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#5

Zacknue awoke, sweat beaded all over his body and soaked the ground he lay on. In was early dawn. The sun had barely peaked behind the tall mountains that lay so far away. He stood up and turned around to face the sea. A few stars still hung in the twilight, and a cool mist was beginning to settle over the still waters. The new day awoke something deep within Zacknue. He felt a strange kind of nostalgia about this place, like this was where he truly belonged. And so, with a new outlook, he set out at a brisk pace to meet the rising sun.

When the sun had reached its peak, Zacknue had made his way to the mountains. He had climbed the tallest one and trudged through the deep snow towards the peak. His legs ached and stung with the freezing cold, yet he kept walking. The air was thin and cold, but the sun warmed his back and made the climbing easy. When he reached the top, he found an area of bare rock. Zacknue walked over to a large smooth stone and sat. At the top of the mountain, the whole world surrounded him. The shoreline stretched on forever and ever, as did the woods beneath the mountain. From up here, he could see other islands far away on the horizon. Other mountains, that cut through the sea like rocky outcrops in a sandy desert. Zacknue wished he could fly like a bird. He wished he could dive down the mountain, spread his wings, and soar up. He would soar across the meadows, across the sea, across great mountain ranges. He would soar forever. Forever he would be at peace.

And yet, as it does, time passed on. Pretty soon the blue sky became a deep crimson as the sun had begun its long trek to dawn. Zacknue got up from his rock and made his way down the icy slope. By the time he reached the shore, it was night.

“Where have you been Zacknue?” Asked Ara as he walked back to the others. She was not nervous, or angry, she was sad.

“I have been at the mountain, I wanted to see the world as it is.”

“And have you?”

“Yes, from up above one can see the soul of the earth come together. And I was right in the center Ara, I was the point at which all time revolved around.”

“Tommorow we will walk, Zacknue. But you must eat, and you must rest. The body can only take so much.”

“That it does.” Zacknue smiled and sat down. He ate the fruit that had been gathered and the fish that had been caught, and then he dreamed.”

#4

And thus…

Our story begins….

Zacknue sat in the meadow. His feet floated still in a cool pond as the water coiled between his toes. The sun had just begun to rise, tipping the treetops with a shimmering gold light. Dew clung to the grass that rose high in the empty meadow. The meadow was ring shaped. It was surrounded by trees, and in the very middle where Zacknue sat was a small blue pond. The morning seemed to focus itself on him, the whole world spinning around the point where he sat. All was at peace. And yet… Zacknue was not. He had heard the calling, the voices singing to him. He had dreamt of tall trees and mountains that scraped the sky with their sharp peaks. He had dreamt of flowers and animals that galloped across grassy meadows. The beauty of it all had overwhelmed him with a feeling of loneliness, with an empty hole that could not be filled.

He had taken his visions and he had told the people. He spoke to his brothers and sisters of the blue-skinned tribe, and talked of the beautiful land that called him. They listened in awe, for they too were overcome with these visions of beauty. They too heard the summoning, they too were chosen. But, the brothers of the green-skinned tribe had not seen the visions. They were angry with them. So the king banished the blue skins from the kingdom, they were driven from the ocean and were forced to find the land that called them. Forever they were to be cast out from the ocean and doomed to die in the unknown lands of the above world.

So there Zacknue sat, contemplating, wondering, and then finally dreaming. They found him there in the late afternoon. They were his friends that were the first to hear the calling apart from himself, their names were Ara and Gaus. These two people whom had grown up with Zacknue and had been his companions since the dawn of their life and who shall continue to be so until the end of their days. They carried Zacknue back to beach, where they placed him under a tree to sleep.

Zacknue dreamt… A wall of eyes rose before him. A thick fleshy wall that bled and pulsated with anger. From beyond the wall there were angry cries and fists that smacked the flesh, sending torrents of blood out of the eyes that popped and split open. And then the wall was a sphere, closing in on the masses of angry people within. And then the anger became fear, and fear became panic, the hands that clawed became frantic. And then it was silent, each body lay down limp inside the fleshy sphere. Then he was in a vast forest, although the trees were not wood, they were glass and metal. And there were no branches, the trees were like tall cubes, perfectly symmetrical. And then he saw people, thousands of people all walking, all calm. And then a gigantic bird streaked across the sky. The bird made no flapping of its wings yet it moved with lightning speed. In its feet the bird held a nut, although the nut was in perspective to the bird so it was also very large. And then, the bird dropped the nut. The nut hurtled to the ground and people began to scatter and panic, each of them running different ways, some changing direction constantly. And then there was only white. The white was so blinding that Zacknue had to shield his eyes, yet it still made them burn with pain. The light faded until it was a glowing sphere that rose into the sky. The sphere was surrounded by large clouds that stretched up into the sky like a giant tree. The metal cubes melted in the intense heat, though Zacknue felt no pain. The people burned and burned, their skin peeling away to reveal smooth white bone that crumbed and turned to dust. In the distance he could see many mirrors, each mirror reflecting a similar fate.

