The ocean’s alive. I know it’s calling out to me.

Ever since I was a kid, I’ve always had a connection to the ocean. I could spend hours staring at the waves without ever moving a muscle. I might as well have grown up on those ivory beaches. Despite my attachment to the sea, I could never enter its waters. Every time my feet would touch that cold muck filled water, he’d appear. I don’t know what he is or where he came from. All I know is that he isn’t human. He’d reach is long bony fingers at me and stare at me with gaunt hollow eyes. He’d tell me things, the horrors of the ocean. Great creatures that were as old as the ocean itself, mangled by the passage of time. Some were giant, unimaginable, like nothing from this planet. Yet, some were small and weak, forced out of the ocean just to avoid extinction.

He told about when the ocean was young teeming with life. An endless expense of blooming coral reefs and ancient underwater civilizations. These civilizations had technology and culture so immense and rich that we could never begin to imagine.

Times change. The ocean is dying now.

The ocean’s been dying. Our actions have done it any favors. All things die. Civilizations crumble, coral reefs wither. The ocean’s water was poisoned. He would taunt me with stories of immense leviathans, creatures of the deepest part of the ocean. Creatures born to hunt and destroy. Creatures so adept and skilled at that craft that they wiped the ocean of all life. As the ocean’s food sources withered away, these creatures went into hibernation. Monsters with giant gaping jaws,with what seemed to be endless rows of serrated teeth. Their bodies were strong and lean, almost humanoid. In place of legs, these titans had a mess of uneven tentacles, propelling them through the seas faster than any other creature.

After these creatures’ time, the ocean was given an opportunity for rebirth. From large herbivores grazers to small agile hunters, all varieties of creatures spawned.

Their time is up. The ocean is on its last legs. the ocean’s death edges forward, extinction will begin. He told me the ancient creatures of the sea will awaken. After eons of hibernation, they will be starved. They will rise to the land and lay waste to all that they can. All sealocked countries will be decimated. Those left in the heart of the continents will live their lives in fear.

I know the ocean is dying. And I fear the moment when it finally does.