Stone Heart and Fire Blood

By: Nikita Siregar

A Reedsy Weekly - Short Series

Stone Heart and Fire Blood

Theme - ‘a literary fiction story about growing up’

‘Warm...’

Was the first ever thought for a newly born nugget.

It was small. No bigger than a pebble. This one knew and understood. It was a fragment born from the world. Tiny and feeble beneath the mountain that sheltered this piece of the earth.

Yet for reasons unknown to its undeveloped mind. It was...different. Unique. More so than others like itself.

This one's world, the only world it knows, was one of fire. Of liquid life flame. It did not understand what it was, but it understood the warmth the moment the stone was able to think and feel the world of liquid fire.

It brought comfort. It brought serenity. It was home.

Unaware of the concept of time. It was content to stay in the comforting warmth of its embryonic cocoon of molten rock deep beneath the world.

And stayed there it did. Uncaring for what was happening around its form.

So did it lay still, silent and unbothered. While the eddies of its home flowed around him as it had done so for ages long. Coiled in the warmth of its cyclonic embrace, the rock knew no need to move nor understand its newfound awareness. Not even aware of its undergoing growth.

If it could even move. Suffice to say it did not bother to know. Nor did it want to.

For it is content.

For it knows what it was. A rock. A stone. One fragment formed by the pieces of the world and given shape by the fiery blood coursing through the world. It was...is Rock.

So Rock did as a rock does. Nothing. The world forever its eternal cradle, but the sea of flame was its entire existence. Thusly, it had no virtue to do otherwise.

And thus, dost Rock remained that way. For Rock, its newfound thoughts and words was simply at peace with itself to simply stay beneath. It is Rock’s sanctum forever more. Undisputed, undisturbed, forever its home.

Rock was nourished. Rock was at peace. For nothing, would ever sway Rock from its place here…

And why should it?

Alas such simple thoughts do not work that way in the grand eternal motion of the universe.

Twas a shame or mayhaps be great fortune to the young unknowing Rock, that nothing ever stays the same. For much like its newfound awareness, the world moves ever onward. Whether from itself, or from outside, the world and beyond is in an ever constant state of change.

It is a lesson, Rock will soon understand.

And like all change. It all starts with a shift.

In the emptiness beyond the reach of the world, a stone from a faraway unknown place, traveled onwards in its guideless journey. It carried its cargo towards the violent lava world Rock resided. Blissfully unaware of the blessing it will give unto the planet and the events that it will help begin. 

Alien crystals within were charged with power, fueled by solar winds. Minerals nestled within its heart laid dormant, waiting to take root. Its gift for the world in which it will land, will help the world bloom into a wonderful new cycle of change.

This gift, later to one day be called to Rock’s future people; was Life.

The singular stone was one of great size and substance. It drew closer to its molten craggy kin in a burning blaze. The massive piece of what will be new land drifted ever closer to Rock’s home. It size swallowed the unseen skies and where fire existed only from the ground, it now existed in the sky. 

This world that has known only fire and stone will soon come to know change. With it, comes change to Rock itself.

Its continental mass quaked the world, and the world shuddered back. It trembled at the coming of this cosmic kin. In turn, Rock felt the coming change of the world.

The liquid fire beneath the mighty mountain where Rock slept quivered. Rock felt this and did not understand why. The calm eddies that Rock in its harmony shivered and shifted. It disturbed Rock. The world had never been disturbed. Calm flow was replaced with violent tides. The stone quaking. 

What was happening to Rock’s home?!

When the question passed through Rock’s consciousness. Two stellar bodies finally met each other. One who sat waiting, and one who came from parts unknown to share its stores of wonder.

And so they met. And then the world changed.

Violently.

A wave of vibrations came to the world! It thundered with a force that only after a millennia of generations could barely fathom of a time when the Star Stone met Mother Stone.

The new continent came to greet Rock with a bellow! The force of its howl rocked Rock away!

‘I...move?’ 

Helpless to the rushing flow, Rock could barely comprehend such notion as being caught in a magma stream, all the while trying to drown away the pain. 

‘Sounds hurt!!!’ The rumbling chaos of destruction maddened its mind

‘Touch...hurt!!!’ While the newfound experience of pain with furthered its desire to grit itself against the swirling violence.

