The elders say there's nothing beyond the fields, it just drops off like the tropical reefs we read about in the schoolhouse. We're all like those tiny fish that live inside anemones and underneath greater fish but the elders never elaborate on what these greater fish are.
All I know is they're not quite right. There is something beyond the fields and it's far more than the depthless oceans they compared it to. One of them must have stuck around long enough to see the goliath eyes that slowly blink at you from the fog.
None of them stayed until both eyes opened and its whole head began to move forward. It already knew my name - knew everything about me. Didn't have a name for itself though, said it was older than any name we could think to give it.
It'll be coming closer tonight, I've invited it back to the village to ask the elders to let us cross over with it. Apparently the lands on the other side are an absolute paradise and I won't be denied paradise because a bunch of old people are scared of change.
I asked it if we'll need to bring anything with us and it said we wouldn't have need for anything when we cross over. We wouldn't even need clothes but I argued for propriety's sake we'd all be wearing something. It grudgingly agreed, didn't like the idea of us having anything other than our own skin.
If I were a wiser man I'd have been suspicious but I wasn't and I was so damn trusting I promised not to tell anyone that it was coming. Not that they'd have stood a chance anyway but there might have been other survivors if I'd only said something.
But I didn't. I trusted it and told it when we'd all be in the village centre to celebrate the new year. The fog rolled in first and I knew that it was coming. It barely stood out against the night sky, we only noticed it when a couple of embers lit it up enough for us to see not just those eyes but the gaping jaws beneath them.
They were gone before they could even scream, sucked straight into those impossibly rotating, never ending or beginning jaws until I was the last one standing. It thanked me and I could hear the screams of the villagers still caught between its teeth.
All I know is they're not quite right. There is something beyond the fields and it's far more than the depthless oceans they compared it to. One of them must have stuck around long enough to see the goliath eyes that slowly blink at you from the fog.
None of them stayed until both eyes opened and its whole head began to move forward. It already knew my name - knew everything about me. Didn't have a name for itself though, said it was older than any name we could think to give it.
It'll be coming closer tonight, I've invited it back to the village to ask the elders to let us cross over with it. Apparently the lands on the other side are an absolute paradise and I won't be denied paradise because a bunch of old people are scared of change.
I asked it if we'll need to bring anything with us and it said we wouldn't have need for anything when we cross over. We wouldn't even need clothes but I argued for propriety's sake we'd all be wearing something. It grudgingly agreed, didn't like the idea of us having anything other than our own skin.
If I were a wiser man I'd have been suspicious but I wasn't and I was so damn trusting I promised not to tell anyone that it was coming. Not that they'd have stood a chance anyway but there might have been other survivors if I'd only said something.
But I didn't. I trusted it and told it when we'd all be in the village centre to celebrate the new year. The fog rolled in first and I knew that it was coming. It barely stood out against the night sky, we only noticed it when a couple of embers lit it up enough for us to see not just those eyes but the gaping jaws beneath them.
They were gone before they could even scream, sucked straight into those impossibly rotating, never ending or beginning jaws until I was the last one standing. It thanked me and I could hear the screams of the villagers still caught between its teeth.
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