Platy the Platypus

I wake up early. Today will be the first day that I, Platy, along with my brothers, Mony and Trome, leave the burrow. I am three and a half months old and I am a duckbilled platypus. We were born last October, and now it is January. Our mom, Ornith, has stayed with us in the burrow ever since we hatched out of eggs. Every day she dug through a big brown plug of dirt, then remade it and disappeared somewhere. Today we will find out where the tunnel goes.

Our mom finally wakes up, stretches her body and starts toward the first blockade.

"Can’t you go faster?" cries Mony.

"Patience! Patience!" cries Mom. "Unless you want to come home tonight to find a snake or water rat waiting to eat us, it will take time."

The wait seems to be forever. We walk meter after meter; every few meters we find another mound of dirt that Mom says is to prevent enemies from entering.

"How much longer?" cries Trome.

"I know. How long will it take?" I say.

Suddenly Mom finishes digging through a pile of dirt and suddenly a bright light comes in.

"AHHH!" scream all three of us kids.

"Welcome to the world outside of the burrow," says Mom. "I want all three of you to stay close to me, and don’t dive unless you’re told. Don’t talk to any strangers; they could be enemies, and you may be their supper."

"But why won’t we be their lunch?" cries Mony.

"Ha ha ha very funny!" says Mom sarcastically. "Now go ahead and jump into the water."

Trome jumps in first. A loud sound takes place as he hits the blue stuff.

"What was that?" I shout in a worried voice.

"That is just Trome hitting the water," says Ornith.

Next Mony jumped, and the same thing happened. "Yippee," he says as he comes up to the surface.

"Your turn," says Mom.

I reach the edge of the burrow, look down, and breath in. I jump. As I hit the stuff called water, I get a sudden feel of coldness. I start to go down. I think to myself, "Will I go on forever?" Suddenly I bob up to the surface. I see Mom right before she jumps.

As Mom reaches the surface I say "I’m cold."

"Well, you’ll have to get used to it," she says. "Luckily we platypuses don’t get wet because we have two layers of fur. Now it’s time for the three of you to have lessons. First, when you look at your feet, you will see that the toes are attached with skin. This is called "webbing." When you swim, use your feet to paddle you through the water." Mom shows us how to go. Mony starts. "No Mony, you don’t flap your feet like that. That’s better." Next Trome goes. "Use both set of feet. Your turn, Platy."

I start swimming like Mom as much as I can.

"Perfect," she cries, "now boys, do what Platy just did. Mony, I thought I just told you: No flapping your feet! Are you a bird? I think you are. Do you want us to call our neighbors in the sky?"

After trying and trying, Mony finally got it.

"Lunch time," says Mom. "Now you kids stay right here -- and don’t dive." She suddenly disappears below the surface.

"I’m going to go somewhere," says Trome.

"I’m going, too," says Mony showing he was just as daring.

"You better not, since Mom said not to," I say.

"Too bad," says Trome.

Mony and Trome started to swim away as I just stayed there and watched. Suddenly, I was startled with a large splash. It was Mom.

"Where are the boys?" she said.

"They just swam over there," I said.

"Well I’m going to go get them," she replied, "I guess you can have first dibs on lunch."

She got some scrumptious food out of her mouth pouches. I took some crayfish and trout, and Mom even let me have a whole frog. It was delicious food compared to the regular food of worms that Mom kept in her pouches. I enjoyed it while Mom went to get Mony and Trome. I just lay there and enjoyed the Australian sun beaming down on me.

"I don’t know what you were thinking! I know that I told you to stay here close to me," said Ornith, "Your sister got her food first, and I had brought a special frog for you to eat, but now I have given it to your sister."

After lunch (along with some complaining from Mony and Trome that they didn’t get enough to eat), it was time to learn to dive.

"You kids are able to stay under water for three and a half hours, but you’re only allowed to stay down for five minutes. I’m old enough I can stay under water for only ten minutes. When you go under water you will have to close your eyes, ears, and nostrils. You will have to rely on your bill. It has hundreds of thousands of sensors that will help you feel your prey’s muscle movement in the prey’s body. Platy, you dive first. Don’t spend too long. If you get some food, stick it in your mouth pouches," instructed Mom.

"But why can’t we go first?" cried Mony and Trome.

"Because you haven’t been behaving," replied Mom.

