We searched and searched for sticks that would obey commands, but we found them not.
The man-things had used other weapons as well. The long stick did not fly, but it was nearly as cruel as were the flying sticks. The long sticks had wide points that were alien, having no relation to the stick itself. The points were very sharp, and they easily penetrated the bodies of the warrior servants.
It came to us that many of the man-things we had encountered were not related to the man-things that occupied the land of the sunset and now the land of longer summers.
The struggle on the slope was long and difficult, and our beloved mother sent many new-form servants into the struggle, but they could not overcome the man-things who hid themselves behind their protective rock-piles, rising to their feet only to kill those of us who were attacking.
Much disturbed were those of us who are the true servants of beloved mother when she insisted that we should take her from the nest to the region where the conflict was taking place. Her safety must always be our first obligation, but mother saw no reason to be concerned. She is immortal, of course, but the conflict was raging in the land of longer summers. The nest was safe, but the region of conflict was not.
She was mother, however, so we had no choice but to obey her.
Then yet another group of man-things came rushing up from far down in the land of longer summers, and that particular group appeared to have some other goal than the defeat of mothers warrior servants. There were many reports from the seekers that the man-things which had been fighting mothers warrior servants were stepping aside to let the new group pass through without restraint.
And the new group of man-things rushed to the top of the slope that led down to mothers region and then they ran on down that slope almost as if they could not even see mothers warrior servants. We have learned much to our sorrow that most of the man-things are extremely clever, but the new group of man-things seemed to have little or no thought as they blindly rushed down the slope toward something which only they could see.
And mothers warrior servants of several altered forms killed the mindless man-things by the thousands, but the other mindless man-things paid no heed to the fate of their companions, but continued their rush down the slope toward that which only they could see.
And then it was that enormous amounts of water burst forth from the upper face of the high hill above us, and mothers warrior servants and the mindless man-things alike were engulfed in water and carried down the slope to certain destruction.
And mother screamed in anguish even as those of us who live but to serve her carried her back toward the safety of the nest, for it was now clear that water could be as deadly as fire, and that the land of longer summers was now and forever beyond our reach.
Great was the grief of our beloved mother, but in time the seekers of knowledge persuaded her that there were still two regions beyond the high hills that were not now and forever blocked off from us. There was the land of the sunrise and the land of shorter summers. Many were the arguments between those warrior servants who favored the land of shorter summers and those who favored the land of the sunrise, and those arguments became more heated until those who preferred shorter summers and those who favored sunrise began to kill each other.
And finally, to prevent more of the killing, beloved mother chose shorter summers, and once she had chosen, the killing stopped.
The seekers were much interested in a low-tree that flickered and put out light and dark clouds which lay close to the ground or rose high up into the sky, for they saw that low-tree as a way to kill the man-things from a long way off, and that would put none of the servants of our beloved mother in peril.
And the seekers were much pleased when they discovered that the low-tree was most generous, and freely it shared its flickers and clouds with other low trees of its own kind.
Now other seekers had gone into the high hills that blocked off the land of shorter summers, and they soon found a narrow pathway that went through the high hills and emerged in a well-concealed manner in the land of shorter summers.
Cautious was our beloved mother, however, and she sent forth servants that could make the noises of the man-things to deceive the man-things and to set them at war one with the other, for it had come to the overmind that the man-things on occasion hated each other even more than they hated us, and gladly would they kill each other, and that would make things easier for mothers warrior servants.
We proceeded across the flat place where there are no things-to-eat and came at last to the narrow pathway that led from mothers region to the land of shorter summers. Much were we discontented when we arrived there, however, for the man-things had once more piled flat rocks on top of other flat rocks to block our path.
We now had a means to drive them away, however. The seekers entered several nesting places in the high hills below the flat rock-pile of the man-things, there to make piles of the low-trees that flicker inside the nesting places, and dense black clouds passed over their rock-pile, and then the man-things turned and fled, leaving the pathway open to the warrior servants.
Beloved mother rejoiced and told the warrior servants to move rapidly along the narrow pathway toward the land of shorter summers, for now the low-trees which almost certainly loved mother almost as much as do we who serve and protect her continued to drive the man-things away.
And so it was that the warrior servants swarmed up the narrow pathway with victory almost certainly within their reach.
But then a man-thing that was not a breeder as most of the man-things are, unleashed something that no one has ever seen before. We, the servants of beloved mother, have encountered the fires of the man-things before, but the man-thing who was not a breeder sent a huge wave of fire that was not yellow down the pathway. The fire was blue instead, and it consumed warrior servants uncounted as it rushed on down the narrow path and even beyond.
That in itself was horrid beyond anything we had yet encountered, but then the man-thing which was not a breeder called forth yet another blue fire at the foot of our narrow path. And that blue fire rose higher than the pile of flat rocks the man-things had built, and it showed no indication that it would ever stop burning.
And yet once again, our beloved mother screamed in agony, and we who serve her also screamed.
So great was mothers fury that she listened to a suggestion of one of the seekers a suggestion she would not even have considered had she been more calm. The seeker declared that since there was only one part of this land that was not blocked, the man-things would certainly know that mothers warrior servants would attack them from that direction, and their numbers would be enormous. You will need many, many warrior servants to overcome the man-things, beloved Vlagh, she said. Can you possibly spawn out more this time than you did when we attacked the other directions?
Many, many more, dear mother replied. I will bury the man-things in freshly hatched spawn. I will have the land of the sunrise, and my children will feed on the remains of all the man-things that contaminate this entire land that is and always will be mine.
