Warm darkness had surrounded him for as long as he could remember. He's not sure when he first became aware of it... if he could even be truly aware of it because it has always there. It was his constant.

There had been silence too, in the beginning, before it was replaced by a beat and steady whoosh of fluid. Muffled sounds began to filter into his bubble and he twisted and turned to get close to them. They meant something, he just didn't know what yet. He listened, keen to find out what they were and what they meant. Time provided him no answers.

He steadily became more aware of his lack of space, his legs craving more freedom and movement than his cramped chambers provided. He grew restless, tossing and turning and kicking and willing his home to expand. One day he had flung himself with such force he was sure he felt his whole world shift. Unfortunately, it seemed he had less space than before and he began to grow weak. For the first time in his life, darkness looked different. It was too bright and his ears rang so much he could not hear the muffled noises anymore. He felt like he was suffocating despite having never taken a breath in his short life. He lost the strength to kick out at the walls yet felt something else pushing in on him intermittently, almost taking over where he left off but from the outside instead. He grew still and somewhere in the depths of what little awareness he had, he realised he would not remain as he was much longer. He was not afraid.

Numb, he barely felt the pressure or the shift in his surrounding but things returned to normal soon after. Slowly his strength began to return and he could hear to muffled sounds once more, quieter and often only when he twisted his head. He became more aware of how cramped he was yet still lacked the strength to kick around as he had done in the past. Truthfully, there was barely any space to do so anyway. The only only vaguely comfortable position saw him with his front legs outstretched and his head tucked into them. He began to wonder if he might just be slowly crushed but didnt know what that actually meant for him. Death was not a concept he could grasp.

Suddenly, everything around him contracted. If he thought he was cramped before, nothing could have prepared him for having all the walls close in on him. They forced him forwards and completely crushed him from all angles. The warm, soothing fluid that surrounded whoosed past him and everything changed.

He began to find more freedom for his front legs and soon after became aware of light (not bright, as the sun was still only just rising). The light was short lived though his face came to rest on the cold, hard ground. He sucked in his first breath when the membrane that covered his face split and the air was cold. Silence engulfed him, except for a steady beat of blood between his ears and he just lay there, entirely exhausted.

After what seemed like an eternity, he felt a gentle pull and then something pushed at his face and neck, the force pushing his head up so that he saw small glimpses of light between the darkness. He became aware of sounds for each split second before they were silenced by the gentle thump of his head on the ground. He was bathed in a comforting scent and tried to respond to the insistence of whatever pushed at him yet his body refused to move. Far too soon, all comfort was ripped away from him and he lay in the dark silence. The cold began to sink into his skin. He'd never been cold before. He didn't like it. Whatever had been pushing at him was warm. He wanted it back.

Finally, his muscles began to twitch and he sucked in as much air as could. He needed to move. He rocked slightly onto his back and then threw his head sideways to get enough momentum to roll onto his front. His long spindly legs, unfolded in front of him to hold some of the weight. Though one side of the world remained dark, the other held a large creature that was watching him intensely. He blinked her slowly into focus and they stared at each other, remaining this way for some time.