John Dory groaned as he opened and closed his eyes, but his vision was blurry, until it took a few moments until his vision gone clear again. Right in front of him was the ocean. Although the dark clouds were still there, had stop raining. Also, the lightning orbs were gone for good.

"Bros?" John Dory called out, but there was no answer.

He gripped the ground. Huh? Why is the ground squishy? Oh, wait. It's sand. Hmm...this must mean that I'm on land. But where-"Ow, ow, ow."

His whole body ached the more he tried to move. John Dory let out a loud moan. Then there was another moan coming from behind him. It was like one of those soft, but loud moans. He gritted his teeth and turned towards the direction where the noise was coming from. It was Floyd.

"Floyd? Are you okay?" John Dory moved towards Floyd who slowly opened his eyes and moaned.

"John? Am....Am I in heaven?" Floyd asked.

"Don't worry, bro, you're alive."

"Oh, thank goodness." Floyd slowly sat up, brushing his clothes. "Wait...where are our brothers?"

John Dory looked from left to right to straight ahead. Floyd was right. There was no sign of their brothers. From what he could remember was the huge wave was crashing down onto them.

"CLAY!! BRANCH!! BRUCE!!" John Dory called out. Again, there was no sign of them, except that there were four backpacks that laid on the sand.

Worrying, John Dory stood, stretched, and lifted Floyd up to his feet, telling him that they should go separate ways to find them. Before they could do this, Floyd let out a sudden scream, hiding behind John Dory. He faced to where his 3rd youngest brother was looking at. On the left side, there a huge lump of sand and it looked as if something was coming out from underneath it.

Could it be a snake? A huge crab? A zombie Troll? Okay, maybe not that last option. But whatever was underneath the sand, John Dory was ready to fight it. He did a karate pose while Floyd hid right behind him, hugging him.

"Come out and fight like a man," John Dory said.

Something popped out from underneath the sand, which Floyd let out a yelp. Covered in sand, a Troll sat up, coughed, shook himself to get rid of the sand, especially in his lime green hair.

"Clay!" John Dory and Floyd said.

"Yooo! What a storm!" Clay said, grabbing his book from underneath the sand, hugging it.

John Dory let out his hand and Clay grabbed it, lifting himself up.

Floyd hugged Clay. "Bro, you almost gave me a heart attack."

Clay gasped. "Oh, gee, I'm sorry, bro. I forgot how delicated you can be."

"Delicate?" Floyd questioned.

"Oh, I mean like you've been through too much already," Clay said.

This was absolutely true. Floyd had been through way too much already and John Dory knew it. From getting captured by Velvet and Veneer to being trapped in a diamond prison for a long period of time to almost dying!?! Yeah, that was too much for Floyd to deal with and John Dory felt sorry for him.

"Oh, thank goodness you two are here. Wait...where's Bruce and Branch?" Clay asked.

"BRUCE!!! BRANCH!!!" John Dory called out. "You didn't see them, bro?"

Clay shrugged. "I didn't see them. All I could remember was a huge wave."

"Oh, no!" Floyd said.

The three brothers looked from left to right but there was no sign of Bruce and Branch, except there were three backpacks that laid on the sand. John Dory detected that those backpacks each belong to him, Floyd and Clay. Branch and Bruce's backpacks weren't present. John Dory's left ear then twitched towards the left. At first, he thought it was the wind or the waves that were near them, but a sudden voice called out to them.

They turned to the left again to find a small Troll figure was coming running towards them. John Dory squinted his eyes. The Troll with dark blue-black hair ran and waved their hands at them.

"BRANCH!!!" Floyd ran towards him.

John Dory and Clay followed their younger brother, running. When they reached towards Branch, they found him with seaweed in his hair.

"Oh, thank goodness you're okay," Floyd said, hugging Branch.

"Yeah, I was looking everywhere for you bros," Branch said.

"Where were you?" John Dory asked.

"I was way over there and I got attack by seaweed," Branch said.

"Attack?" John Dory, Clay, and Floyd asked.

Branch nodded. "No joke. It was like they were alive or something and they were trying to take me down to the ocean and I almost drowned, but I fought them."

John Dory, Floyd, and Clay faced each other and back at Branch who fixed up his hair and took out some seaweed pieces.

"Okaaay..." John Dory said.

"Well, thank goodness that you're okay," Floyd said.

"So Bruce's not with you guys?" Branch asked.

John Dory's eyes widened. "What? You didn't see him?"

Branch shook his head.

"BROS!!!"

John Dory, Clay, Floyd, and Branch turned towards the ocean to find their brother Bruce swimming while holding onto his backpack. An unexpected, medium-sized wave came towards Bruce and hit him hard. His backpack was the first to reach towards land, following by Bruce who rolled and crashed towards the shore, landing on his face. Bruce sat up, spitting out the sand and fixing up his hair.

Clay ran towards him. "Oh, Bruce, thank goodness that you're..."

Bruce stood and walked off.

"....here," Clay said, facing and shrugging at his brothers.

Bruce stomped towards the ocean, crossing his arms. "FOR REAL!?! You were supposed to help us, not fight us! And you messed up my hair too? WHY!?!"

John Dory, Clay, Branch, and Floyd faced each other with confused looks and faced back at Bruce who kept yelling to the ocean as if it was a living being. To John Dory, he assumed that his younger brother had been on Vacay Island for too long.

"You're...not...helping!" Bruce tried to kick the water, but it moved away before he could do this as he fell. When he got up, Bruce growled. "Fish pee in you. All day. So....mmmmmm...."

Bruce flipped his bang and walked off towards his brothers. Floyd ran towards him and hugged him, almost knocking him over. Clay, Branch, and John Dory gathered around them too. They shared a warm, comforting group hug together, closing their eyes, smiling and laughing.

"Aww, look at us," Floyd said, "we're all here together. Safe and sound."

John Dory opened his eyes and faced ahead of him. "Guys...."

One by one, his brothers opened their eyes as they all faced the massive jungle ahead of them.

"....where are we?" John Dory asked.

[Art made by royalchewy from Tumblr]

TO BE CONTINUED....

[This is the end of Book 1!! Thanks for reading this story!!!]