Crowded

‘So, crowded.”

Hanna thought pushing pass others close to her, making it hard for her to move. The gargling and pressure of claustrophobia was overwhelming. She only wanted to get a few feet to the reefs. Now, with these diverse types of schools around, it made the warmth turned to a disgusting muck of vile increments floating everywhere.

She once loved living here as a child but with age comes knowledge of her environment and she wanted peace. However, with the recent migration of the deepers, now cause a new fear for the citizens as the missing raised to a stunning amount, but even then, one woman is having about one hundred babies so everything balances, or to Hanna, it’s the same.

She wished that she was a flounder at this point. It would have been easier to maneuver traffic being flat. Reaching the reefs, the trip alone made her hungry, a shrimp or two is very tempting at this point. The reefs were just as crowded as the city, the crowd mostly hung around and gossip about the deepers, the whales and how there have been a lack of white sharks. Hanna searched the school for her friend, swimming through and under.

“Hanna!” she then saw Stella, her best friend since she was a fry. Stella and Hanna were from different schools but became friends when they got lost in the corals together for a few days living of tiny shrimps that gathered in the corals.

“Took you long enough” she gulped in a fair amount of water in her silver gills. Hanna always admire Stella iridescent gills, with an array of soft blue and green strips on her side. She is the beautiful friend. Hanna’s colors have not yet grown in, she blamed it on the stress of where she lived.

“It is suddenly really crowded” Hanna frowned “I was thinking of moving.”

“Moving? You are not a part of a school. How will you get around safely? “ Hanna never thought about the details like the dangers of the open waters and where would she go? Usually when a fish is together in a school it is for assistance with food and protection. She will be doing this herself. She is losing all hope and will; if she stays in this overcrowded place.

“I really want to advise you against it.” Stella started. “Look, you already know that it is dangerous. What if you are swallowed by one of the whales up there and let us not talk about the new deepers. They are a menace as the waters are warmer now.”

“When is the last time you saw a deeper?”

“When is the last time you saw a whale?” Stella hit back “just the other day Roy states that he saw a whale swallow most of a school, do you want to get swallowed?”

Hanna rolled her eyes “whatever, I just have to keep close to the bottom of the floor, but not too close.”

“Do whatever you feel fit.” Stella said as she swam away.

“I heard the fresh waters are nicer than the sea”

Hanna turned to see a pair of crooked looking googled eyes staring back, with an awry pair of lips, not sure if this fish was old or young.

“What do you mean?”

He turned to face her and Hana could see that he was quite large and flat bodied, his gills quivered, body paled and dirty brown to mask him against the ocean sand. “I came from there, so much less schools and also there is peace oh and more places to relax.”

Hanna eyes widened, intrigued she thought to ask him one question. “If you loved it so much, why aren’t you over there, what are you doing back?”

He cackled, his voice gargle but dry at the same time. “I am visiting family.”

Makes sense.

Hanna decided at that very moment to swim away and start her journey, why wait, the only fish she had here is Stella. One day she will come back to visit to tell Stella about her adventures. She started for the deep blue waters into the unknown, not knowing how to get to these ‘fresh waters’ she just heard about.

Now being in the middle of the ocean for the first time grew an internal fear, it was hard to see in front of her no sign of life and she was sure she started to hear the breathing of a deeper. According to legend, deepers hides in the shadows, they then become a shadow, making it easy to chomp on their prey with those long sharp teeth and they lure you with a tiny hope of light. She felt as if the darkness moved and was closing in around her, till-

“Hey”

She jumped around to see a shark, she was frozen with fear. “Sorry to startle you.” he grinned, his teeth were not as scary as she imagined. “Where are you going young lady?”

Naïve to the world, Hanna felt safe? “I am looking for the fresh waters?”

“Fresh waters? I just came from there; it is your lucky day.”

“Great!”

“Just keep going straight that way, you will reach the estuary that will take you to the fresh waters,” he waved his fin to signal that she needs to turn around and keep going into the darkness, she was not afraid anymore but mainly excited.

“Thank you!” she yelled, swimming away as fast as her little silver fins could take her.

“I’m sorry but why ae you leaving to go to fresh waters?!” the shark yelled at her.

“I want to find peace.” She said back not sure he could hear her or not. She looked back to see that he is now gone. Swimming, she finally reached an area where she saw a rush of water flowing from a dark hole. There were a few fishes that fell through caught their way and hurried past her. They are fishes she has never seen before, some long and dark slithered right by her resembling dark seaweed. Others much larger with scales that resembled the water around them as if they were in disguise. She pushed pass the current and traveled up the stream. The force pushing her back was light, but she stuck through filled with determination. What seem like miles, her little fins flapped pushing the water behind her, she pushed and pushed and then finally, she plopped into what seems like heaven.

The water around her bright, the sun peered through the waves and kissed her fins. She saw pairs of fish swimming by, no crowd, the water not thick and it even tastes better. This was everything that she has ever wanted peace and space. She did a quick spin feeling the cool water against her fins when in a glimpse of an eye two rows of sharp teeth headed towards her. They looked familiar, she instantly recognized them, they belonged to the shark that she met right outside of the fresh waters. She dodged the first attacked and swam as fast as she could, her heartbeat fast as he started to lessen the distance between them. The force of the water with his swift swimming pushed her back a bit only a few feet from his teeth. She did not want to get eaten, the other fishes dodged out of the way, hiding behind rocks and under water plants. She found a large, ridged rock with a hole in it and swam in, half happy that the hole was big enough for her, she hid in there as he swam around the rock. Before swimming away most likely to hunt for more available fish.

Hanna swam out and headed straight to the top of the fresh waters. Something she was familiar with, to her the top of the ocean, her once home is safe, she took a deep breathe when she was scooped up from under the water and thrown against other fishes from varied species and kinds. Some writhing around screaming silently she writhe to her side and saw a dull gray fish, tongue sticking out and eyes wide and glazed over. Dead. She started to panic as the warmth from the sun started to dry out her scales, she need water she gasped and started to writhe widely like the others around her. Towering above her she saw, two scaleless creatures with long leathery pale fins. Their mouth moved like her own but with more intricate movements. She did not understand them as they sound as if they were mumbling. She felt her heart start to race as her mouth now dry, she was gasping for water. Turning to the side she saw another fish laying still and almost dried out he said weakly, “you’re from the ocean… you should have never come here…” his pupils wide and glazed, Hanna knew he was now gone. She was packed with so many fishes and a few more were thrown in on her and around her, she gasped.

‘So crowded.’