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The Water World

The boys entered the shop very happily, at last, they would have the reward for what they had worked so hard for days.

"Give me a dozen marbles," said the biggest of the three little ones.

"brat. Do you have how to pay? The price is one hundred grams"

The rogue placed a small bag on the scale, "here's more than a hundred grams, sir, you can check."

The incredulous owner of the store checked the contents of the small bag, "but this is clay, I don't accept this type of coin, don't you read the entry notice? Only fine ground is accepted"

"...but sir this is ground, is the ground we were paid to clean the fishermen's nets, we work for days, you must accept it" begged the youngest of the children.

"Give the children what they want, I will pay you," said the man who checked the harpoons in the tent while listening to the children's prayers.

The stranger was a tall, stocky man, with a rough face tanned by the sea and the sun, his long black hair confused with his large beard, and his arms were filled with deep scars. This was the second time in the day that he visited Mr. Wefner's shop, already in the morning he had paid him a good amount of earth in exchange for knives, the stranger was a stranger, but a very good customer.

Mr. Wefner did not refuse his request and let the rascals take the marbles, they left the shop very happy and triumphant.

* * *

"Have you no other blunt object of any metal harder than this?" asked the stranger.

"But who will this devil want to kill?" asked himself Mr. Wefner. "I'm afraid iron objects are the hardest there are...and they are very valuable indeed, you won't often find tools as good as iron tools".

The stranger knew very well of the existence of metals stronger than iron, just a few months ago he lost his precious steel katana while facing a Seaper face to face. But he wouldn't fall into useless arguments with the shopkeeper.

"Well, I'll take this."

He put the heavy tools on the shelf and paid with very good quality soil, a little more than he should have paid, but even so, the greedy Mr. wefner was not happy.

When the stranger left the shop, Mr. Wefner went out to look for the little ones who were playing marbles.

"Kiro" shouted Wefner. "Kiro, wouldn't you and your friends like to have more marbles?"

"The stranger paid for our marbles, leave us alone" replied the boy contemptuously.

"Don't get angry Kiro, I'm serious, I want to ask them for a favor and in return, I can give them more marbles".

The boy folded his arms as he raised one of his eyebrows and marked a quick compass with his right foot. "What favor?" he finally asked.

"The stranger! I want to know where he's going, I know he'll be back soon for more tools, but I want to know what he's doing with them, find out where he's going and the marbles will be yours." Mr. Wefner suspected that the stranger had found some unexploded islet, someplace where you could find very good soil like the one he carried with him in that bag.

"If I can find out where he's going, I won't settle for the marbles, I also want what you call a ball.

"It's a deal!" replied Mr. Wefner closing the deal with a handshake with the brat.

* * *

The town of Paris was a floating island made up mostly of plastic debris and almost anything that floated in the sea, all the vestiges of a civilized past formed an amalgamated structure with makeshift shacks and a guarded greenhouse controlled by the mayor. In its surroundings were the ports with different boats arranged all over the shore and a little further along floated the customs booths supported by thick ropes.

Paris is one of the few towns that remain afloat in the infinite sea, most of humanity had been annihilated by the Seapers, a superior race that lives in the depths, an immense civilization possessing the most advanced technology.

The Seapers are humanoid creatures with a body full of scales, their hands and feet resemble the fins of fish and on their heads, they have a shark-like fin, their black eyes are confused with the darkness of the night. Physically weak, they do not survive for long when exposed to surface air, let alone sunlight. They communicate through ultrasonic waves, they are fast swimmers, they have an advantage in a world covered by water.

Years ago the battles between the Seapers and the human race had been left behind, the latter had been razed to the ground, reduced to their minimum expression. The few remaining floating cities, like Paris, did not represent any threat to the Seaper empire so they simply ignored them, these towns slowly perished on their own.

* * *

Thraz sailed north, the village of Paris had disappeared from the horizon a couple of hours ago, the screen of the advanced Seaper device indicated the coordinates he had saved, took the tools he had bought from Mr. Wefner's shop and just threw himself into the water.

