Alluvium (29 page)

“Don’t run," Autumn spoke kindly, close enough for a conversation. She was uncertain if it could understand her, so she focused on positive tones. “Please."

The rain beat down on the both of them. The Creature turned slightly to her, still hidden behind its glassy wings.

“No more running," it surprised her with a quick response. “Not anymore."

The Creature's voice was warm and inviting, just like the rain. She had heard it before.

“You were the one who answered me, weren’t you," she said slowly, coming into awareness of the goodness of the thing that stood before her. “When I was asking for an answer."

The Creature turned to face her and almost fooled her as to being human, but the resemblance quickly faded upon deeper inspection. Its eyes were far too large, taking up half of its face, and they were sharply almond shaped. A deep black film coated them so that it was difficult to guess where it was looking, possibly it being everywhere at once. It was lacking a nose, only three small strips which Autumn assumed were its nostrils. The Creature had no mouth and no ears, and instead of hair, a row of protruding flaps extended down from the back of its head. To Autumn, they almost looked like large gills. Its body was a leaner and more muscular version of a normal human, and it was elongated greatly at its waist, sprouting a long pair of arms and legs from its hourglass torso. From its shoulders came a thin set of wings which were folded at the moment and tucked into a larger set of the gills on its back. What was perhaps most unique about the Creature was it full-body translucence, allowing Autumn to see directly through it to the great tree on the other side. The only thing that obstructed the view was what looked to be hundreds of bright golden orbs swimming around within the body, and each orb appeared to have their own life to them. The light of the swimming orbs made it hard to Autumn to maintain direct eye contact with the Creature.

“Yes," the Creature said from nowhere. “I spoke to you, just as I spoke to him."

“But why? What do you want?" she asked in awe.

Something told Autumn the Creature was smiling.

“It is not what I want, it is what you must want for yourselves. I am here not to take something from you but to give. I wanted you to see it for yourself," it said.

“See what?"

“This," it said, lifting its long arms into the air. “All around you. What you could have. What you have now. What you will have."

“I don’t understand," said Autumn, looking at the crop circle of trees that bordered them. “You did this?"

The winged humanoid tilted its long chin slightly downwards. “I only aided the process. I did what I could do without interfering in the natural order of things. I am not allowed to manipulate your courses. You must find it yourself. However, sometimes I find another way to guide you. I showed both of you the path so that you may take it to this place."

Autumn tried to comprehend the subject matter to pose purposeful questions, but she failed to see the agenda of the spirit. “What are you?"

“I am what you could become."

Another cryptic answer. Autumn focused. “You were like us once?"

“I was. Long ago, before the first of your species emerged from the seas, we were as you are now."

“We? There are more of you?"

The Creature turned its head upwards. “There are many more, countless more, but they are far from here. I am the only one in your vision. The others do not come here anymore."

“Why not?"

“We have tried in the past. We went to billions of species, including your own."

“You’ve met my people before?"

“We only revealed ourselves to the few of your kind who had the capacity to shape your species path. Prophets, as you called them. We have done this a few times in your civilization’s history, showing those the way who can perceive it, but they were always killed by your own. Their knowledge was feared when it should have been embraced."

“Yes, yes," Autumn stammered, connecting concepts. “We have stories of you, old stories, about a time when you would talk to us and help us. I don’t remember what we called you, but I remember the stories. My mother would tell them to me before I went to bed. It was a world with miracles, she told me, but then you stopped coming. You left us."

“It did not work. We could afford no more time with your world. You were lost to the natural cycle, like all the others."

“The natural cycle?" Autumn stammered.

The aura of the Creature became more focused, and the golden orbs inside of it began moving faster throughout its body in more randomized patterns. “Yes. It is the one constant in every civilization of the universe. It does not matter how different an intelligent species is from the other, this means nothing; all species die the same. Their worlds start from chaos, from the sea and then the lands. They kill, they consume, they reproduce. As they learn how to better survive, how to live as one, they create order. It is this order that ultimately destroys them, not the chaos of the time before. Order in its infancy can bring more dangers to a species. The species forms larger groups, competing groups, of more power. Where before, in the beginnings of a world, it was individual against individual, soon it becomes the many against the many. It is here where the order once again slips into chaos, and it is in this chaos, the final chaos, that the species destroy themselves. From chaos to order, and a return to chaos, this is the natural cycle of civilization."

Autumn’s mind was expanding, and a dream-like state washed over her. “Then how did you live, your people? If we’re all bound together by extinction then how did you survive?"

