Sanded
There is always a divergence point. Sometimes it is small, miniscule even. Other times it is big, grand, and obvious. But it seems that while the latter always end with reversions to the normal state, the former can change the entire world.
This is one of those small changes. Here on this tiny, insignificant world, a great change is creeping across the land. A trio has taken it upon themselves to drive back the darkness that taints their land. A man of equal importance to this country has just freed them, and as they flee towards the desert, he sneaks away to avoid catching the attention of their guards. The rain has soaked the ground, and the makeshift shelter the guards had made for the trio is almost on the verge of collapse. The slightest disturbance could send it crumbling, awakening the guards too soon.
The man slinks away, ever vigilant, ever careful. But he sneaks a look back at the ones he freed, the ones who refused his offer. And because of that momentary distraction, he steps on a leaf.
But no sound is made and the guards go undisturbed. The man calmly continues his escape, with no further incidents.
Yet the change has already been caused. In the true set of events, that leaf would have crackled. It would have been a very soft sound, out of the man's hearing but within that of the guards. Their dreamless sleep would have been, for a instant, disturbed. That disturbance would have caused them to wake up just a few minutes earlier. And to someone familiar to the true events, the ones that should have occurred, it is now apparent that this new scenario would prove disastrous.
For if the guards did not wake up in time, they would not catch up with the trio that they were forced by their master to capture. They would not blunder into the waiting maw of a great beast that was lying in wait while their quarry hid and watched. Instead, that trio would have strewn on, unaware.
And they, and the great treasure they carried, would have fallen into the maw of a Sand Beast- and then into the grains of the Sands itself.
All because of a single raindrop, which had fallen from the sky, and finished softening the last part of the leaf. A raindrop which, in the true case, was never supposed to fall.
The raindrop has fallen, however. Four of the items of power currently reside within that collection of connected invertebrates. But as we will soon see, the others are destined to be gathered. So now it is time to ask the question which defines the new world.
What if the Hive had gained the power of the Gems?
We return on a cold night, only a week or so later. The sands are silent and still. Deep below, there is a calamity arising.
The Topaz senses the moon which will soon rise far above the crimson sands. It calls, as it must even without a human wearer, to the netherworld. It finds its calls answered- but to a greater degree than ever before.
Even grain of sand was once one of the worm-like denizens of the lower depths. Each one is dead- and there is such a vast number of the dead that they outnumber not only the living members, but all living creatures, everywhere.
The Topaz also strengthens and clears the mind. And between its calls, and the stress of applying its powers to the whole Hive's telepathic members, it is nearly strained to the breaking point.
Yet the Topaz has done its job, and the Hive, no longer acting on pure instinct, buries the Topaz deep underground. It senses that the gem was born from the earth- the earth gives it power and strengthens it. All the gems go down this new pit- and the Topaz releases its energy.
The Hive suddenly becomes aware of hundreds of millions of identical minds. These are the ghosts of the sands- ghosts who add their minds to the living. The Hive receives an infinite burst of telepathic power- which soon subsides.
For when the Hive received this boost, it reached out and touched the minds of the living beings- the living sentient beings. And though it left no imprint, it took and copied much. The Hive now has a mind- a mind approximating human, but not quite.
Now, the Hive has a mind. And with a mind comes emotions- like greed.
It wants things. It wants the gems. It wants their power, their essence. And it wants one other thing- the land that birthed them.
A wave of mud floods a river. The aquatic worms that inhabit it are used only to flesh- huge and tiny, they die, suffocated. A few other creatures are only in the guise of worms. They die, two by two, melting and boiling as they go. The Broad River is free from Ols and worms at last- but is now home to a far greater danger. Also, it is no longer technically a river.
The mud is driven by a spherical contraption. It is made out of the dead-not-dead, the grains who have been possessed by those who once occupied them as living bodies. Inside is the driving command, a small fraction of the living members of the hive. They gather the earth around, and collapse the river as they go. The broadened river collects the docks and ships that had been floating at the banks, leaving the stranded on a sea of mud. The water is continually pushed forward or soaked up into the earth.
All this comes to a stop as the sphere reaches its destination. There is a small blowhole here, and nearby, a hole which hides a deadly secret. This was the domicile of the Glus.
The sphere sheds its outer layer to form a barrier against the remaining water Its second layer is incredibly dry- it comes from the hottest part of the Hive's desert. The sand shifts into a more diamond-like shape, and crawls down the hole. There, it regains its circular shape- but extends a multitude of limbs. Its many dry endings find easy purchase on the wall. Swiftly, it swings towards the end- where the great Amethyst lies.
It has almost reached the spire in which the gem is hidden when suddenly it feels a covering form over it. That blind, slivering slug, the Glus, has heard it move despite the Hive's caution. The Glus has shot its strand of sea-foam silk up so that it has stuck to the sand. Furious, the ball tears away the patch that has been cover by the bone-white goo. It retracts all of its tentacle, the releases all of the moisture it has gotten from the cave's damp walls in a sing clump of wet sand. It bounces harmlessly of the Glus, which rears to shoot once more.