Crystal eyes opened for the very first time. Sensations that Rock did not understand, assaulted Rock! He heard newfound sounds that never did the poor stone ever heard. It felt movement after being still in its unmoving wakefulness! Stones great and small hit Rock everywhere in the crashing waves of the liquid fire!

Its newfound sight that Rock once saw no use, were open to the world for the first time.

And it was horrible.

The singular world of red that was Rock’s home was no more. Its bastion of stone and minerals were sundered. Rock was being crushed. Rock was being cast adrift. Never before had Rock felt such helplessness. It had no control. Something from above the world assaulted Rock’s home. Rock was being pushed down. Deeper into the world. Into its heart. Something great pushed him away towards the center.

It is in this moment, Rock’s eyes began to properly see. What Rock saw, Rock did not understand.

Once shuttered eyes that knew only the red world saw for the first time a sight that Rock did not welcome to see. The familiar world of red that Rock knew was not red, but an array of colors that shifted in a cascade of shades that morphed before Rock’s newly utilized eyes. This did not upset the first born of stone. No, what upset Rock was the one responsible for its home’s destruction.

It was a land of crystals and black stone that greeted Rock from above. It was a place Rock has never seen its long stillness. It did not need to comprehend that the land did not belong upon this world. Only enough to know that it was the cause for Rock’s world to shift and sway.

Colors never before blinded Rock’s sight. Red was its world and every shade since the scant moment its eyes were opened. Now it was no longer just a world red, but a glimpse of everything that the lone piece of the cosmos could show to it.

‘Stone...not of the world.’ Rock observed.

The knowledge came to Rock by means unknown. Yet Rock knew and did not question 

‘Stone...from the stars…come to Rock’s home.’

Dotted across the land of the black stone, entire islands of geodes scatter about is surface. Some were sharp that could cut into the stone of Rock. Others shaped into orbs that even now grow. They come in a myriad of colors Rock never did know existed aside from its world of red.

Rock watched the land of black stone dominate the space where its home once resided. It watched from the distance of its crystal lands. Their stones glowed in starlight from suns and stars of distant worlds.

‘Star Stone...has come to...World.’ Rock concise his thought. 

“WHY?”

Words erupted Rock...for the first time in the world…

Rock did not know it could speak. Only that it could, but never used. For who would listen to words but Rock.

The land of black stone did not return Rock with an answer. Black as the void itself, yet teeming with life. Crystals of the black stone shined with the stored energy and life from countless worlds in its long journey. They tell a story carried in their solar winds. The story of life.

Thus did the crystals answered to Rock’s call.

Before Rock eyes. The black stone land cracked.

Splitting. Crackling.

White light showered Rock. Blinding the living stone in its radiance.

It yawned open. Pulling Rock from the world’s heart.

“WHERE...DO...YOU...TAKE...ME…?” Rock demanded.

The light unknown to Rock smiled down as the soon to be mighty being was drawn to its embrace.

“To see the world my child” the voice spoke. A thousand voices different from Rock’s own from a thousand stars. “To be the Rock from which those who live beneath your shadow be their guide.”

“OTHERS…?” Such a thing was unheard of to him, for it has only known itself. Who or what are the things that Rock must guide?

“You will see them soon.” The voice soothingly spoke “For now, rest your eyes, and sleep. You will know when you will awake once again.”

‘Sleep?’

Rock did not understand what sleep was for it has always been awake. Yet the song of crystals grew as Rock flew closer to the light. It dazzled Rock to the sound of its chiming melody. Where once Rock suffered from the pain of the world’s scar. Rock now could hear the voices of the stars from where the crystals once travelled on the Star Stone vessel.

Rock listened and heed both the wondrous and terrible songs; some stars spoke of worlds where ‘civilizations’ thrived and grew beyond their world. Reaching out to the stars, free from the confines of their home and seek out others in the path to a bright future. Others spoke of tragedy, where kin fought among each other, and failed to be as one. Where in their spite their world collapsed and their world perished.

Rock listened to these stories each with never ending tales of those live beneath the warmth of their stars. Rocks eyes began to drift where sight was no longer needed, only that Rock listened.

