Create A Lake

[Diana]

Lakes are large bodies of water surrounded by land. They can be really freaking huge, or they can be pretty small. National Geographic has some great information about lakes!

For this exercise, you are going to create a lake.

SOME THINGS TO THINK ABOUT AND FLESH OUT:

• How BIG is your lake? Is it small enough that people mistake it for a pond? Is it large enough to be considered a sea?
• How DEEP is this lake? Can you see the bottom? Wade in it? Can big ships sail in it?
• Is this lake connected to any rivers? To other lakes? To the ocean?
• Does this lake cross in to borders of other cities or countries?
• Where is this lake located? What is the environment lake?
• How was this lake formed? Naturally through the evolution of geology? Was it man made? Magically made? Does the water come from melt-off ice? Rain? A river? Underground?
• What sort of plant life or trees can be found in and around this lake?
• What sort of animals or fish make their home around or in this lake? Other kinds of creatures?
• Do people live on or around this lake?
• Are there any special resources that people can find or get from this lake?
• Is this lake free flowing water or iced? Does it ice during the seasons or is it always liquid?
• What is the bottom of the lake and the bank like? Rocks? Plants? Sand?
• What color is the water? Clear and see through? Dark blue? Green? A strange color?
• Are they any local legends or stories about this lake?

 

[Blind Hemingway]

There once was this lake, located somewhere in between the rundown factories and the power plant. It wasn't very deep or so most of the town peoples assumed, but then again no had gone swimming in for years to know exactly how deep it was. Besides, all the spillage from the factories made it an unhealthy puke-green color.

It had become a place of urban legend, because of this fact. Rumors ranged that if anyone fell in, that their very flesh would dissolve away. Apparently, this was based upon some police reports of strange bodies floating around in it. Though this was rather unlikely.

The other story involved a bird-like creature that dwelled on the island located in the center of the lake. Late night strollers that walked past the dirty lake noted that it was humanoid in shape, standing in between four and five feet tall, and instead of having soft feathers, it hard sharp quills. It apparently lacked wings but had arms that were similar to the raptors from Jurassic Park. There have been no successful photographs of it taken, as observers have noted that it seems to be able to disappear into the lake whenever it senses electronic devices in the area.

So kids, please don't go anywhere near this lake.

 

[FishWolf]

Somewhere in the middle of deep evergreen woods lies a lake that has a surface like glass, reflecting the skies above. It ripples from the occasional wind, or perhaps from a fish rising to the surface to pluck a bug from off of the water. The lake has expanded since the last flooding, and skeletons of dead trees stick up from the lake's deep waters. The lake does not have any gradual slope to it's floor, instead the lake drops down steeply, a large crater in the mountain. The lake is deepest around the middle, and is deep enough that you could not wade across the center, but swim instead, which isn't a good idea in the first place. The lake's waters turn glacial in the winter, and it gets cold enough to shut down your body's systems. The lake looks normal enough on the surface, but under the water and fallen trees is where the true beauty of the lake is. The lake was formed by a large cave that collapsed in an earthquake, and you can see the rubble of the cave ceiling still on the lake floor. The occasional stalagmite sticks up from the floor, but not many of the cave's features survived the collapse. But if you swim all the way to the bottom, and look towards the banks, you will see something amazing. Not all of the cave has collapsed, and you can peer right into the cave's interior surrounding the banks of the lake. If you bring a waterproof flashlight, you can still see all of the cave rock formations deep inside. Water snakes and minnows swim among the strange and wonderful cave walls, and larger fish swim just outside the entrance, occasionally darting out to snatch up an unfortunate minnow that strayed too far from the safety in the cave. You might even get lucky enough to spot the thousands of bat skeletons among the bottom of the underwater cave, and if you look down, all the way to the bottom of the lake, you can see stalagmites sticking up from the bottom rubble like survivors in a crash. Trees that had fallen down into the cave in the earthquake trail along the bottom, and a myriad of creatures dwell in there.
Climb out of the lake now, you must be freezing, even though it's the middle of summer. A small spring trickles down into the lake, draining off of a river that heads towards an ocean. Funny how this little spring, aided by the past floodwaters, has made this immense expanse of water that has filled an entire cave system.