The Darklings 091103 - Pegan

I must sleep now, Ebonee sighed. dragging her woven mat against the barrier that Dusk had called Door. Didn't Dusk know that it was a tree-split that balanced on a pointed stone, opening inward only and closed from the outer cave with a slender stone wedge. Flotsam. Ebonee whispered to Dusk. The door is flotsam. The sea cannot drown it although it can pull it under as it pulls down the Sun.

Yes, said Dusk. I too have seen flotsam. But how did it come to this high place? Is this not the highest place on Earth?

If you could only climb to the canopy, Dusk. If you could see that Earth is Sea-Land and the highest place is at the top of the Bloodtree. If you could only climb, but then , added Ebonee sadly, you still could not see with your weak sky eyes.

Woof gave a small whimper and settled down on the mat between them. He hungers. Dusk said. The tiny long- tailed squeakers that he catches in the cave are not enough for a young, growing creature.

Ebonee sat up. I will go out and find a fresh kill for him.

No! Dusk cried. Not in the dark hours of the Jag-cat! Go when your Sun comes up from the Sea.

Ebonee lay back yawning. Yes..First light then.

Ebonee, Dusk whispered. I also hunger.

For flesh? Asked Ebonee. For blood and bone? Like Woof?

I hunger for knowing. Dusk said. I hunger for knowing.

I will help your hunger, Dusk. Remember the Bloodtree? It is a sacred tree blessed by the Sun.

Its long twisted roots are like pale entrails. Those roots are hanging in a small cave above us. The father of Darklings lives in its highest branch at the top of the Earth. There can be danger in knowing. There can be more danger in a knowing that is secret and guarded.

While Ebonee slept, Dusk wandered through the small cave. She crawled through a dark opening into an adjoining cave that was filled with a golden half light . Lightwings, she said aloud. She had encountered them before in the tunnels. Creatures the size of her palm clung to the cave ceiling, twinkling like stars...

We call them fires-that-fly. Ebonee said as she crawled through the opening behind Dusk.

Dusk, startled, tripped and fell against a stone barrier. It was a circular wall of stones that had been erected in the center of the cave. In its blackened middle lay piles of large broken bones. Beastie bones. said Ebonee. And these are the tools of the first ones.

These are our tools! Dusk cried with joy. These are our cutting shells! Our slicing sea glass! and this, she said, snatching up a large white shell that lay on the wall-of-stones ledge. This is our calling conch! Dusk pressed the stone to her ear. Then offered it to Ebonee. It is Mother's voice... It is Mother's singing.

Ebonee shook her head, backing away from the shell. I don't want to listen. We hear the voice in the canopy. It is never still. Never stops. The sea sings only of death and drowning...