Week 11 Story: Redemption from the Deep
Deep in the center of the world, about 50 miles deeper than Agartha, there lies the Lidenbrock Sea. Many creatures call this sea home, and with that, there are many unique creatures about it. In the deepest parts of the sea, there is a rumor of an evil manipulative giant squid named Taurus. Rumor has it that he can manipulate and even control the mind of a creature if the creature swims through Taurus's ink. No creature has told the story from personal experience which makes it all the more intriguing. Another interesting creature is Magnifica. She is a hippocampus (a water horse) that is well known for her philanthropy work throughout the sea.
Swimming back home after participating in a volunteer event with Magnifica, a dolphin named Aurea decides to go on a nice stroll in the warm sunny water before it gets dark. She passes by a beautiful coral reef with massive corals like skyscrapers rising through the water. Many of the citizens come out to greet Aurea as she passes by their homes.
Getting sleepy, Aurea begins her trek home, but she notices a sea turtle trapped in seaweed. The sea turtle also seems to be in murky water, which is likely from the turtle wrestling with the weeds. Aurea frees the grateful sea turtle, who strangely enough has white eyes.
"Such pretty and unique eyes you have," says Aurea curiously.
"Aw, thank you. It is a rare birth defect that runs in my family. We call ourselves the white-eyed snappers" gleams the sea turtle.
After the strange encounter, Aurea traveled home and slept. The next few days, she progressively was having trouble sleeping. She would wake up and toss and turn in the night.
16 days had past and Aurea was not herself. She would slug to work and her volunteer events and almost seem lifeless. More and more people were noticing something was wrong with Aurea. A group of coworkers was meeting with Aurea, encouraging her to take a few days off and get some rest. She snapped back at them! Declaring she is totally fine but she'll take time off because she "hates her job."
All of a sudden, Aurea was starting to do terrible things. She was stealing from businesses, pick-pocketing people, vandalizing a coral reef, and worst of all, she just knocked down one of the tallest corals in the reef! Destroying hundreds of small homes and businesses.
Weeks later and on the run from otter police, Aurea came crashing into a water spirit. The spirit noticed that Aurea's eyes were white and that she was under the control of the evil squid Taurus! The spirit placed its hands on Aurea's head and began removing the corruption and fog from Aurea's mind. Soon, she was free from the control of Taurus and she instantly thanked the spirit for freeing her.
With great speed and determination, Aurea darted through the ocean searching far and wide for this so-called Taurus, and end his corruption. She began diving deep, as the light became lesser and lesser. Aurea could no longer see. She had to rely solely on her echolocation to guide her through the deep.
After hours of swimming in the deep, she started to feel extreme fear kick in. She had no idea how to escape, or even how deep she was. She was lost.
Wait, the water is moving. Is it Aurea or something else? She echolocates and senses several objects around her. "WAM" she gets smacked by a long arm. Recoiling she begins echolocating constantly as she lunges after the body of something large. She stabs into some creature, and she detects that whatever it is, it has many arms. Trying to escape, Aurea swims as fast as she can in the direction she believes is up. She twists and turns and evades large rock formations as she navigates toward a dim light. A tentacle graces her tail and sends her spinning in circles. She comes about as light grows stronger, and she just makes out how big her adversary is. Racing closer to the light, Aurea spun around and swam through the tentacles, and avoids getting hit.
It's Taurus. The number of tentacles, the shape of its core body, and the sheer size and ugly color of this creature must mean it is Taurus. He furiously swings his tentacles around, only gracing Aurea as she continues to avoid a devastating blow.
Aurea notices a gigantic rock arch not far in the distance, and she has an idea to crush him. Carefully keeping his attention while dodging his attacks, she back up to the arch and she starts swimming circles around the arch. Taurus does not notice her plan, as he continuously stricks the arch until it breaks. In a few seconds the massive rocks now in pieces, crash down onto Taurus as he releases his ink one last time.
With Taurus defeated, and his corruption removed from the sea, all the sea creatures started swimming with a little more joy. Not just from their minds being more clear, but joy from knowing that the fairytales of Taurus actually exist, and now new tales will be written about the hero who saved the day, Aurea.
Author's Note
Inspiration for this story came from Creation of the World by Katharine Berry Judson (1917). Creation of the World is about a group of people called the Wyandots who live above the sky in some realm up there. One day, a Wyandot woman falls through the ground toward a vast ocean. She is saved by a group of swans who cushion her fall. Then a leader, Big Turtle, orders other animals to swim down to get some earth so that it can be formed into an island for the woman to live on. Eventually, a toad is able to swim deep enough and get some pieces of earth that are made into an island for the woman to live on. The island grows and grows as it becomes "as large as the world is today."
I draw inspiration from swimming down into the deep water, the use of water animals, and the leadership of the Toad and the Big Turtle.
Bibliography:
Creation of the World by Katharine Berry Judson (1917).
Image Information: Dolphin via Pixabay
Inspiration for Lidenbrock Sea
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