We did not wish to remind beloved mother that a spawn of that size would severely reduce any future spawns to the point that there would hardly be enough new care-givers to see to her needs, and seasons uncountable would pass before she could spawn more. We tried as best we could to bring this to her attention, but she paid little heed and commanded us to carry her straight-way to the spawning chamber. And, since it is required, we did as she commanded.
Should disaster come again, however, the children of future spawns will be so limited that as the seasons plod on by, the nest of our beloved mother will have few if any care-givers to see to her needs, and in time, it may be that she will dwell here alone.
MOUNT SHRAK
1
It was well past midnight, and Zelana was standing alone on the balcony of what big brother Dahlaine called his War Chamber. It seemed to Zelana that those fancy names had always been one of Dahlaines failings. For some reason he seemed to feel a need to give almost everything some kind of stupendous title. If hed spend as much time solving a problem as he usually spent coming up with a name for it, things might go a bit smoother for him.
Right now, however, Zelana was trying to swallow some very peculiar events. It seemed that they had a mysterious helper who could pull miracles out of her hat or sleeve without any kind of warning at all.
Down in baby brother Veltans Domain, Longbow had been plagued with a series of very peculiar dreams which were being rammed into his mind by an entity he always called our unknown friend, despite the fact that hed told Zelana and the others that he recognized the voice but he couldnt quite attach a name to the speaker. Zelana knew that Longbows mind was too sharp to start getting fuzzy about something that important, so it was quite obvious that unknown friend had been tampering with him in ways Zelana could not even begin to comprehend.
There was one thing that was abundantly clear, however. Not only could unknown friend erase memories, she could also break or just ignore some very important rules. Zelana and her family were not permitted to kill things. Unknown friend, however, had manipulated the members of the Trogite Church with her sea of gold and lured them into a confrontation with the Creatures of the Wasteland. Then, when the two enemy forces were locked in what would almost certainly have turned out to be a war of mutual extinction, unknown friend had obliterated them all with an enormous wall of water that shed pulled up from about six miles down below the face of the earth.
It seemed that their friend had powers that Zelana could not even imagine, although she was almost positive that their friend was using the Dreamers to assist her.
The more Zelana thought about it, the more certain she became that Elerias flood and Yaltars twin volcanos had also originated in the mind and imagination of unknown friend.
The involvement of the Dreamers had been confirmed when the childrens shared vision had mentioned a fire unlike any fire we have ever seen, which had produced the blue inferno that had obliterated what had almost certainly been an entire hatch of the Vlagh.
That, of course, brought Aracias idiotic attempt to conceal Lillabeths Dream right out into the open. Aracia had always been obsessed with her own divinity, but now probably because of the overdone adoration of those assorted indolents who had identified themselves as her clergy Aracias mind had begun to slip, and she seemed to be convinced that she was now the most important creature in the entire universe. Her absurd attempt to conceal Lillabeths Dream had been a clear indication that sister Aracias mind was starting to come apart.
The more that Zelana thought about it, though, the more she remembered that Aracia had always been more than a little unwilling to go to sleep and relinquish her Domain to Enalla. It seemed that deep down, Zelanas sister hated Enalla. The length of their sleep-cycle made change inevitable. Zelana ruefully recalled the time in the distant past when shed awakened to find her Domain covered with ice that must have been at least two miles deep. It had taken Dahlaine weeks to explain that to Zelanas satisfaction. Hed assured her that the inevitable thaw had already begun, but it had been almost five centuries before the ice was gone, and Zelanas Domain didnt look at all the way it had when shed drifted off to sleep. Perhaps even more disturbing had been the fact that the creatures shed come to know in her previous cycle were all gone, and strange new animals had arrived to replace them. Dahlaine had used the term extinction, and that had chilled Zelana all the way down to her bones. Shed had almost no contact with Aracia during that particular cycle, but she was almost positive that her sister had somehow twisted things around in her mind so that she could blame Enalla for those eons of ice and the disappearance of almost all of the creatures that had been present in her Domain when shed gone to sleep.
Something like that was the sort of thing Aracia would do.
Zelana was growing more and more weary now, and shed be more than willing to hand the responsibilities of the Domain of the West to Balacenia the adult version of Eleria but she was almost positive that Aracia wouldnt see things that way at all, and her priesthood was probably in a state of near-panic by now. Whether they liked it or not, Aracia would go to sleep very soon, and Enalla would replace her. Zelana had caught a few hints from Eleria that Enalla the real version of Lillabeth had some plans that Aracias priests wouldnt like very much at all.
It might almost be worth staying awake long enough to watch, she murmured to herself. Almost, she added, but not quite. As closely as she could determine, sleep-time was no more than a few months away. Shed long since decided that the pink grotto on the Isle of Thurn would be the place where shed sleep this time. The pink dolphins would sing her to sleep, and she might even have dreams of her own this time dreams of a Land of Dhrall without a Vlagh, and a land where her friends did not grow old and pass away, and where she could sing and write poetry, and where it was always spring and the flowers never wilted. Now that might be the best of dreams.
I thought I could feel your presence here, dear sister, Dahlaine said as he joined Zelana on the balcony over the lumpy map of his Domain. You seem to be troubled. Whats bothering you so much?
Aracia, of course, Zelana replied. I think her mind is slipping even more than it was when she tried to conceal Lillabeths Dream. I wish that there was some way that we could put her to sleep a few months early this time. Then we could all concentrate on the Vlagh and stop worrying about our sister.