Roots In The Heavens
Chapter 1: A Seed Grows
It was dark at first. Not a scary dark, or a creepy dark. Just a peaceful absence of light. It was like being not-awake, yet still awake. Darkness was my whole world. I was small, I knew that. In fact, in this soft, empty bed of mine, it was just about all I knew. Looking back on it later, I didn’t realise at the time just how nice such an existence was. I had no troubles. The bed I was in was nourishing enough for me by far. I knew not hunger nor thirst. I’m not sure if I drifted in and out of not-awake, or if I just daydreamed. Time passed moment by moment. Slowly I came aware that something was happening within me. I was growing larger ever so gradually. The bed surrounding me was ensuring it.
For many, many moments I grew. My round body started to crack at the edges from my growth. The pressure within increased constantly, yet it filled me not with fear, but with excitement. It was in one specific moment of time that the pressure finally grew too much.
With a powerful cracking noise, absorbed by my bed around me, the tip of my body broke open, and a small yellowish nub poked its way out. Like a dam had been broken, that little nub just kept on growing. It burrowed further and further into the bed with a steady speed and patience to never stop. It began to branch out as it grew, dozens of little nubs growing off of the central one. As it did so I could feel more nourishment reach me, and so I encouraged the growth, cheered it on as it went, worried as it hit hard bits of bed, and then sighed in relief as it found a path around.
While this was happening, as it pushed one way, so too was I pushed the other. As my main body was pushed, I realised that the constant invisible pressure that had been a constant companion was decreasing. The bed became softer, almost looser. Something was going to happen soon. Something big was going to change. I could feel it. I just had to grow for a little longer and my whole world would change.
But just as I was about to pass that threshold, a problem arose. The water that I had been partaking in for my whole life had steadily been vanishing as I drank it in. Now though, it was entirely gone. The once cool and pleasant bed was no longer such. It felt dry. Hard. It was a prison, preventing me from breaking through to a new world. I pushed and struggled but I could do nothing to change my situation. Without water to help me, I was powerless. I had to make a sacrifice, some part of me realised instinctively, if I wanted to push through this last little bit. Mustering all my will and desperation, I started to do just that. I ever so slowly started to pull vital water from the offshoot nubs that had take so long to grow. They instantly started to shrivel up. I knew that they were gone, I would not be able to fix them by simply returning the water. I funnelled that liquid life to my main body, forcing it to grow, making it bigger faster than was comfortable or safe. It was working! I could feel it. The bed above me was giving way! The all encompassing darkness was vanishing. Nothing became something. Light fell upon my body for the first time, and it was glorious.
A section of the bed crumbled off of my ‘head’. I could finally see. Air brushed my tiny shoot. I could now appreciate just how massive the bed I had been in was. It stretched on forever and ever. I also appeared to be sharing my bed with others. An endless number of similar shoots spread out all directions around me. Each of them were many times my size, yet different. Where my body was more cylindrical, these bedmates had flat bodies.
All this was a distraction though. I still had a problem, a rather major one. My area of bed was devoid of water, and I had already sacrificed much to breach the surface. Unless I was extremely lucky, I was still in danger. I sat there, waiting desperately for something to save me. Time passed by in agonising slowness. At some point I figured out that my desperate growth had actually helped me slightly. I had traded away a fair bit of mass in order to grow that last little bit, and no longer needed quite so much water.
Soon the light disappeared and I was once again in darkness, though it was still much brighter than I was used to. The temperature also dropped. It wasn’t a cosy coolness anymore, but rather a harsh one. The kind that made me curl up upon myself again for warmth, wasting precious energy to do so. I was starting to despair when a thud startled me. I turned my attention once more to the outside world, but nothing had changed. Then another thud happened. And another. I had no idea what was happening. What was causing all these vibrations. My bed was constantly vibrating now. It wasn’t long before I was hit by the thing that was shaking my world. It hurt. I didn’t like being hurt, I decided.
It didn’t end there though. I soon discovered the part of me hit by the thing-that-hurts was actually even colder now. Why had such punishment struck me? Had my sacrifice incurred the wrath of the not-bed? The thudding continued. Occasionally it would strike me again. Each thing-that-hurt disappeared into the bed once it struck it. I was so miserable that it took me a while to realise that the bed was once again full of water. In fact, there was even more now than when I first gained conscious. I may be new to this whole existing thing, but it didn’t take a genius to figure things out. The thing-that-hurts and the life giving water were one and the same! Water came from the not-bed!