Kiro was frightened, "he must have died" thought the little stowaway, coming out of his hiding place.

more than an hour ago the stranger had submerged himself in the sea and gave no sign of life, the sun was already hiding, so it would be best to return home on his own, after all, a robust and fast boat would be worth more than a ball.

"What are you doing here?" Thraz's voice was heard behind the boy as he was about to take the helm.

"Excuse me sir, I thought he had drowned," replied Kiro, very frightened.

"And was that before or after getting on my boat? You have no right to be here" the foreigner was very angry.

Thraz was a very unsociable man but he was not a ruthless being, at least not with humans, he was forced to return the child to his home.

Thraz hated the Seapers with all his strength, that's why he went all over the ocean looking for a way to kill them, he had visited most of the big cities submerged in the ocean and even the cities inhabited by the Seapers. He was in that place trying unsuccessfully to open an old Seaper ship that had run aground on top of a mountain submerged several feet deep.

* * *

They arrived late at night, Thraz dragged the boy against his will, "tell me where your home is" he ordered the boy as he pulled him by one ear, causing him pain.

Finally, they arrived at the little one's home, a beautiful young woman was looking forward to the arrival of her younger brother. Thraz, the great murderer of Seapers, the solitary navigator who feared nothing in life, now trembled when he spoke to a girl who was barely taller than the man's shoulders. She was an exuberant girl, with a beautiful brown skin where the moonlight reflected the stars of the sky through the saltpeter adhered to her body, her black hair slipped all over her back, her green eyes competed in beauty with the most beautiful of emeralds.

"This child was a stowaway in my boat, I had to return to bring him back and I have wasted precious time for it, I hope you give him a good lesson. Where are your parents?"

"How sorry I am, sir," said the girl as she hugged her mischievous brother. "I'm very sorry that Kiro caused you problems, we don't have parents, but I will punish him severely myself. If there's any way..."

Suddenly half the town flew away, an immense ray of an intense violet color came out from the depths of the sea destroying everything in its path, the Seapers attacked the floating island of Paris.

Thraz took the girl and the little Kiro and put them on his boat, they sailed quickly avoiding the destruction, the hull of the boat was formed by the remains of a Seaper spaceship and had a coating that protected it from lightning, thanks to this they were able to escape alive.

Thraz felt guilty, the Seapers attacked Paris because he activated the sensors of the ship he was trying to open during the day, at that moment he realized how foolish it was, but said nothing. Now he felt that all those people died because of him and that keeping these two creatures was now his responsibility.

* * *

Thraz's reactions during his recurring nightmares frightened Kiara, Thraz dreamed of being tortured by the Seapers, they ripped out his limbs to see them grow again slowly and then ripped out again, over and over again, all this had really happened, a long time ago.

A long time ago the earth was not covered by water in its entirety, an alien race, the Seapers, gradually warmed the planet by melting all the frozen water at their poles, thus preparing a more suitable habitat for their species.

After several years of war, humans were on the verge of extinction, but aliens still envied one thing about humans: their ability to live on the surface.

They sought to assimilate human DNA into their organisms so that they could breathe air and withstand sunlight, but they did not succeed, however, the experiment succeeded in the reverse direction, humans could assimilate Seaper DNA with ease, this gave them extraordinary strength, the ability to breathe underwater, and the ability to regenerate their bodies.

Thraz was one of his guinea pigs and thanks to his strength he was able to escape, becoming a ruthless killer of Seapers, the aliens had created the creature capable of destroying them.

* * *

They spent several months adrift until they found the floating island of Lisbon, where Kiara gave birth to Thraz's daughter, Amelia.

Amelia grew up very fast, she was a healthy, very strong and intelligent child. One day, when she was already walking, she frightened everyone on the island when she threw herself into the water and did not return until after several hours with a porcelain doll that she had found in the depths.

The Seapers had created the weapon of their destruction when they created Thraz, but now he wasn't the only one they had to fear.

The End.

This is my participation for the Tell A Story To Me Contest from @calluna and @bananafish. I really enjoyed writing this story and I hope you like it, do not hesitate to comment.

Thank you for reading.