Revelations: The Shrine of the Sea God

    I open my eyes and find myself in a room; my room. I was covered in sweat and had no recollection of the dream I had. I rose from the bed, got out of my room and prepared breakfast, for one, of course. That’s how it’s been for a while now; only one person, sitting on a chair, eating breakfast in the loneliness of a roof they call home, waiting for someone that will never come.     I got out after finishing breakfast and started to work. The rubble has been building up and the seas have been acting strangely as of late. It’s been spewing out chunks of rubble we do not understand; with patterns we do not know the origins of. We have been in this state for millennia, a state in which no one knows anything about our past; not where we come from nor how was this world we live in created; we know not about what’s beyond the chunks of earth we see in the vicinity nor about what lies underneath the sea.     Several people have talked about theories, that our past resides beneath us in the ocean, a body of water full of mystery waiting to be discovered; millennia of history lying underneath the sea. Unbelievable yet sustainable with the fact that right now, the sea has been telling us “there’s something here”, while it spews out rubble.  Some people say the Sea God has become angry and that the rubble it spews is cursed.     Whatever the reason, the fact is that the sea is acting strangely and it has become more dangerous. Monsters that we have never seen before are washing up on the shore and birds of species we’ve never recorded are seen flying around our islands. We think it’s because winter starts next week and this island is the warmest of the three in proximity.     Once again the sea will freeze, and I will temporarily lose my job of collecting rubble… For a week that is, climate changes every week and so do my season clothes. That’s how it’s always been yet sometimes I wonder how we could manage to live under such conditions. Not that it has anything to do with me, but the fact that I won’t get any money for a week really does get on my nerves, you know? I need to feed myself and my dog Vadība because, as everyone knows, humans, monsters and, yes, even dogs, eat.     To survive in this specific island, you need to know the basics. First of all, the seasons change every week, that’s a total of 4 seasons per month, meaning 48 seasons in a year. Pretty rough way of life we got here, but we’ve managed to survive through the years. Second, monsters roam the seas and the skies and the only domestic monsters we got here are the Ru and the Klhesia, which are used for transport and field work respectively. Third, there is no such thing as history records, we know nothing about our past 3000 years ago, and we know nothing about what lies beyond us.     These are the basics you need to know to survive in this day and age. No one leaves the islands; no one knows what’s beyond. Everything is a mystery, and no one questions the will of the Sea God.     I went to Vlada’s store after I finished working to get the things I would need for winter week and managed to hear a conversation between two men I have never seen in town before, and believe me, this town is not that big, everyone knows everyone. One was short and the other was tall, and I recall the conversation going this way:     “Nonsense, no one here is willing to go underneath the seas for fear of the Sea God, only a crazy person would agree to this crazy idea!”     That’s all I needed to hear to understand these people were crazy. Who in their right mind would dive under the sea? Leave the Sea God alone, the monsters would eat you if you even try to set foot on the sea (as a figure of speech, you can’t really step on water)...     After finishing the week’s shopping, I was returning home when I noticed the crazy couple was heading straight to the shore. Really crazy thing to do; there’s going to be bodies along with the rubble tomorrow… After reaching my house, I noticed Maija, the neighbor, standing at the doorstep waiting for me, and waved after noticing my arrival.     I invited Maija in and poured some coffee for the both of us. Maija was worried about the sea lately, and kept telling me about how it was time to develop ourselves and start reaching out to the Sea God, to dive under the sea. “Again with crazy ideas”, I thought to myself. I told Maija about how crazy this idea was and that trying to develop ourselves could get us into so much trouble with the town’s High Council, lest not forget the wrath of the Sea God if we try to go into his realm.     After a long talk and arguing, Maija went home, and Vadība was looking at me with judgement in his eyes. Vadība has grown so much over the past few months he’s almost my size already... I hope the food lasts for the week for him, if his appetite grows too, it would be problematic. I went upstairs and Vadība followed, we got to bed –which he has outgrown already– and tried to go to sleep. The next day winter was going to start, and we would have to work even harder for the next week until spring came.