Why was it always me? Why was it always me getting into these situations? Why was I always the one to get stuck like this? I whined to myself as I half crawled half drug myself through the half flooded forest. I always had to get stuck in situations like this. It was always a different situation but they always spelled out trouble. I flicked a large carpenter ant off me and continued crawling. This was going to be the death of me.
Let me explain what's happening here. A few weeks back I had to move out of my reef to find a new unclaimed area due to mine being taken over by a larger, more aggressive and protective merman. Yea that's right merman. They exist the merfolk some are more pleasant than others but we exist, I'm one of them. It's why I was currently crawling and dragging my tail around a half flooded forest that I could barely swim in. I was looking for a new area to mark as my own, but it had turned out to be more difficult than I thought. Every fight I was in had ended with me getting my tail kicked out and back on the open ocean. I gave up after that and just decided to try my luck in fresh water areas. This led me to the predicament I am in now.
After weeks of trying to find a suitable entrance to something fresh water I swam upon a river that switched from salt water to fresh. I instantly took up the challenge of swimming up river and found myself in a lush forest with plenty of trees for shade that were laden with fruit and flowers. I instantly decided I liked it here and would make this my home but not here in the open river, I had to find a more secluded area in which to live in. that lead me to looking beyond the river. It had overflowed during the rainy season and as thus I had easy access to other parts of the forest going deeper and deeper but soon I realized that the water was getting thinner. I tried to make it back to the main river but no avail so I was left dragging myself through the last little bits of flooded river water to try and make it back to the water before the ants ate me. They were getting bolder with each day the water dropped, and some had even followed my trail. I winced and flicked some of the ants off my tail and tried to crawl faster. If I didn't find a body of water soon I'd be eaten alive, and that's something no one should experience.
I was just about to take a small rest when I saw something sparkling just beyond the brush. It didn't look like jewelry, so it had to be something else. I crawled even faster to where the sparkling was and nearly cried in relief. It was a large body of water, it looked something like a mangrove, which was even better. I immediately dived in scattering mudskippers and hidden mudpuppies as I crawled through the mud and into the water. It was a sweet relief to be back in the water. It was even better that the mangrove was large, but secluded. This gave me the right to mark it as my own territory with no one interfering with me it also gave me room to live in without overeating the population, and I needed to eat. This was my new home for sure.