We Were Here Before

Watching

In the early hours of day, the birds will chirp and the creatures will come from their shelters and take refuge inside their mechanical crafts. A great rumble will sound and the creatures will leave quick as day turns to night. Where do they go? This is a question I have asked myself many a time. In my travels, I have seen the creatures in their mechanical beasts traveling at high speeds upon the ground once green. With an utterly powerful quickness, the creatures surge from place to place, wasting not one minute of their precious time. They frighten us.

Waiting

When the day ends and night falls, the creatures will fall back to their shelters, spending time with one another talking of things we could never hope to understand. They sit, complete lack of movement, and feast on those that were not so lucky. Thankfully, we are left alone. For some reason, the creatures don't much like the taste of us. In fact, they find us thoroughly useless in this world. What do they know? We were here before they strode on two legs, before he came and they followed, before he died and they wept. We were before they built their great structures, and then burnt them to the ground. Before they soared through the air, then straight into the ground. Before the air was made hard to breathe, and hardly any places were left to live. We were here, before the creatures, and now it's time to make our stand.

Wanting

In the early hours of day, the birds will chirp and the creatures will come from their shelters and take refuge inside their mechanical crafts. A great rumble will sound and the creatures will leave quick as day turns to night. From the trees we watched as they left and rounded the corners, all following one another in a speeding symmetry. All at once, our great army of brown fur scurried across the lawn towards the creature's shelter. At the windows, we clawed and chewed at the mesh guard. Slowly but surely, the mesh began to split and one by one we crawled through the windows and into the strange lands. Below the sill stood a great black monument. It drew our reflections, clear as day, and as we sat staring into the black abyss, we felt hungry for vengeance. We saw what had become of us, old and withered, decrepit and thin, together we stood a hungry beast waiting to reclaim what was rightfully ours. We were here before.

Receiving

Up the steps we went, flourishing throughout the shelter, ravaging everything in our paths. Flooring ripped from the seams, wood cracked and devoured, and their places to sit chewed to a pulp. Oh yes, revenge is sweet. They will see, they will know, we were here. And so we left, scurrying back to the trees from which we came. Then we waited until dusk, when the creatures returned in their mechanical beasts, rumbling and grumbling in the brisk night. They exited the great beasts, and motioned towards the door of the shelter, mumbling back and forth to one another. What were they talking about? I've often wondered what they were talking about. Whenever they spoke, it was with a clarity and beauty I had never heard. But what do I care, we were here before. Once they were gone and inside the shelter, our army once again scurried to the windows, surrounding the home like a flood of fur. We peered into the strange lands, and I saw once again the black monolith beneath the sill. And there were the creatures, huddled together, drops of rain falling from their eyes. They stood staring at the massacre we had made of their shelter. It was a fine moment, finer than any other I had felt before. Revenge was sweet, and why shouldn't it be, we were here before. As I watched the creatures cradle one another, I felt no remorse, nor pain. Watching the rain release from their blank eyes, I made a wish. They have destroyed our home, and now we have destroyed theirs. Maybe they will learn to cherish what they have, as we have done so early on. After all, we were here before.