title: Pondlife: A Swimmer's Journal
author:  Al Alvarez 
description: Al Alvarez is a poet, novelist, literary critic, anthologist, and author of many highly praised non-fiction books on topics ranging from suicide, divorce and dreams  <i>The Savage God</i>, <i>Life After Marriage</i>, <i>Night</i>  to poker and mountaineering  <i>The Biggest Game in Town</i> and <i>Feeding The Rat</i>. His most recent books are <i>Where Did It All Go Right?,</i> <i>The Writer's Voice </i>and<i> Risky Business</i>. He lives in Hampstead, London.
zlib_text: The Legacy of Heorot Chapter 28 MARABUNTA There's a price for too much
  arrogance, a price for too much greed, And in complacent ignorance we've sown
  the whirlwind seed! DON SIMPSON, "Serpents Reach" (song) Changes came with
  disorienting speed. Everything about the swimmer's new world was stimulation
  and strangeness. There was a heat within its body. Its mouth ached. Its
  balance had changed, become awkward. Swimming was clumsier now. There was
  nothing to eat. The green strands it had eaten all its life no longer smelled
  like food. In all of the swimmer's life it had thought of eating nothing else.
  The question had never even arisen. Now, confusingly, the flavor had gone
  flat. The water itself had gone flat. Something was missing. Some feeling--
  powerful, dominant, a discomfort growing to panic and pain--was driving it out
  of the water. It found itself trying to swim across mud. The mud flat swarmed
  with its siblings. It writhed in place. New muscles flexed and compressed,
  released, and 