[This is more of a fantasy sci-fi kinda thing, quite different from usual. Enjoy!]
M U D S K I P P E R
They call him a young genius, a modern Einstein, the next biggest thing. It was no lie, for Nathaniel Stilinski, a scientist of 25, is a prodigy.
Now, he's currently working on his latest and probably revolutionary experiment. He is about to transform an amphibian into a fish! All his coworkers here in the big industry (which has been his home for three years) deem this impossible. But that is exactly what Nathaniel's parents said to him when he said he'd become a proper scientist before 25.
He cautiously prepared the apparatus, chemicals and safety equipment, with his assistant, Mae Montgomery to his side.
Nathaniel has almost everything ready, yet he feels something important is missing. Ah, yes! The amphibian himself: a frog the size of a child's hand.
"Miss Montgomery, pass me the frog, will you?" He calls from behind. Mae does so and Nathaniel places the frog in some sort of complex chamber.
"Mr Stilinski, can you repeat your hypothesis, please?" Mae asks, just to double-check.
"The frog should absorb the chemical-infused air, which will change its body to adapt to how a fish lives. When ready, it will jump into the water below. Soon, it will adapt the necessary dorsal fin, tail, gills, etcetera. The whole process should take a fortnight or two. Got it?" Mae mumbles a yes and Nathaniel releases the chemicals into the tiny chamber.
•••
After two fortnights, Professor Stilinski checks in on the now supposed fish.
The electric green from the frog has faded and now a sewage green bursts through, along with specks of argent and teal. It has some sort of tail, but it also has legs. "Peculiar," he mumbles, "quite peculiar indeed."
As expected, a dorsal fin has sprouted, and strangely enough, so has a second dorsal fin. Not many fish have those, Nathaniel thought. "Miss Montgomery, take a look at this." Mae quickly runs over to him.
"Hm. How strange." she states.
"Isn't it?" Nathaniel agrees as he further inspects it.
"So, is this a failure or does this thing pass as a fish?"
Nathaniel thinks about this carefully. "It isn't a failure, yet it doesn't exactly pass as a fish," he confusingly states. "let's put it in different environments to see which animal group we can place this creature in."
Thus, they do so.
•••
After another two fortnights (one week in four different habitats), it is decided that the creature lives best in a strange habitat; a swampy, muddy mangrove.
"What will you call it then?" Mae asks.
"Albert. After Einstein." Nathan claims.
"Yeah, okay, well that doesn't really matter. I meant the name of the species." Mae smiles, shaking her head at the tall, handsome genius before her.
"Oh, right, that. Er- I think I'm calling it a mudskipper. Y'know, 'cause it skips through mud." Mae laughs at the name and takes it down.
"Okay."
Just like that, Albert, the first ever mudskipper, was born.
[A/N: SO SO SORRY FOR THE SUUUPER LATE UPDATE FORGIVE ME PLS]
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