ChaThe ocean was calm, with only the ocasional stir of the fish that lie beneath it disturbing it’s rest. It was a rare time of peace, with not a noise to be heard in the rock-filled beaches of California. A cloudness night revealed a perfectly round moon, glowing and lighting the way for the creatures of the earth. It was at this time that the Earth would appear perfect, humans living in perfect equilibrium with the creatures that once dominated the land.

Nothing this great could last, however. For the animals knew that as soon as the sun peeked up from the horizon, the Earth would be awakened and return to it’s daily tasks.

The creatures of the world could not bring themselves to accept the humans and their new technolodgy as a part of the Earth. They would think to themselves “Why should we accept them into our world if they will not do the same?”, but still, nothing would change. They knew the humans were more powerful than them, and no matter what they did, they knew they would end up failing the task, and decreasing the animal kingdom further.

So they left the humans alone, not interfering with any of the humans regular tasks for any reason other than to keep themselves alive.

This was debated as to whether or not it would become law of the animal kingdom, but soon it was held in every household and building across the world, although not known to the humans.

They knew this would not last. Many of the animals did not accept this, and rebelled against the humans, trying once more to take control of what they had been in for so long.

The question was not if the treaty was to be revoked… It was when.

This was 27 years ago, on March 2nd, 1982. Today is April 17th, the year 2009, and the year that the treaty was recalled…

_ _ _

“Come on, Drake!” shouted a young fish at his older brother. “We’re never going to get there if you keep this up!”. The child was franticly swimming around, obviously excited to return to his home after a year of being locked up in a school.

“We can’t all be as ambitious as you are, you know.” Drake remarked, breathing deeply after snatching his brother before he took off again. “Settle down and we’ll get there soon enough.”

The child looked up at Drake. Trying to keep his voice down, he asked “How much longer is that?”.

Drake sighed, and tried to think of an answer. His brother would never accept anything other than the truth, and Drake had to come up with a suitable answer.

Drake looked around for something his brother would take as an answer. He found a rock formation in the shape of a hand a couple hundred feet away, and he pointed directly at it and responded “Well Rick, you see that rock formation over there?”

Rick squinted at the distant formation. “Yeah, I see it.” he said as he started swimming again. “What about it?”

Drake thought of a response, and responded “When we pass that formation, we should be about 15 minutes from reaching home.”

Rick nodded, and seemed to take it as a suitable answer to his question. Drake quietly sighed in relief, and he continued in the direction of his home.