But even with the most believable eyes, how could they have seen what was going on?
Beneath the vast expanse of dark waters, where sunlight dissolved into silence and pressure crushed even the strongest shells, something moved.
It was small by ocean standards—just a crab-like creature, no larger than a dinner plate.
Its shell shimmered faintly, catching the glow of the strange minerals around it. Eight legs scuttled over the rocks, fast and carefully. Its little eyes twitched this way and that.
Something was hunting it.
Bubbles rose from the abyss below, carrying the low, distant tremor of movement. The crab froze. Its pincers lifted, trembling slightly as it pressed itself against a slab of coral rock mottled with greenish moss.
Then, from the shadows, a long shape glided by—an eel, its fins see-through like ghosts, its teeth catching bits of light.
"!!!"
The crab didn't move. Didn't breathe.
