The sea sang tonight. Its voice was low, like the hum of a giant harp plucked by the currents. Aruna floated thirty meters below the surface, her body encased in a worn diving suit that smelled of rubber and salt. The light from her helmet's lantern pierced only a few meters ahead, leaving the darkness alive, pulsing, waiting. In her ears, the hiss of oxygen from her old tank mingled with the steady thump of her heartbeat, too steady for someone diving in the ruins of a dead city.She was no ordinary diver.
Aruna was a relic diver, a hunter of treasures from the old world that sank centuries ago. On the floating islands, relics like computer chips, machine fragments, or even intact books were worth more than gold. But tonight, she wasn't after chips or books. She sought something greater, whispered by a trader at the docks with a half-fearful tone: a sealed vault from the Machine Age, buried at the bottom of Coral Bay.Aruna moved her legs slowly, her dive fins cutting through the water like knives. Ahead, the silhouette of a broken tower emerged from the underwater fog, ruins of a skyscraper, its peak snapped, overgrown with glowing coral. She'd heard tales of cities like this, where humans once lived without fear of the sea. Now, only fish and ghosts remained.
"Aruna, you still alive down there?" Kasim's voice crackled through the communicator in her helmet, gruff but laced with jest. Kasim was the mechanic on Wave Knight, the sailship anchored above, waiting for her return.
"Don't let a coral shark bite your backside."
"If a shark comes, I'll send it after you first," Aruna replied, her lips curving into a smile no one could see.
She adjusted the oxygen flow, then glided deeper, following the crude map the trader had sketched on sharkskin. It was vague, but a red mark at its center pointed to the vault, buried beneath layers of coral and silt.
The seafloor drew closer. Aruna landed softly on a bed of sand littered with rusted metal shards. She drove a small spear into the ground to anchor herself, then began digging with a folding shovel. Every move was cautious; one mistake could stir the silt, blinding her in the dark. Her pulse quickened, not from fear, but from a gut feeling. Something about this place felt… wrong.
After several minutes, her shovel struck something solid. Not coral, not stone. Metal. Aruna cleared the silt with her hands, her gloved fingers tracing a cold surface. The vault was massive, nearly her size, etched with strange symbols, a circle slashed by a diagonal line. She pulled a plasma cutter from her belt, its blue flame igniting in the darkness.
"Kasim, I found it," she said, her voice tinged with quiet triumph.
"The vault, just like the trader said."
"Good work, kid," Kasim replied, his tone shifting to urgency.
"But hurry. A storm's brewing on the horizon. And… something's on the sonar. Moving fast, heading your way." Aruna frowned.
"Shark?"
"Not a shark. Too big." She had no time to ask more. The plasma cutter sliced through the vault's first hinge, sparks flaring in the water.
In her ears, the sea still sang, but now a new note joined it, a low vibration that made her bones hum. She ignored it, focusing on her task. The first hinge snapped. Then the second. One more to go.Suddenly, the water surged. Not a current, but a powerful wave that nearly knocked her over. Her helmet's lantern flickered, then died. Darkness swallowed her whole. Aruna grabbed her anchor spear, her breath catching in her tank. The communicator crackled, Kasim's voice breaking through.
"Aruna! Get up here now! It's..." The connection cut off.
Silence. Only her own breathing and the sea's growing hum, now urgent, insistent. Aruna ignited the backup lantern on her wrist, its weak beam sweeping the seafloor. And there, at the edge of the light, she saw it.
Something moved. Massive. Its body slithered like a serpent, but its length stretched beyond sight, vanishing into the dark. Its scales glinted like mirrors under her light. Aruna's eyes widened. She'd heard tales of Sea Dragons, mythical creatures said to guard the old world's relics. But those were just stories, weren't they? Stories to scare children on the floating islands.The creature turned, its head emerging from the murk. Its yellow eyes, as large as ship wheels, locked onto her. Its mouth opened, revealing rows of sword-like teeth. Aruna didn't think. She released her spear, kicked hard upward, her body shooting toward the surface. The vault was abandoned, but she didn't care. Survival trumped treasure.The water churned behind her. She felt the creature's pursuit, its wake like a hammer against her back. Her heart pounded, her oxygen tank thinning. The surface was still too far. She wouldn't make it.But then, light. Not her lantern, not the sun. A green glow erupted from the vault below.
Aruna glanced down, and what she saw froze her. The vault had opened on its own, green light pouring out, forming the same circle and slash pattern as its etchings. The creature halted, its head rising, as if entranced by the glow.Aruna didn't waste the chance. She kicked harder, her lungs burning, until her head broke the surface. Rain fell in sheets, lightning flashing in the distance. Wave Knight loomed nearby, its lights blinking like a beacon. Rough hands pulled her onto the deck, and Aruna collapsed, gasping, seawater dripping from her suit.
"What were you doing down there?!" Kasim shouted, his weathered face creased with worry.
"You nearly died!" Aruna didn't answer right away.
She stared at the now-calm sea, rain erasing the waves' traces. In her mind, the vault's green light and the creature's eyes burned vivid. She knew she had to go back. No matter the danger, no matter what guarded it. Something in that vault was bigger than any relic she'd ever chased.
That night, in the ship's cabin, reeking of oil and damp wood, Aruna sat with the Wave Knight's crew. Kasim, the fifty-year-old mechanic with a gray beard and scarred hands. Mira, the young navigator who read the stars with secretive eyes. And Dren, the former pirate who joined them after "retiring" from his old life, though Aruna never fully trusted him.
"You're saying the vault opened itself?" Mira asked, her brow raised.
"And green light? Sounds like a fairy tale."
"Not a fairy tale," Aruna countered, pulling out a rough sketch she'd drawn on cloth.
The circle-and-slash pattern from the vault, copied as best she could.
"I saw it. And that creature… it wasn't a shark or a whale. It was something else." Dren, silent until now, spoke.
His voice was deep, like stones grinding.
"A Sea Dragon. I've heard tales of them. They're not ordinary guardians. If one's in Coral Bay, that vault isn't just a relic."
"What do you mean?" Kasim asked, rubbing his beard.
Dren's eyes locked onto Aruna, sharp and unyielding.
"I mean, kid, you might've just found the key to Dawnland." The words hung heavy, like the storm gathering outside.
Dawnland. The legend every relic diver dreamed of, a continent still green, still alive, brimming with technology to restore the world. Aruna felt her pulse quicken, not from fear, but from something far more dangerous: hope.
She stared at the sketch, the circle and slash calling to her. Tomorrow, she'd return to Coral Bay. Tomorrow, she'd face the singing sea and the creature that guarded it. Tomorrow, the true adventure would begin.