Prologue

[soncnica]

PROLOGUE

He remembered darkness most of all. He remembered seeing nothing but pitch black, all around, everywhere. Safe, home, belonging, protection, family, love, nothing and everything and he remembered it how it felt inside of him, on him, all around him.

He remembered floating. Endlessly, with no goal and no beginning, just floating every which way, making somersaults in the endless black.

He remembered touches; hands pushing him away, other hands pulling him closer.

He remembered all of them saying 'Jared' and all of them asking 'what' and all of them saying 'your name'.

They were all one. One big mass floating in darkness until searing bright white light separated them into - particles. Light, that no one expected. It came out of nowhere, out of the darkness. They - he - had thought that they had travelled through the whole of darkness, explored it all, touched it all, but it seemed as if it really had no start and no beginning, because the light ... it just came. Tiny spec at first, that grew and grew and grew until it blinded them. Seared them, split them apart so violently they - he - heard crying and wailing and screaming.

Then there was nothingness. Nothing at all; no darkness, no light, just the feeling of floating, drifting, bouncing off of his brothers and sisters in the nothingness.

He remembered fear. Then, after a while, when the nothingness disappeared between one clash of his finger with his siblings and another. Quick and dizzying.

Fear, because what happened, Father? Where did the darkness go? Where are we my brothers and sisters?

Between questions and no answers resonating in his head, he saw how the nothingness shimmered down into darkness, littered by tiny flickers of light. That wasn't so horrible. That was ... stunning. It was magnetic. So stunning, so inviting, he had to float towards some of the lights, but he couldn't touch them, couldn't reach them because they were too far away.

Too far away. Everywhere.

He looked at himself and he saw. He was solid, blue and green crystals covering every inch of him as much as he could see. He was shining, he was glistering, he was sparkling even in this darkness.

"Jared!"

The voice was a voice, not voices as it had been in the darkness and he turned around to see. They were all blue and green crystals, arms and legs and eyes that glowed just like his.

They were all floating with the flickering lights all around them.

"Jared ..."

There were many; more than he ever thought there could ever be and he pushed himself towards them, leaving a huge red round thing behind him.

It would once be called Mars, but not yet.

He outstretched his arms; he could see green liquid flow under the blue of his arms, sparkling as it flew from his elbows to his wrists and all around.

"Jared, there."

They all stretched their long, thick arms towards another burning round thing that was just ... there. Floating like they all were, unattached to anything but the nothingness they all were.

It was beautiful and it was boiling hot and it was perfect.

They laid down their bodies on the closest surface they could find; grabbed hold of each other's hands, intertwining their fingers and squeezing hard, not wanting to loose anyone, and looked up at the sky made of tendrils of red-black-yellow gasses that ran through a veil of dusty clouds.

This new thing, this new amazing hard surface they were able to feel underneath their crystals, after floating for so long, was their home now.

They closed their eyes and slept.

For years.

Silently sleeping through billions of years until they were awakened by noise where there should be none. Unfamiliar noise that filled their ears and made them all wake up with a gasp, something liquid-y filling up their mouths and nostrils. They saw new shapes and new colors; everything looked more like their crystals did. Green and blue and white. They could still feel heat, but it was tampering down, getting closer and closer to something resembling what they felt like in the darkness.

They all breathed out, forming bubbles at their dark blue lips: "Something has arrived," and tightened their fingers, holding tighter; in fear, in confusion, in knowledge that they weren't alone anymore. That the place they chose to be together, a solid place to sleep at, to live at ... they'd have to share.

They slept for years to come after they first felt a tremor run through their bodies, but then the tremors became more violent, deeper, more consistent.

"We must go see."

The words were many voices, all voices and the agreement was many voices too.

They held hands when they swam amongst the currents of the bluest blue liquid they had ever seen. When they had lain down to sleep, had been no such thing. No liquids, just fire and solidness. No tremors – well, not like these; there were rumblings and quakes and movements, but this … this was different. It felt different and they had to explore. Had to see.

But this was magnificent. The current was pushing them forward and then left and right, twisting them and turning them and they felt just like they had so long ago in the darkness.

This was familiar. This was like the darkness, except this was blue and bright and wonderful. And the creatures swimming with them were huge and funny looking, but kind even with rows of sharp spears and gaping mouths.

They floated on the current of the sea, letting it take them wherever it seemed fit and when they touched something where the water broke into white foam ... they saw what made the tremors that woke them up.

It was ... something on two feet. Long arms. Hairy. It ... looked like them when it walked on its legs, but its look was ... it wasn't blue and green. It was ... brown and dirty. And it made awful noises, not at all like their melodic whispers.

"What is it?"

They had asked, but no one among them knew the answer. It looked like them, except for it was not covered in blue and green crystals, but brown fur.

They broke through the water and walked through the white foam towards the creature who stood there, on the sandy shore, looking at them.

"We mean you no harm."

They said, but their words came out like a melody, like the sound those creatures in the water made.

The creature looked at them and stood as tall as it could, which was still very much shorter than them. They looked at it from above when they came nearer and flinched back when it made a roaring sound.

But it stayed. Fascinated.

"There will be more of them. We need to be watchful," they said and turned to Keir.

"Keir, please."

They all looked at the oldest of them, the one who had been the first of them, the one from whom all of them came. His round head was sparkling light blue in the bright sun that was beating down on them from the clear, blue sky. The sound of the water breaking on the sand was like a lullaby and they wanted to go back to where they came from and go back to sleep.

