The Upside-Down Morning

Amira's eyes fluttered open to the strangest sight she'd ever seen. Instead of her bedroom ceiling, towering kelp plants stretched above her, their green fronds swaying in underwater currents. She blinked hard, silver-blue hair floating around her face like silk ribbons.

"This can't be real," she whispered, surprised to hear her voice clearly despite being underwater. Bubbles should have escaped her lips, but instead, her words carried perfectly through the water.

A bright orange fish swam past, but something was wrong. Very wrong. The fish moved downward instead of forward, its fins propelling it toward the sandy ocean floor as if that were the most natural direction to swim.

Amira sat up slowly, her white dress billowing gracefully around her. A small crab scuttled by, walking straight ahead instead of sideways. She watched in amazement as a seahorse the size of a dolphin glided past, its usually tiny form now magnificent and large.

Everything here worked completely backwards from what she knew to be normal.

The Talking Giant

Amira pushed herself up from the sandy floor, her white dress floating like a cloud around her. The giant seahorse she'd seen earlier circled back, its enormous eyes studying her curiously.

"You're not from here, are you?" the seahorse asked in a melodious voice that bubbled through the water.

Amira's mouth fell open. "You can talk?"

"Of course I can talk. I'm Marina." The seahorse's coral-pink body shimmered as she moved closer. "The real question is why you're glowing like that."

Amira looked down at herself. Sure enough, a soft shimmer surrounded her body like trapped starlight. Her holographic abilities were acting up underwater.

"I don't know what's happening," Amira admitted. "Everything here is backwards."

Marina's expression darkened. "It's been three days since the Flip happened. All the sea creatures are confused and scared. The fish can't hunt properly swimming downward, the crabs keep bumping into things walking straight, and I'm so big I keep accidentally knocking over coral reefs."

A school of fish swam past them, struggling as they moved toward the ocean floor instead of forward.

"But what caused it?" Amira asked.

"Nobody knows," Marina sighed. "But it's getting worse."