3. Fire Feelers

Ardex had to explain, for the fifth time, that he could not spit fire underwater. Even worse, he couldn’t even get into the water. If he touched the sea for only a few heartbeats, his entire body fizzled and hurt. Swimming into it would probably hurt so much he’d faint.

“Water and fire, never together.”

“That must be the next characteristic of life,” Eeris yelled. “Sensitivity.”

“You know what I sense?” Darus had pulled up a stone to use as bed. “A break.”

Ardex already pulled him up by his collar. Darus had grown since landing on Somnia and had surpassed his big brother Ardex in size. Still he looked guilty and let it happen.

The mist from Ardex’ frustrated flame still hung over the beach, a blurry gray fog. Now that his Firering had returned to him, he felt much stronger. Eeris bumped into everyone as she tried to explain.

“To live, you need to know what happens around you. You have to respond to what happens outside of yourself. If you can’t see, for example—”

Eeris tripped and fell flat. Ardex wasn’t sure if she did it on purpose to make a point, but then his thoughts immediately returned to the mysterious portal. Could it be? Maybe Mother tries to secretly help us, even if Father disallows it. She hates me, but loves her family in general. This is our chance to return to the Heavenly Palace. Maybe—

“Hello, Ardex, did you hear me?” Bella waved her paws before his glassy eyes. “Can you do what you did?”

“What? Oh, turn the water to steam.” Bella could talk in such weird ways sometimes. Cosmo was also guilty of that. They probably found themselves very clever. He hid the Firering under his bright orange paw and blew at a part containing many Movelings. As soon as the heat evaporated the water, all the Movelings spun away from each other. As if they played hide and seek and had only ten heartbeats to find a new hiding place.

“So it’s no coincidence,” Bella said. Lost in thought, she tapped a stone against her chin, then asked Darus to write down a new sentencein her book. “Movelings seem to feel warmth and flee from it.”

“Warmth?” Ardex said. “My fire breath is hot enough to burn anything! Please have some respect for—”

“Yes, quite logical,” Bella said. “Life wants to survive, otherwise it stops living pretty quickly.”

Even with the Firering, his siblings didn’t pay his powers any respect. Ardex was used to it, though he hoped the portal would also spit out his Flamefeaster somewhere. Then he would really be as powerful as he was long ago.

“Doesn’t help us,” Gulvi said. “Ardex can’t do this in the water.”

Eeris pinched his dolphin cheeks. “Not so negative, wavy. If they can sense warmth, they can sense other things. Like … cold.”

Gulvi’s eyes lit up. “Cold also kills life. And it’s quite cold under water, as sunlight can’t easily reach in and heat up the ground.”

The sun rose already. Still Gulvi turned himself into a blue beacon of light and dove underwater. The gods followed his movements, still ashore. He found a new group of Movelings. Before Ardex could blink, the water froze into ice cubes, like a chique cocktail for a giant.

Some Movelings were stuck in the ice. But most shot in different directions again, looking for warmer waters. This was already more movement from the puddings than in all that time before.

“But … they have no eyes. No ears. They are blobs made from a few cells. How do they do this?”

“We still think too far,” Eeris said. “We want big, complicated animals like ourselves. But life starts small and simpel. You can still see things without having something we’d recognize as an eye.”

Gulvi surfaced. The cold stayed for a while, but once it’s gone, all Movelings fell still again. Ardex noticed he called the Movelings stupid in his thoughts. Why did they not search their own food, like sunlight or oxygen!? Why did they not do anything? Did they not understand they would just die now?

And indeed, half the group hadn’t fled the heat or the cold, and had died. And so the groups of Movelings shrank again and again.

“Maybe we need to stop,” he said. “If we keep experimenting, we’ll lose all life!”

Bella shook her head. Her smiled widened and Darus could barely keep up with her notes for the book. “Think again.”

She really had to stop making Ardex feel stupid himself. He was out of place here: the others managed this, his duty was to find the gate and the intruder.

Yes, yes, that’s why he couldn’t tell them the truth. They didn’t understand. They thought they were happy here, but look—the landscape was barren, there was nothing, this was closer to Hell than Heaven. But once they were back at the palace, immortal gods once more, Bella would agree that it was much better there.

Bella just looked serious and unhappy lately. It wasn’t always that way. The Heavenly Palace contained all elements of the universe, beautiful and ugly. If they found something interesting, they took it back home. Or was it the other way around? Mother invented something new and then brought it to random planets?

