The sun squinted above all of them and they still stung. The fools. If they had only done what was necessary to survive with their limited resources and not just ridden the waves for several months it would not have ended like this.
"We were stupid. We had this!" the group's leader shook his head angrily and slapped the resulting red, tenderly sore hand on the rock he was sitting on. "We had this!"
"Well, it's pretty bad isn't it?" the largest of the group asked from the back of the horde where he was helping the children look for edible plants and roots. "And you know what, I don't want to be here anymore. Ever. Let's just get away from the city for a bit, huh? Cool off, then we'll decide what to do."
"Whatever," the leader agreed, but was in no mood to listen to reason. The attitude shifted again as the group of hundreds had their fill of foodstuffs and headed back to the city at a dawdling pace.
"I could eat a pigeon," the leader said, grasping what was definitely a dream and not something he would ever do as he glanced around at the others. The rest of the group was similarly grumpy and in a foul mood. Nothing was right. Life was a pain and had been for a while. What the kids needed was some sort of diversion. A throwback to happier days.
"I wish we we're going to be like them," chirped a young boy about 10 in a very deep voice for his age. "With all this water and dreams, it must be great. There is a whole bunch of them even smaller than us and they can fly."
"Yeah, yeah," the leader said, thinking about the massive pack of people, and as he did so, he took half a glance upward, only for a very short moment. That was enough. In that split second he had seen the dragon, it's wings beating, trying to steer and stay airborne in the turbulence of the gusts. He could not be sure, but the wings didn't look like those of a bird – no feathers.
"There is going to be a storm tonight," the young boy said, flinging a clump of dirty sand at the leader.
"Thank you, we'll get out of the sky then," was his reply, and the boy snorted and turned away. They could not possibly know what was coming, and they cared much less.
The dreamer
The sunlight glided in at a slant through the countless, perfectly aligned criss crossed beams supporting the cloud of hand sized houses. It traced a line across the floor that sparkled with the sands of an ancient desert. Here in the distance, where the continent was once separated from the sea by a fast flowing body of water, the sun shone as brightly outside of the city as it did in the city.
Really it was almost as if a huge planet was smothering them all in its light. Inside the city, the darkness stayed so long that the newly born ones grown in the city had the idea that there was no sun, rather that the sun was a thing on the wall that was kept burning nonstop.
In the midst of the city, there was one house that was stable, though unlit. It was a few stories up, in a very poor area of the city. The house was almost totally covered in a tarpaulin, which had been donated from the people who lived nearby. It was black, punctured with two small holes, which were the only access points the occupant had to the outside world.
Inside the house, the oldest of the new generation sat at the end of one of the only long tables found in the city. It was a night table. It was covered with rectangular tiles and held several strange items. There was a large glass tank, which contained several small and long fish.
The fish wore no fins and ate no fish. They were incredibly colorfully coated in hues of blues, yellows and greens, and swim bled silver that was cool to the touch. There were three more similar tanks, each self sufficient and producing different types of fish that all did the same thing. They were alive, but were for all intents and purposes, only decorations.
This table was piled high with papers and objects. There were several strange little gadgets that hummed and displayed the current time, temperature, things of that nature. A set of small devices made clicking sounds, but did not seem to have any specific purpose. Finally, there was the centerpiece, which was a small glass container disguised as a plant through decoration. The plant did not produce water as a plant should. It just sat there, watching. Inside the transparent container was a sea creature that had grown and adapted to the changing environment. It was a single cyclops, a single eye engulfed in a ball of liquid.
The creature was large, much larger than any other creature grown in the city and it had adapted to that. It held a substantial amount of water and had a surface area a good thirty feet or so larger than the surrounding area. The creature was huge, in fact, and it was also stationary, inside a tube that led to one of the fish tanks.
There are not many creatures like this in the world. Even the great rivers only have herds and schools of fish that swim and swim, but only move a short distance before they get scared and stop. In the worst of such cases, their migration patterns are forced by their human caretakers and they have little choice in things. This creature, however, had chosen. This creature now most likely held all memories of what once was and chose to stay in this place, even if it meant that it could never leave.
Inside the city, all of these things are known. There is no information that these creatures know. They were not a thing to be spoken of. This creature had integrated into their world. It was no longer one of their people. It was a thing.
The only report of recent events was the one in the papers and nowhere else. The people were quite ignorant of the surroundings because they were chosen to be. It was a very small city, and they had nothing to do with anything outside of the walls of their city. Even that was in doubt.
It was said that the cyclops held massive amounts of water and could perhaps once again flood though the continent that was separated by water. They had nothing to say on that matter. It was just a thing. It had been grown, and that was all.
The revolution
The man arrived at the city in a rage, in a fury. There was a lot of commotion, and he shoved and shoved his way through the crowds of people.
