The Crown Prince In Hiding

Specimen No.1

Pakicetus

Music for this chapter

Thomasin’s answer made the young man freeze.

“A ...whale?”

One look at his expression was enough.

He could hardly believe what he had heard.

“Professor Pi’erre’s team excavated this specimen seven years ago in Snowhaven. And now we are almost one hundred percent certain that this is the ancestor of all whales on Earth—fifty million years ago.”

His eyes widened.

“That’s impossible, Senior. I know whales. There’s no way a massive aquatic creature could have evolved from… that. Not in a million years.”

Dan argued in disbelief—something out of character for him, as Nora well knew. Prince Fury was usually quiet and would not debate a subject unless he possessed knowledge in it.

But seeing him push back so firmly against the TA team—even leaving Thomasin momentarily speechless—told her that he must be deeply familiar with whales.

“If a small-beaked bird evolves into a sharp-beaked bird, I can accept that. But for a land animal shaped for running to become a whale in the sea? It doesn’t make sense.”

Nora noticed his voice begin to carry weight. Perhaps he was shocked. Perhaps he had not braced himself for such an answer. Or perhaps—

“You may be underestimating the power of evolution.”

A familiar voice echoed from the entrance.

Dan turned.

“Professor.”

“If you are familiar with whales, then you know they are marine animals with lungs.”

“Yes, Professor. I know that well. But I still believe it’s impossible for a house-dog-shaped creature to become a whale simply by jumping into water.”

He pointed at the fossil.

“Look at those legs. It has toes. Hooves. They’re clearly made for running in mud. And that tail—it’s nothing like a whale’s fluke. You’re connecting things that don’t belong together.”

Professor Pi’erre did not respond with emotion. He smiled gently, knowingly.

“What you see is only the surface. Nature never lies about structure. Have you never wondered where a whale—an animal that dives kilometers into the ocean—obtained its lungs?”

If not inherited from land?

Dan fell silent. Nora, too, found herself unsettled by the question.

But Dan seemed more shaken. He had never asked himself that before.

Dan… I understand what you’re thinking. You look at this four-legged carcass and see only a malformed wolf. But that is the perceptual trap of creatures whose lifespans are but a fraction of evolutionary time.

The professor adjusted his rubber gloves and pointed to a thick mass of bone beneath the ear canal.

“This is its ear bone—the involucrum. Thick enough that you could barely shatter it with a hammer. What land animal needs such dense ear bones to hear through air? None. Dan… only animals that must ‘listen’ through water.”

Dan went quiet, his gaze following the professor’s gesture.

“And most importantly…”

Pi’erre shifted to the ankle.

“See these paired pulley-shaped bones? The ankle of this animal is built from the same blueprint as that of hippos and deer. Yet it’s attached to the body of a predator with sharp, flesh-tearing teeth. Modern whales no longer have legs—but something still instructs them to form this ankle structure, hidden within.”

Or, in the language of our world—

That ‘something’… is genes.

Professor Pi’erre allowed silence to work for a moment.

“It was not a leap into the sea and a transformation in a single day. It was millions of years of nature refining legs into flippers, moving nostrils upward into blowholes. The creature before you is a message from the past, telling us that once whales walked on the same land as we do.”

Could you imagine?

The age where there is absolutely nothing moving on the land.

And then ”They” came. 

They rose from water and spent hundreds of millions of years transforming from gilled fish into land animals running with iron lungs.

Then some of them chose to return to the ocean—bringing lungs with them.

Fur gradually shed. Hind legs slowly reduced through disuse. Nostrils crept upward toward the forehead and then to the crown. Bodies grew larger to withstand crushing ocean pressure.

Though their forms evolved to resemble fish again, this time it was fundamentally different.

They left home—only to return a few epochs later with new organs. In time, they ascended to the top of the food chain in ways that gilled fish, no matter how ancient, could never rival.

The same is true of dolphins, seals, and all aquatic mammals.

They brought lungs back to the sea and almost immediately rose toward the summit of the food chain.

“If God is real, then beyond love, the most beautiful gift He has given us is evolution.”

Professor Pi’erre said.

“Their existence also proves that the torpedo shape is the optimal form for movement in water.”

Even after evolving on land, when they returned to the sea, their bodies chose once more the torpedo form—like sharks, like fish.

No matter what you are, if you wish to become a predator in water, that is the only viable design.

This is the true wonder of nature.

Even the most brilliant engineers of Mathema cannot design a more efficient submarine than by simply copying the torpedo shape these creatures had already adopted.

How did they know? What guided them to reshape themselves so precisely? How did they know this was the optimal form for their descendants?

“Like astronomy, I do not believe the study of evolution is blasphemy. On the contrary, it is the study of the capabilities God granted the life He created.”

Presented with evidence laid bare—

Prince Fury surrendered.

He slowly leaned closer to examine the small ankle bones again. The resistance he had felt began to crumble.

He stood as if spellbound.

No longer seeing only dry bones, his mind overlaid them with motion.

A chill crept down his spine as he imagined this specimen stepping along an ancient shoreline—Snowhaven before snow, fifty million years ago, when lush forests blanketed the plains.

Evolution has no fixed definition of how much must change. It halts only when change is sufficient for survival.

“Then does that mean… the ancestors of every animal we see might be something entirely different?”

“Or they may look the same.”

There is no rigid law.

Not like mathematics.

Dan extended a slightly trembling hand, hovering it above the specimen’s spine.

What struck him was not merely new knowledge—but the impact of comprehending immense time.

He began to see short fur once covering its skin, powerful legs straining against the resistance of water.

It felt fragile and grand all at once.

He was awed by life’s effort to survive.

The creature had no idea its small ankle bones would become evidence dissolving his doubt.

It did not know its descendants would grow into.

It simply hunted fish in shallow swamps fifty million years ago—yet the legacy it left behind was staggering.

The wall of skepticism in Dan’s heart collapsed entirely.

What Pi’erre had first forced upon him as fact had now transformed into wonder he wished to absorb completely.

He looked up at the professor, the hardness in his gaze replaced by a flash of hunger for understanding.

“Professor… this only makes me wonder more. If lungs were what we gained upon coming to land, then before that—when we first rose from water—how did we transform from gills to lungs? I cannot even imagine it. Do you have an answer?”

Professor Pi’erre smiled softly.

“If you wish to know… you will have to visit my friend in Mathema.”