My first memory was of water. Cold, dark waves washed over me while sand pelted every inch of my being. My instincts kicked in—my lobed fins fluttered and my tail thrashed, but still I tumbled helplessly until the waves washed me upon the grainy shore. Using my little remaining strength, I hauled my tiny body further onto land, away from the grasping sea. Exhausted, I breathed.
My rest was short lived, however. As I lay gasping, a crab about twice as large as myself took notice of me and scuttled over. Caught between its claws and the merciless ocean, I was certain that one of them would claim me. But I was not entirely without defenses. Baring my teeth, I lunged forward and bit at its leg, leaving a few tiny marks in its carapace. It scuttled away, snapping angrily, and prepared to counter. Before it could strike, however, its eyestalks swayed upwards and frantically, it skittered to the side. Confused at the sudden stroke of luck, I moved to crawl away from it. Something seized me from the air.
There is a certain type of terror that one experiences when they are faced with a threat so impossibly more powerful than themself. I had had a chance against the crab, although it wasn't a great one, but this being was beyond any hope of fighting. Its very eyes were longer than I was tall, and it could have fit me into its mouth without needing to chew. I squirmed, my fins pinned to my sides, and the creature blinked. It tossed me into a high-walled container with some seawater and carried me away.
Years later, I would learn that this creature was a young human. Although altogether an insignificant being, not to be remembered in her race's history, she was my savior. She took me to her home, where she lived with several other children of her kind, and kept me fed and protected. I lived a hidden life in her bowl, underneath the place where she slept. It was my good luck to have found someone kind and not clumsy enough to crush me, and so in relative peace I survived and grew.
This Eden of my childhood was not to last, however. A day came when I was large enough to escape the bowl she kept me in, and I began using that ability as soon as I had discovered it. Of course, I was not ungrateful to my friend. I was merely young and curious, and I wished to explore the world beyond the bowl.
Still, it was my decision, or perhaps some inscrutable force of faith, that brought an end to my sheltered life. One day, while I was exploring, a much larger human walked in. As soon as she saw me, she screamed, and it was all I could do to flop myself under the bed to avoid being squashed. Once again it was my friend who saved me. She bargained with the larger human for my life, but it came at the cost of my safety. That evening, she took me back to the shore where she had found me. We stayed there for a while, listening to the sound of the waves, and then she went home.
That first night was a cold and lonely one. I met a few crabs, but they were smaller than I. They scuttled away as soon as they caught sight of me. Cold, and without a companion, I found a pool that was separated from the rest of the ocean by some rocks. I paddled to the bottom of it, hoping that it would be a shelter against the larger nocturnal creatures that my instincts warned me roamed the shore at night. My rest there was an uneasy one, fearful and spent with three eyes open, but when the dawn finally came, I knew that I had survived my first night alone.
The shore in the morning was a much different place, although still dangerous. The crabs came out again, for one thing, and a number of them were larger than me and still thought that newcomers such as I should not be tolerated. They clicked and swayed and scuttled about, but for the most part, they were cowardly, and easy to frighten off.
The real danger was the birds. They came from above, almost out of nowhere, and could carry off just about anything in an instant. On one occasion, I saw a gull swoop down and come up with a fish three times my size. The birds, I learned to fear.
In the afternoon, my friend returned. She brought food with her, a few scraps of fish, which I accepted gratefully. Earlier, I had happened upon a carcass of a full fish that had washed onto the shore, but I had been unable to take more than a few nibbles before the birds found it.
My friend and I picked our way along the shore together. The crabs hid fearfully, and even the birds stayed away, though they squawked enviously and never went fully out of sight. As the sun began to set, my friend went closer to the ocean and splashed at the edges of the waves. Remembering me, she came back to shore and lifted me up so I could get a better view of things without getting washed away. The sun settled over the water, illuminating it in gold and orange and violet flames. I thought there would never be a more beautiful sight, and in my companion's arms, I felt safe once again.