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Southern Atlantic Ruins, Crete

The shadow cast by the royal Atlantic palace was almost as grand as the powerful monument itself. Though the walls were crumbling and the magnificent lands and peoples of Atlantis were now dead and left behind only a ghostly spectre of an island, the beauty and majesty of what once was astounded me. I could imagine thousands of people on the sides of the great plaza street, cheering and waving and having their own fanciful renaissance parade as their noble Kings rode back from yet another victory, a parade stated in their wake to celebrate. It was within the castle that the Kings would reside in later that I found him.

A masterpiece, this architecture was, and whomever the builder an artist-for the Royal Palace was by far the most magnificent thing I had ever laid eyes on. A four-story, 200-some-room building with at least 100,000 square feet around it of plaza and garden; particularly what I found beautiful was the great stairwell, a winding case of stairs that went up through the center of the palace. In the ceiling above this staircase and it's many platforms and balconies was a giant opening, so as to allow all sunlight to flow in and grace the palace with warmth and light. And at the bottom of this great staircase, on the very last platform and in the center of this great flood of the sun's rays, was a pedestal, intricately detailed, that held into the light a large glass bowl.

Within the confinds of the bowl was the purest water I have ever seen-clear like a diamond and practically glowing with a turqoise brilliance. But I found, in this container, several moving bodies-flowing, graceful bodies, dark like Orichalcum and set aglow with tribal designs. To each of the seven or eight individual Koi in the bowl were different designs and a different color-I was astounded by these beauties, and, thinking of my friends at home, decided to bring one back with me.

The one I chose was rather large, and very quick and clever-he swam at the bottom of the bowl, far from the light and in the shadows yet doused in brilliance and sun. He sported markings of the most beautiful kind-a lattered radiation of tribal designs that much resembled an eye (and was remarkably similar to some designs I'd seen on other things in the palace) that glowed a bright aqua blue, adding to the brightness of it all. I knew he would be a fantastic addition to the Koi at home, and was swift in arriving back, knowing that he wouldn't last very long in the unusual conditions.





He always liked the morning. Just the way the sunlight in the early morning was so bright when it hit the water of the pond, lighting everything and warming the water. The glint of his markings in this sunlight was like a lantern in the night, glittering and shining to even those afar in the shadows. Even then, though, he swam low in the water, close to the smooth stones of the bottom and along the shadows where he could hide and yet the light would still reach him.
"Good Morning, Kian," A sweet voice floated to him, and a shimmer of colors passed by through the blotted rays that shone into the water through the tree leaves. He turned, following the ever-changing glisten of the femme as she moved like sea-ice through the water. She turned to find him there, looking over the handsome fish with a smirk. "Always by yourself in the bottom of the pond. Why don't you ever swim with the rest of us, love?" Her accent was gorgeous to match her own beauty-it took him a moment to conjure an answer.
"It's just a habit," He replied, rather scatter-brained as usual. The accent on his own voice was Greek-a remnant of his past life in Atlantis. "I like to greet the morning."
"The sun shines all day," She replied, flicking her tail as her figure now flowed past him in the water. "So why do you greet the morning, anyway?"
"Proi-Anabo*," He told her, sounding rather lavish in his foreign extent. "The dawn, the sunrise, and the morning light all belong to her. She is the goddess that brings the sun, and every day we thank her by coming to say hello."
"More of your odd Atlantic tradition, I'm assuming?"
"It's a way of life, not an 'odd tradition', my dear."
"That's understandable." She smirked, moving even closer yet to the surface of the water, knowing he would follow in his fawning over her. "So, what would happen if you didn't greet the morning?"
"There is a legend that when King Rokeios ruled, he was so stricken by grief when his wife died that he didn't wake to greet the morning. Proi-Anabo* was so upset with him that she didn't even come out-so the world was left in Hacate**'s rule for four nights. He realized that she was angry and went to the top of the High Mountain just to apologize to her...she forgave him and returned to the sky. But we always greet the morning to keep her in good favor."
"Hmmm. An interesting story." Kian nodded, smirking.
"Yes. Well, I'll tell you another one some time." He said, and flicked his tail, moving back into the depths and leaving her bewildered to know that he was much more clever than she'd thought him to be.

*Proi-Anabo: The goddess that moves the sun to the dawn, the sunrise, and the morning-her name means 'morning light'. Pronounced Pro-ee-on-aw-bow.

**Hacate: The goddess of night. She controls all darkness and the nighttime. Pronounced Haw-caught-ee.