^.^ After great deliberation and careful crafting of myself as a character, I am here to announce that I'm writing about someone COMPLETELY DIFFERENT! Just call me a softie, but I really wanted to write a creation myth for NWA. My own story will follow, I promise!

It isn't easy being a god. As a matter of fact, it sucks. Granted, I picked a bad time to be a god, my life was a living wreck, and I didn't have the best of odds to work with. I made some mistakes, and not a few rash blunders. Given the situation, I think I dealt with it pretty well, but it was not a pleasant experience. In short, it sucked, but we do what we can with what we got. Here before you, I have a tale to tell, that might be right and might be wrong. I could still be crazy for all I know!

Maybe it's best if I start from the beginning. See that sad looking girl over there, the one dressed up in the sequins, moccasins and bell-bottoms? No, the third girl on the left wearing sequins, moccasins and bell bottoms! I suppose we hippies were pretty popular back then. It was the style of rebellion. 1968 was one of the saddest times anyone could grow up in. Our boys were getting slaughtered in the Vietnam war, and our society was crushing its youth with rigidity. Combine that with the discovery of a plethora of dangerous new recreational drugs, and it spells out our doom. I admit it. I was a druggie. It just seemed like the only way to escape....

All those years growing up, not knowing why I was unhappy, why I couldn't see anything good in the world. I blamed the Bomb, but everyone blamed the Bomb. Truly, I blamed myself, and I hated myself for being so mean to me. Among my friends, however, the Bomb was the source of all suffering and evil, the reason for stupid human cruelty, not the other way around. It was the reason the toaster happened to break that morning, the reason for black oppression, the reason for cold coffee.

I went to rallies. Most people went to party or to shout a lot, or just to meet some friends. I thought I was no exception, but after a while I started to get worried, really worried about the rainforests falling, and the global warming, and the nuclear winter that might destroy everything on earth. When I was little I always loved just sitting at the window of our house and watching the secret movements of the animals in the bushes. Sometimes I would stay up late at night watching the bugs buzz and the bats snap them up like candy corn. Thinking all this stuff could get destroyed by the stupidness of humanity just made me more depressed.

I'd grown up with depression. I turned it aside, desperately lashing out against my parents, and then the Bomb. My parents raised me the best they could in their narrow-minded shallow ways, but their words fell on deaf ears. In a way, I was dead even before I took the drugs, driven from a sensible life by the unconscious dread that plagued me wherever I went.

Drugs helped. I won't deny it. I saw some of my friends fry their brains on that cursed stuff, whether it was coke, LSD, PCP, tobacco, pot. I didn't care at all. A moment of peace, of dreamless bliss was all I wanted, all I thought I deserved. I wanted to kill myself, but never had the guts. I hoped, in a way, that drugs would do the job for me.

A war came and went. A president was shot. And my friend Joey made a mistake in his garage lab. Joey was what we called a whiz. He brought out of that lab new combinations of LSD, concentrated acid compounds, jury-rigged glue bottles, and that day he intended to bring us synthesized Ecstasy.

I can still remember us all huddled in secret around that bubbling pot. I remember the jab of the needle--we all went at once--and the eager anticipation, to see who first gets High. I remember the screaming, the agonizing pain, the clawing, mindless clawing we inflicted on ourselves and others. The things crawling inside our skin. I remember the blinding phantom images all burning with a mind blasting light.

I remember shaking, dying in a corner watching the last of us still standing, stumbling drunkenly away from imagined terrors, and falling into a heap of silent screams. I wasn't even coherent enough to comprehend what was happening. I felt my mind burning and I thought I was finally done. With life. With happiness. With reality.

When I came to, everyone was dead. Yes, everyone. I felt strange, suddenly knowing the state of metabolic activity for every corpse in the room. I remembered perfectly the complete composition of the drug he'd made, and compared it with what was running through my own tissues. I felt it inside me, sifting through my blood. A tiny portion of this molecule had been rotated the wrong way, a mere 3 atoms displaced. This had caused a catalytic effect, which amplified the power of the drug until it reached lethal levels. It was so simple, I almost cried. Why hadn't I seen this before?

I did cry, blubbering weepingly as I went from friend to friend. They were all dead. I could sense that, but it made me feel better checking each one. I knew their bodies, their most inner workings, and I knew that there was nothing I could do. They were dead forever, because there was something missing. Something like a soul. It was the most awful thing I have ever experienced. The shock was so much, I didn't even notice all the incredible things I was doing.

...and then I saw her. I felt the pulsing life force, and practically leapt to attention. The tiniest little opossum had gotten stuck behind a lab apparatus. Her tail was caught on a broken valve, and she was completely frightened. I gazed into her eyes, calming her while I eased her tail free of the mechanism. She watched me for a while, then leapt up to an open window and disappeared into the bushes.

The police came and grilled me with questions. I had an easy time since their thoughts were open to me. The gang and I made the local newspaper, a bunch of kids getting killed from a homemade drug. We might have gone national, because I survived, but I lied and told the police that the others had started dying before I took my shot. I made them believe me. It was easy.

It wasn't until I'd calmed down emotionally, crying silently against a telephone pole, that I even stopped to consider why I could pick up the phone conversations dancing through the wires overhead. "What has... happened to me?" I mumbled, full of wonder. Then I noticed I was a god.

No, it wasn't a grand realization. I didn't have a beam of light come down from the sky. I was a freaking omniscient god, so I didn't even get the satisfaction of figuring it out. As soon as I thought about the question, a voice in my head that was my own said, "Wake up! You're a god." I knew I was a god, and always had been since the day I was born, since the dawn of time. It's hard to explain, but I was disappointed. I really wanted to figure it out, instead of just... noticing. Knowledge without learning is as boring as cold lima beans, and as I have said, it sucks.

The years passed a blur. I didn't have any real challenges left. I could have done a cornfield thing with my parents, but instead, I just let them alone, and sulked most of the time. One thing I learned quickly, is I had spasmic omniscience. Every time it was really important, it seemed my otherworldly knowledge was nowhere to be found. My emotions were once again laid bare, I couldn't hide from them anymore. I was constantly depressed, and I even tried slashing my wrists a couple times. Guess what didn't happen.

Once, I was sitting out in the woods, futilly scratching a knife across my wrists. I finally threw it down in frustration, and to my horror I impaled a squirrel. The poor thing, I picked it up and healed it, the knife dropping away from the closing wound. I looked for its soul, and then... found something so happy, so simple that it was beautiful. Like a child's painting, the squirrel held a manner of contentment I could only dream about. There was also the biting hunger, the fear of attack, the wary warding of danger, but over all that was a confidence that all was right in the world. He ate and slept, hungered and loved, and there was nothing else important to him.

