Zorgolithia

Most people don't want to see the reason that their world fell apart; instead, they choose to believe that everything is fine and that there is nothing they could do to save a failing world. It happened on Earth, and it is about to happen on my planet....all because of a heart-shaped locket. But I'm jumping ahead of myself. Let me introduce myself and share the history and downfall of my people.

My name is Ayralynn, and I am from the Planet Zorgolithia, which is outside of the milky-way galaxy. I am actually half Zorgolithian and half human; my father is a descendant of people from Earth. Their people wanted a better life; and so, they set sail through the cosmos; trying planet after planet until they came to one that not only had all their needed resources to live, but a people that was thriving and looked similar to them.

My planet.

My people were greeted warmly and openly at first. But it wasn't long before everything changed. You see, we may have looked similar to them, but we had things that they did not. While we were knowledgeable about every planet, solar system, and galaxy around us, the humans were not. We also had special gifts; powers or magic if you will; that allowed us to keep the balance of nature. Men who could call the rains down; women who could get the soil to grow vegetation. Those are just some of the gifts and powers available to my people. Every individual had the same opportunity to give and help our world and each other. Hate, greed, evil these were only a myth to us. We saw that these had been the cause of the downfall of every society we knew of. And it had never existed here until the humans came. We lived so harmoniously that we needed no rulers among the whole planet; but because there were times where there was a surplus of people with one talent and a shortage of another; a king and a queen were chosen to oversee and guide us so we could keep the balance of nature. (There was once a season where in the whole planet there were only three families who could bring rain, and two five families that could grow crops. Without the King's visions, and the Queen's ability to travel in the blink of an eye; and their guidance, the whole planet would have faced an endless famine. For Zorgolithia is twice the size of Earth.) In school each was taught how to use their talents for the benefit of nature and each other. And so when we saw something amiss or were called upon, we could help. Thus nature was never out of balance.

The humans came and they saw how plentiful and pleasing our lands were.

And instead of asking to have the resources they needed; the humans began to take what they wanted by force. It didn't happen immediately. It took many years, many generations before the humans let their nature of greed and hate; the cause of their planet’s downfall, to rule them.

When they first arrived, they were few in numbers, weak because of a long time of malnutrition. The king and queen of the planet, though wary of the newcomers, made sure that they were protected and nourished. They were given land and shelter. Never once did the King and Queen think of telling the people of Zorgolithia to hide our gifts and how they blessed nature. Seeing how rich our lands were and how easy it was to take care of eventually led to their greed and hate for us.

Let me take you back two hundred years; back to when the humans first came.

Zorgolithia-if you have ever seen any pictures of earth, you will have a very good idea of what Zorgolithia looks like. There are majestic mountains, oceans that span beyond the horizon, forests, hills, and valleys. The ancient ones knew the importance of the seasons and letting nature work it’s wonders; with some help. But they also knew how their powers could enrich the land and keep it in a state of near perfection. Unlike earth, there is absolutely no climates that are so drastic….no deserts, no wastelands of ice, no extreme temperatures that either freeze every fiber of the being where there is no warmth available to thaw a person; nor make a person melt with no hope of cooling down. Maybe there once were such places here; but our magic has changed that.

Again, like Earth, there is one side of the planet that has one season, while the other side has the opposite. When the growing season of one side is over the growing season starts on the other. During the spring the land is lush and fertile. Anything good that can grow, does grow, especially with our help. Words cannot even describe the beauty, the colors, the pure paradise that my planet is.

This is what the humans came to. They had been traveling for many generations trying to find another place to call home. They had stopped at many planets, none of which had anything close to the comforts or necessities that they needed. Somehow they had found enough sustenance to continue for as long as they did. When they landed on our planet, how amazed they must have been to see the beauty that they had only seen in pictures. Then as they saw that it not only had beauty, but the resources that they needed to live; and a people there, flourishing and thriving on the land; how it must have gladdened their hearts.

They had left Earth because the beauty, and the necessities of life had been destroyed. It had all been destroyed by their own greed and selfishness and hate. Instead of giving to others and to nature, they became occupied with showing how much better they were than another. As greed and hate flourished, so did wars and famines and plagues. Eventually there was nothing left except wasteland, where it used to be fertile; all buildings turned to smoke and ashes and rubble; all life, except about one thousand souls gone. Those thousand souls decided, that instead of trying to fix their world would create space ships and leave to find a place to start over. They grouped into companies of fifty people into each space ship and left behind the world that they knew; hoping that they could find a place that they could live.

