Life In Waves

20260310

Prompt from DailyPrompt.com

“What do you mean, ‘the river doesn’t want to be dammed’?” Robert scoffed, his elegantly waxed moustache bristling at the absurdity.
The stupid yokel mayor had the audacity to give him an odd look. “What’s not to understand?”
“How can a river-” Robert faltered, his mouth drooping open, as the fountain in the midst of the council hall bubbled and its water stretched up, against the grip of gravity, to form something like a head.
Which then spoke, its voice musical and burbling and utterly inhuman. “I am not interested in your plans, human. This city grew from me, and would wither without me. Take your dam plans elsewhere.”
Robert stood frozen. But only for a moment; he was too experienced a salesman to lose his grasp on a pitch simply because he feared he was losing his sanity. “Come now, don’t be hasty! After all, cities don’t grow, they’re built. And with our investment-”
“Please. Do not fool yourself, that your cycle is different from what came before you.” A wave swept the fountain basin in an encompassing gesture. “Long before your kind arose, much less travelled this far north, I wandered across a barren rocky plain. I found a comfortable path. Settled into it. Life crept up me from the ocean. Small, fragile sparks, unable to survive outside me.”
“Until some made the step to growing alongside me, carrying my water with them. Soon my banks were coated in colour. They lived. They grew. They died, and became soil, and nourished the waves of life which came after.”
“Life learned to carry me further, and spread outwards from my banks, forming soil as it went. In time, plants formed, carrying me through a network of roots. They lived. They grew. They died, and became soil, and nourished the waves of life which came after.”
“In time, a forest surrounded me, and I reached for miles beyond my flow in every direction - even up into the sky. My chosen path was now the smallest part of me. This network, formed of trees and everything which grew and walked and flew beneath them, took me to places I never dreamed of. They lived. They grew. They died, and became soil, and nourished the waves of life which came after.”
“And then… not so long ago… humans arrived. You displaced many of the trees to huddle against my banks, like those algae. You carved channels to carry my water further, and followed along these channels. Your structures accrued, carrying me further, and even upwards. You lived. You grew. You died, and you and your buildings became soil which nourished the growth which came after.”
“More humans. More buildings. A whole network of metal roots, carrying me for miles in every direction. Does that sound familiar?” The water chuckled. “You think yourself immortal. Distinct from the flow of time. Just as they did. You live. You grow. And one day, you will die, and you and your shells of steel and glass will become a new kind of soil, and the next wave of life will huddle on my banks. So.”
The water stretched forward, its featureless face staring into Robert's shrivelled soul. “I am not interested in your dam, or your ‘investments’. You may not block the flow of life I carry. Go back where you came from - and give thanks to the water there, for without it there would be no life to spawn you. Shoo.”
It relaxed back into its basin and the fountain returned to placid murmuring.
“As I said.” The mayor sounded disturbingly unperturbed by what had happened. “If you have a way of generating power without blocking the path of the river-”
“No, no, I - I must be getting back.” Robert stammered, fumbling his presentation materials together. “Your, er, preferences are understood, lovely talking to you, do excuse me, goodbye!”
He was certain he heard a damp snicker as he scurried out.

Prompt was “Write a description of a city or urban area using predominantly natural imagery.”