After the healing, I tried halfheartedly to evade the squirrel, but the little guy seemed determined to keep me in its sights. I thought I lost it once I got home, but that morning he was back with a half-chewed nut. He didn't do anything ridiculous like offer it in a token of friendship, but I felt honored that he might allow me to watch as he sat on the window sill of my room on the second floor, and nibbled it until it cracked open.

My parents didn't take too well to my immortality. Once they noticed I wasn't aging anymore, they started to ask questions. They suggested hormones, doctors, psychologists. I finally blew up at them, and went to live off by myself. I just stormed out the door, and calculated how much I could make a year working at the bookstore whose ads were in the classifieds (which I routinely memorized). I picked a good apartment across town, and gave them perfectly forged documents about my "previous apartment." Again, I had problems with my apparant age, but the land lord was quite easy to convince, especially after he called the old land lord who swore up and down that I'd been a tenet for the past 2 years.

Of course, I "convinced" him that he'd talked to the old land lord on the phone. Whenever my funds were low, I also "convinced" my landlord that my rent was paid. Manipulating mortal minds was the more efficient way. I didn't like expending the energy to create fake money, nor did I want to be apprehended for counterfeit operations. Would you believe that the 20 dollar bill even foils a god's power to duplicate? I thought that was funny.

Speaking of funny, I noticed a familiar squirrel, though now quite skinny from winter, come to live in a tree behind the apartment complex. I wondered about that guy, why he moved all the way out here just to keep an eye on me. There was a certain kinship, both of us living in a strange new place having given up what we long called our home.

I kind of missed the computer age. It was catching like wildfire, but I was away at the time. Lord knows what I would have done with the computer age. Instead, I decided to take a trip to the mountains. The Himalayas to be precise. I signed up my stockpiled funds to a deal in the Peace Corps. Traveling alone would have been easier, but I wanted to see how normal people handled such a tough environment. I had my own reasons to get to the top, but there was no reason not to have fun along the way.

I caused 3 Yeti sightings, and 2 nights where only every person whose last name started with 'A' saw the aurora borealis "this far south? Preposterous!" as they would say. Then I was bored again. I sat in thick furs, in some dirty hamlet where no one but the team I was with spoke English. Though I learned the language of Himalaya in minutes, I didn't want to show off, and possibly risk discovery. The last thing I wanted was more questions, in English or Himalayan.

I actually hung out more with those weird goat llama things they use for travel up in the high peaks. Every chance I got, I volunteered to clean, feed, or watch them. It was comforting being hidden in the herd of shaggy fur, away from people and their doubts, closer to happiness. The peaceful warmth of safety as a herd was a feeling they shared with me. I laughed at their dominance battles, which belive it or not they found to be extremely funny. They would come up to me, snorting and pawing, until finally I broke down in giggles. They posed no threat to me, and we shared a kind of kinship I think. By my watchful eye, no animals of the herd got lost, and I received their proud companionship in return.

I was so sure that this would be it. The great revelation. I'd been dreaming of the tallest mountain for months, and as I ascended Mt. Everest (just a morning jog) I thought I would finally find some answers. I stood on that highest of high peaks, farther away from the center of the Earth and closer to the stars than I had ever been before. Completely naked, and even shivering a bit. The howl of the wind below had died with the air pressure, until only a tiny gasp of thin air passed along beside me. In the absolute silence, the absolute solitude, I cried out to the heavens, "Why? Why me? What have I done to deserve this? I just wanted to be normal, but I can't! All I want to know is why? Why can't I be happy with who I am, where I am? Please, I've never needed it more than now! Why was I put on this Earth?"

I could never get used to that double-speak, where my very thoughts were not my own. "I will oversee the destruction of the world." my thoughts told myself. "What? No!" I said in return. "Yes, and this is how it will happen and why..."

I didn't stop screaming until the sun had long passed the horizon.

Armageddon. What a laugh! We humans in our collosal arrogance always assumed that the world would have to go up in smoke and flame, chill and ice, or something extreme like that. We theorized big crunches and cosmic strings, black holes and neutron stars so heavy, a single teaspoon of one would weigh a trillion tons! All these things were true, but none of them had any thing to do with the actual destruction of the world.

One day, one terrible day, everyone would simply stop caring. First the people, the brightest shiners, would become listless and sleepy, then they would die, buried under a slowly crushing onslaught of apathy. Why do anything? Why live? Why breathe? It doesn't take much, and the balance had been tipping for quite a while. Echoes of the true end had been appearing since about 2000 years ago, when civilization first took off. After all the dreamers, the wonderers were dead, the normal populace would slowly stop believing anything around them. The denial forced upon them would eject them from the fabric of reality, destroying them utterly. Then, it would happen to the animals. Then the trees. Then the planet. Then the stars.

And I was a cosmic janitor. My job was to make sure that it happens swiftly, and cleanly. My purpose on the world was to see it destroyed. A tree cannot fall without something there to observe it. I was there to watch the last star die.

After the morning light had come, I stopped screaming. "Why am I telling me this?!" I demanded, in despair, but also in outrage. "Why tell me now?"

Strangely, the voice in my head that was also me seemed to be getting fainter. "I am..." it began. "I am at the boundary... between space and... earth. The small ground close below pulls as strong as the large universe far above. I touch the ground. I touch the sky."

"That's well and good," I grumbled. "But what good is that?"

"Here at the boundary... I am free from the influence of the earth and the stars... free from the influence of fate..."

I was starting to get it. "And free from my destiny... for now?"

"Yes... for now. Also..." it said, fading to a whisper. "I am free... from me... the other... me. Goodbye."

I felt myself pass away, my second voice falling silent. "Did I die?" I asked it tremblingly. I gave no answer. There was only one me, on this lonely peak, and I had a bit of thinking to do.

A few years later I--. What? I lost track of time. So sue me! I decided to make my descent. I had weighed the stars and the earth, I had scrutinized every event from the first to the last, I had considered everything that my more than average mind could consider, and I had discovered a loophole. The chance was pitiful, but it was all I had. Now, with only 13 years to work out the details, I was going to have to hurry. I was thankful for that time I spent atop the mountain. Free from my destiny, I was able to find a solution. The mountains had introduced a new, unknown factor, something beyond the destiny I foresaw. I didn't think the world was going to die now, but I wasn't sure I could do a better job.

