by David Smith
THERE ARE TIMES when even the most intelligent of creatures will abandon all thought, all reason, and will simply act.
As El pulled both his wings tight against his sides and plunged downward, his speed increased as though he were a falling blue meteor. A hush went up from the Evil as they saw the distant, blue object overhead streaking faster and faster toward them. Asherah saw him too. For a brief moment, her heart rose to see her beloved, but it soon turned to trepidation. She did not believe that El could pull out of a dive so steep, so fast. She tucked her head under her wing.
These creatures that the girls named “cherubs” have a peculiar feature that some of you have imagined certain animals in your world had anciently. And yet, it was one of which the cherubs themselves were largely unaware.
Inside the cherub’s bodies are produced fatty compounds that have a heavier component, and a lighter component. Both components are what you would call “flammable.” In addition to their ability to flash a blue light, the cherubs contain various points inside their bodies where electrical arcs can be produced, among which are locations along their teeth. If they expel these fatty compounds at the same time they apply this electrical spark, the compounds ignite and burn upon contacting the air. In this way, they can do what you would call “breathe fire.” Indeed, it looks more like they are “blowing fire,” but you understand the concept. And although neither of these two cherubs had ever done this before, the capability existed within them.
There are beetles in your own world, some of whom live out their entire lives without flying. Yet, they can fly, and when the need arises they do so very effectively. Similarly, although they had never done it, these two cherubs could blow fire very effectively. (Indeed, for reasons I will not go into, this ability that exists within cherubs is the source of your own mythology regarding fire-breathing creatures.)
And so as El dove downward and the ground approached fast, he opened his mouth, and felt a strange sensation he had not felt before. As he spread his vast wings and his dive turned into a terrifying swoop, out came a perfect stream of fire.
Raking across the forces of the Evil then, was a path of incendiary death. For not only were the Evil burned by the first blast of the flame, but the heaver component of the fluid stuck to their bodies and continued to burn.
El managed to turn so that the path of destruction missed Asherah at the last minute. But the effect proved so startling that the Evil fell to the ground and momentarily released the netting with which they had been holding her. Asherah too was startled, and she pulled her head out from under her wing and looked around. As she had many times before, she pulled away from her captors, but this time, she noticed she was loose. She ran out from beneath the netting and leaped into the air. She beat her wings, climbing steeply higher and higher into the air, where she was joyfully joined by El.
Speaking in their language they flashed quickly, and both ascertained the good news that they were each all right. For a moment, they experienced a reunion of happiness and relief.
But it was not all good news. El soon recounted the progress of the battle in the Plains of Wyoming and that events there did not go well for the animals. The pincer maneuver had been executed by the animals as planned, but to less-than-desired effect. The battle now was largely a free-for-all and El could not predict the outcome. Indeed, with these fresh forces of Evil massing below them, it did not bode well for the animals at all.
The Evil looked up as the two cherubs soared over them. And as they watched, the captains of the Evil realized that the cherubs flying overhead meant they had now been unsuccessful in maintaining the secrecy of their reserve forces, and they also realized that those two immense, powerful creatures were flying at an altitude completely beyond the reach of their own flying forces.
Realizing therefore that their aerial forces were now useless in this location, the Evil now immediately commanded them to fly toward the Plains of Wyoming to support the main battle, and the ground forces of the Evil in the Grand Canyon began to move in the direction of the main battle as well.
El and Asherah flew together far overhead. For a brief time, care was swallowed in a tenuous bliss as they plied the sky together, soaring with only the company of their true love beside them, as they had done so many times before. And yet, they could see the corps of the Evil below as they were marshalling and beginning to move in the direction of the main battle.
“El,” Asherah asked, “have we anticipated this large force below that is now moving toward our friends?”
El paused for a long time. His quick mind had already anticipated their entire conversation. And you will soon see why he was in no hurry to continue it.
“No my love, we have not. With the arrival of these new forces below us, it is virtually assured that we will be defeated. That is, if this new force of Evil is allowed to arrive fully intact.”
After another long pause, El looked at Asherah, and his eyes were sad. “Beloved,” he continued, “I cannot allow this force below us to arrive intact. It must be attacked here.”
Knowingly, Asherah looked back at El, and they continued to communicate with the flashing blue colors of their bodies. “But El, there is not time to summon any of our friends to attack these forces below us.” She paused. “Of course, you know that.”
