Disappear: Into Shadow

- CHAPTER TWENTY ONE -

Beneath the heavy canopy and lush foliage of a steamy tropical jungle, the Angelic Librarian and the amnesiac soul wandered. Following the quicksilvered body and reflective fires of the early Azrael they drifted through the dense undergrowth and fauna.

Raziel said, "When it had been created, Azrael was instructed to study the travels, progress and evolution of the soul as it lived and died on Earth. It would also ensure that each soul found a body and found its way out again after life. The voice asked Azrael to keep a detailed account of the progress and destinations of each soul after their lives."

Azrael's image began speeding up, as did the world around Michael and Raziel. The sun rose and set, scorching across the sky in brief seconds. The fronds of the jungle foliage tracked the quickening movement of the sun, opening and closing as the orb appeared and vanished. Rains came and went and clouds flew by. The seasons passed one after another in a rapid, continual cycle.

As the world grew and changed in fast forward, Raziel continued, "Azrael became an example of devotion. Meticulous, it collected the ever-changing list of lives and deaths and the experiences within. Azrael was one of many sent to watch over the world. Together, they were stirring a physical world into life. From its beginning, they walked the world encouraging and recording life as it happened."

Michael saw other Watchers, bodies of light, moving amongst the life of the world. They would both appear and blend into the backgrounds of the passing scenes.

Raziel said, "For millennia, they watched life develop, evolve and die. From single cell on past the dinosaur, they waited for the dawn of humanity." The Librarian wandered through the furious action of life zipping past him with a quiet air. Michael believed the old Angel followed every flashing detail. "As the ages passed, Azrael and the Watchers never saw or heard from their brethren in the Heavens. They began to grow despondent and lonely on the world they loved so much." Raziel said, drifting above a small creek bed.

As time passed the gurgling creek deepened, widening until it became a great fissure, opening the jungle around them. When the earth began to shift and rumble, Michael jumped back from the mouth of the fissure in astonishment. Monstrous trees were uprooted and tossed like matchsticks into the air. Only jungle moments before, sapphire blue water now began flowing down the fissure's length until Michael could not see the far shore. Raziel hovered over the water. Waves lapped against the sand at Michael's feet, but he could not feel the cool touch of the new ocean.

Raziel appeared unimpressed by this sudden geographic change. The Angelic construction of the Silver City was a tough sight to beat, Michael decided.

"All was not lost," Raziel said. "As the supercontinent on the world broke apart, the exploration truly began."

The quicksilvered reflection of Azrael's early guise floated past the lush green, moss covered tree trunks of the living world. Watching it move about the trees, Michael thought, this is way better than standing inside a television.

Allowing himself to be lead and drawn by the images of the distant past flowing around him, Michael felt his awareness slipping away until he became an unconscious observer of the scene.

Azrael watched as the first primates, the roots of man took quickly to the trees. The hunters of the land found them easy prey. A new and challenging life lay ahead. How well would they live in balance as they evolved, the Watcher wondered. How would the souls respond as they passed through the cycling of their lives? Would they, could they, become something else?