I woke up and I got dressed but something was different. I walked downstairs. Reaching in the window there were big green turtle fingers!

My eyes popped open. My mom was shaking me. She said I had been screaming.

The Tornado

I wondered about this dream for a few years until one day a tornado hit and I got swept up into it. Everything went black.

I opened my eyes where was I? I was in the middle of Monterey Bay.

I was floating. I had never floated before. Otters!? Otters were holding me up. I held onto one of the otter's shoulders. They took me to a secret island that was ruled by otters. .

There were otter shoots everywhere. They took me through a curtain, down eighty-nine staircases, over a bridge, through a tunnel, down a spiral staircase, and through a garden. The only flowers in the garden were daisies that smelled like roses.

Finally, we passed through another curtain and into a ballroom with a big chair.

"We have ruled this island for centuries. It has been passed down through the royal family. Queen Lapodge has been kidnapped! Without her we cannot hold off the attacks from the dragons from the neighboring islands," an otter with a really short tail said.

That's when I... freaked!

"I want to go home!" I wailed. "Why do I have to be kidnapped in a tornado debaucle?!" I started crying. Somehow they comforted me. I heard one talk about a "swim"-- whatever that is!

They sounded a big peacock-patterned gong. All around me otters poked their cute little faces out from the rocky face.

It reminded me of Macaroni, my pet gerbil at home, poking out his head from his little house. Then my big sister Penelope would say, "You should really feed him! He's so skinny. He looks like a piece of sewing thread except with a head and legs."

An otter with two stripes on his head like a skunk said in a loud voice that I could not understand, "SQUEEK! SNIFF SNIFF. SQUEEK! SNIFF CLICK CLICK SQUEEK!"

He went on to say, "I have held this gathering because a new girl has arrived. Five otters named Libby, Libbla, Lapoosh, Libbigar, and Libbipaw and her," he gestured toward me, "will all go on the swim. They shall each take only one item with them."

I chose, of course, Macaroni, as the special item to take with me. When the tornado hit I had been playing with him in my sleeve. He got swept up with me. He stowed away in a secret hiding place somewhere in my clothing. I do not know the place because it is secret.

Libby chose a sapphire ruby. Libbla chose a golden hammer. Lapoosh chose an ax. Libbigar chose a pen, and Libbypaw chose a rock.

I jumped into the water and I spun around. I saw my legs.  They didn’t have feet but instead paws. We swam furiously through the day. Our troop of otters took a mighty leap out of the water but bounced back off of a cloud.

Lapoosh jumped up and slashed at the cloud with her ax. They jumped through the big hole into Bird Land.  It was an island ruled by birds.

We had to go through a gate. It was locked. Libbigar plucked the pen from his pocket. He stuck it in the keyhole, turned it, and the gate swung open.

In the outskirts of the bird village we asked a chickadee for directions to the royal palace, but the chickadee said, "Those rich people on the inside are mean. You wouldn't want them for companions. You would want one of the little birds."

We wandered around the outskirts and found a pileated woodpecker. We asked him if he would like some adventures and he said yes, so he came with us. We jumped back out of the cloud and into the sea. As we swam in the ocean he flew over us.

Then out of absolute surprise, Libbypaw threw up the rock. The woodpecker crashed into it and fainted. The others pulled him under and swam deeper and deeper and deeper until they got to Turtle World.

I felt a little sorry for the poor woodpecker, but after he woke up he said it didn't hurt.

It was beautiful there. Light was shining down making the sea glow blue. There were coral houses in a big ring around a big huge palace. There was coral that looked as if it had been sprinkled around the village like grass.

They gave us food and the Guidance Turtle, who later we found out was named Madeline gave us guidance to the world of the dragons. She opened her shell. The turtles threw the bird inside. He said in a muffled voice, "Thanks! I really needed some air."