The place where it lives

« There was a time when I used to travel a lot », One said to the Other. « I was searching for something, not really knowing where it was, what it was, or why I wanted to find it. I just knew I needed to look for it . And so began my journey. I didn't have any plan, so I just hopped from planets to planets, hoping that the moment I saw it, I would recognize it. I traveled for decades, centuries, millenia. During this time, I've witnessed some incredible things. I've noticed the births of stars, the creations of black holes. I've followed the paths of comets and asteroïds. I've walked on planets made of gold or diamonds. I've seen colors brighter than white and darker than black. And yet, none of these things could satisfied me.

Then, one day, as I was wandering around a young star, I discovered a strange little planet. In appearance it didn't seem to be any different from the million other planets I had already seen, but there was something about it, that I found quite peculiar. Intrigued, I decided to take a look closer. And.. Hum ? How would I describe it ? Well.. »He cracked a smile « Full of oceans, He said, oceans of lava,ferocely melting everything, oceans of rocks standing fiercly above the ground and under an ocean of stars. But the most interesting thing by far, was the ocean of water and salt, perpetually waving back and forth, amazingly pure, amazingly blue. I stared at it for a long time, hypnothised. Finally, I was satisfied, I thought that this was what I was looking for, my « it ». And so I left, my journey was over.

I went back to my home and to my life. But I was still obsessed by this planet. So I came back from time to time. And the more I went there, the more incredible it appeared to me : it was always evolving ! As time passed, new oceans were created, and other disappeared, like the oceans of lava. Even my beautiful ocean of water evolved ! It was now full of incredible creatures, eating, moving, living ! I was really happy, but at the same time, uneased. I felt that there was something else under the water, a black mass, the beginnng of a disaster. I became terrified of it, and so I left the planet and never came back.

Why am I telling you this story then ? Well it's because I did come back finally, a few years ago. I wanted to see my « it », and all my beautiful creatures in the beautiful ocean of water.

They were all gone.

Instead were those strange, white petals, floating around, innocently. I was devastated. The ocean didn't seem alive anymore. It felt... dead. I suddenly noticed that the black mass was also gone although the terrifying presence was still there.

And then I realised two things :

I realised what « it »was. Something obsessing, hypnotizing, powerful, fatal.

I realised that this planet, this ocean, the reason I was fascinated by it, wasn't because that was « it ». That was the place where It lives. The place where It was born, where It all began. The place It left to grow among the oceans of rocks, to developp. And the place It came back to, under a different form, although Its terrifying presence never really left. It came back and the other creatures left, scared, because nothing can live, in the place where It lives.