Dot the Dolphin and the Bottle Full of Wishes

Chapter 1: Dreams Need Action

In a warm turquoise bay called Coral Cove, there lived a young dolphin named Dot. Dot had a shiny gray back, a curved smile, and a dream so big it made her heart flutter: she wanted to leap through the Great Rainbow Arch.

The Arch was a tall, glittering rock formation at the edge of the bay. When the sun hit it just right, the mist made a rainbow that shimmered over the water. Only the finest jumpers in Coral Cove could soar all the way through it.

"One day," Dot would sigh, floating on her back, "I'll fly through the Rainbow Arch."

She dreamed about it every night. She imagined the cheers of the crowd, the spray of the waves, and the colors dancing around her. She told her friends about it, again and again.

"I'm going to leap through the Arch," she said to Finn the fish.

"When?" asked Finn.

"Someday," said Dot dreamily. "When the time is right."

Days turned into weeks. Dot floated in the warm sun, and she kept on dreaming. But she never practiced a single jump.

One morning, as she drifted near the shore, something bobbed against her nose. It was a glass bottle with a rolled-up note inside. Dot pushed it onto the sand and pulled out the paper.

In neat, loopy writing, it said: