DIGITAL ART STORY CONTEST:CIVILIZATION LOST IN THE MURKY DEPTHS?.

Hello everyone 💚

Thanks for visiting my blog once more.

This post is in response to @worldofxpilar's story of digital art contest. Its my pleasure to participate in this contest,I always enjoy writing and I hope you enjoyed this fictional story which I created originally for this contest.

The story might be too lengthy, judging from different standards. Anyways,I hope you bear with me and read to the end. You'd love that you did. HAPPY READING!

Thud....this was the sound off the impact between his body and the hard floor. He knew he shouldn't have unwind on his pale mat with such recklessness,but he couldn't help it,the business of the day got him all stressed and tired. He was just eager to get some sleep from the little time he had left. Tomorrow is set to be a very dicey one,he had to meet up as it would be the deadline of a huge debt he owed. He didn't even want to think of the outcome if he fell through on this deadline. The thoughts clouded his mind for a while but before long,he was already drifting off into a sleeping spree.

'Hey! stop!' He shouted vehemently as he ran towards the floating creature. It seemed to be a human figure; And judging from the anatomy of its upper body,a female at that. He ran faster but the creature kept soaring seamlessly in the opposite direction. He caught a better view, the lower body is made of some sort of tail/fin. A mermaid! He never believed those existed despite the stories he's heard. He has to catch up with it but its swimming so flawlessly against the oceans current. Wait! How could this be? For he could feel himself catching his breath in hot pursuit of the mermaid! Underwater!

Almost immediately,at the realization of this consciousness,he felt his eyes open slightly. Yet another lucid dream! He's used to those by now,has been having them for a couple of months too. He follows the mermaid into a bright white light,followed by him waking up. He never understood what the dream meant and frankly,he didn't care anymore.

It was almost dawn,he could tell by sighting the faint brightness in the atmosphere through his window. He knew he needed to set off and check on his traps. The netting wire for the trap can't hold the fishes for so long, especially if its a big catch,which he hoped for.

He stared down at the shore from his little hut of a house on the hilltop,facing right about where the sun set. The amazing golden rays of light during this event has been his most favorite thing about this place. He quickly wrapped himself in some clothes and headed down to the river. His canoe was waiting safely,in a cave by the shore side. He hurriedly moved the canoe to the shoreline and in one powerful thrust,he drifted off to retrieve his traps, peddling slowly against the current. He knew his spot and before long,he arrived,only to meet yet another sabotage!

He knew he should have been weary of those damn looters.Those scumbags didn't mind running off with his catch. Not like it hadn't happened in the past. severally. But they didn't choose a more deadly time to strike. He had his hope set on the potential proceeds from this catch to settle his debt and get a lethal enemy off his back but it seemed that wouldn't be happening today. He sat down, paralyzed by his own thoughts,as the gentle current rocked his canoe back and forth.

For a long while,he sat,lost in his own dilemma but only then did a thought occurr to him, a very livid and reckless one. He knew better than to be empty-handed when the debt collector showed up. He stroke the water quickly with his paddle,if he was fast enough he could still make it in time to other spots. Playing the victim's card,he hoped to savage whatever he could find and begone with it. He had been on the unfair side of this story for so long and he hoped to change that by raiding other spots,for a start. But getting caught was never an option, very harsh punishment had been approved by the council in other to mitigate these crimes.

However,that did not matter anymore. He had already made up his mind and he was already loading up his canoe with net wire mesh traps,filled with fishes. And how lucky he was! Fishes of this size would fetch him great deal of cash. But that wasn't enough,he needed more. He hit another spot,and yet another! He was grinning happily while loading up his rewards. Looking up to the sky,he realized he had little time left because now most fishermen would have made their ways to the river bank. He had to leave immediately!

He splashed his paddle violently against the salty water and propelled himself towards shore. Only if he could go any faster,he would be home in no time.

"Oi!,wait up!" screamed a voice.

He looked back and saw two fishermen riding the current vigorously towards him. He didn't know what they wanted and didn't intend to find out. He looked ahead,shore was close enough. If he'd been caught,he could easily run into the valley behind the hilltop, surely he would loose his predators there.

He could barely develop that thought before the second voice rang;

"hold up! we saw you! we know what you did!".

His heart skipped! He knew he was in a bigger mess! He paddled faster but there was no way he could make it against a "two-paddler" canoe boat. Before long,he could hear the fierce tossing of water behind him. But the shoreline is right there,he thought. He could make it in time to cut to the valley. Without hitting the shores,he jumped off instantly,dragging his feet hastily against the waters as he ran towards the hilltop.

"Bang"!.....this was the sound that followed. He's been hit! Those guys aren't fishermen! must be the vigilance group! But they were not to commence operations till next season,he thought as he groaned in pain,now dragging himself on the ground,across the fine sand of the shores. He heard footsteps behind him.

"you got him real good", the first voice commented

"The intention was to stop him,we have to take him back to the council",the second voice suggested.

"please don't take me to the council,I'm just a victim of circumstance", he lamented.

"Well, you will have to face your punishment. This is your fate", the first voice iterated.

"we need to move fast,he's loosing a lot of blood,there might be nobody to serve the punishment if we don't get him to a hospital soon",the second voice concluded.

He was quickly bound and carried to the canoe boat by the two men as they paddled away from the shore into the lustre black channels of the river. He lay crookedly on the boat as he slowly lost consciousness, he could feel himself transcending into the ethereal. Just then,he reminded his dreams,how real the had felt!

What if there was truly a civilization unknown to man?,hidden in the depths of the oceans? Could his dreams be an affirmation to this hypothesis?
He would really like to see what this "other" world entails, especially at this time when his current world is about to meet its doom. He knows better than to disrespect the debt collector and he knows better than to get displayed as a culprit before the council. Death seemed like a much fairer punishment, especially when the next step is unknown and could be fulfilling.

These thoughts were still settling in his mind as he struggled to adjust into a more upright position,his hands and feet bound, loosing a great deal of blood,he quickly dropped into the river and felt his weight submerged towards its dark depths. Before the men could successfully retrieve him back to safety,he had drowned, giving up the ghost.

Thanks for visiting my blog.
@stephenpaul

I hope you were able to pick up a couple of morals from this fiction.

Photo credit: @worldofxpilar