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Apres 6

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I slide off an updraft and coast down the valley. Everywhere I look, the forest has been destroyed. Oh sure, trees are still there, but the stands of old growth and towering forest monarchs I cultivated over the centuries are no more. There's a scant tree that's more than two hundred years old. After I passed the confluence I notice houses along the observatory road, tall, narrow, gothic things of wood built against the canyon wall, and ruins, often no more than a stone hearth, in the canyon bottom.

At the mouth of the canyon, I gain some elevation and glide over Tonerg, or rather, its remains. It's difficult to describe total annihilation, but that's what I see. The city had grown up and spread out along each side of the river during my absence. All that remained in the center of the city was a shallow crater, filled by the river. The only buildings left standing were large, poured stone structures, but even they tipped on their foundations and were scarred from extreme heat. A steal tower where the landing field used to be slumped like a melted candle in the direction of the crater.

I swoop low for a closer look and start to get a weird tingly feeling from my feathers, similar to when I charge up, but odd and itchy. I climb again and circle. Nature is retaking the town quite handily. Already, box elder and cedar have grown in along the river and shade the new lake. A moose browses along the water's marge and deer browse the grasses growing in the street gutters. My flyover elicited no avoidance reaction. It seems they haven't been preyed on by a dragon for some time.

I leave the ungulates in blissful ignorance for a while longer and return to my roost. I set my foreclaw on a rounded boulder and roll it around a bit while pondering. What should I do next? Human civilization has taken several steps forward and one back. I haven't found any elves. The dragons are missing. Tonerg is a ghost town. My forest is destroyed.

I clench my claw and the boulder crumbles. Huh, I couldn't do that before.

A low, continuous thunder from the North interrupts my revery. I look up and searched for the source. When I find it, it's much closer than I expected. Two silvery craft roar through the air just a bit higher in the sky than the elevation of my own mountain. They slow and swing around me in a wide, banking turn. Through a clear, glass dome on each fuselage, I see a human pilot staring back at me. Then the moment ends and the two aircraft streak away to the North faster than I can ever hope to follow.

I laugh aloud. So, they did it! Humans have mastered mechanical, powered flight in heavier-than-air craft! Little Sister's dream is made real.

I spread my wings and take to the air myself. Looks like it's time to start something new.