The Air Dancer

Chapter 3

This is not the first world.

It will not be the last, either.

It is just one world in a long line of worlds, each one born from the ashes of the one before it, and laying down its life for the ones to come. But one thing they all have in common is this: each one will die.

When the Great Mother made the first world, she did so with care knowing that one day she would have to destroy it. This is something that does not come easily for a loving mother -- and she is just that, many times over -- but like the maize must be harvested when the time is right, so must this world meet its end in preparation for the life of the next one.

No one knows what the next world will be like -- but they say that, when the time is right and if their hearts are pure, those who witness its end can travel to the next one. There are whispers that somewhere, far away, live the peoples of the last world, but no one has seen them; they only speak of their existence. And if they do exist, they are powerful. They would have all the strength of a dead world that gave up its life so this one could be born.

When the world dies, it always ends in fire -- flames brought to life by the hand of the Father, who watches over all of us. It is he alone who knows the time of the harvest, and he alone that can bring about the end.

But do not be fooled, little one: death is not an easy thing, and this world will fight. All the creatures living in it, all the spirits who walk among them, even the earth itself: they will all resist the end. And each of them, save for a few, will perish in the flames.

You will know when the time has come for death. It will not be quiet, like a thief; no. It will announce itself with the voice of thunder and footsteps of fire.

This is how the world will end.

And I can only hope that you are there to watch it burn.