Woo! XD
There were so many things to know that the wolf would never know, and he stared at the fossil with more than just a tinge of desire and longing. Perhaps, buried in the human cities just as the fossils were buried in the rocks, there would be a book that would explain all these mysteries to whoever cracked its old spine. It was so fortunate that whatever killed off all the humans had left their old things more or less intact. Of course, nature was reclaiming their concrete buildings and their huge cities, but it was just beginning to. Hemming, when the thought drifted through his mind, felt extremely lucky to be occupying a space in time that was so close to that of the humans. They had unravelled so many seemingly impenetrable mysteries in their time, and had left so many answers in the books they wrote. What a wonderful thing it was to imagine that maybe someday the wolves would have such a mastery of technology and nature that they would be able to decode such enigmas. The ones the humans hadn't destroyed, at least. Technology was a double-edged sword.
Hemming was beginning to appreciate that he was sharing a spot in time and space with this wolf, too, someone that could be so awestruck by these ancient imprints. He grinned as he continued to stare at the fossil, letting the things that Kansas was saying drift through his mind. "Neither have I," he replied at length, trying to imagine how old it was. Millions of years, billions of years? The immense timescale of life dwarfed the little blips in time that the two wolves occupied. The atoms that made their bodies had spent virtually infinitely more time in other creatures than it did in them. Hemming was almost unable to comprehend it, though he had read it in books, and his mind swam with profound questions. Even something that one knew and held to be true could be almost unimaginable when actually analyzed. Perhaps they were breathing some of the carbon that had been integrated into this strange spider thing's skeleton, whatever form that skeleton might have taken.
"This place is a treasure trove," Hemming whispered, "There must be so many more..." He turned his attention to the rocks that remained unturned and took a small step to the side before flipping some of them. Maybe the fossils would be clustered, and there would be more spider things nearby. And, maybe they would give some more clues as to what exactly the strange creature was. |