Tanner Saves Atlantis
Press the "play" button to have me read it to you!
His whole life, Tanner had heard stories about the lost city of Atlantis, a mythical city that sank under the ocean long ago. Tanner had always wanted to go there and see what it's like.
One day, Tanner overheard on the news that a team of scuba divers had found Atlantis, and they were now taking people there to see it! And Tanner's parents, knowing how much he had always wanted to see Atlantis, bought him a ticket to take a tour of it.
On the day he left to go on the tour, Tanner's parents drove him to the dock, where a submarine was waiting for him. He could barely see it since only a little bit of it was sticking out of the water.
He kissed his parents goodbye and got in through the hatch at the top. The sumbarine lowered itself into the ocean and took off in the direction of Atlantis.
After a few days, he got to Atlantis, and what he saw was beautiful!
Tanner put on his scuba gear and got out of the submarine. In the middle of it all was a giant castle. The drawbridge to the castle lowered and out came a chariot led by seahorses. It pulled up to the submarine and a merman with bluish-greenish skin, a ginger beard, a purple tail, and wearing a beautiful crown hopped out.
"Welcome to Atlantis!" he greeted. "I am King Marlin, ruler of Atlantis. And who are you?" he asked.
"I'm Tanner," Tanner replied.
"Ah, Tanner! That's a lovely name," Marlin said. "Hey, you can take your helmet off. Humans can breathe in Atlantis."
So Tanner took his helmet off and took in a deep breath, and to his surprise, he wasn't drowning!
"Why can I breathe?" Tanner asked.
"Magic," Marlin winked. "Follow me, I have lots to show you," he said, and swam off, motioning for Tanner to follow him, which he did, into one of the buildings labelled "Art Gallery."
"This is our wonderful art gallery," Marlin said. There were paintings of many strange things, such as a fish with human legs, an octopus with only one tentacle, and a white clam with purple polka dots.
"These look funny!" Tanner laughed.
"Maybe to you land-walkers," Marlin said. "But to us, these are priceless works of art!"
Marlin led Tanner out of the gallery and into what looked like a big arena.
"This is our sports arena," Marlin announced. "We play sports here at least once a day."
Tanner looked at what the merpeople in the arena were doing. There were merpeople with red uniforms and blue uniforms. It looked like they were playing football.
"Nice, football!" Tanner exclaimed.
"I do not know what this 'football' is," Marlin said. "They are playing finball."
Tanner sat and watched the game until it ended. He didn't know who to root for, so he didn't stand up and cheer when everyone else did. The merpeople in the red uniforms won the game.
Marlin led Tanner out of the arena and into another building labelled "Music Hall." Once he went inside, he heard all sorts of wonderful instruments being played. He heard bagpipes, organs, bells, and more! There was an entire orchestra playing up on a stage in the center of the room.
"Woah, this is so cool!" Tanner exclaimed. He wondered how the instruments worked underwater. Marlin took a seat and gestured for him to sit down next to him, which he did. He listened to the music until it was over. Once it was over, he said, "Wow, that was awesome!"
"Yes, Atlantis culture loves music very much," Marlin said as he led Tanner out of the music hall. "Well, that's the end of the tour. I hope you had fun, and goodb-"
Suddenly, Marlin was interrupted by a crowd of merpeople screaming. Tanner and Marlin looked behind them to see a Great White Shark swimming through the water, knocking down buildings!
"Who's that?" Tanner asked.
"That's Riptide, the shark that's been terrorizing our great city!" Marlin replied.
Tanner swam up to Riptide and grabbed onto the fin on his back. He gulped, thinking this may be a bad idea. He leat out a "Woahhhhh!" as Riptide thrashed around, trying to get him off, eventually succeeding. Tanner landed on the soft, wet sand with an "Oomph!"
I could never drive Riptide away... Tanner thought. Then he remembered something he saw on TV once, and wondered if it might work. He swam under Riptide and grabbed onto his belly. He felt the water rushing past him as Riptide swam quickly. Trying his best not to lose his grip, he climbed all the way up to his face, and punched his nose. And to his surprise, it worked! Riptide swam away.
"You saved Atlantis!" Marlin exclaimed. "You're our hero! How'd you drive him away?"
"I just punched him in the nose," Tanner admitted.
"Great! Now we know what to do whenever he comes back! Thank you so much, Tanner. You've saved us. Now, I think it's time for you to go. Your driver is waiting."
"Goodbye, Marlin. I'll never forget you!" Tanner waved as he got back into the submarine. As he left, he thought about all the cool things he'd seen and done. He couldn't wait to tell his parents all about it!