Out of the 20 ships that left; only five ships, all at less than half capacity made it to Zorgolithia. They had stayed together in the beginning. The longer they explored, the less people there were, even though they were having children. Once they found a place that was semi-livable and there were those who were just done with the journey, and were willing to just settle. So they were left there to either perish or survive. Shortly after finding and leaving a second semi-hospitable land there was a mutiny. The humans could not keep greed, anger, and hate from entering their hearts. Each thinking their ideas were right, they started fighting with each other. Many were killed; in order to bring a form of peace back; the mutineers were abandoned on the next planet that they encountered.

When they landed on Zorgolithia, they were just shells of people; more ghost than human. These malnourished, corpse like figures had never seen any kind of real light; all of them had been born in the spaceships; so they never knew what sunlight was. They were pale from both the lack of sunlight and the lack of food. Every bone could be seen through their papery skin; their eyes were sunken in and hollow looking. Their faces gaunt and hopeless. Their leader, Captain Rufus Grimberry; was the least dead looking of the bunch; though he was fairly old and fragile looking. He and a few men came out of their spaceships to survey the land.

King Aeleazer and Queen Azkedelia had a vision of the newcomers; and so they were there, prepared and ready to greet them. They had food ready and welcomed the humans with open arms; never once letting the humans know how wary they were of them; nor how they knew the cause of the downfall of their planet. The King and Queen granted them land and had some people from a nearby village build houses for them. In exchange for their hospitality, Captain Grimberry gave them the only item of value that they had. A silver locket; a delicate heart-shaped locket with a rose etched into the front. It was pure silver; but was so old that it could no longer open; not that it mattered, the photo in there had long since yellowed and disintegrated. It was tarnished beyond belief, yet the beauty of it was perfect. The Captain explained that it was well over three centuries old and had been in his family the whole time. He had no children to pass it on to, and since they had landed where there was already people; he wanted it to be a token of admiration and gratitude for the refuge for the remainder of his people.

The humans were looked after until they were strong enough to do their own farming. Which; even with how close to death most of them were, didn’t take long because of the magic of my people. The captain lived one year on our planet, and he taught his people to respect my people; and to always show gratitude for our hospitality. After he died, another was appointed in his stead to be the leader of their people, Alexander Velendor. He was young and the whole company trusted him implicitly. But he had a secret; a secret that his mother had told him never to tell—he was the son of Captain Grimberry—the fruit of a night of passion twenty five years previous. He was raised by his mother and her husband, who died a year before they landed. She told him who his father was, and to never tell a soul until Captain Grimberry was dead.

He knew the locket was rightfully his; but he didn’t care; he was grateful for the hospitality of my people. Unfortunately; he told the story to his children, and to his grandchildren. Eventually, the greed and hate started trickling back into their hearts. The youngest grandchild; named for his grandfather, but went by Alex, decided that he wanted the locket back into his family, and that it had been wrongfully given away. He was also the one chosen by the people—now very numerous—to be the next leader. But only when Alexander was dead would he be the leader.

And so the treachery and the destruction began. Alexander was healthy as could be and wouldn’t be dying anytime soon. So his grandson decided to take things into his own hands; he created his own poison...and when Alexander was having lunch with one of my people...he put it into Alexander’s food. He then planted the poison in the pocket of the poor visitor. Alex then came to see what the commotion was and saw his grandfather dying...then he ran to tell the people that one of the Zorgolithian’s had killed the his grandfather. Many people ran to see and saw what they thought was true, and caught the visitor, with the planted vial of poison. Killing him wasn’t enough—Alex made sure that they became angry with all the people of Zorgolithia.

A war started, and lasted for fifty years. Eventually, after many needless deaths on both sides, my people decided to go into hiding to protect our way of life and end the war. Or so we thought. There were a few humans that eventually found where we were hiding and infiltrated and even married some of my people. Nearly causing our extinction. One of them was my father, the great grandson of Alexander the II, the first murderer here. He beguiled my mother, the princess of my people...married her, and began mass destruction. But that is a story for another time….for it is my story, and I am not quite ready to share it.