I closed my eyes, ears, and nostrils -- and dove. I suddenly felt scared. "I shouldn’t go up," I thought, then my bill suddenly hit the muddy bottom of the lake. I felt some small balls and sucked them into my mouth and put them in the pouch I have in my mouth. Trout eggs. Suddenly, my bill sensed some movement. I swam at it and missed. I could still feel it. It started to feel fainter. I swam harder at it. I nipped at it but missed. I tried to get it again, and it got halfway in my bill. It was struggling to get away. Then I suddenly opened my bill, and it got away. I felt it going up to the surface. I thought it had gotten away, but at the last minute I had a power surge. I got it in my bill, and I stuffed it in my mouth pouch. I swam up to the surface proudly with this great catch, a trout.

At the surface I realized how stupid I had been. I had spent too much time under water and swam away from Mom. I looked all around but couldn’t see her. Suddenly I heard her calling me, and I swam over.

"Where were you?" she asked.

"I swam away while I was chasing a trout," I replied.

"Did you catch it?" she questioned.

"Yes. And I caught some trout eggs." I replied.

"I guess you can eat them, and then dive and get more," she said.

Just then Trome and Monte came up.

"Anything?" questioned mom.

"Hmaodir," said Mony. He spit out some dirt, "A bunch of dirt."

"I caught a mussel," boasted Trome. "What did Platy catch, some water?"

"Actually I caught some trout eggs and a trout, suckers," I bragged.

"Probably a dead one," said Trome.

"Yeah," agreed Mony jealously.

"Now all of you go get more food. We’ll all hunt for our supper," said Mom. "Be on the lookout for me."

We all went hunting, and I had more than I wanted of trout, crayfish, frogs, frog eggs, trout, trout eggs, and clams. Finally all three of us kids had eaten ourselves full.

"Let’s go look for Mom," said Mony.

"Sure," Trome and I agreed.

We started swimming around the lake looking for mom. After awhile we all met again, all unsuccessful in finding Mom.

"Maybe she’s still underwater," said Trome

"Maybe she’s back in the burrow," I recommended.

"Let's just wait awhile," said Mony.

"Ok," I agreed.

We waited and waited, but Mom didn’t come back.

"Let's go in the burrow and maybe she’ll be there," I said hopefully. We all agreed and went over to the entrance and went in. Every few meters we had to knock down the blockades and then remake them as we went further and further. When we reached the end of the burrow Mom wasn’t there.

"Let’s just go to sleep and maybe she’ll be here in the burrow later," Mony said.

We all knew, though, she was probably dead, eaten by something.

The next morning I woke up. I felt sore. Mom wasn’t there. "Let’s go get something to eat and then find something to do," said Mony.

"Ok," we said. As we left the burrow we remade all the blockades and then swam off.

Out on the lake we dove down to get food. By mid-morning a low fog covered the lake. We were all finished eating.

Suddenly we heard a low rumble. There was suddenly a loud splash, sending a wake through the water. "What was that?" we all said.

We went over to where we heard the sound. The banks of the lake looked different. Then we noticed it was right above our burrow! We saw some things that Mom had called "humans" and had said sometimes destroy platypus lakes.

"What should we do?" I said.

"We’re going to have to leave the lake," said Trome.

"But where will we live?" asks Mony.

"There must to be other lakes besides this one," I say, "Mom told me. Let’s leave through that small creek over there."

We all swim over to the small stream leaving the lake.

"Well, that’s it for this, mate," says Trome, "time to leave home."

We spend the day swimming down the small stream. Occasionally we would find another stream or lake, go explore it, and decide what the lake is like and if it would make a good home.

Too dirty, not enough prey, humans around—all these were reasons not to take the place. We stopped in the late afternoon at one lake and finally decided it was a good one for us. After a lunch break, we started to build a burrow.

"How are we ever going to build a burrow as long as Mom’s?" asked Mony.

"We’ll just have to dig hard," I answered, "Mom said most platypuses can dig a burrow at a meter per hour, meaning the three of us kids probably can dig maybe two meters an hour."

"That would still take uh uh," Mony counted on his fingers.

"Fifty hours," I answered for him.

"Yeah, I was just quizzing you," he replies confidently.

We worked hard into the night, digging away. We didn’t have dinner; we just relied on the fat supplies in our tails.

The next morning when we woke up, all our muscles felt sore. "Better get something to eat and work some more." As we went hunting, whenever I was just about to catch a trout or a frog or a crayfish, I would wonder if it had some babies waiting for it somewhere, and then I would decide to let it free. In the end I did allow myself to catch trout eggs and frog eggs, deciding that they weren’t hatched yet so it was ok to eat them.

It took us several days to finish the burrow. Most of the days we relied on fat from our fat supplies in our tails. On the final day we had a big, giant feast; we spent the whole day eating food out of the lake.

"Let’s go explore some other streams and lakes around here," recommended Trome.

"As long as we don’t have to dig another burrow!" exclaimed Mony.

