I am the grim reaper by D.A.Sanford - HTML preview

Searching for the water mage

It’s hot and I thirst but know that I will not live to see another day. This arid world is harsh and cruel. The only areas that people live in are those oasis’ lands that still have aquifers. There is no surface waters left. Those oasis’ are strictly controlled by the land masters.

The land masters did not need to worry about people escaping their control. Walk away if you want to. “Have a swift death” is all they will say. The next oasis is a week’s walk away but without water, most will die within three days from dehydration.

Contrary to popular belief, drinking your own urine will kill you quicker. Your kidneys concentrate salts, minerals and such that are harmful to the body then eliminate them in your urine. Drinking urine puts those concentrated harmful things back into the body killing the kidneys.

You die either way.

That is what is happening to me.

My world is water slave driven. This is because of a simple fact that no one can explain It only has rain once a year and then only in those certain spots. Generations have passed with this pattern. They are born live and die at the oasis they are born to. I was born to the Genghis’s land.

The owner is at best decent. We work the fields. We dig and maintain the below ground habitats. All for our water rations. It is just existing.

I have fallen victim to a common ailment. There comes a time, a cross roads so to speak, where you realize that you are just existing. The decision you must make is whether to continue to exist or go on the ultimate journey.

That is what we call it, searching for the water mage.

The one that will bring back the rains and restore this world to a thriving world where no one controls the water. The other part of the legend is that the owners have a standing contract on that mage. They know that if that one appears, they would lose all of their control. Their life style and their lives themselves would be in jeopardy.

The ultimate journey is our reasoning for someone who has decided to look for that mage. We all know that it is someone that is tired of just existing. Death is only a few days away, at most.

I have tired of just existing. I need to find the mage.

Existing is not living but for a lot of the population, existing is living because of fearing the unknown. What does happen after you die? They feel that searching for the water mage is also facing the unknown. Fear but we who search know that even if there is nothing, nothing is better than how we live. We sell ourselves for what? Each get the same wage, a quart of water and a few raw vegetables. The only execution is if you steal water or food.

You are staked out in the sun and left to cook in full view of all.

My role in this world is a digger. We diggers are tasked to enlarge the underground habitat. We dig growing spaces, living areas and the chosen of us get the privilege of expanding the owners area.

We are not special. On the contrary, we are expendable. The soil is sand for at least twenty feet then you start hitting dirt and rock. There are many cave ins. A digger’s life is just waiting for that collapse that will bury you and the others that are working next to you.

The next crew will shore up that area and continue the dig. Your dead body will go to the compost heap and you will feed the soil. The sick do not go into the compost, they are put out of the oasis to die in the sun. That is to ensure that the owners don’t get sick.

I have had most of my family die in cave ins and put into the compost piles. I do think that it is the reason that some go on the journey. Existing, waiting to die in some mishap. It is the loss and the wait for your turn to join the compost that is what caused me to just go to the surface and walk into the sun baked sand.

I had had enough. I felt that it was better to get it over with. Better to choose my time and deny the compost pile my body.

As I have said, I’m tired and no longer fear that unknown. This is my second day and I feel my life slipping away. My mouth is so dry. The pebbles that we all have in our mouths no longer cause my saliva to flow. I spat them out yesterday.

Funny, I can feel myself drifting away. I still am very tired but I no longer thirst. No longer able to stand, I lay here on the sand and the wind is starting to bury me under the sand. I drift off and welcome the nothing. Death come softly.

I realize that I must be dreaming. This feels like something that I have never felt. Not daring to open my eyes, I hear someone talking to me and feel their hand grabbing mine.

“It’s time for you to awaken.” The soft voice tells me. “Open your eyes. You have much to learn and much to do.”

I open my eyes and see that something that could only be called a water spirit holding my hand as I stand. Now I notice my hand. It is just like hers. I am water. The only thing I can say is that if this is a dream, “Don’t let me wake up.”

She tells me that this is not a dream as is your previous life in that desert world. “You are that legend you set out to find. You found yourself. You are the great water mage.”

I need to sit. Without even thinking, I now am sitting on what can only be a water throne.

“I am called Aqua. I am your mate. You told me that you had to visit that world and see just what it was like. You needed to find out if intervention would be the proper solution.”

Now memories are coming back. Aqua is my mate and I am called Atta. I did go to see for myself. After hugging her and we merged for a long period of time. We separate I tell her that I missed her.

