Shelldon Butterback felt the current shift beneath his shell before the strangers appeared. Three creatures emerged from beyond the outer reef, their movements sharp and deliberate. They asked about spice sources in the deep waters. Their questions were too specific to be accidents. But the aggressive current had other plans. The strangers' tent — a blue structure ringed with bright orange coral — sat tilted against a rock wall, pushed far from wherever they'd meant to land. One stranger pulled out a damaged map, the lines smeared and incomplete. He pointed to markings that matched nothing Shelldon recognized, though the general area looked close to the cavern's outer approach. The stranger turned to him, eyes narrowed. "You know these waters?" Shelldon felt the pressure change against his shell, the subtle pull that meant they were near but hopelessly turned around. He had spent decades learning to feel what these strangers could only guess at with ruined paper. The knowledge sat in his chest like a stone — valuable, heavy, and waiting for someone who could truly carry it. Shelldon moved closer to examine the map without touching it. The stranger angled it away, protective. Too late. Shelldon had already seen the cavern entrance sketched in the upper corner, marked with symbols for rare spices. These weren't lost travelers. They were hunters. The current pulled again, stronger now, and Shelldon felt the familiar tug that meant the cavern lay somewhere to the east. Close enough to taste. The strangers felt nothing. They looked at their broken map and argued about which direction to swim. Shelldon turned away from them, his mind already moving. He needed to find the cavern first, and he needed to teach someone else the way before these strangers turned guessing into finding. The tall orange reef formations around them created eddies that twisted the water in circles. The strangers pushed against the current, swimming the wrong direction entirely. Shelldon let them go. He closed his eyes and felt the pressure through his shell, reading the water like words on a page. The cavern was close, but the route had changed since his last visit. New coral had grown. Old passages had collapsed. He would need to trace it fresh. And when he found it again, he would bring someone back with him — someone who could learn to feel what he felt. The strangers had given him a deadline he hadn't wanted, but sometimes pressure made things clear. He turned toward home, already deciding who to ask first.