The rain is starting.
First it's just drips. Scattered drops that couldn't hang on any longer. They're easy to avoid and ignore. But those who are paying attention know what's coming.
Everyone above goes inside when the rain starts. It becomes my time to shine. Which is a funny way to describe it because I can't expose myself to any of that shiny sunlight. Learned that the hard way a long, long time ago.
What am I? Not sure, really. I've never seen another me. I've never seen anyone, actually. And no one has ever seen me.
I hear them though. Up above. I've listened to them talk over time. Learned their languages. I know about bread. About butter. And how if you put them together you create pickles.
They drop things too. Sometimes it's just trash. Sometimes it has words. I've learned to read their words this way. 'Around the Nine Worlds' was pretty good. 'Why the Stars Sing' was derivative. And soggy.
There isn't much else to do when you can only come out for four grid cycles a rotation. Why only four hours? Wish I knew. Once every rotation, something deep underground rumbles. Then a giant cloud begins to form. The last ray of sunlight disappears and then the rain begins. Oh, how it rains. It's almost like being underwater. In some places it begins to flood and you truly are. It's magical. After four grid cycles it stops and the clouds go away. I return home.
It's the one time of the year I can leave this tunnel and see how the city has changed since last rotation. Put a new picture to the sounds I hear each day. The scraps that float my way.
My tunnel sits down below their leader's compound, near one of the larger waterways in the city. The compound has been expanding non-stop for the last twenty or so rotations. New bridge here, new buildings there. It has gotten taller. Darker, despite the bright white color of the material.
Ah, here it comes. The real rain.
The cloud is thicker than normal. No light getting through that. Good. The rising water line helps me make my way up to the nearby 'cosmic promenade' as they call it.
There she is. The Neon City. Despite the retreat of all her citizens and the heavy rain giving the appearance that everything within city limits was under water, the lights stayed on. That was my favorite part.
I made my way up to the nearest pathway. Floating almost as the rain began to fill in. This was the route to the center of their city. The route I took every rotation.
Their markets and nutrient-counters come and go from this path. The reason I took it each rotation was to see what sat at the end. It had appeared at the beginning and has never changed. Well, one thing had changed. In the very beginning, it had glowed. Brighter than anything. It was the one sun I could stand beneath.
Some number of rotations ago - ten? Twenty? Thirty? Hard to keep track. The glow went out. And that's how it sat today. The heart of their city, dark.
It was so sad to me. Not just because I missed the light and the beauty. I didn't understand why no one had fixed it. All of those people walking around all day and no one did anything about it. Maybe they didn't know. Maybe they didn't care.
I sat in the plaza and admired the quiet gears for as long as I thought I could and then turned to head back home for another rotation. As I approached the final crossing back to the waterway the siren started. It cut through the rain like the laser swords they mention in 'Power Palms in Winter' sliced through the giant blocks of ice. Now that was a good book.
The massive gates in front of their leader's compound swung open and vehicle after vehicle began to exit with lights flashing and sirens blaring. This was unusual. The rain was nearly through but nothing ever moved except me until it had fully stopped. I didn't mind except they were blocking my path to the waterway and my tunnel. If I didn't get back before the rain stopped and the sun returned...well, I didn't want to think about that.
The clock was ticking and I needed to get across. I waited for an opening and moved as quickly as I could. Almost made it. One of the vehicles clipped me and sent me spinning. I don't know where they were headed or why they were out but they seemed in a hurry about something.
My usual interaction with the world around me was, well, none so I did not respond well to the sudden blunt trauma. I couldn't move. Not great timing. The rain was starting to slow. The vehicles had stopped flying by and the gates had closed.
It was just me. Alone again. The clouds were starting to part and drops of sunlight began to replace the water. Ouch.
This really wasn't how I planned on going. I wondered if they would make a book about me. At least I had got to shine one more time.
"Hello, little one."
The emerging sun was making it difficult for my receptors to focus. There was a man kneeling next to me. His clothes were tattered. Dirty. A light bulb patched to his arm.
"I think we need to get you home."
He picked me up and for a moment I could see straight to the center of their city. See the gears. They were...glowing.