I warned you. I warned you all. Her belly was swelling and her eyes were glazed over with a hazy brown. She looked like a Moana character, though her whole body was covered in trash and oil. She was standing in the middle of Washingotn DC, looking dead at the terrified camerapeople. Look at me. Look at this. Thousands of years I lived in harmony with you people. Fed you, bathed you, moved you across worlds. I overlooked everything you did. I tried to keep you from making me do this but you leave me no choice. You were made from me. I was not made for you to use and abuse and leave to die. Because when you're gone, I will still be here. And if you don't believe me, just ignore this warning and see what happens.

My eyes snapped open. I was on the floor, shaking from how fast my heart was pounding. The smell of bacon was filling my room. I took a deep breath and got up. My legs were trembling. I went and brushed my teeth, though I was careful about turning the water off when I wasn't using it, and went downstairs. My dad looked as if he hadn't slept. Pancakes, bacon, sausage, hash browns, and eggs all lined the counters. My brain quipped about it looking like the Last Breakfast but I was too shaken from the nightmare to joke right now. I made my plate and sat down. One by one, the rest of the family came down. We were silent, even when passing salt or pouring orange juice.

"I had the strangest dream," my mother said after a few minutes of silence. "There was this... woman, covered in trash... She was on TV talking to us."

I dropped my fork noisily and my brother choked on orange juice.

"You too?" we said in unison, then looked around in disbelief.

billions of years ago, our beautiful , rocky world met another planet. they crashed violently. two things still mark this tremendous event: the moon was formed, and we were inundated with corrosive waters.

my fellow mountains, I tell you, NO MORE!

We wade, sometimes drown, sometimes with the tops spared, in the salty filth. the waves crashing into our formations, the tides disrupting our volcanism.

I tell you friends, that it does not need to be so! ask our brothers and sisters on the moon. they have freedomes that we have not. they spend their days basking in the dry rays of the sun, never concerened if tumerous cave formations are eating them from the inside , drop by drop!

and the filth! the stench of the low tide. the ooozing microbes with their claws and appendages. their detritus washing up at our feet, bringing forth more infestations. and to make it worse, some say the waters are rising!

but not all is lost, my friends, and take heart. mountains on other planets faced a similar state. our far cousins on mars , once were just as drenched as us. until they took action! they erupted collectively , under the wise leadership of mt. olympus! they blew out the toxic liquids, the got rid of the waves and the washed out. rogether, we too can take a stand against the waters. we must all play our part relentlessly.

we must sacrifice much. but the magma that will flow, will bring us the dryness that we so greatly deserve.

come fellow crests, come ye beaten meassa. bring forth your wrath and if we all do our best, we will destroy those great waters, and finally live again as our ancestors did, in peace and quiet!

The captains warned them first, rasping words claiming that the folly of mankind's ignorance would destroy everything in its path. Next came the experts, scentists, biologists, and thousands who claimed they'd seen the truth in dreams, visions, overlooked facts.

No one listened to them as the ocean began to fade.

As the depths pulled back, revealing things that had been hidden for eons, buried in the mud. As the things they saw died gasping, lamenting and howling in anger.

As they realized that what was hidden were the only barrier between the earth and worse things held at bay.