Laura Makago was a 12-year-old girl who lived near the sea. She was the only child in the family. Laura liked to watch whales, especially orcas, because they were her favourite animal. When she watched whales on her dad’s boat, she always carried a back pack with a pair of binoculars, a flashlight, a notebook, some pencils, and some food in it.

     It was July and school was over for the summer. One morning, Laura went on her dad’s motor boat to watch whales. “Dad, I’m going on your boat, Laura shouted from the door. “Okay, just be careful, honey,” her dad was reading the newspaper in the living room. Laura’s mom was doing the dishes.

     Laura got into the red boat and sailed into the blue ocean. There were many islands all over, but no one lived on them. Laura stopped in the middle of the ocean and tried to see if there were whales or dolphins. She saw a group of dark blue whales swam by. There were three large whales and two small whales. One sprayed water from its blowhole. A while later, she saw two bottle-nosed dolphins. Laura took out a pencil to jot down some notes. But, it slipped out of her hand and dropped onto the water. “Good thing it’s made out of wood, so it won’t sink,” Laura thought as she tried to reach for her pencil. But it floated away with a small wave. “Oh, no,” she said. She took out another pencil and let the other one float away. Then, an orca lifted a pencil up on its nose and tossed it back to Laura. “Thanks,” Laura said in surprise. “You’re welcome,” a voice replied. Laura looked around, but no one was there. “Did you just talk?” Laura asked suspiciously. The orca nodded, “my name is Claire, what’s your name?” “My name is Laura Makago, I’m whale watching,” said Laura. “Do you want to know why I can talk? Once, I was swimming around in the ocean alone, but I got lost. I found an island with lots and lots of fruits. They were on the trees all around the island. I wanted to get one, so I dove down deep into the ocean and swam up really fast. It made me go into the air and I was high enough to reach and apple hanging on the shortest tree. It tasted very delicious! Just as I swallowed it, I knew how to talk,” Claire told Laura the story. They became great friends.

     When Laura and Claire were telling each other jokes, a shark thought the red boat was a fish and took a bite on the tip of the boat. Laura gasped and climbed to the back. The shark didn’t like the boat’s taste, so it swam away. Laura was relieved. But now, the boat was sinking because of the hole the shark made. “Hop on!” Claire yelled at her. She jumped on and Claire carried her to the nearest island.

     This island had lots of trees, like a jungle. There were trees with fruits around the rim of the island. Claire realized it was the same island that she got the apple off the tree. She still couldn’t find her family; it was one month ago that she was lost. Claire tried to hunt for food and tried some fruits, too.

     Laura saw two monkeys playing tag around a big rock. “You’re it!” said the bigger one. The little one chased after the big monkey. They were having so much fun that they didn’t notice someone came on the island. “Can all animals talk?” Laura asked Claire. “No, only the ones that ate the fruits on this island can,” Claire answered. The monkeys heard the sound of the voices, so they slowly approached the side of the island. They hid behind some bushes to see what was happening.

     “It’s...... a human!” said the little monkey. “Come on, we need to tell the king about the,” the other one said. The king of the island was a lion. He liked to welcome people that got lost and came to the island. When the king heard that there was a human on the island, he quickly jumped out of his throne and asked the monkeys to take him to Laura.

     Back at the edge of the island, Claire left to find her family and Laura was looking around the island. “Welcome to Magicanimal Island! I’m the king, what’s your name?” the king asked. “I’m Laura,” she said. “Are you lost?” the king asked. “Yes, my boat was broken because of a shark attack. So I came to this island,” Laura said. “Well, spend the night here and I’ll tell you how to get back tomorrow,” the king said kindly. Laura followed the two monkeys and the king happily into the jungle.

     In the afternoon, the king gave Laura some fruits, vegetables and a glass of orange juice. She was really hungry since she hadn’t eaten anything for lunch. After Laura was full, she took a walk around the forest with the king. They saw some statues made out of stones, a field of beautiful flowers, a pond full of different kinds of fish and a large fountain in the centre of the island. At night, they gathered around the fire with other animals to sing and dance. There were rabbits, squirrels, chipmunks, rats, raccoons, foxes, deer, beaver, moose, birds and even bears. They were having a lot of fun.

