"There's land up ahead!" someone called out.

"Good, head towards it!" said Christopher Columbus.

I wonder what we'll discover. We could end up rich!

"Columbus?" a crew member shouted.

"What?" he scowled, annoyed that his daydream of riches beyond imagination had been interrupted.

"There's something a little strange behind us. And it's getting closer!"

Grumbling, Columbus strode to the stern, where the anxious crew member pointed at something odd approach them.

In the distance, across the ocean, was something that resembled a pillar of cloud. Not the soft, fluffy ones that drift across the sky on a summer's day. The storm clouds, that were ready to destroy. The pillar was twisting in a peculiar way, and objects flew out of the depths and disappeared into the angry cloud pillar. It was rapidly approaching their group of ships, the Santa María, the Pinta and the Santa Clara, the ship they were on, while pulling more objects into itself.

"Sail faster! Let down the sails!" Columbus roared. "It's approaching quickly, alert the other ships!"

But, the crews of the Santa María and the Pinta had already spotted the thing, and were letting down the sails while everyone descended into a state of panic. No one knew how to deal with the cloud of destruction coming their way. The only thing everyone knew is that they had to get to land, and quickly.

It was complete chaos. The sails were being let down on all three ships, but there wasn't any wind for it to catch on. Ropes littered the deck and anchors were thrown overboard to try and stop the ships from being drawn into the destruction cloud, but just as the anchors were secured, a strong wind picked up, so the crews were forced to cut the anchors to get away quickly.

It was windy on the brink of a storm. The waves started to get higher around them, slapping into the hull and slopping over onto the deck. They were getting closer to the land, but the twisting cloud was still dangerously close to the group of ships. Spray from the waves stung their eyes and blurred their vision. Finally, one more powerful gust of wind pushed them close enough to land, and each member of the three ships felt relieved when they felt the ships scrape against the sand. But that relief was short lived.

"Columbus! It's still approaching us!"

"Jump off the boats onto the ground, abandon ship and run for cover!" Columbus shouted. He jumped over the edge of the ship and landed hard on the sand. Wincing as his knee suddenly errupted into searing pain, he staggered after the crew members as they ran further inland. He eventually caught up to them at the edge of a forest, panting heavily, but no one was calm yet.

"It's coming onto the land! It's destroying the ships!" they yelled.

Columbus turned, and he watched in horror as the twisting cloud came closer to them, but not before sucking the Pinta into itself. Within minutes, it had torn the ship apart and left only a few planks of wood. But it still came closer, stirring up the sand into swirling patterns.

"Run towards it and to the right, further down the beach!" Columbus yelled.

"Are you insane?" several people shouted.

"It's coming towards the forest, we should run towards it and to the right so we don't get sucked in. Do it, and quickly! Stay as far from that thing as possible!"

The crew took off running in the direction Columbus said, while the latter hobbled behind as quickly as possible. A strong man noticed Columbus lagging behind, so he ran back and slung him over his shoulder, and then continued running.

They met up with the rest of the crew at the far end of the beach, well away from the destructive cloud, and they all watched it tear through the forest, and then take a sharp turn towards the sea again, on the opposite side of the forest they were on. It seemed to disappear, and the sky cleared to reveal magnificent blue.

"Columbus, should we explore the area now and gather up the remains of the Pinta? We should search for some resources as well," the strong man said.

Columbus didn't hear at first, partly because he was dreaming of treasure again, and partly due to the pain in his knee being so distracting. "What? Um, yes, you do that. I'd like to scout out the area a bit better. See if there's any threats."

"As long as that's alright with your knee," the man said uncertainly.

Columbus took off walking awkwardly down the beach, looking around for anything other than sea, sky and sand. Behind him, the crew members organised amongst themselves what they were doing, and then they split off into small groups, exploring the terrain and heading into the forest. Meanwhile, Columbus had spotted some big hills in the distance that seemed to be made of sand.

That would be a good lookout point.

It was a struggle getting to the top of the mounds, but somehow Columbus managed it. Straightening up, he gasped at the brilliance that lay before him that could not be seen at ground level.

In the ocean, there were rings of water that were a light turquoise colour compared to the brilliant blue around them. Inside of the rings were exactly the same colour as the outer ocean. These were peppered over the sea, some colossal and some miniature.

This sight is almost better than treasure!

Once he was down on the beach again safely, Columbus continued his exploration. The sky was cloudless, and the wind whipped his hair in every direction and carried the tang of salt. His knee was even feeling better now. He came to a part of the beach where the water got deep extremely quickly, and he peered into its depths, before jumping back with a start when he spotted the beast below.

