 
Suddenly, Eric stopped. He could feel a pair of eyes watching him. Slowly, he turned around. There in the shadows was a form. It slowly emerged, and Eric saw that it was another spider-bot, its eyes fixed upon the glowing blossom Eric was clutching. As Eric pulled the flower closer towards him to stow in his sack, the other spider bot propelled forwards at lightning speed. The two wrestled, Eric clutching at his prize, his opponent grasping for it. They tumbled along and the water churned, frothy from their furious efforts. Their tumbling led them closer and closer to a rift in the sea floor, in their passion, neither bot saw the rift, or the pending consequence of falling into it.  |
Eric Eric was a Spider-bot that lived in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Japan. He loved to collect and study plant specimens that he would encounter on his excursions. He would carefully extract plants samples from the sandy bottom and store them in his abdomen. Later, when he returned home to his underwater bubble, he would empty his sack, study the plants, and add them to his collection. One day, while Eric was traveling through the ocean depths, he spotted an unusual flower that he had never seen before. Its exquisite form and glowing bud compelled him to glide forward in awe. Unable to take his eyes off the magnificent specimen, he picked it up, slowly and reverently, and held it close to his eyes to examine it. It was so captivating that Eric could not divert his eyes. It filled him with joy and he started to dance around, he could not wait to add this to his collection. 
Both spiders fell, the glowing blossom spinning from their clutches, falling out of sight below. The spider bots’ legs were so entangled; they were unable to swim out of the rift but kept falling, falling, falling to the bottom, as the ocean became dark, obscured from the light above. Time seemed to slow as they fell through the darkness in a tangled knot. Looming nearer and nearer was a faint glow that grew into a shining light. The two spiders untangled their legs and floated into a bed of thousands and thousands of the same glowing flower they had just exhausted their efforts over a few minutes before, stretching as far as the eyes could see. The spider-bots looked sheepishly at one another over the futile argument that had preceded the discovery, and sat still for a very long time in awe and silence, contemplating the wondrous abundance of the glowing flowers. |
