For those who were still counting the year was 2463. The shift from the 11th to the 12th dimension was well underway and the world was coated in an endless pattern of fish scales. Luscious, teal, turquoise blue arcs stretched in arcs over the geography that once formed mountains, valleys and sea. Where the criss-crossing leylines crossed, tall ancient Grecian pillars stood. For those that were counting they would stand 1000 meters tall and be anchored 1000 meters underground into the hot channels of fish sauces that coursed underneath the planet's scales.
The age of Aquarius had come and the planet was covered in a water-like plasma that had replaced the Earthy etheric air that once supported homo sapien life.
It was a sploshy world. A splishy sploshy world really.
24 ginormous whales would spray water out of their spouts creating various dome ecospheres across the planet. Each one was its own world unto its own.
The Kingdome of Gamfraxia had a king prawn who had apparently lived for 450 years. He had been left in a freezer from the former Iceland supermarket. When the Biblical floods came the prawn paddled away from his cardboard packaging and away from the prawn ring which was once destined for human consumption. He had thawed a bit but he was still cold-hearted to those who knew him.
In the Kingdome of Frolippo a black and purple oodley octopus ruled over her Plasmeric sea. She had 8 tentacles but when one looked closely she had 888 microtentacles that would eat whatever came near. She was quite tyrannical except for when music from the 1980s came on. This came from the Anjuke, a hybrid between a jukebox and an angel that had one day emerged from the heavens. The Queen octopus' favourite song was 'Maneater' and she tended to listen to this day during dinner time as she feasted on the remnants of sausage rolls that had been deposited in a place once known as Sheffield.
There were 22 other domes with lesser mortals who weren't as interested in fighting and ruling things. They splish sploshed and avoided confrontations with the swordfishies from the other kingdomes. When they did they were known to have a special gland of skunkwater that tended to paralyse their opponent. It would reset their brain to look back at all the their lives and make them feel guilty for all the bad things they did. Therefore these majority of marine life lived peacefully and in their own power and were rarely disturbed.
The kingdomes of Galafraxia and Flolippo were unfortunately one of the last few at war. Their swordfish would dive underneath the domular edge and disguise themselves through the border. They were known to rub themselves against different corrals that would disguise their skin colour that they needed to blend in. They would then ambush their foes in the other kingdome. War was fruitless as it had been for the past thousands of years. A battle line would edge forwards now and then, a frontier would change hands. But the imaginary lines within the domes, demarcating boundaries, switched every few years. Nothing really changed.
Those fishes were either used to being in a conflict zone or not. And they got used to it quickly enough.
Then the shift between the 11th and 12 dimension got underway and it was a little tricky.
The first thing they noticed was the giant pillars were starting to glow at the top. The usual navy blue had become brighter, like a turquoise. There was also a sound. A high-pitched whistle that pinched the gills of the fishes who were attuned to it. At the same time a number of prawns, anchovies and plankton were begining to leave the big schools and groups. They made little corners of the ocean their own. Many small communities of fish broke off around the kingdomes.
The mighty leaders were losing their grip and becoming increasingly paranoid. The Frolippon octopus queen started gouging herself on submerged haggis from centuries ago. "Strong and stable. Strong and Stable." she repeated to herself in her circular octopus language. She waved her tentacles around in terror in fear of her fate.
The prawn leader of Galafraxia was equally confused by the bright orbs circling the pillars. There was something disconcerting about their presence.
Then one day the whales whose spouts of water had sustained and protected a watery underworld for the period of one dimension - spotted spouting. The kingdomes collapsed and everything started struggling to breathe. They wailed and wailed and it seemed lie death was upon them. But then the pillars unfurled. The tops opened outwards like a sunflower. Seeds burst out into the sky and landed in the mouths of creatures that the universe had decided to keep. Around the planet, all the small creatures grew and where the pillars once stood giant stone pomegranates emerged from the ground. Spirals of pomegranate trees connected themselves along the old ley lines.
The fish who survived were changing, evolving, mutating and growing limbs, losing gills and becoming more amphibious. Rubies poured out of the cracking pomegranate trees which were perpetually in fruit. The lizard creatures scrambled and swallowed the pomegranate ruby pips and scattered and scuttled across the newly-made desert earth. Only the pomegranate statues and trees punctuated the otherwise barren dusty dunes.
And that was how things stayed for a while.
