The Record of Unusual Creatures

Panda Novel

As Katreina had said, the sea was wide and all-reaching. It consumed everything.

About seventy percent of this planet’s surface was covered by oceans. Sirens were the most low keyed, friendly and pacifist species, but also the ruler of the largest piece of real estate on this planet. They lived under the sea for over ten thousand years, during which the continents experienced changes in the multitudes, endured weathers of all kinds, and were reigned by dynasty after dynasty — including “Gods”. In the past ten thousand years, civilizations had rise and fallen repeatedly, leaving behind various artifacts that found their way to the ocean, and ultimate into the sirens’ collection.

These low keyed but curious sirens were definitely the most expert collector on the planet. They would keep almost everything they found in the ocean like treasure. This was most likely due to historical reasons. During the chaotic times on Io, sirens had learned about the “outside world” by collecting miscellaneous objects that sank into the ocean. Since then, the siren society took great interest in the things that sank down from above their heads. Even Lily was impressed by their quirk — the werehusky liked to bring back all kinds of rocks to her home to… err, to build a collection. The sirens’ collection in Nasaton was far grander and extensive than Lily’s pile of rocks!

The artifacts in the collection room was arranged chronologically. Items closer to the entrance were more recent. Hao Ren followed the “solid timeline” and walked deeper into the room, like a man glancing through the planet’s history.

On the rack with the most recent items were common human-made tools and ware, including a tiny ring. A nameless young lady on America’s western shore had thrown the ring into the sea out of a broken heart, but the ring was picked up by a siren who happened to be swimming by. After a few days of playing around with the ring, the siren gave it away to the collection room. Further in, one could see a metal plate engraved with beautiful letterings, a relic from a sunken ship. Further in still, Hao Ren saw torpedoes, grenades, fragments from a periscope and a broken metal nameplate — these were from the World War II.

He even saw the boiler from the German battleship Bismarck — Katreina found it herself. When Bismarck went down, the Queen could see a glorious fire burning on the ocean’s surface from deep underwater. She cut off a piece of metal from the Bismarck’s boiler in commemoration of that particular observation of human activity.

Further in, the items became more and more archaic, including certain very interesting things. A diary from a Spain merchant ship’s captain was put together with a captain’s curved blade, with bits and pieces of fishing equipment dragged in by the tsunami thrown into the mix. There was also an odd-shaped telescope, and some seemingly useless and weird tools that looked like they were could summon magic. Hao Ren noticed a cylinder made of white gold. The cylinder had intricate carvings on its surface that showed a nine-headed beast, waves and a hexagram. Katreina introduced the object to him like a guide. “That is the great pirate Borseba’s ‘goldscope’. He was the last pirate who knew the ways of black magic. Through this unique telescope, Borseba could see any ship with gold cargo from tens of thousands of miles away. He became impossibly rich because of this, but in the end, he died choking on a piece of chicken bone in the captain’s quarters. His pirate ship sank during a storm not long after that.”

“That was a time of mystery and darkness.” Vivian returned a small and decorative golden dagger back on the rack. “Sailors were easily influenced by black magic, since they were so far away from land, far away from the Church and the Demon Hunter. These superstitious but bold ‘men of the sea’ liked to discuss about magic and curses. Hence, long after the age of magic and mythology ended on land, ‘magic’ still retained its power on the seas for a long time.”

Hao Ren nodded, considering her words as he continued walking along the timeline. He noticed that the two rows of artifacts on both sides were gradually becoming less sophisticated and more simple and crude — he had just walk by the a glorious period in history in for humanity, and was now heading towards the more primitive and ignorant Middle Ages. Tattered fishing nets and worn out blades and daggers became the main exhibits. There were also lots of crude objects related to magic, and even some bizarre relics. An ugly spherical rock and a messy pile of wooden splinters were displayed on their very own rack, with a label that said — the human King Richard attacked Cyprus with a catapult.

“Do you know how much these things are worth?” Hao Ren recalled how Katreina had described their collection as “not very important”. He was beginning to feel skeptical about the sirens and their sense of mindset. He had thought that the collection gallery looked well protected with the sentries outside, but now he felt that this place was dangerously exposed — the sirens assigned only four sentries to look after this place, and used an ancient metal door antique at the entrance!

“Are they very valuable?” Katreina did not seem to agree. “They are thrown away by the people after all…”

“I think at least half of these things are not willingly given away…” Lily stuck out her tongue. “Sunken ships and accidents at sea are hardly intentional.”

Katreina waved her tail slowly, looking at a lost. “I guess so… They’re about the same.”

Hao Ren thought that he could not speak to the Queen on the same wavelength, so he shrugged and continued further down the racks. After passing by the simple and crude artifacts from the Middle Ages, he found that the items on display became more refined again.

There were fewer and fewer primitive man-made items. A spear used for fishing was the last representative of human civilization. Of course, according to the timeline, the spear must have been the first man-made object that the sirens collected. Going further down, he saw things that were could not possibly be made by humans in that period in history.

There were intricate metal machines, weird crystalline devices, a colorful crystal crown, a sparkling and delicately made staff, and other fantastical things that obviously did not belong to humans. Hao Ren was surprised — he had reached the Mythological Era.

He turned to look back and found that he had only advanced no more than a fifth of the long display racks. Ten thousands years occupied only so little.

“Humans ruled the Earth for only so long.” Vivian studied the crude human artifacts and the dazzling, flashy “Divine Artifacts” thoughtfully. These two categories of objects were separated by only one display rack, and the contrast was striking. “It’s amazing. Five hundred years ago, humans were still praying every night for the demons to stay away from their children. 1500 years ago, humans were still afraid of the invasion of werewolves or the Blood Clan into their cities. 2500 years ago, they prostrated themselves before tyrannical Otherworldings and Gods. Today, however, humans have become the sole master of this planet. Their artifacts occupied only a fifth of the gallery, but they have already conquered the entire planet.”

“Close minded people will always become obsolete.” Hao Ren shook his head.

“This bow belonged to Artemis!” Vivian recognized something. It was a large and faintly glowing silver bow. “… It was lost when Olympus fell into the Dimensional Storm. To think that it found its way here!”

Lily found a heavy trident that had a blackiron-like feel and glowing a faint blue at the tips. She yelled in surprise, “Katreina! Isn’t the trident one your siren weapons? Why is it here too?”

“That is not a model we use. It belonged to Poseidon. He tried to invade Nasaton, but found himself trapped underwater by the distorted energy field around our starship. He used his trident as a bargaining chip with us sirens, and so we freed him.” Katreina shook her left slowly. “We are peaceful beings, but that doesn’t mean we tolerate intruders.”

Vivian felt a little surprised. “So you actually have Poseidon’s trident? I never knew he lost it. When Olympus met is end, Poseidon was still using a trident to battle the demon hunters.”

“I don’t know about that. Perhaps he has many tridents. Losing a weapon is too embarrassing a thing for him to share in public.” Katreina shrugged. “The world on land is too chaotic. We do not understand much of it. Before that man with the bushy beard, the self-proclaimed God of the Sea, arrived to cause trouble, we never even knew that the sea has a ‘God’. Sirens do not care for these nonsense.”

After a while, Lily yelled again, “Hey, why’s there a sole of a shoe here?”

“That is from Zeus’s slippers.”

Lily had nothing to say to that.

The artifacts from Olympus were very interesting to the visitors. These ancient Divine Artifacts still had some power left in them, allowing them a glimpse into the glorious days of Zeus and his family. Hao Ren circled around the artifacts curiously. Suddenly, a grayish white object that looked like a pedestal for a sculpture caught his attention.

“Hmm? This… This looks familiar.”

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