The Cuckoo's Egg

10 1 19
                                    

The blackness was unqualified

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The blackness was unqualified. The cold absolute. But it raced through the cold dark with immeasurable velocity. Occasionally, it came near enough to a large body that its course was altered. Sometimes by fractions of a degree. Sometimes by entire vectors.

At the moment it was speeding toward a big blue ball. It might have missed, but for the little gray rock that spun its orbit around the big blue ball. The combined gravitational pull of the two when aligned, was simply too much for it to ignore.

It shifted course, ever so slightly, and carved an arc through the moisture filled atmosphere that surrounded the blue ball, leaving a trail of condensation that could be seen even from the surface of the great blue ball, had anyone, or anything, been looking up.

As it was, there was no one there to see the perfect arc of steam-cloud that marked its appearance in this wonderful, new world. The seas boiled and the land spit molten rock, just the same as before its grand entrance. It struck the ground with enormous force. The violence of the landing elicited more excited ejections of rock, both liquid and solid.

The heat of its landing caused the seas to boil with more fervor than ever before. And yet, the blue ball simply healed its wound by pouring molten rock and steaming water over the newly formed scar until no one, nothing, could have seen that anything out of the ordinary had taken place.

Finally, the big blue ball cooled. The seas calmed themselves and the ground stopped its infernal shaking. The rivers of molten rock hardened and were covered with growing things. Soon there were swimming, then crawling, then walking creatures in abundance on the land.

Throughout this time it slept, buried in its bed of hardened rock. The creatures above grew large and dominated the land for eons. It was unperturbed by the bedlam they created.

In time, rampaging giants were replaced by little, hairy tree climbers. They chittered among themselves until eventually they found language. With language they formed communities. They captured four legged beasts and put them to work. They learned to farm fields of grain so they could brew their bitter beverages year round. In short, they became The People.

The People reproduced in great numbers and spread their communities all around the big blue ball. All the while, it slept, peacefully in its bed of rock.

But the planet hadn't given up completely on its energetic habit of pushing up land and spewing molten rock. The granite it was embedded in broke loose from its rest as it rose high up the throat of the mountain, buoyed on a column of liquid, living fire. The pressure within the huge mound of earth and rock grew to enormous proportions.

Eventually, the mountain gave up its fight to keep the pressure contained. The top of the mountain exploded, throwing earth, rock, plants and animals alike, high into the atmosphere at phenomenal speeds. The detritus rose so high that it began circling the great blue ball, threatening to remain aloft. But alas, gravity held sway and pulled all of the debris back to the surface. Among the rocks, clods, trees and carcasses, a perfect sphere fell to the earth. It struck the ground with great force but it was solid bedrock that it hit. The bedrock shattered, but the force of the strike still caused the sphere to bounce high into the air in search of a better target.

After several such rebounds, the sphere came to a rolling halt in a dense forest. It had rolled for miles, its velocity had been so great. When it came to rest, it settled in a circular indentation in the land. The stiff mud had been carefully pushed about to form a sort of cradle. Within this cradle were several other spheres, though none as perfect as the newcomer. These balls had mottled surfaces and were smaller on one end, giving the distinction of having an apparent top and bottom. They were situated so the narrow 'tops' were pointing to the sky.

A large (by standards of the day) feathered creature approached the nest and cautiously, lovingly, sat down, covering the eggs. There was activity in the forest today that the feathered one didn't much care for. She felt she needed to be with her eggs. For safety's sake.

The furry, former tree dwellers burst through the undergrowth with whooping and shouting. The feathered one was terrified, but couldn't leave her eggs. The hairy hunters quickly had her subdued and in a frenzy they were stabbing her with their pointed sticks.

While the struggle took place, several of the hairy intruders began gathering up the eggs and slinging them over their shoulders to carry back to their camp. But the perfectly round sphere began to rock, and the hunters stopped their pillaging to watch the impending birth.

A crack appeared on the surface of the sphere and it quickly encircled the whole thing. Several of the hunters moved closer to watch with anticipation. A new quarry was about to emerge.

The shell of the sphere finally gave way and out burst the newborn! The hunters were frozen in shock as they watched the child raise itself up on its eight, hairy legs. Huge, multifaceted eyes took in the scene with incredible speed. In a flash the beast was on the closest of the hunters, tearing them limb from limb.

It made quick work of the few hunters that were close by and made its way to the rest of the team as they scattered through the woods screaming. Only a few managed to escape. They were simply no match for eight legs. Even though it was newly hatched, it was faster than any creature on two legs or four.

Having dispatched the hunters, it made its way back to the nest and the large feathered one that was still tied down and bleeding from a dozen wounds. It stroked her gently with one of its forelegs and sadly thought Mother. Then it plunged a leg through her heart and began feasting on her flesh.

Soon, it thought, the other eggs will hatch and I'll have more to eat, gain strength. It sat down in front of the nest and waited patiently for the eggs to hatch.

 It sat down in front of the nest and waited patiently for the eggs to hatch

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