Friday 16 May 2014

Catherine our young guest blogger from St Andrews shares her writing

 A description of the journey of an eel.

As I slipped through the waves,their fingers licking me as I went along, the sky gazed down upon me.  The serenity struck me as I entered the river; the dark waters were lifeless and empty.  Weeds embraced me as I danced past, but whether they were capturing or loving me I wasn't sure.  Looking through the beautifully deadly waters, the peace hit me.  At night the waters were cold and merciless, hence my journey taking a long time.  However, the day bought calm and sight.  Rocks encrusted the edge o the river like a crowd of faces, jutting their chins out in search of food.

The dark rivers seemed endless pools, drifting into foreign lands. The water - which was filled with sharp rocks and boundless boulders - was my greatest friend, but also my greatest enemy.  Sharp, invisible nets grasped me desperately writhing body until I fled in the other direction.  My heart built up a nest o f fear after close encounters with shiny cages that stole the air from my lungs; rock walls that blocked my view; and evil-smelling debris piles with little space for me to slither past.  Other eels occasionally appeared in the same same problems as me, some lying on rocks as ghastly white strips, dead.  One day (where the vast expanse of water lay innocently and undisturbed) two golden spikes pierced the surface of the water.  I as knocked into the shimmering waves.

I was being attacked by a heron.

Clusters of weeds snapped helplessly around me, putting up no resistance to the force that was shredding them apart.  The spears collided with my body, heaving it further away from the river.  Dark eyes glinting with malice drew closer...and closer....and closer.  Suddenly, I strained in on pain staking motion and flipped back into the water.  Bubbles zooming like cheering crowds past me, whilst the heron screeched in the distance.  My heart stopped rumbling inside me, and a looming mas of darkness appeared.  Nightfall?  A wall of rocks?  It was none of those things:  it was a flood defence.

I stopped uncertainly, and the gentle splash of disturbed water ricocheted in the waves around me,  As the steep edges of the river laughed at my misfortune, I saw a pipe and had a great idea.  I dragged myself up the pipe, a steep angle into the unknown.  Squinting, I noticed the walls shifting and distorting; I swam closer.  I saw creatures.  Eels!  The river was far away, the walls of the rock distant.  I had tried to persevere, and I don't know where the rest of our journey was taking us.  Would we ever complete the journey?

When I sensed that nightfall was ending, I felt a sharp movement.  It wasn't me.  Sliding away from the other eels into the cold river I understood.  It had been an eel pass.  Free at last!  I swam over the rocks and into the future.  I was nearly at my wonderful new home.

Catherine, year 5 St Andrews

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