When Pieces Come Together

“They showed me their tricks.”, the bird said. “Now I can make the spark… and I can show you, too. This is how we can save your world.”

Blaze’s eyes grew wide, and in her mind visions of the past flashed before her of destruction and folly. Prideful ambitions that led to chaos and misery. A respected leader… left exiled.

“Brighteye… surely you haven’t already forgotten the story I told you before.” Her eyes watered. “I can’t! Nobody can! It’s too dangerous!”

“The past doesn’t have to be repeated.”, he began. “You aren’t like Retally.”

“I’m not like Retally yet you mean.”, she replied.

“And you won’t be later.”, he replied in turn. “It isn’t wrong for a creature to defend itself when faced with danger. The plant whose spikes prick the mouth of the grazer isn’t evil for trying to protect itself.” Brighteye tried to convince her. And you wouldn’t be evil for chasing the razer away from your grazing so that your children don’t worry about hunger.”

“My ancestors were justified to defend themselves too”, she told him. “Yet it still hurt us in the end.”

“Your ancestors and those of the demon didn’t recognize each other to understand what they were doing. It was a tragic situation for all. But it was so long ago. Now you both face a common enemy! The razer isn’t like you, or me, or those who come from the sea. It is a force of nature that seeks only to expand itself, with disregard to its effects upon any other.”, he said. “Left to its own devices it will continue to eat away the land and ultimately destroy your people, and you know that.”

Blaze was quiet for a long time. Thinking. Brighteye waited patiently nearby.

“You said the razer is afraid of fire.”, she responded at last. “So, we don’t need to destroy it, right? We can just push it away from us. Keep it from eating our food?”

“Yes, that is what the demons do.”, he wrote out quickly, relieved to hear she wasn’t just shutting down his ideas. Without their flame it would have already driven them straight back into the ocean, for they are much smaller than you.”

She looked down at him with a tired expression. Brighteye had now lived with her herd for a year, and he was no longer an outsider that would be viewed with suspicion even by the others. He was now accepted in their group as a trusted advisor. So now it really only came down to whether she, as the leader, would go along with his ideas. The others would follow.

“Tomorrow on your flights, tell the ‘demons’ that we will meet them. You will be our translator. Even though my instincts say to run… I trust you more than them.”

Brighteye looked up at his friend, and if he could smile, he would have.

“Well, we’d best do it soon, because they’re about to leave.”

Blaze jerked her head.

"Huh?", she asked, incredulous.

"They say their project is nearly done.", he said.

"Then I suppose tomorrow I will be going with you."

~~~

A world away, coal from the earth was being towed south to be laid out in deep, wide piles upon the threatening ice jam as it had for months. An immense bonfire burned brilliantly over the southern sea, all day and all night. It formed a beacon visible for miles on still nights and a testament to the abilities of the sea stewards to shape their own environments through their efforts as a community. New deliveries of fuel came constantly and consistently, the effort of tens of thousands of people’s coordinated efforts across the world. Day by day, and slowly but steadily, the bridge grew narrower and weaker. Pits and cracks formed beneath the raging fires, sounding like explosive thunder as it fractured. When patches became thin enough, daydreamers worked from below to thrust the sharp points of large shovels upward into the ice and cleave off chunks from the edges. It was a constant effort, but month by month it was paying off. Summer had become fall and fall then became winter. Spring came and went, and it was in the next summer after it was first discovered that the ice jam broke free.

When the center of the ice bridge at last collapsed into the sea in pieces like shattered glass, the sea stewards cheered. They continued to grind away what remained down to small fragments that were soon carried away on the rejuvenated current. Now aware of the problem area, it would remain monitored and cleared out as necessary to prevent another bridge from forming. A little bit of work at a time would ensure that a huge project would hopefully not be needed again. The sea stewards had won their battle.

And so with the immediate danger relieved, the mines began to empty, and the gravediggers to return to their comfortable homes out on the water. Life, for now, seemed secure, and all hoped for a return to normalcy.

Four old friends soon met again, with lighter hearts. Whirl, Patch, Pebble and Seeker again exchanged their stories, and laughed and talked. Joy was palpable not just between them but all across the waters, everyone celebrating the success of the project. Yet it was also a wake-up call. The world was changing around them, and this would probably not be the last threat that their people would have to overcome. But they were strong together. Combining their skills, they felt they could face it all.

~~~

Yet life wouldn’t go back to normal, and there were still things bigger than themselves. For in saving their world, the sea stewards had unknowingly ignited more than just coal. They had brought about a prophecy most had forgotten. An ancient myth came suddenly to life before them all, irrefutable proof that everything would soon change forever. The long-unified hands and the mind of the creator, in the story long cast behind as old legend, met the wings at last. The talking bird spoke of bringing together different factions, exactly as he was predicted so very long ago. Who were they to say no, even when he brought new friends unknown to everyone? Pieces came together... and a whole bigger than any of them grew.

The wumpos' family, through their own, unexpected alliance with the wings, learned to wield fire from the gravediggers and so to shape their own world, taking control of their futures as the sea stewards had. They became allies to the sea stewards, and the exchanges between their cultures brought them closer and made the unfamiliar less frightening. Yet they were two groups formed from different cloths, and their worlds remained separate. They would, however, meet sometimes in the middle, to trade or to talk, and the distances between them were no longer quite as wide.

Far away, something else had been watching it all unfold too. Some of what it saw - incredible examples of cooperation to achieve goals impossible for any one alone - impressed it. Other things, however, worried it. For even if the gravediggers' first application of burning coal was limited, a Pandora's box was now open.

For the first time in 270 million years of its observation, something dangerous had arisen within the project that had the potential, one day, to destroy it.