Ice Giants Wake!
Page 19
The jant/Stone-Coat relationship was based on sound logic, both parties agreed. They complemented each other well, as each lifeform had different strengths and weaknesses, they were not in direct competition with each other, and they shared a mutual problem: humans.
Most important to the Stone-Coats, the jants were even less tolerant of cold than the humans. Unlike the humans, they would not compete with Stone-Coats when the cold times came. In cold times the jants would be content to withdraw to remaining pockets of warm areas where they could preserve adequate numbers of their species. The death of most jants would be perfectly acceptable. At that time, however, they would come into intense competition with surviving humans. Then, or at some time before then, the humans would have to be dealt with, and they should be weakened before that.
Of similar importance to the jants, unlike the humans, the Stone-Coats would not compete with the jants in warm times. However in both warm times and cold, the Stone-Coats had great computer-like digital capability and the ability to tap into human computer systems. Stone-Coats could also function in cold environments that the jants could not tolerate.
The jants had great biological brain capacity and the ability to spy on humans that they bit when in warm environments. Jants had telepathic ability and an in depth understanding of the warm-creature humans that the Stone-Coats lacked.
Then the Stone-Coat was blasted to bits by the Tribe humans the Stone-Coat inclination was to immediately attack and eat the Tribe humans and their lodges, as they had done several times before in past centuries and millennia. However, the Stone-Coat Enclave deduced that jant input on major issues involving humans could be valuable. So before attacking, jant advice was sought.
It took several minutes for enough jants to be aroused to formulate a response. During the delay, subsequent actions by the Tribe humans indicated that the humans also wanted to avert immediate warfare. Soon thereafter the jants advised the Stone-Coats that war against the human Tribe now would be a mistake, since in response the non-Tribe humans would surely use their armies to destroy the Stone-Coats. Like the jants, the Stone-Coats were currently too few and weak to openly attack the human race. These were valuable insights indeed, and the jant advice was heeded by the Stone-Coats. War with the humans was very likely to happen, but not yet.
When the time came to either subjugate or completely dispose of the humans, jants and Stone-Coats each had a much better chance of being successful if they were both strong and they worked together. Essentially immortal, both jants and Stone-Coats were in no hurry to dispose of the humans. They would wait until the time was ripe to achieve certain victory. They would watch carefully for such a time to arise. Meanwhile the interface that the Tribe humans promised to maintain would nicely support a continuing jant/Stone-Coat alliance, along with the study of humans and their science and weaknesses. Jants and Stone-Coats would strengthen themselves and weaken the humans before openly striking.
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Ed and his Indian Princess Mary were happily established on the Reservation at last! With their help the immediate crisis of the waking Stone-Coat Ice Giants was solved without loss of human or Stone-Coat lives, and without Federal Government intrusion.
Running Bear transferred within the Federal Government from the NSA to the Tribe administrative staff, and henceforth focused on his wife Talking Owl, Stone-Coats and jants, and other Tribe matters.
After only a few weeks of activity all of the Stone-Coats were returning to their Mountain for a very long nap. One more load of scrap appliances from Schenectady and their feeding would be complete. Damage to woodlands was severe, and the Tribe was planning to replant trees in the spring to regrow what had been carried off by the Stone-Coats. It would hopefully be many centuries before the strange creatures again awoke, but when they did they would again find giant trees on which to feed.
Jack and Doc continued their research into the past of the Tribe and the Stone-Coats, aided by a growing staff of young perspective Tribe scientists. They continued to hope that someday they would be able to publish their findings to the wider world.
The bears returned to their hibernation dens, most raptors at last migrated south, and wolves returned to the Mountain foothills and could frequently be seen visiting their Mohawk clan counterparts. Ed and Mary were getting used to encountering both grey wolves and coyotes in and around Giants' Rest and the Great Lodge, along with a certain ever-present great horned owl.
The long winter continued on and on but spring would be incredible! Ed looked forward to sleeping under the stars with Mary and 'talking' with turtles in the spring, along with owls, wolves, bears and other intriguing wild critters. Despite hardships, life on the Reservation was full of wonder and hope!
Ed and Mary moved again to a Turtle Lodge in Giants' Rest that was close to the Tribe school. There Ed was happy to finally begin teaching history to young Tribe members! Not for the first time he wondered about the applicability of past human history to the emerging problems of climate change and the strange challenges presented by such things as jants and Stone-Coats. However, he felt certain that education was a positive thing, a mechanism by which knowledge was passed on to successive generations as it evolved in Lamarckian fashion.
Sure, there were a lot of problems troubling the world and its inhabitants, but right now things were looking up! He was with his Mary and among talented friends that knew what they were doing. Life was good! What could possibly go wrong?
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The End
About Other Publications by This Author
This is the second story in the series Global Warming Fun. If you enjoyed this novella, you may be interested in reading the other short stories and novellas of this series as they gradually emerge. You may also be interested in the already published full-length e-books of this author, including a (currently FREE!) collection of twenty fantasy and sci-fi short stories titled There Goes The Neighborhood; Earthly Fantasy/Science Fiction Short Stories.
If you like ancient secrets, magic and science, romance and adventure, fantasy and science fiction, try reading the (currently FREE!) full-length novels Secrets of Goth Mountain (which like the current novella has strong Native American themes) and its loosely coupled epic fun-packed sequel Government Men.
Bird lovers that like strong human female heroines and stronger blue jay heroes may (if T-rex sized raptors and other nuisances can be tolerated) enjoy an adventure trip to Aves the bird planet, achieved by reading the traditional science fiction thriller Blue Dawn Jay of Aves.
Fantasy noir detective fans that can abide what used to be known by feminists as a 'male chauvinist pig' private detective as a hero, and can also tolerate trolls, elves, and other unexpected visitors to our world along with a talking mob cat, may enjoy The Shrinking Nuts Case.
To learn the author's world view including thoughts on multiverse and quantum mechanics physics concepts and how that compares with phenomena that occur in the above novels, get geeky with the brief (currently FREE!) e-book NOW and the Weltanschauung of Government Men.
All are either FREE or absurdly CHEAP and are available at Smashwords and affiliated e-book sites.
Good reading!
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