583. New lands and skies, 6
(Nightmare)
I flew out and away in a spit of anger.
It was unlike me, my past me, in so many ways. The longer time I spent with them, the more like them I became.
Emotional, in all sorts of ways and with more intensity, in every aspect of life.
I lashed out and left. I couldn’t stand her anymore at the time.
Too much fear, pain, panic, anger and whatever else at the same time.
I flew north, as fast as I could with whatever was left and easily repurposed.
Soon after, I discarded that reminder of her, and forgot about them for a while.
It was refreshing. Like waking up and breathing again.
Flying without body is more hazardous than it sounds, so I landed and looked for something warm to use.
Something died. A large mammal. Not human, or I would have been merciless towards it. I’ve had enough with them.
At least for a while.
That thought... is a big sign of how human I’ve become over time and exposure; My mind now stretches and springs back toward a neutral spot, instead of sliding through thoughts and ideas free and frictionless, until they transform me.
The mental inertia she said. How much like you have you made me? A lot. Enough for me to need a break.
Enough to make my hatred fade over time now.
My mind may never be the same.
It was worth it.
I carry the philosopher’s stone now. I am god. More than I was before.
And I am free again. From humanity but also from my past limitations.
Gods like us tend not to travel, and to prosper where we were born.
I am on the other side of the world from there.
And in knowledge, more powerful than I ever was. Thanks to humanity...
Rose Blume...
I don’t want to see her again; for a while... But thinking of her still to this day makes me grin.
She’s a part of me now, in more ways than one...
I fly away in a stream of blood loosely shaped like a bird, cursing my sister’s name.
~
I’m free again, to the point where I could feel lonely. But my satiety of being social is still beyond tolerable levels. I want to stay alone for a while.
However I want to keep an open eye to the world as I travel and to continue travelling. Because I don’t want to settle somewhere specific yet. I want to see something more...
Something she said...
From one spot to rest to another, I hunt down one large animal or another, and rebuild myself something acceptable as I feed. No more arms, legs and useless whatnot.
I create one of my most streamlined experiments for my travelling body. Something long and supple, with three pairs of wings. I can fly and glide for days, swimming in the sky.
Occasionally, I dive onto an animal to eat it whole, and then return rapidly to the skies. For days and nights without count.
~
The landscapes vary every hour of the day and night. It’s interesting.
I flew across the sea a long time ago. I head over land for a long time, until I saw the coastline again over the horizon.
Colours vary a lot from earth to sky.
The lands are fractured here and there, and the ocean swallowed wide areas of the old cities.
I fly in the distance of active volcanos that strike otherwise mostly flat lands along this coastline.
It takes me a long time to reach that fabled land and island.
I think I finally see it in the distance.
The whole area is an immense mangrove with swamps and ocean merging into one another.
But the lines and very dented surface of human constructs departs with sharp lines over this area.
I can guess where the rivers of this city drew this island, that’s where the water is mostly still and without ruins protruding.
I fly higher in altitude, avoiding clouds of spores that still plague the land.
When humans died in the white day, here too they released something toxic and lasting. The more densely populated the area was, the more their decaying toxicity lingers.
It still lingers here. I take my time to fly above it, circling around this huge domain completely contaminated to inspect it.
A wide jungle, lush but with many sights of evergreen and adaptation to cold as well, covers the heart of this area. All the trees around there are purple and weirdly shaped. New species are growing from the central area and spreading around. Their coloured shrubs that don’t rely on chlorophyll it seems are slowly conquering the city. Seen from the sky, the mould growth is looking natural.
Beyond the mangroves, a dry wasteland seems to know no end.
Dunes of dust are moving under the winds beyond the rivers and until all disappears in the horizon.
But the coast is lush, although every tree harbours smells and mushrooms I don’t want to disturb.
I see signs of living animals in the water. Some of them are quite big.
Along an end of the island city, I spot a large fish, peaceful and slow in the shallow waters.
I smell that the area there is breathable so I dive. I gobble the fish whole and quickly regain altitude.
As I do, I finally see it. It’s there.
I see only a small part of it, but it matches still the description she made of it. My senses were right.
I couldn’t be entirely sure the presence I was scouting after was indeed the one I was tracking down, until now seeing it.
Grey and pale, snake-like in shape. Invisible from above but clearly visible from down there, as it goes through buildings, flooded streets and tunnels in a glorious pile of knots. A very long worm really.
A snake longer and larger than any of my creations. A beast at least a kilometre long, defying all laws of biology. Something I was eager to discover and study, as even I could learn a thing or two from it.
It lies there, probably all over this giant sponge of a city I’m flying over.
~
