The bright, warm sun shone brightly on the beautiful greenery of the valley, where all the animals and human lived in harmony. The sky blue valley seemed like heaven, a place of eternal happiness. But there was the other side, where the dark, cold and old, blazing red sun shone over the black volcanic mountains, all of which did not have a single living thing on it. Odd things fell down from the mountain tops where the red sun shined, and were carried away by strong winds. When these things fell on the sky blue river before it reached the farmlands, rain would fall and the plants would grow powerful. And so the farming and the food supply had their water and food coming from both sides.
The being floated, lost in its own thoughts. It was not sure itself who or what it was. All it knew was that it contained a fragile form, kept together by some unseen force. The being wanted to take some action. The hurting was unbearable. The being reached out with a needle-thin appendage and used it to drag it towards the sky. The being could not understand why it did that, but it did feel something like a surprise that it managed to do it. The sun was warm, and so the being floated closer to the sun. Warmth on its body was welcome.
The being did not know that it was slowly turning red and brown, the colours of the sun. It did not know that it was slowly being consumed by the sun. It did not know that it was slowly getting weaker and weaker. It did not even take notice of the change
The being continued floating, drifting closer and closer to the sun. It had no idea what it was doing, but floating seemed to be giving it comfort. It did not know it was slowly burning, getting weaker and weaker. It did not know that in a few hours it would be dead like any other thing that touched the sun. It was burning itself.
Now it become aware of what was happening. It knew it could be the end, but all it cared was that floating gave it comfort. It wanted to feel that comfort forever. And so it kept on floating, until the sun slowly the sun almost immediately killed it. The being broke up, the remains floating back and falling down to the dark red mountain. The pieces that fell through the atmosphere were red hot now. They burned their way to the surface of the mountain, and slowly cooled down to dark red pebbles.
The pebbles lay on the mountain summit for a million years, until the day the volcano rumbled to life.
The pebbles felt nothing, but they were showered with hot molten lava and a hot wind carrying a thousand sounds. They were touched repeatedly by invisible things that caused them to strike hard on each other. They lay there for a thousand years.
Then the volcano stopped.
The pebbles felt nothing, but they were showered with hot molten lava and a hot wind carrying a thousand sounds. They were touched repeatedly by invisible things that caused them to strike hard on each other. The pebbles laid there for a thousand years.
Then the volcano stopped.
The pebbles sensed with their tiny little perception that there was something happening. Something was coming, something new, something frightening. And it was near. The pebbles began to tremble. They were afraid. They waited. They hid. They waited. There was nothing new, nothing frightening.. They stayed still.
Then a million years later something happened. The pebbles opened their frames one by one, opened their crusts, plucking them off one by one. Each little piece made itself as small as possible to get away from whatever it was that was still coming. And then a million years later they changed. And they changed again. And again.
And then a million years later they sent out a tiny signal.