I thought back to my classes. All life began… in water! Water also matched the other descriptions! Water is necessary for all life, as all living things need water to survive. I put the trophy in my bag and started thinking.

From this information, I concluded that the correct domain would be a type of aquatic animal. Now the choices were narrowed down to Octopi, Dolphins, Killer Whales, and Crabs… maybe Doom was a consideration as well. And since crabs and octopi were eliminated, I had a choice between Dolphins, Killer Whales, and Doom. I finally decided to choose Dolphins, as Killer Whales weren’t that gray, and Doom just sounded ominous. Then, I looked at the map. The domains were in a circle, with the middle being neutral. I saw the Domain of Dolphins was at the farthest possible position, surrounded by the neutral area, the Domain of Doom, and the Domain of Octopi.

I was afraid that if I went into the wrong domain, I would be attacked, and some of my main sources of power would be useless. To test the water, so to speak, I entered the closest domain, the Domain of Crabs. There, a lot of crabs turned around and looked at me. Then, they all charged, expanding in size until I was the size of one of their claws. With their pincers outstretched, I knew I was in danger and fled the domain. I tried again, but this time shifting into a crab.

Immediately, when I walked in, a crab asked in their guttural language, “You. What is you name? I not see you before!”

I responded, “Gurulafalala!”, coming up with a random name.

Another crab came up, and exclaimed, “Gurulafalala! You back! Come home!”

The first crab added, “Me sorry, Lady Lohunipora, not know he you son!”

The second crab commented, “It okay, Cuhop! Gurulafalala different look!”

Huh, weird, it seems like the name that I randomly chose is the son of this important crab!

Suddenly, another crab scuttled through the entrance. It exclaimed, “I back! Gurulafalala back, mother!”

Lady Lohunipora questioned, “Two Gurulafalalas? One here, one outside, one fake?”

The real Gurulafalala shouted, “Me real Gurulafalala! That one fake!'' He jabbed his claw at me.

Afraid that I was about to be exposed, I quickly ran through Crab City, all of the crabs giving chase ready to pinch me to death. Once I ran across the border between the neutral zone and the Domain of Crabs, the crabs stopped giving chase as if I were now invisible and continued doing whatever they were doing before.

In the neutral zone, I decided to turn into a mako shark and swam across the neutral zone straight into the Domain of Dolphins, which was surrounded by the Domain of Doom and Domain of Octopi. When I slightly cut into the Domain of Octopi, an angry-looking giant octopus came over, tentacles outstretched. It was about to grab onto me when I slid, sliced off a tentacle, and abruptly left the Domain of Octopi.

“Hope you liked my little gift!” I smirked as the octopus retreated, who could no longer see me.

When I entered the Domain of Dolphins in the form of a dolphin, some dolphins immediately came over and mobbed me, saying, “New dolphin friend! New dolphin friend!”

When I shifted into my human form and then back into my dolphin form, the dolphins exclaimed, “Shapeshifter! Shapeshifter!”

“Yes, yes, I suppose I am!” I replied in dolphin speak.

“Follow! Follow!” They turned around and swam towards a dark cave. I followed carefully. Inside, a dolphin with a crown of aquamarine encrusted with coral was eating fish. When one of the dolphins announced my arrival, the dolphin king looked up and nodded.

“Ah yes, another candidate sent by the Rune Magic people. I suppose you’re here for the trophy for the third test?”

“Uhhhh…. Yes, Your Majesty,” I confirmed.

“Good, good. Now, follow me!” He beckoned with his fin for me to follow him. “You are a shapeshifter, yes? Trained with the legendary magic-user Tyronius? Bah! That doesn’t matter to me! You are a noble, yes? Well, I don’t-

“I’m not a noble, Your Majesty…” I interrupted.

“Bah! Don’t call me Your Majesty! It makes me sound like one of those old, crusty human kings. But you’re not a noble? Then how did you train with Tyronius as a shapeshifter?” The dolphin king turned around and looked me in the eye. “You do know I don’t appreciate liars, correct?”

“No, but I guess I do now!” I responded.

“Ha! A smart-aleck! That will make this conversation much more interesting!” The dolphin king exclaimed. “Call me… Haiuthon.

“Alright, Haiuthon. So basically I have a higher magic level than the headmaster so-

“Wait… you have a higher potential than old Cerritulus?” Haiuthon interrupted.

“Cerritulus? You mean Headmaster Cerri?” I questioned.

“Yes, I see that he does not use his full name anymore. Anyhow, the trophy awaits!” Haiuthon stopped in front of a cave glittering with gems, precious metals, and coins.

“Wow!” I exclaimed, staring at all of the riches that lay in front of me, surrounding the trophy which sat on a white pedestal that somehow managed to reflect sunlight even though it was underwater.

“Would I perhaps interest you in giving you some riches along with the trophies?” Haiuthon asked.

“No, I would prefer to earn my riches. I’ll just take the trophy.” I didn’t give in to the sense of greed that overtook me when Haiuthon had suggested giving me the riches along with the trophy.

“Good. You are not greedy, a great trait to have. Too many good people have been corrupted by greed and power, and too many have been corrupted with power, money is power, so they seek money for power, and since absolute power corrupts absolutely, they fall into the pit of corruption and turn against their former friends. I have become a victim of that treatment. Long ago, we dolphins were not dolphins; rather, we were humans. But that is a story for another time. Perhaps if you come back in the future I will tell you my story.” Haiuthon swam away, leaving me in the treasure room with the treasure and the trophy.

I grabbed the trophy and put it into my dolphin mouth, briefly turned back into a human to shove it in the bag, and turned back into a dolphin. Then, I saw a crack in the wall of the treasure room. Darkness spilled in from the crack. Behind the crack was a pitch-black cave; one that gave me sinister vibes and made a cold chill run down my back.

I stuck my head through the crack. Suddenly, a vortex opened up and dragged me into the cave. Everything was dark, and I couldn’t move. My mind sank into darkness and I knew no more.