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Futuria Fantasia, Winter 1940
Page 18
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18 wandering like their parents. They snailed onward out of sight, all of them. "Silently, a phosphorescent green river raced like a bolt of furcate lightning over the green wastes. It was composed not of water but of myriad tiny luminous crawling insects. A conscious river, altering its tortuous course at will, small streams deviating from the main body and meandering erratically, then rejoining the general current. This river's end drew into sight, flashed under me and into the distance, leaving fast-greying red paths on the slime. "The moon's music assailed me; simultaneously I felt those man-measures, which had carried me so long, cease, leaving me without a link to my own world -- helpless against the inexorable tide of the lunar melody, which, bursting more loudly, swept me higher, through an interstice of the circulatory web, into blue infinity. And there it left me; fading ripples of it would lap me, but were too dissipated then to sweep me farther. "I floated aimlessly in the void, it seemed for ages, less a body than a mind, aware of neither hunger nor thirst nor ill of any sort other than a dreadful sapping weariness. "There was no way of reckoning time, but after an eternity of loneliness and self-boredom, I heard a glissando of mellow tintinnabulations. A troop of small stars flashed toward me like a scattered handful of sparkling white gems, whirling in interweaving dance of enchantment, tinkling glad clear tunes like the babbling of crystal brooks. The joyous, youthful essence of their song so charmed me that I forgot my weariness and vocally ventured to imitate it. "At last they broke their circle and swept away, single-file, out of sight, diminishing with distance. "For awhile I hummed their song, but with every repetition it lost some of its starry quality and gained a human-ness, earthiness, animalism -- until it impressed me no longer beautiful, and I was silent...Wearily the sluggish ages passed...in the illimitable blue solitudes... "Eventually I heard the man-music, again like a summons -- its vibrations piercing the moon-net, receding, drawing me with it. Its power increased with every unit of retrogression, dragging me with it. Over the wastes of slime it dragged me, all in a fraction of seconds. Wind tore at me, racketing in my ears, drowning music of both moon and man. "In a flash of cataclysm, of cosmic pandemonium, the moons, jostled out of their places by my abrupt passage through the web, strained apart, snapping their pulsant filamental arteries. White, searing drops of blood of light oozed from the severed ducts, hissing as they fell, and splashed on the slime, which heaved tortuously. The crawling trees reared upon their writhing roots, flailing their lensed limbs, and the phosphorescent rivers halted suddenly, piling into swiftly disintegrating mounds. "The rain of light blood thinned and ceased: the moons dimmed and plunged earthward, lusterless. As they touched the tempestuously tossing slime, it shrieked stridently, deafeningly -- cosmically! An outcry voicing all life's inherent dread of the horror of pain and death, which arose from all sides, like an auditory vise, tightening upon and crushing me. The blue chaos was wiped away by utter blackness; the shriek weakened, ceased. "I opened my eyes, shut them -- dazzled by daylight, and opened them again, but cautiously. My brother Ray was standing over me, shaking me, calling my name...AND IT WAS I WHO HAD SCREAMED!
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18 wandering like their parents. They snailed onward out of sight, all of them. "Silently, a phosphorescent green river raced like a bolt of furcate lightning over the green wastes. It was composed not of water but of myriad tiny luminous crawling insects. A conscious river, altering its tortuous course at will, small streams deviating from the main body and meandering erratically, then rejoining the general current. This river's end drew into sight, flashed under me and into the distance, leaving fast-greying red paths on the slime. "The moon's music assailed me; simultaneously I felt those man-measures, which had carried me so long, cease, leaving me without a link to my own world -- helpless against the inexorable tide of the lunar melody, which, bursting more loudly, swept me higher, through an interstice of the circulatory web, into blue infinity. And there it left me; fading ripples of it would lap me, but were too dissipated then to sweep me farther. "I floated aimlessly in the void, it seemed for ages, less a body than a mind, aware of neither hunger nor thirst nor ill of any sort other than a dreadful sapping weariness. "There was no way of reckoning time, but after an eternity of loneliness and self-boredom, I heard a glissando of mellow tintinnabulations. A troop of small stars flashed toward me like a scattered handful of sparkling white gems, whirling in interweaving dance of enchantment, tinkling glad clear tunes like the babbling of crystal brooks. The joyous, youthful essence of their song so charmed me that I forgot my weariness and vocally ventured to imitate it. "At last they broke their circle and swept away, single-file, out of sight, diminishing with distance. "For awhile I hummed their song, but with every repetition it lost some of its starry quality and gained a human-ness, earthiness, animalism -- until it impressed me no longer beautiful, and I was silent...Wearily the sluggish ages passed...in the illimitable blue solitudes... "Eventually I heard the man-music, again like a summons -- its vibrations piercing the moon-net, receding, drawing me with it. Its power increased with every unit of retrogression, dragging me with it. Over the wastes of slime it dragged me, all in a fraction of seconds. Wind tore at me, racketing in my ears, drowning music of both moon and man. "In a flash of cataclysm, of cosmic pandemonium, the moons, jostled out of their places by my abrupt passage through the web, strained apart, snapping their pulsant filamental arteries. White, searing drops of blood of light oozed from the severed ducts, hissing as they fell, and splashed on the slime, which heaved tortuously. The crawling trees reared upon their writhing roots, flailing their lensed limbs, and the phosphorescent rivers halted suddenly, piling into swiftly disintegrating mounds. "The rain of light blood thinned and ceased: the moons dimmed and plunged earthward, lusterless. As they touched the tempestuously tossing slime, it shrieked stridently, deafeningly -- cosmically! An outcry voicing all life's inherent dread of the horror of pain and death, which arose from all sides, like an auditory vise, tightening upon and crushing me. The blue chaos was wiped away by utter blackness; the shriek weakened, ceased. "I opened my eyes, shut them -- dazzled by daylight, and opened them again, but cautiously. My brother Ray was standing over me, shaking me, calling my name...AND IT WAS I WHO HAD SCREAMED!
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