The First Story

A group of creatures lived on the coast. There was a river close to their camp. Coconuts fell from the trees. There were other fruits, too. Some of them gathered these. Everything was fine. They’d wake with the sun, gather and eat, and then go to sleep with the sun. The order of their lives was natural. The young would play, the old would die, and the ones who weren't old or young would make little ones. This was until one dawn an immense wave crashed , just as the tip of the sun became visible on the horizon, on the beach and violently flooded the ground where they slept. And the next dawn, another wave crashed, this one more immense than the last. Nobody yet died, or was even hurt. And the next dawn, another, larger wave crashed. After this third wave, two of them looked at each other with confused expressions. They looked at each other and then inland and then back at each other. They had no language, and only knew how to express themselves to others with their eyes and screams. After the fifth wave, the biggest so far, more of them started doing this, looking at another, then inland, and then back. After  the sixth wave, all of them, even the small ones, were doing a lot of looking. From eyes to inland and back to eyes, with strained, worried faces. But they didn't leave their part of the coast. On the morning of the seventh day, however, after a huge wave crashed, one of the big ones found the mother of his little one under a tree, shredded flora covering her body. She was cold and empty of life. He screamed with profound pain, but soon from his grief came a great clarity. And he looked at all the others, who had came when they heard his screams, as a whole, so not at any one in particular, for a heavy moment, and then looked inland and, without looking back, moved his feet to follow his eyes. The others followed silently, as if moved by some puppeteer beneath it all.

Soon they had reestablished themselves in a grove by a healthy stream, about two days trek from the coast. There was about fifty of them. They gathered the fruit from trees, and occasionally one would, to the great surprise of the others, kill a small creature by smashing it with a stone. At this they would all scream and gaze wildly at each other.

One day, the one who had led them inland began walking in a direction none of them had yet trekked. That is, through the stream. Close to the stream, another had his first arm on a tree, intending to climb it. Before he could get farther up, the leader grabbed his shoulder, turned him around so that they were facing, and gazed into his eyes. The other nodded, and soon they were on the other side of the stream. A vast clearing was before them. The leader plowed through it, possessed by some force of which he was the first creature to know. The other struggled to match strides. They finally came to the edge of the clearing, at a cliff, and now before them was the sea. Both of them stood,  beholding the endless horizon. Then the leader became strange. He again grabbed the other by the shoulder and turned him until they were facing. Hot, fresh tears began flowing down his hairy face. Then he approached the very edge of the cliff, and leaped off into the sea far below. The other felt compelled to follow him, but didn't.  He sensed there was something very important he needed to do. So he quickly started back to the camp. Once there, he began screaming and waving his arms so that all the others would come to him. They did, and so he became silent. His expression became frustrated and he looked at all the others, who were looking back at him urgently, with his face clenched in an attempt to concentrate. After several long moments of silence, a few of the crowd began screaming restlessly. But then a great wave of inspiration came over him, manifest in his eyes. He picked up a long flat stone and a thick twig that were lying before him on the ground. He held out both, and tried to show them all as best he could what he’d seen, what had happened.