A Tale of Plankton
Adrift
By ShinjiLover
January 26th, 2011-January 27th, 2011
Pokemon © Satoshi Tajiri
Songs Used © Avril Lavigne & Midnight Sons
All rights are reserved.
Life is too short. You have to live your life like it's gonna be your last. My life is shorter than the average human's. I'm not even human. I'll ask the reader to take a moment to think. My body is armored with a plate for protection, a cell wall, and I have 2 long tails (called flagellum). Can you guess what I am, reader? Yes, I'm a Dinoflagellate. In this rather big world, I always feel like it takes courage to live it as it is. Predators are all over, the search for food is risky, and when you're a plankton like myself, staying afloat helplessly is one thing you can't control.
Since the start of my life, I spend endless days absorbing/making my own light with no friends. All of my siblings drifted out to sea, but me, I got drifted towards the shore. It's pretty lonely out here by yourself.
Just when I was thinking I was completely alone, I heard a voice behind me. I tried to turn to look the best I could with my tails, but there was no use. I was controlled by the tides around me. The voice echoed again, but this time, it was closer. I swore it had cried a call for help, but I wasn't sure. Just then, the voice's owner crashed into me while shouting a cry.
"Bah!" I was pushed forwards as the creature hit me, and when I looked to see what hit me, my heart jumped with excitement. "Oh my gosh! It's a-a-... Are you okay there?"
Right in front of my eyes was what I knew had to be bacteria. It was rod-shaped and had a rigid cell wall. He's single-celled and I'd have to say he was the smallest living organism on Earth.
"Oh, pardon me, sir," the bacteria apologized. "I couldn't fight the tides, and my family drifted off to sea."
I smiled. "That's okay, little guy. My family drifted there too. What's your name?"
"Lucus Bacteria-Morrison. I'm pleased to meet you. And what is your name?"
"Barry Dinoflagellates-Tomas. Call me Barry."
"I would shake your hand, but we don't have those things humans have."
"Hands?"
Lucus laughed. "Nevermind." He was attached to one of my tails, I noticed, and he gasped. "I'm sorry. I can't move very well. Do you mind if I stay clung to your flagella?"
"Go on right ahead. We should stick together! We need each other to survive."
"Yes, and I would enjoy spending time with you until the end."
"The end isn't over yet," I winked. "We'll just have to see where fate takes us."
Suddenly, the tides began to push us around violently, and soon enough, we were being tossed out to sea. The two of us cheered when the tides faded down from violent to calm. We were out on our way to adventure. Lucus and I could spot some big, green, bush-like thing in the distance, but we couldn't make out what it was. Our mission was to take shelter within it's structure.
"What do you think it is, Lucy?" I asked, giving my new buddy a nickname.
Lucus giggled. "Lucy? How appropriate. You gave me a 'pet-name'. That is an interesting nickname." He laughed, "and I like it."
"Thought you would."
"Anyway, I'm not sure what it is, but by judging it's tree-like structure and bush-like, grass-like form, I'd guess it is a mangrove... Possibly a black mangrove."
I stared at him with an astonished look, like 'What the- How're you so smart?', since there is no way I could've even thought of his conclusion.
"What?" he asked.
"How. The. Freak. Did. You. Do. That?" I blinked. "I never could've guessed that it was a mangrove."
"Well," Lucus chuckled, "I have to be thinking logically all the time. And it was a logical analysis that I hypothesized."
"Smart-bacteria..."
We laughed to ourselves and talked some more. We enjoyed conversation about our own kinds, and this is where I got to share with him about the "red tide" (which is pretty much my family in a bunch, making the water appear red; thus, where name comes from). He had mentioned to me he saw a bunch of my kind just before he ran into me.
Soon enough, after a while of Lucus and I just feeding off of whatever foods we came across 'n stuff, we came across a plankton that was a shade of turquoise, had a huge, round eye, two antennae at the top of its rod-shaped body, and 4 stubby limbs (isn't he the evil dude from Sponge Bob who works at the Chum Bucket?). An evil maniacal laugh escaped his lips and NOM NOM! A larger organism chowed the plankton down. We watched in horror for a moment.
"That sort of think is common 'round here, y'know," said a voice next to me. Lucus and I looked to find a creature with cell walls made of silica (or glass) that had a box-like shell.
"Lucus smiled. "You're a Diatom!"
"Ash-Diatchum. It's really nice to meet 'cha."
"Barry Dinoflagellates-Tomas." I greeted Ash. "And this little guy is my pal, Lucus Bacteria-Morrison."
"The pleasure is mine," grinned the bacterial friend of mine.
"So where're you guys headed? You look like you want to get someplace." Ash questioned.
I answered, "We were hoping to head north to the mangrove out there."
