The Non-Human Society

Stepping up onto the little beach, I trudged through the sand… until I stood before my friend.

One I'd not spoken to in decades. The longest I'd ever gone without speaking to her, ever since meeting her.

Stopping before her pool of crystal clear water that she waded in… I dropped the small bag of objects I'd brought with me. Half of the bag I planned to have her burn to ash, to destroy for me. The other half I planned to leave with her, for safekeeping.

And… then I dropped to my knees.

My tongue felt fat and numb, as I tried to speak. To say the words I needed to.

I needed to apologize. To admit to my mistake. To tell her she had been right all along, and that I had been a fool.

Not only was it the right thing to do… it was what I needed to do to re-earn her friendship. So…

"Godslayer."

I flinched at her voice, and the name she had called me.

By my parents I hated that word. Despised it. Even if it was true.

Taking a deep breath I shook my head. "Worldbreaker," I said.

"Mhm… a better title, I suppose. What with what has happened. Not even I had foreseen the length of your mistake, Vim. Wish I had… I would have stopped you, instead of just berating you," Miss Beak said.

I wish she had.

"All you would have done is gotten yourself killed… I had been…" I said softly, shaking my head. I still hadn't looked up at her. I was too afraid to meet her eyes.

"Stupid? Indignant? Insufferable? Intolerable? Vapid? Thick? Dim?" Miss Beak began to rattle off everything I'd been and more.

I nodded gently, smiling softly at her as she did so. Her tone had softened since first greeting me. "Yes. All that and more."

"Hmph… and now you're depressing. Come now, Vim, get up."

"I'm…"

"Apologizing…? Yes. You just did. And did it well. I accept. You need not wallow like that, it's beneath you."

Actually it wasn't at all… but okay. I didn't get up though; instead I just looked up and finally met her eyes.

"I broke the world," I whispered.

"You did. Mightily so, too. I'm honestly not even sure how you accomplished it, to be honest… but so it has happened. I believe you called such an era, a dark age?" Miss Beak asked as she went to peck at some of her feathers.

I smiled gently at that. "Yes. Dark ages. Though not the exact way I'd describe it, or the proper term, it does fit, I suppose," I said.

"It is kind of dark. No more electricity, for one… and now with so few people, there are nearly no cities anymore. None big enough to notice, at least. Makes flying at night time rather lovely, if I dare so say. Though I do sometimes miss the twinkles of your cities," Miss Beak said.

My toes clenched in the sand as I groaned and nodded. Yes… the world likely did feel quiet and empty right now.

Hard not to when it was so desolate. So… devoid of life.

The only thing I could reason for the world's current suffering was the fake world I'd broken. By killing Lapis, by ending her little dream of a world within a world, I had doomed the real one.

Her world had not faded. Not completely. And when it had mixed in with the real world, once the barrier had fully dissolved and disappeared, something… terrible had happened. The world had succumbed. To a terrible disease. One that killed crops. Poisoned waters. Made the very air toxic.

My only real theory, the only one I found believable, was that the waters Lapis had used to make her soil healthy and strong… had inadvertently given birth to a strange strain of disease. One that infected all other soils and crops, and had done so rapidly. It had spread all throughout the world in just a few years, and it had not done so gently.

The world had gone from tens, if not hundreds, of millions strong to probably less than a million in total. Non-human and human combined. And it was all my fault.

"I don't even know how it happened. I tried to fix it, once I realized what was happening… but by then…" I shook my head as I breathed a sigh.

"Too late. Yes. But fear not, Vim. It is already running its course. Fields of grass area already returning, and as such so too are the life that live off them. A whole forest is nearby, I can show it to you," Miss Beak said.

I smiled softly and nodded. I believed her. I had seen it too on my way here. Life was indeed returning… just slowly. Very slowly.

"I broke the world," I said.

"Yes. But you've done so before. And many others have done so before you. Look at what my parents had done, Vim. Turned entire swaths of land into slag and molten lava! Yet now the places they had so destroyed are vibrant and full of life! Like my lovely flats here," Miss Beak said.

I'd not call these salt flats places abundant with life, but I understood what she was saying.

Given time… the world would heal. It always did, somehow.

"Nonetheless… because of my rash actions, I have brought a time of true suffering on the world. My mistake originally had been two and a half million lives. Now though? Now it is uncountable," I said.

