The two humans stopped at the same spot they had come to last fall, standing between the giant redwood and young sapling.
She was glad to see them, but noticed that the older human had grown more gaunt since their last visit. And yet, to the sapling, this human was something beautiful--bent forward like a thin and graceful fern, but having red and heavily lined skin similar to the bark of the redwood tree. This creature must be a human redwood fern, she finally decided. "So I shall call her Redwoodfern," she thought with satisfaction.
As the two humans turned to look at the sapling, the younger human cried out enthusiastically, "Look! Look Great-grandmother! Remember this tiny seedling?" The young human with sparkling eager eyes smiled, supporting his great-grandmother as she stooped down to get a closer view of the seedling.
"Chipmunk," she smiled back at her great-grandson affectionately. "Chipmunk, my son, we can no longer call this a seedling. It is a young tree now, a sapling, growing tall and strong just as you are. It is a
young tree, just as you are a young man."
As Chipmunk beamed at both his great-grandmother and the young tree,...
"Well, it's about time I start making new friends," she told herself. She began searching for tiny crab larvae like herself, but after a week passed, her efforts appeared unsuccessful. "Just be patient, and stop feeling sorry for yourself, Lacy," she scolded. Then she made up her mind to get to know the other types of sea creatures living around her. There were so many to choose from in the kelp beds near the rocky shoreline. There were round, spiky, purple sea urchins, a variety of sea stars, some with an amazing amount of arms. There were schools of bat rays: the flying creatures of the sea that whirled below her before she could catch their attention and say, "Hi!" From her newfound vantage
point she could see other otters grooming themselves, while others were feeding on sea urchins, shellfish, and, "Oh," she shivered. The one who was closest to her was eating a large crab. Lacy was about to turn away and consider making friends with a more suitable companion, but curiosity got the better of her. "Besides," she told herself, "Mother Whale could have eaten me, 
but she didn't. And...and didn't she tell me that when hunger needs are met, that creatures can be kind?" Lacy eyed the sated otter, and observed how carefully she bathed and preened herself...