The Lantern Fish and the Dark Corner

Chapter 1: Fairy Fish

Far beneath the waves, where sunlight faded into blue and then disappeared, a little lantern fish named Lio carried a row of tiny lights along his body.

They glimmered softly as he swam.

Lio liked to imagine that he wore a pocketful of stars.

His friend Sula, a young squid, preferred to imagine that he was a floating necklace.

“A very wriggly necklace,” she said.

Lio flicked his tail.

“A very elegant one.”

Every evening—though evening looked much like morning in the deep sea—they met beside a rocky ridge.

They swam through familiar waters, watched drifting specks, and counted the gentle flashes of other creatures passing in the darkness.

But they always turned back before reaching the ridge’s far end.