So . . .

A while back, you may recall me writing about an idea that came to me about Doleful Creatures, and about how I needed to fix it and how it was going to take a lot of effort to fix it and how I was thinking I'd blow it off.

Well, it won't go away.

So here goes.

24 ¶ And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.

25 And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

26 ¶ And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

29 ¶ And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.

30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.

31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

“That,” the voice said, loud in the dark, “is what comes.”

“That,” it said, and the sound echoed as whiskers twitched and eyes gleamed; ten thousand eyes in the black, “is what we must stop.”

“Dominion. We have seen it. We know what it will mean. Seed and herb for meat. But soon,” the voice paused and there was no sound in the chamber save the drip of distant water, “meat for meat.”

Susurration.

“They’ll eat us?” A small voice from the congregation.

“Yes,” the voice said.

“But we’re so small.”

“Does size matter when the flood comes?” he shouted, and the congregation ceased breathing. “Does size matter when the lightning strikes? No, it does not. All drown and die. With them, the giants, with them comes misery. And death.”

“We can’t stop it,” another voice said, and tiny mouse voices in the dark began to wail. “It is part of his plan.”

“His plan,” the first voice said. “Not ours. Not ours to die in misery, to slink in the corners, to bring poisoned food home to the children!”

Shouting from the congregation, louder now than the wailing.

“What can we do?”

“Nothing! We let the plan, the Master – “

“Not nothing. We have an ally.”

The wailing slowly ceased.

“Not her,” the second voice said. “Not The Lady.”

“Why not The Lady? She sees the perfection of the world in which we live. She knows of the coming misery and would save us from it! All. Of. Us. Not one missed. Not one chewed and spat out. Not one.”

“And what does she gain?”

“Love,” the first voice said.

“I’ve seen The Lady’s love,” the second voice said.