“Only has my world, of all the billions of worlds that have existed, transcended this cycle. We were on the brink of collapse, just as your species was, but we discovered the one truth before we met our end. The solution. Unity or death. Oneness or nothingness. I cannot say how this epiphany came to us, or why only us, but we were given the time to reverse our destruction. It was here, in this awakening, that we saw past our differences and transcended to the other side. We achieved perfection. We are now together as one in the Beyond."

“What is this
Beyond
?”

“It is the next step of existence and evolution. It is in another vision, one that you cannot yet see. It is where we are now, at peace.”

“But if your people found peace in this Beyond, then why are you still here? Why bother with us?"

The floating golden orbs within the body of the Creature slowed and repositioned themselves in a new order.

“I have studied your people for many thousands of years. I did this once with many others of my own, but eventually they left to the Beyond, believing there was no salvation for your kind. I stayed. I do not know why, but I continued to study your stories and your beliefs about the universe, searching for something unknown to me. Eventually, I found it. Of all your teachings, from all your religions or ways of thought, even those that told of my people, one, in particular, spoke back to me. Your teachings of Buddhism talks about the path of an escape from Samsara, what you name as this endless cycle of birth, death, and rebirth we are all tied to in this state of existence. These stories say a sentient can transcend this eternity of birth and death through enlightenment. They can go to the Beyond. Only the few, with evolved spirits, can do this. Once they do, a sentient will transcend beyond Samsara and become fully awakened, as we are now. They will find oneness on the other side."

“And so all your people found this enlightenment?” Autumn asked. “All your people escaped this Samsara?”

“Yes, most of us have. But this teaching from your humans tells of the way of another. A
Bodhisattva
. This is a single sentient who has achieved enlightenment, who can escape Samsara into the holy Beyond with the others of their own, but they do not. They remain behind, for one purpose.”

“What purpose?”

“They are motivated to bring all sentients, from all worlds, into enlightenment with them. It has become who they are, and all that they are."

“But why? Why not leave to find peace? Why not join the rest your people? Isn’t that what this is all about, to transcend?"

“True oneness includes all of us. All within the universe. We are in this together, and as different as we all may seem, you and me, we are all made of the same, and we must take care of one another. We come from the same, and we are going to the same. Guiding the others is the only way for this to end. To find the higher meaning, we must all go together."

“How long then?" Autumn asked. "To bring all of us together, if that's what you’re trying to do?"

“As long as it takes."

Autumn could feel the pain leaking from the Creature. She wanted to hug it and to praise it, but she did not know how.

“You’ve been alone, for us," she said. “For a long time."

“I have," it said.

A quiet came into the forest. The rain rattled the tree tops, and it soaked into the soft moss and grass beneath their feet, fueling the life below as the life below fueled the life above. Was this the cosmic unity the Creature spoke of? Was this the Beyond? Was this God? She had so many questions, but no way to ask them.

“But you will not be alone," the Creature said looking at her stomach. “Not minutes from now."

Autumn smiled as a contraction began to tighten her stomach. “Thank you," she said. “Thank you for everything." She smiled and cradled her stomach lovingly. “We may not have the answers right now, but I promise you, we’ll do better this time. Your sacrifice will mean something to us, even if the others don’t know it yet. One day my people will do better than our ancestors and join you in the stars, wherever it leads us, and you won’t have to be so alone."

The great wings drew from the Creature’s back and glowed a vibrant gold into the night, expanding far across the star-studded backdrop of the white forest.

“I know," it said, and began lifting effortlessly into the air. “None of us will."

In the blink of an eye, the Creature drew itself high over the white forest, twirling against the downward heavy rain, and it burst through the storm clouds into the black night sky on the other side. Colonist Autumn Florentine became just a speck on the planet's surface, and in another instant, the planet itself was no larger. Empty space was all that remained, stretching forever in all directions.

The Creature was alone again. It should be familiar with the sensation, but still it haunted its soul deeply. One day, as the human had promised, this feeling might end. It would be alone no more. For the first time in a long time, the Creature believed this might be true. It saw the safe birth of Autumn’s twins in the forest minutes from now. Then, another flash of the future, and it saw these very same twins growing up in an even larger forest, happily and peacefully together with all the other children. The Creature saw the colonists following Autumn and stepping out from their underground fortress into a beautiful new world built for them by a man not to be forgotten. There would be more love and more babies, and the world would grow into what it should have been before. In this world, there would be no chaos, no war or hate, and no difference: only oneness. This time, the humans were on the right path because they finally realized there was a path to begin with. 

This time would be it.

Seeing this certain future, the Creature suddenly felt in good company. It redirected itself in the void and aimed for the other end of the endless universe.

“Goodbye, I have another waiting," it said to the tiny red dot.

And then it was gone.

ALLUVIUM