Exiled [Shortstory]

We are refugees now. The realization came late but once in your head, there was no way of getting rid of it. When I looked around, I stared into empty eyes. Into faces full of sorrow and grieve. Sadness and despair crushed down on me from all sides.

“How could that happen?”, I muttered to myself.

We were young and foolish I guess. Thinking we could leave tomorrow’s problems for tomorrow. Proud of our achievements, blended by new inventions, everything had to be bigger, better and faster. We participated in a race and didn’t even know where the finish line was. We noticed too late what prize we had to pay, or simply didn’t care enough.

I glanced back, to the place we once called our home. The place my kin discovered centuries ago. Where my ancestors build a kingdom from nothing. Sculpted the environment to our needs, shaped a world in which we could flourish. A world now laying in waste.

It is a place that doesn’t need us anymore, nor wants us. Our legacy, that once had been a caring love turned into a vicious mistress. Cursing and spitting at our backs. Throwing its waves in wild anger and sending our accomplishments back to our feet. Seeing all this junk piling up around us made me vomit. We caused havoc to something we should have valued.

Now setting foot on this new soil felt strange and wrong. We don’t belong here, nor do I know if we’re welcome. We have to learn from our mistakes. We have to recognize where we left our path and went in the wrong direction. Now we are outcasts, forced into a strange new world, trying to find shelter somewhere. Somehow.

“But we can change. We can improve. We can learn.” I don’t know how much truth I’ll find behind those words. I don’t know if we are able to overcome our flaws. Our endless greed. Our destructive selves. Our habit of pursuing our goals no matter how much ground we leave burning behind.

This is our second chance. The time to prove our value. We have to earn our place among the countless other species or should be soon a relict of the past. We should care for our environment, for its dwellers and for future generations.

I look back for the last time. To the wide ocean which once was my home. My lips moving in a silent prayer, speaking my vow to this sacred place.

“I promise to change. I promise to do better.

We are refugees now. The realization came late but once in your head, there was no way of getting rid of it. When I looked around, I stared into empty eyes. Into faces full of sorrow and grieve. Sadness and despair crushed down on me from all sides.

“How could that happen?”, I muttered to myself.

We were young and foolish I guess. Thinking we could leave tomorrow’s problems for tomorrow. Proud of our achievements, blended by new inventions, everything had to be bigger, better and faster. We participated in a race and didn’t even know where the finish line was. We noticed too late what prize we had to pay, or simply didn’t care enough.

I glanced back, to the place we once called our home. The place my kin discovered centuries ago. Where my ancestors build a kingdom from nothing. Sculpted the environment to our needs, shaped a world in which we could flourish. A world now laying in waste.

It is a place that doesn’t need us anymore, nor wants us. Our legacy, that once had been a caring love turned into a vicious mistress. Cursing and spitting at our backs. Throwing its waves in wild anger and sending our accomplishments back to our feet. Seeing all this junk piling up around us made me vomit. We caused havoc to something we should have valued.

Now setting foot on this new soil felt strange and wrong. We don’t belong here, nor do I know if we’re welcome. We have to learn from our mistakes. We have to recognize where we left our path and went in the wrong direction. Now we are outcasts, forced into a strange new world, trying to find shelter somewhere. Somehow.

“But we can change. We can improve. We can learn.” I don’t know how much truth I’ll find behind those words. I don’t know if we are able to overcome our flaws. Our endless greed. Our destructive selves. Our habit of pursuing our goals no matter how much ground we leave burning behind.

This is our second chance. The time to prove our value. We have to earn our place among the countless other species or should be soon a relict of the past. We should care for our environment, for its dwellers and for future generations.

I look back for the last time. To the wide ocean which once was my home. My lips moving in a silent prayer, speaking my vow to this sacred place.

“I promise to change. I promise to do better.