But they knew of the dangers of sharing a living space with something. They had, after all, shared their life with that bright light all of that time and didn't even know that it could explode and sent them into another life.

This life. Here on this blue thing, with this blue liquid, with these creatures.

They all watched, unblinking and unmoving as Keir broke their ranks and started to slowly step closer to the creature.

Even though Keir was old, he still moved with a fluidity of darkness, his long, thin legs walking through the sinking sand with grace and ease that made the creature stare at him with big eyes wide open.

When Keir came close enough to touch, the creature raised up a long stick with a sharp tip at the end, and pointed it right at their oldest.

But Keir was faster and his long, thin blue finger penetrated right though the creatures lower right side so quickly, it caught the creature completely unprepared. It took some water hitting the sand for the creature to start making hideous noises; howls and screams they'd only ever heard when the light separated them. They wanted the horrible sound to stop, make it stop, Elder!

The creature started to trash on Keir's finger, but the oldest of them was strong and held the creature in place even through its flailing arms.

They couldn't look away from what was happening, couldn't not look as the creature fell to the ground when Keir removed the finger and raised it up to his eyes.

It was red. There was red liquid running down the long, thin blue finger making it look absolutely magnificent. They couldn't remove their eyes from it and they begged Keir to come nearer so that they could see.

Their oldest raised the finger, its tip pointed up to the sky and they all marveled at it.

"It is warm." He had said, awe in his voice and they called him back to his ranks, begged him to step back into their line and link his two hands with theirs.

"It is warm." He'd repeated and brought his finger closer to his sparkling eyes.

They saw, they felt, that they were losing him. He had been enchanted. He had been stolen from them by that red liquid.

"Keir!"

They had said. They had screamed. They had wailed when Keir started to crumble before their very eyes. The sparkling crystals were starting to fall off of him, chipping away from his head down his arms and legs. Blue, green crystals falling to the wet sand. The sound of breaking made them wail even harder as they tried to overpower the noise of their oldest dying with their crystals breaking.

"Keir!"

They wept and Jared couldn't take it anymore. He couldn't watch his Father crumble like this.

Here, at this place that had no name.

Here, at this place that wasn't even their true home.

Here, where it was so bright and warm and had the endless water and sand.

Here, where creatures lived who were warm inside.

Not here of all places. He couldn't watch his Father's radiant crystals break into pieces like this.

He couldn't watch his Father perish.

"Father! Father!"

His voice was many voices, his word was many words, but when he shook lose the hard grip his brother and his sister had on his hands and made a step towards his Father … he was one. He was one piece of many.

He was alone. And it felt … different. He felt just as he did when he found himself floating among all those glittering dots of light after the light took away their home.

He didn't know what the feeling was, how to name it. If to name it at all, because some emotions, some things just are. Exist even completely nameless.

Later, much later, he would be able to put a name to the feeling.

Freedom.

But right now … he had to go to his Father.

"Father."

The voice was his own, deep and strong, the word was his own, full of grief and sorrow.

He tried to touch his Father's solid form, but the crystals were falling off of his Father and all he could do was push his hands straight through them.

They were sharp, some big, some small, some barely there, but when they hit his crystal form, they embedded themselves into his arm. His own crystals took his Father's and pushed themselves into him.

"Son …"

That was the very last word he had ever heard from his Father. But he had him inside of him now. He had his Father's knowledge and wisdom, his Father's memories and dreams.

His Father would never be away from him.

"Jared!"

He turned around to his brothers and sisters who were standing in a straight line all along the sandy shore, left and right as far as his eyes could see in the glaring sun.

There was the huge amount of water behind them, moving forward and backward, there was a sky blue as all of them above him and his Father's love inside of him.

He was their leader now. He was their elder now.

He was the one to guide them from now on. It was his duty. He had his Father's desires inside of him and he would take his brothers and sisters back to where they came from and they'd go back to sleep.

He knew what his Father had done to the creature and he'd make use of it.

He wouldn't let it go to waste, as it was his Father's last good deed for his sons and daughters.

"We will go back. And sleep."

He stood tall; long legs and long arms, slim waist and broad shoulders – he was to be listened now. Obeyed.

"Yes, Jared."

He walked back to the line and gripped his sisters tight, intertwining his fingers with theirs.

The current brought them back to where they'd woken up.

That was the first time they saw a human. After that, after they went back to where they slept, they monitored those creatures through the appendage Keir had given the human.

They were able to see the humans grow, evolve, speak, talk and invent. And kill, maim, slaughter, murder, bleed.

And make love, be born, be happy and beautiful.

The learned the human languages, the human words, their talk. They saw it all through their dreams while they slept. They saw, they heard and they learned.

Until one day, their dreams were starting to get interrupted by lines of black and white dots. By noises like nothing they had ever heard before. It came and went, interruptions here and there. But it still worried them.

The humans were - as they'd learned - unpredictable, able to destroy as much as protect and build, but underneath it all, they were savages, destroyers. They had watched through their dreams forests be burned down, soil abused, the wonderful blue water poisoned.

"They are dangerous."

"Not all of them."

"All of them."

That's how the argument went ... back and forth between their linked fingers and shared dreams. Jared had no idea that one day, the argument would surpass petty bickering and become his nemesis.

The interruptions of their dreams worried them most of all and when they asked Jared, he simply said: "They found out."

Those were the words that made them all raise up, form skin all over their crystals, similar to the one the humans had. They grew fur in all the right places and walked towards the place where they knew humans would be found.

That was how they walked into the world that they had only seen and heard through their sleep.

PROLOGUE cont.