"We hope to find safety within it," added my bacteria friend.
"Oh, that's cool. Me and my friend, Dawn, were headed in that direction, but she disappeared in this red tide we came across."
"Dawn?"
"Yeah," laughed Ash. "She's a bull-kelp that started drifting off when a gang of sea urchins came and destroyed her holdfast."
"That's awful," gasped Lucus.
"Yeah... but she has a pneumatocyst to keep her afloat."
"Pneu- what?" I arched an eyebrow.
"They're little gas-filled bladders on the bull-kelp and other macrophytes that keeps the plant upright." Lucus elaborated. "It is like the replacement for not having a backbone like mammals have."
"...What?"
"Nevermind, Barry."
Ash turned and noticed something in the distance. He called out Dawn's name before the high-pitched female voice echoed back.
"Ash!" She screamed, "Help me!"
A tide came crashing in, and the 330' bull-kelp was swept in, where Ash and I caught her and held on safely. Lucus moved from one of my flagella to one of the blades on Dawn's thallus, like me and Ash were clung to.
"Thank goodness!" She sighed. "I found you, Ash. Who're your friends?"
"Barry and Lucus. They were hoping to find shelter in the mangrove up ahead. Is there a way we could drift towards it?"
"Sure. I'm headed that way because of the tides pulling me that way. Why don't we all go there together?"
"Sounds fun!" I chimed in.
And my bacterial pal added, "It is quicker and easier to travel this way."
So off we drifted towards the mangrove and we found out more about Dawn. She said she grows 20" a day and is the largest species of brown algae. She also had said creatures used to hide in the forest full of bull-kelp, and once she was detached from below by sea urchins, many starfish would crowd in the space she once lived in. Space competition is rough below, not like up here on the surface. Dawn's most friendliest species of mammal to cross her path are sea otters. They wrap themselves in her long thallus and they use it to keep them anchored still and so they may eat without worrying about being prey to other animals.
Ash said humans rely on his kind because diatoms are good to use in "toothpaste" (whatever that is). They are good for scrubbing the bad stuff off "teeth" (whatever those are). And she had said marine life needs them for their oxygen, which they produce the most of. I guess it means that humans and marine life need diatoms.
Lucus, however, said that his importance to life started millions of years ago. Since nearly the beginning of time, bacteria have lived to help decompose wastes and turn them into useable nutrients. They're like another form of recyclers, he mentioned. Lucus said they also take share in making oxygen for organisms though photosynthesis.
"We all live short, important lives." I said. "It's sad how life starts today, and the next, you're already dying."
Everyone nodded in agreement.
As we continued on a lot closer to our destination, Dawn asked me something.
"What makes Dinoflagellates so important?"
I grew silent as everyone glanced at me, waiting for an answer. It was nerve-wracking as they looked on with anticipation. I didn't want to say, but I forced it out.
"Well," I began, "being a primary producer and at the bottom of the food chain... I live to be eaten. Other organisms rely on me to survive."
"How awful!" the bull-kelp frowned.
"Ouch!" Ash gasped, "that sucks!"
Lucus commented, "Life is cruel, and we fight to stay alive, reproduce sexually or asexually, raise offspring, and die off."
We all grew to silence as we took in what had just been said, and thought to ourselves. I, in particular, thought how lucky other organisms like humans are able to live freely without much worry, while here we are, scared to be the next victim of some larger, more dominant species.
Just when our pondering ended, a wicked tide blew in and the clouds above roared with thunder. Lightning crashed and the waves stormed with anger as they had pushed us all over the surface. As long as we held onto Dawn's blades, we'd be fine. I held on as tightly as I could as rain poured down on us.
"HOLD ON, EVERYONE!" Dawn hollered through the storm.
For the longest time, we clung to her blades and were tossed through the storm. And it felt like it would never end. Soon enough, the water calmed and the skies above were cleared.
Ash sighed and called, "Alright, gang, we made it through the bad weather."
"Phew!" relieved Dawn.
I calmed down my jumpy head and looked over to Lucus. But when I did, he wasn't there anymore. He'd been taken away with the tides.
"Lucus?" I screamed, hoping to hear an answer. "Lucus?" Still no response. I cried as I called for him once more. "LUCUUUUUS!"
Dawn and Ash frowned. He placed a caring "hand" on me and said something to me softly as I cried harder.
"I'm sorry, Barry," he cooed, "but these things happen."
I sniffed, "B-but he was my first friend... my best friend..."
Dawn brought us into a group hug, and I continued to sob until I couldn't anymore. Within the next ten minutes, we had reached someplace that pulled us to a hault. I didn't care nor notice at the moment.
"It's my fault."
"No it's not," Ash answered back to me.
I frowned and still blamed myself.
