One day Fern was sitting in her rocking chair, reading a book, when Fern noticed the only water she had seen was in rivers and ponds. She wondered if there was a bigger source of water in the world. She went to ask her mom who was upstairs if there was a bigger source of water. Fern went up and found Mama Leopard reading in her bedroom on the bed.
“Mama,” Fern asked her, “is there a bigger source of water that’s bigger than the amazon river?”
“Well,” Mama Leopard said, “let me tell you the story of when I found out about something called The Beach. It was a rainy day in the jungle when I found a little book laying on the ground underneath the palm tree that was keeping it dry. So I opened the book and started to read. I was your age then, and I was very curious. Inside the book there was a picture of a bright sunny place with lots of sand and lots of water. The water seemed to go on for miles and miles and there were no clouds in sight. It looked as if the sky had scattered its stars all along the edge of the sand but the stars weren’t just white, they were all different colors of the rainbow. I looked around, and saw a little sign that said “Beach”
“What does beach mean?” Fern asked her mom.
“Well, I won’t tell you because that will spoil the story. Anyways… I went down to the water and dipped my claw in. Suddenly I heard a loud crashing sound and a big wall of water came crashing down on me! I ran up the sand a ways and found a little palm tree with shade that I could rest in.”
“But Mama,” Fern asked her mom, “You’re telling me that you’re in the book.”
“Yes,” said Mama Leopard. “I just then noticed that I was in the book while I was resting in the shade of the little palm tree. I wondered how I could have gone into the book. Just then, as I looked around, it all vanished and I was standing on top of the book in the rain under the palm tree. I was very astonished and confused. I went back to the castle and brought the book with me. I put it in the bookshelf, but I haven’t seen it since then.”
“Mama, can we find it and go in?” Fern asked her.
“Well we’d have to do a lot of cleanup to find it.”
“Oh mama,” Fern cried. “I’d love to go into the book. I’d do anything to go into the book!”
“Oh really,” Mama Leopard purred. “Even chores all day?”
“Um, maybe not everything,” Fern meowed.
Mama Leopard laughed. “Well, I guess we’ll have to start.”
So Mama Leopard started cleaning up as Fern looked through the bookshelf and organized all the books by color. Suddenly, she found a book that was old and torn up, with a blue cover.
“Mama,” Fern called upstairs. “I think I found it!”
She flipped through the pages and found the one with the sandy beach.
“Mama,” Fern called. “Come here!”
“Coming,” Mama Leopard called down.
Mama Leopard raced down the stairs and looked at Fern and then the book.
“Well, it definitely looks like you found it!”
“How do you go in?” Fern asked her.
“I don’t know,” Mama Leopard answered. “Remember, it was a long time ago and I don’t think I figured out how you get in.”
Suddenly, Fern was standing on the sunny beach listening to the waves crash along the shore.
“Well I guess we’re here,” Mama Leopard said to Fern.
“Wow,” said Fern. “I didn’t think it would take this short.”
Fern dashed down the beach to the water and splashed in. It really was freezing. She leapt out with a yelp! She looked around and saw the little palm tree and the sign.
“Mama,” Fern called. “Where are you?”
“I’m over here,” Mama Leopard answered.
She was standing on the other side of the beach looking down into the water.
“I think I found something!”
Fern hurried over to her and looked into the water. There, there was a fin much like the dolphins fins except this one was gray and much bigger.
“What is that?” Fern whispered.
“I don’t know” Mama Leopard answered.
“Hello,” said the fin. “I’m a shark! My name’s Finley.”
“What’s a shark?” Fern asked Finley.
“A shark is a lot like a dolphin, it’s just bigger and it eats meat. I mean, like, not tiny little fish. I mean big meat!”
Fern gulped. “LIke us?”
“Well,” said Finley. “I wouldn’t eat you, since I don’t even know what you are.”
“We’re leopards,” Mama Leopard told finley. “We come from the Amazon rainforest!”
“What’s the Amazon rainforest?” asked finley.
