Topic
Waiting for Cosma: Another short story of the end of Ur
Another end of the world story inspired by It is not worth knowing: a short tale of the end of Ur by Mal'akh, It Ends as it Begins by Ayasta, and A Meeting with Tii by OMG Bacon!!!
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It seemed like a day just like any other Ixian day. That is to say that it was the daytime side of the island, and Patriarch of the Minds of Cosma, High Butterfly Shepherd, and Knight of the Order of the Red Orb Grem Sketch was getting impatient.
"Do you think she's coming?" he asked looking up from the top of Ruta Ascension into the orange-ish yellow sky. "I hope she's coming..."
"Um LOL WUT?" replied Flutterby, the butterfly that had been following Grem around since he teleported into the street.
Grem looked down toward the tiny blue voice. "Seriously? I've only been standing here for, like, a day and a half and you still don't know who I'm waiting for?"
Flutterby flitted around Cosma's shrine. "You back again?"
Grem stamped his foot. "I never left!! I'm waiting for her!"
The butterfly seemed to ruminate on this for a bit, chewing on the words carefully, which is impressive, since butterflies have no teeth. "Cosma?"
"Yes, Cosma! This waiting game is absolutely absurd!" Grem threw up his hands and looked around for somewhere to sit.
Flutterby flapped around a bit more. "I wholeheartedly agree! But what can you do? She's... flighty." She suddenly looked tense.
"Here," Grem offered, "let me rub your wings a little to get out the kinks."
The butterfly groaned ":D :D :D OMG THNX!" *cough* "Erm, I mean, that is very generous of you."
Grem just smiled, but kept looking up expectantly and, less frequently, at the dark black line of horizon to the north and east. "Everything will be OK if I can just talk to her. It'll all be OK."
Flutterby shrugged, as only a butterfly can. "You know, She forgot us once too."
"I know," Grem replied quietly, squinting up toward one of the suns. "But you remember her." He snuck a quick peak back at ever-darkening horizon. "Maybe if I throw some more stuff in the shrine?"
"Couldn't hurt." Flutterby flitted off to go investigate some errant cardamom that clearly hadn't been there a few minutes ago. Grem rummaged in his bags and tossed a few more music boxes into the basin. Out popped an emblem.
"Not what I was hoping for." Grem grumbled, contemplating the trinket before sticking it in his bag with the others. "You'd think of all of the Giants, she would be the most concerned about this whole thing.
Flutterby settled for a moment on Grem's shoulder. "You still on about this? Maybe she's busy. Maybe she's lost up there in here own mind again." She leaned in and whispered in the Glitch's ear. "Want to know a secret?"
Grem was somewhat startled. "You want me to sing?"
The butterfly stretched her wings. "No, this one is on the house. Little known fact about Cosma, something of which only we butterflies and probably Lem are aware. She can't actually forget anything. Cosma has an eidetic memory. Of the entire dreamscape! And that's why she seems so flighty and forgetful to the rest of us. She has all of existence stored up there in that Giant head of hers, and sometimes it just takes her a while to find the right bits of it. Hence the reason for all the meditation and such."
Grem was clearly taken aback. This was, by far the most he had heard any butterfly speak in a single go, ever. And the information it was offering would shake the very foundations of Cosmic belief! "R U SRIUS?" was all he could muster.
"Cute, Glitchling," the butterfly smirked, then took off again and began circling the platform upon which the shrine sat.
"So, what you are saying," Grem started, "is that even if she goes, even if all of this goes... goes away, she'll still have us in there. Somewhere..." He glanced apprehensively at line on the horizon, which seemed to have grown since last he had checked. A chill wind blew out of the east, carrying with it the faintest hint of cackling. Grem began searching the sky again.
Flutterby came over and began circling Grem's head, seeming to notice the horizon for the first time. "Sorry, what? Oh yeah. So, the point is that no matter what happens, Cosma will remember us. Even if she doesn't remember remembering us."
Grem gave a deep sigh looking up at the sky. "She's not coming, is she? Shall we go?" Grem asked.
The butterfly shrugged, turning her head skyward as well. "Yes," she replied, "let's go."
Neither made to move.