That said, my life assumed some sort of normalcy. I finally figured out how to age myself properly. It's not easy to age when it doesn't come naturally for you. I made myself look like the typical entry level college student, which I was. I managed to impress a few guys on the side with my stunning looks. Not that I ever considered getting serious. I definitely didn't want to have to worry about a bunch of little godlings running around. No Greek pantheon for me, thank you very much! I hear the Greek gods even killed their mother, Tiamat. Or something like that.... I was completely clueless as to how I was going to stop my own destiny, except for my one idea. I had no idea how to accomplish what I needed on a large enough scale. Until one day...

"A computer class? Those things are never going to catch on."
"I think I've got something here. They've got the whole school hooked up electronically. There's whole kilobytes of data out there, all accessible from one location. They're even thinking about putting the library catalog on computer."
"No way? So you can find your book without having to crawl into the stacks? Hunh. What's next, they teleport the books to your home?"

I probably shouldn't have said that so casually. Thankfully the guy, Stephen was his name, took it as a joke. It really wouldn't take much of a leap to make energy efficient teleportation. But the fabric of reality was so shaky, it didn't look like even those particle accelerators would break the light speed barrier. We laughed over my 'tasteless humor' then caught lunch at a cafe. Oh he was nice and all, but a complete hardware geek. Still he had a point...

I went home, fed my cats. (darling little things, they were.) And then I took a walk, a few miles to the university, and signed up for a computer class.

I had been watching the development of computers with an interested curiosity. Such a simple design, and it so closely matched what was really going on. There were processors, and RAM. Read only memory embedded onto chips. The industry had hardly begun to see what they were doing, but I had a good idea that soon computers would be progressing very very fast. I decided to study computers, reading the textbooks for the first few years one late Friday night. The programming interested me mostly in the capability it had for communication. I don't want to go into detail, such stuff would be fruitless, and frustrating. The best I can explain is that when we are using a computer, it's like a brain. The soul, that nothingness given somethingness, uses the brain to... communicate with the body. When the body uses a computer, the computer becomes a primitive extension of the brain. Computer users might feel sometimes that they are 'sucked' into the machines they work on. The truth is, our souls are in fact infusing the machine and the possibilities it has to offer.

It's an age old observation. The warrior becomes his sword. The farmer "raises" the plants with his work. The poet pours her soul into the pages. The scientist lifts his spirit among the possibilities of the universe. That's all a soul is. Possiblity given sentience. We're aware that things are possible, and based on that all else comes forth. I don't mean to be so poetic. Investing our soul in something is as simple as an auto accident.

"Yes officer. He hit me from behind. Yes, my bumper was completely dented. I'm glad I survived." The driver was not hit from behind, his car was. He has no bumper to be dented, his car does. But while he's driving, that driver -is- the car. He's invested his soul in it.

The many tools of Man allowed us to expand our experiences and abilities. Cars to go faster. Airplanes to fly. Cameras to see far, and far into the past. Telescopes to bring the stars to our doorstep. And now, computers. What made me absolutely giddy about computers is that they do not expand the senses, nor our physical abilities.

Computers expand our minds, our memory, our capability to process information. Such a fundamental thing could alter the very nature of Nature, by altering our perceptions of it. After reading 'Neuromancer' I was hooked. We had to get these computers all across the world, and accessible to common people. A few letters implanted with psychic suggestions did the trick. Though I didn't expect Microsoft to compete with us at Apple so fiercely. I allowed it, seeing that the production of bloated, commercialized software from extreme competition would ultimately force the educated consumers to develop their own freely shared applications. The evil of Microsoft was neccessary for my plans.

Once the big corporations were underway, I went to the underground, and enjoyed myself immensely, refining linux and all. It was a welcome challenge, and I wasn't alone. Mostly students, in universities, rose up against the megacorporations selling expensive software, and developed GNU all on their own. I was so surprised, but they handled it wonderfully. Humans can be very resourceful when there aren't very many resources. Nothing like an underground movement to promote collective sharing without falling apart from apathy.

It earned the universe a whole 30 seconds more time.

I discovered Usenet, and what a wonderful thing it was. Finally, there was a medium of communication for people to come together from all over the world. I was an instant junky, spending long hours reading through the newsgroups, and responding. There were people to talk to. Science, philosophy, computers, literature, it was all there. As I watched, the ranks of the newsgroups swelled. People purchased phone-line connections into the developing internet, and soon there were millions of visitors. More people than ever posting to newsgroups, bulletin boards. Chat rooms allowed real time discussion, mostly about mating rituals which, as I said, I was never serious about.

Looking back, I laugh at that one conversation that got me distracted for years. I was good at computers, but all the technical stuff was just a diversion for me. I didn't know that my subconscious mind was influencing me to play with those mind-machines. While I dallied and dabbled, a hidden store in my mind was busy absorbing all the facts and concepts. Let me tell you why my fascination with computers was so important.

For some reason, I never felt quite welcome where I was. I posted to a religion newsgroup and got flamed. People acted like I was stupid on some of the computer newsgroups. No one wanted to argue with me in philosophy. Even as I thought I had found my place, I began to drift away again. Then I discovered furry.

Something captured my imagination about the genre known as 'furry' or anthropomorphic media. Stories and drawings out there that were full of imagination and creativity, stories and drawings that did not hold man as the supreme creature of the Earth. I read about the Rats of Nimh, devoured Kipling in a weekend, I had this weird crush on Shanda the Panda (who wouldn't!). There were some jewels out there, works of art that I couldn't hope to count. Being a god may suck, but mortals are amazing! Using their limited knowledge, intelligence, and lifetime, they come out with things like skyscrapers and genetic engineering, democracy, ecosystem awareness. I liked things that attributed "man's" traits to animals, that allowed animals to walk and talk instead of cry and die as they were today. I liked the idea that some people are really animals inside, that people have spirit animals to guide them. I never saw any myself, but as a god I'm sure they avoided me like the plague.

Some things were hard to learn about. You'd be amazed how little information the Library of Congress has on Native American customs and philosophy. I actually took a trip to China (I swam) to learn their language (2 days tops. It's a lot like what they speak in the Himalayas.) Then I had a wealth of fables about animals, spirits, and philosophic principles such as Taoism, Bhuddism, Confucianism. Asia was truly the height of human civilization... also the height of human arrogance. I tired quickly of the closed minded nature of that culture, but never tired of finding the new animals living on the Asiatic continents. They don't have Raccoons there, did'ja know? Their "Raccoon" is actually a kind of canine that looks and acts like a raccoon.

I was working as a cable installer for a big company in China. I hoped that it would lead to residents having access to some of the world communication the Internet could provide. It was hard work though, and I hadn't the time. My years were running out, and I had to find some way to act soon. I criticized myself harshly for my inability to act, unknowing of the fact that everything I did was subconsciously aiming toward the truth.

