(Rose)
How many of them are there? Blume doesn't know. What they are, beings-like-her, are like another full branch of the tree of life. That's also why she can't tell. As they range from single cell organisms or even less than that! Mere thoughts lost who knows where; and up to monsters gigantic in size, with the power to shape the land itself as they want. They range from below microscopic, to giant, city wide organisms. They're more than a few, not enough to build societies, and they mostly live alone on their self-claimed territory.
And beside changing over time, they can range from being nothing impactful in the world, to being everything in the land they inhabit.
From powerless and invisible, to divine-like powers ruling over all they can reach.
They care little for humans, but they tend to envy us. Our intelligence, our abilities to think, learn, communicate, and process various emotions over time. They envy that. A lot.
My Blume was willing to cast away her powers to become closer to that humanity. She wouldn't be surprised not to be the only one of them ready to make that sacrifice, casting away her origins for that gain.
She wouldn't be the first or last, ready to renounce her birth gifts, her country's legacy, in order to attempt a transmigration toward humanity. Like many migrants, she abandoned any opportunity of power in her homeland, in order to try reaching something she longed for more, closer to humankind. She didn't flee, but began a pilgrimage. A long pilgrimage toward humanity, toward me.
Many others must have done it over the years she believes, consciously or not.
As herself became fully self-aware only as she drew close to the end of her journey.
They are a little of everywhere now. In a little of everything, any form, any kind.
All the transparent beings I saw, from bacteria to insects and animals, without body, but some sort of shape in their energy, they're all spores of beings-like-her. They're everywhere like microbes now, and all of them have the potential to become something more, though generally they don't.
Some evolved into monsters, others into hive queens, or sleeping dragons, or flowers...
A few amongst many that grew into something, and innumerable spores floating around aimlessly.
There was also this dark one. And the Ogre who almost killed us. The wolf. The snake. The shadows. The hunter. The rust flowers too in a way perhaps?
Nature grew wider since they came in. And obviously they crossbreed with what nature previously had to offer, given what I saw.
Reality grew wider, as they creeped in with their wider potential of creation.
Claiming the world humans unwillingly left at the same time...
She thinks humans are not responsible for their sudden downfall, only a few years ago.
To her, it was something otherworldly like a meteor from outer space, suddenly striking Earth. Only it carried her exotic kind of energy, more than iron or fire.
I'm doubtful of her theory. The world itself didn't seem to have changed that much. After centuries gone, I wonder if humankind wasn't responsible of its own downfall, through wars and centuries of progress in weaponry.
I've seen pictures of the great war as I was young, and the plagues it brought.
The diseases. The scorched earth, mixtures of earth, rust and flesh. I've seen the broken faces and cemeteries.
And the diseases...
Plague. A meaningless word now. It has lost all its frightening strength and meaning. But goodness, this should be a word whose simple naming should make us shiver in fear.
I wonder if despite what Blume thinks, we weren't responsible too, to some extent. From what little I learned, the world was at war when the end of time occurred. I don't know what kind of war, or what kind of weapons were there, only recently.
Today all of this is gone. And even what happened just five or six years ago has fallen into oblivion, because no one is left to record it and communicate it. Testimonies must exist, but I haven't been lucky to find any as of yet.
What my friends experienced, for what they could tell me of it, was simply similar to what I experienced when I arrived. Reality suddenly collapsing, losing ourselves body and mind and feeling awful for a while. Most people dying, mostly in weird ways as the spores of beings-like-her swamped everything and devoured many.
Then, just surviving, lost in a strange new world, that was suddenly just there one day.
~
The more interesting testimonies I find, are from them. The beings-like-her, making room for themselves in this world we no longer rule.
I've seen animals I can hardly describe, painting. Some crossover of spider and rabbits' nonsense of a being. A few of them. Just the other day. They were dipping their paws into colourful puddles of mud, chalky grey, coal black, rust red and mud earth. Then they were joyously painting the walls of some ancient factories.
They might have been the cavemen of a new history to begin. Or just children of a larger beast playing around, I'm not sure.
Blume advised me not to stay nor get closer that day. These things would have tried to eat me it seems.
Their blossoming attempts at culture might someday replace ours... I don't like much that feeling of being a lone survivor, being replaced. It takes a lot of courage to live this long and alone as a human, as a social being.
Of course I, we, adapt. But it's not easy to go for months without any face to look at...
Meanwhile, though I can be melancholic or sad about all this at times, I'm still happy with my dear Blume by my side.
Still is a little hard to call her my lover, since she's... Well, not even human? It goes even further than that.
However she is more intelligent than humans in some aspects. So... If this feels wrong, it's hard to say truly how it is wrong. She is in a way a new human, while I'm amongst the last of the old ones.
How long has it been since I last saw my two dear and only human friends? A few months at least. It was before winter.
We're following the eastern coast of England, slowly.
We've seen many ruins and ports but unfortunately seen no ship left that could be manoeuvred safely to the continent.
According to the Queen of the tunnel, we can go through there to reach France. That's an option. Not the best I hoped for, but far better than none at all.
I want to see how the continent has changed...
Blume is blooming again.
The weather is still cold, but she was too happy about it. She missed feeling the sun and the air all day long onto her flowers and leaves. She was so eager, she did not wait. She truly is a flower at heart.
So I got suddenly atrociously hungry as she sped up her growth beyond reason. In a matter of mere days, rose buds were all over her ribbons, and onto that scar on the middle of my chest. She's blooming.
She'll be able to ring the flower like soft metallic bells or wind chimes again, soon.
If it's not what she fundamentally were, she chose to forget about her true nature and make this a part of her own and defining identity. She chose to transform, to emigrate into the flowers of a dry and cut sample of a rosebush. And I love her for that also.
Because we share the same ideal of humanity that is a little embodied in flowers and the love of flowers.
Humans were different kind of monsters.
Had we been able to change our bodies and mind at will, I don't think there would have been much difference between some of us, and some of them.
In a twisted but unfortunately realistic way, the beings-like-her are the humans of the future. They can learn, think for themselves, and often talk.
And they thrive to reach an ideal of humanity or another. Or simply power, or survival, or happiness.
In more ways than merely one, they are like us.
~
She's cuddling me like an endearing pet. I wake up feeling all good in my body, I'm smiling. I open my eyes in my tent.
B - Rise and shine Rose.
R - Hm... Good morning... Oh. Your roses are blooming again.
She proudly shows me all the pale white or pale pink roses growing all over the flying ribbons she is, and beginning to cover their roots onto my skin too. She's chuckling a lot as I inspect them, the long brown soft ribbons dancing around me. She's childishly happy. She's amusing.
I get out from the tent. The air is very still, the sun rays are warm on my skin therefore. This feels good. She does too. I can tell. We share our senses. I'm smiling.
She shows me the flowers from another ribbon starting to open with great pride. It's funny.
I eat a breakfast of a soup and some canned food from the last city. They're like surprise boxes now. Sometimes it's good, often it's not. This time it is, though I have no idea of what it is I'm eating. It has lost all flavour over time.
Nevertheless, it's a beautiful tranquil morning. I'm happy.
At the end, Blume brings the largest flower to me. It doesn't smell like roses yet, but she didn't approach it for that.
It rings softly. A few soft metallic sounds. I'm going agape for a second. My heart flutters. Hearing her metallic voice again, I begin to cry silently. I don't know why, but I cry for a while.
~