Cay Seamoon stood at the waterfront, watching waves lap against the dock. She clutched a crumpled list in one blue paw. The list had three names written on it—people like her, people who inflated. Her orange horns caught the morning light as she grinned. This parade would be the biggest thing the waterfront had ever seen. Inflatable beings bouncing down the street, kids laughing, crowds cheering. She just needed to convince the others to join her. A building caught her eye down the beach. It looked like a giant sandcastle, complete with seashells pressed into the walls. A bright flag fluttered at the top. She walked closer and pushed the door open. The inside stretched out before her, empty and dusty but huge. She could picture giant inflatable floats lined up in rows. Her tail swished as she walked the length of the space. This would be perfect—a hangar to keep everything ready for parade day. She pulled out her marker and drew a star next to the first item on her list. Home base secured. Now she could focus on recruiting the baker, the mailman, and anyone else who understood what it meant to suddenly puff up. The Sandcastle Parade Hangar would be where her dream launched from, year after year. But getting the floats ready meant solving a big problem. She needed something powerful enough to fill parade-sized balloons. Her own inflation worked great for emergencies, but she couldn't blow up a whole fleet of floats by herself. She kicked at a shell on the floor and noticed something rolling in the corner. A pearl sat there, shimmering with strange light. She picked it up and held it to the sun streaming through a window. Bubbles seemed to dance inside it. She squeezed the pearl and felt air rush past her scales. The thing practically hummed with pressure. This could work. With enough of these pearls, she could inflate floats as big as boats. Her parade was coming together, piece by piece.