Book One: Onnu and Pannu

Space

In the morning, those who were hungry hunted or grazed, and those who were thirsty drank from the well. Any who still had the makings for tools began to fashion them. The rest fell idle, pondering the whys and wherefores of the planet they now inhabited.
   "Except we don't know if it is a planet. It could be a moon, or... I dunno, just a weird rock floating in space somewhere. All we do know is, there's a sun."
   The grey-skinned kin seemed keen to find out as much as he could about the world and space around them. Now that they had a seeming safe haven, at least for the moment, his leisure time turned toward astronomy.
   The dragon, who had decided to stretch her wings anyway, thought to fly as high as she could, and survey the land. She didn't think the fearful little kin would allow it if she asked, so she told them that she was going to hunt for food. It wasn't entirely a lie. She did need to know what there was for her to eat, and how wide her hunting grounds were. Now that she was fairly sure the spires were dragonholds, she didn't want to encroach on another's territory.
   "I expect to return before midday, but do not be alarmed if I am detained longer. I must take a preliminary lay of the land, at the very least. We can build on it as we go, but it would help to know where food and water are, outside the Bowl.
   "If you see a shadow in the sky, take shelter beneath the rocks. Their angle is such that you've got lots of cover. Probably on purpose, actually. Sure, there's less sky to see, but also less chance of being seen."
   Before they could come up with tiresome excuses to keep her trapped in the open dome, she leapt up and grabbed a couple of spires to haul herself up and out. She trotted down a spire a ways, flapping her wings, and leapt straight out into the air about halfway down. She rowed hard toward the sky, feeling her wings warm with exertion. She reveled in the freedom, the air over her wings, the blood pumping through her veins. She'd never felt more alive! This body didn't resist, drag, or creak. It seemed to want to move!
   She flew toward what would be space, were they on Earth. Her lungs didn't seem bothered by the altitude, so she kept going. Her body knew what it was designed to do, so she'd listen to its cues.
   Except her lungs kept right on pumping, even when she began to see stars. She hovered there, within sight of the stars, and her lungs were still fine. Did she have gills? Was that why she could breathe up here?
   She cautiously slipped higher, closer to what would be zero gravity, in the world she knew. As she neared the hazy boundary, she felt gravity slipping away. She wasn't sure that's how it was supposed to work, but it did, in this place. Afraid she'd float away, she stretched her neck up into the darkness of space, only... it didn't get dark.
   Looking around, she saw not one, or two, but many small suns in the sky! It was as if they were in a Christmas garland, surrounded by twinkling lights.
   She literally could not grasp the gravity of the situation. There shouldn't be a way for that many suns to exist in such a relatively small part of space! Wouldn't the largest sun pull the rest toward it? Wait, there didn't seem to be much of a size difference in the stars. Again, there was no way to know what was perspective, and what was relative size.
   She didn't know if dragons were able to fly among the stars, and she had responsibilities now. She couldn't just abandon the kin and wander the galaxy--if that's what this could be called.
   What if we're inside a body? Then, those stars would be nuclei. Except I don't see cell walls anywhere. What if we're in God's body? Would He have cells, or stars? Oof, that is way above my pay grade! My brain hurts just imagining that. No, it should hurt. But it doesn't? Is that a dragon thing, or a Rapture thing? Wasn't there something about more perfect bodies? I dunno, and I don't want to think about it any--
   Her thoughts were cut short by the largest manta ray she'd ever seen, hovering over a planetoid in the relatively near vicinity. She wasn't too keen on distance judging, but however far away it was, the ray covered roughly a third of the astral body!
   It hovered, barely moving, over the surface of the planet thing, for a long time. When it did move, it was positively glacial. It crept across the planet that way, casting shadows over everything beneath it.
   Her wings, which hadn't had to do much to keep her suspended in the low gravity, began to remind her how long she'd been in one place. Her stomach rumbled, demanding food. Reluctantly, she dipped back down into the gravitational pull of their home. It was more of a gentle tug than a pull, but she took her time descending to an altitude where she could look for food. No sense in testing her tough hide against the fires of re-entry just yet!
   She glided for a time, mentally measuring distances between the dragonholds. They were, indeed, different sizes, but most were the same general shape. Oddly, though, no dragons rose to challenge her as she flew overhead. Was she right about their purpose, then? Were the native dragons nocturnal? Were they an endangered species?
   With more questions than answers, she tilted homeward, to begin the hunt for food in earnest. She couldn't say how she knew which dragonhold was hers, but she did.
   A herd of somethings spooked when they saw her, but one was slower than the rest. She knew the basics of cull/keep, and looked for signs of age or injury. Sure enough, there was a pronounced limp when it turned too quickly to the left. It turned to the right just fine, but the hind leg seemed lame. Was it really, or was this their alpha, drawing attention away from others who might actually be unfit?
   She culled it from the flock easily enough, but she drove it around the field for a bit to gauge its health.
   Dunno how I knew that, but he's not actually lame. If he was, he'd have gone down long before now. She pivoted back toward the herd, and there was a straggler lagging behind the others. Its sides heaved, and steam rose from its hide. Gotcha!
   Their false lame duck bleated after her as she deftly plucked the straggler into the air and flew off with it. She bugled in triumph.
   Until she remembered that she still had to actually kill and eat it.