Land of the Yellow Sea

Chapter 4. THE LAND OF THE YELLOW SEA

IT WAS TRULY AMAZING, utterly fantastic, Rose found against all the odds that she could breathe under the water!

She thought at first that it was obviously some strange form of magic. But then she thought of all the science fiction films she had seen and decided that some sort of strange science might be a better explanation. Then she wondered if there was any difference between the two, magic and science. She decided on one thing—she had found the other world. And perhaps the entrance was more sophisticated than a Mobius-mirror tunnel. The problem was it was more frightening too. Anyway, there had to be a chance she might be able to find her dad. So for now, she was very happy.

Moving under the water was much more difficult than moving on the land, but after a lot of practice Rose soon got the hang of it. She could not move as freely as she usually could, but at least her movements were more varied. For instance, instead of walking around a large rock she could easily jump and dogpaddle over it. Yes, although she could not swim above the water she could certainly swim below it.

To be honest, the yellow-tinged water was much easier to move in than ordinary water, but as Rose had never moved in ordinary water before she did not realise this. Had she been able to swim and walked along the bottom of a swimming pool. It would have been obvious to her. Nevertheless, the water did affect her movements slightly. For instance, when she tried to run she found that sometimes she would take off from the seabed and launch into an impromptu swim.

This other world was indeed a strange place. There were paths crisscrossing everywhere, leading to many unknown destinations, many of which were lined with weird underwater plants. The paths were built upon a rough rocky surface.

Rose noticed the odd fish swimming to and fro between the rocks. Somehow she had not expected the bottom of the ocean to look like this. The fish always stopped and took a good look at her. They didn't look like the dead fish she saw in the supermarkets. Or the fish she saw in the Cambridge Aquarium Centre. They had very expressive eyes. They looked quite clever. She half-expected them to talk to her. But they always swam off after giving her a good look over.

Rose thought that the watery land all about her, bathed in yellow, was rather beautiful; nevertheless, she began to think of a way to get home. She wondered what her mum must be thinking right now. But she did not know which direction to take to get home. Should she go north, south, east or west? She would have to guess these directions anyway. And worse still, maybe she could go up. Or even maybe down into a distant valley she spied. She was quite good at geography in her own world. But this was not her own world. It really did seem hopeless.

She tried to swim up to the surface, but before she could get there the intense yellow light made her dizzy. And so she sank right back down to the seabed.

Gosh, that's no good. I'll never get up there! she thought, feeling somewhat defeated.

Finally, feeling extremely lost, Rose decided to walk back along the seabed to the place she first dizzily landed on. But something deep within her lost spirit told her that she was really wasting her time. However, she had no better plan to follow.

This is the way, perhaps? she thought as she jumped onto a smooth stone path lined with liberal clumps of green shrubs. And as she followed the path she wondered if any people lived down here in this strange watery world, because she realised somebody, or something, must have built the paths.

Rose found herself taking path after path after path. She was definitely lost. She would not be finding the place she started at, that much was certain.

Up ahead on a grey stone path, Rose could see a stone bench at the side of the path. She approached it, inquisitively. Other than the paths, it was the first sign of civilisation she had encountered. Surely it meant there were people in this yellow watered world. She decided to sit on the bench.