For years, we lived in peace, you and I. I was happy, even, to offer myself for you to drink and some little creatures for you to eat. For years, this cycle of life and death moved on smoothly, yet I should have known that the inevitable would come. Greed was a sin that had you wrapped around its gnarled fingers. No longer did a few fishes suffice, and no longer were you content to live together in a humble home. You wanted more money and space. Loads of it. All for selfish gain. One transgression, I could have taken for ignorance. The second, I could have forgiven for mercy, but you never stopped. It was you who pushed me over the edge, and so you have only yourself to blame for it.

As the years passed, you built so many of your creations with what you call concrete. Neither did you spare the rocks nor the silt and sand, yet none of us said anything. We acknowledged that it was not too large a sacrifice on our part to give you the space that you required to live. I only wish you had been half as considerate with us. You started with those trees- most selfless of us all. One after another, you ruthlessly cut them down, clearing green jungles to replace them with concrete ones, never bothering to plant another in their place. So often, you cry out to the heavens to save you. Have you ever stopped, even once, to think perhaps those trees were doing the same thing? Asking the heavens to protect them from you?

You built your homes, offices, stores, and so much more. Soon after, you built 'vehicles' to move around. You, humans, thought nothing of this when you 'planned' your city. You don't seem to be doing so well at that even now. It would seem that your only solution was further destruction. You sanded me. Drew me a forced course. Presumptuous, don't you think, to believe you could restrict me? What was worse, you built your own roads and houses upon me. Upon the lands I had once flowed upon. A few years later, you destroyed the houses there. You brought in laws on encroachments, though they were for naught. Not only did you destroy those homes- the houses of gullible people who bought them in times of need- to help resurrect me, but you left me dry and parched too. A loss for your fellow humans and me, but a gain in your eyes.

The holy Earth, which had once held as much water beneath the surface above you, you drained without discretion. It no longer rained as often, for you had long desecrated the forests. The cement floors you made would not let the water flow through to replenish the dry land. Water does not like to be restrained, even by nature herself, yet you dared to do so. So much havoc you have wrecked upon that which gave you life and made you what you are. There are many that you call ungrateful. Do you not see that you are being a hypocrite? Did you truly expect to get away with it? Were you that daft?

You humans claim to be the smartest of all the races that walk the planet. If that is so, then why do you do more harm than good? Can you, Oh Wise Ones, not find a solution? All the waste that you generate, you dump into my once clean waters. Have you not any idea how much blood is upon your hands? The fishes within me are dying for no fault of theirs. The weeds that fester are choking them. Did you still expect me to stay quiet and watch as you wrongfully snatched those harmless lives were away? You are mistaken if you think your lives are worth any more than theirs.

The time had long past since I believed you would learn, and so I rose to unleash wrath and ruin. I had tolerated all that you had wrought upon me, but no longer could I watch as you destroyed those under my care. You had prayed and fought for water, had you not? Fine. I would give myself to you. Let the world see what strength you possessed against me. In great waves, I rose, gathering into me all my strength, and all that stood before me fell. The buildings you had valued, the gold you had hoarded, they all became worthless in a single moment. Lives I claimed of your kind in vengeance, and I was all that was found in your lands even as you scampered around looking for miracles and aid. I had thought you would learn. Even your circus animals heed you after punishment, but what did you do? You prayed for aid. How much lower could you stoop? Not once did you stop to think you were in the wrong, yet your undeserving prayers were answered, and I receded, not yet appeased but hopeful that the lesson would be learnt.

After that, I joined the seas, hoping that my sheer size alone would be enough to stop you. My only comfort was in the many more lives that thrived beneath me. Of them, at least, you were still scared, for the waves, sharks, and whales became my faithful guardians. Even then, it didn't take you long to pollute and kill with your oils, sounds, and plastics. Even those little diatoms that are hardly seen, you harm beyond comprehension. Have you seen the number of creatures that wash ashore, killed by your inhuman actions? Have you not felt an ounce of guilt? Those turtles and whales that die after eating plastic? Those lives are on you. The clumps of dead kelp that wash over? They are dead because your actions sucked their life source off me. Those creatures you kill for pleasure? They, too, had little ones waiting for them. My once green waters are now nearly black. They have been blackened by your crimes. Crimes that made me so weary that I soon left the seas. I journeyed to the poles where you could not draw any closer to do me more harm than you have already done.

What a naïve fool I had been...