It wasn’t my first time planet-hopping, but it was my first time in a world engulfed completely in water. A friend of mine had teleported to it a few months back and never told anyone about it. Not even the government knew of its existence. He said it was the most fun he had ever had… I believed him. So we went back.
It was an overwhelming experience, since our arrival all we could see was open water. Open water in every direction, calm, still… but it’s different from Earth. On Earth you know that somewhere out there beyond the place where the sun rises and sets, there is land waiting for you, the familiar smell of dirt. But there, in that forsaken world, land was an inexistant commodity.
We started our tour near the surface. Alone both of us floated on our backs for what seemed like hours, in the middle of the greatest of waters, two little specks talking about the insignificant activities in our lives. Relaxation set in and I fell alseep beside my friend above the waters of that distant planet expecting a satisfying nap. Instead, I was woken up by the sound of splashing water and a muffled scream coming from beneath me. I immediately looked into the depths below and caught a glimpse of my friend’s hand disappear below turbulent water. I activated my air field and swam down into the abyss, into the depths where my friend was being dragged by… something.
I swam hard. I swam fast. I swam like never before. I did it ’til my legs burned and my heart was exhausted, and after hours of following small trails of bubbles and occasional glimpses of what I thought was my friend I realized I had reached a place where light became extinct. I floated in the middle of the alien ocean in complete darkness. For a moment I felt a wave of panic as my confused mind could not sense which way was up or down. I thought that I would be trapped there for the rest of my life, unable to find my way to the sun, to the air I breathed. I thought I would never set foot on solid ground again, and then I saw it. A small light glowing in the distance, I was sure my it was him signaling at me with a flashlight… so I headed towards it. I will forever regret that decision, even though I did it thinking I would save him… I wish I had been selfish, I wish I had just gone back home.
I reached the small glowing light but realized that it was not my friend, it had a small pouch glowing with a dotted texture, so I touched it. What can I say? I was curious… I wanted to know what it was, I didn’t think too much of it. And when I did, just as I brushed my finger on it, a deep thunderous scream exploded from the depths of that planet. Sound is different under water, it’s always more intense and less clear. That day I heard the sound of a thousand roaring beasts reverberate through the open oceans and the vibrations alone made my body tremble with them. The glowing pouch jerked away, and within a secons I saw the whole ocean bottom light up, it was as if I was looking at the sky, a black panorama filled with little bright dots… dots and screaming monstrosities. I felt my heart boom, I fumbled with my pack as the lights moved closer to me with every passing second, I pressed the button on my emergency device and I was teleported to another spot on the planet in an instant, not before I saw a huge mass approaching me from underneath.
Suffice to say I will not be planet hopping to other water planets in the future. I’ll never know what happened to my friend… and I don’t think I want to either. I’m sorry buddy.
Chilling!