Xihe the Whalerarium

Within the aptly named Glass Sea, a lone Whalerarium roams the waters. It has only been spotted twice in the last hundred years, the most recent time only twenty years ago. The newspapers at the time interviewed the humble fishermen who spotted it incessantly.

-NEWSPAPER EXCERPT FROM 3.4.20xx-
"I've seen ancient drawings of Whalerariums, y'know?" Lumi Maki-Hossler, a marine biologist, had exclaimed enthusiastically. "They're made of glass and have entire ecosystems growing in them! Think about the biodiversity in their body! There have been ancient societies marking them down as Cetaceans. We don't know what happen to these kinds of animals, honestly, since Ark doesn't really have what they would call Cetaceans."

But the elusive Whalerarium seemed to be severely lacking in creatures to call it home. The fishermen have reported that while coral and algae grew within the creature in abundance, there were no signs of any other animals. "It looked...sad?" one of the fisherman, Marcus, said. "It breached the water and I could see that there wasn't really much inside it. And as it was leaving it let out this...cry. I don't know how to describe it."

Ark City University's Nix Yammen, Ph.D. has assembled a team to study this enigmatic creature. "And even if the Whalerarium resembles those ancient animals very closely, without any DNA samples, it is hard to tell. My team is on a mission to find it and study it, hoping to learn more about its species."
-END-

You reach out and brush your fingers lightly against the glass. A hiss of your scuba diving equipment unleashes a stream of bubbles. It has been twenty years since Xihe was spotted. Now, his coral is bleached and his algae slowly decomposing within his body.

"I don't know where they went." his voice reverberated in the water, sending ripples along the surface. He was lost in the past. "I had a brother, I had a mate...but it feels like so long ago."

He turned his eye to gaze at you. You see your head, goggled and faceless, reflected back at you. "It has been so...quiet."

You pat his side sympathetically. You couldn't speak underwater, but you hoped that he could feel your understanding through your actions as you laid your cheek against his glass. Your equipment hisses again.

You sit on top of the Whalerarium as he swims up, feeling the water cascade off of you as you breach the water. You lift your goggles and take down your mask. "Xihe?" you say quietly. The night sky twinkles as the two of you rest on the water.

"Yes, human?"

"I...It must have been hard. I'm sorry."

You feel the cool glass under your palms and you see a shape writhing in the sky.

"You are kind, human. It has been a while since I've experienced the company of another. Thank you."

You smile forlornly as you board your boat. Maybe you'll bump into Xihe again, maybe not, but as you wave goodbye to the creature, you feel his farewell cry echo into your heart.