No longer was I angry at the not-bed (though I still wished it would stop hitting me), but rather exalted it! It was the provider of life. Content that I could once again grow, my focus turned inwards. My yellow nubs started guzzling down the water, and my growth started once again. Those nubs grew and grew. In a two light and dark cycles they had grown so much as to be unrecognisable. They were now slightly thicker, but much longer, and spread in many directions. Speaking of the cycle, I had a new way of tracking time. Over the course of a large amount of moments, the life-provider would turn from light to dark to light again. It made telling how much time had passed much easier, since it seemed to be around about the same number of moments each time.
Light and dark passed slowly. I had a new goal. I wanted to grow bigger. I wanted to grow until I was larger than my bedmates and no longer had to fear for lack of water. I could feel it within me somehow. That feeling like I could still get bigger, that I was only just starting my growth. And grow I did. With great slowness my body broke free of the confines of the bed. At a snail's pace I began to draw level with the height of the other bedmates. It was readily apparent that we were different. They were all a uniform shape, with flat bodies that swayed easily in the wind. They were not growing. That was a small mercy actually. Initially I feared that they would grow just like me, and that I would always be smaller than those around me.
I felt some pride when I finally managed to get the tip of my head above the tip of my neighbours head many light-darks later. That pride didn’t last long. Fear soon replaced it, praying on me once again. Other beings had appeared. They towered above all of us bedmates. Every single one of them was hundreds, thousands of times larger than the tallest of us. Every single one of them could move freely outside of the Bed upon four massive roots. It was awe inspiring. At first. Then one bent down and ripped some of us from the bed without any kind of warning. My whole mind came to a complete halt.
What?
Another lent down and did the same. The thing it used to rip my bedmates out rotated a few times. It lent down again. I couldn’t watch this. I couldn’t look away. My root tips trembled with fear as these beings, these monsters, methodically destroyed my companions. Sometimes they strayed close to me, others they were far away. Always, though, were they making carnage. A bizarre feeling settled in the field. With each bedmate torn apart, this feeling grew. It was as if something was being added to the air around me. Some kind of warning. Like each bedmate was giving one last warning as they were eaten.
This continued on for several light-darks. Over time their journey took them further from me. Their close encounters with me became less frequent, and the feeling of danger in the air began to fade as it was blown away by the wind. Still, these monsters were not truly gone. Not for me. Now they lived in a dark place in my mind. The warmth of the light could no longer chase away the shadow they had cast upon me. At the same time, they had become a strength. They pushed me. I would grow bigger. I would grow stronger. I would grow until the monsters could only break their gleaming white rippers upon my body. For now though I simply continued to shiver. Shiver in fear and grow.
After that terrifying time peace returned to my life again. Light and Dark passed time and time again, without a care for the world below them. The light became cool, and then cold. The dark came earlier and ended later. Those times were hard. Without as much Light, my growth became even slower than its previous glacial rate. I spent most of my energy to simply persevere. What energy I had to spare I devoted to growing my roots deep within my bed.
I had no idea if the Light would ever come back, so I decided to invest in the only constant I had in my life: my bed. As long as I continued to dig further, dig deeper, there was always more water to find. I had long ago encountered the roots of my bedmates and outgrown them. Part of me felt sorry for them as I stole precious water away from them. My roots were not only longer, bigger, but also deeper. Those around me had started to wilt slightly. They continued to survive, but no longer did they thrive. I did not let my guilt stop me. My fear of those monsters would not allow me to stop.
My solace in this dark and cold time was that water fell from the sky with much greater frequency. Sometimes it was almost too much, my roots lacked air to breathe near the surface. Other times the water would become hard and cold, particularly during the Dark. I learned through this that the safest place for me was deep within the bed.
I didn’t see the monsters again. Little creatures did appear often, ones that could soar through the skies. Some even landed near me. They left me and my bedmates alone. They would mess with the bed somewhat, before leaving again. I couldn’t say I liked these creatures, but they were not monsters and for that I was grateful. One had the audacity to land upon my head. It made a strange noise and then flew off.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
I thought that rather rude, not that I could do much about it. I moved much to slowly to do anything to these creatures that were so free and fast in their movement. I decided to label them. In my mind I called them Sky Nuisances. It was rather fitting for them, I thought with great satisfaction.
As if in reward for my ever enduring growth, the Dark began to shorten once again. It was so slow as to be nearly unnoticeable, but at this point slow was kind of my thing. I had nothing if not time to observe. As the Light stretched once more, the cold became cool, and then warm. Sky Nuisances and newly spotted Ground Nuisances became a common sight. I was unsure if they were present last time it was warm and I was simply too small to notice them.
