The Magic Pool

Pearl and I are not happy with Annabelle. On Easter Sunday, she went out with her friends and left us behind. This wouldn’t have been so bad, except her friends had DOGS with them.

Blue and Bella

How unfair is that? If Annabelle’s friends could take their dogs, why couldn’t she take us?

They were all going on an exciting adventure, to look for the magical Blue Pool. When I asked why we couldn’t go, Annabelle said they weren’t sure exactly where the Blue Pool was, and the walk might be difficult for my stiff back legs. Cheek! I might be old, but I’m not completely incapable!

Then Pearl piped up. ‘I haven’t got doddery old legs! Why can’t I come?’

‘Because it’s a bank holiday,’ Annabelle said. ‘There’ll be loads of kids around, and some of them might be playing football. You know how you freak out when you hear someone kicking a ball.’

‘I think it’s very selfish of you to go somewhere we can’t come,’ said Pearl.

‘Never mind,’ I said, after they’d gone. ‘We can follow them in our astral bodies and see this Blue Pool for ourselves.’

So that’s what we did. We closed our eyes, left our bodies and followed them.

I have to admit, it was a long way to the Blue Pool. First they had to drive to Broughton Bay and park in a car park next to a caravan site – where, sure enough, some kids were playing with a football. Pearl nearly turned tail and flew back home at that point, but I managed to persuade her to follow the humans down to the beach.

The beach itself was pretty quiet, and very, very BIG. The humans wandered around for ages looking for this magic pool, which was well hidden. If I’d been in my physical body, I would have found it hard going. But one advantage of astral travel – apart from effortless flight – is the ability to find a place just by thinking about it, and we found that old pool long before they did.

The Blue Pool is an absolutely ma-HOO-sive rock pool concealed near the foot of the cliff. You can’t see it from the beach – you have to know exactly which bit of cliff to head for, and even then you have to climb a little way up before you can find it. The water is so deep that some say it’s bottomless. This isn’t true, of course, but it is deep enough for humans to dive into without hitting their heads on the bottom.

Another great thing about astral travel is, we can see all sorts of bizarre magical beings that humans don’t even know about. Such a creature is the Amazing Paisley Fish that lives at the bottom of the Pool. The Paisley Fish is covered with an intricate fractal pattern in vivid colours that glow like neon, shifting and changing with the subtle movements of the water. Sometimes it splits apart into a myriad of smaller fish, which dart around the Pool like colourful fireflies before coming back together.

It’s a fascinating spectacle, and we could have watched it all day. We had to be careful, though, because this creature isn’t really a fish – it’s a powerful nature spirit, and if you haven’t got your wits about you it’ll suck your soul into the Pool and trap it there. The smaller ‘fish’ are actually trapped souls, trying to escape. Luckily, Pearl and I had enough canine smarts to stay out of reach of its magnetic power.

Ages later, Annabelle and her friends managed to find the Pool. I felt like asking, ‘What kept you?’ but of course there’d have been no point, because they couldn’t see us. Nor could they see the Paisley Fish, which was probably for the best.

On the whole, I reckon we had a more exciting time than they did.

Note from Annabelle: I only left them for an afternoon, but they’ve been guilt-tripping me ever since. Millie has even threatened to go on strike, so God knows when there’ll be another post from her. I’ll have to eat a large slice of humble pie.