua said. “And you haven’t even seen the sea or Heart Island yet. Come this way.”

  Aqua galloped across the sand and pebbles to the row of sand dunes. Clara skipped after her, enjoying the feeling of her sneakers shuffling in the sand. Clara and Aqua scaled the side of a dune and paused at the top. Just in front of them, a pink sandy beach gave way to a turquoise ocean with frothy waves that lapped the shore. Long-legged sea birds with cotton-candy-and grapefruit-colored feathers waded in the surf, swooped into the waves, and cawed in the air. Green and orange fish with gold wings burst from the water, flew a few feet, and dived back into the waves. A winged purple octopus rocketed out of the sea with a splash, waved its tentacles at Aqua and Clara, and sang out, “Good morning!” before it flopped back into the sea.

  Aqua laughed. “That octopus is my good friend Octavia. She gave me several jars of her black ink to use to paint all the Merthday Splash decorations.”

  Clara nodded. She had read in Miranda’s animal encyclopedia that octopuses could shoot out black ink.

  “Do you see that island?” Aqua asked, squinting at the horizon.

  Clara followed Aqua’s gaze. Sure enough, amid the waves, she spotted a heart-shaped pink island. “Yes,” Clara said.

  “That’s Heart Island,” Aqua explained. “The fastest way to get there is to fly. But the way that’s the most fun to get there is to swim. I told the merfairies I’d stop by their underwater palace to get them on the way to the island. Would you like to swim there with me?”

  Before Clara could respond, Aqua’s face fell. “Oh, I just realized I’ve been so worried about whether Flip and Snow can swim that I completely forgot to ask if you can.” She blushed and grimaced. “Do you happen to know how?”

  “I sure do,” Clara said. “And I’m even wearing my bathing suit under my clothes.”

  Relief and joy washed over Aqua’s face. “Wonderful,” she said.

  Then Clara paused. “The only thing is, humans can’t breathe underwater.”

  “That’s not a problem,” Aqua said, with a wink. “Most pegasuses can’t breathe underwater either. But I can because that’s one of my magical powers. Just tell me when you’re ready to go in.”

  Clara peeled off her shirt, her pants, and her shoes. “I’m ready,” she said, hopping up and down in her lime-green bathing suit.

  “Watch this,” Aqua said, grinning with excitement. The gemstone water droplet design on her tiara sparkled. And then a clear bubble the size of a beach ball appeared in front of Clara. For a few seconds, it hovered in the air, spinning and shining in the sun. Then, in a burst of teal light, Clara’s head was inside the bubble! “As long as you’re wearing that magic bubble, you’ll be able to breathe and talk and see underwater,” Aqua said.

  “That’s amazing. Thank you,” Clara said. She reached up her hands and touched the bubble. It felt cool and soft, like a cross between glass and silk. “I can’t wait to try it.”

  Aqua reared up and barreled down the dune, galloped across the sand, and crashed into the waves. “The water is perfect today,” she called out to Clara.

  Clara sat down in the sand and slid to the bottom of the dune. Then she ran across the warm soft sand and stepped into the surf. Aqua was right: the water was cool and refreshing. Clara ran through the waves to her pegasus friend, and the two jumped and splashed deeper and deeper into the sea. When the water was as high as Clara’s neck, Aqua turned to Clara and said, “On the count of three, let’s dive underwater.”

  Clara nodded.

  “One. Two. Three!” Aqua and Clara said together before they both plunged below the waves.

  Clara blinked and looked all around her. Sand, pebbles, and shells covered the sea floor. She took a long deep breath. And then another. It was true: with the magic bubble on her head, she could see and breathe underwater.

  Aqua swam over to Clara, paddling with her wings and kicking with her legs. And then she did two flips.

  Clara giggled. She did two flips back.

  “Kelp Castle—that’s the name of the merfairies’ palace—is just a little farther this way,” Aqua said, swimming deeper into the sea.

  “I can’t wait to see it,” Clara said, paddling alongside Aqua.

  Aqua glanced over at Clara and said, “Sometimes I like to invent my own swimming strokes.”

  “You do?” Clara said. “Me too! That’s my favorite thing to do at the pool with my sister.”

  Aqua flashed a playful grin. “I call this one the Banana-Eating Kangaroo in a Hurry,” she said. Then, she made a frantic jumping motion with her hind legs as she used her front legs to pretend to cram a banana into her mouth.

  Clara laughed so hard she had to stop swimming for a moment. And then she began doing the Banana-Eating Kangaroo in a Hurry too. After a few seconds, she said, “Now I have one. I call this the Sleepy Octopus Doing Yoga.” Then she yawned and fluttered her eyelids as she pretended her arms and legs were undulating tentacles doing downward dog and warrior one—two yoga poses she had learned in her gym class at school.

  “I love it!” Aqua said, yawning and snoring as she pretended her legs and wings were flailing, yoga-doing tentacles.

