I was sitting by myself, when a school of fish swims past. There are words on the fish: one day, once upon a time, evil villains, heroes heroines, princesses, princes, castles, knights.

I think the fish are giving me ideas of the stories I could write. More fish, more words: magic Abra Kadabra, wands, incantations, chants, kings, queens, broom sticks, wizards, witches, warlocks, magicians.

They stop. I get out a pad of paper, a pen and start writing. I can't believe it. I'm so inspired. I write about 250 words when I hear a splash of water. I look up and see bluish- purple fish on the bank. It starts writing and then jumps back into the water. I get up and look.

The writing is a bit hard to read but I think it says GO FOR A SWIM IN THE WATER. Luckily I have my bathers on so I slowly walk in. As I shiver I go under taking a deep breath on the way.

I see thousands of fish backing away in fright as they slowly look at me. The bluish- purple fish swims over to me and introduces herself. "My name is Haley. I am the queen of the wordlings. I am very worried about my people. All the young fish are turning gold. Nearly all of them are breaking out in red spots. We think they are sick but we do not know what the illness is." To me I think it sounds like the chicken pox with a tan. " I have organised for a mermaid to give you a tour of the city. Her name is Claire. CLAIRE! CLAIRE!" she calls very loudly.

A pretty, young mermaid swims up. " Would you like a tour of the city now or later?" she asks this as Queen Haley swims away. While all this happening I start to look very blue because of lack of air. Claire looks very concerned as I swim towards the surface.

"Are you alright?" Claire asks when we surface. I tell her that I can't breath underwater so she gives me a thing to put in my mouth that changes water into air for me. While we're up there I take the time to empty my goggles. We go down to the city again and I ask where the nearest library is. After I spend 20 minutes reading books on the development of fish, I ask if I can see the spots where the babies play. After 10 minutes I go into the town hall where Queen Haley has asked for all the fish to come. I tell them that there is no reason to panic if their children turn gold and that they have red spots because of playing in poison coral (poison ivy under the sea.)

The citizens thank me just as I wake up. I now have a story for the young authors competition at school. Three weeks later I receive a letter that says I won the grand prize of $1 million. Written by Erin 5/6 B.