For a moment, El felt his trepidation washed away, as he thought only of his love for her. From the time they had both been young, there had never been anything in his life he had wanted so much, as simply to be with her. Nonetheless, his path was now clear to him. His duty must outweigh his heart, and his life.
“My love,” he said, “This will be the last time I will fly with you. I will attack them, here. But as you know, while I may be able to destroy many of them, I cannot destroy all of them.”
He paused. It was quiet, except for the sound of the air rushing across their magnificent wings.
“But to do sufficient damage to their forces,” he continued, “for me to be sufficiently aggressive in engaging them, I cannot possibly survive.”
And Asherah turned away. She had known he would say this. But it still drew great pain nonetheless.
Yet now, El’s countenance brightened as he turned to her, eyes gleaming.
“But you will survive!” he said. “Asherah, you carry the future of all of our kind within you, and you will survive! You can fly far away, and bear our young. Raise them, then return to this place in due time with all your forces. All will be well. We will prevail. All will be as it was!”
Asherah looked at El both knowingly and lovingly.
“No beloved,” she said thoughtfully. “It will not be the same as it was. For you will be gone.”
They soared high into the air, in perfect formation.
“Without you,” she continued, “life will have no meaning for me. Without you, there is no future, no light, no life. If you are gone, the world will end for me. I will not leave your side, my love. But, you knew I would say that, even before I did. You knew I would not leave you.”
El hung his head for a moment, then raised it again. He had persuaded her once to hide in the valley where she would have been presumably, far from the battle. He had assured her he would be all right. But this time, he knew he could not convince her. It was too obvious that he could not survive if he attacked all of the forces below them, alone. And so he knew he could not save her, for he knew he would not be able to persuade her to leave him this time. But he had needed to try anyway.
Nor had another, theoretically viable option been possible: That being the one where the two cherubs would simply both fly away, establishing a new land where they and their children could live in peace. Indeed, perhaps one day, they as an entire vast family of mighty cherubs could have returned en masse, by surprise, and saved the animals, freeing them from the inevitable enslavement by the Evil. But this very viable option, while it was known to both El and Asherah, was never even dis
cussed. It would have meant death and a long time of great suffering for their friends.
As they both flew together, they knew what they had to do: the only hope of turning the tide of battle would be if these fresh forces below them could be destroyed or delayed, here, before they could reach the main battle. This would have the effect of disorienting and potentially discouraging the enemy, which could allow the battle to turn again in the animals’ favor.
But neither El nor Asherah were under any illusions. They knew that were they both to attack the Evil’s reserve forces, without any other support, that they would both be killed. And not just them, but all the little cherubs that were developing inside Asherah would also die. And with them, the future of all the cherubs who would ever live in New California would also end. There would be no more cherubs. And yet, what other way was there to save the lives of so many other animals?
And so, as El and Asherah climbed into the sky and soared there together as they had so many times before throughout their lives, they did not flash blue to each other, but remained silent, simply feeling the presence of the one they loved beside them, and listening to the rush of the wind. They had known each other so long that words were often unnecessary. And so, when El pointed his nose downward, Asherah did too. They would dive and make a final pass over their foes before they engaged them.
And as they did, the forces of Evil, every one of them, looked up together. As those two rare creatures dove toward them, all the forces of the Evil knew. For the Evil too, were old. They knew this was the end time of the cycle of life for the two great, blue creatures overhead. They said nothing, but all the Evil realized that they would first taste battle this day by killing the two remaining cherubs in this place. And in so doing, they understood that they would kill all the future cherubs that would ever be. When the full comprehension of this became clear to them, they raised their weapons, and shouted.
But as the two cherubs passed low and flew over them, the Evil did not attack. Instead, they lowered their weapons. And as El and Asherah climbed once again into the air for the last time, the Evil threw their weapons down, and to the dismay of their own captains, the forces of the Evil beat their chests in a token respect for the two cherubs. This, they thought, was truly bravery. This, they thought, was valor. It was sacrifice. It was courage. These things that the Evil had always been cynically told to value by their leaders were also things they had been told that animals did not possess. They had been told that all animals were weak because they were good. They had been told that animals had no strength, no courage, no ability to sacrifice. But now they could see for themselves that these things they had been told by their leaders were not true. And so they looked up and beat their chests and cheered, and they honored El and Asherah for a brief moment.
And when they had paid their tribute to the two, brave creatures overhead, the Evil became quiet and picked up their weapons. For while they now greatly respected the cherubs, their mission was one of conquest, not respect. Looking skyward once again, they waited eagerly for the coming moments, when they would destroy the last of the cherubs.