Miss Beak scoffed at me. "Yes, such a disaster you are."

"I am. Have you seen the communities rebuilding, Miss Beak…?" I asked.

"Hm…? Yes? Is that not what I am saying? They're popping back up already. They're tiny, sure, but towns are indeed returning."

I nodded. I had passed through several on my way here. "One in ten children born, before I had killed Lapis, had lost traits. Traits. Singular traits, nothing more. Now…? Now one in four children born are human. Human entirely," I said.

Miss Beak didn't say anything for a moment, and I knew it was because she was pondering what I'd said. "You mean to say… human births are now prevalent?" she asked, understanding.

I nodded.

"That is not good… at that rate non-humans will be gone in no time at all. Mere generations," she said.

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I nodded again.

Miss Beak inhaled deeply, and let out a deep hot sigh. It warmed my cold bones. "Well… I suppose it was bound to happen eventually," Miss Beak said, always one to find shelter in reason.

"Yes… but… I did it. I hurried it. I…" I couldn't find the words as I shook my head and looked down. My eyes began to burn as my own body resisted the urge to cry.

"Hm… Found your emotions again, I see. I'm glad for it, I suppose, but do not cry here. Also, why is your bag squirming?" Miss Beak asked.

I smirked and chuckled, since I knew she had only changed topics as to try and make me feel better. I sniffed and nodded and gestured to the bag. "One of the hearts produces a lot of water. I have it sealed in a way that keeps it from leaking, but it… well… wiggles," I said. It was in a pouch. A thin leather one made of god's skin.

"Want me to eat it? I'm ready for another. Since you've been neglecting me for years," Miss Beak said with a huff.

Slowly nodding, I coughed and then shook my head. "I do. There's a few hearts in there for you. But I uh… want you to save that one for last. It produces infinite clean water, drinkable water. That's… well…"

"Might be useful in a toxic world. Mind if I use it to replenish my lake then?" she asked.

"Sure. Go ahead…" I went to grab the bag, to drag out the heart.

Miss Beak stood, her feathers ruffling in happiness as I dug the god-pouch out and then opened it. I held it out, as it poured water all over, and Miss Beak quickly grabbed it with her beak.

I watched her happily dance for a moment and then go to put the heart in the center of her little lake. She submerged her beak deep into the water, and likely the sand beneath it, burying it there.

It would be safe there. She would basically be sitting on it the whole time.

"Thank you," she said happily.

I nodded. "You'll have to make little paths for the excess water to leave, once it floods enough," I said.

"You can do so for me," she said simply.

Another smile planted itself on my face… and I nodded. "I'll do so before leaving then," I said.

"Hm… and where do you plan to go now? Going to go try and save people? Build another nation, mayhaps?"

"Actually… I think I'm going to take a vacation."

"Vacation…?"

I nodded. "Not sure where I'm going to go yet… but I need some time to think. I'm… I did something terrible. I need to sort myself before I make a similar mistake again," I said.

Miss Beak huffed at me. "I wanted you to regain your gentleness, but that's a tad too far I think. How about you just go hunt a monarch or something? Or go find a mate to enjoy for a while?" she suggested.

I scoffed at the idea of a mate. Though did like the idea of a monarch hunt. "That's what I'd been doing, Miss Beak. Since I have no wings, it had taken me years to track them all down," I said with a gesture to the bag.

"Hmph… where's the rest, then? Can't be more than a dozen in that bag," she asked.

"Sealed away. You can't eat them all at once, so," I said with a shrug.

For a moment Miss Beak was silent, and then she reached forward. I closed an eye as she brushed her beak against the side of my head. It was hard and cold. "You sound defeated, Vim," she said.

"I am," I said. By my own hands, no less.

"I see. Then go on then. Return when you need me, or just want to talk. Don't mope around here, you'll just make me want to set you on fire and warm you up," she said.

Smiling at that I nodded. "Right…" I stood, to deal with the bag's contents and then figure out how to properly prepare her little oasis for the unlimited water it was about to hold.

While I rummaged with the bag, preparing to give Miss Beak the hearts she could eat over the next few years and to get ready to bury the rest nearby as to keep it safe until I came back, I sighed as I pulled out a book.

Right. I wanted her to burn this.

