The Drowned Roots "Beneath still waters, something ancient waits in silence." Beneath the still, sulfur-streaked waters of Lake Rotorua, the remains of a lost forest stretch toward a surface they will never reach. These skeletal trees, half-rotted and eroded by geothermal currents, twist unnaturally, their warped trunks betraying a history of slow suffocation beneath the weight of volcanic silt. Their branches, growing in impossible spirals, seem frozen mid-reach, as if they once clawed toward the sky before surrendering to the abyss. The lake’s surface is deceptively calm, yet something stirs beneath. As the mist rolls across the water, the reflections of the drowned trees do not match—some are distorted, elongated, bending like flesh, while others show shadows of things that do not exist in the world above. In the deeper parts of the lake, where the sun does not reach, something even older lingers, its form glimpsed only in the unnatural bends of submerged roots, where the wood has fused into something not entirely plant, not entirely bone. At dusk, the lake takes on a darker sentience. The ripples move against the wind, the water distorts sound, and the reflections whisper. No one knows how deep the roots go. No one has ever dared to find out. Rotorua, New Zealand, January 5, 2025, 12:00 PM Overcast Skies (Dread) 2025.01.05.WeatherVaults.SDA.Rotorua.NewZealand.D1.0025-D0005.0110-WV0034.LyraFlux

#WeatherVaults 01.05.2025.D1.0004.0034
January 05, 2025 12:00pm Overcast Noon (Dread)
Inspired by #Rotorua, #NewZealand

"The Drowned Roots"
Beneath still waters, something ancient waits in silence.

#LyraFlux #sda24 #dread
#LakeRotorua #DrownedForest #GeothermalMystery #DarkWaters #LostLandscapes