495. Endless world, 2

(Myls)

First, Snake found a riverbed.

Then she stuck her head in the gap, barraging the river and just drank it in the stead of the sea, for a very long time.

Food was less of an issue. Snake ate the underwater forests of algae that grew a little further away from the shores.

Blume and I equipped ourselves in a non-toxic part of a port city meanwhile.

And before we knew it, we were sailing away, heading roughly southeast.

Our goal is an island somewhere along the equator in the Pacific ocean. Where an old computer guessed would be the last human spaceship likely to work.

To the spaceport, a quarter of the world away.

~

Snake swims faster than most boats actually.

Her head opens up the waves, her body follows the hydrodynamic line and her wings gently row underwater.

She’s swimming using to her advantage the full length of her body like a normal snake would. In the end, she goes fast enough to have the wind blowing in our hair.

Blume is smiling. I haven’t seen that in a while. Coming from her, I know it’s not only pretend or trick. There’s a real emotion behind. I leave her to her thoughts.

S - Myuu!

The voice in her mouth is like a normal sized animal, so from her back, fifty metres away, we don’t really hear her.

B - She said she rarely swam in the sea... The black sea, when she was young, well, newborn really. But that she enjoyed it. I think she used to go for a swim when Nightmare wasn’t looking.

This says many things. That this snake looking bird actually enjoyed swimming from a young age.

That Nightmare preferred what flies, and that she may not have been a kind mother to her creations. And also that Blume can hear what she thinks, not just what she says.

B - I know what you’re thinking.

M - That all you so-called gods are a-holes that like to create living organisms to serve you like pets? I never thought that, that’s not true. I liked you better when I wasn’t aware that you created the first roses for your own desires. And that bitch was probably an insensitive tyrant for her creations such as Snake. And what a shit name...

I’m venting at Blume some blurry resentment. She takes it on without getting angry. She lets me spit.

Meanwhile Snake begins to hum, still sailing at good speed over the open ocean.

~

At twilight, as I see the stars appear, I also see a show I never quite saw before, from Snake again.

Something she couldn’t do in flight. Stretching her wings and feathers greatly into the air, one pair after another. Gently, slowly raising the gleaming things into the air like masts and sails. Stretching them, making some articulations pop in the shoulders and elbows.

And making her meowing sound after each of them. How can a thing bigger than a plane act this cutely?

M - I’ll admit you’re all good at creating life that work... Snake is... Marvellous.

B - That’s the lord of nightmares master work of art. Most beings-like-us, me included, can only copy what we find or twist it. We’re not that good in pure creation usually.

Nightmare was one of a kind even amongst her kind I guess.

At least she brought that one good thing into the world to survive her.

Though it definitely needs a better name.

~

I slept well on that odd ship.

My faint invisible connection to Snake, through what the little nightmare left in me, lets us feel a little as if we were holding hands all the time. It was reassuring. We may not speak the same language, and have nothing alike really, but we can feel a few things from each other.

In a way, it feels like I found a new Zes...

Thinking of her brings me back to my aim and anger. The soothing feeling quickly fades.

~

After a few days of uninterrupted sailing, we reached a large tropical island.

Cities lie in ruins, overrun by the jungle. It’s all long gone.

But it’s lush. Which means it’s lunch time for my pretty bird monster friend.

M - Come on pretty bird, enjoy your meal.

S - Myuu!

Blume and I are washed ashore, while the great dinosaur begins to chomp on the woods, eating them whole.

M - Where are we?

B - I’m not entirely sure. Somewhere rather close to the tropic of Cancer I guess.

M - Japan?

B - No, we’re much further south. Somewhere between Japan and Indonesia.

M - At this rate, we should be there in what? Twenty days?

B - To reach the equator, roughly yes. Then to find the spaceport island, maybe twenty more. We’ll see. I hope you enjoy eating fishes and algae.

M - I wouldn’t have survived being picky.

Blume had a sad smile. I guess that reminded her of something Rose might have said someday.

B - Let’s rest here for another day. Tomorrow you can play with her and rest. She’s still convalescent.

M - Hm. Alright.

In the background, the giant dinosaur deforests a path where it gradually crawls over on land.

Good thing Nightmare made her unable to multiply. But good thing she made her at all...

~

We didn’t scavenge much aside food growing around wildly.

Snake went fully on land and fell deeply asleep.

I camped in the ruins of an airport invaded by jungle. A picture of lush paradise for some people.

Blume went outside on her own, to walk, or hunt.

I took a good amount of time next to my campfire giving a thorough cleaning and maintenance of my weapons, methodically.

Until slumber caught up with me.

That night I dream of the great Quetzalcoatl flying around me merrily.

S - Myuu.

M - Snake... Are you in my head?

Its head now roughly my size, so much smaller than the real thing, came closer to me, to look at my face.

S - Myuu.

M - I know...

Her eyes are too small to see now. They’re a little hidden below the feathery fur.

We think of sounds. For a name.

Sounds she and I like, more than anything with a meaning.

We end up agreeing for Sanïssia. Sanïssia the great Snake. I know the others tend to prefer names that are just simple nouns with relatable meaning. I and her, prefer to choose a sound without deeper meaning to it.

That way it’s a little as if we began creating our own language, just for us two to share.

~