It didn’t matter. The palace floated on clouds, made of stone that was strong and soft, of the purest white you ever saw. It held colorful gardens, mostly on the many rooftops and bridges between different areas. Bridges the gods didn’t need themselves—in their original shape they could float through walls if they wanted—but their animal subjects did.

Ardex couldn’t wait to be back. They had been banished to Somnia for a million years. Yes, he’d counted the days. And lazy puddings were their greatest accomplishment.

Bella pulled him from his daydreams.

“The Movelings that survive must have the right feelers! Purely through luck, their body tells them to do what’s needed to not die: flee from extreme cold and heat. So if we keep experimenting, we’ll only keep the best Movelings in the end! Those who will survive!”

The first sunrays entered the water. Some were stopped by the many Solidlings that Eeris made, some died quickly under the surface. The consequence was a sea showing spots of shadow and spots of light. It gave Eeris an idea.

“Gulvi, can you put a group of Movelings in the deepest shadow you can find?”

The dolphin took a group in his mouth and brought them to an area so dark that Ardex couldn’t see them anymore. The answer to her experiment arrived instantly. Gulvi swam away from the place … and was surrounded by hundreds of Movelings coming with him.

It also meant hundreds stayed behind. They would never leave the place, for they hadn’t developer feelers for light, and no sunlight meant no food. Ardex started to see Bella’s idea. For the Movelings that did flee, stayed alive and swam with Gulvi.

Well, swimming was big word. Random appendices fluttered like leaves in the wind, which happened to propel the Movelings forward.

Eeris didn’t need to explain the next experiment. Gulvi placed the swimming Movelings in a spot drenched in warm sunlight. They immediately stopped moving and refused to leave.

“Write this in your book,” Eeris said. “Sensitivity is crucial to survival, which is obviously crucial to life.”

“And add this,” Darus said. “The great god Darus is equally sensitive to sunlight. If he falls asleep under warm sunrays, he never has to move from his place and may take an infinite break.”

Something sparkled in the distance, now that sunlight was able to reach it. But the colors were wrong and it was too large and bright for a simple stone. Only Ardex seemed to notice. He opened his mouth to mention it—but no, it was better if he continued his portal quest alone.

Suddenly the calm sea turned into tall waves. A surprised Gulvi was spit out on the beach, a fish on dry land. Stones appeared in the sky and rained down into the water. It caused even taller waves.

Not again, Ardex thought. The intruder is playing with us! I must stop it.

“You know what? I’ll find calmer waters.”

“Would … would you do that?” Bella and Eeris looked up, afraid a stone would hit their head. When Darus took a step, normally so sure and balanced, he slipped over the layers of bacteria that covered all land.

“Yes, yes, it’s probably nothing. Juuuuust nothing. Stay here and experiment.”

“But we need you for—”

“Research and exploration!”

Ardex sprinted away before anyone could stop him. He took a short detour to a different body of water, but as soon as the others were out of sight, he made a sharp turn and headed straight for the portal. It was sinking already, slow as usual. But Ardex had learned: at this pace, he’d be too late again.

So he sped up using his magic. With each step, sparks shot from the sand. Flames underneath his paws regularly allowed him to make gigantic leaps. The shredding of the gods continued, though, and not all paws participated equally.

I have to make it. I have to! Only fifty tree lengths. The portal was still halfway above water. He took one final leap—then realized his mistake.

His entire body landed deep inside the water. All his fire extinguished, while feeling like his body was on fire everywhere. The pain was unbearable. His ears filled with sizzling and buzzing as if he was boiled alive.

He fainted.

But not before he noticed the water magically splitting and forming a large bubble around him.

Ardex didn’t know how long he’d been unconscious.

When he awoke, he was on the beach. He felt better than expected. Only some puddings stuck to him, with their black dots and strings visible behind their transparent shell. They shone a little more and wiggled sometimes. Whenever they moved, voluntarily, it felt like a miracle. Briefly, Ardex felt proud of creating these creatures with his family.

Even the gate was still there!

Or, well, that’s what he thought, until his vision sharpened. The gate was replaced by a gigantic wing, stuck in the water with its tip pointing at the clouds. As if it had grown out of the seabed, as if a giant rhino stood just below the water surface.

He recognized it as Cosmo’s Windgustwing. But it didn’t look exactly like he remembered, for a message was written in large symbols at the front.

I can bring you home, but only if you STOP your experiments.