Samantha clutched Mark's hand tightly, her hand shaking while she did. Jack stood behind them, his feet firmly practically glued to the ground, but then he relaxed them. Walking around, he touched a tree or two to see if anything was dangerous about the darkened wooded beings of the forest. Pieces of dirt fell off of one of them and a crab-like creature quickly scurried from its hiding place and climbed as fast as it could up the tree. Jack pulled his hand back and continued searching around for any other living things. He found none. Mia and Kris peered at Jack bending down then walking upright around them in a semi-crouched position.

"Where are we?" Mark asked.

"It seems like we're in a forest," Jack replied.

"Really? I didn't know."

Jack furrowed his brows at him for a moment, and then twisted his head around, looking above him at the tops of the trees looming over him.

"We should start heading forward," Kris suggested.

"Which way is forward?" Mark asked. "We don't want to be heading back in the direction of Agetho."

"I can help with that."

A voice chirped above them. When the mortals looked up, there was nothing but more trees and branched that zigzagged and interlocked with one another. There was also the crab from earlier that seemed to be staring down at them. Jack looked around them in case the voice came from somewhere eye-leveled.

"I'm up here, boy," the same male voice squeaked from above.

As they looked up again, the crab raised a claw and swung it side to side, waving at them. The mortals backed away and stood their ground, Jack and Mark assuming fighting positions.

The crab laughed. "Not to worry, I'm a good guy."

It suddenly jumped high into the air and stretched, getting bigger and obtaining human features. Within fractions of a second it had completely turned human and landed with a soft thud in front of them. The male had soft, light red hair, and his skin was a bit gray, his feet covered in a shell material as the shoes and his clothing composed of a loose pale-red, collared shirt with pins and more shell embedded in several different areas and a nicely-fitted gray pant with dark brown and black spots. His hands were cupped slightly, his four fingers glued together and his thumb curving inwards almost on the other side of his hand. The nails were sharp and almost joined together. He looked like a human crab.

"I'm Caran Guejo," he spoke in a slight Latin-American accent and his voice was deeper than the squeaky crab voice. "I come from the water clan. Nice to meet you all." Though, his English was close to perfect.

They said nothing.

"I suggest going that way," he jerked his thumb behind him, then pointed forward. "That way is Fire clan. Nasty folks. We prefer to stay away from them. They are meat eaters. I hope you know already what exactly they eat."

A few of them nodded.

"Well come on over to our clan. We are vegetarians along with the Earth clan. They are not too far away from where we live."

"Don't you live underwater?" Jack asked.

"Ah. They speak!" he smiled. "Most of us do, but I can stay on land for a long time. I'm a crab, remember?"

"Right," Jack looked behind him at the others in a questioning look. A few of them shrugged and nodded, signaling that they could try to trust him. Mark gave him a look to watch out for any signs that could lead to betrayal or death, and Jack nodded in agreement. So did the rest.

"Alright," Jack said.

"Lead us on, then," Mark continued.

They walked on for a few minutes, when the questions began.

"How far is it from here?" Kris asked.

"Just another ten minutes," Caran replied.

"Do you have any other powers besides transformation?" Samantha asked.

"I can jump high and am invincible."

"Can you fly?"

"I said I could jump high."

"Can you run fast?" Kris asked.

"Yes, but I have limits."

"Super-strength?"

"No."

The mortals were a bit disappointed. Though he seemed a lot nicer than the ones of the Fire clan, he seemed a lot less powerful. Minutes passed of silence. The trees began clearing up bit-by-bit and almost completely cleared up as they neared the coast. Soft sand soon replaced the hard, moist dirt, and the sound of waves crashing filled the air. Many sea animal-like humans were grouped together in their own miniature clans, chatting and playing games. One of the groups contained people wearing a dark green shirt, fitting tightly around their skin, topped with a black vest and a heavy jacket, green, light brown, and gray tiles on the backs. Turtles. Another group looked a bit similar to Caran and yet very different. The colors and claws matched, but these had long, spiky tails. Scorpions. Human-like seals and walruses were scattered through the area as well. A few people like Caran were gathered in a circle, and they turned around with smiles and greeted him cheerily.

"What have you brought here?" what seemed like the oldest guy said a bit tensely, looking at the five, overwhelmed mortals. A lot of the other creatures gathered around to look at the new beings.

