CHAPTER FOUR Water-Life…Arrival Of Asron

It's been over one year since the destruction of the Numenor people, Kathren had relocated herself to the ocean, too ashamed to live any longer on land.

The land that once was covered by water has turned back to land and swamps. Most of the lush green valleys had transformed into stinky swamps. Most of the roads and kingdoms are covered by salty, swamp water. Kathren has taken life actually in the South Aqua, next to the rivers entry.

As Kathren builds her kingdom in the South Aqua, most of the nine kings have come under control by a ring of power. Sauron, as his real name, had it changed to Asron for identity reasons. Asron has called Kathren for a meeting, and Kathren not wanting to be rude goes. As Kathren leaves her underwater kingdom, she is met by Urzahil. As Urzahil walks up to Kathren, his eyes have been torn out, so his eye sockets were covered with iron, a metal that Asron loves. As Kathren gets on a horse, also decorated in metal they go off towards Khazad'dum. As Kathren passes through the valley to the area of the Morgul pass. As they reach the black passage, the ground shakes. "What was that?" Says Kathren, caught off guard.

Urzahil looks at Kathren…"Ah an quake…my master tells me that these quakes are occurring more often then normal."

Kathren looks at the bubbling hot acidic water. "What do you mean?"

Urzahil looks at the bubbling hot acidic water. "The world is changing."

The gates open and Kathren and Urzahil enter as the gates close behind them. As Kathren looks at the canyon, they are building another building, it's iron, and has a dim green glow. As Kathren passes the unfinished tower, Kathren looks forward to the next gate. It was designed as a mouth…a mouth of teeth. As they waited, the gates open with a horrifying creaking sound! As the gates revealed the land, Kathren gasped…she has entered hell! As Kathren and Urzahil enter, lava surround them, as Kathren and Urzahil walk up the metal road, it's clear that this place has not been touched by either glacier or wave. As Kathren arrived at the black tower, she was amazed at it's design…a single tower built on a rock with spikes, spears, and many towers leading up to the main tower. The lava was literally being used to build this kingdom. As Kathren demounts her horse her scaly feet hit the steel road. The once aesthetic appearance of Kathren in a flesh-form is no more, Kathren is now quite fishy looking, but no appearance to Kathren's mother. Kathren has became a half-being, a early hybrid. Kathren's hands have changed into fins, her five digits webbed. Her palm and wrist covered in downward scales. Her upper arm also covered in slimy scales. Kathren's legs covered in downward scales, her five digit toes webbed and each toe twice the length compared to the flesh-form toes. One good thing is that none, except her toes and fingers are connected, but fleshy fins do jet out of her wrist, but don't connect to the upper arm. One of the strangest fins are upon her face, a small fin that begins from the outer corner of her eye to the outer corner of her mouth. Kathren's eyes are covered in a mucus film, unlike water which covers most of the eyes of mammals. Kathren's mouth is also different, skin is hooked to the side of the mouth, and internally, gills develop in her bronchioles. Even Kathren's anterior is covered in scales, unlike most exotic Earth myths of sea-Human's, Kathren's whole body is covered in slimy blue-green scales except parts of her face.

As Kathren walks into the Barad'dur, meaning Black Tower, she has to walk up, up, and up a long row of stairs, up to the dark hall. As Kathren stood gazing at the iron lord, Asron looks up from his dark throne. Subscript written on the iron, it spelled out a language Kathren has never seen before. As the dark lord watched Kathren he spoke in a metallic voice that echoed throughout the hall. "So you are the ancient of the ocean?"

Kathren hesitates. "Yes, that's I…you're Asron? Lord of this fortress?"

Asron nods, "Yes, I'm the Lord of Khazad'dum, are you lord of an empire?"

Kathren shakes her head. "No Asron, I own nothing!"

