After a long, hard march from Gaya’s belly to her chest, Tesel’s men finally reached her breasts. Her mammary glands were a sight for sore eyes, thirsty throats, and hungry stomachs. All of the troops were salivating; their eyes widened.
“We finally made it,” Fil said in a hoarse voice through a dry mouth. “The land of milk, from a real honey.”
“Let’s split up into halves,” Tesel said. “Lia, you and Fil take one half of our fighters to the left breast, and I’ll take the other half to the right one. Everyone, feed in an orderly fashion. No greedy hogging of the milk. Let’s make sure everyone gets a fair share. Line up and take turns. Be patient as you wait for your turn.”
The army split up as ordered. Tesel, Lia, and Fil waited for their shares after all the others finished feeding. The milk was so good-tasting and nourishing that it was tempting for each and every man and woman to keep drinking without stopping, but they all resisted that temptation and remembered consideration for their comrades.
At the end of their feeding, their bellies full, they lay on the ground, resting with blissful satisfaction. Wounds were bandaged, and sighs of relief were heard all around. A good, long sleep rejuvenated them, and after that, they were ready to come together at Gaya’s heart. Morale was the highest it had ever been for them.
When they all reunited at the heart, they stood before it in awe of its huge, glowing redness. The heartbeat was loud and hypnotic, but…slow.
Such beauty, such bigness, yet…such weakness, such pain.
What the warriors before had only vaguely sensed was now explicitly known, in vivid detail, with no room for doubt.
Gaya was dying.
The troops’ own hearts were heavy for the heart they saw before them. They all heaved collective sighs for their ailing world. The glow of that huge heart was fading, little by little, along with the slowing beat.
No longer were they fearing only for their own lives. Now they feared mainly for her life. Tears were running down their cheeks. They were trembling all over.
Lia was especially affected. She was sobbing audibly.
Fil was sneaking sips from his cup of wine, hoping Tesel wouldn’t catch him, in a feeble attempt to ease the pain.
“Troops, we all know who is responsible for Gaya’s affliction,” Tesel said in a sombre tone. “Aisa’s army, and the giant worm, Kappitta, have been slowly killing Gaya, poisoning and starving her. This slow, painful destruction of our beautiful world is why we must not falter in our efforts to save her. As hard as it will be to fight Aisa and Kappitta, as many of our lives as we will inevitably lose, we must do all we can to stop the enemy from destroying her. If she dies, we all die.”
“And if we all die…with Gaya,” Lia added, with sobs interrupting her words from time to time, “that will be…a mercy for us. For who would want…to live on a dead planet? Who would want…anything other than death…if continuing to exist…in misery…in a world…whose beauty…is only a memory, a beauty…crushed and replaced…by only ugliness…and putrefaction…all around us?”
They all looked at that heart again, heard its beat even slower now, its glow getting darker.
“We cannot give in,” one of the men said.
“We cannot give in!” another shouted at the top of his lungs. “We have to keep on trying, even if it kills us all!”
“We must do it,” a female fighter said in sobs, “not for ourselves, but for her.”
“For her,” many soldiers said together.
“For Gaya!” Lia shouted.
“FOR GAYA!!!” they all shouted.
Then, they heard voices from high above again.
Oh,Cecil,I’msogladtoseeyouhere!…HowisGaya?Aboutthesame.SometimesIputmyhandonherchesttofeelherheartbeat…Andhowisherheartbeat,Lila?…It’sslow,thenItouchherchestagain,later,anditseemstobebeatingslower.Idon’tknowI’mreallyscaredforher…Iam,too,Lila…Atleastyou’rehere,andIknowyoucareabouther,Cecil,unlikethatbastardAsa,whoonlycaresaboutallthemoneyhecanmakeoffofher.Butshe’snotjustamoney-makingpieceoftitsandasstoyou,Cecil.Youknowshe’sahumanbeing,afriend,andlikeme,youloveher.
Again, the warriors couldn’t understand the fast-moving words, the muddled language, but they understood the feeling.
“Now, we know what we must do,” Tesel said. “But before we can do that, we must improve our fighting capability. Love for Gaya alone won’t be enough to win our battles against Kappitta and Aisa’s army. We must split up, go to Gaya’s shoulders, travel down her arms, and learn better fighting methods from her hands. Then we’ll travel to her head, and there gain insights and a battle plan to win the war, once and for all.”
The warriors began their trek, in opposing directions, up to Gaya’s shoulders.
Infinite Ocean 