Before
From
the coldness of space the object came to the end of its journey, flung out from
the ever expanding universe on a path through the Via Lactea. Eyes turned upwards from the edge of the cave,
and the minds of the Cetae, shared the image of a great stream of fireballs, streaking
into the third planet’s atmosphere. Then
the Cetae turned and led the QuintusHomini away, deep into the safety of their
caves, while the earth shuddered and the oceans rose into mountains of water that
crashed onto the land, drowning the mighty Sauri who had dominated their age. In the lakeside caves of Albia, the
southernmost continent, the Cetae swam to collect food and the QuintusHomini
used their cunning five fingered hands to build fires to cook and keep warm in
the great cold that followed the impact of the fireballs on Gaia.
In
the time spent together, the Cetae taught the QuintusHomini to open their minds
and share images, and the voices which came from the throats and mouths of the QuintusHomini
developed, so that a rich and intricate language grew between the two species. And gradually the dark pall which spread over
the surface of Gaia after the fireballs, dispersed, and they went back outside
to see the sky and the stars.
As
millennia passed, the Cetae preferred to travel the vast oceans while the QuintusHomini
chose to move through the great caves and forests of the land. As the
QuintusHomini grew in intelligence and skills they began to argue amongst themselves. Some longed for the freedom to travel, and grew
envious of the Cetae. They built boats
and the Cetae led those who so desired, to other lands around Gaia, and they
were never heard of again in the great island continent which came to rest
finally, over the south pole, and was called Albia.
As
the third planet continued its journey around its central star, which they
named Sol, the angle shifted and the two poles grew colder and new species
emerged in all the planet’s continents, which were now separated by oceans.
There
was a time when the Cetae came into the lake entrance of the caves and showed
the QuintusHomini images of what was to come; they created a vision of a frozen
continent, underlain with majestic Albian cave systems, dazzling with granite
and marble, silver and gold, lapis lazuli and agate in which the depth of Albia
was rich. The Cetae travelled around the
waters of Albia to the three inlets where the QuintusHomini had gathered into
communities and called a meeting in the west, which all the leaders attended,
for they had begun to form orders amongst them and a hierarchy.
The
QuintusHomini had grown diverse in their separate communities in a way that the
Cetae had not. From the north came
bronze skin that glowed in the sun and brown eyes with glossy black hair; in
the east some had flame coloured hair and some had golden blonde, and all with
green eyes like the ferns of the forests and pale delicate skin; in the west
they had rich dark brown hair against warm toned skin and blue eyes of all the
varieties found in the oceans and lakes on the planet. By this they could recognise one another. The peoples were clothed because of the
growing chill in their land, and they wore skins taken from the animals which
perished on their shores.
The
QuintusHomini saw and listened to the images from the Cetae in the caves of the
west; the planet was tilting further in its orbit and it would grow
frozen. In a distant time there would be
another impact, like the one that destroyed the Sauri, and the safety on such a
planet would be under its rich earth. The
leaders of QuintusHomini saw that the Cetae’s vision was wise, and they chose
names for their three tribes. The north became
IgnisAurum because their region was mountainous and seamed with gold and other precious
metals, which their people had already begun to mine and work in fires. The east chose TerraPlanus, for their lands
were vast and flat, with fertile earth and minerals that ran in deep strata
into their caves. The leaders of the
west chose MareFloris, remembering the flowers that grew on the land before the
fireball, and how in the beginning of time, it was the fish that the Cetae
brought from the sea, which kept them alive when Albia was in darkness.
