《I am a Fish.》


 Day One: I Hatch.

    Day one:


    I use my beak-like lips to pierce through the soft shell that was my previous capsule. I am free, finally free. I feel the immediate sensation of cold against me, the warmth of the capsule I was in made this cold uncormfortable.


    I see my capsule. A large, orange shell sitting on smooth stone. It was once circular, but with my escape, it is now squished.


    I see many other capsules. Many of my brothers and sisters were still inside, I was the first. I see many capsules, at least one thousand. I see bulges in the soft armor as my kin break out of their own capsules.


    As my kin break loose, they float upwards. It was at this point I realized we were underwater. They were all a orange or red color with white stripes running vertically down their bodies. at this point, I realized something else.The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.


    I am a fish.


    I peer down at the stone floor. It was a bright red color. At this point, I realized this was not stone. I rose up a bit and looked around. I saw many large tentacles, trapping me as if I were a prisoner.


    I must leave.


    Before any of my kin see me, I make a dash for the orange-cream colored tentacles. My newborn fins betray me, and I plummet to the ground with a soft thud. My body racks with pain, but I get up once more.


    I cannot give up now.


    I go swiftly, but more carefully this time. I make it through the first wave of tentacles. They make stange noises as I pass through them, but they do not harm me. It takes what feels like a decade before I get through the tentacles. Once I do, I find a beautiful coral landscape before me.


    I am free.


    My newborn body betrays me once more as darkness begins to fall over the reef. My fins grow heavy, and the pain is still coursing through my body. I find a nearby hole and rest in it for the night. Awaking from my capsule and escaping took longer than I expected.


    I accept my new life. I am a fish.


    Darkness fills my vision as I drift asleep, the usual bustle of the reef falling asleep with me. I can only pray to the fish heavens I am not attacked in my sleep.

 Day Two: The Ocean is Unforgiving.

    Day two:


    I awake from my dreamless sleep and groggily swim towards the mouth of the small hole I rested in. As I come forth, I see the reef is bathed in light from above. This is good.


    I must eat.


    What do I eat? Now that I have escaped my prison, I must find my own food. I see a small insect-like creature scuttling around, much smaller than me. I hide within the coral and follow it along. It stops at a green patch of algae and begins to eat.


    I slowly swim up behind it, my fins barely swaying within the waters. As I get into striking distance, I put on a sudden burst of speed and open my maw. Something hard goes into them, I instinctively chomp down.


    *CRUNCH CRUNCH*


    I swallow my newly found prey. I determine it as a shimp and swim forward, my belly full with sweet shrimp.I know this is not what I am suppose to eat, forI begin to cough up small bits of shell. It hurts, but I eventually get all of it out. Perhaps I can adapt to this.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    Continue swimming.


    I swim ahead. That is what I do, for I am a fish. I see many more shrimp, but they pay me no mind, for my species doesn''t usually attack outright. That is good for me, yes. But right as I was preparing to catch more prey, a large shadow covers me in inky darkness.


    I am in danger.


    I turn around quickly. What I see sends a chill down my spine and rattles me to my fishy core. A large, lengthy sea serpent lay above me. It''s mustard yellow-hue glistens as the light passes in from above. Two blank, beady eyes stare at me, unblinking. The brown irises flash, and the pupils stay blank.


    Run.


    I swim as fast as I can, but as I do, the eel chases after me. A flash of teeth barely miss my fin as I swim for a nearby hole in the reef it hopefully can''t fit through.


    Swim faster.


    I try, but I am only two days old. As I swim, I can see jaws opening over me. A surge of primal instincts kick in as I dart into the hole, the jaws of the yellow serpent closing just as I get into the hole.


    Solitude.


    I am imprisoned once more. I can see the serpent waiting for me, lounged across the coral as it peers into the hole I am in. I can only wait. I wait for what seems like an eternity before drifting off to sleep once more.


    I am a fish. And with that, comes survival. I will be the best fish.

 Day Three: The Circle of Life.

    As I awake, I find myself in strange tranquility. I have a strange moment of peace as I drift upwards, the small hole I am in feeling more like shelter than a prison.


    Still in danger.


    I remember my current situation all to quickly and carefully drift towards the mouth of my shelter. I stick close to the blue stone and peer outside into the reef.


    Nothing.


