Waking you kindly, a short story of fiction.

Our world in two colors. Black and white. That is it. No tones of gray in the middle. No maybes. We are not like you. We have our lines straight, we know wrong from right. But that also makes it impossible to evolve. So, guess what happened? What happened all these years ago? Who made us stop and look at you? Who made the change happen?

As you can imagine, the light was content about where it was. It liked its white colors, crisp lines, and clean laboratories. It did not care what was behind its walls. It was happy and ignorant. With no change in sight, ever. No mistakes made and learned from. In more than a thousand years, nothing. It was a community that did not know the world. Just a tiny speck of it. And they thought that was for the best. They had the belief that their speck was the only thing out there that mattered. That they were the most knowledgeable beings in the universe. And for a while, it was true. For a while, until others rushed past the white ones.

There was a natural willpower of curiosity on the dark side. They lived a level underground but spent their nights out, watching the sky. They were wondering about each and every splash of color, they lived for the thrill of finding out more. It had started as a spark that had ignited a fire. The darks had taken to their desires like a dry forest in summer takes to flames. They embraced what they found and they found more than they had hoped for.

Hiding from the light just like light hid from the darkness was their one ultimate goal. It was in their nature. It had been for millions of years. But when asked, no one could answer why. Why were they supposed to fear the other side? And so, the ones not completely happy with answers like ''just because'' and ''the world was built that way'' set out to look beyond the horizon. And there, in the most blinding light, they found the tones of gray.

There was no concept of good an evil back then. There were only colors that were not supposed to ever touch. Sure, there were things that were different between the tribes, like the bikes the darks rode and the silence that the whites lived in. They never watched the sky because it was different and ever-changing. Not like the place where they lived and thrived.

As the years went and the bikes that the darks rode got quieter with technology, the walls that whites lived behind, became higher, there was nothing that troubled the balance made in this world of just two colors in humans. The whites did not get to see the nature outside, the trees that became green and purple, away from the black they had once been. They did not see the seas become crisp blue and emerald green from that white they had once been. They did not see that everywhere the darkness rode, became full of color. They did not see and they did not know that there were tones other than black and white.

They would be like a tribe that is so isolated that it gets forgotten. That it forgets to move with times and evolve, grow, and thrive. Of course, in their mind, they were on top of the world. They were it, the smartest of all. And the black riders they recalled only from their legends, were savages that lived with no culture, no knowledge, and no technology. In their mind, they were what they actually were not.

As faith would have it, because she never lets whole nations stay in ignorance, one day the world of the light side would get turned upside down. They had been long surpassed intellectually by the other side. By the side that we, humans, see as the bad one. Just because of that deep black tone that brought fear into our ancestors. They, the white humans, had become numb, and rightfully so as faith knew that if they had been the one's ruling, the other side would get destroyed by their sense of entitlement and righteousnesses.

The white ones still had some tricks up their sleeves, though, in their laboratories. And every so often, the darks would sneak in to find out what the others were doing. To learn a little bit and observe. They never stole, they never interfered. They just wanted to see what the other side did. It was curious to them, especially since they had realized that the light side had fallen behind. And the distance increased every decade.

This was long after the dark side had learned not to fear the unknown. This was when they had realized that separation had probably been a silly thing that their old ''gods'' had requested for their stupid reasons. So, the dark ones moved without fear, they hearts had long stopped beating with adrenaline whenever they came close to the huge cylindric creation, closing a bit on top.

Still, they moved in the night, when the visibility of locals was impaired. They did not want to risk scaring those on the other side. They got up on the wall and climbed high. Each decade at least a bigger distance needed covering. They walked on top of the high wall and got down where there was no one. Through dead streets, abandoned in the night, they walked slowly, to the central building, the science palace. There, they climbed again, to the roof of the highest building in the city. Through a hole in that structure, on metal stilts that held them for the next 24 hours.

They watched and awed, they taped the happenings and had snacks that they had taken with them. Crumbs fell down on the floor but no one would notice, they were too far up and only visible with binoculars that they, themselves, were using. This time, they had their drones with them and they let the dark ones at home observe the livestream of men and women dressed in white, working on what was considered children's toys at their home.

It didn't take long until they realized that what was being built was actually a rocket. That was quite surprising as whites were not known for wanting to reach the unknown. And their spaceship was quite a mediocre attempt, it would not get far. As the 24 hours neared the end, the darks picked up their stuff and left from where they had come from. But this time, to their surprise, there were humans out on the streets and the darkly clothed individuals stood out like sore thumbs. They blended in with the shadows but there was one thing that could not be overtaken without being noticed. They needed to get up on that wall and there were not enough cloaking devices for all. There had never been the need for these so they had stopped taking them with.

Three people had to move without shade and those were the three that got noticed as they got up that huge wall. Right at the top, someone yelled at them.

''Intruders! The dark savages! What do we do?'' the white men had their own language, they thought that the savages did not have the capacity to learn it.

''It has been a long time since we were savages! Besides, I doubt you know anybody in this town that has an idea of what to do in this situation!'' the dark leader had a deep voice. He smiled a sideways smile that was now visible to those standing on the bottom of the fence. He had been illuminated by a bright white light.

''He speaks our language! Impossible'' audible gasps spread through the crowd.

''Yes, I speak all the languages there are. Even the ones that the visitors from other planets have brought. I also know that that gun you are holding will do nothing to me.'' guards had shown up and one was aiming at the man, the leader. There was a red dot on his chest and he did not move.

''Ha! That is a bluff. Our technology is way more advanced than a few savages that come to steal it in the cover of the night. You might know how to climb but we know how to create superior things'' the dark leader let out a chuckle at this.

''Maybe, a few thousand years ago. But, tell me, do you know the world outside? Have you noticed that the sky is not white in the day and not black in the night? No, right? You do not look up there and your fence has grown into a shell. A couple of meters between, a small opening that no one looks at.''

Indeed, the stars in the sky looked a new color. Now, when locals looked at them, they saw that the stars were not white. They were... They were... Amm... Wrong? Not white. What is this? The color they were in, was like dirty. Darker than white but not black either. What color is that?

This moment of wonder gave the leader a chance, he turned around and slid down the fence that had turned into a wall. He did catch a bullet, but right on the other side as he had been noticed only after turning. It stung a little but there was no blood. There was nothing at all, just a feeling of a mosquito bite. However, there was a bullet and it made a sound as it dropped against the fence and then fell all the way down, some 100 meters. It fell with a thud, unusually loud. A woman picked it up, all deformed and smashed like it had run into the wall itself.

The blacks were long into their palace of underground delights when the whites had figured what to do. Where the hot desert sun did not touch, under the coat of sand, they lay. They watched with awe the videos from the encounter. The pictures the drones had taken, in the cover of the night.

A man reached the top of the wall and looked back down, there were others pulling up, behind him. There was no gate to get out of the city, so that was the only way to do it. As the man turned back and looked into the distance, the first rays of sunshine touched the Earth. Imagine a surprise as blinding as light itself. Imagine seeing colors for the first time in your life. Imagine your beliefs shattering in an instance.

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Thanks you for the read!
Have a great day, today, tomorrow, and forever!
Linda