Pic – Watchers From The Dunes by Kelly Vivanco.
BLUE DOG by Neil Austin..
Our story begins 5000 years ago as Niburu approaches Earth. It is still some months away, but it can be seen and its effects are being felt. Violent weather, earthquakes and eruptions are increasing in response to Niburu’s mass. The night skies are filled with the burning trails of meteors, ancient debris that precedes Niburu. Atlantis, the only city built by Sirius, has already sunk.
Fear and profound sadness grip the folk of Earth for it is known, Earth is losing its place in the Great Integration. The golden age of harmony is passing as a new 5000 year cycle of decline begins. The clairvoyance of the people and their connection with the wider cosmos will soon be myth. Earth will be known as Earth the unfortunate.
Sirius has done what it can and a fleet has arrived to evacuate its agents. The Sirius bases are surrounded by frightened humans begging Sirius to stay.
Sirius is leaving but the dream will live on, inspiring artists and story tellers ’til they return, in the 21st century.
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When Freja was born, Earth was still a stable part of the integrated Cosmos. She grew up with the mystic traditions of old Earth. As a child, she showed a special affinity with Crystal, used in those days to amplify the mind in ways now forgotten. Freja joined a mystic school in her teens and there she met Blue Dog, a young man on exchange from Sirius.
Like all Sirius folk, Blue Dog was a shape shifter. At the school he wore his human form, for practicality. Sirians generally prefer their canine form, for the pure physical joy of the animal body, but the dexterity of the human form is useful for manipulating tools. They build their machines to be operated by either form. Any dog can fly a Sirius ship, if they know how.
Blue Dog and Freja were soon good friends. She offered him the comforts of her home, an old custom with visitors, and he graciously accepted. At home he relaxed in his canine form. He could still talk of course but chose to eat, sleep and romp with the family’s dogs. Consequently, while giving him all due respect, Freja’s parents tended to see him as an exotic pet. What they didn’t know was just how close their daughter and her exotic pet would become.
At the school Blue Dog was a young man, handsome as Freja was pretty, and so they grew curious. As humans they walked home through the forest, holding hands. As humans, they became lovers.
Freja’s family would be horrified if they knew. To them she was a teenage girl, still under their protection. And he was a dog. Intimacy between Heidi and Blue Dog was unimaginable. It would be a perversion, bestiality. So the lovers kept their secret, reinforcing their bond.
The arrival of Niburu, though expected, was sudden and catastrophic. The planet buckled and quaked, meteor strikes devastated huge tracts of land. Earth was no longer safe so the order went out – all Sirians were to report to base. The Sirius fleet prepared to leave, to return a hundred years hence. They would take no humans.
Blue Dog wanted to stay with Freja but already people were turning nasty, blaming Sirius for their abandonment. Sirius agents were being attacked. If Blue Dog stayed he would likely be hunted down. And so the lovers hatched a plan.
Blue Dog had access to a saucer and they began to search for a refuge. They found an island, isolated in the Pacific Ocean. They ferried food there, and building materials and all sorts of useful Sirius technologies including two sleep capsules. They planned to enter suspension and wait for the promised return of Sirius agents.
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Things fell to pieces rapidly. Humans rioted and Sirius locked down the ports. It was time for the lovers to leave the world behind. They loaded up the saucer and disappeared.
On their island, they found a cave high up in the hills. Here they made a home. This proved an excellent choice as they were protected from the storms and tsunamis that raged around the planet. For a year they lived on their supplies, fish and local fruits. They made their cave comfortable and built an enclosing wall. Blue Dog remained human and the young lovers enjoyed a blissful one year honeymoon. Then they entered the sleep capsules, to wait for the promised return of Sirius.
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100 years later Freja awoke. She yawned, stretched, and went to Blue Dog’s capsule. He was awake but he didn’t seem to know how to open the door. He looked nervously around and out at Freja. He barked. So she opened his door for him.
Blue Dog sprang out of his capsule. Full of life he bounced around the cave. She went to embrace him but he skipped out of reach, like a puppy at a game. Freja grew a little frightened. She asked if he was alright. He tilted his head, looked at her curiously, and started again to bounce and bark.
“Stop it,” cried Freja. “Talk to me”.
Again she reached for him and again he bounded away, barking and delighting in the game. Something was terribly wrong.
It was the custom in those days for Sirius folk to return to Sirius every 10-20 years, but few remembered the reason why. That reason now dawned on Heidi.
Her shape shifting Sirius lover … had fallen to Earth.
Freja was distraught. She went through their Sirius technologies and found the emergency beacon. Sirius scouts would have returned to Earth by now. They would surely come, they would know how to restore Blue Dog. But Freja had never learned how to operate the beacon, and Blue Dog was no longer able.
Freja sat beneath their perfectly capable flying saucer and bewildered, she wept.
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The castaways settled into their new life. Freja planted the seeds they had brought with them. She fished and gathered fruit. Blue Dog took to feeding himself by hunting mutton birds. He always brought one home for Freja, dropping it at her feet, his dog brain failing to understand why she wept. And so they lived out their lives, a girl and her dog on a lonely little dot somewhere in the Pacific Ocean.
One day, by chance, a Sirian survey ship landed on their island. They found the renovated cave, the grown over garden, the pile of discarded Sirius technology. Beside the cave was the skeleton of a bent old woman, curled beside the shallow grave of a dog. Inside the cave hey found Freja’s diary, which told their story.
And a painting of a girl on a beach, with her dog, and a set of binoculars.
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Note:
This story was inspired by Kelly Vivanco’s lovely painting, Watchers From The Dunes.
The story is my response to a friend’s challenge – “So tell me Neil, what’s this all about?”
I make no claim on the painting, I’m not selling the story.
I emailed Kelly’s web site to let her know.