As it became warmer and lighter, I was finally able to focus on growing my upper body again. Branches, as I called them, bloomed across my head. They greedily sucked in as much light as they could, fueling my growth more than ever. Without any breaks, this became my routine. The warm lasted for as long as the cold before it too went away. It was a pattern I was quick to spot. Just like the world around me changed from light to dark and then back to light, so too did it change from warm to cold to warm again. During the warm I would grow my body above the bed. During the cold I would focus my attention to my roots within the bed.
Like that first warmth I experienced, my initial excitement over the world slowly cooled down. I was growing constantly, as I had wanted, but I was no longer seeing any new sights. The world remained the same, even as I changed. Static. The little nuisances had simply become a part of my life, appearing and disappearing at their whims.
At first they annoyed me with their scurrying around me, but now they frustrated me for wholly different reasons. They were so simple. They exhibited none of the intelligence I knew myself to have. As I observed them, I saw them take hours to figure out things I solved in minutes, days to realise what was a bad idea when to me it was immediately obvious. This simpleness wasn’t the core of my frustration. It was that despite being so simple, they were also so free. It felt wasted on them. They were able to move about and see the world, yet they did not seem to appreciate it. I watched a pair of ground nuisances fight over a small nut and my roots itched to join them. To move.
As watching them was an exercise in testing my patience, I did my best to ignore them. The monsters appeared again at one point, sending flares of panic through me, but they ignored me. I had already long since outgrown what they considered ideal food. Still though, I continued to grow. One of the monsters nipped at my body for a while before growing bored, and while this did me little lasting harm it did make me realise how little protection I had. No longer did I focus on size growth. I tried to grow protection instead. The potential was there, I could feel it instinctively. This protection, once I grew it, ended up having the benefit of keeping me warmer during the long colds. And so my life plodded on.
It was maybe seven or eight cycles of warm-colds (I really should think of a better name for that) that I had an encounter with something new. Another freely mobile creature appeared. This one was different from the rest though. Like the others, it lay down near my body. Like the others it made strange sounds. But this one was not simple. There was an immediately apparent intellect to it. It’s body was wrapped in protection but it was not protection that was naturally grown upon it. At least, I couldn’t imagine any creature growing protection like that. But then, maybe I was wrong. I was limited in my rather small world. It also moved and made noises with more precision than the nuisances. It thought through its actions.
The creature left after the Light crossed the sky. I assumed it wouldn’t be back again any time soon, like the Monsters. That was fine. At least I now knew I was not alone. I was not the only being around who could think (I had decided that my tiny bedmates were likely not as smart as me, otherwise they would be bigger). But then the creature returned the next day. It was covered by new protection this time, which did initially make me think it might be a different, similar looking creature. But a little time observing it assured me that it was the same one as last light-dark.
Just like last time, it lay down near me and started making noises again. I could understand this creature as little as I did the monsters and the nuisances but this creature fascinated me. I actively paid attention to the noises it made. There was a structure there. Something that could be learned. I hoped it continued to visit. It was a break from the monotony of life. I dubbed the being ‘Little Free’. This special creature deserved a special name.
The third time it visited me, it was agitated. At least I assume it was. It stomped around me with much greater force than previously. It didn’t lie down. It kicked the bed, flattening some of my bedmates but not irrecoverably. This continued on for some time. Finally it drew something out of its protection with one of its branches and threw it down onto the bed.
I was curious as to what exactly it had thrown down, but as far as I could tell it was a simple white chunk of bed. I had encountered many similar pieces as I spread my roots. Admittedly this particular chunk was unnaturally smooth and round. Little Free kicked the chunk a few times in continued anger, ramming it deep into the ground by my roots, before storming off. Little Free had left the chunk behind, nearly touching one of my roots.
I’ll admit, I did something a bit stupid. I was just so curious as to what would drive a smart creature like that to such rage. I took a large portion of energy I had stored and devoted it all to the root nearest the white chunk, forcing it to grow at a visible pace. It was exhausting. It was more than a little painful. It was ultimately pointless. My root wrapped around the white chunk. Nothing happened. I felt nothing either. As far as I could tell it was simply a strangely shaped bit of white bed. I had wasted so much energy for nothing.
