the valley was theatrically empty, like a set waiting for curtain rise. yellow stripes of bushes, thick with thorns and insect and the smell of a sweet decay line the hilly sides. a lightly grazed carpet of green with moss covered rock protrusions that is the most of it.
pillar 12 looked down at the six legged creature that had begun crawling its trunk. a segmented, hairy, exoskeletal beast about 6 inches long. it’s long fluffed antenna felt around on the metal for trapped pollen, for heat, for survival.
it wasn’t a disturbing intrusion to them, their own sensors didn’t pick up the tickle of the beastie’s spiny legs gripping into microscopic scratches and ridges. it was just, unwelcome.
pillar plucked the thing from their own exoskeletal shell and flung it as far as they could down into the valley from the watchpoint. they imagined it landing in the bushes and being fine, if dazed. something about small bodies with suits of armour that they knew from experience, they could get back up after something like that.
above the mild grey of the sky had darkened. rain was due. the first instance on a trek that had been hot and humid. it increased the pressure on their gears and had the potential to overheat the bionerval liquid conduction network. it sucked. and so the coolness of the day had been welcome. the rain however, meant finding shelter.
the valley of arms was a frustrating venture so far. it was a journey that they’d been proud to be a part of, the reclamation of a historical past that had been lost. this framing of it as a noble journey had convinced pillar 12 their notably less significant role in the expansion of the pillar exploration of the home of their ancestor progenitors was still worth something. they had been trapsing around in light forest and valleys for a few days now looking for a door. this didn’t actually feel as important as government building and social planning, the thing that the other 11 pillars had been up to.
when they’d tried to make contact, nothing had been sent back. for days. it felt like the truth was finally out, that now they had reached pillarworld, no-one needed, liked or respected them.
this was clear on the ship too. they lowered their visor tight for a few seconds, having dissociated while the rain began to fall. out of the pack they took their waterproof cover and shuffled it on, making for the overhanging rock a couple of dozen feet down a shallow slope, further into the mouth.
at the bottom of the valley, where the hills met, the brook that ran through here joined another that bubbled under the left side and became a stream that clattered down as a waterfall into one of the sources for the river of third city.
…
this was all that was written here. all that remains of this world. yours now. these images.
…
GlitchOut 