Misty Reef

• Emma Priddle, Grade 8
• Poetry
• 2010

It’s a beautiful summer day and from out here Starfish Island looks like a giant emerald sparkling in the brilliant sunlight. I’m soon to be submerged for the first time in Misty Reef, Starfish Island’s most beautiful and most mysterious diving places. I’m feeling nervous, it’s almost like a butterfly has made its way to my stomach and is fluttering around. It’s time. . .

The warm tropical water engulfs me like it’s having me for lunch. I open my eyes. The water is so clear I can see for miles. Brightly coloured fish dance around me in a silent underwater ballet. It’s the most dazzling sight, it’s like being in a picture book, only better. Coral encases the reef rocks everywhere I look. It’s the most magical thing I have ever seen. It’s so different from being on the land. Jelly fish float around me. Sea anemones wave their tentacles at me as if to say hello. A friendly octopus sucks on to my arm and gives me a hand shake. The creatures down here are welcoming. I feel at home here among the colourful reef. It’s a happy place where everything lives in harmony. I don’t want to go home. I keep swimming further and further into unexplored dips and gardens in the reef. I’m so happy just to be free from all of the hustle and bustle of the city. People push you around in a hurry to go somewhere. The traffic is always noisy, horns blasting at nothing. It’s not a place I like to call home. It’s too noisy there. I‘m having so much fun I don’t realise that all of the fish around me have swum away.

I am a lone fish on the reef. I have a feeling of dread, a feeling that something big is about to happen. I turn around. There’s a drop off just behind me. Shapes loom in the distance, quickly getting bigger and bigger. I try to swim away but can’t. I am too scared. The silhouettes are becoming clearer now. They have dorsal fins. Could it be? I try to remember what I have been taught, to keep still and blend in with the coral. The water becomes murky and I can’t see properly. Breathing is becoming difficult. The first shark swims past me.

They slip past me too fast to realise what creatures they are. Hundreds of shapes are swimming around me, snapping up fish. To my horror one of the biggest shapes swims towards me. The creature lets out a high pitched sound that roars through my ears. It blows bubbles in my face and swims around me. The others dart at the left over fish that haven’t seen them coming. I realise what the creatures are and what’s going on. I am in the middle of a dolphin feeding frenzy! I feel the muscles in my body slowly relax as I start to swim around. They invite me to swim with them, encouraging me to blow bubbles to startle the fish from their hiding places, but I can’t. I have nearly run out of air and must go back to the boat. The dolphins swim with me, begging me to stay and play with them. I tell them I’ll visit them soon.

I board the boat, with a tingle of joy and pride inside me. I hear a splash at the side of the boat, and see a spray of water projected up like a fountain near the side of the boat. The dolphins are following us! I race over to see them. They surround the boat like escorts. I promise myself that I’ll come back soon to Misty Reef, to swim with my friends, the dolphins, again.