If only tears could bring him back...
If only love could find a way
What I would do, what I would give, if he
Returned to me someday, somehow, someway...
If my tears could bring him back to me...
I loved him. I loved him like a brother and a best friend, and it was only so short time ago that I had just met him. We shared an instant, strong bond. Now, it was only shattered glass. He was gone. Lucus Bacteria-Morrison wouldn't return ever.
"I miss him..."
"I know you do," Dawn smiled, making me smile back. "But he wouldn't want you to be sad. Lucus would want you to move on without him to your destination of paradise."
"No need to travel far, anymore!" Ash said. "We're here!"
We looked upon the large, tree-like structure that stood proudly with her special root-like pneumatophores (or dead-man's fingers). All three of us stared in awe and approached closer with caution. The closer we got, the more proudly and tall the black mangrove stood before us. Her beauty was profound and magnificent. Each individual thin leaf shone in the sun's light and displayed salt sticking to the bottoms of them.
"Wow..." was all Ash could say.
"She's beautiful," chirped Dawn with awe.
Bliss filled my insides and a warm, calm feeling overwhelmed me as I looked the mangrove up and down (no, I'm not checking her out! ...Okay, I am.).
"What's your name, dear?" Dawn asked the black mangrove.
"Iris." She answered in a calm, soft, sweet voice that anyone would feel secure hearing.
Ash smiled warmly. "What a lovely name for a lovely specimen, like yourself."
"Thank you." She smiled back. Her smile was granted to her from the angels above. "I am glad you came here. Many creatures come and go around me."
Dawn arched her questioning eyebrow. "What do you mean, Iris?"
Iris grinned down at us and looked towards the sky. "When one life meets another life, something is born." She spoke. "Creatures of this world rely on each other for survival and depend on the many cycles of life to prosper. If one cycle should fail, every life will be affected in a crashing domino effect. Then one by one, each cycle falls and the end of the world arises. Mangroves are just part of one of many lives living to make a cycle prosper. For the humans, we provide oxygen. For the beaches, we stabilize the sandy bottoms, in which humans protect mangroves for. And for creatures like yourselves, we provide shelter, whether predator or prey. I am home for all." Iris looked around and we followed her gaze. She was right. Many organisms were sheltered right here under this mangrove. "Amazing how life exists as one, isn't it?"
We all nodded to her.
"By the way," I asked, "did you happen to find a small, lost bacteria during or after the storm?"
She nodded. "Is he the one you're thinking of named Lucus Bacteria-Morrison?"
"Yes!" I chirped, feeling my heart race. "Where is he? Where did he go?"
"He was here during the storm." Iris answered, "the poor thing washed up and was determined to find his friends."
Without another word, I scurried back into the sea in search for Lucus. Ash and Dawn called for me, but I did not turn back. I just let myself get swooshed by the tides and called out Lucus' name.
"Lucus! Lucus! Where are you? Lucus! Bacterial buddy!"
The longer I searched, the more hopeless things felt. I just wouldn't give up. It felt like hours had passed, and dark clouds returned to the sky, but no rain dared to fall. It got really dark as my search continued on. All hope finally was lost. The choppy waves carried me far out and I could do nothing about it. I had to flow with the waves and hope that I would find something along this everlasting journey. Soon enough, I could only feel like I did at the beginning of this story. I needed a companion at my side. I needed my Lucy! Lucus was the only creature I needed to let me know things would be okay. But they weren't.
"The day you slipped away
Was the day I found it won't be the same...
miss you..."
Tears streamed down my face as those words echoed through my head continuously. They were there to taunt me.
"Barry?"
Nothing feels right.
"Barry?"
I wish he was here.
"Barry!"
Now I must be hallucinating. I'm hearing Lucus' voice call out my name. It's almost like he's really there calling out to me.
"Barry! Over here!"
I looked around and saw right there in front of me my bacterial buddy, Lucus. My Lucy!
"LUCUUUS!"
"BARRY!"
I was overwhelmed with excitement and I advanced toward him as fast as I could, as did he towards me. We drew closer and closer.
Before we could embrace, a whale popped up and came towards me. I knew this was it.
"Barry!" Lucus screamed. "Look out!"
I didn't move. I accepted my fate. This was the moment I was living for. Dinoflagellates live to keep the food chain in balance. And this was it.
"Barry! Move!"
The whale approached me and I was being sucked into its mouth. Me end drew near. I smiled at life's last words and sights. The last thing I saw was my bacterial buddy with beautiful tears shedding from his eyes. The last words I could hear from his beautiful voice was beautiful enough for me to say that even though my life ends here, I feel pretty alive.
"BARRY!"
"The day you slipped away
Was the day I found it won't be the same..."
THE END