Under the Sea

We've got a problem!

"Kai, would you please go get your sister for dinner? Tell her we're having her favorite."

"Sure thing dad!" I swam out from the cave system we called home to the reef yard. "Anuhea! Dinner time!"

Silence.

"Anu?" I called again. "You there?" I swam around, looking behind corals and seaweed clumps to see if she was hiding from me. Nothing. "Anu, this isn't funny! Get your tail back here right now!" I called desperately, as I swam frantically around the reef, like she would appear out of the blue. I hoped she would.

"Kai!" I whirled around at the sound of her voice, which was unusually quiet. I saw her immediately, Hiding in an anemone, her eyes wide with... fear? Why?

"You okay Angel Fish?"

She shook her head. "Help. Stuck."

I looked to where she gestured and saw that her body was tangled in a fishing net. That wasn't a huge problem, I mean, that sort of thing was easily fixed by getting Dad to saw it away with a shark tooth knife.

The issue was that the net was being used. Oh no. Not good, not good, NOT GOOD!

There was no time to get dad, and I had no idea what to do. But it's not like I could just sit there swishing my tail while Anuhea was pulled up with the net, so I did what anyone would do: I grabbed Anu by the arms and pulled.

"Ow, ow, ow! Kai, stop it hurts!" Anuhea shouted as the net began it's slow ascent to the surface. I did, seeing that it wasn't doing either of us any good to pull her. I let go and searched desperately for something sharp to cut the net. My eyes landed on a scalloped seashell, not very big, but it was better than nothing, and I couldn't really use the anemone. I dived and snatched the delicate shell, and without wasting a second began hacking away at the thick fibers of the net.

Back and forth. Back and forth. I tried to forget about the danger Anu was in for just a moment, enough to concentrate all my energy on freeing my sister.

Anuhea screamed, and I raised my head from the second strand of cord, to see just how close to the surface we really were. About forty feet, not a lot compared to before when we were about a half mile away. For a minute I froze in fear at the rapidly closing distance between us and the fishing boat reeling in the net. It was only a second or two, but even that short amount of time changed forty feet to thirty before I snapped out of my scared daze. I continued sawing the net and in a moment the second rope snapped, allowing me to move on to the next.

Too late. The top of the rope cage was already inching it's way out of the sea, soon to take Anu with it.