Fire is good
Once there was nothing. Then The Fire came. It blossomed into a white flower, eating the blackness and giving forth light. Tiny particles of soot fell from its corona and formed a small clump of matter on the edge of The Fire's heat. Other particles came; from dust motes to small boulders, the soot-ball continuously drew in more substance. A tiny seed fell to it. Some span of time after, a small shoot peered up from the surface of the soot-ball.
The young plant thrived in the heat from The Fire. Roots probed the soil, holding what was there and grabbing more that was not yet there. Soon more plants sprouted from the wandering parts, covering the soot-ball with a network of roots where it faced The Fire.
One questing tendril found that another branch would afford as tasty a meal as the ground. The young scion gorged itself, causing the victim-branch to wither. Its parent trunk cut it off from the lifeblood-sap as punishment. Without connection to The Forest, it starved. An attempt to suck nourishment from another root was met with hot resistance. The parasitic vine flew off the soot-ball, straight towards the fire. Rays of heat stronger than it had ever before felt bathed the vine. The Fire reached a welcoming tendril of its own to the offspring of its bastard child. The heat seared the flesh of the vine; it screamed, withered, died. Its ashes fell back to the soot-ball, to strengthen somewhat the foundation of The Forest.
Some long aeon later, The Forest covered near half of the soot-ball, a hemisphere of trunks inextricably connected by roots, outmassing the sphere of dirt it held together, nourished by the hot light of The Fire, which was itself fed by the omnipresent Blackness.
A tiny metallic ellipsoid approached. It carried three beings in dreamless slumber, kept alive by machines. The Forest sensed their faint presence.
It wove together its upper branches, that the ellipsoid might not break through, and sent moisture to the net, making it springy. One vine, however, siphoned off the moisture from one part of the net, leaving the weaving there hard, brittle, breakable.
The ellipsoid, oblivious to its target's hostility, fell into the net; by chance, it fell on the brittle section, breaking through. The Forest screamed to itself, pained greatly.
Searching for the traitorous vine, The Forest had no luck; it had already broken off, gorged, and hidden. The ellipsoid fell still farther, though, easily located; The Forest focused on that.
The ellipsoid finally rested on the forest floor; the machines woke up the passengers, while another went to clear a space around the ellipsoid. That machine cut once into an ancient trunk. Vines and roots grabbed it, tearing it to pieces; the pieces fell to the ground, soon to be absorbed for minerals.
The three beings in the ellipsoid rose from their slumber fully refreshed: a he-male explorer, a she-male scientist, and an it-male who was there simply because one was necessary on every expedition. He eagerly donned an outside-suit and exited the ellipsoid to investigate their landing site. She activated the voice-communications, ready to feed his transmissions into the computer.
His first transmission exclaimed that he had never seen such marvelous plants. His second was a short, sharp screech as The Forest tore him apart.
She tried to view where he had disappeared, but to her dismay, she could not tell one part of their surroundings from another. Xe tried to explain that xe could see quite well where he had been, and that there was a message there for them, but she ignored xir.
The Forest tried to consume her as it had consumed him, but was thwarted by the rogue vine, waiting atop the ellipsoid to eat her itself. It made another warning for xir to view.
Xe felt The Forest warning xir away. Xe considered the options. The Forest threatened again. Xe agreed upon a bargain.
The rogue vine silenced her struggles, ready to gorge. Xe exited the ellipsoid, but ignored her desperate cries for help, growing ever weaker. Once the vine had consumed all of her, xe shot the maverick with a flame-gun, burning it to ashes. Xe climbed onto the lowest branch of a trunk, and was assisted to the canopy, far above.
When xe was as high as xe could go, xe flung xirself off The Forest. The Fire reached out a welcoming vine, pulling xir to itself. The Forest flung the ellipsoid to The Fire. It flared brighter for a very short time afterwards. No more metallic ellipsoids came.
The Forest remained as it always was, as the Fire ate up the Blackness.
posted by esty | 21:45
