I was up before the sun rose, silently panicking. I knew I should have gotten more sleep so I was well rested for the fight ahead, but instead I dove into the water, aiming to get as much practice as I could. I managed two minutes and fifteen seconds this time.

  Aidan and Maverick called me out of the water as the sun began to rise. Zephyr had brought us food today, along with the map, so we could try to gauge how far out this thing was. My body shook as I popped the berries into my mouth—the only food Zephyr had thought to bring us. He had to bribe Maverick with meat if we came out successful.

  Once we had finished breakfast, we set off. Zephyr mentioned something about swimming for a half hour before diving in. At least I had all that practice swimming…

  Maverick and Aidan were speeding to the destination, and I was struggling to catch up. I didn’t dare ask them to slow down, but I caught them looking back at me and waiting every few minutes. Not my fault I had tiny arms.

  The air grew thick as well as the water. It felt like I was swimming in thick sludge as opposed to heavy water…

  “You doing okay?” Maverick called out to me, noticing I was swimming progressively slower.

  “Oh, I’m just peachy. Totally not panicking right now,” I called back.

  “I-I’m struggling too…” Aidan admitted. “A-any chance there’s an island somewhere that wasn’t on the map…?”

  “Unlikely. I’m sure the Falor Ghula would have just destroyed it anyway,” Maverick replied. “This is about the time when we start diving.”

  I sucked in a deep breath and dove under the water. Something hit my face, and I cringed. Wait… This is just how the water feels now?! Gross! It was like some sort of gas was hitting my face, and the water looked murky and dirty… It felt very unsanitary.

  We continued swimming with me coming up for air every two minutes. Aidan didn’t come up at all, and Maverick came up once. I was grateful that we weren’t swimming too far under the surface. There’s nothing quite like desperately swimming up for air while feeling like thick goop is dragging you back down…

  Maverick pointed off into the distance. He tried to speak, but gurgles were the only thing that came out. Now was a great time not to have a mind reader with us… Aidan nodded, and I assumed Maverick was explaining that the Falor Ghula was ahead. We all swam up for water, as well as to discuss the plan.

  “The Falor Ghula is just ahead,” Maverick explained. “We won’t be able to talk under water, so we should come up with a strategy here. We know the other two were weak to water and earth, so we can assume this one is either wind or fire.”

  “Uh, how can we use fire under water…?” I asked.

  “We can’t. So we’re going to have to hope it’s wind.”

  “A-and then once we do that, I use my light magic, right?” Aidan asked.

  “Right.” Maverick nodded. “We should split up as soon as we get there. From there, try to use wind magic. We don’t know anything about this creature and won’t be able to discuss anything while down there. Is there anything you want to ask or suggest now?”

  “If something goes terribly wrong, can we surface to discuss…?” I asked.

  “Yes. And… If for any reason you want to bail, just do this.” Maverick raised his hands and created an upside-down heart shape with his fingers. I nodded. “Anything else?”

  “What if my light magic doesn’t work?” Aidan asked.

  “Then do a thumbs down, and I’ll attempt. You’re going to have to buy me time again, though.”

  We nodded. Not having anything else left to discuss, we dove under the water.

  We didn’t have to swim long to see the monstrous fish in front of us. To me, it looked half whale, half puffer fish. It was covered in the same purple mist, and the only feature I could make out were its big beady eyes. My heart raced in my chest as I checked out the surroundings to see if there was an escape route. I didn’t want this to be like last time, where we were trapped by trees…

  Maverick pointed at me, then pointed left, and then pointed to Aidan and pointed right. He wanted us to split up. We nodded and went our designated ways. Maverick stirred up a cyclone, but seemed to have trouble pushing it through the water, so it just spun there… The giant fish noticed this and raced towards Maverick with a speed I didn’t think possible in this gunky, murky water…

  Maverick swam away and darted right, causing the fish to miss him. He started again with the wind magic, but the fish swam towards me!

  I panicked and started swimming away as fast as I could. It felt exactly like those dreams where you’re trying to run away, but your movements are in slow motion… No matter how fast I swam, the fish was always gaining on me.

  Come on, think! You can’t out-speed this giant fish!

  Ice appeared in my hand, and an idea struck me. I created a lance with the ice—no, a pole was more accurate. It must have been at least ten feet long. With that, I was able to poke the fish with the end, but then the pole kind of shattered… Despite this, the fish eagerly turned around and targeted Aidan. I could see a light glowing in Aidan’s hand. Had he provoked it to get it off of me…?

  Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

  My heart raced as I tried to calm down from what happened. I had no idea whether or not I was crying, considering we were under water. I needed to do something, but I didn’t want the fish to target me! But also, Aidan was being chased because of me…

  My lungs began to constrict, so I had no other choice but to resurface. I took a deep breath and tried to watch the battle that was happening beneath me. It was so difficult to see in the ripples of the water… I could barely make out the light that Aidan was still carrying.

  I dove back under again. Maverick was still struggling to make the wind connect in the thick water. What would help in this scenario? I thought back to the ice pole I had created. Unfortunately, a weapon made of wind didn’t seem possible. Wait… That was it!

  I swam over to Maverick and repeatedly tugged at his arm to get his attention, and pointed back up to the surface. Thankfully, he followed me there.

  “You know how Finn’s lance has fire?” I asked. “What if you imbued your sword with wind?”

  He raised his eyebrows in surprise and smirked. “I knew it was worth bringing you along.” He tried to tussle my hair but ended up splashing my face with water. I closed my eyes, shook my head, and went back under.

