Chapter 2: The Journey to the Ocean and the Heart of Gold

Scorned by the golden geese and his egg brothers, mocked by the adventurers, all because he was cursed to live life as a pink egg… **It was all too gruesome.**With a final glance at the moonlit sky, Humpy threw himself into the river.

Blub... blub... blub...

As he sank deeper and deeper, Humpy waited for the end. He craved to feel his shell strain under the water pressure and give him a sweet release he had never known. But instead of cracking, he was swept away by the current’s increasing speed. Before he knew it, the river had carried him into the vast ocean.

"In this endless blue, will I finally crack?" Humpy wondered, his thoughts tinged with both hope and frustration.The waves of the ocean floated him this way and that way, until, like his dreams of being a golden egg boy, he began to sink… down, down into the depths where the light leeched out of the water and the coral vanished into a single dark abyss of down only.

It was dark here. And cold. But it was no worse than the cruel clutch of his home nest.Just when he thought he couldn't go any deeper, where surely nothing could survive except his lonely self, a magnificent being soared through the water beside him. Humpy found himself in the presence of a majestic whale. The whale's belly shimmered in a hue of gold, and around it swam a family of smaller, but equally magnificent baby whales. For what seemed like days, Humpy had been subject to the ebbs and flows of the water. But these whales made the ocean respond to their motions. His tiny egg body was caught up in a current around the largest whale and he was brought very close to its face. The whale's golden belly, its family, and its influence on the ocean around it filled him with a deep yearning. Humpy was in awe.

"Who are you, and what are you doing in my domain?" the whale boomed.

“I wanted to die,” Humpy told the whale, his voice tinged with awe and desperation. “but only because I am not a golden boy like the other eggs my mother laid.” Then, remembering what the Alchemist had told him, Humpy asked, “Tell me, great whale, can I become golden too?”

The whale roared in laughter. “If you seek to be golden, you must first find a heart of gold. Only then can you hope to become the purest of golden eggs."

“So that’s it?” Humpy wondered to himself. “I must find a heart of gold?” And then something deep in his heart stirred. Ambition woke. "And if I become a golden egg, could I become a whale too?" Humpy asked, his eyes wide.

"You are no whale, little egg. But your audacity amuses me.” The whale paused, looking at Humpy intently. "To become a whale is a secret known to very few. But yes, you can. However, the journey is long and arduous. It has a terrible price."

Then, as if coming back to his senses, the whale said, “But you are just a little pink egg! “ Without another word, the whale took Humpy on its back. In one powerful stroke of its behemoth tail, the whale rocketed towards the surface of the water. Humpy clung desperately to barnacles on the whale’s back. The light was growing as they soared upwards through the water, until suddenly, in a roaring detonation of sound and seafoam, they broke above the ocean surface and arced above the swells. Then, with a flick of its massive tail, the whale flung Humpy towards the shore.

Humpy flew through the air and landed with a thud on the sandy beach, his shell cracking upon impact. A sharp pain radiated through his being, and he felt his life essence—his yolk—begin to ooze out.

Panic surged through him. "I don't want to die, not now!" he thought frantically. With trembling hands, he tried to hold his shell together, but the yolk kept seeping through the cracks. Each drop that escaped felt like a piece of his soul being torn away.

Just when he thought he couldn't hold on any longer, he touched something hard within his shell. Desperately, he pulled the hard object towards the crack. To his amazement, the object— a small nugget of gold —fit perfectly into the fissure, sealing it and stopping the flow of his yolk. Humpy had found his heart of gold.

Humpy lay there for a moment, his breathing ragged, his emotions a whirlwind. "I had gold inside me all along," he marveled, his eyes widening in realization. "And it saved my life."

Just then, the Alchemist appeared, walking along the beach looking for purple sea urchins. "Ah, Master Egg, we meet again. How goes your quest?"

"You were right,” Humpy said, amazed, “I met the whales and discovered I have a golden heart inside me - was it there all along?”

The Alchemist chuckled. "Ah, the first step to true wisdom. So, what will you do now?"

"Being a golden egg isn’t enough. I want to be a whale," Humpy declared.

The Alchemist looked at him thoughtfully. "To be a whale, you must become the richest egg in all the realm."

Humpy's mind flashed back to the adventurers he had overheard, talking about the prophecy and DeFi City. "Then that's where I'll go. To DeFi City. To seek my fortune and fulfill my destiny."

And so, with a piece of gold inside him and a dream to chase, Humpy set his sights on DeFi City, ready to whatever it took to become the richest egg in the realm. He would become a golden egg - but he wouldn’t stop there. Humpy would become a whale!