As they flew high above the Evil, Asherah saw the flashing of her lifelong friend.
“It is time,” El said.
“It is, beloved,” said Asherah.
“This is the end,” he said. “Oblivion.”
“We will go there together, my love” she replied. “With you, I am not afraid.” And he could see her try to appear fearless, for his sake.
“You have always been with me Asherah. You are all that I have ever hoped to have; all I have ever hoped to be.”
“You have always been mine, El. I am ever yours.”
And as they turned and soared high in the air, her wing touched his. They exchanged a final glance, and they both knew that while the Evil could destroy their bodies, they could never destroy the love that bound them to each other. And then they dove toward their enemy, and their fate.
As they did, the two great Cherubs each flashed one last time to each other. And what they both said to each other was the same thing, although neither of them saw it.
On the ground below, a communication beetle saw, and recorded what they said. But this beetle was killed later in the battle. The only place these words are recorded is here, in this book that I am writing and that you are reading.
As El and Asherah dove toward their enemy side by side for the last time, what they said to each other was this: “Farewell, my love.”
And since it was only the cherubs that flashed blue in this place, and therefore it was only because of them that the communication beetles flashed this color, this would be the last time a communication beetle would ever flash blue again.
At this point, the two cherubs determined that the heavy weapons should be the focus of their attack. El, still unable to allow Asherah to endanger herself, flew down first and set many of these weapons on fire. The sturdier of the weapons he clawed with his feet as he passed. Given El’s strength, he was remarkably successful in this effort. He also successfully altered his tactics such that the Evil could not predict where he would strike, and therefore they were unable to succeed in their efforts to shoot him down.
However, finally on one pass, as he grabbed the top of one of the Evil’s throwing weapons with his claws it did not give way, and his claws stuck in it. This flipped him over in the air, and he hit the ground hard. The Evil moved toward him fast, but he quickly immolated them with a stream of burning liquid, and once again took off. Nonetheless, this particular leg was now badly damaged, and would be of no further use to him. As he climbed into the air, Asherah noticed this, but said nothing. But now, seeing he was injured, she resolved to join him in all future attacks, whatever he might request of her.
Indeed, she knew the time had come for her great sacrifice as well. She was very powerful. She would destroy the Evil too.
Both cherubs now attacked together, and raked the Evil with twin tracks of flaming death. Many Evil spun and ran, on fire. And as they ran and collided with each other, they set others on fire as well.
Finally, after many more passes, the Evil took careful aim with some of their heavy weapons at the cherub who they perceived was the weaker of the two: Asherah. I do not take the time here to describe the irrelevant details of the weapons used in this battle, where those details do not pertain to this account. But in this case, I will state that this one was basically a spear thrower – designed to throw a large spear that was heavier than what a normal creature could carry.
And so on this pass, as they came low above the Evil, one of these heavy spears collided with the leading edge of Asherah’s left wing. This caused her to spin partially in the air, and then crash to the ground, where the Evil ran toward her.
El, seeing this, swooped low, and spreading his wings he glided fast, barely off the ground, and his wings collided with many of the Evil who were running toward Asherah. This killed some of them, and knocked some of them off their feet.
But this also took a toll on El’s wings. As he reached Asherah he could see what they had done to her.
He knew she would not fly again.
And so, neither would he.
For a while, both of the cherubs were able to keep the Evil at bay using their fire, and in the process they destroyed many of them. But eventually, their stocks of flammable fluids ran out. The heavier solvents were the first to go, leaving the cherubs only able to blow fire without being able to spray flaming goo that would stick to the Evil and continue burning.
Once they realized this, the Evil discovered they could fend off most of the damage by simply hiding behind their shields as the flame passed over them.
But El, grounded with his mate, began to emit his lighter flammable solvents without igniting them, and in so doing he would spread a layer of combustible gas around the Evil. Once it was in place, he would ignite it. The resulting explosion a
nd fire once again did a lot of damage to the Evil. But this didn’t last long. Soon, both El and Asherah ran out of all ability to produce flame altogether.
And so they spread their wings and charged the enemy and trampled many, all the while with the enemy inflicting deep wounds in the cherubs as they did so.
