3. The Guilty Shield

When Eeris swung by this time, Dilova couldn’t judge if it was good or bad news. It turned out to be no news at all.

She greeted everyone kindly. She didn’t even look at the staircase and acted like it had always been there. She patiently listened to the complaints about the egg thief who was still active.

Since that one time Dilova managed to fly for a while—when she was accidentally sucked up by the Ghostbird—she searched day and night for a similar feeling.

Father said I shouldn’t talk to the gods, Dilova thought. That they had to work even faster now Cosmo had discovered them. But Eeris is different than those other gods.

Her body felt so tired. Her wings from trying fly, her foot from trying to stand. But she wanted it so badly that she studied the sky every heartbeat. Father probably thought she was admiring the stairs, but she only saw herself floating between the stars. Stars that seemed endlessly far away.

She waited on a low branch until Eeris was close by. Then she whispered: “Eeris, I have a little question.”

Eeris brought her head right next to hers, even if her neck had to twist to do so. She whispered too: “Why are we whispering?”

“I’m looking for a place where something pushes me upward. So I can practice flying. Do you know anywhere like that? You’ve been everywhere, right?”

“Not everywhere, but you don’t have to look far. Cosmo’s throne is in the middle of the Gigagushers. Sometimes hot air shoots out of the earth there. That’s how all life began, can you believe it?” Eeris spoke more enthusiastically. “But can we stop whispering? It hurts my voice.”

Dilova hesitated and plucked at her feathers. But Eeris looked at her so sweetly. “Father can’t know I’m talking to you.”

“Why not?”

She saw Fiante in the corner of her eye. He walked their way.

“I’d recommend taking a look at the Midterra Sea,” Dilova whispered, before she jumped to a higher branch, and Eeris quickly looked the other way.

“Ah, another so-called inspection of the stairs?” said her father.

“Um, yes, and I have to say the stairs don’t look very sturdy at all. It’s dangerous to continue building.”

Fiante tapped his nose against her brown hoof.

“Good one, Eeris.”

Eeris didn’t have to walk all the way to the Midterra Sea. Around the Sunset River, the green forest landscape already changed into barren brown plains. Her connection with nature, her sense of life force, immediately sank. Her body shivered and she unsuccessfully tried to grow some plants from this flattened earth.

“Who does something like this?” she repeated over and over, out loud. As if she hoped an animal would burst from the mud and answer.

Footprints made a winding path back to the sea. Eeris didn’t recognize them, which scared her, because she knew all the feet of all the life she had put on land. Their depth revealed they had to be heavy beasts. But what? And where are they now? And why?

The first trees she saw, were drifting dead in the water. Until they seemed to come to life. A Proto-Turtle in the distance pushed its head through the water surface and created high waves. Opposite of them, snakes slithered through the wet mud.

The turtle said something. The snakes said something back. Eeris made herself as small as possible, by wrapping her neck around herself like a ribbon, and crept closer.

“What words do you even know?” The turtle now spoke at nearly the same speed as other creatures, a sign of extreme irritation.

“We know the same words as the others. You have your weird language!”

Eeris could understand the turtles just fine. In her eyes they spoke a language that was much better and more natural, based on the language of the gods. She had delivered the Dracs to the turtles long ago, without saying anything, because she knew Proto-Turtles could easily read the symbols on the wooden blocks.

For the snakes, however, every sentence had to be a huge guess. After a short talk, they switched to sign language.

“We,” the snake twisted her body into an arrow to indicate the group of creatures. “Saw,” the snake pointed at her eyes. “A staircase,” she contorted her body to mimic the stairs.

“Congratulations.”

“Staircase consists of stacks of wood,” she pointed at the tree trunks in the water. “And stones,” she pointed at the many chunks of rock along the coast, something Eeris only noticed now. Those don’t belong here. I think they come from the Maybemountains.

“Ah. Then we will visit. Tear it down and use the materials.”

Eeris nearly jumped from the bushes. If the Proto-Turtles start walking on land, they will destroy everything on their path to the stairs.

But if they demolish the stairs … the gods were innocent.

History seemed to repeat itself. The previous times she had strongly opposed her family’s plans. She had wanted to stop the asteroid and save the dinosaurs.

Now she didn’t know anymore either.

She watched as the Proto-Turtle pulled itself onto the coast and walked after the snakes. His feet stamped the dead earth beyond revival. We helped them so much, she thought. And this is how they thank us?

He trampled the plants she had just conjured up. He stood on top of wooden blocks full of symbols until they cracked.

And then Eeris understood.

Dilova had seen what the Proto-Turtles were doing. And she knew how the gods would react to such a crime. So they built a staircase to escape before another great disaster falls on their heads, as punishment.

She sauntered back to her throne. All her energy went into conjuring new plants and strengthening the trees. The rest of the energy was spent on her endless doubt. Should I tell my family about this? Tell Dilova? Or keep quiet?

She only knew one thing for sure: those Proto-Turtles had to be stopped, but it could not come at the cost of all the other creatures—again.