#3

In the early days, there was no life apart from the bugs. But one day, this changed. The day began with a red sky, warning of coming rain. A thin fog had settled in over the calm waters. At first, all was silent. But then, the water was disturbed as a large creature began to thrash about on the shore. As the creature slid onto the sand, it inhaled a lungful of air, and proceeded to exhale as if fearing suffocation. The creature repeated the routine as it crawled unto a rocky outcrop to rest its aching legs. Soon another creature came thrashing unto the shoreline, and then another, and another. Soon, these creatures plagued the shore, each one crawling through the sand, taking in a lungful of air.

As these creatures lay upon beach, gasping for air and clutching their aching bodies, one of them stood up. It was humanoid in form, around 6 feet tall and a slim build. Although its skin was different than that of a man. It was a sky blue color and shimmered in the morning sun. It was hairless and had long fin like protrusions on its legs and arms. The creature, presumably a man, walked to the edge of the water and stared out at the open ocean. The other creatures quieted their moaning and incomprehensible chatter to look up. The man creature leaned down to pick up a small stone. He then proceeded to throw the stone across the water. It hit the surface and sunk. For a while he just stared, watching the ripples spread across the calm surface. He then turned from the shore and made his way into the forest, disappearing among the foliage. Another creature ran to catch up with him, but was stopped as their companion grabbed their arm and shook their head.

#2

When the snow melted, a sea was made. It began with tiny blue tributaries, each thin line leading to tiny ponds within the mountains of ice. As the sun warmed the earth, great torrents of water rushed down valleys and into great lakes that formed out of the melting hills. Each lake making massive craters out of the thin mountain peaks.

Within a week, a great sea spanned out where the fires had burned so long ago. The sea rolled and swelled with the soft cool wind. The sky burned blue with the light of day. Forever and ever was the sea, and forever and ever was the sky. The only sound was the rhythm of crashing waves, the sea alive with the churning of endless waters. For the first time in an extremely long while, the earth was still and unchanging. Although each storm has its qualm, none had the assurance that it all was over. But the ocean, and its friendly companionship with the sky, seemed to assure that for now, it was all over.

As more time passed, The Ocean found it’s way across the entire world. It moved aside to reveal what had once been mountain ranges, now tiny islands that dotted the ocean. Each island grew with receding waters until they were proper sized, as an island of good standing should be. Over the coming months, each rocky island became slippery with algae and moss. And then tall grasses sprouted from the thick mud, brought by some foreign wind. Soon, shrubs and bushes found there way between rocky outcrops and sprouted bright pink flowers. And them after a long time had passed, the islands were built of thick forests and rolling meadows.

Weeks passed….

Months….

Years….

Centuries

Mileniums…

#1

On the first day, the sky was on fire. Huge columns of flame stretched above the earth, twisting and turning in an unrelenting dance. Thick billows of smoke blocked out the sun, blending day with night. A constant sickly orange glow lighting up the whole sky.

On the second day, it was very hot. A rain began early in the morning. Though it was not a normal rain, it was black and ran slowly like molasses. It hit the ground with a force akin to hail, each bit containing tiny pebbles that cut the skin. The rain coated the ground in a thick sticky mud that dried fast. When it dried, little salt crystals formed and shimmered with the orange glow of the sky.

On the third day, it was still. The earth was sick looking. The fire had stopped, but the sky was brighter than ever before. It blazed yellow at noon time, the horizon shimmering like a mirage. In the late evening the earth was broken and cracked, parched of all water. Deep crevices shattered through the crystalline surface, making shards of salt rain down like glass.

On the fourth day, it was very cold. The sky was dark all day, making everything nightmarishly black . Late in the evening, a wind started up, making the dusty landscape drift like an endless sea. An entire mountain was blown down into a valley, burying it until it was indistinguishable from the surrounding world.

On the fifth day, it snowed. A heavy snow that felt cold but looked gray, not white. The sky had turned a deep purple. Huge clouds billowed and swirled, dumping foot upon foot of gray snow. At noon, angry lighting exploded across the sky. Every time it flashed, the earth lit up enough for one to make out the never ending ocean of frozen waste.

When the snow stopped, the earth was completely still. No noise, not even the drone of a howling wind was left to welcome more ice.

For many weeks the earth was still. And then, at the end of the fifth month, there was a bare patch of sky. The bare patch revealed a full moon, its face a welcome companion to the barren landscape. The night sky looked somehow wrong though. The stars were different. They were smudged and sickeningly bright, as if somebody had wiped grease on the sky. And the patch was gone. But the clouds that followed were not low and menacing, they were high and thin. They were normal clouds. Untainted by fire.