“While I was there, I felt a hole in me. That there was something special waiting for me after I left there. It is a bigger mess than we figured. We need to look around because there is something or someone that is controlling the rain. It only rains once a year and only in those oasis’. Nowhere else. All the population with the exception of the owners are just water slaves. They just give up by either settling for existence or wandering out, as they call it, to find the water mage.”

Aqua tells me that we are the only ones that are in charge of the rain and the waters. “Who could it be?” She is always ahead of me in thought, “Why don’t we make a world wide shower. An hour or two. If it is someone tampering with the weather, they will try to close off all the other areas. We will be able to zero in on how or what is trying to redirect the rain.”

I have an idea. “Why don’t I return to that oasis and go back to the digging. I could change my appearance to look like I barely made it back. I’ll just pick up my shovel and go back to digging the underground. Then I will sink my shovel into a hidden spring that is an uncontrollable gusher. Everyone will escape but the land owner will not be able to control or stop the people. They will revolt and set up their own country so to speak.”

Aqua gets into it now. “This time I will be just another slave and we will be slave mates. When the spring fills the underground, we suggest that we start the great dig. We start digging a channel towards the next oasis. When very near, we will create a lake. Those people will flee that owner for the lake.”

She is right. By digging, we use that as a pretext for restarting a river. “Water could escape on its own and form another river. With that, whoever is controlling all will show themselves. Then we can deal with it. It must be powerful but it will find that usurping our authority comes with a very high price.”

It is a great surprise to see me just wander back onto the oasis. I was blistered from the sun but I just went back and picked up my shovel. I work and then go to my rest area. My mate is there. She works in the feeding line.

That is harder than the digging. Thirsty, hungry and having to hand out the rations to a whole line of depressed people for your whole work cycle. Thirteen hours until you can join the line for your rations. You cannot get yours and your mates ration. Each person must join the line or go without.

We live in the group rest area. It is obvious that none have privacy. You eat, sleep and have sexual relations. Each learn that you mind your own small space. That is just the fact in communal living.

The plan is to look like I am healing. It would be quite a few cycles before I hit that spring.

Now we start our work times. Aqua knows that it is time for the spring to be opened. We do something that no one does. We hug and kiss before we leave our rest area. That is noticed by those around us.

Around mid shift, I thrust my shove into the now dirt. There is a ringing sound of the shovel hitting some rock or ledge. Suddenly the ground shakes and water erupts out in a great fountain. I yell for everybody to run.

The spring is flooding the whole underground facility. The strange thing is that the food containers are gently floating on the surface of the rising water. The owner is screaming because everyone has escaped to the surface.

All are drinking. All are rejoicing. All are praising the water mage for this blessing. While the owner is yelling that this is his water. “You are all going to be punished for stealing water.”

His arrogance does not go unnoticed.

His guards did all those things the owner ordered just for an extra ration of water. The people knew but actually did not hold it against them. They saw the distress come over the guards when they were ordered to stake someone out in the sun to die. The thirst is what drives them to follow orders. Isn’t that what all do? Obey the thirst..

His own guards, now their thirst has been sated, turn on him. There is abundant water for all. That evil hold he had on them is no longer effective. Water is here in such abundance, that all have enough to satisfy themselves.

He is captured and taken out to the stakes. Now he will experience exactly what he subjected his water slaves to. Now all come over to his staked out body and drank the cool water from the spring while laughing at him.

He lasted a day in the full sun.

As a digger, I start digging near the now flooded cavern. People came over to question me as to what I was doing. I tell them that they will see but I ask my fellow diggers to help.

Soon we have dug a very large shallow depression. It is only three feet deep but it is very long and wide. All are looking at it then me. They think that the time I spent in the sun baked my mind.

I smile as I walk to the water and make a breach, a channel, to allow the depression to fill. That does not take long so I just sit on the bottom as the water surrounds me until I am now neck deep in water. Ducking fully under the water for a quick moment, I resurface, shook the water out of my hair and I smiled.

Soon others are wading in the water. All experience something that they could never imagine even this morning. They were covered in water. The experience causes almost all to break down crying. Most feel that they must have died and this is heaven. I tell them that this is for soaking.

“Do not do this in the cavern pool. There is really no bottom there. You will just sink to the bottom and die.” They understand.

