I poked the strange animal with my paw, it's hard shell repelling my claws and their ability away As if I was only a beetle. Inside, I could see the soft, dark flesh of the animal and two beady orange eyes.

They blinked slowly, as if daring me to kill it.

I tried to flip the thing out of its shell with my paw, only to be greeted by a very painful bite as the mistery animal sunk it's hooked beak into my paw. I yelped in surprise and pain, then pulled my paw away with the thing still attached so that it's neck was extended in front of me.

After that, it was kittens play to kill it.

"good job, dawn!" leaf said, coming out of nowhere. "I've never been able to kill one of those before!"

how long had he been spying on me?

"what's it called?" I asked, poking the animals unusual feet from its shell.

"I call it living-rock." leaf replied. "because it has a back has hard as a rock, but it eats and breaths and moves. It's one of the strangest animals I've ever seen, besides the water creatures in titans pond."

"Do those creatures have a name?"

"no, mostly because I can't think up of anything. Their strange things, with scaly, slippery bodies, and all their legs are gone. They only have tiny webbed paws that are nearly invisable and a tail with the same webbing at the end. And they have huge, unblinking eyes."

"did they come from the sky? Like the water?"

"no. Nobody knows where they came from."

I look at him in disbelief. "but they must come from somewhere! The living-rock came from the rocks themselves, the liveing-colored-singing-clouds came from the air, the tiny furry animals came from the earth, and the living scaly twigs came from the sky-reachers! The water creatures must come from somewhere too!"

"perhaps they came from the water." leaf replied.

"no, because then we wouldn't be able to see them."

"perhaps they came from the mud?"

I thought for a moment. "yes, they must have come from the mud, since they are wet like water but visible like earth."

"or like Titan when he's in a good mood." Miri said, coming behind us.

Leaf jumped.

"can we not talk about Titan right now Miri? You know how I feel about that-"

"so, what are you doing? Playing with a living-rock?" Miri cut him off, giving him a warning glare for some reason I didn't understand. "a living-rock that's dead." I said. "oh, well then you can bring it to camp and put it in the pile for food. None of us have ever had living-rock before. Oh, and Titan wants to see you at the pond. Now." Miri said, looking at leaf when the conversation turned to Titan.

Leaf shrugged. "figures. I'm always in trouble with him for something." and with that, we separated, Miri following leaf to make sure he went to Titan, me going to the camp.

Soon after, cat-screams of rage and pain echoed through the forest.