With a splash, they were inside the water glass. Artyom felt weightless. All around him, thousands of different algae were dancing. He saw long, elegant strands of Spirogyra that looked like emerald necklaces draped through the water. He saw tiny diatoms that sparkled like diamonds in the sunlight.
"I am a Chlamydomonas, thank you very much," the creature replied, spinning in a circle. "And your drawing is terrible. I look like a lopsided potato. If you want to pass Pasechnik’s lesson, you need to understand that I’m not just a green blob. I’m a sun-eating machine!"
"We are the lungs of the planet," the Chlamydomonas said, its red light-sensitive eye-spot glowing. "While you humans are busy walking around, we are here absorbing the sun and giving you the oxygen you breathe. Look at my chromatophore!"
The water glass rippled. The emerald light faded. Artyom blinked and found himself back at his desk. The room was quiet again.
Artyom froze. Sitting right on the line where he was supposed to write "Cell Wall" was a microscopic creature, glowing with a bright emerald light. It looked exactly like the diagram in Pasechnik’s book, but it was moving. It had two whip-like tails that it flicked back and forth like a frustrated cat.