"Mortals, Granc," Caran replied. He and the others relaxed, thankful it wasn't anyone from the Air or Fire clans. "They were lost in the forest, and looked very confused, so I brought them here. I hope it's alright?"

"Of course, of course!" Granc smiled. "It won't be a problem." He motioned to a seal-human. "Tat, can you bring them some food. We all know yours is the best here." He smiled and his eyes drifted over to the five. "Welcome to the water clan, or as we call it, Terra do Mar, in your language, it translates to Land of the Sea as the clan is combined of both land and sea animals. May I know your names?"

As each one introduced themselves, a look of amusement spread across a lot of their faces. "What strange names you have," a smaller scorpion piped. What seemed like her mother, silenced the child, but she herself, couldn't help but let out a small chuckle.

"Our names are strange?" Jack asked, beginning to start an argument, when Mark shot him a look, and whispered, "We want them to have our trust."

Jack silently agreed, but still had a strong urge to argue.

Soon, they all sat on split logs on the sand and enjoyed a nice meal of vegetarian seafood. Different colored plants of the sea were filled in bowls and set in front of them. They were handed large, rounded shells as bowls. Kris, Mark, and Jack inhaled the food quickly, but Mia just picked delicately at her seaweed. Samantha shoveled some spoonfuls in her mouth, then sat quietly waiting for the others to finish.

"So, where are you from, young mortals?" Granc asked.

"England," Mark replied, and Jack and Samantha nodded in a agreement.

"We're from America," said Kris, speaking for both him and Mia.

The group of crabs shook their heads and laughed. Jack twitched, but remained calm and set down his shell-bowl. After a few moments, the others did the same and stood.

"Why don't you show them around, Caran?" Granc said. "Take them down below."

"Absolutely," Caran replied with a wide smile, and took them closer to the water. "Hold hands with one another," he ordered gently. "Try not to let go for a minute." He placed his hand on Jack's shoulder who was at one end, and within seconds a searing pain hit the mortal's necks and went away as soon as it came. They were in the water and as they felt their necks, gills had formed, and their hands and feet became slightly webbed. "You can let go now." Caran's voice could be heard perfectly; it wasn't muffled by the water at all.

The mortals let go. They all felt so free drifting in the water. All of them swam around for a bit, until Caran signaled them to follow him. Swimming in the top layer of the ocean, they passed by sharks who were also vegetarian according Caran and groups of large whales from humpback to killer. They dived deeper into the water passing schools of shimmering fish and soon reached the bright, vibrant colors of the coral and sea anemones. The sight was amazing. The mortals didn't think they had seen anything so colorful and beautiful in their lives. Caran pointed ahead of him at a large cave.

"That's where my uncle lives."

They swam over to the cave and entered it, covered by darkness. Lights soon spilled out and warm water greeted them cheerily. The mortals met the uncle who was a little taller and a bit plumper than Caran. His name was Taskura Pu. Some of Caran's cousins and friends also joined them. They all chatted happily and had a few sea-snacks, when Taskura set his shell down and stared a the five children, smiling and having a good time with Caran.

"I'm sorry to interrupt," he said. His voice sounded similar to Caran's. "But I must warn you right away that these times are dangerous."

The mortals exchanged glances because of the sudden change of tone.

He continued. "A war is upon us. We all have to be aware of any signs that are different. At any moment, a rain of canons or arrows of fire could shower down on us. And you five cannot be here."

"Why, not?" Samantha asked.

"Yes, why?" Jack asked. "We can join you. We can fight with you."

"No," Taskura said sternly. "You are not going to fight with us. We are different from you. More powerful."

"How exactly does a war between invincible people take place?"

"The leaders of each clans grasp a porcelain goblet in the center of the first battlefield. The goblet will pull away our power of invincibility and disappears. When one side wins or truces, the goblet reappears and we take our powers back."

"That sounds fair enough," Mark said. "We're not invincible either. We can fight. You can give us some of your powers right. Even then, we can still help. We'll train."

"Yes, we'll do anything," Kris said.

Taskura shook his head, still hesitant. "I can't risk that. None of you have any powers that will help you fight, and it will take weeks to train."

"We'll try to learn faster," Samantha pleaded.

"I can help. I'm psychic," Mia raised her voice above the commotion.

The sea-creatures all stopped and stared at her with wide-eyes.