Starship Spring by Eric Brown Page B

Perhaps the correct word would be evolved .”
    Maddie said, “You became…?”
    And before us, the apparition of the Yall began slowly to change. The attenuated green reptilian form lost its height, its jade colouration: it became, gradually, a slight, golden figure, lithe and athletic… and familiar.
    The apparition said, “The Ashentay, my friends, are the descendants of the Yall.”
    My head spinning, I said, “And you?”
    I knew the answer, of course, before the spectre voiced the words.
    “I… or rather the figure you see before you… am nothing more than a representation of the aggregate unconscious of the Ashentay people.”
    And with these words the figure began to fade, and at the same time I became aware of movement in the forest around us as the Ashentay watchers departed, retreating with the fluid rapidity of their kind into the cool shadows of the forest.
    The figure disappeared and I searched for the last vestiges of it above the patio; I convinced myself that I could see its face, smiling at me, but that might only have been my wishful thinking.
    Ella jumped from the pool and ran into Hannah’s arms. A silence enveloped us as we took in the import of what the Yall had told us.
    Hawk pulled Kee to him and held her, tight.
    I looked around at my friends, at Matt and Maddie, holding hands, at Hawk and Kee—two very different souls, now one—and at my wife and daughter.
    And I felt exalted.
    Matt broke the spell. He raised his glass and in a hushed, reverential tone, proposed a toast.
    “To the Yall,” he said.
    “To the Yall…” we replied.

Starship Spring
     
    Copyright © Eric Brown 2016
    First published by PS Publishing in 2016. This eBook edition published in July 2016 by PS Publishing by arrangement with Eric Brown.
    All rights reserved by Eric Brown. The right of Eric Brown to be identified as the Author of this Work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
     
    This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the authors’ imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
     
    ISBN 978-1-84863-376-6
     
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