For a long while after he spoke, nothing in the purple sky moved except the clouds of dream drifting off Noah's shoulders.
He let them drift. He was still sorting through what had just been poured into him, the microbe and the orc and the goblin with his very nice spoon, the Gu on the workbench, the Immense One who learned at the very end what every bug in the mud had always known. It was a great deal to carry. He found, a little to his suprise, that he did not want to put any of it down.
THE First Gu of Time watched him with her crown of burning eyes!
"Gu are a passive kind," she said at last. "We do not hunt. We do not hoard. For the most part, we do not even want. And a great many beings have taken that as permission."
The Ages in her eyes turned slowly. "The worst of them, and the one who took more of my children than any other, was an engineer. His name was Atlas."
...!
Noah kept perfectly still!
