Quick author's note before we get into it:

So uh.

IDrawzStuff noticed my work on my oneshots book, and then she got excited about this book when she saw I made it.

So because of this, prepare for absolute rapid fire updates here for a lil bit :>

(Yes I'm still freakin out a bit because it's freakin' IDrawzStuff-)

Anyway, y'all know what a Mesmer is? :3

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[Sabre's POV]

I wake up to the sound of something hitting my lifepod.

What was that...? I slowly get up from the floor, once again cramped and sore from sleeping on pure steel. I can't wait to get the habitat builder tool...

I hear the sound again, and notice it's coming from the lower hatch. I walk over, and see a familiar orange face peeking through the hatch's window, a familiar red figure swimming in place below him.

I've only just opened the hatch when Orange already pops his head into the lifepod.

"Hi Sabre!" Orange cheerfully greets me.

"Hi again, Orange." I smile.

I scoot back so I can let Orange inside. Once he climbs through, he looks into the water towards my other new friend.

"Come on, Red! We don't have all day for you to get your old fins up here!" Orange says.

Red appears halfway through the hatch, seeming to have jumped out of the water.

"Excuse you, I am not old." Red says, playfully glaring at Orange. He climbs into the pod as well, closing the hatch behind him.

"Suuure." Orange says. "And I'm a rock."

I laugh at their little altercation. It feels nice to have something to smile about...

"Anyway..." Red says. "How are you doing, Sabre?"

"I'm doing alright." I answer. "It doesn't really hurt to move around anymore."

"That's good!" Orange says. "Think you can swim around again?"

"I dunno, haven't tried yet. You guys woke me up." I say.

"Well, maybe we should see if you can first." Red begins. "If you're able, we were thinking we could help teach you how to survive here! Since it seems like you're from a planet that has significantly less, uh... ocean, Orange and I figured we'd show you the ropes of living here. Despite needing to go up to the surface every so often, that equipment of yours makes it so you can stay underwater like we can, correct?"

"I mean, mostly..." I say. "And once I have enough materials to make a habitat builder, I'll even be able to live underwater like you."

"A what?" Orange asks, turning his head slightly.

"Oh, a habitat builder is a tool I can use to make little bases I can live in below the water's surface." I say. "It tells me what I need to get so I can build something, takes materials from what I gather, and builds the thing for me so I don't have to complicate it by using normal methods of construction."

"Oh, wow!" Orange exclaims.

"That's... impressive." Red adds. "How many other things do you have that are like that?"

"Well, there's the scanner and my PDA." I reply, pulling out both. I hold up my scanner. "This scanner can let me scan living things to get information on different lifeforms I find, if they stay within its range long enough. I can also check both the scanned creature's health and my own. It's pretty useful. The scan info goes right to my PDA."

I then put down the scanner and hold up my PDA a little higher. Orange and Red look at it curiously.

"This thing shows a lot of stuff." I explain. "I can access data records on things I've scanned, logs from other PDAs, information I find on data boxes, see transcripts of voice logs, and look at records it already had, like survival tips and reminders of things that happened on other planets."

"This isn't the first planet you've been to?" Orange asks, looking like a little kid that just got told a fairytale.

"Far from it, although most of those records are from other missions I wasn't on, as they're sent out to every one of the crew whether they were there for it or not. Kind of like as a lesson on 'do's and 'don't's." I say. "My PDA also shows me things like items I've collected, what equipment I have on me (and it's charge), my vitals and needs, and sets little icons for places I need to go or what tasks I need to complete."

"That's super cool!" Orange exclaims.

"It is pretty cool." I smile.

"I wonder if-" Red starts, but he cuts himself off. "Whoops, we're getting off-track! How about you tell us more about your tech after we teach you the survival basics out here?"

"Oh- yeah!" I say, putting away my equipment. "You two can go ahead and go, I'll be out in a minute. Just need to put my wetsuit on."

Orange and Red dive back into the water after I open the hatch for them, and I walk over to where I put my wetsuit yesterday. Once I get the wetsuit on, I put the mask over my face and make sure I have my Seaglide, then open the hatch and dive in.

I wait a second for the bubbles to clear, then I see my two alien friends swimming a little ways in front of me. They smile, and I swim closer to them.

"Great! Looks like you can still swim." Red says. "Now we can get started."

"So, what first?" I ask.

"Well, probably what creatures to avoid." Orange says. "There's a lot of them out here, you're lucky you landed in the Safe Shallows."

"You guys have names for these places?" I ask.

"Yes! We even have our own maps, too." Red says. "This place, as Orange said, is the Safe Shallows. It's the most versatile area here, because of the multiple different sources of food and safety for many creatures that live on this planet."

Suddenly, one of those blue and orange ray-looking things swims up to Red and brushes against his face.

"I believe you've already seen a Rabbit Ray, when you first climbed out of your pod just before you saw me." Red says, the fish I now know is a rabbit ray quickly swimming off after he pets it.

"Yeah, I did. Are they friendly?" I say.

"Well, they're mostly really shy and skittish." Orange explains. "They tend to swim away from anything bigger than them. They just really seem to like Red for some reason."

"Heh, it's because I keep giving them the kelp that they eat whenever I find it..." Red says. "Anyway, they're an example of one of the passive creatures in the Safe Shallows. Others are Peepers, Boomerangs, Bladderfish, Gasopods, Garyfish, Holefish, and Floaters."

I giggle at a few of the fishes' names. Heheheheh... 'floater'.

"What?" Orange asks. "What are you laughing at?"

"Nothing, just- two of those names are the exact same as funny things from my home planet." I answer.

"That was kind of bound to happen." Red smiles.

