Prologue

  Once upon a time, in 2170 planet earth was bright and sunny. Everyone was happy. Global warming never ended up happening, gas cars and large factories producing tons of greenhouse gases were outlawed. The sky never had smoke.

   Psych! Nuclear bombs exploded the planet! But in darkness there is hope. There were few people left on the planet alive. Of the survivors, there were four girls, Marina, Rose, Ash and Raven. They all tried to save the Earth but it didn't work. It was too late.  

  One of them tried to plant more trees, but they all got chopped down. One of them walked the beaches every single day to try to get rid of all the trash but there were too many cola coke bottles on the shore. One of them went around trying to outlaw gas cars but there were too many Karen's, not willing to give up their precious limited-edition SUVs. And one of them tried to get rid of all the smoke in the air but so many factories, sooo many factories already existed.

  One day, the elemental gods came down to visit the girls. “You have tried to help the other humans but they did not listen,” said one god, “For your hard work to protect the planet, we give you each your own elemental power.” The four gods lined up and the first one stepped forward to Marina. 

  “To you I give the power of water.” A blue light appeared in her hands and she gave it to her.

   The next god stepped forward and approached Rose. “To you I give the power of earth.” A green light appeared in her hands and she gave it to her. The third god stepped forward to Ash. “To you I give the power of fire.” A red light appeared in her hands and she gave it to her. The final god stepped forward and approached Raven. “To you I give the power of wind.” A white light appeared in her hands and she gave it to her.

   After that, the four girls started a village with all the people who were left.

   The girls, being that they had elemental powers, were appointed as queens of the village. Each queen had followers that, over time, formed into four Elemental tribes: Water, Earth, Fire, and Wind.

   As the new civilization expanded, the Wind Queen grew irrationally jealous of the other tribes. She felt as though the other tribes were more important than hers. Like she and her tribe were the odd ones out.

    So, one day, the Wind Queen decided she wanted to take her tribe away from the other tribes. She brought them to a remote cavern, deep below ground. A place away from everything, a place to rest until she could seek revenge on the other tribes.

Chapter 1: The Message 

POV Pearl 

500 years later...

  Hi, it’s me, Pearl, I'm the Water Princess. Right now, me, Lily the Earth Princess, Shade the Fire Princess, and my little brother Kelp- the Water Prince and his friend, Scallop, are chilling on the first floor of the water palace. We are all decedents of the original Elemental tribes.

  Basically, this is the palace of the royal Water people. Next door is Fire and across the way is Earth. Wind is to our right.  It's been abandoned since the Wind people mysteriously disappeared 500 years ago.

   Anyway, I think I’m gonna go get a snack. I get up and walk over to the cabinet. I open the door as I am deciding what I want for a snack. "So should I have strawberries or blueberries..."

  I look up out the window and I see a mysterious figure floating just above the ground.

“There’s a Wind person outside!” I shout. Lily and Shade rush over and peer out the window. 

  “There’s no one there,” says Shade. 

  "Someone was there before," I said, "I saw them with my own eyes!" 

  "Well maybe your eyes were mistaken," said Shade. I turned to Lily to see if she would say anything but she was looking behind us. 

  "Guys," she said, "There's a cloud puff balloon flying over there."

  I turned to look around and spotted it floating in the air like it just came from the heavens.

  "We have to catch it!" Lily said, "It might have a message for us!"

  We ran toward the balloon but Lily stayed back. 

  "What is it?" I asked her. She was pacing around the floor. 

  "We won't be able to reach the balloon on our own," she replied, "It's too high for us to reach." 

  She grew a vine and tied it to make a lasso.

 "Now let's go!" she said.

  Lily lassoed and lassoed the balloon until finally, it latched on and we brought the balloon down. 

  "Look, there's a scroll attached to the string!" I said.

  "What does it say?" asked Shade.

"It says...

                                                                        I read.

  "What does that mean?" Shade asks. 

  ‘’I think it means we are going to the abandoned royal Wind village," Lily said, "At 3:30ish."

