10. Epilogue

They had searched for Hanah high and wide, but never found her. The only proof of her existence came when they stepped over the Lava Bridge that Ardex had made. An irritated voice had said: “Stop looking for me. I’m not coming. Zyme. Let life bloom slowly.”

Every time a god wanted to hurry again and hastily speed up life, they, oddly enough, fell asleep.

And no matter how often Eeris looked back, indeed Hanah did not come. So they reached Ardex’s Heavenly Palace without her. A zigzagging staircase led to the opening up high. All along it stood flowers and trees, even if not yet alive. At the bottom Darus placed the last diamond on the railing.

A waterslide had been carved alongside the stairs. Gulvi pushed his fin forward and squirted water. To his disappointment, it immediately trickled downward, leaving the slide dry.

Cosmo saw it and blew a raincloud from his beak. Gulvi tried again, and this time the water at the bottom was absorbed by the cloud, which carried it back upward. A consistently flowing waterfall formed, and now everyone could reach the palace.

Ardex waited in the opening. The palace nearly touched the clouds, and at that height the wind blew fiercely, though no one minded. They let their magnificent fur flutter. Gulvi enjoyed the waves. Large fire baskets left and right provided a cozy atmosphere.

“Welcome to our new palace! Without a roof, for now.”

“Did you make all this yourself?”

“Oh, it’s nothing. We’ll have to continue building for a while, together, to finish it. But that’s fun, right?”

Darus polished the staircase by placing two stone tiger head statues at the bottom. He blew on the first step and the stairs transformed into an escalator made from turning stone.

While standing still, he was carried upward.

Feria sighed. “Was that really necessary?”

“Shush shush, I’m tired from all that running around.”

They followed Ardex to the magnificent palace hall, packed together fur to fur.

“Did you talk with Ardex yet,” Cosmo whispered to his little brother.

“Yeah. As long as we sleep in separate bedrooms it should be fine. I really can’t stand his snoring.”

“… that’s the only thing that came out of the conversation?”

“Huh? What else should I talk about?”

“You know. The fact you two can’t be together without him setting things on fire or you throwing boulders at his head.”

“Nah. A difference can remain a difference. He’s still family. I’ll just always do things differently than him.”

Ardex still avoided his little brother. Darus had to push a huge stone throne, decorated with his finest diamonds, against the back wall on his own. I think Darus is taking things too lightly again, Cosmo thought. But we’re safe, for now. So I’ll let it go.

Upon entering the hall, everyone shot off to study their own little corner. Eeris had her own forest of stone trees, which she hoped to someday replace with real trees. Gulvi had a maze of rivers ending in a swimming pool in the corner. Darus made a big throne of shiny emeralds and pushed it against the back wall.

Ardex placed the sleeping Bella upon it.

Bella stretched and yawned with her eyes closed. She let herself fall back to continue sleeping, until she realized she was sitting up instead of lying down. Her forehead and snout were warm, the rest of her cold. She carefully cracked open one eye.

Before her whiskers, her family bustled back and forth carrying objects. Cosmo and Darus held a large oblong rock, while Eeris and Feria tried to find a spot for their DNA carpet. They eventually sneaked it into Gulvi’s swimming pool. Because outside of water, the DNA still couldn’t do anything: nor move nor find other particles to connect with.

“What?” Bella yawned again. “Where am I?”

“Hey, you’re awake!” Cosmo tried to laugh but the weight of the bench pressed on his head.

“What are you doing?”

“Darus insisted we make a guest room, for when our living creations might someday visit. I tried explaining most animals can’t sit on chairs—”

“Nonsense, then they’ll just have to learn!”

Bella noticed she sat on a throne. “… why am I here?”

Ardex walked into the hall. “I didn’t have time yet to make a bed. Besides, the Throne of Tomorrow is the perfect spot for the leader of this world.”

“Leader? Who?” Bella looked behind her. “Oh … me. But I don’t want to be any leader at all.”

“Well, sometimes a leader must do not what she herself wants, but what her citizens most desire of her.”

“You’re not my citizens. You’re my family!”

“Is there a difference, in the eyes of a good leader?”

Bella paused, as she laughed at Gulvi playing with his stone rubber duckie.

She nodded. Her body was whole and she felt stronger, although a feeling of hunger and exhaustion lingered. “So we’re staying here? We have life force?”

“I know finer places,” said Darus, also burdened by the weight of what he’s carrying. “But the planet is cooling rapidly. The ground has nearly sealed shut everywhere. I can’t stop the tectonic plates anymore, but I’ve slowed them way down.”

“There’s still no oxygen in the air,” said Cosmo. “But that’s not needed now, since we can do without.”

Eeris used her long neck to place the first stones of the roof. “And the only life at the moment is some particles in the water that catch other particles.”

The Green Sisters looked at each other. “But we won’t stay here, in the heavenly palace. We want our throne on land, helping nature as much as we can.”

Cosmo clapped his beak. “Me too. I’m a bird. I belong in the air, a sky warden above my own throne—not a bird on a chair.”

“Of course you can all make your own throne. As long as we regularly meet here.” Ardex sighed. “But take it easy. Zyme. Listen to what Hanah said.”

“If Hanah really wanted to help us, she would have come here by now.” Bella was startled by her own harsh voice.

“Sorry, Hanah!” she called upward, in case she was secretly listening in, which Bella figured she probably was.

She stepped down from her throne. “Then I want helpers. Cosmo, you’ll be my messenger. Tell me news from the world and take my messages to the others. Ardex, you’ll be my law enforcer. Make sure nothing gets out of hand and all live together peacefully.”

“What about me?” Darus suddenly stood before her, while Cosmo swung back and forth trying to hold up the bench alone.

Bella laughed. “You guard the mountains. But as long as Hanah stays away, you especially get to bring fun and liveliness.”

“In that case, Bella the Wise—inventor of the Life Force Theory with which I now reluctantly also agree—I have a first problem. How do we prevent our life from leaving this planet? They would die immediately out there … and so would we.”

“I can make the air layered so no life ever passes through?” Cosmo had meanwhile dropped the rock on the floor.

“I can tell creatures the world is flat and they’ll fall off the edge?” Darus said laughing—until he realized everyone took it seriously.

“Good ideas! Your mountain range will hold back life for a while. As will that huge ocean. And that spot Cosmo couldn’t fly past, even though we don’t know why.”

Ardex took his place next to the Throne. He placed his left paw on Bella’s little front paw.

“And Father?” he said softly. “What if he comes to visit us? To permanently … remove us?”

“We have to be stronger. Our magic comes from the life force around us, that much is certain now.”

She smiled. “And believe me, we’ll give this planet more life than anywhere in the whole universe.”

And so it was that life continued …