In this charging, the two became separated, which neither one noticed until El heard Asherah’s cry. While the cherubs had been astonishingly successful in eliminating almost all of the Evil’s heavy weapons (as well as a sizeable number of their soldiers) the Evil had once again focused on Asherah, training their remaining weapons on her. As El heard her cry, he turned and saw her being hit again and again. He spread his wings and charged with terrifying speed, killing Evil in a wide swath as he drove toward Asherah. Realizing his direction, the Evil ran in front of him and held up their heavy rods. Even so, they continued to fall as El charged forward, and yet, the metal rods took a heavy toll on his wings, and his progress slowed as he came nearer and nearer to Asherah.
But he never reached her.
On the Plains of Wyoming, the battle had turned decidedly in favor of the Evil once word came to the animals that there was a reserve force of them approaching. Nonetheless, the reserve aerial forces of the Evil were the first to approach, and the aerial forces of the animals made short work of them as they tried to enter the battle.
The battle then progressed like this: Now having almost no air power, the Evil concentrated their ground attack at weak points among the animals to great effect. The air power of the animals had so far been very effective against the Evil’s aerial forces as well as against the Evil’s ground forces. But the animals’ aerial forces were becoming exhausted. And it is a truism, that while aerial forces can wreak damage on an enemy, sometimes spectacularly, they often are of only minimal effect in actually concluding a war, which task of necessity almost always falls to the ground forces to accomplish.
A decisive moment, and indeed one of desperation, occurred when two of the “pterodactyls” as they had been named, decided on their own, to remove Diane and Sally from the battle, which they did. Having removed them, the animals could then battle and sacrifice only for the sake of victory and with only that in mind, having assured themselves that both the two girls, and presumably the cherubs, were safe.
And as time passed, it became clear that something was irregular about the few reserve ground forces of the Evil that were now beginning to join the battle. Far from being the devastating force that had been expected, the reserve forces were ragged, and had almost no heavy weapons.
Suffice it to say, without any more detail, that the lack of a sizeable and effective reserve force discouraged the Evil and in turn, reinvigorated the animals, just as El had suspected it might. Ultimately the animals triumphed with a complete victory over the Evil. Indeed, the final act of war was accomplished by the animals with the use of their exhausted but still committed aerial forces in hunting down every single remaining Evil as they attempted to retreat. Once found, the remaining Evil were destroyed by the ground animals. They showed the Evil no mercy. And I would comment that while mercy is often a virtue, in this case the animals were right in showing the enemy none.
But the victory was not sweet, for the cost had been high. Many animals’ lives had been lost. Yet, in spite of the cost in the loss of the lives of many animals, the first question on the minds of all the remaining animals was: Where are the two priceless cherubs, and the girls?
They didn’t have to wait long to find out about the girls, who were retrieved by the pterodactyls, after which everybody started looking for the cherubs. A few knowing where El had hidden Asherah, this was where all the animals now went.
Although the communication beetles were asked repeatedly and intensely where the cherubs were, none responded. Indeed, none flashed blue at all. And although the animals did not know it yet, as I said, flashing blue is something no communication beetle would ever do again.
And so the animals all rushed en masse toward the place where Asherah had been hidden, in the valley of the Grand Canyon. Here, as they approached, the animals were astonished at the number of dead Evil and wrecked weapons, and they were perplexed by the odd scorch marks that seemed to be almost everywhere. As they moved through the canyon, the carnage all around became more and more clear. There were scorched and dead Evil everywhere, and large numbers of their wrecked heavy weapons. And yet, since the animals knew that none of their own forces had been deployed in that area, they wondered what had happened there.
Suddenly, overhead, the flying animals began screaming and they dove toward a place near the center of the valley where lay a large number of dead Evil and wrecked weapons. As the ground animals, together with the two girls, approached, they could see some Evil were still alive, and they were being attacked by the flying animals who were screaming wildly, frighteningly.
As they approached, some of the faster animals raced ahead. In the distance, in the melee of the flying animals screaming and diving from the sky and the faster ground animals all killing the remaining Evil, there was an ominous large mound in the center of it all. As the two girls ran as hard as they could, with their legs burning from the effort, they could see it was two large mounds.
Sally fell to her knees first. Then Diane screamed, and fell. As the few remaining Evil were at last all destroyed, the flying animals now ventured high into the sky still screaming, and the ground animals ran wildly.
Diane looked only briefly, then desperately buried her face in her hands.
For in the distance, Diane and Sally had both seen what the two large mounds in the distance were. They could see that they were blue. They were the bodies of El and Asherah.