Atlantis

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Short Stories

     A long time ago people used to be able to breathe under water. Many think that the beautiful city of Atlantis sunk, but it didn’t. The whole world was under water at one point. Then Atlantis rose up. The whole world was Atlantis.

     Before rising out of the water, Atlantis was amazing. Awesome colors were to be seen as far as the eye could look. There were brightly colored fish everywhere and plants growing abundantly. Coral reef and red algae grew everywhere. But all that came to an untimely end.

     The sun was causing the world to heat and expand. That made Atlantis lighter and it rose up to the surface so that it floated on the water instead of sitting under it. All the inhabitants of the land of Atlantis supposedly died. But they really didn’t. The people of Atlantis had risen with the land.

     The Atlanteans had gills. They were pretty much mermaids. On dry land they had difficulty breathing, and had to resort to lounging around in surrounding water frequently. But soon they began to notice that their bodies were changing, adapting to this new air-filled environment. These things called “lungs” started to grow. The lungs that they had had all their lives were starting to disappear. At first this scared them. They didn’t know what was happening. More and more they were able to breathe without being submersed in water. The Atlanteans weren’t quite used to the movement of their chest with the practice that became widely known as breathing. But they had to adapt to the dry air and learn to get oxygen from other things other than water. The plants that had grown under water couldn’t survive the dryness and so they died out. Leaving room for the new species of plant-life that had begun to form. The tallest plants they called trees. They noticed that the more trees they had, the easier it was for them to breathe.

     Since they could not swim on dry land they had to develop a new type of transportation. It was hard to flop around on land, since all they had was a tailfin. Many bled to death from wounds received when they wiggled around from place to place. Once again their bodies started to change. They noticed strange things happening to them. Their fins were starting to dry, spilt apart and separate. “What the hell is happening to us?” “I don’t know but it started the other day. It’s kind of weird.” “It feels funny.” “It looks funny!”

     They were forming legs, and they didn’t know what they were supposed to be used for. One night, the Queen mermaid, Atlantia noticed that she had moved to a different place while in her sleep. She wondered how that had been accomplished. She touched her legs and felt the muscles in them move. Leaning over, she grabbed hold of her serving boy, Flounder, and pulled herself upright in a standing position. Still hanging on, she took her first steps.

     The queen made her newfound knowledge public. Soon everyone was up walking around, and they all had the queen to thank for it. For a while everyone was tripping over one another. That was just due to the fact that they hadn’t gotten adjusted to walking yet. Their eye and foot coordination was off a little bit.

     Eventually, the wounds from their tailfins splitting apart healed up and it was barely even noticeable. The Atlanteans walked around as if that’s the only way they had ever known. They found out that with their new legs they could still swim, though not as good as before.

     When Atlantis rose to the surface, pieces of it had broken off. People noticed that in the distance they could see more land across the wide expanse of water. To us, these land masses are now known as the continents of the world. Some people say that the land the Atlanteans were on is known as “The Ancient World.” Many say that in biblical times, the land was described as Israel, Mesopotamia, and others mentioned; is the lost city of Atlantis. But now you know that the city was never lost at all. People just hadn’t found an explanation of where it was.

     In historical records, there are many mentions of mermaids being spotted at sea. Perhaps, just bits and pieces of Atlantis have floated up, and not all of it. Maybe the mermaids that were seen were also past of the Atlantean race. History may never explain itself completely. All we know is what was left behind by this mysterious race of fish/humans. But was it really left behind? Did the race flourish enough to continue and become the humans we are now? Are we cousins to the so-called mermaid? Do today’s people still contain some of the Atlantean DNA?

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