Astra-the-fungus's life began when she took root. She couldn't see, she
couldn't hear, but she could suddenly think. Her memories were strange.
She had been a non-sentienet spore but a moment ago, and before that... a
human? Now all she could think of was growing. Keep growing, keep
spreading. Soon, she would have enough cells to see, to hear, to transmit
telepathically. It was a sort of instinct she had.
Twice every second, she felt the world slam downwards, then lift up again, enveloping her in a breeze. There was a rhythm to it. What did it mean? what could move the whole world like that? The rhythm was not so gratious when the movement stopped. It was as if the world were stopping to think. But stopping to think about what? It only went up and down, and the wind always came from the front; it's not like the world could decide to go sideways, was it?
The time had passed, she could now hear. Every time the world slammed downwards there was a loud stomped that echoed everywhere. As it flew upward, there was a second stomp far away. STOMP! stomp. STOMP! stomp. And finally, there came one of those moments when the world stopped, and Astra heard a voice. "Huff, huff. Which way? Left? Right? How do I know I'm not going around in circles? Water! I must find water! This thing is killing me!" Several questions now arose: Why had the voice seemed so familiar? How could she understand it if she was only minutes old? Where had the voice come from? Was it the world speaking? And why did it need water? Water sounded like something nice, but what was it? And greater still, what was a circle? The time came again: now she was able to transmit. She thought it would be a good idea to ask the world what it was doing. "Hey!" she called out. "Hello! What are you doing?"
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1/4/2010 10:18:04 PM
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