  Maverick did as I said and imbued his sword with wind. He caught Aidan’s glance and motioned for him to lure the fish towards him. As the fish approached, Maverick swam around behind it and stabbed it with his sword. The tip of the sword dissolved, and the creature seemed entirely unfazed. He turned to me with shock and horror in his eyes, and I returned the gaze. We resurfaced.

  “It’s fire,” Maverick said to me. “You and Aidan are going to have to come up with a plan while I hold it off. Aidan is running out of stamina.”

  “But—” I tried to interrupt.

  “We don’t have time. It’s up to you two now.” He dove back under and created a flickering light in his palm, pushing Aidan aside, and pointing upwards. Aidan swam up to the surface, and I raised my head back above the water to talk to him.

  “It’s fire, isn’t it?” he sighed, his chest heaving up and down.

  “Yes, and Maverick’s holding it off, and I don’t know what to do!” My words came out fast and were barely understandable. “We can’t use fire under water, right?”

  “No, it won’t even manifest.” Aidan shook his head.

  “Then what are we supposed to do?! Could a strong enough burst of light work?”

  “I don’t think so. We’d… We’d need to lure it out of the water somehow.”

  I started thinking. Swimming back to the shore didn’t seem like an option. Who knew if it would even follow us that far. But how would we get it above the surface?

  “It’s attracted to light, isn’t it?” I asked, remembering Aidan had lured it.

  “I-it seems that way.”

  “Can you use two elements at once?”

  “Um, m-maybe? Why do you ask?”

  “If you can use a decent amount of light to lure it, you could swim to the surface and maybe propel yourself in the air with wind. You have an elemental affinity that Maverick and I don’t have, so I think you’re the only one who could do this.”

  “You think that if I launch myself into the air, the fish will come launching with me?” The sides of his mouth started to raise as if he wanted to laugh.

  “Maybe…” I hung my head, feeling slightly embarrassed for suggesting it. “It’s stupid, but do we have any other option?”

  Aidan shook his head. “It’s not stupid. It’s genius, actually. But that means you’re the one who would have to use fire magic once it’s out. Do you think you can do that?”

  “Yeah…” My voice wasn’t as confident as I had hoped. “I have to do it.”

  He nodded, and we dove back down, hoping to put our plan in action.

  I noticed that Aidan swam much faster than Maverick and I. Even though he seemed to struggle earlier, he had really gotten the hang of it. Maybe that’s how he was able to outlast the fish for so long. He lured the fish deeper into the trench before swimming upwards with incredible speed. The monster struggled to keep up with him, but seemed determined. Right, I needed to get to the surface!

  I raised my head above the water, enjoying the air I was able to take in. I waited, my heart pounding with anticipation. A giant splash of water hit my face, and I could make out a blurry figure in the sky— and then a wave of water sent me below the surface. No… This can’t be happening!

  I quickly swam back up to see the fish slowly falling back down. Using everything I had in me, not caring if I was overshooting or not, I released a giant ball of fire that burned not only the fish, but Aidan as well. The horrible screech of the creature only made the sinking feeling in my stomach worse. Aidan slowly dropped down into the water, not a single burn on his body.

  “A-are you okay?!” I shouted, the tears starting to fall for real this time.

  Aidan beamed at me. “Don’t worry, I’m immune to fire now.”

  I released a huge sigh of relief. Aidan didn’t waste any time diving back down, releasing a burst of light similar to the first one he had when I had nearly died, I’d assume. The Falor Ghula was no more.

  Aidan and Maverick resurfaced—Maverick laughing hysterically, the biggest smile on his face. “You did it! I knew you two could do it!” He tussled Aidan’s hair, and for once, the latter didn’t seem to mind, joining in on the laughter with him.

  I smiled, not feeling quite as joyous as the other two, but feeling relieved more than anything.

  “I’m so proud of both of you.” Maverick looked at both of us in earnest. “You did it, Ella. You fought against a Falor Ghula.”

  “Wait… I did, didn’t I?” I chuckled. It just kind of… happened. I didn’t even think about it.

  “And you have your light magic back!” He beamed at Aidan, who nodded with a giant smile on his face.

  “Say, um, can we start swimming back to shore? My legs are getting tired…”

  “Of course. It should be much easier now that the ether is stable.”

  We swam back, though Aidan had to help support me. My body had become weak and numb from all the adrenaline… I wasn’t too surprised to see Marge, Finn, and Zephyr waiting by the shore. When they saw our ecstatic faces, they quickly cheered us on. Marge helped me out of the water and sat me down on the beach. Sand sticking to me wasn’t exactly what I wanted in the moment, but I was too tired to complain.

  “I wanna hear exactly what happened!” Marge eagerly glanced at each of us.

  “I’m so proud of you!” Finn practically tackled me as he gave me a giant hug. I had barely enough strength to keep from falling over.

  “It was all Aidan and Ella,” Maverick stated proudly. This must have been one of the few times he wasn’t eager to grab credit.

  Aidan began eagerly recounting what happened, being sure not to leave a single detail out. I noticed Finn didn’t bother to correct him any time he exaggerated, like claiming the entire lake turned red when the Falor Ghula got burned.

  “There’s only one left now,” Zephyr said.

  “Did you make any progress on how we’re going to reach it?” Maverick asked.

  “It seems the only way possible is by riding the pegasi.”

  “Wonderful…” I could’ve sworn I heard Maverick curse under his breath.

  “You mean… we’re going to actually get to ride them?!”

  “We’re going to have to ride them, whether we want to or not,” Zephyr explained.

  I couldn’t help but feel giddy at this news. But before doing anything else… I was starving.

  Finn motioned toward the picnic the three had set up. There was meat piled high enough to be a second Maverick. I salivated at the sight. And dug in before Maverick could stop me.