Ocean Crawler

Once upon a time, in the darkest corner of the ocean, there lived a creature named Lurick. Lurick had no shining scales, no graceful fins, and no friendly eyes. His body was long and twisted, with skin the color of old, forgotten stones, and his eyes, milky and pale, seemed to hold no warmth, only a flicker of quiet sorrow. His crooked limbs were covered in barnacles and bits of tangled seaweed, and everywhere he went, creatures would scatter, too frightened to look back.

Lurick knew he was different. He’d watched schools of fish swim in synchronized dances, saw playful dolphins leaping into the sunlight, and even marveled at how sea lions cuddled together on the shore. But he was always alone. No one ever swam by his side, and no one would ever dare to come close. Even the tiny shrimp and crabs would crawl out of his path as he crept along the ocean floor, whispering to each other about the “creeping ghost” who wandered the sea in silence.

Sometimes, in the quiet hours of the night, Lurick would crawl up to the shore, where he could see the stars scattered across the sky, a thousand distant lights that seemed just as cold and unreachable as everything else in his world. He would look up at them and imagine that maybe, just maybe, somewhere out there was a creature who wouldn’t run from him, who would look at him and see something worth loving.

But every morning, as the sun rose, Lurick would sink back down to the depths, hiding from the light that never seemed to touch him, knowing his dreams were as distant as the stars.

One evening, during a storm that churned the ocean into a wild, furious dance, Lurick heard something—a faint, desperate cry. It was the sound of a young dolphin calf, separated from its pod and thrown helplessly into the dark depths by the powerful waves. Lurick could hear its tiny voice calling out, weak and fading. For a long moment, he hesitated, sure that if he went near, the calf would only scream in terror.

But as he listened to the little cries, he felt a sharp ache in his heart, something he couldn’t ignore. So, despite the fear he knew he would cause, he crawled forward, his spindly limbs reaching through the water until he found the trembling dolphin.

The calf flinched as Lurick approached, its eyes wide with terror. But Lurick moved slowly, speaking in a soft, low voice that was almost lost beneath the roar of the storm. “Don’t be afraid. I’m here to help.” Gently, he wrapped his crooked limbs around the calf, shielding it from the waves. Slowly, with all the strength he had, he began to pull them both toward the safety of a quiet cove, where the water was calm, away from the storm.

When he finally laid the calf down on a smooth patch of sand, he looked down at it, hoping, just for a moment, to see a flicker of gratitude, maybe even a little warmth. But the calf only stared, wide-eyed and trembling. And as it looked up at him, it began to cry again—not the cries of a lost creature but of one terrified by the strange, shadowy figure looming over it.

With a heavy heart, Lurick backed away. He whispered a soft goodbye and crawled into the shadows, disappearing before the calf’s family arrived. When they came, they surrounded the calf in a warm embrace, ignoring the faint traces Lurick had left in the sand.

Days passed, and the story of the strange creature who had rescued the dolphin calf spread through the ocean, but it was never told with kindness. They called him “the ghost of the deep,” a lurking monster that haunted the dark corners of the sea, scaring little ones and creeping where he wasn’t wanted.

Lurick heard these whispers. He knew that the ocean’s creatures would never see him as anything but a shadow. And though he continued to live, day by day, he grew quieter, retreating to even darker depths where no light ever reached. The stars above, once his distant companions, became hidden from view, as if even they had turned their backs on him.

The ocean went on, full of bright fish and shimmering coral, a world of light and warmth that held no place for him. And in the lonely silence of the depths, Lurick faded into legend, a sad story told to little fish by their parents, a cautionary tale of a creature who was born unloved and vanished, forgotten by the sea that never wanted him. 

And so he drifted, a shadow lost in the endless dark, never to be found again.