The first thing I felt was overwhelm. As I slid from the claw’s possession to a nearby shelter, my skin and breath ached from the newness. Signals screamed at me from all sides, water more vast than I had known before rushed around me. Can I breathe? I thought, and moved around, allowing the breath water to cover me. I could but it was different. There was more. 

   The shelter was as dark as I had remembered but cozier too. Green blankets covered it around and new floors made small nooks to squeeze into. As I pushed further under the rock, hiding from Claw, I touched the floor. Rocks. But also, a nice slime on top of soft mud. 

   She squirmed on top of me, agitated. The new ones were always agitated: always squirmy. She settled again and tapped one pad to me. Go on. 

   At Green Rock, the home Claw brought me to last, I had more space. Claw left me so I stacked on top of no one of our kind. Instead, little crawlies walked by for dinner, little floaters and flappers swam around me. Truly, it’s the bigger floaters and flappers you must pay attention to, but don’t worry. You will sense that once you have your new home too. 

   The mass of us shifted and squirmed as another claw dipped down. Right now, our walls are made of water-a firm water that was unmoving and unkind to our breath water. I understood the discomfort. When the Olders had told this story once before, I had doubted. 
   Our existence was made of a water box and a colored box full of colorful Claws dipping in and out of our waters. Leaving your first soft home, shoved into homes too close to others, you don’t know what the claws want. We still aren’t sure. Occasionally Supreme Olders are brought in, bringing news from their green rocks and new observations. Occasionally, we try to add this information to our known signals. But, much like us, our signals do not prefer to move fast with new information. 
   Claws seem to enjoy metallic tastes and plastic ones too. In and out they dip into the water boxes and drop us into an assortment of metals and plastics. Some are cold. Some are warm. Some are full of weird, unscented water. The Supreme Olders ask us to be patient. To wait and stop squirming. I get it. I once squirmed: Too close to our kind, too far from my rock. But now, I waited still and told my story and the Supreme Olders told theirs.

   What happened next? The squirming mass of us seems to ask. I slept, I think. But that isn’t what they need to hear. Instead, I tell them how I found food. There, at Green Rock, our food walks around under the stars. It doesn’t come from above as it does at the water box. A curious squirm indicated I was on the right path. Where are we going? She wants to know. 
   I don’t know. I squirm. We squirm together. Before Green Rock, Claws dropped me in and out of water boxes, flex boxes, and too cold surfaces. But I always went back. For a few years, I stayed at Green Rock. Occasionally Hind Claws would climb near me, toppling my homes. And occasionally the colorful claws would dip down once again, bringing me from my home to a mass of squirming us. It was usually the most of us I saw. One claw told me while pinching my tale between weird symbols, that it was my family reunion. 
   Then one day, my skin buzzed wrong while the sun was still out. I couldn’t ignore the pain so, cautiously I slid out from my rock. Small floaters and flappers hurried by. Some floated by on their backs. I didn’t understand. I couldn’t try to understand. I couldn’t breathe.

   I went back to Green Rock and focused hard on breathing. I chose the nook with the fast flow and rested there. New signals flew through the flow. But, I couldn’t make out signals? Sudden, flying Eaters whizzed by unannounced to my signal catchers. I was used to being told of their arrival and couldn’t find a rock before they saw me. It didn’t matter today, luckily, as they flowed angrily past me. 
   Small green rocks and clouds of unknowns flew at me as well. I looked out again at the floaters and flappers flying by. I stretched this way and that, exposing my skin to every possible flow of breath water. Burning, constricting, and tightness greeted me with each attempt. Could I leave? Again, I circled Green Rock and Brown Rock and Small Rocks. Bursts of brown, tiny rocks and floaters flew past. It was chaos. 
   Begrudgingly I looked downstream. Could I leave? I did not know travel. I did not know and a large part of me resented the concept. 

   Not long after hurried Claws came by and scooped me up again. This time, I could not squirm much. Down I plopped into our pile of selves. Supreme Olders, Olders, Youngs, and Littles all gathered in our boxes now. The Claws rushed about like the Floaters and loudly signaled to each other. This time, plastic-covered our pile, and weird, empty water sloshed angrily as we bounced away from Green Rock. 
   Anxious squirming commenced with each bounce. It was day but Light went away and came back again with each new Us added. I laid still and moved with Us against the water, against the walls, and against each other. 

   Time passed and I left the Dark-Light box. Now, I swam around breath water and noticed the presence of new Firm Water. Claws swam in their box too. Their signals bounced loudly off of their walls and ours, they must have had a confusing flow day as well.
   Now, I had one rock. Not Green Rock, but a rock still. I decided to snuggle there and wait for the Top Crawlies to appear. Rock was against firm water and firm water was against the Claws’ stack of boxes. Flat white rocks flew everywhere and were greeted with angry, sad signaling. I understood that signal. I noticed my firm water pressed into another’s. Inside more of Us squirmed at the signal. What does this mean? 

   Who ALLOWED that! We had protections in place for another year!

   More angry signals. More squirms. I went further under the rock. What now? Squirming said later, in the dark. The Claws’ box had darkened too, though random splashes of sun showed sleepy Claws and their stacks of white rocks. What now? I thought too. I released a top Crawlie and repositioned. I didn’t like the way it fit the first bite around. 

*

   I woke up again to more Claws dipping into my firm water box, holding my squirms still, and plopping me into another dark-light box. We squirmed with each bounce but settled. Unsure what a new box so soon meant. 
   This happened once before, a Supreme Older squirmed above, it happened again. More squirming. It may happen yet again. 
   I stilled my squirm and allowed breath water to cover me as much as I could in the dark-light box. The breath water was empty but fine. What may happen again? 
   The Separation and Creation. They squirmed once more and then settled. Smalls floated around them and squirmed to their stories: a living example. 

   Claws dipped in again and held me against my squirming efforts. Tight, round rocks, weird symbols, and more Claw signals surrounded me briefly. Finally, a funny seeming Claw held me in his mesh-flex box. He held me up so our snouts stared at each other. Claw showed me his teeth under the plastic sight box and round breathing box jutting up. I stayed still. Mesh-flex boxes made squirming back to them difficult. 

   Together we squirmed away and found ourselves once again in full breath water. I stretch a bit to allow it to cover me and took a deep breath. My squirms stilled in Claws’ claw. We flowed fast away again and Claw used its teeth to hold its round breathing box. 
   Finally, we paused. A Claw reach me and held me firmly. New rocks were scattered everywhere. He held me to a new, large rock and let go. Of course, I sneaked away, under New Rock, and found a flow spot to breath in. Hind Claws sent waves and splashes my way to say goodbye. 
   I sneaked and squirmed around. New Rock had nooks, slime, and mud too. I could peak out in several spots, find crawlies in other spots, and guard Smalls in others. Signals wafted to me slowly telling me the story of New Rock. Sun drifted above me and I decided to pick a hidey spot until the bottom Crawlies came for dinner. 
   Backward I squirmed into the perfect day nook and I rested. New Rock was nice. But where was my Green Rock?