335. Music of Earth, 1

(Rose)

I was walking through the woods alongside Ana when this happened.

Ana and I found a liking in walking together like that from time to time.

Exchanging a few words, enjoying the shades of the trees.

I felt something I couldn't describe.

I suddenly stopped walking.

I got myself wondering, why did I stopped walking?

What was the reason the last time this happened to me?

R - Ana, can you notice anything unusual around us?

Ana looked around. She noticed it too. She became agitated.

A - Earth! Earth!

My knees began feeling a little week. But they were not really trembling by themselves. The earth was.

The sounds of a storm beyond the horizon reaching us.

But I knew beyond the trees that the weather was entirely clear. Meaning this rattling noise wasn't really coming from the sky this time.

Ana and I began to run. I told her a few words to bring Bleue as she flew ahead.

Soon after, I was running alone in the woods, as a pale wind began to cover the area.

~

When I reached the field, I could already spot the pillars of liquid earth, rising in columns out of the ground, far over the landscape. Like a few nails suddenly appearing across a thin board. But the worst was still behind me.

The floating island should be a safe place against an earthquake.

I knew Ana would find Bleue, so I ran to the surreal construction of floating trees instead of home.

I saw snakes with legs running away. A few animals we never encountered but lived alongside just shown themselves as they now feared something greater than us.

I climbed to the main floating tree, the original one we brought, now much bigger. It was floating by itself about ten metres above ground now. I released its anchors, letting ropes hanging below for anyone to catch. Or for anything as a few animals grabbed them to climb before anyone I knew.

Over the woods, a sandstorm was now covering a side of the horizon punctuated with pillars of dirt sprouting from the ground.

I was gazing at this, fascinated, when I heard Bleue below. I yelled at her about the ropes. She jumped on the first one and began climbing it, along me pulling her up as much as I could.

The earth below suddenly coughed, and a cloud of dirt covered everything.

I grabbed Bleue's hand and pulled her along us.

As we were catching our breath back, I noticed clearly what I was guessing before. The storm was luckily not coming right at us. It would go along the mountains of the east, and not toward the sea. Still, it is impressive and scary.

Bleue noticed the handful of animals now sheltered with us. Most of them trying to hold themselves between the branches of this floating shelter, away from the weather and away from us as much as could be.

The storm and the ripples of the earthquake went their way, as a Jörmungandr would crawl its way along the land.

Fissures spread. Rifts appeared in the area. Some crevices were new, and there was suddenly increased depth or length in some of the older ones, already slicing the city apart like drought over earth.

These kind of earthquake must actually happen more regularly than we would have first guessed, given how sharp and wide are some of these rifts. And because the city has a lot more of these than this single day seem to have created. The area including the city has hundreds of these cuts. Today only made a few dozen new ones.

The pillars of dust began falling onto themselves into new hills in the distance.

I now notice more clearly these little hills plaguing the lands around the city and slowly eroding it.

It clearly was far from the first time this happened.

The clouds of dust already begin to scatter. The city is mostly unharmed, and so is our domain. Mostly dust as the main inconvenience for us. Not much to worry over.

So sometimes, the land around here has these strong shivers and coughs.

R - Even in England, the weather can become harsher than we could otherwise imagine. It's a little unsettling, but that's how it is now. Geology and climate knowledge require some revisions.

B - Good thing we have this tree... Do you think we could make it grow big enough to carry our full domain?

Even if I can't quite picture it, it would be pretty nice. To be able to be both living at home and travelling along the world. A large house around a floating tree.

The adult trees weren't that big, not enough. But if we managed to gather a forest of them...

R - It's worth trying...

While we discuss it, the storm of Ochre yellow dusts scatters in the distance against the mountains. The animals escape in a rush while the ground below us falls asleep again.

~