The Normal Ordinary Thinking Fish (Luxor Trilogy: 1 of 3)

There was a fish.

It was a normal, ordinary, thinking fish. It was not smart, per se. It was not good at calculus like the mathematical fish. It did not know the history of the castle as well as the historical fish, which could recite various events of fishdom in relation to the castle all the way back to the myths of the Great Feeder, who'd supposedly placed the castle. No, as mentioned, it was a normal, ordinary, thinking fish, who was not smart, per se.

The normal, ordinary, thinking fish did think, however, that it had a perspective that made it, apparently, quite unique. It was aware that it was in an aquarium.

It couldn't necessarily tell how it was aware it was in an aquarium, but aware of that idea/fact, it was. That idea/fact had just sort of struck it. Before the aquarium idea/fact struck it, it was perfectly content to be a normal, ordinary, thinking fish. After, for good or for bad, nearly everything was colored by its awareness.

The normal, ordinary, thinking fish could not prove it was in an aquarium.

The mathematical fish and the historical fish had heard of the "aquarium" belief before (indeed, it was quite pervasive), but the thought hadn't taken root. "Quite silly", they thought when the normal, ordinary, thinking fish had mentioned it. "I'm plumbing the depths of the square root of negative one," explained the mathematical fish. "I think I may have found the cipher for the hieroglyphs that the 3rd Fish Dynasty left on the castle," admonished the historical fish.

Indeed, other fish had long before told of the time of the Great Dumping and had all sorts of fantastical tales in relation to it. The normal, ordinary, thinking fish didn't know if any of those stories were true. It didn't know what was outside of the aquarium. It didn't know if the Great Feeder had blue scales or white scales or green scales or what have you. It didn't know if the Great Feeder was even a fish.

The others who'd told of the Great Dumping didn't know anything about the Great Feeder either, but had factionalized nonetheless. Thus, there was the Fish Church of the Green Scales. There was the Fish Mosque of the Blue Scales. There was the Fish Temple of the White Scales. A good many fish had eaten each other over the color of the Great Feeder's scales.

The normal, ordinary, thinking fish didn't want to eat the mathematical fish or the historical fish. They were perfectly good fish. The normal, ordinary, thinking fish was not smarter than they were, per se. They couldn't see that they were in an aquarium was all. The normal, ordinary, thinking fish was simply aware that it was in an aquarium and it tried to content itself that it couldn't know more than that, no matter how much it might want to, or not.

The normal, ordinary, thinking fish swam.