  They pretended to be sleepy octopus yogis for a few more seconds. Then Clara noticed thick clumps of rainbow-colored seaweed growing in the sand. As they swam, the seaweed grew longer and longer, and the clumps thicker and thicker. Soon they came to what looked like a seaweed forest. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple strands of seaweed, each as tall as a tree, swayed and fluttered in the current. “To get to Kelp Castle, we have to swim through here,” Aqua said, kicking and paddling right into the seaweed.

  Clara followed her, smiling at the feeling of the soft, slippery seaweed brushing against her legs and arms as she kicked and paddled. Soon Aqua and Clara swam into a clearing. Hundreds of tiny bubbles, glowing with yellow-orange light, floated in the water, illuminating an elaborate shell-shaped palace. The castle, which was about the size of Clara and Miranda’s dollhouse, was made entirely of tiny seashells and rainbow-colored seaweed that had been braided, woven, and knit together to form archways, domes, towers, turrets, bridges, and walkways.

  “Wow,” Clara whispered. “That is an amazing palace.”

  “Welcome to Kelp Castle,” Aqua said. “Can you believe the merfairies made it? Stitch offered to help them weave and braid the seaweed, but they said they wanted to do it all by themselves.”

  “Doesn’t the seaweed ever tear or break?” Clara asked.

  “Almost never,” Aqua said. “The magic seaweed in the Sky Sea is incredibly strong.”

  For a few seconds, Clara stared in wonder at Kelp Castle.

  “Are you ready to meet the merfairies?” Aqua asked.

  “Yes,” Clara said.

  Aqua cleared her throat. And then, in a loud voice, she sang out, “We’re here!”

  After a few seconds, three creatures burst out the front door of Kelp Castle. Each looked to Clara like a colorful, doll-sized mermaid with shiny silver wings. They each held in their hands a basket made of seaweed and an instrument made of a large seashell with seaweed strings. Aqua grinned. “Clara, allow me to introduce you to my good friends, the merfairies.”

  “I’m Mira,” said a merfairy with a scarlet tail, indigo skin, and short kelly-green hair.

  “I’m Myrna,” said a merfairy with a yellow tail, lime skin, and wavy peacock-blue hair said.

  “And I’m Moira,” said a merfairy with a robin’s-egg-blue tail, fuchsia skin, and straight lavender hair said.

  Then, all together, Mira, Myrna, and Moira said, “It’s absolutely wonderful to meet you.”

  “I’m thrilled to meet you too,” Clara said.

  “Aqua has told us all about you,” Mira said.

  “And we’re delighted you can join us for the Wing Realm’s very first Merthday Splash,” Myrna said.

  Moira nodded. “We’ve spent the morning playing our shellophones and practicing the special songs we wrote for the occasion.”

  “And we each just checked our eggs,” Mira said, smiling and holding up her basket. “Every one of them is ready to hatch this afternoon. We’ve packed them up in our baskets and we’re ready to bring them to the hatching pool on Heart Island.”

  Aqua smiled. “Wonderful. My sisters and I are excited to help you welcome your babies to the Wing Realm.”

  “Let’s swim to Heart Island now,” Mira said. “I want to get there in time for one last shellophone practice session. I keep playing wrong notes!”

  Aqua, Clara, Moira, Mira, and Myrna swam together around the back of Kelp Castle and through a thick stretch of rainbow seaweed forest. When they came out on the other side, the water was shallow enough that Clara and Aqua could stand with their heads above the water. And right in front of them, sparkling in the sun, was Heart Island.

  Aqua and Clara walked to the shore as Moira, Mira, and Myrna burst out of the water and flew alongside them. Heart Island was about the size of a tennis court. At its center, surrounded by pink sand, was a large heart-shaped pool. Arranged along the edges of the pool were six white canvases. And sitting in the sand next to the pool was a large glass jar of black ink.

  Moira, Mira, and Myrna flew over to the pool and put their baskets of eggs down. Then Mira said, “We’re going to practice our hatching song one last time. It’s the song that tells the babies it’s time to come out of their eggs, and we want it to be perfect.”

  Aqua nodded. “That sounds great,” she said. “Flip and Snow will be here any minute now for one last swimming lesson.”

  The three merfairies flew to the other side of the island and began singing and playing their shellophones.

  Aqua looked at Clara. “I don’t think you need your head bubble anymore,” she said. The water droplet design on her tiara sparkled, and the bubble vanished.

  “Thank you,” Clara said.

  “No problem,” Aqua said. “Want to come see the decorations I painted while we wait for Flip and Snow?”

  “I’d love to,” Clara said. “Painting is one of my favorite activities.”

  “Me too,” Aqua said as they walked across the sand to the pool.

  Clara spent several seconds admiring Aqua’s paintings. Each was a combination of bold black stripes and big, elaborate black swirls. “Your pictures really are beautiful,” she said.

  “Thank you,” Aqua said. “I used my tail as a paintbrush. I dip it right in that jar of octopus ink and paint away.”

 

1 2 3 4