If I would tell you that my family line is known for their skills and talents, I would be lying. Everytime one of my relatives was trying to do something great and impressive it went massively wrong. For example, there is the story of my great-great-great-uncle Kwakerton.
He lived in the times of the near extincion of Xotls on the Omen Islands and searched for a more effective way to care about our eggs and tadpoles. To achieve this he tried to train plant-watchers and tad-nurses, but he overestimated the ability of Xotls to form strong social groups. His plans had gone terribly wrong. Normally Xotl mothers are searching for a perfect under-leaf spot on the perfect pond to lay their eggs, because after the eggs are in place, the young ones have to take care completely for themself. Because of this our mothers want us to start with all the things we are need.
(This may sound a bit harsh, but you have to understand that we Xotls are very independent, even in this young age. We hate it to be pampered and controlled more than it is a bit hard to be all alone as a hatchling)

So back to the story. Because of my relatives project "population boom" many of the pregnant Xotl mothers layed their eggs on not-so-perfect plants and ponds, because they thought that even the place isn't that great, the plant-watchers and tad-nurses will look after their little ones. But of course, they where also Xotls, and of course, they didn't took their task serious and they couldn't manage their schedules, and of course, the little Xotl-tadpoles never listend to their nurses. This way we lost a big part af the next generation, and my great-great-great-uncle Kwakerton had to leave the colony and changed his name. This way our family became the Ribbitsons.

However we weren't the Ribbitsons if we had learned from our mistakes. After this incident one of my relatives built a dam and flooded a village of humans, to create a new great Xotl-pond. The humans didn't liked that idea much and chased all Xotls in that area. Another one tried to become the biggest salesman - of flies. He hunted down all flies he could find, of course in the Xotls-way with his tongue. This way he soon had the biggest storage of flies, but no insectivore wanted to buy them, because he licked all of them. He had to close his buisness and all insectivores in the region moved out or became fruiteaters. Another of my relatives tried to promote this new fruit-eating trend among Xotls, bought a big pile of dry land and wanted to build an orange plantation. Unfortunately he wasn't a great farmer and most of the trees died, because he couldn't dig them in correctly.

After all this incidents our family created a new family mantra: Always hide under the average. And this is finally something my family is very good in.

So my mother hurried to find her first place to lay eggs. But because she was a bit late all the perfect spots in close proximity were already occupied. A bit worried my mother traveld a further away from the colony. She left her pond behind and was leaping through the forest. After she traveld a quite long distance she started to get desperate and slowly lost hope for her first eggs. But then the forest got brighter and she found a little hut and a fence. There were a lot of plants behind the fence. They all looked very healthy and well-fertilized. But there was no pond nearby. My mother jumped sadly between the rows of plants, hoping that she might find some water, a deep puddle, at least something for her tadpoles to live in. And then she saw it.

Suddenly she was sitting in front of the neatest, most symmetrical little pond she ever found. It was a bit higher from the ground, but this shouldn't be a problem for her tadpoles. There was a plant nearby. Maybe the pond was a bit small, but she just had a few eggs, and there were no other Xotl mothers in the area. She decided that the pond was enough and started to lay her eggs under the plants leaf nearby. After this she jumped, happily ribbiting back to her home pond, to be there in the right time for the next summernight concert. But this wasn't the end of the story.

A week later a big truck was driving to the little hut with the little fence. Than a few humans hurried to place all of the neat and healthy looking plants in the truck, and with them a few little Xotl eggs. The little pond, or better, the empty flower pot that was filled up with rainwater, was left behind. Now our eggs were a second time in danger to hatch without water nearby without our mother knowing about.

The unwanted journey was long, dark and uncomfortable. From the truck we were transported on a ship, over the sea, into another harbor, on another truck, to another harbor, on another ship, and all this time we little tadpoles were growing in our eggs without the hope of falling direct into water on our hatchday. Then the day was finally there. It was a very cold, but clear day. The ship was driving smoothly through the waves of the lake. The plants were standing under deck and a human was putting them, one after another, in a big tub to soak their earth with water. This would be our only chance. Shortly after our plant was placed in the water tub, we tadpoles collectively worked through the soft and flexible shells of our eggs.

The hatching moment was overwhelming. Suddenly there was air. To much air. I couldn't breath. And I was falling down into the clear water. Maybe you can't imagine this, but if you can't breath the way down from the plant can be very long. I saw a few of my sibblings in the air in front of me, one was already in the water. The impact on the surface was softer than I imagined, and finally I could breath again. After a few big gulps I was looking for my siblings. I counted 6 other tadpoles. We might were the first 7 wild Xotls that hatched outside of Omen.

I was looking up and a distorted ape was looking with big interest into the water and was watching us. He was laying his head to the side, was contracting his brows and twisting his mouth. Then he was gone. I heard deep voices, but couldn't understand anything. A second distorted face appeard behind the water surface and was throwing something in the water. My siblings and I instantely swam to the little particles in the water to test if we can eat them. Suddenly hands tried to catch us. I attempted to escape, but was to slow. I was captured and put into a jar of water. All of my 6 siblings followed me shortly after.

The apes looked a bit more distorted through the water and the glas. One of them carried us on deck and poured us over the railing. After a short, but horrbile, fall through unbreathable air we, all 7 siblings, landed in the cold and clear waters of the Veta lake. We all knew that this was a hard start for a Xotl life, but we knew that we had a lot of luck to get this chance.