We swam through the soft, gentle flow of the water just below the surface so it would be hard to be spotted by predators. As it got later in the afternoon the current started to pick up. Suddenly we were being pulled towards a large tube sticking out of the bank just under water. We were getting closer and closer to what looked like an endless tube. Trome and I started swimming away with all our might. When we could tell that we were away from the strong flow, we climbed up on a steep bank and looked around. "Where was Mony?"

"THERE, THERE -- LOOK HE’S BEING PULLED IN THE HOLE!" screamed Trome.

Off in the distance you could hear Mony yelling, "Help! Help!" but it was too late.

"NOOOOOOOOOOO!" I screamed.

"MONY!" yelled Trome. Mony was gone...

Trome and I swam sadly back to the new burrow. After a light dinner of worms I fell asleep thinking of Mom and Mony.

For many days Trome and I stayed in the small lake with our burrow. In the days we spent together we explored much of the lake, and we sometimes went on land and looked around for short periods of time. Soon the weather started to get colder, and Trome and I started to get ready for winter.

We started to eat more food. I started to realize that for the winter I would have to eat more than eggs, so I started to feast on trout and frogs and crayfish. They had tasted so much better than before. Soon winter would come to the small lake.

When winter came, we spent less time out of the burrow and mainly relied on fat from our tails.

Whenever we were out of the burrow we were eating or grooming.

One day it suddenly got very cold. Trome and I decided to retreat in burrow and stay there for several days. The whole time we slept and did nothing. After three days we finally came out of the burrow. We had several of these short hibernations during the winter.

After several months the world started to warm up again. Over the winter Trome and I had grown to our full size. Trome and I decided it was time to leave each other and start new lives. We would go help each other find new lakes. Every few years we decided to visit each other.

On one spring September day we set out on a journey to find a new homes. We left the lake. On the way out we passed the stream that led to the ever never-ending tube. I wondered what happened to Mony there. During the afternoon we stopped at a small lake for lunch.

Once when I came up from a dive, I heard Trome talking to something. I went over to investigate what he was talking to. When I reached him I saw him talking to a water rat.

"Would you like to come over to my home? There’s something I think you’d like to see," said the water rat.

"I guess, I just have to go tell my sister," said Trome.

"Oh sure, yeah, yeah," said the rat in a suspicious voice.

"No! No!" I yelled, "Don’t, he’s going to eat you!"

Suddenly the water rat started to bite and scratch Trome. Trome stuck his poison talon in the rat. The rat let out a screeching yell and suddenly fell still in the water -- dead.

"Trome! Trome!" I yelled, but there was no answer. "Trome! Trome!" I try again but no reply. Trome was dead.

I sadly left and found myself a new lake. It was a nice little lake with steep sides. I built a burrow.

The rest of the summer I spent preparing for winter. I started going on land and discovered a new treat, mayflies. The only problem is that they are hard to catch, so I stuck to eating trout and crayfish.

Soon winter came, and I slept during short times of hibernation. I hated the winter because it gave me so much time to think about my family. It hurt to always be thinking about how Mom just disappeared. I wondered what happened to Mony when he got sucked into the long tube that looked ever going. And I thought about how that stupid water rat attacked Trome. I wondered, if after their lives here, they all lived in a home in the sky together. I wondered who my dad is and if he’s alive or is he dead like them. My mom always said that there are many other platypuses besides us, but I had never seen one. I just wished that I had a friend. It seemed that the winter went on forever when I thought about these things, but finally spring arrived.

One spring morning when I was swimming, I suddenly heard a loud POP! I looked behind me and saw a long brownish-green thing, about three meters behind me. Mom had told me about these -- crocodiles!

I started to sprint away through the water. I kept hearing loud pops behind me. I could see it was right on my tail, so I dove. I surfaced, then dove again. I did this several times until I got cornered in a small cove of the lake. The giant creature slowly approached me and was just about to snap its large jaws on me, when it suddenly started to go crazy. It suddenly started to go swimming away. As soon as it was just about to be out of sight, it stopped (I expect and hoped it had died). I don’t know what happened then because my tail was grabbed, and I was pulled around in circles.

When the pulling stopped a voice said, "G’day mate, I’m Billy!" He was a strong and handsome platypus. We swam around with each other. Then I knew what was happening; he was asking me to be his mate.

After awhile we swam over to his lake. We lived with each other for about three weeks in a nice burrow on a lovely lake with lots of food. I loved Billy.

After several weeks I built my own burrow and laid two small, white-tissued eggs. Once a day I left the burrow and got food and groomed myself. After two weeks the eggs hatched, a female and a male. I named them Ornith, after Mom, and Trome, after my favorite of my two brothers.

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