Into the deep I go.

As the light fades, life slows to the soft ebbing of waves. Gradually, slowly. Gently.

I took one last glance.

Luminous tints of blue and green surround me as the dim sunlight in the ocean passed through the walls of my home.

Home.

Funny how I call it that.

Far from my light pink coral I grew up in. Nor the stories father always told me of our neighboring reef. A vast and vibrantly lush place. From yellows to blues, and fish too in many hues. A beautiful place many called home, all filled with smiling faces.

I revelled in his narratives. Even if tall-tales, I believed it existed once.

I often circled around our neighborhood imagining the colors I wanted to see. Deep violets. Oranges. Reds! So many, but as I aged, the paler our land grew.

A little after my father passed, the entire reef became stark white.

Stony.

Rigid.

Dead.

Fortunately, he didn't witness the final demise to his dreamworld.

Could a paradise like his childhood still exist?

Nothing held me back from looking. So, I ventured further into the sea. I discovered countless corals withered as mine. Many others appeared close to a similar fate. Those few decent ones in-between had no vacancies. It disheartened me but I had nowhere to return. So, I kept searching.

Traveling beyond our relic reef. Strong currents carried a plethora of treasures from distant lands. Objects of all shapes, sizes, and color blanketed the horizon.

Was this the place my father mentioned?

My curiosity overcame me. I had to explore it.

Everything appeared otherworldly. Most were opaque with occasional hollowed white twigs floating by. As I ventured, no others inhabitants lived here. Only lifeless jellyfish-like creatures, that expanded and contracted with the current as it made its bounds through the piles.

An odd, strange world. Yet the beauty was intoxicating. By the time I came to my senses, it trapped me within.

I swam hard as I could, but the trails of the foreign objects covered every inch of landscape. Its vastness ensnarled me.

I did this for days. Swimming. Searching.

Yet I never found a way out.

That's when I discovered this place.

A large translucent tunnel that enclosed at the end. Its hard exterior provided protection from outside harm. Yet inside there was no warmth nor the tingly sensation from being part of something - something that loved and needed me as much as I required it. Like my coral.

No, this thing was cold and lifeless. It furnished me shelter, but I was the emptiness to its void.

There were thousands of these habitats scattered in the sands. Each equally strange and foreign. Yet it was all I ever found.

My eyes stung of tears as I closed them.

As the world dimmed, I tried to imagine the reef my father told me about.

If only that home existed instead...