Things finally started to make sense when I was playing around with a computer I'd hooked up from the Factory hub a few miles away. My portable laptop had a web browser, so I decided to see what I needed to catch up on. Perusing the artwork on Velar, I came across a stunning revelation.

I stared back at my own reflection painted there on the computer screen in front of me. It had taken 10 minutes to download, and I struggled with the file format for another few minutes before I got to see the image. There it was: a gleaming figure wrapped in night, against a gothic bell tower, a graceful creature both man and animal, rising a narrowly pointed muzzle to gaze at the moon shining through the clouds overhead. It was perfection. It was a wolf? No, it wasn't a wolf. It was definitely a bat. The drawing itself wasn't that great, but the echoes it sent off in my soul were awe inspiring. I sat down for a few days, and drew what I imagined over and over again, until I had it looking absolutely perfect. I only had a cheap pencil and lined paper, but it was something I needed to do.

"You're not well." I told myself quite pragmatically. But all of a sudden, I knew what I wanted to be. A bat. A programmer. Both eat bugs. Go figure.

Being a bat was fun. Surprisingly enough bugs don't taste so bad. It was immensely satisfying. But even as I landed, flowed my body to a more human form, looked up at the moon in perfect reflection of my imagination, I knew that time was running out. Somehow I had to do it, somehow I had to achieve critical creative mass.

Universes are funny things. All it really takes for a universe to be born is for someone to imagine it. Yet those who imagine it are also slaves to it, dependant on the fabric of reality for existence. Our universe is no exception, with one exception. We were put here instead of just becoming. I could tell because the universe did not shift and flow with imagination. There were no holes or rifts into other universes. The physical laws of the universe never slacked.

It was too perfect.

Someone, some grand creator I suppose, must have built the universe as a flawless fabric. Perhaps it was their design, perhaps they didn't realize how people could perish from stagnation. But I was there to see it all stop. The curtain rolled up, perhaps? We were all bugs on the curtain, and I was just a special bug given the rope to pull it up with.

That's a bad analogy, actually. The problem was the perfection of the universe. Even the most creative souls couldn't thrive in that kind of confinment. Ripples in a pond die if you don't let any stones fall in. Whatever we did, every action brought things closer to the end of imagination, and the end of reality. Like fossil fuels, we were running out of imagination.

I decided to create another universe, hopefully to prevent our own from collapsing. But I needed creative people, people with imagination to populate it, otherwise my new universe would just pop like a soap bubble under the strain. Who could I ask, though? Whoever went with me would never be able to return, because our universe is flawless with no holes. They might have to leave friends and family, lives, never to see them again. I needed people who wanted something new, who could handle extreme change, and who had enough imagination to be able to survive and hold things together.

I was playing on my favorite place to be: Furtoonia. Furtoonia is a MUCK, a place where people can go to live out their wildest dreams... in text. Once you signed on to the MUCK, through Telnet, you were given certain privelages that allowed you to talk, interact, and role play with other people. It was a perfect simulation of a text based adventure game, taken beyond a single player. MUCKs required imagination, wit and a bit of technological awareness.

There were some furrs on the MUCK. Some of my closest friends talking about stuff.

Leena purrs, "So what do you think, Ben?"

Ben_Setter says, "I don't know. It would be pretty incredible."

Zoi_Frrt meeples, "Gosh, if we weer all furry, we'd be wamr all the time."

Leena purrs, "Wamr?"

Zoi_Frrt :p Warm.

Dan_Smith gruffs, "I'd like being furry well enough. I think we'd manage somehow."

Darkstryk ktchs, "I don't know, Zoi. With the right metabolism we wouldn't generate the same amount of heat as the furless ones."

Zoi_Frrt meeples, "Yeah! So we'd be just as warm, 'cause our bodys would cool off better."

Dan_Smith gruffs, "Maybe one of these days we'll just wake up on this MUCK. Then we'll know."

Darkstryk ktchs, "Right. Warm blooded animals..."

My fingers froze on the keys. A single drop of sweat led down the side of my brow to drip hollowly onto the floor.

Darkstryk ktchs, "What did you mean, Dan?"

Dan_Smith gruffs, "Oh I don't know. Just... what would you do if you woke up one day as your MUCK character?"

Zoi_Frrt meeples, "He means, oh darnt. I missed."

Leena purrs, "We'd be in another universe or something, just like we imagine now."

Ben_Setter says, "Most people would end up as some guys wet dream."

Zoi_Frrt issa tired frrt, but she stay up a bit mroe.

Leena purrs, "Hah. I think people have got more imagination than that! I think it would be awful to wake up as some large breasted vixen, for real I mean."

Dan_Smith says, "Are you sure that's a good idea, Zoi? Your spelling is suffering ferret shock."

Zoi_Frrt takes a little nap on Dannie's lap then. She wake up all redy to go!

Darkstryk ktchs, "There is much imagination here..."

Zoi_Frrt meeples, "Yah. I'd say we all got more imagination than the whole world! I mean, how could we make a different whole world just by reading text on a screen if we didn't have lots of imaginationn?"

Ben_Setter says, "Not to mention a furry world."

Leena purrs, "It's amazing. We have all this imagination; I'm surprised nothing ever comes of it."

Dan_Smith makes a whole world just by reading text on a screen.

Ben_Setter LOL

Zoi_Frrt -.-

Dan_Smith gruffs, "So wat'cha think, Dark? You're awfully quiet all of a sudden."

Darkstryk ktchs, "I didn't think there was a talk quota here. :p"

Zoi_Frrt lol

Leena purrs, "But I've already taken Zoi_Frrt 101!"

Zoi_Frrt ===>L<=== --->O<--- ===>L<=== !!!! issa laughs out loud.

Leena backs away from Zoi's righteous fury.

At that point, I looked away from the text. A large concentration of imagination. A wish to enter a different life. A willingness, no an ability to cope with a strange new universe. Furries! I just couldn't keep grinning. Not just furries on Furtoonia, furries on all the MUCKs, furries on the whole world! If everyone... if every furry woke up as their alter ego, it might just be enough to tip the balance against the inevitable.

I was so excited I couldn't think. Maybe if I'd been more careful, maybe if I had thought it out more, but I was excited and desperate, and running out of time. I turned again to watch the text scroll by on the screen on the MUCK, a place where every furry can be the person they see in their heart. I knew how I was going to make my universe.

I flew like a bat out of hell that night; I went to the moon. I sat there, in that airless expanse, watching the night side of the continental US. It twinkled with city lights. They say the Great Wall of China is the only man made construction that can be seen from space. They're wrong. The US electrical grid is much larger and brighter.