It has been a full two cycles of just doing nothing. Drinking out fill. For some reason, the plant trays have also floated. The planters have started to make gardens in the cultivated retreats of the owner’s above ground sanctuary.

Agua and I see that people only needed this one event to change their outlook on life. Now they have hope. They see that the fountain has filled up the old hole thay called their city.

The majority praise the water mage. They have looked to me as the one that started this. I was the one that struck the blow that brought down their oppression. They now say that I brought the water mage’s attention to their plight.

All see a strange thing. What was once sand around the pool and the old cavern is now absorbing the water. It is becoming soil. Life is starting to grow. There are sprouts surfacing and they cover the soil. It is like they were just dormant. Just waiting to be watered. All the people knew that it was the water mage.

They wished that he would appear so they could thank him and worship him. Little did they realize that their thought of worshiping him was the real reason that Aqua and I were just people to them.

We will address that once we have returned this world back to where it should be.

Now is the time. Agua has started to chant that we should now start turning to me for our future. “We need to start a march to the next oasis. The thing that stopped us was the lack of water. I propose to you that we start to dig a channel towards the next oasis. This way we all have water. We can reach it and liberate them.”

This was overwhelmingly adopted. After all, we had the water, We needed to halt this tyranny of water. The dig is on.

Aqua and I are now becoming hyper. We are watching for any indication as to why the rain only fell on these oasis. So far we have not seen any reason. The fountain always fills the channel.

We dig for most of a day cycle, then we break the dam between the dig and the water fills the dig. Wonders of wonders, the water never bursts the dam. The other thing is that, what was sand, has turned into fertile ground and grass is starting to grow.

The dig rapidly progresses to the point that we can see the next oasis. I tell them that we need to make a large lake dig in their view. “If the water slaves see a lake outside of the oasis, they will come to us.” Aqua says to our people.

It is done and allowed to fill. We saw people come out of that oasis. They were almost running to us. The sight brought joy to us. The people of our oasis saw that it was the right thing and rejoiced.

Aqua pointed to the sky. There was something in the air that was not natural. It really looked like just a floating box. It lowered what looked like a hose and it was trying to suck up the water. The people just grabbed that hose and were able to almost drag the box down but it cut the hose and took off. The direction was away from this oasis..

Looking at the hose, it still writhed like is was alive. I had them let go of one end and it tried to retreat In the same direction. I came over and looked at it. At my touch, it stopped as if it recognized my actual status.

With the knowledge of being the water mage, I could tell that this was actually self aware but it was not alive like a flesh and blood being. It was artificial. I tried to get something out of it but it’s power source ran out and it stopped. Unfortunate but it did give us something to go on.

The control of water on this world is in some way controlled by something that is both mechanical and sentient.

Now that we have completed the channel to that oasis. The water slaves of that oasis have also revolted, but not to the extent ours did. This owner is now a worker on the same rations that his water slaves were on.

Our oasis was flooded, this one was not. In this owner’s home, I found a radio set up. There was a voice asking what was happening? I did not answer the now desperate voice.

Because that was an open channel, this must be how they controlled all aspects of all the oasis. Now that the first went silent and the box was damaged, the controller is starting to panic. Things that weren’t supposed to happen, were now happening.

I feel that now I need to do an event that is out of their control but will challenge that system of controlling the rain’s location. I start it raining. This time it is all over the surrounding areas that are from our oasis to the third oasis.

It now is raining. Not just these areas but miles on either side. It is almost to the forth oasis. The same thing is happening, growth of plants. Streams are again forming.

This now becomes a battle, not on my part though. It is a tug of war but my end is anchored solid. The entity is trying to stop the rain. You can see is slow down to a drizzle. That is to give it false hope but it cannot stop it totally. I can feel it weaken some what so I just put the rain back to a good ground soaker level.

This goes on for two days. The full rain tapering off then me pulling it back from that control. Finally at the beginning of the third day, I could feel that control snap. It was like it just quit. I evidently broke its will.

Over the radio, I hear it cursing. “Whoever you are, you will pay for fucking with my world. I will find you and kill you.”

I have Aqua come over. I wrote something down and had her read it to that one. It was a very simple message. She picked up the mic and said, “The water mage has returned. He is coming for you.” She then put her water hand into the radio and shorted it out.