'Meet at the wind Palace 3:30ish'

Chapter 2: 3:30ish

POV Shade

  "It's 3:30!," Lily shouts, "It's time for whatever is going to happen over there, hope you're ready!"

  "Wait, it's already 3:30??!!" Pearl said, "I lost track of time! I'm still getting ready!"

  "Oh come on Pearl! We're all ready! Let's go! You already had enough time!” I say.

  "But, but, but I..." Pearl shouted, "Okay fine!! But if we're gone for long then you'll regret doing this to me!"

  We headed outside and crossed the grounds. We passed the fire palace and we climbed up the ladder and entered the wind palace. There was a girl there. She looked our age. She was wearing a white dress with fairy-like wings and she was floating about a foot off the ground. When she saw us she said, "Oh finally, you're here." 

  "The message said 3:30ish," I said. 

  "Well, I didn't know when I would be able to get up here." the girl replied.

"Who are you anyway," Pearl asked.

  "I'm Sky, the Wind Princess," she answered, "I'm here to talk to you about something my mother is planning."

  "Wait," Lily interrupted, "I thought the Wind people were evil, why should we trust you?"

  "Let me explain," she lowered her voice. "Once upon a time there were four eleme-" 

   "We've heard this story before!" Pearl interrupted.

  "Okay good," she responded, "Then let's fast-forward to the part you probably don't know about. So, when our tribe left the rest of you, we went to a secret cave system and we've been hiding there ever since."

  "If you're in hiding, why are you here now?" I asked.

   "Like I said before," Sky said, "I'm here to tell you about what my mother is planning."

  "Your mother?" asked Pearl.

  "Shhhhh!" Lily whispered, "Listen to the story!"

"Continuing," Sky said, "Now, about what you said about the Wind people being evil, not everyone in the Wind tribe is evil."

"Well that's a relief," Pearl whispered so quietly no one responded.

"Only my mother and her bodyguard people are actually evil. They came up with an evil plan to take out all of the other tribes. For now they think we all are evil with her but if any of us does something to disobey her there will be a punishment," said Sky.

"Wouldn't this be disobeying your mother?" Lily asked, "Coming here to warn us?"

"She doesn't know that I'm here," Sky replied.

"Also Sky," said Lily, "What is the reason you are telling us all of this?"

"It is because I would like to task you three with stopping my mother's plan. Do you accept?" Sky asked.

   I glanced at Lily and Pearl and they had that look in their eyes so I said "We accept."

   "There is one more important thing I need to tell you before I go." Sky said.

   "What is it?" Pearl asked.

   "There's a secret entrance to the caves on the earth floor," Sky said, "You'll find a button behind the waterfall. Press that and the entrance will appear. Good luck!"

   She turned around and flew out of the window.

Chapter 3: 

The Secret Caves

POV Lily

   We went back across the field and went into the royal Earth palace, my home. We passed by some of my family members and we reached the waterfall. 

   "It's supposed to be behind the waterfall right?" I shouted over the loud noise of the rushing water.

   "Yeah, that's what she said," Shade shouted back, "Look for a button back there!"

   I peered around the corner and carefully stepped along the edge behind the waterfall. I stopped and felt the solid rock wall next to me and searched around for a clue. There it is! 

   "I found it!" I shouted.

   "Hooray!" Pearl shouted back. 

   I pressed the button and I almost fell when the rock wall I was leaning on suddenly disappeared.

   "Come on!" I said, "The door is open!"

   Pearl and Shade filed in along the edge and came into the tunnel.

   "It's pretty dark in here," says Pearl.

   "Yeah, I agree," I say, "It's a little too dark, especially if it's supposed to be a secret tunnel."

   Out of nowhere a bunch of torches start lighting up leading down the tunnel.

   "Umm, Shade, was that you?" Pearl asks.

   "No," Shade replied, "That's creepy."

   "Really creepy," I say.

   "Let's just keep going," says Pearl.

   We walk farther into the tunnel and eventually we reach a cave.

