Ug looked up from his two rocks. His forearms ached, hands bled, body crouched. The rocks were bulging, pointy flints. At his feet, there sat a modest arrangement of twigs and grasses, which were alight. Tentatively, but most definitely alight. Increasingly so.
Backing away, Ug’s brain activity mirrored the escalating intensity of the fire, energy being burnt off in favour of logical connections, a chain of thought he could not help but follow.
He had made fire, with his own hand. Via an intermediary, the flints. But still it was made of his own volition. He knew... that this... was going… to be... ginormous.
He began to trudge back to the camp, sheepishly almost. Ug still held the two rocks. ‘I have made fire’, he whispered on arrival, to his friend, Zug. Zug pronounced this to all, and then all came running to encircle Ug. He was watched fearfully, attentively. The people were curious despite themselves. They knew at least part of what was to come.
Ugg arrived. He looked at Ug, and moved through the crowd to meet him in the centre of the circle. ‘What have you done?’, Ugg said to Ug.
‘I have made fire, with rocks’ said Ug.
Ugg smiled. ‘We get fire from lightning, not from rocks’, he said, easily.
‘Now we can get it from rocks. Whenever we want.’ Ug’s voice maintained its volume, but its tone varied.
‘Why ever should we do that? We collect the fire when it comes down unto us. We maintain it best we can. We chased the lightning to these mountains to maximise its occurrence. Our settlement is at rest. Now you come to us with two stones you have rubbed together, as if that could possibly equal a split in the sky, blackness cracked open by the blaze.’ Ugg remained calm, but firmer now.
Ug did not speak. This was not unexpected, of course. Since Ugg’s discovery of a burning bush some years ago, he had held power steadfastly, without real concern or consideration that another state of affairs might be possible. He understood how things worked, how to keep everyone warm. He didn’t have power, he controlled power.
Preventing redevelopment had not been as tricky as expressing authority. Just calm deliberation, weaved into the right ears. Collective opinion was always clear, risks outweighed the benefits, and their present comforts were dearly held. No action was taken but Ugg’s.
Ug had seen sparks. He followed sparks. He watched the rocks. Now he could make sparks, and from them fire. This he knew from the first moment he had witnessed flashes from the rocks, as it tumbled down a cliff into the ravine. Light speck meant all new change.
He looked up from the rocks in his hands, where his eyes had come to rest. They were calloused, from many hours of friction. To find the perfect rocks had taken months of physical questions.
‘I will leave today with my wife and children to live in the valley. Any are welcome to join us there.’ He spoke to the crowd in practiced monotone.
No one spoke, and Ugg did not move.
They left that night. There were two spheres now. Many fires burned. Wars commenced. They cannot be described, their motions shifted and flickered in and out like flames. The violent acts were natural spurts of energy, emerging from the material they were stored in. Simply let go.