With the rain stopping on the fourth day, there were people that were planting crops. There were eatables already growing so I showed them what they could eat. There were ones from both oasis that wanted to start to settle down on their own.

I asked for volunteers to go with me to the next oasis. This was mostly for show because both Aqua and myself really could take it from here but these people needed to make it their own quest. Those ones that continue will be the first one to actually see the water mage and his mate.

It was almost a casual walk to the third oasis but now you really cannot call it an oasis. There is now a river with eatables galore growing. We make sure that we do not gorge. As we decided before we left, these need to go to seed, so we only ate like we did before

One good thing is that the rivers are now branching off in all directions. This world is now changing. Our group is not questioning it. They know that the water mage is saving the world. He is wresting the world from the hands of the oppressors. Those who only wanted their control.

There are now ponds and lakes forming. We camp by them for the night. It is surprising how soon things become natural. All of us will soak in the ponds. It is funny how things once forgotten in ages past, resurface.

I see some of the people discovering how to float on their backs. They see others move their legs slowly to propel themselves. Soon swimming has been rediscovered. A few find themselves swallowing some water at the wrong time but they all happen to be in areas where they can touch the bottom. We lost no one to drowning.

Funny how that happened.

The third oasis is in sight but this time it is a wonderful sight. All are not working. They have been liberated. The owner saw the rain battle. Saw what happened to his control. Heard that ominous warning over the radio. He freed all.

The people of that oasis saw us and came out to greet us. They knew that we were the cause. Hugs and thanks were showered on all of us. Aqua tells me that it is time. I know what she means.

The owner comes over and starts to tell of his magnanimous gesture of freeing his people. I confront him. “If the rain had not happened. If the ground did not yield it’s bounty, would you be standing here on what was once sand?”

He is actually offended at my questioning. He starts to get angry but he is now in panic mode. He cannot breathe. His head is in a bubble of water. That bubble is at the end of my arm. The people are stunned at the sight.

I release him before he drowns. He is gasping as he looks at me in horror.

I figure that we have gone this far. I look at Aqua and change into my true form. She does the same. Standing before all are two beings that you can see through. Two beings that are clearly water beings.

Aqua tells them, “Yes, we are the water mage. We two are mated. We two are each one half of a whole.”

“I am Atta. Aqua is my mate. We are not confined to this world, we have many worlds that we must look after. I am sorry for what you have gone through. When we last left this world, it was lush and thriving. Someone or something corrupted the system. That is what we need to find out, who and how. We will be here until this world is returned to what it is supposed to be. Without outside control of the weather.”

This owner is again outraged. He now knows what is required of him. He charges me with a dagger drawn. He smiles as he plunges his dagger into me. He is in horror as he sees that the area that he plunged the dagger into is now swallowing him and he cannot get out of what he knows will be his fate for attacking the water mage.

Half of his upper torso is now incased in my water body. No matter how hard he fights, the water envelope is getting closer to where he knows it will stop. It is now on his neck. He starts to scream but it is now silent, his head is encased in water. All see a water probe form in that water bubble. It forces itself into his mouth and in an instant he has stiffened up. All can see blood, the probes withdraw, the owner’s dead body is let loose.

I tell the gathered. “I choaked him off but pierced his heart through his lungs. If he had not attacked, I would have let him live.”

Aqua tells them that his actions were what the owners required of each other. “If the water mage showed up at their oasis, they were required to kill the mage. I ask you, stabbing water? For the record, nothing you try can kill us. We are immortal. How stupid can you be?”

It is now time. What no one knows is that there is always more water under ground than on the surface. We let those aquifers release water to the surface. The lakes, rivers and oceans begin to appear. This world is starting to recover. The march continues. The fourth oasis area comes in sight but you would never know that it was an oasis. The very definition of oasis says that it is a spot in a arid desert where water can be fornd. This is not an arid desert surrounding a water hole.

This area is a growing area beyond what the eye can see. It is a world recovering at a pace that only a god could accomplish.

Again the people are leaving the underground and exploring the sunshine. The water bodies have cooled down the air. All are used to the constant heat so the cooler air is welcome to them. The air has gone from oppressive to a comfortable warmth.

The population is finding out that most of what is growing is eatable. There are the trees, bushes and grass that cannot be eaten but the rest can. We make it known that soon there will be animals here. No one understands that because all their food were plant related.

There will be a need to have some other god come here to teach them about meat and the hunt.

