The water pressed against him from all sides, but the more he struggled, the more confused he got. It had gotten to the point where he couldn't tell which direction was what anymore. He reached out with his arms and legs, hoping to grab something, something had to be near, but his limbs just thrashed about to no effect. It may have even pushed him down further. It didn't make sense, he had to be near the surface. He had to keep trying.
His lungs burned from lack of air, but even though he knew there was none around, his body betrayed him and took a breath. Freezing cold water filled his body, and he felt his blood pumping behind his eyes. Slowly, the will to fight left his body, and the darkness engulfed him.
The first thing Daniel did upon waking up was take a large breath of air. And then some more to help calm him down. Daniel was no stranger to nightmares, but judging by how sweaty he felt, this one in particular had really put him on edge. He slowly got out of bed, and walked over to the small bed upon which lay his pet Growlithe, who had luckily not been awoken by his panicked sleep. At least someone seemed to be having nice dreams.
Another stroke of fortune was the it seemed that he hadn't woken his parents up, as it was late enough in the morning that they had probably left for work. So not bothering to tidy himself up at all, he plodded over to the door, and walked out into the corridor. The first thing that struck him as his eyes adjusted to the bright lights, was that everything seemed a bit smaller than usual. Not enough to make him panic, but still just enough that he noticed it. Either one of his friends had some weird idea for a prank, or his nightmare had messed him up more than he had thought. Either way, it was nothing to be too concerned about.
Daniel dragged himself to the bathroom, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. He went straight to the sink, as he felt as if he had been sweating all night. After a few moments of washing his face, his sight and his mind slowly began to clear. Just enough to fully process the image in the mirror before him.
In a weird state of shock and confusion, he shouted to the only other being in the house. "Growlithe!" he called, no longer concerned about waking his pet up. "Why the fuck am I blue?!"