The youngster was exploring his environment.
Each time he left his mother’s side to go sightseeing he would travel a little further. There was so much to see and he came to realise that his domain, or what he could see of it, was truly vast. When he returned, his mother was waiting. She looked as though she was going to give him the big warning lecture again. The one about the danger signs that a youngster should know about. He was right.
She was saying, “Just beware of the other world, the one up there,” her eyes rolled up as she said it. “Those that inhabit the upper world are wicked. They are evil monsters that will use deception and trickery. They’ll do whatever it takes to find us and kill us. There have been rumours that they actually eat us!”
The youth looked nervous.
“Yes, I know,” she said, “every mother has to explain this to her young.”
He looked away.
“Yes, you can go now. Just remember what I told you.”
Later that day he was weaving his way through the tall greenery of his world when he saw it. He saw the worm. It was wriggling and looked tasty. It was pinned to something metal. He remembered his mother’s warning. He swam closer and looked up, and there it was, the line she had spoken of. It went straight up and out into the other world.
He swam on.
The man on the river bank gripped his rod a little tighter and cursed as he watched the fish swim away.
