Necessary Reflections, Distracting Events

(Phy Report #0025: 9th September 1957)

We have discovered a creature Phy. Every time it has been located, it has been only found on the fringes of Rao, Gader. A desert seems to have formed in the path that it seems to traverse. Geomorphologists and geologists could not return any explanation or possible hypothesis for the unusually-recent formation of this desert, which is far in the northern hemisphere of the globe — it is possible environmental Phy.

The creature Phy 0025 has a body and posture similar to a gorilla — found in the way that it stands and walks with its fists on the ground. The head is akin to a rhinoceros, and it has ears that represent horns more than ears. It has massive arms, akin to a building or a small skyscraper, with the width of one as well. The arms seem to have horns growing out of them. 0025 has digitigrade legs, but with massive and muscular thighs which are similar to its arms in build. Its skin seems to be scaly, and its colour is a dark brown with a tinge of green due to what’s on its back.

There seems to be an island, a microcosmic habitat, on 0025’s back. Grass and flora grow out of their back instead of on it. There seems to be a pink and translucent liquid running like a river through them…

The scene in my head disappears, bringing me back to this world, and I hear a familiar voice coming from nowhere. I never know the source of the sound; all it seems to do is fill the area near Tote. It is balanced, soothing and androgynous. And though it is soothing, its surprising appearance jolted my body, which also made my head jump from when I was staring at the ground.

“Jeez, man! I was in the middle of something, and you cut me off.”

“I see. See you. Smiling at self. Happy thinking”

“You can tell?”

“Years me know you is many. Of course me tell!”

“Well, yeah, that’s true.” I stand up and slap away the dirt on my ass.

“Uh, by the way, Tote. Wanted to ask you something. I don’t know how I didn’t ask you that before, and now I’m curious” I say as I was walking towards them, tilting my head upwards a little.

“So, like, where are you when I’m not around? I started thinking about that when the Wind here told me that everything is black sometimes.”

“Here all time you here. Looking, hearing, happy. But not here between. Don’t know between. Live no between. But you always here.”

“Oh. Oh, interesting. Um. Yeah, uh. I guess that’s, that’s pretty interesting.” I look down, embarrassed at the quaver of my speech, with another weight of shame added on by not knowing what to say next.

“How EIO things?”

“What do you mean? I do a lot of stuff for them. Pick one,” a sharp tone comes out of me, one that I didn’t mean.

“Recharging. Interview. Acting. Stuff,” Tote’s face was still smiling. Their tone didn’t change from its aura of blithe and unconcerned optimism. I felt that blithe buoyancy a minute ago, and every single other time I’ve talked to them. I can’t decide if it’s irritating or not.

“Oh, yeah,” I look down, yet again, in embarrassment, “Yeah, it’s, it's the usual stuff. But, yeah, I have nothing else to do, so-”

“Really?”

“Uh, yeah?”

“No true.”

“What do you mean?”

“Choose to.”

“Choose to? I don’t really choose to. It’s just that, duty calls, y'know. I have nothing else to do that I haven't already thought of doing."

“Duty don’t call. You call duty.” Their tone doesn’t change, but the air of its sentiment doesn’t need it to, as the content of his speech screams at me.

“Yeah, but, even so. I, I have nothing else to do. I’ve thought all that can be man. And the thought of thinking more is just…”

“Think that, maybe, do a crazy thing? Not in thought all time, but in do?”

Impatience brews inside. But, I didn't let it brew out of the cauldron.

“Give me one, one reason why I should. Please. Because honestly, I see little shoulds but quite a few shouldn’ts.”

Tote goes silent.

“Tote?”

“Here. Um, I don’t know. Thinking, I think. Finding, I find, hope. Hope of future. For future.”

“Yeah… Okay. Right,” the air grows tense from my inability to say something back. I look around.

“Well, uh. Anyway, I’m starving. I’ma get myself some purple berries.”

“Nah-uh. Purple, poison, remember?”

“Oh, yeah. Yellow ones. My bad!”

I turn, giving my back to Tote, going towards a bush fifty yards or so away. Glowing and luminous, the melodic dance of the flora’s hue never fails to make me spellbound. I pick from it the unchanging, albeit still brilliant, pieces of berries. They are around the size of my palm, in radius. Walking back, I put the two I picked under my armpits, hugging them — and even then, I struggled with their weight. I walk further into the forest, towards the river that’s nearby from here.

Strolling, and strolling.

It’s not there! I look to my right, and I look to my left, thinking that it would suddenly be next to me instead of in front of me. I know. I know it was there… was it? No, yes it was! What the hell? How can I wash my berries now?

I head back to Tote. I’ll hope for the best when I take a bite out of these things. Though, I can’t but wonder. How could that have happened? Like, it was there a few days ago.... The passion ended as quickly as it began, as the care in me didn’t amount to anything more than that singular thought.

Entering the place where Tote was, I sit a few meters away from him, and I prepare my mouth for the unholy gluttony that is about to take place. Like a child, the water of the fruit paints my cheeks as I munch and munch. Some of it lands on my beige shirt as well.

“Uh. Al. Please. Do.”

I look up-

A shake. No. An earthquake takes hold of my attention; my jaw stops munching. Then, I remember that across all the centuries that I’ve been alive, there would only be one reason for the tremors that have been emerging in Rao.

And now, I believe it’s here. This seism is a mere flutter of their leviathan swim through the earth.

A shadow of a mountainous size gets cast on us, and perhaps half of the forest as well. I look up and there is no sky. My vision of the skyline is covered by a colossal worm-like creature. It makes a jump over many miles of land the way a dolphin makes a jump over a few meters of water. The trajectory of its leap won’t land anywhere near where we are, and thankfully far from the city too. Even then, I anticipate the godly vibration of their eventual collision.

The earth trembles. The sound waves fill a gargantuan area with their catastrophic impact-

From the opposite direction, a calamitous crash takes place-

To my left. There arises a continuous scraping of the land-

A roar. One that could be mistaken for a God descending to howl His rage, came from every direction, stacking in monolithic and existential discordance.

There is no mistaking that a full-throttle, perhaps planned attack is taking place.