(Rose)
I heard a loud noise while I was sleeping. I woke up suddenly, as if a storm and thunder woke me up. The remaining rumble of a far distant thunder or explosion remained a little longer.
I saw light in the sky through the cloth of the tent. Sunrise already?
I got out in my underwear despite the winter coldness, because something big was happening. Blume was tied around my waist like a scarf as usual, but moved around as I exposed her to the cold.
It was still night around, except in one spot of the sky above. Something was burning and moving slowly far up in the sky, leaving a heavy trail of smoke behind. Something huge falling from the sky and burning on its way down.
R - What is that.... A meteor?
B - I have no idea.
The falling rock was making a growing ruckus, firing sparks around and making a growing cloud of smoke behind it. The fire was getting closer and wider. I thought it was a meteor, falling toward us.
I had a moment of doubt, but the saw that it pursued its path far above us, and at increasing speed. Some small parts were exploding away as it went by.
It went behind the scenery line I could see and then I saw a flash coming from there in the distance.
Then the night's normal darkness returned. I heard the far away explosion of impact and felt a small earthquake.
Wow.
~
I left my camp early, earlier than usual. I couldn't sleep anymore. I'm lacing my boots.
B - Why is that intriguing?
R - My father used to tell me that shooting starts hitting the ground are fallen angels. It's worth checking.
B -Seriously?
R - Of course not. It still is the first time I get to see a meteor. I've heard they're made of stones like we cannot find on Earth.
B - I wonder if it was a stone.
R - What else could it be?
B - Let us see, I'm becoming curious too.
We went toward the crash site not so far away inland. The weather is getting better and most snow is now gone, but it tends to be foggy and muddy everywhere instead. I prefer snow to this.
I'm hungry and have nothing left to eat but chunks of wood. It's terrible.
R - I'll turn into a tree if I keep eating like a tree...
B - Digesting cellulose and starch is good for you. Many mammals would envy you for being able to.
I giggle. I thank her, even if my stomach hurts. I'm thankful for we can live on rather easily. And as I walk through those woods, where a strange smell lingers, I think I'm thankful for we can do more than just live.
The sun clears the path. Fumes are rising silently. A crater opens before us. It's not perfectly round as I expected it to be. The crater is shaped like a drop, and we're at its tail.
Trees were burnt and the ground has been dug a little to build a wall on the other end of this stadium sized hollow earth.
It smells sort of like burning rotting fish around this ploughed area. I think it's burning rubber smell.
I walk inside that caldera. I'm looking for the meteor, but all I can see are normal rocks from the ground and bits of metallic tools, burnt.
I reach the end and find a large spread of metallic chunks and burnt pieces of machinery. Where did the rock go?
R - It looks like it crashed onto a machine, but there's nothing left.
B - As I wondered or thought, this may be it.
R - What do you mean?
B - It's something I learnt from the brain of this time. There are a lot of unattended human machines floating far up in the sky. Some are falling down over time.
R - A human-made meteor? What the...
B - They were tools, like radio antennas, orbiting around the planet like the moon does.
R - I see...
I take another look at the burnt remnants of such a prodigy. It's only rubbish now, whatever it was.
I look up at the cold sky. I see nothing but the sun up there.
R - Is it true that the stars are always up there, and that it's because of the sunlight that we can't see them during the day?
B - Yes.
R - How far are these tools, if we can't see them unless they fall?
I think again, now a little scared at what my question implies.
R - How far did we go?
I feel a vertigo. I think I just felt Blume's vertigo. She shivered at the thought and memory she processed into awareness. I felt it too. She's even hesitant to tell me...
R - Why don't you tell me?
B - I'm afraid you won't believe me, if the memory I got from this corpse before were right.
I don't remember the distances between the astral bodies of our solar system, I only remember that they are far greater than everything one can walk.
B - Humans and their tools went much further than you could imagine... I'm sorry Rose...
Of course, I'm feeling a little sad now. It's somehow like visiting another great city of the past. My people made it so high in science, scientific achievements and even exploration, the higher we see they once were, the sadder it is to witness the fall.
A monument lies in ruins at my feet, and will soon be forgotten.
R - This era... This world. I do like it, it sure is amazing... But it certainly is not kind to what humans were and achieved.
B - I'm sorry...
R - I remember you saying once that you felt that the event causing the downfall of my species happened somewhere south. Is it far further south?
The sea isn't far. South is the sea, then France, then Spain, then the old colonies...
B - I don't know where it happened precisely, but I would say it was on the other side of Earth.... Rose, I'm sorry you have to suffer the downfall of your species.
R - Everything eventually dies... And even this rose that you love, will someday wither in the end.
B - I don't like that thought.
R -Sorry, it's from a poem I used to read. I don't remember many but this one. Given my name, it struck me from a young age to hear that.
B - You still have fifty years or so ahead of you.
R - Wow, this many? I'm not that young anymore you know.
B - But I'll take good and loving care of you until then.
We chuckle.
We leave these ruins and leave them to fade in the land.
~
Since I made a pact with a devilish flower, maybe I won't even have to die in fifty years or so.
I wonder how long should I stay is she allows me to stretch my time indefinitely?
I presume that the older one gets, the more one wishes to live a little longer.
With her unholy power, we might be able to overcome my own mortality. It's a strange thought. The funny part about it is through history and tales, everyone focused on means to attaining such a fantastic power...
While she told me something of the like:
B - You want immortality? Sure, easy. I can do that.
How many people would have been gawking on hearing that? It's kind of laughable.
What is more or less funny, is that rather than wondering about how to obtain it, I'm not sure about what I would do with it...
Power, incredible powers, and impossible dreams... They make will for life, lives, stories, tales. But the race makes more tales than the achievement?
I could be immortal. I haven't found what for yet.
~
We went to space. We've put machines along the stars. I wonder what happened next?
It's funny and intriguing to see that people through history ran all their lives to achieve things we all though impossible. To reach unattainable goals eventually, to acquire powers.
And now that I stand on the other side of the line, that I stand after the story and race has ended, I'm not sure about what I should do with all this.
Once everything has ended, I guess achievements and power only mean what we want them to mean. They are worth of what we want them to be remembered for...
B - You sure are looking gloomy tonight. You're still feeling down from before?
I'm sitting against a rock, looking at the stars. Looking at the milky way. I begin to smile at her half worry and half tease. I tease her too.
R - Say Blume, what would you do with your life, let's say... If I were to suddenly disappear on you one morning?
B - I would work on searching for you until I do find you.
R - And what if I were dead and cold when you found me?
B - I would... Work on resurrecting you... No matter how long it takes.
R - And what if my soul had been brought to the deepest pits of hell, and wouldn't return to my body?
B - I would work on... Going there, and rescuing you... No matter which god would be holding you.
R - And what if my soul had truly been banished from Earth, far around other stars?
B - I would work to fly there, and bringing you back to Earth.
R - And what if I had lost all memories and love for you?
B - I would... I would try to make you remember... Or I would work on making you fall for me again...
I smile greatly, a tickle in my heart. I know she's a monster. I even know she's a coward. And I also know she truly thought every word from her replies.
If the heroes of old may be gone, their achievements forgotten, life goes on.
The story goes on.
This shapeless being which enjoys flowers as much as I do is nowadays' new hero. Ambitious, and ready to go to the ends of space...
She's the new face of humanity to me.
~