Psalehesost
The Living Force
The world was fractal - as viewed from "the sky", the whole was shown as the interior of a sphere - the sides covered by the worlds within. Each world, a piece of this great rocky surface, like a roughly oval shape with seven points, each in turn a smaller world.
Seven within seven within seven within... On the smallest levels, there was a world - landscapes inhabited by wildlife, towns with their people, and so on. "Zooming out", this became one of seven worlds, each somehow different in character, as if forming a progression of seven. And further out, these seven were one, followed by others - which in turn became one followed by others, and so forth...
And the great "sky" to be found in the middle of the "sphere" was not empty; there were clouds - and water; streams and rivers along with "lakes" and "seas" - the streams and the "lakes" of the sky flowing in all directions.
This was a beautiful dream.
Near the "bottom" of the fractal, one world was my home; the place of events and happenings, of adventures and challenges to be faced. I had a device, a miniature air balloon that I strapped to myself - taking off repeatedly to the "sky". People knew to some extent the structure of the greater world - but not how "far" outward it went. And I could see for myself that it went further than was commonly supposed; while never venturing to reach the "top", I came to suppose that the levels of the world-fractal might also be seven in number.
At one point after such travels, I discovered on landing in one city-state of my world that it had there been ruled that flying was now forbidden - and a stupid bureaucrat made sure I didn't while he was around, though there was no stopping me as soon as he was out of sight.
Then, I decided to see how other worlds would be - and visited the "next" of the seven (within the present group of seven). Everything looked a bit vertically stretched, and there was an entrance to one part of the world where I'd landed, and the road running up to the gate (of a city?) had an impossibly steep slope.
I concluded that I was not ready for that world - somehow not "in sync" - and would need to grow as a being before venturing further.
So I went back to my own world - intent on facing the challenges remaining, on learning what was left for me to learn. It felt right; for now, my "own" world was where I genuinely belonged - the place to grow until I'd genuinely outgrow it.
Seven within seven within seven within... On the smallest levels, there was a world - landscapes inhabited by wildlife, towns with their people, and so on. "Zooming out", this became one of seven worlds, each somehow different in character, as if forming a progression of seven. And further out, these seven were one, followed by others - which in turn became one followed by others, and so forth...
And the great "sky" to be found in the middle of the "sphere" was not empty; there were clouds - and water; streams and rivers along with "lakes" and "seas" - the streams and the "lakes" of the sky flowing in all directions.
This was a beautiful dream.
Near the "bottom" of the fractal, one world was my home; the place of events and happenings, of adventures and challenges to be faced. I had a device, a miniature air balloon that I strapped to myself - taking off repeatedly to the "sky". People knew to some extent the structure of the greater world - but not how "far" outward it went. And I could see for myself that it went further than was commonly supposed; while never venturing to reach the "top", I came to suppose that the levels of the world-fractal might also be seven in number.
At one point after such travels, I discovered on landing in one city-state of my world that it had there been ruled that flying was now forbidden - and a stupid bureaucrat made sure I didn't while he was around, though there was no stopping me as soon as he was out of sight.
Then, I decided to see how other worlds would be - and visited the "next" of the seven (within the present group of seven). Everything looked a bit vertically stretched, and there was an entrance to one part of the world where I'd landed, and the road running up to the gate (of a city?) had an impossibly steep slope.
I concluded that I was not ready for that world - somehow not "in sync" - and would need to grow as a being before venturing further.
So I went back to my own world - intent on facing the challenges remaining, on learning what was left for me to learn. It felt right; for now, my "own" world was where I genuinely belonged - the place to grow until I'd genuinely outgrow it.
