Chapter 1
Kalia looked out into the open sky. It was clear and blue, the sun gazing down wanly. A lost cloud floated aimlessly—an outcast from the herd. She shivered slightly and pulled her furs tightly around her shoulders. Why was it this cold? It was meant to be the Tilt Down. The sun was meant to heat up the land.
That was the whole point of Tilt Down, Kalia grumbled to herself. The earth would tilt closer to the sun, so it would heat up a bit more.
Strangely, it was as cool as it was in Middle Tilt. Maybe even a bit colder.
“Kalia!” called Serenity, her best friend. Serenity was blonde and light and beautiful, just like the sun itself. Kalia resented how good the fox furs looked on her. “It is cold. Why?”
The people of this age believed in Gaia, the earth spirit. They also believed everything natural had its own spirit; rivers, waves, volcanoes, forests and the like.
“Perhaps the sun spirit is angry with us,” she mused. “The volcanic spirits have also been underground for a while.”
Serenity shuddered and gripped her red furs so hard that the knuckles on her pale hands turned starch white. Kalia said nothing, and went back into her cave in the side of the valley.
The tribe of people lived in a wide open valley. On one side was a sloping cliff, and lots of the people lived along it in caves. On the other was a chasm that opened into the rest of the valley. Opposite to the tribes’ homes was a waterfall that pooled into a lake at the bottom.
That’s where the people would get water. Then at the very back of the valley—the start of the valley itself- there was a huge volcano that had been dormant for quite a few years.
“Hmm. We have a long winter ahead of us I feel. Skin the older dogs, they won’t make it anyway.”
And the tribe prepared for the winter of ice that would go on for ages—the Ice Age.
“Adene. Get away from the Surface!” hissed Paytah. He hissed and swam towards the young Magma, made of freshly molten limestone. The most airheaded kind.
Adene laughed. “But Paytah, I wasn’t going to break it.”
Paytah flipped and bubbled angrily. “You can’t really control breaking. And you know once you get up there you lose your molten body.”
“So?” said Adene. “There may be more up there. We might get new bodies.”
Paytah shook his head. “You turn to stone. And stone can only return to the Magma if another force brings it down. You could be stuck there for millions—no, BILLIONS of years.” He paused, trying to remember what Gaia, the Earth spirit, had whispered to him as he was created.
“Oh, and you might be used by other creatures. Or worn by the wind, or worse—the water!”
A shiver of fear ran around the surrounding volcanic spirits.
“What’s happening?!” screamed Kalia. It had been about 10 new moons since she had ordered Serenity to skin the dogs. Ice crusted the entire surface of the earth, and the dull sun gave no heat. Blizzards swept the land continuously, but the tribe was slightly protected in the valley.
“Stop shivering!” said Paytah worriedly. “The crust will move.”
All around her the earth tremored slightly, as if something under the crust had moved. Then it stopped.
“Adene? ADENE?!” the young volcanic spirit had gone away. Paytah struggled to follow her, bubbling with anger.
He found her in a unique place—the one place on earth where Magma could see the surface without fear of being cooled. A lava lake.