    The eel was gone... Yes! I do a happy little fish jig, then stop abruptly. I peer over the reef once more... Everything was gone. Usually the multiple colors of the reef were bustling with fish of even more colors... Flashes of blues, yellows. and oranges mingling between the coral... But it was all gone.


    Something is wrong.


    I slowly drifted forward. my fins swaying gently thorough the waters as not to atttract attention. As I reached the edge of a table coral, which was like a cliff edge for my tiny fish body, I saw what was wrong.Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.


    A reef shark. No... much larger. Stripes run down it''s rusty brown body. They look more like ink smudges... Large balls at the top that pade and become thinner as they run down the creature''s body. i see blood rise to the surface, and look near the creature''s maw.


    What I see horrifies me. it is eating a long, slender fish. It was already halfway eaten, but I could see its face. It''s beady eyes were clouded over with the fog of death, it''s maw gaping, revealing a row of sharp teeth it also possessed. I recognized it as a barracuda.


    Right under the shark lay the body of a long, mustard-yellow sea serpent that was all too familiar. It was also half eaten, but it''s unblinking eyes looked no different as it gazed into nothingness.


    I watched in horror as the tiger shark ate, a flash of teeth gulping the barracuda down, then moving to finish the eel. I was nothing in this oceanic world, just a fish. I accept I am a fish, but this made me think. What role did I play within this ecosystem? The answer was simple. I am prey. I am meant to die. How did those poor shrimps feel? I watched until the shark swam away from the reef.


    Continue. Swimming.

 Week One: I am not prey.

    Week One:


    Days pass. I continue swimming as I am meant to, lightly beating my fins with the oceans gentle current. I stop to lightly peck at small patches of green vegetation¡­ Algae. While a fulfilling food source, to me, I find it dull.


    I cannot be simple prey.


    Perhaps. The shrimps, I had only eaten one before¡­ But they are everywhere. Scanning around, eating the algae before anyone else could. Why compete when I could eliminate them? I slowly approach a nearby shrimp, feeding.


    Attack.


    No instincts¡­ Only a simple desire I hold to myself. My instincts tell me to simply find more algae. I am my own fish, I decide what I want. I slowly approached the small insect-like crustacean¡­ It pays me no mind. Usually, a fish like me would not pray on these shrimps. Not today.


    Accelerated heartbeat.


    Ifeel a surge of emotion wash over me, excitement and a feeling of the hunt tingling across my scales. I swim forward with a burst of speed, opening my beaked lips and attach them to the creature¡¯s shelled back. This shrimp was bigger than the first one. I try to bite down, but the shell is much too hard.The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    Must defend myself.


    As the shrimp¡¯s tail flicked up sand and it kicked its legs, I knew it would try to strike me with its pincers. I dodge, using my tail to kick up sand towards it¡¯s eyes. Amongst the fine sand I threw up, a picked up a rock large enough to fit into my mouth. With a surge of water, I pushed it out hard towards the shrimps leg. Dust and fine sand danced around us as one of its many legs began to float away, snapped by my brilliant attack.


    A weak spot.


    As the shrimp cleared sand from its vision, I darted to what it attempted to clean; its eye stalk. I wrapped my lips around it and bit down with all my might, the hard stalk snapping inside of my mouth. The taste filled my mouth, exciting me more.


    Prey to be consumed.


    The shrimp thrashed around, blindly attempting to strike me. The most it did was brush against my scales, as one of its eyes were gone, and the other blinded. I let out my own fishy laugh, slapping him with my tail and toying with him. Strange blue blood oozed out of the eye stalk, and transformed into wisps along the water¡­ The smell was amazing.


    Gleeful waiting.


    Soon, I stopped taunting it and simply waited. My lips twitched as more blood spread across the water, but I held myself back. Soon it began to wilt, and ven sooner, died. It lay on its side, the legs that remained twitching here and there. I slowly swam towards it, gleeful as I ripped apart its shell, with some effort, to claim its meaty prize. I ate it all. Organs, meat, everything I could chew ended up in my gullet. I made my way back to my shelter I hid from the eel in, the shrimp but a small pile of shell when I was done. I layed down on my stomach and leaned against a wall, smirking mentally as I did. Slowly, I fell asleep.


    I am a fish¡­ But I am not prey. I will survive, and be the best fish I can be.