Oi, Squirt!

It’s your big bro, Pip -- writing from a sunny bit of beach with sand between my claws. Been a speck, eh? Figured I’d best send you a card to tell ya I didn’t sink with my big ol’ shell. Not that I would. After all, I’m the stronger swimmer between the two of us (don’t even start with me on that one).

Anyway -- right then, straight to it. I wanted to apologize for slipping off without a proper “catch ya later.” It was late when I left, and you were asleep. Told myself it’d be kinder not to wake ya. But thinking back on it now, I bet you were wondering why I left in the first place, eh?

Don’t know if you noticed, but I wasn’t the most popular in Monsoon Marsh. Wasn’t all that liked -- cept by you, of course. And for a while I thought Mum and Pop liked me, too. Though I always knew they never liked the shell much.

“Pip, don’t bring your shell to school… Pip, guests are coming over, put your shell away.”

I always hoped they understood it, ya know? That the shell isn’t something I can just toss. It isn’t a hat. It’s -- it’s… me. If I chuck it, I’m chucking me.

Took me a long time to say that out loud, and even longer to say it to them. And when I finally did, I hoped Mum and Pop would say, “Sweet as, Pip. We see ya.”

But they didn’t. Quite the opposite, really. Turns out they disliked the shell more than they liked me, Squirt.

So I left.

I didn’t know where I was going, so I just started swimming -- hoping I’d find my way. Find a new home. I came across a few islands -- nice enough, but not keen on newcomers, especially ones with shells. So I kept swimming, and swimming, and swimming… until one day I just stopped.

I came up from the ocean and everything was still. Everything was grey. The water. The sky. And for a speck, Squirt, I thought maybe… maybe this is where I belong. Alone. Somewhere my big shell isn’t a bother to anyone anymore.

But then… I saw something. A sparkle, a shimmer -- deep in the water.

It was a Doomling -- a fish Doomling -- down there tugging at a chunk of pink sea glass.

Soon as he saw me, he came darting over.

 “Oi,” he said, “you look built for hauling! I’m trying to get this chunk to Castle Glass. Care to help a fish out?”

I hadn’t seen a Doomling in days, so of course I helped. Got it unstuck and swam it with him all the way to Castle Glass. We chit-chatted for hours -- about the currents and snacks and how to spot a storm by the way your gills itch. We yakked the whole time, and he only brought up my shell once -- just to compliment it. Reckoned I’d drifted into a dream.

When we finally hit shore, I saw one of the most beautiful places on Enderas I’ve ever seen -- a beach straight out of those storybooks Mum used to read us. Yellow-white sands, huge leafy mountains jutting up behind the coast, and massive sand-castles lining the beach, all studded with shimmering, colorful stone. I was pinching myself, Squirt (and you know better than anyone how strong my pinches are).

We lugged the glass onto shore, and out came a huge Doomling from inside one of the castles. And get this -- they had a SHELL! A HUGE SHELL! Way bigger than mine. Turns out Castle Glass has loads of Doomlings with shells. And I tell ya, Squirt -- I was nervous I wouldn’t, but I fit right in, right off the rip. Building castles, sharing stories, laughing, dancing.

It was like being with you again. It felt like home.

And even though I shared a kind of kinship with the shell Doomlings, it wasn’t just them I was getting along with. The fish Doomlings, the coral Doomlings -- we were all close. I thought it was just because they’re friendly -- good chaps -- but I quickly learned it was more than that.

After my first day at Castle Glass (probably the best day of my life), we all ventured up to the cliffs at sunset. From up there, we had the best view of the sand city we’d built. Immaculate. Sparkling. A work of art.

Then the waves started getting big and rowdy. In an instant, the tide came rolling in fast. My stomach dropped as a wave of water came crashing into the city. And the ocean was relentless. Wave after wave, it was being destroyed -- all of it. We’d put our hearts into building that city, and as I watched the waves roll over the city, I felt like something was dying. I wanted to cry.  

But then I felt something -- a warmth, quiet and peaceful, like a bath -- and I realized I was hearing a song. The Doomlings of Castle Glass were gathered along the cliff, looking out over the city, humming a melody I can’t rightly describe. A beautiful melody, but a kind of beauty that feels big -- that feels like it stretches beyond this world and back. And in that moment, Squirt, in the bittersweet light of it all, watching wave after wave destroy what we’d just built, everything suddenly became clear as glass to me...

That life is so short, Squirt. So short. 

And we get just this little speck of time together before we’re whisked away by the sea -- all of us.

But how lucky are we? How lucky are we that we get to be here at all? 

That we get to share it with anyone else? 

That we’re not alone.