Asron pauses, he thinks to himself. How can anyone be powerful if they own nothing? Asron is confused. As Asron is about to speak, the ground begins to shake…it's another quake! As the Barad'dur shakes, it begins to collapse. As Asron leads Kathren to the outdoors, Kathren and Asron watch as cracks open and swallow Asron's armies. They're falling in the cracks! As the faults spread towards Barad'dur, Asron and Kathren look down to see the fault and to see lava flowing in the crack from the cracks of Cerfire. As the quake continues, the Barad'dur begins to lean. As Asron and Kathren fall towards the lava, there is a great beast flying towards them…Asron and Kathren fall on the back of the flying beast and escape the crumbling Barad'dur. As the beast fly's north, Kathren tries to hold on, but she is slipping, she falls off the winged beast and lands into a muddy pond. As Kathren hit's the pond, the fall knocks the air out of Kathren's lungs-gills. As Kathren struggles to stay above the water level, Kathren watches as the beast and Asron fly away. As Kathren notices the water becoming hot, she swims to the shore. As she climbs out of the pond, the fault opens the bottom of the pond and the water is turned to steam. As the quake continues Kathren is shaken to her knees as mountains fall around her. As the land she is on moves, mountains more away and approach her…the scene is awkward. As Kathren tries to climb on her feet the ground begins to crack and hot gasses escape. Kathren escapes the cracks by climbing up on a rock, but the quake shakes her off. As the quake dies and Kathren stands back up, she looks around and she notices that Khazad'dum has changed, mountains protecting this lava caldera are now box shaped. As Kathren looks towards the Barad'dur, it no longer stands. As Kathren walks south, she walks out of Khazad'dum, the new tower guarding the empire of Khazad'dum still stands, it must have been built well?

As Kathren passes into the new land, everything she once knew is gone! She can see directly into the new elongated terrain of the Dunes of Sand. As Kathren then travels due east to the Great River to where it leads to the ocean, Kathren is faced with the view of the ocean. As she follows the Great River and goes between two mountain chains, the mountains actually groan and this frightens Kathren. Kathren looks at the South Aqua, she is not ready to go yet, she wants to check out Angband…the answers to all this evil must lie within those smoldering mountain.

As Kathren walks east she comes upon the Great River and is stopped by a 100 foot cliff that the Great River has cut over time. Kathren follows the river southward hoping to find a lower elevation. As the time becomes late, Kathren watches the river, it usually flows northward, but is now flowing southward, and quickly! As Kathren looks at the ocean, the answer lies out there, there is a new exposed shore of about 40 feet…this explains why the river runs southward today. As Kathren looks at the water, something is horribly wrong! As the ground shakes lightly, Kathren looks out to the fall horizon…a wave is just forming. As Kathren turns to run, she runs in the river, which is now a gravel bar. As Kathren continues to run, she can hear the wave behind her. As the tidal wave engulfs Kathren at the height of 70 feet, and about 70-100 miles per hour, the wave does not lose its power and continues inland carrying everything away in its path.

Now in comparence of waves, the wave that hit Alquarious with the fall of Numenor was actually a series of two waves, first at the height of 200-300 feet, your common mega-wave, the second wave was about 100-200 feet tall, making the wave 500 feet…that is one big wave traveling at speeds greater then 300 miles per hour! Explains why the wave ate everything, including even mountain! This wave is only a baby-wave at the height of 70 plus feet, but still moving quite quickly.

Anyhow, poor Kathren, if she was normal flesh type, or even a pure type of her own case, she would have drowned. But do to the unique biology of her respiratory system, she survived, but horribly banged up.

As the wave recharges the landscape with saltwater, the water begins to reside quickly, about 30 to 50 miles per hour, backwards, or forward, depending what part of the island you are on. As for Kathren, the wave had landed her 70 feet up in the soaked and ruined Ice Range. Having luckily no broken bones, her epidermis was not so luckily, sticks acted as needles and lodged and punctured her scales. As Kathren climbs up the slopes, dragging herself out of the residing current, the ash from the Ashy Mountains; once wet is very slippery. As Kathren falls 70 feet into the watery swamp, Kathren is submerged in mud. As Kathren swallows the water, she spits it out, it taste foul! As Kathren grips the muddy soil, her body changes back into its flesh form, but then back to its hybrid form, her biology can't make its mind up!

