Snacks From the Butler's Pantry

I got the opportunity to design a beach house in an incredible location. The lot fronted on the pacific ocean, and sloped steeply up a hillside. I began by building a low sea wall at the front of the property that contained a private courtyard. I then created a series of small, connected buildings that climbed up the hillside, alternating with shady courtyards. I built the houses island style, with high ceilings, wide shady overhangs, and glass wherever possible.

As I finished landscaping and terracing the remaining hillside into a private garden, I noticed something strange. The hill behind the house had only a thin layer of sandy dirt. Beneath the silt were massive angular stone blocks. They looked ancient, and were covered in carved glyphs and runes. They looked pitted and worn by sea water with a thin fresh layer of sediment deposited on top. I thought about the meaning of this, and realized the only explanation was that the whole hillside must be in the intertidal zone.

Right as I had this thought, a change in the light made me turn around and face the ocean. I looked down on the ocean far below me, and saw the sun reflecting off the water in beautiful hues of gold and purple. It was the start of an incredible sunset, but that was not what caught my attention. The moon was huge. In the sky, it looked 10 times the size of the sun. And it was moving fast. It was rising up from the horizon, and giving off a warm purple glow. It lit up the sky and cast a hazy purple light on the landscape around me.

I realized the moon was not the only thing moving. The ocean was swelling against the horizon, and rising along the seawall. I watched as it overtook the seawall, and poured over the top. The house I had just built was swallowed in a matter of seconds, and the water was coming at me too quickly to avoid. I climbed to the top of a trellis, and looked down to see hundreds of creatures swarming in the water below me. There were sharks the size of whales with jet black skin. Giant squid and octopus tentacles whipping around madly. The head of a sea serpent the size of a city bus shot out of the water, with its long body trailing behind it.

Behind me, water started pouring down the cliffs like a waterfall. It washed the sediment off the stones to reveal their hieroglyphs and runes. The writing started to glow brightly in the moon's light. I had a second to stare in wonder before a gigantic wave crashed over the mountain top. I dove off my perch towards the monster filled ocean below me. The wave caught me from behind, and lifted me even higher into the air. I rode on the crest of the wave as it sped down the mountainside. I saw the monsters in the water far below me twisting and squirming hungrily. I crashed into the mess of tentacles and teeth, knowing I would be ripped apart. The open mouth of a huge black shark sped towards me, and I swam to meet it. I wanted to be swallowed whole, but the rows and rows of twisted teeth frightened me into waking up.