Kappy's life

Kappy had been swimming the ocean for her entire life. From the day she crawled off that beach she had only known a life of fear. She remembered seeing light everywhere, walking towards what she thought was the ocean, she knew only to head towards the moonlight, which pointed the way towards the ocean. she had left the warm sand for a cold but smooth rock. She had assumed that she needed to cross this smooth rock, but in her way these strange creatures with round legs that could run faster than any other creature she had ever and would ever see run. They made this odd noise as they ran past, as if they where constantly screaming. Around her, she saw the corpses of her brothers and sisters.

In the midst of this terror, she found herself no longer on the ground. She only knew now that she could hide away in her shell, maybe her shell would protect herself from their awful jaws. It wasn’t one of those round legged creatures that picked her up however, but a tall yet thin creature. It looked at her, but before Kappy knew any better, she was next to the ocean. She hurriedly scuttered away into the sea, spending the next few moons avoiding the many predators that would seek to eat her.

Kappy was now much older, having seen the moon so many times that she couldn’t even count the times she had been thankful to be alive anymore. She was travelling with a couple of friends, crossing the ocean in search of where they born, so they too could lay their eggs, when she told them of her own ordeal at birth.

“What of these odd creatures?” Minnie asked, “Were they hunting?”

“I have no idea” Kappy replied “The tall ones didn’t seem to fear them though”

“Maybe the tall ones are their slaves?” Sonny chipped in “I mean, They were faster and larger right? How could they not control them in the way sharks control us? They did take up most of the space, right?

“They did but… I don’t know, but this tall creature, I think it saved me” Kappy responded

“Saved you? Why would it do that?” Minnie asked

“I don’t… Guys” Kappy suddenly stopped talking, in fear of what lay beyond the three. A giant choke lay ahead.

“Ohh no!” Sonny said, shocked and terrified at what the three saw beyond them. “It’s coming towards us. Quick, swim away”

They swam as fast as they could in the opposite direction, but the choke field fast approached them. Its seemingly endless dark aroura seemed to shadow the sunlight from above. The smaller choke pieces seemed to catch up with them quick. Minnie had got off the worse of the three, a small choke ring had wrapped itself around her neck.

“It’s stuck!” Minnie screamed in horror

“Wait!” Sonny screamed back in a panic.

“No don’t!” Kappy herself also screaming, also in a panic.

Sonny bit the round choke and pulled it off from Minnie’s neck, but in doing so the round choke became ledged within her mouth.

“Sonny! You should have left me. I’m sorry” Minnie said sorrowfully

“I’m sorry” Kappy said regretfully “We need to get away from the choke”

Sonny tried to speak but couldn’t, she was choking as the round choke slowly went deeper and deeper into her throat. The choke was fast approaching them. Kappy and Minnie now knew that they had no other option. They both looked at their friend and left her behind to choke.

The moon had fallen, and the bright light had now emerged above the water. Kappy and Minnie had outswam the choke.

“Why did she save me?” Minnie asked, “We always said to look out for ourselves, why did she save me?”

Minnie may as well have asked the plankton that surrounded them. Kappy was silent, looking only forward. She had known so many more who had perished to the choke. More than her brothers and sisters had when they first hatched. So many of her kind who were much older had always kept silent, never trying to make connections with anyone else. In her first breeding ritual, Kappy now knew why. Her thoughts no longer with the demise of Sonny, but with the fate that would be of her children. They would all wake up terrified, and most of them would then die. Then if they made it, these chokes would attack them for the rest of their lives.

“Why do they attack us?” Minnie asked, throwing Kappy completely off guard. She had never though of it. The sharks would usually not attack them unless they got close. At birth the fish who attacked them were merely trying to eat the same way they did.

“They pretend to be food sometimes, sometimes they just come in a pack, sometimes they just pounce on us. But why? They don’t eat us, we don’t want to eat them, so why do they look like food? Why trick us? Why kill us?” Minnie relentlessly hammered on. Kappy once again had no answer, only looking at Minnie with a solemn look in her eye.

“Kappy!” Minnie said horrified “Your…”

Kappy looked down at her fin and saw a choke had wrapped itself around it. It was making it hard for Kappy to swim, but she was able to persevere.

As they swam along, they suddenly noticed a shadow appear above them. They both instantly looked below them. Oh no! There was a lot of fish below them, all ascending towards them quicker and quicker. They both swam as fast as they could away from the shadow above. But for Minnie, it wasn’t quick enough. As Kappy escaped the shadow, she looked behind herself to see what she feared. Minnie had been caught by the shadow’s blue tentacles. She ascended upwards with the fish, eventually becoming lost within the crowd as Kappy looked on. She was now alone, like many of her kind. She felt a great sadness within herself, realising now that perhaps the older ones were correct to stay alone. She had no idea how she managed to escape, especially with the choke wrapped around her fin. Perhaps she was just lucky, or even unlucky perhaps. She went up to the surface for a quick breath and continued on her way alone.

Many moons had passed, but Kappy had arrived. She had found the beach where she was born. She looked around and saw what she had remembered, the lights and the rounded legged creatures. But she saw no Tall creatures. The round legged creatures were doing the same as they did when she was born, just running down that smooth rock at great speed. She was exhausted from the swim, that choke had made it so hard for her to swim straight but she made it. She dug out a hole for her eggs in the sand, but as she dug, she began to start questioning herself. Why give life in such a horrid one? All her life she had been narrowly escaping death, why give these eggs life? Why not just lay them then leave them exposed? Let all the creatures around devour her eggs before they’re given the chance at life, to save them from this misery.

She had just laid her last egg. Should she cover the hole with sand, or leave them exposed? She pondered this for a while. As she pondered, she noticed one of those tall creatures approach her. Her first instinct was to dash toward the sea, but she didn’t. If this was time for her death, then maybe it was time. A final escape from the endless suffering. But this tall creature did not kill her, this creature didn’t even touch her eggs. No, this creature, it had this strange silver thing in its, well it certainly wasn’t a fin. It was the same thing that picked her up all those years ago, a strange sort of fin with little tentacles than would bend. They seemed a lot smaller now than they did all that time ago.

This creature took this silver thing and used it to remove the choke’s grasp around her fin. The creature looked at her, made some noise, then let her go. Kappy felt she needed to run, but instead looked at her eggs. Maybe there was a chance? She covered the eggs with sand, then made her way toward the ocean. All the while that tall creature watched her from a distance. When she was in the ocean, she looked back. The tall creature was gone, it didn’t dig up her eggs, it didn’t chase her, it just left.

These tall creatures, could they be our saviour? Kappy thought to herself. She heard tales of how these creatures would save her kind from the Blue tentacles, and now twice in her life these creatures had saved her life. Perhaps maybe one day, these creatures could remove the choke from her home and the blue tentacles from their ruthless attack on everyone that habited the same place she did?