Annoyingly I couldn’t even find it in myself to be mad at Little Free over the wasted effort. The fault lay entirely with me. I could see that. I gave little thought to the idea that maybe I just didn’t want to be angry at the only other intelligent being I had seen.
They didn’t turn up the next light, nor the light after. I felt a pang of sadness, then put it at the back of my mind. Back to growing I went. This light-dark was becoming grey. Water would fall tonight. That was good, the bed was starting to run low near the top. I focused my attention straight up. I always enjoyed watching the very first drops of water fall down onto my head. It was very soothing. What once was a painful bashing was now a soothing massage.
It rained for a long while this time. Longer than it had since the last long cold. So much water drenched me and my bedmates that the bed itself was unable to take it all in at once. Small amounts of water formed in the grooves left behind by Little Free’s angry fit. Already I could feel the bed starting to rehydrate. Water seeped deeper steadily. It wasn’t long before my roots could start to hungrily suck it all in to store for later.
Perhaps because my mind was still on Little Free, despite my best efforts to move on, that it took me so long to notice that there was a light in the dark. Not from the sky above though; the Light had not made an unexpected early return. This light was originating from below, atop the bed. I ‘looked’ down. The water by my base was producing light. I looked further abroad to confirm. Yes, it was specifically the water at my base. The other gatherings of water were the same as always: a murky colour similar to that of the bed it lay on.
No-one can fault me for having my curiosity peaked. I wondered what the cause of this was. It wasn’t the water of the sky. I watched the water tumble down with its usual ferocity. It was normal until it hit the bed. It was only then, after it mingled with that particular area of bed, that it was infused with the light of the Light. Conveniently, that also happened to be the exact patch where a certain white chunk of bed was buried and wrapped with my roots. I think even the nuisances would be able to put the pieces of that particular puzzle together.
Speaking of that white chunk; it was now smaller, I noted. I wouldn’t have even noticed if not for the fact that I had wrapped my roots around it quite tightly, but now there was a tiny layer of water between my roots and the chunk. The water there was glowing particularly brightly. Tentatively, for I had already taxed much of my energy not long ago, I had my roots absorb a little bit of the water.
…
It was delicious. I can’t think of any other way to describe it. To clarify, it didn’t taste any different from normal water. But it was delicious all the same. It was delicious in the same way that normal water was after a long period of warm and the bed had completely dried up. I felt like a starving seed taking in its first sips of water again. So much energy rushed through me with only a tiny bit ingested. I didn’t hold back. I guzzled it up, leaving nothing to spare.
Normally, even for an unusual bedmate like me, I still wouldn’t have been able to so quickly and easily absorb it all. But with all the energy this water was providing I could grow so very fast. It put all my other growth spurts to shame. I cared little for the fact that the water was coming down in greater sheets than ever. I cared little that great crashing noises split the sky at the same times as blinding flashes of light. All I cared about was absorbing that Light water and growing.
Within a fraction of a light-dark I had near doubled in volume. My head burst into leaf. The canopy grew dense, dense enough that the water was now falling around me instead of straight down. It didn’t take long for me to realise that this was not, in fact, what I wanted. With the water blocked from falling straight down, it could no longer easily reach the white chunk. With wry amusement over the ease with which I now moved, I created an opening through which the water could fall. I didn’t just stop there though. I angled the other branches of my head to direct the water to that singular spot. Soon water was pouring in rivets onto that singular spot.
The light had long since set, and now the only light that could be seen was emanating from my roots. The white chunk slowly shrunk in size. I kept track of it with my roots the entire time. For every tenth of its radius that it shrunk, I gained enough energy to double in volume. By the time the dark was ending the chunk, the Light Fragment, has vanished. The water continued, but without the fragment it was simply mundane water. I cared little for this.
You see, even though the Light Fragment had vanished, it had marked me. Within myself, I could feel it. Deep inside, from where all my intelligent thoughts originated, I could feel something. It was tiny. It was newly born, and the colour of free leaves. It was glowing with a passion only matched by the Light, and so very compassionate. If all the energy I had used before were a drop of water, then this was enough to drown me. But it didn’t. It was mine. It was me. It was me just as much as my roots or my branches were. The green light was shaped just like a seed. Like me when I was just sprouting. I had a feeling that I could make it grow just like I had myself. All I needed to do was water it.
xXxXxXx
And them's the end of the chapter. As I said in the summary, this is a story for NaNoWriMo 2019, so I'm hoping I'll be releasing chapters semi regularly. No promises though, as I've already beaten my word count from the entirety of last years NaNoWriMo.