Red is about to start explaining more things, when I feel something bump into my back from behind and I scream. I quickly swim and hide behind Orange. Looking for what that was, I see that it was probably the strange fish in front of us with a giant, orange-yellow eye we can see on the side of it. Orange and Red laugh a little.

"Sabre, chill out. It's just a peeper." Red says, picking up the strange fish. It doesn't even try to swim out of his grasp.

"You are one jumpy dude." Orange giggles, pulling me from behind him.

Red holds up the fish, which I now know is a Peeper, closer to me.

"It's not gonna hurt you, see? It can't even bite you, the beak it has means it's a herbivore." Red explains. "This type of fish is very common, found all over the planet and is very often used as a food source for carnivores and omnivores. It kind of helps that they don't really try to escape when you catch one, and they seem to be kind of... stupid."

"Heck, even we use 'em for food." Orange says. "They're so easy to find and catch, if you're stuck somewhere, you can always rely on peepers for a food source. No matter the biome, they're there."

I slowly reach my hand out towards the fish in Red's hand, and poke the peeper. It moves a little bit when I do, making me jump a bit, but I soon calm down and touch it again. Red soon hands the fish to me. Huh, he's right, it doesn't try to swim away once I'm holding it...

"Hey, this... this isn't so bad..." I say, smiling a little.

"See, nothing to be scared of." Red says. "If you ever get caught out at night (which you really shouldn't, by the way), you can quickly catch one of these and throw it at something chasing you to distract it, giving you enough time to escape."

"W-Wait, something... chasing me?" I ask. "What comes out at n-night? Why s-shouldn't I be out then?"

"Great, Red. You scared him again." Orange facepalms.

"Oh, sorry Sabre! That's just what I was getting to before the peeper scared you." Red says. "Really, as long as you get to somewhere safe before sunset ends, you're fine. The only hostile creatures that come out at night here in the Safe Shallows are Crashfish and Sandsharks."

"Crashfish, you've mentioned that one before..." I say.

"Yeah, they explode if you get too close." Orange says.

"Wh- What kind of evolutionary purpose does exploding serve?!" I exclaim.

"I dunno, dude." Orange says. "If you manage to kill one before they do, though, I think they're pretty good."

"Orange, I've told you, stop eating those!" Red exclaims. "You're gonna get seriously bad sulfur poisoning one of these days!"

"Sulfur?!" I say.

"That's what makes them explode. If ingested, for us sulfur just tends to make us sick. Nothing dangerous." Red sighs.

"Dang, you guys are way stronger than humans then." I say. "Sulfur can cause permanent damage to us."

Orange and Red just stare for a moment.

"Okay, note to self, don't give one to you." Orange says.

"Orange." Red says, giving a small glare to his friend.

"Orange, why do you even eat it if it makes you sick?" I ask.

"Because I think it's good. And that makes it worth it." Orange says.

"Oh, fair then." I say. "I kinda do the same thing back home with certain foods."

"What?" Both Orange and Red say, Orange looking surprised while Red looks... a little disappointed and shocked.

"Yeah, I'm one of the unlucky ones that has a physical deformity that makes it so an animal product from my world makes me sick, nothing life-threatening though." I explain. "Problem is, that product is an ingredient to a lot of stuff, including this one thing called 'cheese'. And uh... I really like cheese."

"So you eat it anyway even though it makes you sick??" Red asks.

"...Yes. And it's totally worth it." I nervously say, trying not to laugh at Red's unamused expression.

"I'm not the only one!" Orange laughs, holding up his hand for a high five.

I high-five Orange, laughing a little too. Red facepalms and shakes his head.

"Honestly, I do not understand your thought processes when it comes to this..." He sighs.

I suddenly get a notification from my PDA that I need oxygen. After checking, I put it away and turn to my friends.

"I'll be right back, need to surface." I say, already swimming up.

I reach the surface pretty soon. I can see why this area is called the Shallows, it's really easy to get out of the water since it's not that deep. I wait for a few seconds, just enough time for my oxygen tank to refill. Then, I dive back down to Orange and Red.

When I reach them, I see them talking. They notice me swimming over, and turn to me.

"What's going on?" I ask.

"I just realized that I forgot something at my home." Red says. "I'll be right back, you stay with Orange."

"Okay!" I answer.

With that, Red swims off past the coral. As soon as he's out of our vision, Orange nudges me.

"Wanna play tag?" He asks with a smile.

"You guys have tag too?!" I exclaim. "I haven't played since I was a kid..."

"Well, then I don't need to explain the rules then!" Orange yells. He suddenly taps my shoulder and starts swimming towards the nearby coral reef. "You're it!"

I giggle and chase Orange into the reef. I use my Seaglide to try and catch up with him as he twists and turns through the bright coral passages, trying to get more distance between us. We're both laughing as we go along, tagging each other as the game goes. We go through the colorful structures, dodge the occasional fish going by, and now we're swimming near the seafloor. This is so much fun!

I'm it again, and I eventually lose sight of him after he turns at a point in the coral with multiple directions. I didn't see which one he went through... maybe I'll spot him if I swim above the coral.

I go upward from where I was and look around for Orange. Hm... no sight of him yet, but- Wait, what was that?

My search is interrupted when I notice a new, strange fish swimming around. It's mostly purple colored, but it has these seemingly glittering blue-greenish fins on its sides. It notices me, and starts slowly swimming towards me. Maybe it's friendly too?

I'm about to call out for Orange when the fish suddenly extends its four bigger fins, and it looks as if many colors are moving along the teal fins of this... really pretty fish... Huh...

I suddenly hear my PDA again, although it's not a notification...

...

"It is your primary directive to swim closer to that beautiful creature..."