Spheria by Cody Leet Read Free Book Online

across it because our feet will stick. It's possible to detach one leg at a time, but this requires leverage. Once you have all your limbs stuck, you'll be helpless. But luckily for us, the attraction isn't that strong unless you touch it.”   He waved a leg over the red rock. It seemed effortless. Then he let it drop, and it clanked onto the red stone.
    Le∙ma gasped.
    “Pull me,” Sa∙ma commanded.
    She wrapped two legs around his center and pulled back with her remaining two legs. It took all her might, and his pushing with his free legs, to detach him from the red rock. He popped back.
    “Thanks!” he said. Then he asked, “How can we cross?”
    “We need to make a barrier between us and the river.”
    “Correct. How?”
      Brown Rock . She found a loose polyhedron on the ground and threw it into the river. It stuck fast in the middle, then turned red and sank as the shapes below shuffled to make room. Puzzled, but not deterred, she tore loose a hunk of green polyhedrons from the side of a plant and threw it into the river. Again they turned red and sank below.
    “What’s going on?”
    “What do you think?”
    “Well, it looks like anything that touches the river changes into red rock. But you touched it and didn’t change.”
    “An enigma, indeed. It turns out that it’ll turn almost anything red. One exception is something living, something attached to a violet life core.”
    “Why is that?”
    “For this answer, we need to go all the way back before the world existed. This is the story of the creation.”
    #
    A single eight-legged Polyan, named Ra∙ju, floated in the darkness. He was all that existed. He made himself shine bright white, but there was nothing for the light to fall upon. He searched the void but found nothing. He was alone.
    So he detached all his legs, one by one, and as he did they changed color. One became brown, one orange, one red, one blue, one green, one yellow, one violet, and one indigo. They each then sprouted seven legs of their own and became the eight gods. But unlike us, they each had a colored core. To these, he gave the suffix “ro” and named them Ta∙ro, Ke∙ro, Pi∙ro, Ju∙ro, Ca∙ro, Na∙ro, Wi∙ro, and Su∙ro, respectively.
    They gathered around Ra∙ju, and he was proud. But they floated in nothing, and this made him sad. So he directed his children to make a place where they could dwell and play.
    To Ta∙ro the brown, he said, “Go and make the lands.” Ta∙ro then produced a chunk of brown rock between his legs. This he shaped and smoothed and spread out until it surrounded and contained them all in a continuous sphere. This is the world in which we now dwell.
    To Ca∙ro the green, he said, “Go and make the plants.” Ca∙ro exploded in a mass of green polyhedrons that shot out in all directions. These dotted the landscape, and each of them became the plants spread about.
    To Ke∙ro the orange, he said, “Make life, so the land may buzz with activity.” To do this, Ke∙ro descended and imbued a bunch of brown rock with orange energy. Thus, the creatures that inhabit our world were born, including us.  
    To Su∙ro the indigo, he said, “The creatures are unable to experience their world. Give them senses.” So Su∙ro waved at the creatures, and they sprouted sensors that allowed them to see, hear, and speak. Some plants also gained the ability to grow new sensors for future generations. But the creatures were too few, and would never find each other, so Ra∙ju turned his attention to Wi∙ro.
    So to Wi∙ro the violet, he said, “Make the creatures multiply, so that we may never run out.” To do this, he shone his violet light upon them, and they found each other and increased their numbers. Soon there were too many, and they began to fight.
    To Ju∙ro the blue, he said, “Go and make divisions so that the creatures will not fight.” Ju∙ro descended to the land and rolled about, leaving a trail of blue rock in his wake. This