Emergence 3.0
A Novel – In
One Page Per Day
Day 152, Friday
June 1st,
2018
Chapter Five: Rivers
The tribes were always moving, always looking for new places, always
wandering beneath the stars, moving with the seasons, staying ahead of the
weather, moving with the currents of the wind.
They followed the rivers to their source, up the winding streams,
tracking down every branch. They followed them to the clear springs from which
the water flowed, bubbling up from the deep within the earth.
They followed the flowing water back down their channels, followed their
trickles, as they formed creeks and rivulets, became streams that flowed into
rivers.
They followed the rivers to the lakes they fed, they camped along those
shorelines, fishing, and bathing in sun.
They followed the churning waters, past their waterfalls, and their
rapids, following them to the place where they merged with inland seas and
oceans.
They founded settlements along the way. From springs and head waters, to
the point of each confluence, they made their encampments. They left the
markers of their tribes; tokens, totems, and burial mounds, even as they
wandered, returning to them in their cycles with the seasons.
Every spring was the birth place of a god, of gods and goddesses emerging
from the earth like children from the womb. Water was sacred, every brook was
imbued with inherent spiritual power. There were grave penalties in tribal
justice for defiling the living waters.
From mountain springs to the delta flow, the rivers were the first
markers of tribe’s territory.
The confluence of water ways marked the coming together of tribal alliances,
or they became the sources of tribal conflict.
#Emergence #SuperShortFiction #365SciFi #OnePagePerDay
Like it, Follow it, Share it!