I stood then, in one fluid motion, the wings that descended from my hands snapping to tension as I drank in the image before me. The very self of the planet. Then... I had a dream.

That's how gods make universes, did you know? The worlds of our dreams are actually there, it's just I was the only one who could take people to them. Unless there were other gods on this Earth. If there were I hadn't noticed. We gods don't stand out much.

I pulled myself into a dream and once again I stood on the moon. This time though, the Earth was silent. The ground was black, unbroken by little twinkles of light. I drifted, ethereal, through the silent, empty world, wandering the quiet buildings, strolling past the cars on the freeway. All was set moments before the End, the instant before the destruction of the world. This empty dream of mine would catch the imaginers, the furries, and we would hold our mother Earth together from afar. What a fool I was.

I walked through a park hundreds of miles away from any dwellings. My footsteps were eerily loud in the strange silence. I started in shock, turning around at an imagined noise. But my bat-cup ears detected nothing. I laughed at my nerves, laughter echoing hollowly in the empty planet. I was just unnerved at the silence, I thought. Of course I was the only one here. I hadn't brought any people or animals or...

I turned again, and screamed. Flailing, I fell back away from...

...the nose of that squirrel. It was the very same squirrel, the one who lived with me in the tree outside my lot back on Earth. It sat there looking at me, nibbling on a nut. A bird then chirped behind me and I whirled again, turning to life.

I don't know how. I still don't know how, but animals began poking here and there, filling the forest with sound. Soon the trees and bushes were alive and I was left standing there, muzzle agape, until I noticed my tongue was drying off.

"How...?"

But of course they'd always been here was the answer. I swept the continents and everywhere there were animals, lemurs in the jungles of Madagascar. Raccoons washing by the rivers of North America, mongooses in India and pandas in Asia. Everywhere, there were animals.

Let me tell you, my friends. Watch those animals. I think they're up to somethign and they ain't talking about it, not even to me. Somehow they knew how to get here and where to come. One of these days I'm going to get some answers from them.

I returned to Earth, well the moon, visibly shaken. My world had taken moments to prepare but there were things happening on it I didn't understand. I was very scared, and very much in awe. But soon it faded into the background while I made myself busy trying to get ready, trying to put things together for the Big Day.

My plan was simple. I made a prophecy about the coming of a star, a green star shining beyond brightness. I'd attract their attention with that, then use it as the focus to draw them into the other world. While we were there, the old world would be in a deadlock, unable to initiate the destruction because the widest, brightest minds wouldn't even be there.

I made my universe based on the simple concept behind FurToonia. Every soul had a character only they could use. This character had attributes that reflected their inner self, their true animal nature, and their imagination. Their furry amalgam would have attributes just like they imagine in their hearts. Everything they experienced, every sensation, and every way they could affect the world would be through their character.

In selecting souls I wasn't picky, couldn't afford to be particular. For the most part anyone with enough brains to use a furry MUCK, anyone with a furry alter ego. Heck, I was willing to accept people who had never even considered being furry, as long as they could handle it when it happened. I took down animal worshipers, nature worshipers, many Native Americans. I made sure there was no one who would have a nervous breakdown when they woke up with claws and paws.

It surprised me that there were about equal numbers of herbivores and carnivores with a hefty margin of inbetweenivores. Reviewing my lists (checking them twice!) I noticed that about 90% of the herbivores weren't a big presence online, with the exception of famous chatterers liek squirrels and crows, and for some reason lots of rabbits. Carnivores, on the other hand, were almost completely online, only about 10% offline. It made sense in a way. Herbivores were, by nature, hiders. Even human, they had to work hard to raise enough courage to get themselves into a MUCK or a newsgroup.

It was the funniest thing. My landlord, he came to check on rent one day and I thought his eyes'd pop out of his head. I had been so busy with my own thoughts I showed up at the door in my hybrid form! I was unbatty again in a wink and looking worriedly, with a face of utmost concern, at the landlord.

"What ever is the matter, Mr. Wichenson? You don't look so well. Is everything okay?"

"I... think I better go lie down," the flustered man said, wringing his hand over his face worriedly. _The shrink'll love this one._ he thought as he stumbled back to his room. That was the one month I didn't have to pay rent.

Beneath the basement of my apartment (I know it was on the 2nd story but being a god has its privileges) I had a cavern filled with a focusing array: a series of gleaming metal rods filled with a glowing liquid, placed at strategic angles toward a glassy sphere floating in the center of the room. Above the sphere a hatchway covered the center of the ceiling. Dramatic, huh?

It was in this sphere that I now MUCKed, testing my ideas. The smoky insides cleared to depict various scenes on various MUCKs. What others read as text I made into illusion wrapped in glass. I studied how they saw themselves, how their imaginations flowed. It was all before me in picture and sound.

With this monumental interface I called together my most trusted friends. I knew they were trustworthy because well... I was a god. You know you're in good when an omniscient god thinks they can trust you.

I called together my most trusted friends, Leena the spry catling, a lank furry lady of a court of space furrs, well experienced in courtly etiquitte as well as the darker side of furry nature. In real life she worked as a law student, living her life for learning justice and dreaming of being a person who displayed that knowledge with skill and finesse. She wanted to use her skill for good, not for basic survival as she feared would come in real life.

Feyrhan, the Mailrabbit. He was the nicest, most kindly sort, always willing to deliver a message through enemy lines, deadly storms and war zones, impoverished countries and uncharted wilderness. In real life, she (yes, -he- was a she) worked at a book store, trying to pay her way into getting a sociology degree. She wanted to be a diplomat, but she hated politics, and was wise enough to know that her rosy picture of meeting insurmountable odds to deliver the mail only came in dreams. Reality for her was a scary place where ambassadors were shot offhandedly, and civilians couldn't leave their homes much less their country without fearing for their lives.

Zoi, the ferret (or frrt as she called herself), a cute little nonmorphic beauty that loved to bounce around, make people happy and bring fun into the conversation. She worked at an animal shelter in REal Life, managing the meager accounts to take care of the mangy sad tenets of the shelter. She also fed them, played with them in her spare time, took her turn cleaning the cages every Saturday, and got rid of the bodies when some of her special friends died.

Dan_Smith, the bayhr. On the MUCK, he was an overall wearing bear who drove a truck. In real life, he managed a trucking department of a wholesale warehouse. He was pretty much the same online as off, very modest, quite intelligent, and physically imposing. He liked being a bear online because of the way people would react until they saw his gentle nature.

