January 10, 12024,

This is Caroline Daucus. I am a happy carrot living in the largest city on Pearth-Shan.  Hopefully, this letter finds you well. This is a plant-dominating world. Many things have been going on lately: Global cooling, CO2 shortages, and no more space on the ground for new plants to grow. Most plants are now grounded in our houses by the government, so we don’t use too much CO2. Also, many college students like me got kicked out of school because they wanted to create more space for little children to live in. The government doesn’t care about us—no more time to chit-chat. I have to drink my CO2 now. 

Caroline Daucus

January 12, 12024,

Here is something new. The government says anyone developing a solution to control global cooling or the lack of land can get a huge price. Like the ones you get during Christmas, maybe a bicycle, maybe a car! I think I will try, but honestly, I don’t care about the presents; I just care about the Christmas tree.

Caroline Daucus.

January 22, 12024,

Okay, I think I’m up to something. I remember my grandma telling me there is an ocean that takes up 65% of our planet, why can’t we extend our land plants to the sea? I know things are living down there, but they don’t take up all the space in the ocean, right? I’m gonna call Bambi and Dandia to see what they think, and I hope we can go on a trip to the ocean. The government better let us check the ocean out, or they’ll lose something big. 

Caroline Daucus.

January 24, 12024,

Yes! After my hard work and effort trying to explain to them how much potential my plan holds, the government finally agreed to let us down there. They are even giving us funds! It looks like someone’s gonna be successful! Bambi and Dandia also agreed! It would be tough to do this without them. Like, they are my best friends and are super good at diving! Bambi is tall and strong; Dandia is light and… VERY SMART.  I have to pack a lot of CO2 and water for the trip because it will take us at least five months to return there. I also have to get water-proof animal skins to write these letters on. Ugh, have to go blind my eye and poke a huge hole in my pocket now. Bye~

Caroline D.

February 20, 12024,

We finally arrived! I can’t believe it took us almost a month to get ready and reach the ocean. The view here is fabulous, the…

The rest of the letter got corroded, and according to the legend, Caroline Daucus’ descendant, Arica Daucus, rewrote the following story.

I felt the salty wind blowing into my face as I reached the ocean. It’s a picture I had never seen before; the sun rose from the horizon, separating the sky and the sea into two different worlds, and the flashing waves that were minimized because of the distance between us created a “night sky” filled with stars. I looked at my friends. Bambi’s leaves were waving at the ocean along the wind, and Dandia held her seed so they wouldn’t fly away. “Don’t let the surface scare you; we must go under there!” I yelled so they could hear me over the wind. “Okay, I'm ready,” said Dandia. “Let’s go!” 

According to the resources that the government provided, I was too scared to go straight to the trenches, which is where we planned our destination, so we started near the Islands. We had to make sure Bambi’s foot didn’t touch the beds because that’s gonna disturb the animals living there. At first, I was confused because the animals under the water didn’t look like the ones on the documents. “The documents are probably ancient and outdated; I think the ocean has changed a lot since then,” said Danida, “and that’s probably also why the government banned us from the ocean because they don’t know what’s down here anymore.” I thought through it a little bit and said, “Ah~ no wonder you are a doctor.” “What about me?” asked Bambi, longing for a compliment, “Yeah, of course you too, but just watch your little branches!” I said sarcastically. As we went deeper and deeper, I could feel the pressure getting heavier and heavier, and my leaves were shrinking. “I think we reached our limit. I can’t go any farther down, or else I’m going to throw up,” I said in a struggle, “start searching from here; remember not to go too far and meet me on the island at 5:00.” We separated after that, and I focused on visiting the animals and plants. At the same time, the other two examined the geological structure. The color and shape of the plants here profoundly intrigued me. Some of them look like flowers on land, but their pistols are a lot bigger in number and size, and they also have bright colors like purple and pink that are fluorescent. Their languages are different from the ones we speak on land, so I couldn’t understand, but I could see they feared me and wanted to keep me out of the area. But why? Why are they doing this? Bambi, Dandia, and I spent almost three months here trying to write down everything we saw, and just before we decided to leave, the “flowers” under the ocean made their move. 

