🐙 The Octopus Who Changed Colors

Deep in a warm reef lived an octopus named Ollie. Ollie had a talent that surprised every fish who swam by: he could change the color of his skin in less than a second.

When a hungry shark drifted near, Ollie pressed himself against a rock and turned speckled gray. The shark swam right past him. Ollie was camouflaged, which means blended in with his surroundings.

Later, a curious sea turtle asked how he did it. Ollie explained that tiny sacs of color in his skin stretch and shrink. When they stretch, the color shows. When they shrink, it disappears.

By evening Ollie was tired from all that stretching. He tucked himself into a small cave, turned a calm sandy brown, and went to sleep — safe because he looked exactly like the sea floor.

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