Not to say Dan was without imagination. He was a game master. When he drove his truck up, and asked for some help, people who knew him jumped to the challenge. No matter where we were going, no matter how innocuous our cargo, no matter how many furrs we crammed into his cab, there was always an adventure to be found. Drug runners, Eco terrorists, Emergency antibody delivery, evading the Mafia, driving off cliffs. His stories were the best.

And me. Darkstryk. The System Administrator. The geeky bat. I was actually a demigod trapped on the Earth by a dimensional vortex that holds me away from my home world. Shucks, I never had that great imagination. I pretty much copied myself from real life. I still split a grin though when someone asked about my diet.

Darkstryk sidles up and wraps a wing around Derr_Wolf's shoulder, ruffling through the fur on his neck.

Derr_Wolf howls politely, "You wouldn't really..."

Darkstryk trails a claw across Derr_Wolf's neck. "Oh wouldn't I?"

Derr_Wolf looks very pale. "If... if you must satisfy your hunger do so."

Derr_Wolf bares his neck.

Darkstryk stares... then busts out laughing.

Derr_Wolf ?

Darkstryk ktchs, "You do know what I eat don't you?"

Derr_Wolf rolls his eyes. "I wouldn't dare to guess."

Darkstryk reaches into his cloaklike wings and pulls out a fluttering moth! "Watch this! *toss*" The moth flutters its way to a doomed freedom as Darkstryk leaps up into the air and in one swift movement snaps the little bug out of the air. Alighting on two toes, and wiping his mouth daintily, he clicks to Derr_Wolf. "Oh, I think you could derr to guess."

Heh. Most people don't know that most bats eat bugs, not blood. There are some that eat fruit, more that eat bugs, and one. One single species that eats blood. It doesn't even suck blood, it just bites the critter then licks at the wound. Yick. I prefer bugs.

So there we were...

Leena purrs, "What's this all about?"
Feyhran mails, "I have got no clue. Didn't you say to meet here?"
Dan_Smith says, "Gosh, I just was wandering around."
Zoi frrts, "It's fun to get lost sometimes."
Dan_Smith says, "Yeah, but what are the chances of all of us coming from all 4 directions at once?"
Dan_Smith says, "Zoi, please don't quote the Sproutlings."
Feyhran mails, "I was just wandering..."
Zoi frrts, "Hehehee. (:3"
Leena purrs, "So what's everyone doing?"
Feyhran mails, "Delivering the mail. ;)"
Zoi frrts, "Exploding. ...oooOOOO( )OOOOooo..."
Dan_Smith says, "I was thinking about things..."
Leena ducks pieces of ferret kibble.
Feyhran mails, "Uh oh, gotta nother adventure bubbling in that bruin brain? *dodges ferret bits*"
Dan_Smith says, "Mmmm... kibble..."
Zoi frrts, "FERRET KIBLE NOT MADE OUT OF FERRETS!"

This was it. I took a deep breath...

Darkie flies down from the sky!
Darkie has arrived.
Darkie ktchs, "Hey guys."
Dan_Smith says, "dOOD! *bearglomp*"
Feyhran mails, "Oh my god, you too? This has to be some kind of record!"
Leena purrs, "Look, it's just a coincidence. Not magic or anything. Let's just relax already!"
Darkie ktchs, "Actually..."
Zoi relxes only on Feburary 31.
Dan_Smith says, "Hmm...?"
Feyhran looks at Darkstryk strangely, perking his ears at a cocked angle. "Were you going to say something?"
Darkie ktchs, "It is magic."
Dan_Smith . o O (Let the guy get in character, Feyhran. :) )
Darkie . o O (Sorry, Dan. It -is- magic. Not coincidence.)
Dan_Smith umm...
Darkie ktchs, "I called you all here to talk about something very important. You are all the best people I've ever known, and that's a fact."
Darkie ktchs, "I wish I could say I've got good news but it's not good news. In fact, it's awful news. But I think you are the only ones who can help."
Leena purrs, "Are you okay, Dark? You're acting awfully funny."
Darkie smiles. Wait... he never smiles does she? ;)
Zoi is scared. o.o
Darkie ktchs, "Leena, I want to congratulate you for that grade you got on your exam."
Leena purrs, "My what? How did you know?"
Darkie ktchs, "Magic. And just to be fair..."
Zoi uh ohs, hiding under Dan's legs!
Darkie ktchs, "Dan_Smith, your last shipment didn't go so good. Half the grain was stale if I remember right..."
Dan_Smith says, "That's right! But I never mention that stuff. With Ol' Bessie here on the MUCK to drive, it's just not important. But..."
Darkie ktchs, "Feyhran, I'm sorry to say you probably won't be able to get a degree in sociology. But you will make a darn good diplomat."
Feyhran mails, "How did you know that...?"
Zoi has left.
Darkie ktchs, "Z-- oh no. I was afraid of this. Zoi, come back please!"
Feyhran mails, "Who are you?!"
Darkie ktchs, "I'm... I'm Darkstryk. I'll tell you about me later. ZOI!!"
Dan_Smith says, "Um... she left the room."
Darkie ktchs, "Zoi, come back. Please, we need you, we need your help. You always cared for your animals so much, but you were afraid to talk about yourself here. Now's the time for talking about ourself."
Dan_Smith whispers to Leena, "What's Darkstryk's home address? I'm going to call the police."
Leena whispers to Dan_Smith, "He's off his rocker! Babbling... never saw a guy go bad though..."
Darkie ktchs, "Actually, it's 'she' who's off her rocker, at least in real life. I never told you guys that I'm only male on the MUCK."
Leena purrs, "How did you?! Oooohhh... *clutcheshead*"
Feyhran mails, "I know how you feel..."
Darkie calls off to Zoi's Secer Hiding Spot, "Zoi, please. Your life... everyone's life depends on this!"
Dan_Smith says, "Please, Darkstryk. Tell us what the Hell is going on?!"
Zoi burrows out of a hole in the ground.
Zoi has arrived.
Zoi frrts, "*sulks* You don't have to yell."
Leena purrs, "W-what? That wasn't a @shout! Was she paging you, Zoi?"
Zoi frrts, "She was talking in my head."
Feyhran mails, "Oh god... I never told anyone this but I'm not a guy either."
Darkie ktchs, "Okay, now that everyone is here, I can explain."
Dan_Smith says, "You, Feyhran? I never would have guessed. I'm impressed."
Feyhran scratches his toe against the dirt embarassedly.
Feyhran mails, "What do you mean impressed?"
Dan_Smith says, "It takes some darn good role playing to be a member of the opposite sex. You even had me fooled!"
Feyhran mails, ":) Well I always wanted to see what it was like being a guy."
Leena purrs, "HOLD IT!!! Darkstryk said he'd explain! This is no time for beating the bush. Feyr, you're a girl. Dark, you're a girl. Any guys playing girls here?"
( Richard Simmons raises his hand. )
Dan_Smith says, "Okay then. I just won't tell everyone about my closet cross dressing. (j/k) Darkstryk, explain."
Darkie ktchs, "But you are all getting on so well together..."
Zoi frrts, "Explaaaaaaain!!1"
Darkie winces. "Okay, okay. Watch the ears. Let me tell you the bad news first."
Feyhran mails, "Why? I say good news so we know what we have to work with."
Darkie ktchs, "It wouldn't make any sense."
Feyhran mails, "Try it anyway."
Darkie ktchs, "Okay. The good news is, we might be able to save it."
Feyhran ...
Dan_Smith says, "You're right that didn't make any sense."
Darkie ktchs, "Thank you."
Darkie ktchs, "The world is in grave danger."
Leena purrs, "Thus started every adventure story in history."
Darkie ktchs, "Well uh... yes. But I'm not talking about bad guys and adventures. The universe is set up to be destroyed 8 months from now."
Zoi frrts, "Gah..."
Dan_Smith wh... that's Crazy!
Darkie ktchs, "No, I know. Let me tell you a bit about myself..."

