The Great Ajax was the primary gnome, he was attached as assistant to the Dev. He reminded himself of this every day, having held the position for several million millennia now. When someone says the days start to run together, they give no idea how true that is when you are near immortal and working in the same position for so long that apocalypses seem to run together. But something was changing, and he could not put his finger on where it was coming from.

The lunar beavers had maintained their peace treaty for a few hundred years now. When the beavers arrived, they raided for resources. The Developer wanted this, although Ajax never understood why. The beaver timeline was coming to an end, and they had somehow brought over their whole world, which was something the gnomes had not seen before. Something new was something interesting.

There had never been any beaver players before. For a time, their presence brought war, raids, and many changes to the turtle world. Players and the beavers grew tired of the wars, and a peace treaty was signed. Very little trade had been done, and the refuge planet filled with beavers became the second moon to the turtle.

The first moon, the larger of the two moons, was in fact just a giant beehive. It was here before he had been given the position of the Primary Gnome. Ajax knew nothing of the hive moon, but it interacted the least. The tool and computer making insects never seemed interested in playing games, so seeing bees appearing never seemed right. They pollinated and farmed multiple forests of plants. The trees are just as much as the flowers. They did not interact with the system but allowed themselves to be tracked. Their names were random letters and numbers.

Ajax looked at his monitor, searching for what was causing all the small issues. He believed, something akin to the beavers and bees, there was someone new on the turtle’s back. Whoever or whatever this whole was, they were able to take on a new and unknown role in this world. The gnomes could only see the effects from the whole’s actions, and until they were tagged, they were unknown elements.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Coupled with more sightings of the one that called himself Taxi-Man, so he was still active. But that one did not seem like he would be able to make such changes Ajax was seeing.

The Dev spoke. “Ajax, some kind of shark on the infernal levels is making changes.”

Ajax looked over at the Dev, who normally took the form of a spiral galaxy. But today, the Dev stood in a form he had never seen before. The Developer had marble white skin with the arms and chest of a man but the lower body of a quadruped hooved animal. This form reminded Ajax of the centaur, but the proportions were off. The back legs were lower than the front, with a back sloping down at nearly a forty-five-degree angle. It had large and powerful legs; they were just in a strange placement. The Dev still had no head or face but took the dark outline of space, with unending blackness spotted with stars and galaxies. The sky in the game had to be maintained to look earth-like. Seeing the Dev like this reminded Ajax of the note on one of the monitories. The sky must be alike so hope remains alive. In this space no stars here, just a shifting color palette of orange and reds. A contrast to what the Dev showed.

Ajax’s voice cracked, dry from disuse. “We are seeing more holes making their way here. Normally, we only see one every hundred years, now we are seeing one every month!” They rarely needed to speak, and had the compunction to move a few things around to keep everything going. “Do you know why they are all coming here?”

“This would be your first reset. This is normal. Rats will attempt to board lifeboats on a sinking ship just as people do.”

Ajax nodded and turned back to the data. Something was coming. A shark was in the infernal levels. All he could do was sit and watch.

The Dev laughed deeply. “Release the Commodore.”

Ajax looked up at the Dev, too tired to move any of the muscles on his face. He did not know why they would release something so dangerous into the game. But he obeyed then turned back to the data.

An idea occurred to Ajax. Maybe it was not a shark. Maybe it was a whale, a killer whale that was affecting the infernal levels.