They never talk.
When we try to talk, they don’t listen at all. They repeatedly pelt us with small exploding projectiles. Bullets, we discover they’re called. They’re remarkably useless against us, but apparently harm the humans greatly.
We could try to take a human form, Gordon says. Perhaps they would listen then.
Yes, but the bullets would harm us in that case, Rufus reasonably points out.
For quite some time we continue to try and speak with them in our way, but when it becomes clear that they’re not listening, I finally become disgusted. As the leader of the earth blessed shock troops, I’m supposed to be making contact with the humans so I can convey our desires. I had hoped that I might even be able to broker a deal.
Why can none of them comprehend me?
I march out in front of the other earth blessed, and I roar. The humans stop their incessant bang bang banging for a short time, and I take the chance to shift into my human form. “See?” I wave my arms. “We just want to talk to you. That’s why we haven’t harmed any of you.”
That’s when they start filling me with the small projectiles.
It hurts.
It hurts a great deal more than I anticipated.
When I shift back into my earth blessed form, the stupid little things remain lodged in my body. I’m forced to curl up as small as I possibly can and manually force them to expel themselves from my body, one at a time.
The humans take this as an opportunity to draw closer, hacking at me with all sorts of weapons, none of which appear to be able to pierce my hide, but all of which are extremely vexing when sawing on my outsides. In my current state of pain and misery, I’m out of patience. I maul one with one claw, and Rufus and Gordon take that as permission to do the same.
The massacre of the small, irritating, persistently violent humans makes me feel better. This wasn’t why we came, I remind Gordon and Rufus. We’re supposed to find the leaders and convey our goals.
Let’s go elsewhere and try again, Gordon says. Maybe on the other side of this city of theirs we can find different, possibly more reasonable leaders.
Before we can follow his suggestion, the screaming of a strike blessed pierces all our minds. I want to crumple. Something very bad must’ve happened or it wouldn’t have made that sound. They were tasked to fly above the cloud cover and not engage. They were searching for signs of any kind of human leader.
Stay here, I command. I’ll be back.
Thankfully, Gordon and Rufus are obedient. They don’t argue as I run away, and they’re not following me when I shift into my flame blessed form and launch into the sky to find out what happened.
That’s when I see it—dozens of small earth-child-created aircraft, all buzzing around. One of them appears to have crashed into a strike-blessed—Rivali—and they hit the ground together. She’s still alive, I think, but barely. She may not recover. The earth’s atmosphere has been an adjustment for the blessed.
Wait, I call. Please, listen to me. I need to talk to you.
Small humans are now rushing on scene, and I watch as they surround Rivali, and then proceed to light her on fire, stab her, and electrocute her in sequence.
Until she dies.
They aren’t listening.
They aren’t stopping their attacks.
They’re worse than Father said. They’re absolutely terrible, and I’m filled with an inexplicable rage. Why won’t they listen to us at all?
Secure this city, I order. And it feels right. If they won’t listen, if they persist in attacking us when we’ve done nothing to them, we have no choice. Destroy anyone who attacks. We’ll find the heart without their help.
I try in three more places with Rufus and Gordon, all with the same results. Bullets. Bombs. Planes.
More blessed die.
Not many, but two more when we weren’t trying to harm them in any way? Why are they so senselessly violent? I snap after I hear about another earth blessed casualty and take out a whole small human village in my rage. They only want to kill us? I’ll show them what we could be doing.
Once I’ve calmed down, I rejoin my earth blessed commanders.
Perhaps the problem is our attire. Rufus tosses his head at a large sign. It has lots of words on it, but the men are dressed differently from others I’ve seen. Let’s try one more time, but dressed in this way, a way they clearly admire.