With scales and fins, they help Kathren navigate the swamp, but as dusk settles over this swamp, the swamp gasses let off a light show that amazes Kathren. As Kathren falls asleep, the gasses reveal their true potential as harmful gasses and they cast an artificial anesthetic over Kathren, and then begin to reconstruct Kathren's DNA. Kathren's body is covered in a light blue gas as the process occurs. As the gasses complete their reformation, Kathren's DNA is changed, but her body has not made the alter yet, the old mass cells of Kathren are being replaced by new cells. As the night continues, Kathren begins to awaken, but Kathren's body is seen by another…it's a dragon, a new creature born on Alquarious. As the dragon walks carefully up to Kathren, he smells Kathren body, it smell salty, but then of course Kathren was caught in a tsunami. As Kathren wakes up, she feels a hot breeze behind her. As Kathren turns she comes face-to-face with the dragon. As Kathren becomes nervous, the dragon actually speaks to her. "Do not whimper child, I do not come to claim your gold…at least not today!"

Kathren calms down, but still is on the line of fight-or-flight. As Kathren sits herself up she looks at the dragon. "What are you?"

The dragon gets up on his hind quarters. "I'm Smaug, Lord of Dragons…and now the last of the my kind…the fire breathers."

Kathren wonders why. "What happen to the other?"

Smaug looks down upon the child. "They have all been hunted down!" Kathren looks down at the ground, she feel sorry for him. Smaug looks pitiful at Kathren, "Where were you going Human?"

Kathren looks at Smaug and wonders what is a Human? "I was going to the coast."

Smaug looks interested at Kathren's bravery, most 'Humans' would have run. "Which coast?"

Kathren looks around the swamp. "I was going to the South Aqua."

Smaug lower himself. "Well lets get going!" Kathren get up onto Smaug's back and she takes flight to the ocean. As Kathren looks at the flooded land, ripped apart by the waves she just shakes her head in disbelief. As Smaug lands, he lets Kathren off. "Well here you are, you should be warn, pirates sail these waters!"

Kathren smiled. "Thank you." Smaug lifts in the air and disappears off in the northern skies. As Kathren looks at the South Aqua she enter. As Kathren swims the ocean, there is a bubbling caldron beneath her. As Kathren looks at the water, she wonders what now is going on. A Kathren thinks about going back to shore, a mast shots out of the ocean, and then behind her another mast shots out of the water and then the ocean is broken and a ship emerges. Kathren lies on a ship as the water rushes off the foredeck. As the ship comes above the ocean Kathren looks at the spoiled wood, it's covered in barnacles, and muscles, sea life and green organic plant life. As Kathren looks at the ship, she sees its crew…they were not Human, as the dragon would put it, they were about semi-Human, and all of them fish-like, like Kathren. As Kathren starts to get up, she looks at herself, she is covered in blue-green scales with fins…normal for her hybrid-self. As Kathren looks around the ship, a big man comes up to Kathren…he too is not fully Human.

As Kathren looks at the fish-man, the hybrid man speaks in a gurgling voice…it's only apparent that he also has gills and lungs like her, for he has not yet cleared the fluids from his vocals. "The captain will see you!" Says the creature quite harshly.

Kathren looks at the fish-man, she wonders if he's part of her race. "Captain? Who are you guys?"

The creature looks at the other men standing around. "She wants to know who we are?" The crew laughs. The laugher is a taunt against Kathren.

As the laugher roars like a lion, it's enough to raise the captain out of his quarters. As he walks out onto the observation deck, Kathren turns to face the captain, what she expected to see was not at all what she saw!

Back at the northern boundaries of Khazad'dum, Lord Asron looks out over his crippled kingdom of iron and rock. He wonders where is Kathren, but with the hot gasses, he can only guess that she is dead.

END OF CHAPTER FOUR