“Do you know what a forest is?” Fern asked her.
“Yes,” said Finley. “There are kelp forests here.”
“What are kelp forests?” Mama leopard asked.
“They’re a different type of forest, just they grow in water.” Fern answered her. “I read that in a book. Though, I thought it was in the Amazon river, not at the beach.”
“Nope,” said Finley. “It’s at the beach.”
“Huh,” said Fern. “Never knew that.”
“Anyways,” interrupted Mama Leopard, “Can we get on with figuring out how to see this kelp forest?”
“Can you swim?” asked Finley.
“Kind of,” Fern answered.
“But the water’s a little bit cold here…” continued Mama Leopard.
“We’ll be fine, mama,” Fern answered.
“What about the huge waves?” Mama Leopard protested, “and what about rocks you could bang your head on, or, or…”
“Don’t worry, mama!” Fern told her.
To Finley she said, “All right let’s go!”
“I have an idea,” Finley told her.
“You can ride on my back!”
“Okay…” Fern answered.
“Hop on!” Finley said.
Fern hopped on to Finley.
“Oh,” said Finley. “You are a little bit heavy, but I think I can carry you. Let’s go!”
So Fern and Finley set off and Mama Leopard waved goodbye.
Fern rode for about 15 minutes before Finley stopped and said, “Here it is!”
“What?” Fern told her. “I don’t see anything.”
“Oh,” said Finley. “It’s in the water, of course!”
“Oh,” said Fern. “So how will I see it?”
“Well,” said Finley, “I’ll give you a bracelet to put on that allows you to breathe underwater.”
She handed Fern a little gemstone teal bracelet that sparkled in the sunlight. Fern put it on and dove into the water.
To her surprise, she saw a whole forest of kelp come into view as the bubbles faded away.
Finley dove after her.
“See?” said Finley. “This Is the kelp forest. It’s where I live.”
“Really?” said Fern. “It’s very beautiful.”
She looked around and noticed there were animals everywhere. They were just hidden. There was a long snake-like animal that had slimy green skin, and lots of rainbow fish. There were crabs everywhere, and even an eight-armed orange thingy.
“Um,” said Fern pointing to a big ball that had lots of little tentacles coming down from it. “What’s that?”
“That’s a jellyfish,” said Finley. “Wait a second, If there’s one jellyfish, that means there are many jellyfish…”
Just then a whole cloud of jellyfish swarmed toward them out of the dark kelp forest.
“Swim!” cried Finley.
“Wait, why?” said Fern. “I don’t think they can do anything to…”
“JUST SWIM!” cried Finley again.
“OK!” said Fern. She took off swimming as fast as she could with Finley leading the way.
Soon they arrived back at the beach and Fern leapt out of the water and ran to the palm tree and rested in the shade of it, panting.
“What happened?” Mama Leopard cried, running toward them. “Are you okay?”
“We’re fine, mama,” Fern told her. “We just had a jellyfish attack.”
“What are jellyfish?” Mama Leopard asked her.
“Look into the water and you’ll see,” Finley called to Mama Leopard. Finley started swimming as fast as she could around the beach.
Mama Leopard and Fern looked into the water and saw that there were hundreds of jellyfish in the water in one big cloud.
“Oh dear,” said Mama Leopard, backing away from the water’s edge. “We should get going.”
“How do we go back home, though?” Fern asked her.
“Well,” said Mama Leopard. “How did we get here?”
“We wished we could get here.” Fern answered.
“So,” said Mama Leopard. “To get back home, we just have to…”
“Wish to go back home!” Mama Leopard and Fern said at the same time.
Suddenly, Fern was sitting on the couch with Mama Leopard reading an old blue torn book.
“Well,” said Fern. “I guess we’re safe from the jellyfish.”
Suddenly, Mama Leopard’s banana phone started ringing.
“Yes,” Mama Leopard said.
“It’s Finley!” Mama Leopard gasped. “And she says to meet her by the pond.”
And Fern still meets her at the pond, even today.
The end.