The theme is angels in the World of Darkness as a variant. This and similar stories of mine present angels and their relationship to Man, God, demons, and each other in a much more dark and cynical perspective than is typical for the subject. Thus it has something in common with books like Good Omens, films like the Prophecy, and games like In Nomine. Therefore it might not be suitable or enjoyable for those with strong convictions and beliefs about angels. - This story is part of an ongoing chronicle at my web site (see profile) using a shared character. If you would like to contribute to this chronicle, please stop by. Otherwise, any helpful hints and critques are most appreciated. - Cheers, Sol.
Prelude
The animal sniffed. She sensed a presence and froze, waiting. Her twitching wet black nose kept pace to the fast rhythm of her heart. Her eyes were used to the shade, picking out details from the shadows. Sunlight filtered through the hard-skinned giant fern trees, whose canopy of fronds tossed in a hot wind, sending small scattering beams of light playing across the dry forest floor. There appeared to be no danger so the animal continued. She was looking for grubs, tearing up the soft loamy earth of the composting floor, digging. Every now and then, she would pause, take a look around, and then get back to work.
One of the many spots of sun on the forest floor left the pool of dancing lights. It travelled up a fern and paused, tucked into a rest upon a frond branch. It was joined by another.
"All this is to come to an end?" The nameless elohite who would one day call herself Fiona could not believe that God would so willingly cast aside so much of Creation, so much of such beauty for so trivial a reason. The vast grand magnificence of the world was almost too much to bear. Broad fern forests and fern plains reached down as far as the river while in the arid uplands, great two-legged reptiles hunted. Thundering herds of majestic long necked herbivores raised clouds of dust that stretched for miles while small winged reptiles flitted over the azure river in the distance, chasing insects. And this was just one place, one view into the vast complex jewel of life that was the Earth. The order that countless elohim had toiled to craft, weaving song and silence intertwined, would soon pass away. The world was being broken and remade anew. And for what?
"Why?" was all she could think to ask her companion. He had advised against her witnessing this advent; but she had to be there one last time, surrounded by her creations. Never again would she see the night mists steaming off the rocky plains in the morning while giant mothers scoured the rocks aside with tails and horned hands, eager to lay their eggs.
"Because the ones who are coming, the new children of God; they will need the energy of this world to build their own. That energy will become their test, a black milk of their Mother Earth. It will sustain them for a time but then it will kill them if they keep to it too long."
"So, all that we have worked to create, all this terrible beauty will be for nothing but to fester and rot so that someday it will all become a black burning sludge for other creatures to waste." She could not bear to think of it. What kind of plan could there be to render down such a vision as was before her for the benefit is only one creature that would not even exist for eons. Her thoughts drifted upward. Already the sky was darkening. The doom from Heaven was near to upon them.
"So, all the world dies for one creature. And where is this great creation who will supplant us, whose form we will one day wear, whose feet we must wash and whose eyes caress?"
"There. There will be other survivors, other few. Life will continue."
"That is the new child of God?."
The eloha regarded the insignificant furry animal with the naked tail. She was already burrowing into the loam, frightened by the sudden falling darkness.
"Not that one now, but one of the forms of life that will come from that creature's essence will one day stand upright, like your great doomed hunters. They will gaze to the skies and they will name the world and all things in it, making themselves the masters thereby. They will read the bones of this world and their imaginations will one day walk this place in wonder. Do not hate them. They are what they are and we must learn to love them."
Not I, she vowed silently. I might have to bear their form, I might have to become their guide, their master, their servant. But I do not at least have to love them.
The roar and fire of the comet passed overhead, drowning sound as it scorched the sky, heading for the distant sea. But even here, a thousand miles away, death was coming.
story by Solanio