I was floating in the water. I was looking for my mother. I wondered where she was. She must have been around somewhere. But I couldn't see her.
I whimpered and squeaked, calling out for my mommy… wherever she was. Surely she would hear me and come to me. Why wasn't she there?
Suddenly, I heard a loud splash in the water. Two very strange, silvery creatures came towards me. They didn't seem to be an enemy, like the big white monsters or the giant black and white biters… my mommy had never told me about these creatures. They weren't my mommy, but maybe they were friendly.
They came towards me. They seemed almost playful. So I decided to play with them. They tried to chase me, but I got away. But then they caught me. They came from behind me and grabbed my little flippers.
Now I was scared. Maybe they weren't friendly. I tried to swim away, but I couldn't. They were much bigger than I was. But I tried anyway. I used my little teeth to scratch the nose of one of the strange silver monsters. I think I might have hurt him, but I'm not sure. I did see a bit of red trickle from the nose.
But they nosed me up onto the nice. They might be mean, but they were being careful with me. They didn't want to hurt me.
There were more strange monsters on the ice. Two of them were covered in pink fur. They were very big. I could barely see them, because they were up really high. The other one was covered in brown fur, with a red tail. He had very big flippers. The last one had lots of blue fur. He was really big, too, so I couldn't see him.
The two pink monsters touched me. I felt really sleepy. Then I woke up. The blue one touched me, and I fell asleep again. What was happening? Were these sleep monsters?
Finally, the one with the red tail and the big flippers touched me. I looked up at him. I didn't know what he was. I was confused, but I thought he looked kind of funny.
The two silver monsters turned into a pink monster. But one of the monsters was light brown and the other one was dark brown. I'd never seen such monsters before. They touched me too. And I fell asleep again. When I woke up, the dark brown monster put me back on the ice.
I decided that the monsters weren't bad. But I still wanted to go back into the water, so I could be with the other seals. I flippered toward the edge and dived back into the water.
The monsters were nice. They weren't mean to me after all. They played with me and let me go to sleep. But I decided that I liked being with other seals better than I liked playing with monsters… even if they were friendly sleep monsters.