Lulled into the songs Rock drift deeper into itself while the songs told their tales. Eyes that behold the world for the first time in its life, slowly dimmed and close waiting when it will awaken once again.

…

..

.

Ages would pass and atop mighty mountain, a guardian sleeps. Listening to the tales of the world. Where once a world that knew only fire, rain would fall from the heavens to bring about a world of ocean.

Where there is ocean. Land soon came to balance the world with the aid of the sun and the moon. Where from the primordial essence of what was once the stone and stars. Life found a way.

When the first beings were born. Crawled out of the ocean, they would first look up…

There, those who looked up from the watery blue of their world, would see something they did not understand. It sat upon the stone, its eyes shut as if it were asleep, but they could smell the breath of life coming from beneath the rock. The first animals would stare in awe and would seek shelter beneath its shadow from the elements of the changing world.

Time passes ever onward. Natural selection; from evolution adapting to their surroundings, or from the death of one species so that another may thrive, ever did the sentinel slept in its silent vigil.

No matter throughout the ages. The Rock would always be there.

Through this selection, came the rise of men. When the apes who would take shelter beneath its giant feet safe from the predators that lurk their world. Their deity and home, The Rock would shelter them.

Again, more time passes. Man thrived to spread across the world, finding their place in the world and bring about civilizations.

While some stayed, their family roots entrenched in the ground where the The Rock has made its home. Forever do they know, that they live on The Rock’s home and should it ever awaken, they wish to greet the wise one who has sat upon the mountain throughout the ages.

On the new year when the mists of the cold season has passed and the fiery season come. The people celebrate and revel beneath The Rock celebrating another long fruitful year.

Unaware of the sleeping native soon to wake.

“...hurrr…”

An echo rumbled throughout the city. The festivities of music and dancers stopped. Stillness captured their being as fathers, mothers, sons and daughters kept their silence in the presence of a voice not of their own…

The question in everyone’s mind was ‘is today the day’

Rock heard silence only silence. The silence was not welcome, not when the songs and stories of the stars had so much more to speak. But the voice said it was enough. It was time for Rock to wake and look upon those Rock unknowingly nurtured.

So Rock simply did. It learned so much from the stories, but one thing remained constant in the songs and what the voice spoke. Rock must one day write its own story. It did not understand, but it felt strange, it did not want to wake at first. Simply content with listening. 

Yet it also understood -if reluctantly- that with the gift of thought, it must be used so that it can be shared with others. For what worth is knowledge if it cannot be shared. Good or ill, knowledge must be valued, and taught so that those who gift him with knowledge, will not die with Rock.

It is now Rock’s responsibility to share, and with this knowledge, guide those who would listen.

Slowly...crystal eyes opened. For the second time in Rock’s existence. The first to greet Rock, was no longer the world of red fire, or the white of the voice, but a blue world with the sound of something moist upon its body. Amongst the blue he sees familiar glows, but not the glow of liquid fire, but fire from the burning of things Rock cannot comprehend.

The world was blurred, but the longer Rock kept its eyes open, the better it could see. While blue dominated its vision, there was green and grey below Rock. Warm amber eyes alight with blood of liquid fire flowing in its body, Rock began to truly see…

Man.

Rock knows who and what they are. Rock sees them, from the essence of those who came before, who buried their kin beneath Rock’s shadow.

Rock..once again, understood. Rock was a pebble once. Smaller than even they. No more than a gravel that they step over. Yet even in silence Rock has protected them beneath its mountain shadow. Now it was time to move on. Time for Rock to forge its story to the beings his responsible for and set them on their path. The same way Rock must find its own.

The ground it sat on was strong. It would do more than enough to hold Rock above the ground and not sink.

Their icon shifted. Dust clouds blew them while the object of their reason to live moved as they had believed it one day would. Stone homes and great pyramids quaked underneath its mighty shadow. Every soul quivered in excitement, waiting for their deity to rise.

From its mountain throne did Rock rise. Careful to not injure those beneath its feet. It rose and rose until its head reached the clouds. It stood before them. Their legend now awake, its for eclipsing the moon and halo its awakening.

And then it spoke.

“I...AM...ROCK...” Rock began. The people waited with baited breath in what it will say...

Rock did not know what to say next. So Rock simply spoke what is most logical.

“HELLO…”

And the people cheered!