I am trapped. Who am I? I do not make a habit of introducing myself to humans, but I am in desperation. I am the one they call Monster Down Deep. This is a very not good name for two very good reasons. Firstly, I am not a monster. I am a fish. A perfectly fine fish, in fact. I have fins for swimming and fins for walking, a mouth full of hooked teeth and smooth scales.

I do not look like other fish, but other fish do not look like me. Do I call them monsters? I had another name once. It was so long ago that all who knew it are gone. My family. My friends. My whole school. Only I have survived. Since I was a hatchling, I have had a strong sense of survival.

I learnt to swim as silently as a shadow; to skim the middle deep without disturbing a grain of sand. I sensed danger when others did not. Living became my life's work. All in all, I have been alive for 2,974 circle moons. I do not know the number in human years. Fish do not count years. We count moons. Moons create the tides.

The tides lead us afar and the tides lead us home. If I survive twenty-six more moons, I will reach three thousand moons. I have never heard of a fish who lived so long. If I am careful, I will be the first. I am always careful. How, then, did I end up here? You will be wondering, Where is here? I am wondering the same thing. I am trapped in some type of thick green weed. It has formed a net around me and I cannot get free.

Now, the net swims with the tide and I must swim within it. Two sliver moons have passed and my fear grows. Where does the net take me? At first, I was caught in my panic and saw only glimpses of kelp forests, shadows of black eels and deep ocean trenches. I watch carefully now, but what I feel alarms me the most. The water is warmer. I am being dragged into dangerous sun-lit water. I blame the orange fish. I blame myself.

No, I really only blame the orange fish. Because of him, this slithery green mass of weed caught me. With each passing breath, it carries me up. Predators live up. Humans live up. Up is very not safe. That is the second reason why my name is very not good: I am no longer Down Deep. Instead of Monster Down Deep, I am Very Afraid Fish.

Have I seen my last moon?.