AGENT BUBBLE

Far below the surface, where the sunlight arrives soft and green, there is a quiet reef that nobody on land has ever found. That is where Agent Bubble lives. He is small, pink, and round, with frilly gills that flutter like sea fans whenever he is happy, which is most of the time. The other fish say he is the friendliest creature in the whole reef, and the reef is a friendly place.

Agent Bubble spends his days the way every good axolotl should. He drifts through the coral in the morning, counts the bubbles rising past his nose at noon, and naps in the warm sand in the afternoon. He knows every shell on the reef by name and every current by feel. When a lost minnow needs directions, Agent Bubble is the one they ask. When a hermit crab needs a new home, Agent Bubble helps carry it. He has never once been in a hurry, and he has never once been late.

One day a school of new swimmers arrived at the reef, all colours of the sea at once. White ones, gold ones, black ones with bright cyan eyes, teal ones, lavender ones, and more colours than Agent Bubble had ever seen in one place. They had come from every corner of the ocean, and they had all heard the same story, that somewhere down here lives a little pink axolotl who welcomes everyone like an old friend. So they stayed. They built homes in the coral beside his, and the quiet reef became the busiest, happiest reef in the sea.

Now there are 2,222 of them, and the reef is full of laughter and bubbles. Agent Bubble still drifts through the coral every morning, still counts the bubbles at noon, and still naps in the warm sand. Only now, wherever he looks, there is another axolotl smiling back at him. If you listen closely on a calm night, you can hear them all humming the same little song, low and sweet, under the waves. And if one of them has been watching you, you will know soon enough. The sea does not wait, and neither do they.