From Atlantis to Venice

A wonderful bird sat upon the light brown rooftops of Venice, observing the approaching storm with her smart black eyes.

To humans, to the strange walkers, she would appear like a peculiar, colourful crane. However, up close, even they would realise that this was a special kind of bird, one from a different world.

Like a crane, she was elegant but smaller. Like a crane, she was graceful but more powerful. Her beak was long and yellow, the colour of the sun. Her feathered head was bright pink, like clouds at dusk.

From her neck down, the feathers turned purple, whereas her wings and long tail feathers shimmered in shades of green and turquoise. The tips of her wings rippled silver like the crests of waves.

A cold wind stirred from the south. She knew that the storm would descend upon the city soon. All light would be blocked out. There would be no escape for anyone on water, on land, or through the air.

She knew that the strange walkers used to live in a similar city like Venice. They called her Atlantis. History turned into a story. It transformed into a mystical legend. The strange walkers forgot its fateful destruction and unlearned the lessons they learned from their mistakes, doomed to repeat a fate their ancestors suffered long ago.

But the bird remembered. She had been there thousands of years ago. And she recognised the signs now. A part of her felt sorry for the strange walkers, but a part of her understood that they had to be taught this lesson again. And maybe again, until one day there was nothing left or no one left to learn.

The fantastic bird spread her shiny wings. With a melodic tune coming from her long yellow beak, a sound that had last echoed over the silver city of Atlantis before it was swallowed by the sea, she took off into the sky, trusting in the wind to carry her to safer places.

She did not look back. She did not look down. She looked ahead, the coming darkness and northern winds carrying her far away. This city was doomed. Atlantis, and now Venice. Who was next? She could not tell. But she knew that another one would follow, for this was the nature of strange walkers, doomed to learn and unlearn every lesson again and again.