"Leith clawed at the net as they were carried up – higher, higher, higher – until they broke the glittering surface and were lifted into the air. The fish thrashed and gasped for breath alongside them as they were unceremoniously dumped onto a hard surface atop the water. Boat, they remembered, from the horror stories they'd heard. They could hardly breathe as the net was pulled off of them and murmuring humans gathered, chattering in their noisy language."

"Months later, they idly swam through the pond they'd placed them in – a far cry from the open waters they once called home. They could hear the humans approaching by their noisy footsteps and chatter, which they still could just barely understand. Their tail swished in displeasure as they awaited them in the littoral zone." "Let me go," "they hissed once they arrived, the few human words they'd memorized."