Caught

"What is it?"

The voices came through the glass.

"We've never seen anything like it. But there are a lot of things we haven't seen before on the ocean floor."

"It should be dead. Anything coming up from those pressures would die before reaching the surface."

"Some of them do come up for feeding."

Bracklin listened. It didn't make a difference now, but it might later.

"The man who brought it in said it tried to sink his sub."

"Is it malicious?"

A laugh. "Aren't we all when it comes to the food chain?"

The room became quiet as they stared in at him. Then, "They're sending another sub down there to look for a nest."

Bracklin squinted his eyes, all of them. Bralla knew how to hide.

"I don't think they'll find it. Those eyes will see it well before we spot it. It's like evolution pushed a little too far in that category."

"Evolution doesn't happen by accident. Some environment down there caused it to become this way."

"What would it take to need all of those eyes?"

"Predators?" someone suggested. "It does look like a delicious ball of jelly. What are those Japanese delicassies called?"

"If there are that many predators, the crew won't last long at all."

"We are the predator." Another laugh.

"The man who caught it also gave us this." The man tapped on a glass behind the glass. In it floated Bracklin's gift to Bralla. "I thought it was just a bit of seaweed and almost threw it away. But take a look. It's woven."

The crowd moved from the window to peer at the material, and Bracklin flung his body from the cage. He stretched every finger to find a crevice in his container, any crack that might allow him to escape from his prison. The surface was tight and smooth.

Someone turned, and he shot back to the enclosure.

"Did you just see that?" the human asked.

"Nope."

"Maybe it was a reflection."

Bright lights streamed through the water into his eyes, and he shrank and shut them.

"Keep an eye on it, that's our job."

"Yes, sir."

Bracklin huddled, and missed home.

___

This week's prompt was "Show someone longing to be outdoors, but stuck inside." It was a tad difficult to find a small story to fit this because one of my novel's main characters is dealing with exactly this issue, and it's taken me an entire book to explore it! What's exciting is that my WIP has only a few chapters to be completed, and then I'll be sending it out to readers for feedback. So stay tuned... yeah!!