Once there was a little fish named Minnow who lived in the open ocean with her brothers and sisters.

One day Minnow accidentally got separated from her school because she followed a transparent jellyfish into an unknown area of the sea. She hadn't taken notice of where she was going because she had become mesmerized by the unusual, gem-like tentacles of the strange jellyfish. She had never seen anything like it before. When the jellyfish suddenly disappeared, she realized she was lost. The familiar blue waters were now solid black and she had no idea how to get back to her school or even what part of the sea she was in. She had never ventured into the dark sea before.

Even though she was afraid, she was also curious and she decided to make the most of her time away from her school.

She decided to let her curiosity run free, really free while she was lost. School was so boring and she was tired of obeying her teachers’ unnecessary rules. It was time for an adventure.

Within a few minutes she came upon a group of unusual and colorful creatures who were hanging around the entrance of a cave.

As she swam past them she said in a cheerful tone, "Greetings fine creatures.” All the creatures replied in unison "Greetings.”

Then Minnow asked, “Is it safe to go into this cave?”

The blue fancy fish replied, “Yes, it is, but beware of the Pufferfish, Fangfish and the Ganglion. Before you do anything though, you should go find the Octopus. She lives in the big sunken ship that's just around the corner from the entrance of the cave.”

Minnow replied, “ OK, thank you.”

But instead of going in search of the Octopus like the blue fish advised, Minnow decided to just have a look around the cave first. Immediately, she noticed a tiny clam who was stuck in a crevice and she helped him get out of it.

Then she noticed a giant shimmering whale building some sort of elaborate and complex floating structure. All over the structure were unknown symbols and formulas which very few fish understood.

Upon seeing the whale, Minnow suddenly felt so small and insignificant. She looked down at her own tiny fins that were plain and green and wished that she too would someday be as big and complex as the shimmering whale.

After a little reflection, she cast aside her feelings of insignificance and began feeling curious again. She was really interested in the complex structure that the whale was building. She took a few pictures of the unknown symbols on the structure while the whale wasn't looking. She wanted to study them later on and ask others if they knew what the symbols meant.

Right across from the shimmering well was a fishbank where a sign outside said FREE ACCOUNTS. Minnow decided to go there first and open an account since she had practically nothing in her school account.

After her account had been set up, she looked at the photos of the unknown symbols. They were driving her nuts. “What do they mean?” She decided to go searching for the meaning of the symbols right then.

She knew that the shimmering whale had the answers to the symbols, but she was too scared to ask him directly. He was so big, so powerful, so shimmering and he seemed too busy.

She decided to go exploring more of the cave. She ran into more whales, orcas, trout, sharks and dolphins. Some of the whales were busy mining transparent goo inside of rocks. After they mined this clear goo substance from the rocks, they formed the goo into blocks. They had to wear special glasses to see the goo. Then they slapped a sign onto each block which read, BLOCK # 1, 2, 3, etc. Then they attached a chain to the blocks of goo which connected the first block to the second, and so forth.

But then something magical happened at the precise time the chain got attached to the block of transparent goo.

The block of goo replicated itself a hundred times instantaneously, like a jellyfish releasing its clones, and these flew at the speed of light to all the different whale miners. This was to ensure that each block of goo was created with precision and also it ensured that no whale miner went rogue.

“Wow!” Minnow thought to herself, realizing she’d found a place of pure magic.

Then she left the whale miners and continued on exploring the cave.

At this point she noticed it was getting blacker the further she went in the cave. She began to feel alone and very small.

She had no blocks to mine, no structures to build, no friends in this strange new cave world. Then she happened to notice a large tuna sitting at a desk writing in a large book.

The tuna was happily writing away. He had strange floppy donkey ears instead of regular fish ears and this made Minnow laugh. Minnow was really amused by the tuna’s donkey ears and she swam over to get a closer look.

Minnow said to the tuna, “I love your donkey ears. How did you get them?”

The tuna replied in a deep voice, “The Nerd Shepherd gave them to me when I entered the cave four weeks ago.”

“Why?”

The tuna replied, “Because I offered to write this book for him.”

Minnow then said, “Oh, I write every day, too, but I write for selfish badgers. Is there anything I can do to help you write that book? If you need any help writing, please let me know. I love this cave so far and I'd like to help you if I can.”

The donkey-eared tuna replied, “OK, I'll keep you in mind. Thanks for the offer.”And the tuna continued writing his book at his dimly lit desk.

Minnow swam on and it was now quite late. She was getting sleepy, so she decided it would be best to find a safe place for the night instead of venture out of the cave at that late hour.

As she was swimming she began to hear funny Swedish music and a very deep and deceptive voice booming through the water. She then saw a giant bright and glowing Swedish hat and a sign underneath that said, VACANCY.

“Ahhh, a Swedish motel!” She had no idea what a Swedish motel was, but it sounded good to her tired fishbones.

She went inside the motel and a giant orca with Swedish horns and an unnerving laugh told her it would cost 30 Steem Dollars for the night.

CLICK HERE FOR PART 2

ALL ART AND STORY CREATED BY STELLABELLE. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. ©2016 STELLABELLE
A part of Arthur Berzinsh's painting, Rainis was used to cover part of the cave. Here's the caption for his painting: "Rainis, oil, canvas, 2014. Alegorija ar Raini-vali, no kura tiek iegūta degviela, runā par to, ka joprojām mēs barojamies no mūsu senču - dižgaru vitālā mantojuma."