Cute Little Friends

Ersatz floated for a moment, looking where the eyes had been before shaking herself free of the unnerving feeling and looking around herself again. Scanning her surroundings, she could barely make out a glow in the distance. That could be something of interest to catalog, she thought as she swam toward it.

The glow bobbed and danced in the water and as she drew closer she noticed that there was more than one source for the glow. What had been a fairly large blot of distinct yellow and pink glow split off into one large collection of smaller individual spots of pink and a couple small clusters of pink and yellow lights, all of them still barely visible in the toxic black waters and clearly deeper down.

She paddled her legs harder as she dove deeper, excitement welling up in her chest as she grew closer to the lights. It didn't seem like anyone else who had entered the water in this area had decided to come this way and the thrill of being the first to see something gave her an excess of energy. She needed to find out what these lights were and if they were friend or foe.

The deeper she swam, the more she felt the pressure of the water pressing against her, making the oxygen tank feel even heavier on her back. That didn't matter though as she finally got close enough to see the source of the lights. A small cluster of feline looking creatures with dorsal fins and flukes swam in front of her. Some were a yellow and orange with bright yellow lights on the ends of their antenna and whiskers. Others were pinkish purple with bright pink glow. There were five total swimming around and playing among themselves, having not noticed her yet.

Ersatz quickly took several notes on the provided paper with the waterproof pencil, noting down the different colors she saw and tried to make a quick sketch of what they looked like, even though her art skills weren't the best. Surely someone would be able to make sense of it. As she finished the sketch, though, she looked up and one of the small group of fauna had noticed her. It swam closer to her, the others following behind it. The feline-esque creatures swam in a circle around her, though for the moment, they didn't seem vicious.

One got close enough to bat at the various cameras around Ersatz's neck. For a brief moment, she chided herself for attempting to draw the creatures when she could have taken a picture. Picking up one of the cameras, she snapped a couple pictures of the strange, glowing feline fish, hoping at least one of them was good. The small creatures circled her a little more before departing off into the dark depths.