The Bird and The Dragon

The world ended three centuries ago for the populace of Watergate. No one alive today understands the biological technology whose remains lay all over the planet. It has become a story and the men and women who used it have become the olds in the legends. Old Leipzig is one of them.

The erratically working biological production units -the forests and the reefs- are blessed and cursed in Leipzig’s name. People who live near the forests draw his mark on their doors, tattoos, or jewelry to testify their faith. They hope the mark keeps them safe from the malfunctioning forests.

People believe old Leipzig still walks the planet. They say he is the one who plants the new forests. He swarms the insects and orders the flowering to start. Old Leipzig is blamed when a forest loses its operational balance and transforms into a deathtrap full of poisonous gas or vomits spores to defile the air and water. They say that old Leipzig is the power protecting and guiding the arboreal processes, and they say he chose them over humanity.