I explained my whole life then. More than I intended but they had so many questions. I went on and on... through the evening. I finally finished with a flourish, summoning them bodily into my inner sanctum.

"Oh my god," Dan said as he appeared, dropping down on his large bottom.
"Eeeeek!" Leena screamed, scrambling back on crab legs.
"How did we... what did we..." Zoi just stood mumbling.
Feyhran appeared in her bathrobe with a cup of coffee. "Um... sorry I hadn't gotten dressed yet."

Soon we were seated at the table, drinking coffee, the glowing VR sphere floating behind us. "I just can't believe it's happening," Zoi said looking down at her face in the coffee. "The whole world... everything... even the stars."

"Who knew we were that important," Feyhran said pulling her robe closer.

Dan, lifted his cup, swirling the liquid within. "So you think that we can somehow channel people into another universe using the MUCK?"

"That is exactly what I'm proposing." I said definitively.

"But why do we need to do this?" Leena said nervously.

"It's just like I told you. I think that if the universe can't destroy those who can imagine the universe, then it can't be destroyed at all."

"So..."

"So that means people with the most imagination are going to be pulled into the New World by a prophecy I made up about 10 years ago."

"Which is...?" Dan said accordingly.

"Star that shines upon the day,
Lead we dreamers on our way.
Pass our souls to worlds unknown.
From the last destruction, flown.

We that dream and hope and 'spire,
Find fulfilled our chief desire.
What we see within our soul,
Comes now true to daily role.
Seek the animal within,
For soon the dreaming shall begin.

10 years 3 days 2 months to count,
The moment 'fore the lights shut out,
Drawn through the lens, a Furry MUCK,
Born on winds of dreams and luck.

We shall find that truth inside.
We shall by our self abide.
We shall prosper, tails unfurled.
We shall turn to save the world."

"That was so sweet..." Zoi said in her rusty alto.
"Well it's just the basics, but it sets the stage for my more complex mechanisms to take over." I said, blushing.
"We have 8 months left?" Dan said.
"Yes," I answered. "I wish I could give you more time, but I'm pushing it already. The timing has to be just so."

"It's enough for us to say our last goodbyes..." Feyhran said trailing off.

Leena nodded. "We might not be able to come back."

Dan said, "Well I can say I've got only my non-furry buddies to say good bye to. My parents have already passed away, and when it comes to relatives, my aunt is about the only person left alive... poor old gal."

Zoi whispered, "I'll have to say goodbye to all the people at the shelter."

"What's wrong, Zoi?" Leena asked. "Aside from the obvious. You're usually so friendly!"

"That's only Zoi the ferret," she said. "I'm just a stupid fat nothing. You guys... you guys don't need me for this."

Feyhran put a hand on Zoi's hand. "It's okay, Zoi. All of us are scared stiff, but can overcome."

Dan sighed, then said something unexpected. "I know what it's like to be insecure. They used to call me 'pencil-neck' in high school."

Everyone stared until Zoi finally burst out. "You? Pencil-neck?!"

Dan nodded sadly. He pinched his glasses close over his nose and said in a nasal voice, "Hey guys, can I do your homework for you? You're so cool. Gee I wish I could play football better than chess. Can you speak Klingon?"

Zoi just started laughing. Everyone started laughing, but she was the first one to start. Dan bellowed in laughter. "I wasn't as bad as all that. I was what they called a late bloomer. Shot up 3 feet in as many years just near the end of high school. Plus all that weight training I'd been doing really paid off."

Zoi looked down then. "So you got what you wanted..."

Dan smiled sadly. "No Zoi. None of us 'got what we wanted'."

"What do you mean?"

"Let me see a show of hands." Dan said loudly, raising his hand. "How many people in this room ever wanted to be furry?"

All hands raised. Zoi looked around, then smiled a bit. "I guess I'm not so bad then. We all got a bum rap on the human world. I just don't deal with it as well as the next person. Sorry for being so insecure."

"You, insecure?" Dan continued. "I never would have thought of that. Honestly, how could I have been so blind! The words are right there," he said pointing. "Tattooed on your forehead."

"Ooooh," Zoi said. "If I was Zoi right now, you'd be nursing bit fingers."

Dan chuckled. "It's a much closer prospect now."

Leena stood up then. "So are we agreed on this thing?'

"YEAH!" came a chorus from 4 voices around the table.

"We can beat this thing," Feyhran said, her eyes lit up with anticipation.

"Good ol' Earth has a few centuries left yet." Dan said conclusively.

"How can we lose?" Leena chuckled, "With a god on our side?"

Everyone looked at me. I just shrugged, grinning and blushing.

"Say that reminds me," Dan said. "Can you... get us out of here?"

"What?" I asked. "Oh, sure! No problem. I'll need everyone to meet on Furtoonia at my place every Saturday at 6. No, don't even tell me. You're all free that time. Come June, it should all fall into place. Just be online, and be wizbitted."

They were on their way and I was left in a glow of satisfaction, to wait.

And wait.

It was the longest 8 months of my life. The weekly meetings turned into friendly sessions. We checked on each other, how we were doing, what the status was with our personal life. It felt good for everyone to finally be able to open up to someone who understands. I worked on the simulation, getting it to match perfectly with the world I'd designed. That and the prophecy would soon start to take hold. Let's see Fate get in the way of that!

