Under The SEA

• Kai Bortz, Grade 2
• Short Story
• 2017

In the colourful coral reef where the prettiest coral grew and the rarest animals swam, lived a puffer fish named “Puff”. Puff was a cheeky, little, brown fish, with long sharp spikes, like thorns growing in the garden. When his friends called, “Jade”, “Made’’ and “Lilly” the prey mantis played hide and seek, Puff would puff himself up to make it look like it wasn’t him so they didn’t find him.

One day, while Jade was out swimming, someone let down a fishing line on their boat with the most mouth-watering prawns on the end of the hook. Jade couldn’t resist it. He took one big bite out of the prawn, but unfortunately got caught and was taken back to shore. The human took him through the big city with lots of tall, brown, black buildings, with many humans and to the shopping centre. He was put in a fish shop in a fish tank so he stayed alive until they needed him. That gave his friends a chance to be able to rescue him.

Just as Jade was being taken away, Lilly told Puff and Made that Jade got caught on a fishing rod and she knew where Jade was going. “You will have to follow me and I will take you there.” They went out of the clean, glittering water and into the busy city with the buildings so tall they scraped the clouds. Then Lilly said, “There it is. That’s the supermarket and inside is the fish shop.” They hurried along and to their great surprise, they saw Jade swimming in the fish tank with other fishes. But there was a problem – how were they going to get into the fish tank and escape without the big people knowing?

Then Lilly had an idea. “If we get their attention, they’ll see us and want to put us into the fish tank as well. Then we can get Jade. We’ll worry about escaping later. We just have to do it quickly before we get eaten too.

Lilly had some string and threw it around one of the worker’s legs and tugged on it. The worker turned around and saw the three little fish dancing, so he popped them into the fish tank with Jade. All they had to do now, was escape. Jade said, “When they put us on the board just before they chop us up for eating, we can run away while they’re not looking.” “Great idea,” they said. When the workers needed some fish, the four fish swam to the top and were taken out. A silver knife was ready to cut them up on the green chopping board. But just then, their boss said, “There’s a fire!” So the workers ran out of the building, which gave the fish a really good opportunity. They jumped off the counter, onto the stone floor and in no time at all ran out of the shopping centre as fast as their little flippers could carry them home!