The Hive has no experience with emotions, and this minor annoyance has moved it to a murderous rage. It forms a single, the darts into the inside of the Glus!
It covers all areas, and pores and organs. The sand is dry- so very dry. Like salt, it drains the moisture- and the ancient Glus keels over, a dead husk.
The sand emerges, wet, dry, exhausted almost to the point of death. So far from the desert, the living members do not come back from the dead- and the remaining few mst strain to their greatest to keep moving. The glob of mud reaches the spire and forms a weak imitation of a drill. Once it touches the amethyst, calms steals over its mind. It still takes a great effort to drag the gem out of the maze and to the surface, but it no longer stress the Hive's mind so much. It will return- and the rest of the Hive accepts the gem with great praise, and prepares to gather the next one...
Up on a mountain, a guard cries out once- but only once. A sandstorm rages silently up the mountain, and picks him off with a hurled rock. I had journeyed across the sky, flying via limited telekinesis and the ectoplasmic forms of the dead.
It enters one of the great caverns of the beings known as the Dread Gnomes- and occupied by another being known as Gellick, a puce, brown, and teal, giant toad.
This toad sits on a throne of ill-gotten gold and gems. Only one gem in particular interests the storm- the Great Gem, the gleaming green Emerald.
The sandstorm makes horrible echoes as its carried stones hit the walls. Though the vertically-challenged denizens try as hard as the can, they eventually must give way. They do not even know that the Hive is inside this whirlwind- and even if they did, they would never reach it.
When the sandstorm enters the inner cavern, it is assailed by a torrent of poison. But all of it is blocked by the shield of flying sand and stone.
The Hive simply glides up to add the Emerald to its collection of swirling debris. I takes nothing else- its force is entirely concentrated on this one gem.
But before it leaves, it turns to the furious beast belching upon the gold. The Hive forms two strings, then a cube-shaped contraption, and now even more- all out of sand. It has formed vocal cords and a voice box, or reasonable copies of them.
It speaks. It is a horrible, gargling sound, filled with rasps, shouts, and stutters.
"Tellllllll... your masti-ti-ti-ter. HIVE! Hive knowssssss the orrrderrr... HIVE! Hive am cum-cum-cum-coming.
Gellick's only response is to flick a splatter of poison at the vocal cords. The living members trapped within die- but the rest of the Hive has learned calm. It simply leaves without further incident.
The diamond- the first, last and greatest of the gems. This one must be handled the most delicately, for the Hive knew that if it took it out of pure greed, the Diamond would fail to work.
The other had merely needed mechanical creations. This would require the creation of a mind.
So many Mere prisoners had been thrown into the sands. Their skeletons formed the bases of many undergrounds supports. The creature chose one that had once been the body of a strong-willed man, a disguised Ralad architect who had been brought to the sands by furious Mere and fed to a Sand Beast. The hive brought each piece of the broken body together.
It covered the body in sand, and called upon the Topaz one last time. The Gem had been strengthened by its return to its proper place on the belt and the gathering of five other gems. The man's spirit was taken from beyond and fused with the bones.
The Hive separated part of itself, tearing apart its own mind, and placing it inside the golem. The sand-creature was full only of innocence and a desire to give the Diamond to the Hive. It was a technicality in the Diamond's power that the Hive would exploit.
The sands opened, and the sand-creature trudged out to a building in the Valley of the Lost- a building with a very special man inside and a very special gem as well.
The man had been once named Fardeep, but now he was simply the guardian. Four monstrous creatures were connected to him fused by a living crimson strand. The sand-creature strove into the building and grabbed him. It spoke, in a rasping, yet somewhat pleasant voice.
"May I have the gem," it spoke, tilting its head to the side and revealing its bony spinal cord. "Please?" Then it lifted him up into the air and let him dangle till he answered.
Now many years have passed. The reproductive abilities of the hive quadrupled in the light of the Gems. The entire land of Deltora is covered in sand. Some start to farm it, eking out a passable living farming from the sand. Some even start to worship it. But many inhabitants of Deltora are now dead.
The shadows have been banished from Deltora in the belt's light, and the sands have covered up all evidence of further plans.
The Hive rests. It is content. It will be a good ruler. For now it is one with the land.
Its mind drifts across Deltora. It knows all, sees all, is all. It has managed to throttle the sisters, and is now using a legion of sand-dragons to cover the glob of grey goo that once hid in the land's center. Once it is done, it plans to erect a guard around the land once known as Pira. Then, it will turn its eye to its new subjects.
As the last of the dragon's bones seal the entrance through which the grey tide might seep, the mind thinks back to the day when it first gained self-awareness. For the first time, it feels worried. The smallest of changes might have resulted in it never coming into existence. Is it possible that the Hive's rise was somehow brought about by some great being's hand?
But then it shrugs away its doubts and moves on.
And from far away, we watch, and read, and smile.
End
© 2010 Harry O.