1. Prologue

Usually Eeris, goddess of nature, swung by with good news and a friendly smile. But not this time. Wooden blocks filled with symbols hung from her giraffe neck, thanks to a necklace of leaves. She waited in the expansive flower field near the Nightriver until she had everyone’s attention.

Her voice sounded like a song that was probably still audible in other lands.

“The gods have decided!”

Dilova stood in the crowd, but saw nothing. She was a small creature, with tiny wings and just one tiny foot, surrounded by bigger beasts. Such as Gosti who had climbed down from the trees. Or rabbits, sometimes disguised as Equids.

That, dear reader, were the predecessors of horses. At this time, they were still as big as a rabbit, but they grew rapidly after the disappearance of the dinosaurs.

She lost her other foot when she was still a chick, forcing her to alternate between short bouts of flying and standing. If only I could fly longer, she thought. And fly higher. This is so tiring.

Some still called her a dinosaur, but when she saw those stone statues of the real dinosaurs … she didn’t believe any of it. She liked the name Protobird better.

“To better protect life on this planet,” said Eeris, “we are instituting a few rules. We call them the Dracs. Whoever does something mean will be stopped by us. This applies to all beings, from the Proto-Turtles in the sea, to the Cloudbeings in the sky, to the elephants on land.”

Her father looked more like a dino. His wings were weak, his skin tough and bumpy, and he dwarfed his daughter Dilova. Finally, he lifted her onto his back so she could see above the crowd.

“What is mean?” asked a brave Gosti, a monkey with big piercing eyes.

“These wooden blocks describe that in detail.” Eeris threw them at the animals’ feet.

“Most here cannot read,” said the Gosti.

Spoken language was improving, dear reader, but that was all they had. The gods had only devised a hundred or so symbols with which to communicate. And only the wise Gosti had really bothered to learn them.

Eeris looked at one of the blocks. “The first Drac says: whoever intentionally murders someone, will be burned by the fire god. The second Drac says: whoever steals food from another, will be burned by the fire god.”

Her eyes glided over the big row of symbols around her. She sighed deeply. “The summary is that the world is getting full. Some animal species have the tendency to … take more than they need, destroying others’ territory for it. The gods will certainly punish that.”

All the beings talked, neighed and chirped over each other. They had endless questions for Eeris, but Dilova’s father was not interested and turned away.

Dilova was chilled by the idea of being burned. She wished Eeris had not read those blocks at all, because now she was afraid every step she took was wrong, and it sounded like all the other animals felt the same.

“But understand that we do this for you!” she heard the giraffe goddess say.

“Nonsense,” said her father, once they were out of earshot. “They don’t decide this, of course this is an order from the Supreme God.”

“Have you ever seen him?” asked Dilova.

“No. No one. But he must exist. The stories say he threw down that asteroid to wipe out the dinosaurs, the very same day they decided to fight the gods!”

A flying creature soared high in the sky, though large enough to briefly eclipse the sun. Dilova and her father watched it. Its slow wingbeats were strong enough to blow leaves into whirlwinds.

“And that Ghostbird is the guardian of the Supreme God. And his messenger.”

“Wow. Wow wow wow. Really?”

“Have you ever seen such a big beast? None of us have wings like that, and none of us can fly so high. It must be a divinely blessed creature!”

Dilova kept watching until the Ghostbird became a black dot in the distance. That must be amazing. Flying above everything, forever. I want that too.

She jumped off her father’s back and tried to glide again. Unfortunately, she never managed a longer journey than the stretch from the Wildfields of Wit to their nest on a low branch. And her single foot already hurt from all the standing.

“So,” she asked, “you think the new rules are good?”

“They come from the Supreme God himself, so they are just. As long as none of us becomes a devil, and I don’t expect we will, nothing will happen to us. That’s how he rules over us, that’s how he even rules above the clouds. He’s improving the world, one step at a time.”

Dilova nodded along with her father. She had to agree that it would be unpleasant if big elephants suddenly ran through their fields and trampled everything. They should stay in their own place. But a bird doesn’t have that problem. The sky is endless, you can go anywhere. If only we could fly longer and higher.

“Now, darling, go have fun playing with the other Protobirds. I want you homeward bound before dark.”

“Yes, dad.”

But Dilova did not plan to play another round of tag and lose because of her foot. She had to practice flying.

Over and over she took off, flew the length of a tree, then crashed back to the ground. She tried and tried. Pushing off harder, starting from a rock, alternating the flapping of her wings. And she kept trying, even when her foot faltered from exhaustion.

She flew over the Sunset River: the first branch of the Nightriver and the border of their territory. She felt like she improved steadily. Just a few twigs further, just a bit longer in the air. Though it remained endlessly tiring, hard work for little result. What did dad say? One step at a time, or something. Keep trying.

On her last attempt, she rose considerably and became excited.

It turned out, however, that the Ghostbird passed by overhead and sucked her upwards. For a hundred heartbeats, she flew freely over the area, eyes closed for a moment, enjoying the sunset.

When she opened her eyes, she immediately crashed down.

The whole area below her was barren. The trees had been removed, the ground flattened, and she didn’t even find any insects. She landed upside down in one of the rare bushes still alive.

That’s why, at first, she didn’t understand what she saw. But when she turned around, she recognized the silhouettes rising from the water.

Proto-Turtles.

Bigger than ten elephants, bigger than all the gods. Their shell was a mosaic of thick square plates, with trees tied to them as if they weighed nothing. Their legs were soft, like sponges in the earth, barely strong enough to shuffle over land.

For they were not supposed to walk on land. The Proto-Turtles swam in the Midterra Sea, which had recently formed when the continents broke apart. Something Darus still bragged about when he came by.

“It is not enough.” Each word from a Proto-Turtle took an eternity. You didn’t understand the words, they thundered through your body.

“We must go further inland.”

Dilova rolled out of the bushes and unsuccessfully tried to fly. I don’t think this follows those new rules of the gods.