The Project Gutenberg EBook of Longevity, by Therese Windser

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net

Title: Longevity

Author: Therese Windser

Release Date: March 27, 2008 [EBook #24928]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LONGEVITY ***

Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

LONGEVITY

By THERESE WINDSER

_A morality tale--1960 style._

Legend had it, that many thousands of years ago, right after the Great
Horror, the whole continent of the west had slowly sunk beneath the West
Water, and that once every century it arose during a full moon. Still,
Captain Hinrik clung to the hope that the legend would not be borne out
by truth. Perhaps the west continent still existed; perhaps, dare he
hope, with civilization. The crew of the Semilunis thought him quite
mad. After all, hadn't the east and south continents been completely
annihilated from the great sky fires; and wasn't it said that they had
suffered but a fraction of what the west continent had endured?

The Semilunis anchored at the mouth of a great river. The months of fear
and doubt were at end. Here, at last, was the west continent. A small
party of scouts was sent ashore with many cautions to be alert for
luminescent areas which meant certain death for those who remained too
long in its vicinity. Armed with bow and arrow, the party made its way
slowly up the great river. Nowhere was to be seen the color green, only
dull browns and greys. And no sign of life, save for an occasional patch
of lichen on a rock.

After several days of rowing, the food and water supply was almost half
depleted and still no evidence of either past or present habitation. It
was time to turn back, to travel all the weary months across the West
Water, the journey all in vain. What a small reward for such an arduous
trip ... just proof of the existence of a barren land mass, ugly and
useless.

On the second day of the return to the Semilunis, the scouting party
decided to stop and investigate a huge opening in the rocky mountainside.
How suspiciously regular and even it looked, particularly in comparison
to the