‘From the depths within the water’ by Sumedha Bagchi, age 16, Year 11, Devonport High School

Waves, ravenous and wild, crashed and clashed mercilessly against the shore. As one rose, another swallowed it whole as if it were a starving merchant stranded in a desert without any water. They were practically salivating as they battled ruthlessly amongst each other but not like proud soldiers on a battlefield but as if they were hyenas stalking their prey. The clouds were all-consuming and dark, threatening to consume the horizon, and desperately hungry, as they stretched and stretched to hide it away.

Staring directly into the dark, enveloping ocean, there was a girl seated softly on the sand. She was almost motionless, her only action resulting in holes of obsidian being burnt into her retina. Beside her feet, little crabs scuffled away from their home felling threatened by its tumultuous rage, yet her gaze never wavered from the water.

“Well, I guess I waited here for nothing…” she sighed.

Gradually, she got up, sand shifting beneath her feet. Suddenly, a hand, as clammy and as leathery as crocodile’s skin, reached out twisting and contorting its wretched fingers around hers. Swiftly, she jolted her neck, urgently attempting to view her attacker’s appearance. The odd creature seemed to have fabricated from the darkest depths of the ocean- its body lunging out of it almost as if it was part of it. Yet, just as quickly as she managed to turn around, that sweaty hand had disintegrated into a fleeting festival of black coarse particles leaving nothing but a miniscule object in its stead.

“This is it! Perhaps it wasn’t just a rumour,” she muttered, in equal parts self-relief, conviction and satisfaction. Its cool curious composition, its smooth specular surface, its sudden intrusion in midst of her fingers; it was most definitely worth the wait. The result of her endeavours was a glorious glittering pearl.

Within moments, the clouds settled, their stomachs full from eating the horizon allowing the sun to bless the water with rays of beaming light. This led to the resolution of the waves: their disputes disregarded and their tempers lulling. The storm had passed. The evidence? Little crabs shuffling in a homesick manner exuding joy and excitement as they returned back to their home. The ocean had been restored to its previous sanctity.

But why exactly was it vomiting vassals offering precious jewels to a stranger?