by Mike White
The man watched the events unfolding in the room next to him with dumb amazement. The naked man fell out of the skylight, but somehow managed to save it from breaking by throwing it back up through the roof. The strength required to do that was unreal. To say nothing of the dexterity. Though it had fallen out of the frame, he would’ve only had inches of room. The accuracy required would be unreal.
When the man landed, instead of breaking his neck like Mr. Williams feared, dirt poured out from the floor like a fountain. Rich, black soil like George didn’t even know existed around here. It formed underneath him perfectly, as if it were creating a dirt bed just for his benefit. He landed hard, but got up right away, and then started to take the shirt and tie it into some kind of satchel instead of trying to wear it.
The guy was insane, obviously. But that still didn’t explain what he was seeing at all.
At this point, he went out to George’s garage and brought back a number of huge planters. He took all of the dirt that had mysteriously appeared in his kitchen, and put it into the planters. Then, he brought over the catnip plant George had never gotten rid of since his cat had passed away.
Somehow, and the man squinted and rubbed his eyes several times to confirm this, he took the cat nip plant out of the first container and put it into the second, leaving the first plant still there!
What?
Then, he did it again, leaving three plants in huge planters way too big for them. It was a frenzy of activity and dramatic displays and it was pretty confusing. Then he put the whole display on the table, took the man’s sandwich and clothes and left, still naked.
After Ud had planted everything to the Earth’s spirit’s satisfaction, he sang for the Dead Cat’s freedom, and carried off his tiny body in a small box, along with the food his host had provided him, the strips of cloth, and a small amount of dirt in a tied off piece of cloth, and headed back to the lake that had birthed Ud the Mortal.
Arguably, the second one, though the first time he’d been just Ud. And it had been many millennia previous.
The few earth spirits that decided to go with Ud were happy enough at the place he dumped them in near the lake that they helped him to form a small shelter of dirt. Not mud, like in his Ghast days, but hard enough so that when he sang the spirits of the lake to move through his enclosure –he wanted to remain close to the lake without living in it- the hut didn’t turn back to mud.
They quickly grew grass and flowers inside his small house, and he left enough holes in the top to filter in sunlight.
Is this the first time I’ve felt happy in millennia? He wondered to himself. Then, Ud the Mortal sat down to eat his first meal ever.
Barley bread! Ud felt a little relief every time he found at least one thing that was the same as he remembered, or at least within what he could easily understand in a world of such strangeness. You’d think that he’d be used to strangeness, with the paths he’d traversed in the Way Down, but this was a strangeness most strange. The decay and ruin in the Way Down he could understand, but here-
How to describe?
Chaos he understood. Chaos within chaos, patterns of it.
But here, it was more like order within order. Patterns of spiraling order. Machines within and on top of machines.
Ud buried the little cat in the corner of his small house. He was sad that it was really too small for a full courtyard, but you weren’t supposed to sleep in your courtyard as a mortal, at least that was what Ud seemed to remember from the life of Just Ud. This place would be all courtyard if that were the case, and he didn’t want to get rained on.
Defeated the point.
It would be safer in the Earth here, especially when Ud sprinkled a bit of the dirt from his Earth spirit friends that he’d just met today, plus the ones that had been following him for thousands of years. He could see them connected to the lighter dirt further down underneath him. They felt like an extension of his body now, and he imagined the feeling was mutual. He gave them purpose, and they saved his life. Without them, he never would’ve attracted the attention of the newer spirits in the strange man’s house.
After carefully watching Ud bury his body, the Dead Cat spirit sniffed at it a bit, then seemed to indicate its approval with a swish of its tail.
So what do I call you? Ud asked the creature as it looked over at him.
I’m a dead cat, it said, as if Ud were really slow.
Yes, I know, Ud sent. But what is your name?
I do not need a name, it sniffed. I’m a dead cat. That is enough.
Its spirit peach mostly painted a picture of itself, dead. The tongue was good at painting pictures quickly.
Ud frowned. Well I have to call you something, as “dead cat” lacks brevity.
Plus, come to think of it, did mortals even use spirit speech?