   "Wow," says Shade, "This must be what Sky was talking about, the underground cave system."

   Shade stepped out of the tunnel.

   "Shade!" I said, "Wait!"

   She froze where she was standing, "What?"

   "You have to be careful," I said, "We need to check for traps before we go any farther,"

   Shade lost her balance and stepped fully into the cave and suddenly flashing lights came on and sirens sounded. Rock walls slowly slid down in the tunnel. Out of nowhere, the walls froze in place, sirens and lights froze too and a voice came over the intercom. 

   "Sorry about that," it said, "I should have warned you about traps before." 

   "Before?" mumbled Pearl, "Where, why, who, what, how, when before?" 

   "Oh," it said, "I'm Sky, the person you met in the Wind palace."

   "Oh, it's you, phew," I said, "We need some help navigating these caves."

   "I can help right after I figure out how to get in to help you," replied Sky, "I'll be back!"

   Everyone carefully made their way into the cave and I realized that this cave was a small pond filling all areas of the cave.

Chapter 4: 

A Teamwork Triumph

POV Shade

   The first thing I said when I saw the water was, "Oh no, how do we do this? If I fall in it's over for me!"

   "We'll find a way, don't worry!" said Lily even though her face said different.

   I looked over at Pearl and she had that look on her face like a light bulb was going off in her brain.

   "I have an idea to get Shade across," she said.

   "What's your idea?" I asked.

   "So, Lily, you are going to grow a lily pad, or some sort of plant she can stand on for the ride over to the other side of the water. Meanwhile, I will be pushing the lily pad forward. Got it?"

   "Got it! Let's do this!" says Lily. She steps forward and reaches from the bottom of the shore of the pond up to her waist-level.

   A small green plant appeared and started following her hands, growing up from the ground under the water to form a pretty big, round, flat lily pad. She pulled it in a little so it could float on top of the water right next to the bank.

   "Hop on!" She said as I carefully climbed on to the rather large plant.

   "And hold on too," Pearl added, "We don't want you falling into the water at any point during this trip across the pond,"

   Lily pushed the lily pad out into the water and Pearl got behind it.

   "Ready? 3, 2, 1, GO!" said Pearl and she kicked off into the water. I closed my eyes, SPLASH SPLASH SPLASH was all I heard as Pearl swam forward pushing me along.

   "We're here!" says Pearl obnoxiously loud in my ear, startling me and making me open my eyes.

   Ah yes, finally, lovely dry land where I can be safe again! I quickly hop off the lily pad to my safe place. 

   "Well that was easier than I thought it would be," said Lily.

   "Let's go into the next cave," I said, eager to get away from the water.

   "Yeah let's go," agreed Pearl.

Chapter 5: A Lot-a Spotata

POV Pearl

  All three of us walk into the next cave. I look around and observe that the cave has vines hanging from the ceiling and a bunch of plants and bushes and trees scattered around. There were also plants, some spiky, poisonous, venomous, you name it, all those plants were below us in a deep drop directly in front of our feet.

   We approach the pit with hope that it isn't too hard to figure out.

   "Okay guys," Sky said over the intercom, "I'm coming in."

   A whoosh noise came from behind us and Sky flew in with a gust of wind.

   "Brrrrrrr," I say with a shiver.

   "How did you manage to get in?" asked Lily.

   "A little trick I had up my sleeve," she answered slyly, "Anyway let's find a way to get across."

   "Well if I did this and they did that and this was there and that works then..." mumbled Lily, deep in thought.

   "What are you thinking?" asked Shade.

   "What if we...hmm...," she trailed off, "So, if there is a way to swing on the vines to get across?"

   "Pearl is a Water person!" exclaimed Shade, "Her hands will slip and she won't be able to get a good grip on the vines!"

   "But if she slips, we could put something below to catch her. I just don't know what," answered Lily.

   "What about a bouncy plant?" I suggested.

   "Like an andren spotata plant!," exclaims Lily, "That's perfect!"