6. Energy

Searching for Feria, Bella tripped over a bump that was suspiciously round and soft. She immediately felt it had fur. She immediately saw it was a bunny.

She immediately noticed it wasn’t alive.

“Oh. Oh no. Feria, is that you? Feria? Feria?”

She picked up the rabbit. It was cold and could move no more than a lifeless rock. The eyes were open yet unseeing. Bella pressed the soft cute creature against her. She cried.

“Help!”

She had never shouted with such volume. Her cry of despair echoed across the planet, even making her own fur stand on end.

Ardex and Cosmo rushed to help. They kept calling their sister’s name, but it was as if the rabbit …

“Not born yet.” A shadow fell over everyone, as a fox climbed out of the darkness and onto a high rock. The pink and white fur shone beautifully in the evening sun, even though parts had crumbled.

The fox ran towards Bella. Her brothers did the same, but were too late to offer protection.

“Did you do this? Did you kill my sister?”

Bella made herself as large as possible and stuck out a hand, just as she had done with Ardex. She wanted to add her other front paw, but it was already gone.

“Stop! Not one step closer, or, or, I’ll do something to you!”

The fox slowed down, leaving a trail of dust clouds. “Geez Bella, what on earth are you talking about?”

“See that rabbit? You killed it. You—wait—how do you know my name?”

“It’s me! Your sister!”

Bella wrinkled her nose. Her left foot nervously clattered on the ground. “Is that true? Can you prove that? What’s my nickname?”

“Phew, which one do you want to hear? You have many. Also many you don’t want to hear, I think.”

“See! You just don’t know.”

Darus leaned forward and whispered in Bella’s ear. “Is this really necessary? Who else could it be? There’s no life on this planet except us. That’s the whole problem. Or are you admitting your theory of life force is wrong?”

Bella shook her head. “Then who is that rabbit?”

The fox crept closer and overheard them. “I made that rabbit. I just couldn’t bring it to life, no matter how hard I tried. She’s not dead. She’s just not born yet, so to speak.”

“Why should we believe that?”

Darus’ loud sigh caused pebbles to swirl around him. “Bella, knock it off already. You know, I’m taking charge here. Welcome back, Feria!”

He walked over to the fox and bumped his nose against hers. Feria did the same.

Ardex growled. “Come back! Nobody put you in charge. I’m in charge.”

“A good leader doesn’t need to tell everyone they’re the leader.”

“No, a good leader doesn’t take stupid actions! You just do whatever you feel like. You have zero responsibility for your family.”

Darus laughed. “Says the god who made Father so angry that he banished all of us to this planet. Or was he scared? Was Father scared of you?”

Ardex sunk his tusks into the ground and a fiery wall rose between the brothers. Darus fell flat on his belly. A deep crack opened up and safely sucked in the fire.

Feria’s eyes went wide open. “Let me prove it’s me! Please, before something serious happens. I’ve already lost my little brother and sister too.”

All mouths fell open. “That rabbit is Hanah?”

“No, I just don’t know where they are. At first Gulvi was still with me. He’s a dolphin, but easy to overlook.”

“How can you possibly overlook a dolphin?”

“He’s a very tiny dolphin.” Feria had to smile again, remembering the cute sight. “I think the size of your animal depends on how old you are.”

“Then Hanah might have turned into an ant, or a bug, or—we might be standing on top of her right now.”

“No, no, she’s not an ant. Did you guys see that explosion by the way? I was just calmly sunbathing, when suddenly it was evening. And there was this grey, glowing thing hanging in the sky. It was sort of banana-shaped. Let me see if it’s still—”

“Okay, I believe you’re my sister.”

“But I haven’t—”

“Trust me, only you can calmly sunbathe as the world is ending.”

Bella jumped over the crack in the ground. She tried to mimic Darus’ greeting, but standing upright she was too big, and on four paws too small. Eventually she gave Feria a kiss on the forehead.

“I made multiple bunnies. They all look like the real animal. But they’re not alive.”

“I had that problem too,” said Eeris. Her smile disappeared. “We were hoping you had an answer.”

By now the gods were faded to such an extent that they could barely walk or move their heads. Darus did his best to keep the cracks in the ground open. Cosmo tried changing the air. But the planet was cooling down and increasingly becoming one dead lump of rock—with no chance of life.

We just can’t give up, Feria thought. It looks bad. I don’t know the solution either right now. But we have to keep thinking, keep trying. That’s what you always do.

“Maybe I do have an answer,” she said suddenly. Ears perked up, from the gods who still had them. “All animals run on energy. Maybe if we generate enough, something will start moving, something will happen.”

It was enough to get her family off the ground one more time. Every now and then something shot out of the holes, like a volcano, but filled with gas.

It was hot. It went fast. It felt like it could contain energy.

Ardex brought Feria’s rabbit over to the air geysers and held the creature above the fastest ones.

Cosmo and Darus faced the sun. It was a ball of energy, but it was also far away. Deep inside themselves, where some divine power still remained, they tried sending the sun’s energy to the rabbits.

Feria and Eeris felt their own power. Plants and animals. Different, but also always connected. Sometimes Feria thought she could feel the rabbits’ presence. A small point of light in an otherwise black world devoid of life force.

But when one god after another collapsed onto the ground, exhausted, her own energy also wavered.

“Don’t give up!” Ardex kept shouting everyone awake, over and over. “Darus, you’re picking your nose again. Work harder! We can do this!”

“No,” Darus shouted, “we can’t do this.”

His voice was wild, cracking, out of control. “You ruined everything! You just had to get soooo angry at Father. You thought your own power better than our powers. You didn’t want to look for Gulvi. And now we’re dying here in this hell.”

Darus stomped the earth with the only paw he had left. A crack followed. Not just any crack, a deep, wide, pitch black line that wound through the planet.

One crack became multiple cracks.

Ardex growled and leaped at Darus like a fireball. Before they collided, Darus had already expanded the crack into a deep spiderweb across the ground.

The brothers shouted at the same time, as if that would enhance their final breath, as if that would summon the ultimate might of their power.

The planet broke into pieces.

Wherever cracks slithered, the crust broke into hundreds of islands. Stone plates drifting apart. The hot magma underneath was finally free and shot upward like millions of volcanoes erupting simultaneously.