They do not, the dead cat said.
They do this, it said, and it promptly made a cat meowing noise, though it was still in spirit speech.
I cannot do it, the cat clarified. For I am dead.
Ud had to smile a bit at that.
How is it done again?
Ud hadn’t spoken a single syllable in the free air in millennia.
“Ur,” He said out loud. Well, he thought he did anyway. Was that more of a choking sound? How odd to use such equipment for reasons beyond fighting or consuming.
What does it mean? The cat asked. It climbed up on the little mound above its body and stared at Ud.
It means ‘Cat,’ I think, he sent.
The cat’s ears went flat on its head and it pulled its head back as if it detecting something distasteful.
Are you sure? It asked. That word has a bad odor to it.
Wait. Was that right? Maybe he was thinking of the other mortal animal.
Maybe it’s the other human pet, it said.
Dog, the cat said with conviction.
You might be right, Ud admitted.
Try saying it in the tongue of local mortals of this era, The cat said. It sounds like this, ‘Ded Kaht.’
“Dedddh kattth,” Ud said outloud. He found that it was rather fun. “Deadcat deadcat deadcat,” He said.
I like it, Ud said. But it’s still a little long.
D.C. Then, The Cat said. It also describes a human city nearby.
“Dee See,” Ud said out loud.
What does it mean? He asked. Is it truly just a short version of “dead cat”?
Yes.
After that, Ud was quiet for a while. His four personalities babbled in his head. They were all him, he felt himself thinking those thoughts, they weren’t separate from him in any real way. But, they were all different.
It’s coming here, to the mortal world that did it, He thought. He never used to hear other versions of himself before. Memory fragments sometimes, yes. But never full personalities. Maybe the thoughts were always there, and some barrier broke down when he broke the barrier into the mortal world. It was heady, feeling three other thoughts for every one he had.
Ud the Mortal felt happy, but-
Ud the Ghoul was paranoid that this position didn’t give enough visibility for preventing attacks.
Ud the Ghast was despondently wondering how long their stint on top of the skin of the world could really last, and whether the sweetness of it would just make their eventual dissent back down again that much more painful.
Ud the Skeleton was on sensory overload, a paradoxical sort of exhaustion due to the rush of energy and sensations, leaving him numb to them all. Skeleton Stay, kept ringing in his mind as night fell and the mound that was his home started to feel more tomblike.
It took him a while to even realize that all of this was going on, of course. And never before today, his first day alive. Even then, he doubted it. Wondered whether the memories and feelings could be true.
Sometimes, he wondered whether he was still in that cave, waiting, everything he saw since then merely a hallucination on the cave walls. Oblivion creeping in.
; What are you doing? DC asked, and Ud realized abruptly that the cat spirit was now wandering over near where Ud sat.
You didn’t finish your food, The cat said with disapproval, sniffing at it.
I was just wondering if I know who I am anymore, Ud sent. It’s like there’s too much of me-I can’t just be one thing. Sometimes I’m afraid I’ll disappear beneath the waves of sensation now that I can feel what living things feel, Ud sent.
Cats always know who they are, DC said. Cats are always one thing-cats.
But you aren’t simply a cat anymore, Ud sent.
This made DC quiet, and he said nothing for a while.
It was just Ud watching sunlight filter in through the muddy roof of his tiny house, and the buds of flowers growing larger and green for long, happy minutes. In time, the sunlight dimmed and turned a brilliant orange.
Perhaps we both need time to learn how to be this new thing, DC said finally.
And you should really eat your sandwich, He added, licking his ghostly chops.
I am Ud the Mortal, he thought. First and foremost, and this was my first day of life.
Ud shifted around so that he could scoot out the front door of his house and look at the lake. His First Day was being burned away as the sun set fire to Ud’s Lake and showed him his first sunset in an Age. After it had burned for some minutes, the fires of the day left behind his First Night, causing Ud to crawl back in his hut and have his first real sleep ever.
As his consciousness faded, Ud the Ghoul whispered to him about what he’d seen in Second World, about what he’d seen them creating there, about how his time on First World would only
