Citizen 398 Calais

Deep in the pitch-black waters of the Posian Trench, a cyan light shone illuminating a medium sized teal Rexal and some of the surrounding cliffs. He had a set of bags strapped around his torso to carry his tools and notes with him. The fabric swayed gently against the water. Calais swished his tail, swimming leisurely through the dark water, heading deeper towards the bottom of the trench. Even though his pace was slow, he swam purposefully with a clear destination in mind. He had spent hundreds of hours down here mapping the crevasses and tunnels and knew many of the major areas of trench like the back of his hand but there was still so much that he didn’t know about it, so much left to explore.

When he was a pup, he and Alestinae had both dreamed of exploring and going on adventures. It was possibly the only thing that Calais and Ale had ever consistently agreed on. He and Ale had always wanted to go to leave the dome. To move to the Cove and find treasure and fight pirates or to go to Posian Islands and swim with the seals or join the navy. Calais had always known that he wouldn’t be the same kind of adventurer as his sister even if he might have liked to be at some points. While most of his family were large and bulky, he was a fairly thin rex. He wasn’t as fast or strong as his sister and he certainly was not as brave as her, but he still wanted to see the cove, even after any inclination to fight pirates faded away as he grew older. He’d heard tales of the strange animals that lived on the islands and in the waters around him and he wanted to see them. He wanted to see the trees covered in vines and lichens and giant ferns and beaches. He wanted to see everything that he could in Rexalia all of the animals, the plants, the different terrains and landmarks. He also wanted to document them like he was currently doing with the Posian Trench.

He spotted a cuttlefish swimming ahead and stopped to observe it until it swam out of his sight. It was lucky for him that he usually had an easier time seeing fish than they did him in dark since they can’t see magic. He didn’t usually see them in this area. He reached back into his bags and pulled out a wax tablet made by his brother Naxia and noted the cuttlefish. It was probably just a one time thing but he wanted to know if there was something causing a change. His explorations in trench hadn’t been going long enough to fully capture any seasonal variations yet and he was excited to find out. He had always expected to find adventures far away, but he had found plenty to explore in the dome and around it. He had always liked writing things down and drawing little pictures. He had never thought much of it as child. A little hobby not a real career choice like stealing from pirates, but it turned out to be one, at least for someone as careful and detailed as Calais. There were so many small wonders around them for him to investigate without a big mystery, but that didn’t mean that he was entirely done with mysteries. He arrived at the tunnel that he had been looking for. He ran his palm along the tunnel wall near the entrance. It was smoother than the surrounding rocks with regular ridges like it had been made deliberately yet it did not resemble anything that could be made with tools he was familiar with. This wasn’t the only structure like this in the trench. He’d already explored a few of them but had found very little about their purpose. He reached into one of his bags and pulled out another beeswax tablet and wrote down a few notes about the entrance.

He paused at the entrance for another moment then swam off and disappeared into the tunnel. He did not have a pup’s dreams of fighting pirates and heroics anymore, but the world was still full of adventures and mysteries. He had plenty to do, mapping and documenting the strange terrain of the trench, exploring the new lands uncovered by the fog or sometimes just helping a farmer survey their field.

- Hyllin

~ Hyllin