READ THE STORY

Rain exploded against the great stone walls; walls which had stood firm through tremendous storms over many years. However, this storm was unlike any before. All the residents contained within these walls, from the biggest to the smallest, cowered at the ferocity of the tempest raging outside. 

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Long ago, on a bluff overlooking a vast ocean, a mighty structure was built. Within its halls generations of people lived and laughed and loved. Over time the lineage of this family fell to nonexistence and the castle was overtaken by nature. One day, a curious young soul stumbled upon this majestic structure. He fought the overgrowth and wandered through cavernous courtyard and heroic hallway. Inspired by the architecture, and the ocean lying beneath it, he worked to transform the stronghold. At great cost and ingenuity he turned this place into the most expansive and awe-inspiring aquarium anyone had ever beheld.

Trinidad resided in the mightiest tank of the converted castle. Her tank was created to accommodate her inevitable size at the behest of its designer. As a calf this tank seemed expansive. But once Trinidad began to grow, the boundaries of the tank she’d been put in seemed limited. From very young she was taught to perform for admirers. But just as the size of the tank became limiting, so too did the idea of the performance of tricks at the pleasure of others. Trinidad fell into a melancholy. She felt something was wrong. But, as she had only ever lived inside the walls of the tank, constructed for her in the confines of this castle, she did not know what the problem could be. She pushed the feeling down. But it met something deep inside which knew she was meant for things other than her current situation. 

The night of the storm, just as all the other marine life in the aquarium, Trinidad was frightened. She had never heard such powerful rainfall. Then it happened. With a blinding flash of brightness and a deafening crash, a crash which shook the very walls of the old castle and sent reverberations rocketing through the water of her enclosure, Trinidad knew something bad had happened. She apprehensively swam near the wall of her tank and witnessed the bricks of it ever so slightly separate. Before she knew it a massive section of the wall gave way and water was bounding out. Flipping her body about as fast as possible, she attempted to distance herself from the hole in the wall, but even with her great might, she was unable to fight the breach of the tank. As she was forced through the broken brick and stone she was met with a pain unlike anything she had ever felt. The underside of her body had scraped against the rough and broken bits of compacted earth. She then experienced a sensation completely new to her. It was as if she was swimming faster than ever, but had no control over her movements. She watched the exterior wall of her broken tank get smaller and smaller until another pain made itself known to her. She had impacted something hard and bounced off of it. This had whipped her body around and toward what was now below. Trinidad was falling down the cliff upon which the castle stood. 

With a fear she thought impossible, Trinidad hit the jagged rocks once more. Then again. Each impact injuring her further. She bellowed out in pain before finally, with a colossal splash, she landed in the raging ocean below. She tried to swim, but found it too painful. So she sank in a water that seemed unending- nothing like the small tank she had grown up in. Deeper and deeper she fell. Pained, scared, falling further and further from everything she had ever known, she couldn’t help but also feel excitement. Everything she was seeing and experiencing was completely new. 

In too much pain to swim, she continued to descend. Then something in the ocean floor seemed to open up. It was a circle, increasing in size as she sank- a blueness so dark and vivid it was entrancing. Trinidad gave a wave of her mighty tail but pain shot through her like electricity. Once again she could do little to fight what was happening to her. The blueness enveloped her and she closed her eyes. 

Gradually the water seemed to warm and through her eyelids she could detect a brightness. She dared to open them and find what had changed. The once pitch dark blue had been replaced by a staggeringly beautiful light display. Everything around her, in every color imaginable, was glowing. Bioluminescence of all varieties surrounded her. Swimming, floating, flowing, all manner of deep sea creature here were led by the light they produced for themselves. 

One light in particular seemed to take notice of her and move in her direction. Trinidad was taken aback by what the light was connected to. It dangled in front of a fish with  a set of particularly vicious teeth which comprised almost all of its face. The light got closer, accentuating the teeth more acutely, until the frightful mouth curled into a smile.

“I look pretty scary don’t I,” the fish light-heartedly stated. 

“I’m so sorry, I just have never seen a fish like you,” Trinidad replied.

“I am an angler fish,” it replied. “Only those who can stand to reach the deepest depths get to encounter me. Down here you’ll come into contact with all kinds of things you never have before. We must be strong down here- we stand up to tremendous pressures. We have to be able to light our own paths. The depths are very challenging. They are not for everyone.” 

Trinidad looked around in awe, taking in all the differences and beauty this place had to offer. The pain- which had now abated- and circumstances she endured to arrive here passed through her mind.

“I always felt there must be more,” she joyfully stated. 

“But You can’t stay here,” the angler fish continued. “They’re waiting for you.”

“Who’s waiting for me? Everyone I’ve ever known is back on the other side of this cave.”

“This is no cave,” the angler replied.

“What is it then,” Trinidad questioned with a slight desperation.

It was at this moment it seemed the anglerfish and all the lights around Trinidad began to swim away. She soon realized it was she who was moving away, deeper into the tunnel. Somehow, simultaneously, she sensed a change in direction, a pull she could only identify as upward. The lights fading, once again enveloped by the deep blueness of this tunnel in the ocean. Fear returned but now was eclipsed by curiosity and excitement. Finally another small light, a tiny dot at first. Then bigger and bigger it grew, bluer, greener, every widening until the hole became a vastness to which no end could be seen. The water around her turned crystalline clear. Through it a yellow circle danced, shimmering between gently rocking waves. 

Trinidad broke the surface. Everywhere she looked, islands speckled the horizon. The sun blazened in an entirely different way here.

A pod of whales who looked just like her approached.

“Ahoy! What’s your name, then,” one of them asked.

“I was named Trinidad,” she replied.

“Oh, that will never do… no, here…” it thought for a while,” here you will be called Lëre.”

“Lëre,” Trinidad reflected for a moment. “Why do I like that so much? Where exactly is it we are?” 

The entire pod gave a well- natured laugh at the questions. This had a comforting effect upon the newly dubbed Lëre.  

The one who greeted her, called Naparima, continued, “welcome my new friend… let’s swim.”