I was swimming under the sea, wearing a black swimming suit and a snorkel that blew bubbles every three minutes. My goggles were large and magnified my eyes. I couldn’t remember why I was there. I was supposed to be looking for something, lost treasure perhaps? But all I could remember was hitting my head on a piece of coral and that was the end of my memory.

A shark swam over head so I ducked behind a boulder. I scared a jellyfish and it blobbed out of a crack in the rock and floated upwards.

I came out of hiding and looked in all directions. This part of the sea didn’t look like anything I’d seen on the National Geography channel.

Everything was brightly coloured; the sand was like gold that dazzled the eye. The seaweed no longer danced from the ground, but floated in clumps or groups as if they had a mind of their own. Another jellyfish blobbed past me, it was pink. I stared at it; it stared at me. Jellyfish aren’t supposed to have eyes. This one’s eyes were red and they blinked several times; I jumped away from it.

I looked around me. There was fish swimming amongst the coral. The coral was arranged in what looked like a city. A dolphin jumped past and…was that a mermaid in the distance? Mermaids don’t exist. I rubbed my goggles.

“I hit my head harder than I thought.” I mumbled into the snorkel.

A black and yellow fish swam over to me. I thought I must have invaded its territory. It had a flat head and two beady eyes on either side. It swam around me once then stared straight into my eyes. “Excuse me, but what are you?” it asked.

I blinked, the fish blinked, then I started laughing. It was just my imagination.

The fish turned sideways, its mouth opened, “why are you laughing.”

I screamed and jumped backwards. Jumping in the water is hard work and I didn’t go very far. The fish followed me.

“You are dressed very strangely; you’re not from around here are you.”

“You talked!” I exclaimed.

“Well of course,” the fish replied confused, “what do you think I am, an imbecile?”