"Actually… can I have your fire, for just a moment, friend?" I asked as I stepped away from the bag.

"Hm…? Want me to actually burn you to a crisp? Now that I know I can evaporate my water and it'll all come back swiftly makes me more than willing!"

I laughed at that and shook my head. "No. I would like you to burn this, if you can."

"A book…? You? You want me to burn a book? Your mother would be ashamed!"

"Actually, she would. But for different reasons. This is my mother's. I had found it in Lapis's keep, her bedroom. Amongst other things…"

Miss Beak tilted her huge head at me. "That's your mother's?"

I nodded.

"And you wish for me to destroy it…?"

I nodded again.

"Why…?"

Because it hurt to hold it. To see it. To acknowledge and know the knowledge within it. And I couldn't do it myself.

"I can't destroy it. I don't even know if your heat will either, I'm just hoping it will. Your power isn't just potent, it's divinity. I don't have that," I said.

"I see… can I know its contents before I do?" she asked.

Hesitating a moment, I realized she did indeed have the right to know. After all, I was asking her to destroy it. That was a sin. So…

"It's the recipe," I whispered.

"Recipe…? For what?"

"Their gate. For them to return home, from whence they came," I said, and my eyes blurred a little as I did.

Miss Beak's huge head tilted as she studied me… and then she made a sound with her beak as she opened and closed it really quickly. "That's… very special, then isn't it?"

I nodded, my throat felt thick and heavy. I wasn't able to speak at the moment.

"Should we burn it, Vim…? What if you need its information one day? You forget things, sometimes. And I'm not really good with words."

"I'll…" I started to speak, but my words got stuck. I coughed and breathed in, slightly ashamed that I was about to weep. I shook my head, and blinked away tears. Forget this…? Impossible. How could I do such a thing when it will haunt my mind's every waking moment for the rest of my life?

It took longer than it should have for me to get control over my own emotions, as I gulped down a heavy emotion. "I'll not forget this. Trust me," I finally got out.

"Hm…" Miss Beak hummed gently at me, and I knew she could tell the truth. She knew me so well, and was so very wise… I just knew she saw through me. "Okay… Vim, I'll do it."

Blinking tears I nodded. "Thank you."

Very carefully Miss Beak lowered her beak once more. She grabbed the book from my hand, and did so with such gentle surety it made me feel weird. Why was she treating it as if it was a priceless treasure?

"I'll burn it in the sky. Away from here. In case I need to use my full heat," she said, still holding the book at the edge of her beak.

I nodded. "Thank you. I'll… finish up here and then leave. I'll be back, someday, after I… well…"

"Get over your moping. Yes. Please do. Your tears stink, Vim, stop it." Miss Beak teased me as she unfolded her wings and stood up fully. She was about to fly away, as to fulfill the task I had asked of her.

She really was a good friend. Not only was she loyal, she was willing and able to point out my own mistakes and flaws. To argue with me. I wished I had more like her.

I had though. In that nation I had built. I had abandoned them.

"Will you be here when I return?" she asked, snapping me from my thoughts.

Smirking at her, I shook my head. "Sorry. Probably not. I'll handle this stuff and then go… Goodbye, Miss Beak."

"Mhm. Stand Tall, Vim… you've made a mistake, but you can fix it. You always do."

I shook my head gently as I went to finish dealing with the bag, so I could leave.

"Not this time, I fear. Not this time…"

And not just because I had brought the world to its knees.

I had not just inadvertently killed millions of people… I had done something far worse.

And I had done it without even knowing.

Done it before I had even been born.

And the fact such a thing bothered me more than my killing millions of people made me sick to my stomach. Made me feel like a monster.

It proved I was broken. That I'd become callous and ruthless. That I'd lost the very thing my parents had instilled in me.

So I needed… to step away. From everything. From everyone. Not just to clear my head, to fix myself, but to keep everyone else safe. To keep myself from doing more harm.

Miss Beak had suggested, off-handedly, that I should go help the remaining survivors of this crippled world. And I should. I could help them. I could help them just as I had so many before, when the world had been broken like this before thanks to the gods and their attempts to kill me.

But if I did such a thing right now…? While I was broken…? I'd just inadvertently do more harm than good. I knew it. Miss Beak knew it. The world knew it.

So instead… I'll just leave.

Maybe I'll go for a swim.