It was navy in colour, speckled with white spots, somewhat resembling the night sky. It would have been quite a pretty creature if it weren't for the fact that it was enormous. Columbus had never seen such a fish before. He peered again, but hobbled away in fright as the thing seemed to spot him and swim in his direction.

He continued exploring for quite some time, but couldn't seem to find anything more, so he climbed back onto the sand hill from earlier, and just stood there, thinking.

This is a nice place. I would like to explore it more thoroughly, maybe see if there's anyone else living here. What other creatures could be in the ocean, the forest, the places we don't know exist yet? There could still be treasure buried somewhere, although I would rather have experienced all these things than have treasure.

Columbus thought he heard shouting coming from somewhere below him. Startled, he tried to find what the source of the commotion was, and found it in the form of a crew member in the ocean.

What has he done this time?

When he had reached the man, he found out almost in an instant what he was yelling for. Below him, like a deadly shadow, the colossal night sky fish was trying to swallow him.

"Save me Columbus!" he screamed, thrashing around in desperation.

"Get out of the water!" Columbus shouted. "It can only try to swallow you when you're in the water. Get out!"

"I can't swim, please-" His plea was cut off as he became exhausted with trying to stay above the surface, and he sank down into the depths, towards the starry fish. Columbus kicked off his boots and got  into the water as quickly as possible. He closed his eyes as tightly as possible, and went under the water.

He moved around in the darkness, trying to find the man in the water. He went up for air, and then down into the water he went again. Flailing around, he felt something, and grasped it, trying to pull it to the surface.

Why isn't he coming up with me?

He tried to wrap his arms around the thing, but he found it impossible, just feeling more smooth surface.

Wait a second-

Columbus let go of the object like it was a hot piece of coal, and shot up to the surface.

I can't believe I held that thing!

Diving down once more, he finally grabbed the poor man and hauled him to the surface, where he was coughing up an alarming amount of water. Columbus gave him a few sharp thumps on the back to help him, and the man eventually lay back on the sand gasping.

"Why were you in the water in the first place?" Columbus said.

"I wanted to get closer to that thing, it seemed so interesting."

"Well, that was a terrible idea."

"I see that now. What have you seen?"

Columbus started explaining in great detail about the rings of turquoise water, the hills of sand, and his sighting of the starry beast.

"I have something to show you too. Come with me." The two men walked side by side along the beach, and then into the forest, and then they were suddenly in a clearing, with long yellowish grass. In the centre, there were two odd creatures kicking each other. They were quite tall, with long ears and tails, and big feet. If they weren't kicking each other quick violently, Columbus would have thought they looked quite peaceful.

"What are they doing?" Columbus whispered.

"I have no idea, but I don't think we should interrupt them. I've gotten into enough trouble for one day." The men walked away quietly, and when they were back on the beach again, Columbus asked of the whereabouts of the other crew members.

"Oh, I think they're trying to salvage  the remains of the Pinta. Well, that's what they were doing to last time I saw them. I wandered off and then I found the big fish, then you found me."

When they got closer to the Santa María and the Santa Clara, there were no men in sight. But Columbus did find a piece of driftwood with the words, We're going exploring again. Go past the forest and you'll find a large expanse of dry land. We're near the red rock, carved into it.

"Well, let's find them."

A long and uneventful walk later, they emerged into the dry land the message had referenced, and were quite shocked at how barren it was. Nothing in sight, except for the red rock that rose majestically on the horizon.

"What do you think they meant by 'near' the red rock?" the young man asked.

"I have no idea," Columbus admitted. "We'll just have to walk there and see."

As they walked, their shadows gradually got longer, and the sky above them more colourful, turning into orange and pink and gold. A contented silence settled between them, both thinking back on what a day it had been. A twisting, destructive cloud, a starry beast and some strange creatures kicking each other.

I feel like we've seen it all in this new land, except for treasure! But all these experiences have been fun too.

"Is that them over there?" the young man said.

As they approached the group, Columbus and the young man whose name the former didn't know greeted everyone. Everyone exchanged pleasantries, but Columbus wasn't listening. He was staring off into the sunset, which had become more spectacular since he had looked at last, not even ten minutes ago.

Exploring is great. Not only do I get to spend time with great men I don't know the names of, I get to experience incredible things, even if one of them caused a near-death experience. I genuinely don't care about treasure anymore, I suppose discovery and company are much more important things.

"Columbus, are you alright?" someone asked.

"Oh, yes, I've never been better," he smiled to himself.