Creature

We've been watching the little creature for a long time now.

The heavy snows have settled five times and it still doesn't know we are here. How can it? We leave no trace. No sight or sound. Even if it looked right at us it's tiny, underdeveloped brain would barely be able to comprehend what it saw. It would be like an insect looking up at the wondrous, sparkling galaxy on a clear night.

In the beginning we were over-cautious. During the Struggle it was ever alert, every fleeting moment a desperate bid for survival. Paranoia and fear of the dark kept it endlessly on edge, as if the darkness itself was the cause. But we soon learned it was as blind to us as we were to the others, before they revealed themselves.

The creature, with its limited senses, had no idea what was unfolding. That the world itself was revolting. Rebelling. Alive even. For too long the gangly creature had casually dismissed the intricacies of the blossoming life around them. It pulled up the long roots and carved them into meaningless things, objects with no purpose, no worth. It wormed through the beating heart, chewing up and spitting out everything in view. The precious veil of protection stretched thin, so thin as to be holed as a great net.

It took time of course, but the creature had been steadfastly trudging the path to destruction for thousands of years. Ever since it discovered combustion, and all it's terrible glory, the creature had discovered more and more ways to poison the ground, the water, the very air it breathed.

Until one day; the Struggle. An entire glorious year of catastrophe. The ground shook and fell; cracking and roiling. The water churned and rushed to fill the holes. The air spun around with furious vengeance and while the creature scurried about, hiding from nature's wrath, the world started its long cycle of balance.

And so the creature all but died out, abandoned by the world it had ignored for so long. Some of the creature survived, of course. Individuals. We followed them, watching but never interfering. It mattered not what happened.

It was relatively early after the Struggle that we felt something. A strange... feeling. Similar to the sting of a small flying insect; not painful, just a nuisance. A tingling of the senses; frustrating to the core. It took us a long time to be aware that it was most prominent in certain locations, more of a buzz than a tingle. As we searched for it, the landmasses melted and gave way to endless ocean. Water behaves strangely in such vast quantities. Towering red forests roared past, and a thin red line connecting the land. One of the creatures' social gathering places - abandoned, ruined and rusting - it was here we found it. The feeling was emanating from a creature! Lying half buried under rubble at first we didn't know if it still lived. Fascinated, we watched - eager to discover why this pink male could reach out to us over huge distances. It lay there for some time before coming back from the dead. We have often wondered how they are able to do this and why they do it every time the sun is below the horizon.

The normally pale creature was covered in uniform grey dust, most pleasing to observe. It appeared to be only partially aware of events. It apparently knew its way around the ruined city-hub well, perhaps it lived there before. It was aware that something catastrophic had happened, like the others, but things had evidently unfolded much faster than it could make sense of. Their feeble communication devices in orbit had all been destroyed. Like the other creatures it also thought it was alone. This one did appear to be the only one on this landmass, or at least for many days walk in any direction, but it was not alone. We were there, observing it shuffle along the broken ground.

We followed the creature in this way for three orbits of the star, never once leaving its presence. It was more resilient than the others, perhaps this one was stronger? Smarter? Ridiculous. We followed the creature until we were sure the feeling was coming from it directly. We could not risk being wrong. Its mind spoke of the desire to leave the city but its habitual journeying belied a comfort in its surroundings. Its fears of leaving were justified. In the years since the cataclysm, the wildlife had grown to retake the world. Wild creatures of every kind were faster, stronger and more numerous. It wouldn't be long until even the cities weren't safe. It had already begun. The forest had taken back the outskirts and in a few more years the crumbling buildings would be overrun by vegetation.

There was something familiar about the creature-feeling. Something we could not place. The more time passed the more comforting it became, until our curiosity got the better of us. We felt the time was right and so we shaped the creatures actions. It was time to find out. We placed in its' thoughts a vague gestalt; something is not right. It really should leave this place. Trance-like, the pink, fleshy creature walked through the city limits, the silence we engineered broken only by the sound of its' lumbering footsteps. As the burning sun set, the creature rested in an ornate building with a tall tower, filled with statues of smiling infants with wings. We didn't know they could grow wings. Fascinating. The creature seemed enamoured with a depiction of one of its' kind hanging with arms outstretched, leaking fluid from its' hands, feet and side.

It took some small effort but we did it. Nearly half a lunar cycle had passed but we had managed to guide the creature constantly. At times we were literally dragging its' mind through the grass. It often wondered at that point whether it was alone, clearly sensing we were there. But it would always allow its' mind to float back to that tall building with the floating infants. Pity. It was at those times we thought we were close to having a real connection with it. Evidently it was not ready even still. Granted, we have been suppressing it's thoughts, clouding it's judgement, making it see smoke and smog where there was none. 

As we neared our arrival point we slowly relinquished control over the creatures mind and its' brain lit up with energy. Could it sense us? We moved around for a closer look, snapping the undergrowth and it froze. It could hear us! Staying behind we probed its' mind, feeling, reaching out subconsciously, an ability humans had not developed yet. But it flinched, a small gesture with its' hand to its face, fingers parted in a way only we could know... But no, that was impossible. Wasn't it?

In an instant that lasted an eternity several things happened. The human male started to turn around to face us. Mid-turn we suddenly felt the familiar call. The click-click-tingle in the small of the back that signalled we were being called back. As the creature, the pale, average looking human male from this dirt-water world, turned to fully face us it locked our eyes. Before we even formed the thought that that was impossible it smiled and we knew.

The yank in the small of the back is slightly more pronounced than usual, but welcome nonetheless. From one second to the other we move from that spot in the forest to our temporary body/vessel, just past the orbit of the sixth planet in the system. We arrive in the appropriate section and continue to the next.

In the room is the earthman creature, still standing as it was in the forest a moment ago. We greet it and ask it some questions but it seems in pain; its' face wrinkled up into the usual amusing shape. We adjust our language transmission organs with a poke to the leg joint and try again.

"Do you know who you are?"

And suddenly, as sudden as the journey here, our friend is back. The disgusting human costume sloughs off and we smile. We are all returned at last.

We shrug.

We are glad to agree on our destination. We have spent too long here, and for what. Even if they survive this Struggle, they will not have learned from it. It will happen again.

Home.