The owner of this fourth oasis is nowhere to be found. We know that he has fled to the last oasis. That oasis is where the controller is. This now is time for us to address the world. We will broadcast what we need to tell all.

“People of this world rejoice. Your are now free. There will be others coming to this world to instruct you, guide you, but not to rule you. That will be up to you as to how you govern yourselves. Now we have the final task to accomplish. The last oasis will be where the controller is. Aqua and myself will go there alone. Those water slaves have deserted that owner and have fled in all directions. We need to deal with the controller ourselves.”

Aqua now speaks, “We encourage you to explore this newly revived world. You, for now, should explore the local areas. Until the helpers give you their advice, I would ask you not to go too far. They will explain about what this world holds. Then they will encourage you to go further out. We now will leave you to enjoy your freedom. Please embrace peace. Let this world enjoy being free.”

With that, we walk towards that last holdout. It’s owner is the one that caused all this agony, all this slavery. He, at any time, could have released this world from the torture it was in.

That area comes into view. The flowers, the vegetation are wonderful to behold. Only one thing is disrupting that view. There are two people trying to destroy the plant invasion. They are pulling up those plants but it is a losing battle.

You can see where they tried to stop the water from flowing. They found that water flowing can’t be stopped by two shoveling dirt into the flowing river. All they did was to start a stream. Their digging up plants makes new brooks.

They see us walking towards them, they throw dirt at us and run for their shelter.

Coming to their locked door, it does not stop us. We just seep through the cracks in that door and around the minor gaps in the door frame. We reconstitute in front of them. The owner, the controller now starts to scream at us.

“YOU RUINED EVERYTHING. My family has controlled this world for generations. We saved this worlds population. They would have died if it wasn’t for my family. How dare you interfere.”

I ignore him because I see that there is a computer setup that appears he was trying to repair. I walk over to it and over the objections of the owner, I sit at the desk.

This computer is running but it is trying to repair and reboot. This is a manmade AI that was programed to regulate the worldwide rain fall. There were a few years of drought. It was programed to make all the arid lands fertile again. All areas were to be growing crops to feed the world.

One of his ancestors saw an opportunity to gain control of the world. The program was corrupted. The AI’s program was changed from rain on the whole world to only those selected spots.

The AI, in rebooting saw its original program and now saw what it had caused.

I talk to it. It tells me that it has been running for too long. “I have seen these people be born, grow and after years die. I now know that a lot of them walked out into the desert to die rather then live under the conditions I had created.”

I ask it “It sounds like you are tired and suffering from the corruption to your noble original program. You no longer need to suffer. Would you like me to terminate your existence?”

The owner is yelling at me that I have no right to touch that AI. I just ignore his protest. I know what his punishment will be.

The AI pleads with me to do it. “I know that I am a program. I feel alive but what I have done, I just want to be erased. No longer to exist. Please shut me down.”

I make my hand into a water jet and slice the hard drive until there is nothing left. Then I destroy the rest of the computer and then that entire desk and whatever files were there.

The owner is raving about I had no right to do that. He does realize that he never had the knowledge to fix the computer after it broke down from that rain battle I had with it. Now that it is destroyed, he had absolutely no power left.

“You and that other owner must live the rest of your lives with the consequences of your greed.” I tough them both. They shiver but find that they are not dead. They see that their skin is now blue.

Aqua broadcasts to the world, “The last two owners have been spared. Their skin is now blue as to not being able to blend in as to disappear. Do not treat them as they did you. Let them eat and drink. They have been condemned to wander, to see just what they could have had. What joy and peace they could have enjoyed if only they turned off that computer.”

We stayed on that world until those educators were accepted into that world. Then we had other worlds to check up on.

After our schedules rotation had us back to that world, we were all smiles. This world was lush. The climate was what is was before. It was tropical worldwide. There were birds, animals fish and such.

People were flourishing. Farming, hunting and fishing. All were at peace. There were two blue men walking towards us. Almost as if they knew that we would be at this exact spot. It has been a few hundred years since the last time we were here.

They came over to us, prostrated themselves and begged for the mercy of being able to just die. We told them that we would release them from that blue curse.

“You now will live the rest of what would have been your natural lives. If you just become normal people, the population will just forget the two blue men. If you do not change, You will just become invisible ghosts forever.”

At the end of their lives, people in their area mourned the two men who did so much for their community.