Three Months Later:
The snakelings were absolute terrors.
At three months old, they were each nearly three feet long, properly scaled, fully mobile, and possessed more energy than physically possible.
The permanent family chamber Reef had promised was now a complete disaster zone despite everyone's best efforts:
Climbing nets hung from the ceiling (installed after the fourth-born scaled a twenty-foot coral wall and refused to come down for two hours).
The shallow pools had safety barriers (after the third-born finally learned to swim and immediately tried to reach the ocean).
Food storage was triple-locked (the fifth-born had figured out how to open two types of latches).
And there was a dedicated "time-out corner" that saw daily use (primarily for the third-born, though the first-born had been there twice for being too aggressive during play).