8 months... it seemed like such a long time... not that another year or another decade would have prepared me any more.

Dan_Smith says, "Well my truck is all packed up and ready to go."
Feyhran mails, "You're sure you can get all of us?"
Dan_Smith says, "No problem. :) I have enough gas to last a year."
Darkie ktchs, "Once we're on the other side, we can meet in Williamsburg, on the eastern coast of America."
Leena purrs, "I hope Dan won't have trouble picking Feyhran up in Europe."
Feyhran mails, "Um... Yes. What about that, Dan?"
Dan_Smith says, "Oh, I'm sure Ol' Bessie can handle it. ;)"
Darkie ktchs, "Good thing. Because I'm not going to be a god once we get over there."
Zoi frrts, "WHAT?!!"
Darkie winces. "Please, will you watch the ears? It's true, all my power is going into the New World. It's a natural consequence when a god creates a world I guess."
Leena purrs, "Wow..."
Darkie ktchs, "You mean I never told any of you guys?!"
Dan_Smith says, "No, you didn't."
Darkie ktchs, "Jeez, sorry. It's okay, not like I'll be dead or anything. I'll just be my MUCK character like all the rest of you."
Feyhran mails, "You know, it's interesting..."
Leena purrs, "What's that?"
Feyhran mails, "In all the 8 months we've had, none of us changed our characters, making them super powerful or anything."
Leena purrs, "Oh I would never do that..."
Dan_Smith says, "I've got Ol' Bessie. What more could I ask for?"
Zoi frrts, "It wouldn't be fair to anyone who didn't know. Besides, I like me just the way I am! *poing*"
Leena purrs, "None of us want to rule the world, we just... we just want to make things work right. And the first step to that is not abusing our power."
Darkie ktchs, "Yes... not to mention that each person gets the same amount of "power" as you put it. Overloading on one skill would cause a loss elsewhere."
Zoi frrts, "Well burst our bubble will ya? (:3"
Dan_Smith says, "Well burst our bubble of humbleness why don't you?"
Zoi JINX!!!
Dan_Smith darns.
Zoi gloats. "Can't talk now, silly beary!"
Dan_Smith just growls, getting on all fours. Did he have his porridge today, hmm?
Zoi flees!
Dan_Smith lumbers after her, waiting for her to come around the log...
Zoi runs around the log not looking where she's running... *CWASH*
Dan_Smith has Zoi by the tail, grinning wickedly. He starts making yo-yo motions.
Zoi *poing* rolrolroll *poing* rolrolroll "Okay Okay! Grinch!"
"Thank you Zoi." Dan says, free of his sudden inability to speak.
Darkie ktchs, "Guys... it's happening."
Leena purrs, "Oh god. I can't take this stress... what do we do?!"
Darkie ktchs, "Just relax and watch the monitor. We're going to go through just like in the simulations... but this time it's for real."

Please don't ask me to explain what I did next. I can't even comprehend it anymore. It was like I took their hopes and put them in the screen, then routed the hopes on my DSL line down to Furtoonia where the characters were waiting. Then, I pulled a mental switch and everything exploded in brilliance.

We were floating in stars! It was so beautiful. There was Zoi, that little bouncy tube-rat, twisting about to get a look at her tail. There was Leena, standing or floating in a hidden courtly grace. Dan leaned against a ghost truck against the stars and Feyhran sat there, all trussed up in his mail hat and striped shirt, looking down at his huge backpaws. We all fit into the shape of a pentagon and a five-pointed star sprang into being in the immesurable space between us. "Get ready," I said. Everyone nodded as one. "Now... it happens."

The gate at the center of the star opened and reality... began to flow. A green light shown out from the pentagon that was the star's center, signalling the appearance of the star. It had exploded 10 billion years ago in a space ripping cataclysm that shone brighter than the sun. Hours became minutes, then seconds, then people started to come through.

They were little balls of light, all sleeping the sleep of ages. Darling little white snowpuffs that danced unaware in the green light. I pulled them through, and sheltered them, and gave them unto my New World Awaiting. It was done waiting. Like a whirlwind, they all flew into the other end of the gate, tilting crazily as their vital forces were absorbed by the world like a sponge. Then it was done.

"We did it," I said.
"We did?" starry Leena echoed across the heavens.
"I never thought I would be doing this," Dan said, scratching his round ears. "Never in a thousand lifetimes."

"Oh no..." Zoi whispered. "Look!"

The pentagon inside the pentagram had turned angry red. Everything started shaking.

"What's happening?!" Feyhran shouted, holding his paws before him protectively as bits of things started to fly around.

"I... I don't know!" I screamed, diving for the center. There was the world! The earth... it was fine, wasn't it? Oh god no. I grabbed onto it. "We gotta hold it! Everyone help!"

Everyone floated to the central pentagon, putting paws down on the now smooth surface. I felt it in my hands... the world was there... I could see all the people, all the little things scampering about on it. I could feel the roots of the deepest rocks. Such was the experience of everyone else. We were one, standing against the waves of destruction that battered against the gate.

"It's not getting better," Leena said through clenched teeth.
"How can it die?" Zoi screamed, "How can it die with us there to watch it?"
The gate suddenly began to waver and our hands sank into it. I pulled mine out with the others, it stuck like wet taffy. "Oh my god, it wants us. It needs us to finish the death."
Zoi turned and we turned and there were the white balls of people, floating lazily toward our gate. "We've gotta close it!" she screeched, "Or we'll get sucked back in!"

"I can't close it!" I yelled. "How will we get back? How will we know what happened?"

"If you don't close it," Feyhran said a note of finality in his voice, "It will die. And we will be pulled along with it. Leave the world to its own, now all we can do is try to save ourselves."

"Them too!" Leena said pointing at the cloud of souls being drawn towards the gate.

"Okay," I snarled. Drawing on my last bitter ounce of strength, I cried out in pain as lines of force lept across the pentagon in the center, forming an upside down pentagram. I coughed and blood spattered the diagram. I used that to lend it even more strength. Within that pentagram, another pentagram formed, and within that another, so on to infinity. I fell down then, feeling my body begin to fade. Everyone else was slowly losing their color. "What? What's happening?" Dan said fearfully as everything began to go white.

"It's over," were my last words. "We follow the puffballs now to a new life. Our world is..."

And then I knew nothing.

"But how do you know?"

"Know what, child?"

"How do you know if you were a god, or was it just your story?"

"It's tough to say where we begin and end. It may have been a story; I'm not sure what is made up and what's real anymore... I just don't know child."

You made it! Now check out my story.