To the Surface

He couldn’t remember much, if anything at all.

Vatos opened his eyes to reveal a dark world with small, bioluminescent creatures floating around him. If anything, this place was unfamiliar, but it felt like there was a voice - a very soothing one - calling out to him. It was soothing, almost enough to distract him from the dark space that creeped at every corner, and the pressure that tried to crush his body.

It was almost impossible to breathe - what felt like lungs weren’t there anymore. Instead, he could feel the fibers of his gills as they struggled to sway in the water. Brute strength and stupid luck wasn’t going to save him… but common sense might.

There had to be a “surface”. It would be easy; swim up and out. It would have to get lighter and the sun could finally make way through the water… so there was a chance.

He started swimming, moving his body and tail like some sort of eel. The rainbow scarf… or, as it used to be, flowed behind his body like the appendages of a blanket octopus. Feeling the small current of water glide across his scales, Vatos knew he had to be moving. Still, there was no telling how long he’d need to swim. It could be minutes… hours… days… he didn’t want to think about anything longer than that. The pressure would eat away at his body before any other sort of creature would be able to.

A sudden emergence of light brought Vatos some sort of hope, but just as the feeling arrived, it left. Bioluminescent jellyfish slowly descended from above, only to move their own frilled tentacles in a small, wave-like motion. The browbird could only watch as he passed them, their light slowly fading until they had too, joined the darkness of the abyss below. The familiar glow of his own rainbow scarf reminded Vatos of what awaited at the theoretical surface.

He pressed on. Smaller creatures with faces and shades like that of a mangee came and went. With his ascent, each organism seemed to join with the depth; its collection of the living growing with each passing moment.

The surface seemed so far away, but one day, he’d reach it.

END. 374 Words.