“What’s our plan today?” I asked exhaustedly.

“I think we should just go for a final search and head back; there’s nothing more to write down,” said Bambi.

“Okay, hopefully, our adventure can help the land plants in some way or form. Maybe the government will open the ocean again, and we will find a “lost city” somewhere,” I said, jokingly. 

“That’s not going to happen,” said Dandia, “If there is a lost city, it would be in the deepest trench, and we are not even halfway there.”

“We’ll see,” I said. “The ‘flowers’ have been weird since last week. They try to strangle my roots when I get too close to them, and I almost couldn’t escape yesterday. I think they are mad at us for being here so long. Be careful, and let's meet at 4:00 today. We should leave tomorrow.”

I was ready to go home, but just as I was heading back to the island, a flower grabbed my roots and pulled me down. It wasn’t like the one yesterday, who just strangled me and stayed there. This one dragged me down with a huge force and I felt the pressure getting bigger and bigger, and then my eyes blacked out. When I finally woke up, I saw Bambi and Dandia beside me. We are all baffled and scared.

“I was attacked by a ‘seagrass.’ What about you guys?” Bambi asked.

“Em, what’s a ‘seagrass’?” I asked curiously.

“I don’t know, but I call it grass because it looks like a long grass, ” said Bambi

“Doesn't matter anymore. We need to find a way out right now,” Dandia said urgently. “I can feel the water pressure slowly killing my cells. I don’t want to die here!”

And then, as Dandia said, we start examining the area. I can’t see anything because the light is dim, and the only bright things are the fluorescent “flowers” and a few stones that are right next to my roots. 

“There is no way out; this is not fun!” yells Bambi, “I can feel the Osmosis pulling water from my body; I’m gonna die!!!!”

I didn’t try to calm him because I think death is gonna be the only way out of this place, and it’s kinda satisfying. I got to see what most people will never see in their whole life: the weird glowing “flower,” the colorful animal with “leaves” and “petals” that helps them walk around the water, and the best stone with a shape like the stripes on the bottom of mushrooms, and so much more. But what about the Christmas tree that will die without CO2 and the herbaceous plants dying because of the endless cold everywhere? They must find a more intelligent, braver, and probably bigger plant to save their lives. 

“I’ll miss you, Christmas tree!” I cried out loud.

“Wait, shhh, listen,” Whispered Dandia.

A silent noise came from the ground: “When will you all ever learn? The last time I gave the two feet walking mammal a chance to rule the world, they messed it up! I thought your plants were trustworthy enough to care for the planet, but no! Take this and never come back again! The next time anyone comes to bother us will be the time that water takes over the world.”

I woke up on my bed, staring at the ceiling. This is the 100th time that I dreamed about my expedition. After we heard the siren, a force of water pushed us to the surface, and we landed on the island. I found myself holding a stone with the weird mushroom stripes, and later, when the government crews arrived, it opened. There was a videotape in it, and I had to hand it to the head of government. After we got home, the government told us that the tape was filmed by the previous species that ruled this planet, sapiens, and how they passed through the day. They would not give my friends and me any more information. Still, I can tell from the tape that by the reformation they are doing, the government learned how to build more stable buildings and, most importantly, the balance between plants and animals on the planet.

About ten years after the building and animal reformation, our planet's climate slowly increased along with the food supplies. The tall buildings provided more space for new plants to grow, but the government had to dig dirt from the ocean. I got a huge Christmas tree with a few presents under it. The warm light of the golden LED lights shines on my face as I’m still wondering why the government banned us from the ocean. It’s so beautiful and… of course, dangerous, but is there any connection with the mammal that they told me? I guess I would never know because the ocean is still banned. I hope that someday, I can speak with that silence again, but I also hope that will never be.