Ball of Nothing

Chapter 13


Chapter 13

Oh no! What was I doing? Flap those wings!
After jumping, I allowed too much time to pass before realising my mistake . How was I meant to fly if I didn't move my wings? However, after spreading those flimsy wings out, I felt the air go through my feathers . Nope, not going to make it . How did the bird manage to go against its weight and the strong air currents? How does one win against the wind?
Sadly, there were no answers and I plunged into cold water . With soaked feathers, the mission to fly was officially a failure . Not only was I unable to soar, I was now going to drown .
What a sad and miserable experiment . Is this how I end? The bird's body suffered without air and swallowed mouthful after mouthful of cold and salty water . Without air, I could feel the bird's body lose its strength . As its vision darkened, I felt the heaviness leave me .
Once more I became unable to move . Looking around, I did not see feathers . It appears that I assumed my original form automatically . Now that's what I called convenient . Basically I had a death escape card for any situation at the cost of being unable to move by reverting to my original form . Good to know, good to know .
While the cold water no longer bothered me, my worries only increased . How will I get out of the sea in this form? Frogs couldn't survive in the sea and shellfishes cannot move on their own . I didn't have the energy to keep morphing forms between the two nor the ability to partially morph parts of each animal to create a completely new species . If done wrongly, who knew what the consequences could be?
Was this going to be the end of my exciting adventure? Do I have to wait in the dark waters for the current to take me somewhere else again?
Oh well, I suppose I could go back to waiting since there was nothing I could do . Perhaps I could trap a nearby fish and absorb it with the frog's tongue so that I could swim as a fish?
With that idea in mind, I kept my eyes peeled .
When the last of the light left, I waited patiently at the bottom of the sea . However, there were no creatures nearby as far as I could tell . What rotten luck!
Now that the plan has fallen through I had to console myself . At least there was plenty of sand and water I could absorb . A thought struck me . As crazy as it sounded, it might work . If I absorbed the sea, I could transform into a bird and escape .
Yes, that sounded like a fantastic plan . Why settle for escaping when I can hunt?
***
A long time must have passed since I started on this insane project . Yes, I dutifully absorbed water for who knows how long . At first there wasn't any visible change . The surroundings were still as dark as ever and the water never seemed to lessen . I was disheartened but since there was nothing better to do, I stuck with the boing routine, occasionally switching it up with absorbing sand for variety . Strangely enough, no creature passed by during my sea absorbing mission .
I didn't know exactly how much water or sand I've absorbed but over time, one thing was certain . The light was becoming more and more obvious . Now, whenever I absorbed water, there was always a huge space around me before the water came back . I no longer needed to sleep after absorbing once . In fact, absorbing sand and water kept me energised .
I could already tell the direction of the sun from where I was . Does this mean I'm a lot closer to the surface of the water than I was before? No matter, since I've resolved to absorb the sea, I will keep my word and see it to the end .