     The next morning, the king said Laura had to find the missing orca named Claire so she could get back to her house. “I already found Claire. But she went to find her family before you came to greet me,” Laura said. She didn’t expect that she had to find Claire before going home.

     Laura made a raft out of wood and seaweeds and went searching for Claire on the large ocean. It wasn’t a windy day, so it was easy to control the raft. Laura looked behind large boulders, around some islands and all the places she could see. She saw a cave and went in it. Since the cave had water instead of dry land, she still had to use the raft. There were crystals everywhere. In the cavern, not far from the exit was something black with some white patches on it. It was looking at a giant, flat pink crystal on the wall. Laura went closer to the figure and saw an orca starring at a crystal with pictures on it.

     “Claire, is that you?” Laura asked the orca. “Laura!” the orca said, “I found the Crystal Cave, it can show me where my family is.” Laura looked puzzled. Claire continued, “This is a screen made out of crystal. It shows you where the object or person you’re looking for is. Anyways, why did you come here?” “The king of Magicanimal Island asked me to find you because you were lost. So I made a raft and came searching for you,” Laura told her, “let’s go back to the island, I think your family is already there waiting for us to go back.”

     Laura and Claire went back to Magicanimal Island together. Claire swam beside Laura’s raft. While they were heading back, Claire showed Laura a few tricks that she learned. For example: jumping up into the air, diving very deep and balancing a coconut on her head. Laura showed her what she always carried in her bag when she was whale watching. She took out her binoculars to see how far they still had to travel in order to get back to the island “We’re almost there, Claire,” Laura told her friend.

     “Mom, Dad!” Claire yelled as they got to the island. “Claire, I’m so glad to see you,” her mom said. “Dad, Mom, I found the Crystal Cave. When I wanted to see where you were, Laura found me in the cave. Oh, this is my friend, Laura, I met her while I was searching for you,” Claire was telling her parents the whole story.

     Laura went to the king’s palace, “I found Claire, the missing orca.” “Thank you, Laura!” the king was thrilled. “Can you get me the Bottle of Dolphins please?” he asked one of the pumas that were standing beside him. A while later, he returned with a bottle that has two dolphins in it. “When you open this bottle, the two dolphins will come out and become normal size dolphins. You can ride on one of them. They will guide you back to your house. Of course, they only work in the ocean,” the king explained hoe the Bottle of Dolphins work. Laura thanked him and went to the edge of the island, where Claire and her family were.

“Claire, I’m going back to my house. The dolphins can guide me home, so don’t worry,” Laura said. As soon as Claire’s parents saw Laura, they thanked her, “Thank you sooooooo much for finding our beloved daughter, thank you!” the little orcas thanked Laura as well. “It wasn’t hard to find her, she was just in the Crystal Cave,” Laura said, “Well, I’m going home, Claire. Bye, everyone.” Claire waved good-bye with her tail along with her family as Laura opened the glass bottle. She waved and rode on one of the dolphins. Laura got home safely. When Laura and the two dolphins got to the shore by her house, the dolphins shrunk and went back into the bottle. Laura went into the house, it was silent. She went into the dining room, thinking it might be lunchtime. But nobody was there. She called her parents, “Mom, Dad.” Still, no one answered. Then, she heard someone crying, it came from the living room. Laura saw her mom sitting on the couch with tears running down her cheeks. But when she saw Laura, she stopped sobbing. “I’m home,” Laura said to her mom smiling. Her mom jumped up from the couch and hugged her daughter tightly, “Where have you been, we were so worried.” Laura told her mow the boat was broken, how she met Claire and about Magicanimal Island. After that, Laura’s mom phoned her dad and told him she found Laura. She was happy to be home again.

     A few days later, Claire came to visit Laura. She introduced Claire to her parents. Claire told them how she knew how to talk and showed them a few tricks. Laura’s parents liked Claire, so she got to visit whenever she wanted to. Sometimes, Laura and Claire went on great adventures together.