Swish, swish, swish. With a floop of my legs I propelled myself forward feeling the water rush by me. Swimming was fun. I loved to explore between the rocks, roll the snails around, and look for delicious little fishies to eat. Life was good. I twirled my legs to one side and then back to the other swerving around for fun.

"Swish swish swish." I burbled to myself.

What to do today, maybe I would visit the south side? I swam to the south. How did I know it was the south? Easy to answer the Center told me. After swishing my legs for a really long time, probably around three minutes I reached the south wall. I ran my legs over the pitted surface gently, tracing around the interesting crevices as I had a dozen times before. Satisfied that all was as it should be I absentmindedly followed the wall, today I wanted to really challenge myself. I was going to do a full circle of my domain. To see all that could be seen.

I struggled and strived, making my way from wall to crevice, over the small rocks and around the big ones. I was staying up far later then I usually did, it was worth it though, I explored my whole domain. I spent over thirty minutes on the exciting work and I was absolutely exhausted.

With the trickle trickle of new water constantly, and the fwoosh fwoosh of the big new water that came rarely there were always new things to find in my huge world. I had found fishies to eat that I really liked, they tasted zippier than usual, with a good munch. I waved to the snails and rolled them around, nibbled on some rubbery seaweed, and even found a new shiny thing, how exciting! It was a fulfilling day.

Feeling very sleepy I looked up blearily as I started to drift off. That was the border. The dry border. Beyond it were the waters impossible to chart, I had crawled out every now and then but after mere seconds I had to scurry back to my safe domain. Too dry, too scary, too dangerous. Within minutes I would die a dry death, the water was just too thin, I would drown in it.

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"Someday." I thought to myself. "Someday I will chart those waters... and maybe I'll find a friend, someone to play with."

After sleeping I woke up with a yawn and blew some bubbles, then twirled my legs in excitement ready to start my day. Yesterday I had found a shiny, a new shiny was really exciting. It was between the north and the east, and today I was going to get it and bring it to the center, I was sure the center would be happy with another shiny.

It took me a long time but I made it to the shiny and started to drag it back, it was heavy but I was strong! I could do it. I dragged, and pushed and floopsed here and there and I managed to bring it back. It took almost the entire day though, all sixty minutes of day were used up just getting there and bringing it back. It was round, and shiny yellow and there was a hole through it, it was so pretty. I leaned it up against the center and admired how cute they looked together.

Curling up near the flickering light of the Center I stroked it with my legs, it had taken me so many days to figure out how to communicate with it but the Center was patient and eventually I learned how it wanted to teach me. With a few strokes it showed me the directions of the world. Another tap or two from my legs and it showed me the numbers of time. I looked at them flickering along, sixty bubbles in a minute, sixty minutes in a day, twenty four days in a year. It had taken me years to understand it but I wasn't a little one anymore, I had been around for years and years!

Right now though I was tired, it was time for me to drift off to sleepy sleepy time. I curled up on top of the center and absentmindedly tapped away as I drifted off to sleep.

The next day when I woke up I was confused, the Center was teaching me something new! No matter how I tapped and twirled I hadn't been able to get the Center to tell me anything new for years and years but it seemed like sleeping on it had increased our bond. It was telling me a new thing about the world!

Center was showing me big black text that was really easy to read. I had learned many of the letters over time in its other learning places. I was a smart one, I could read Center language really good. What was it teaching me this time?

***Injecting nanites***

***ERROR: No biological lifeform detected, please press injection surface onto designated lifeform***

...

I was a smart one but I had no idea of what Center was trying to teach me now. What could that mean? Oh wait, but there was something else new too! Behind Center's big circular body there was a new sharp little thingie. Cool! I gently touched it with a leg and winced as it cut me. Center! How could you hurt me?

Then suddenly before I could react the sharp thingies shot out and a weird sensation went through my body like I was electrified. What was this? How could Center do something so mean to me? It was unfair!

Everything swirled around me and I sank down with sparkles everywhere, the last thing I saw as I drifted away were words appearing before my eyes.

-Explorer Class Unlocked-

-Charting System Initiating-