Death Of A Legend

  An old man sat on the ground, his back against his favorite rock, and looked down from the edge of a high plateau. From his favorite seat he could see two similar towers in the near distance. Beyond them, one range of mountains stood in the east and another to the far, far west. The land between the two great ranges used to be desert, all red earth and sand. But it had changed during his decades in this world. It had turned to grassland, brown and hot during half the year, lushly green in the other half, with the occasional massive tree dotting the landscape.

  He had saved this world. Perhaps. It was too soon to tell for sure, but he had prepared it the best he could to face anything and everything. The rest was up to those he left behind.

  "I finally did it. I'm dying of old age. I've seen a lot of worlds, but I never lived this long before. It was nice. The end's a little rough, though. I had to let go of so many loved ones. I feel ready to start over."

  One of his many, many great-grandchildren dutifully wrote down his words. They were all around him, in a riot of human forms graced with beastly ears, tails, teeth, snouts, claws, fur, and even a few smooth-skins. They had come to say goodbye. A typical man in his position would have to worry about greedy relatives fighting over his estate or trying to curry favor. He solved that problem by only leaving them intangibles. The offices he held could not be inherited, and his vast fortune was already dispersed. Values, knowledge, and love were his legacies. His descendants would probably find reasons to fight anyway. That was human nature.

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  "How much longer are we going to be here?" whispered one of the boys. He wanted to be a hunter, and would rather be far afield in the grasslands, hunting increasingly common monsters. He chaffed at sitting still for the old man.

  "Seriously?" A church-bound girl chided him. "After all the history he made? This might be the last time we see him!"

  "You mean like the other last time? And the time before that? We should have at least brought snacks."

  "Shhhh!" hissed the girl who wanted to be a scholar.

  "Oh, shush yourself! He's not dying! Look at him. He's fine. He just likes the attention."

  The old man had been waiting for someone to say that. Or anything like it. With his final breath, he laughed aloud and let his soul slip away from his body.