It had taken her this long to consider that many others of her own kind would be doing the same thing, even if they lacked the resources and access that she had. Hers had been traded in exchange for allowing the humans to take samples of herself, so that they could learn about her using their own methods. Knowledge for knowledge, if not in the usual way.

Actually, it hadn't occurred to her at all until the group suggestion had popped up as she was dismissing notifications. 'Dragons of Science Song Share'. If you knew of both Dragons and Science, it was a logical name for a 'chat' group. There was little doubt that whoever had created it was familiar with at least one dragon, because the image used to represent the group was that of the elder who was perhaps the eldest of them all by now, or perhaps not.

He was a good choice in any case, as it was likely that all but the youngest would have encountered him at one time or another in their lives. Humans too had engraved his image into their history, but this was no painting or carving, it was the current style of picture that people captured with tiny artificial eyes on their data devices.

'Dragons of Science Song Share' was a private group, and the application required a 'full body image of the applicant's natural form'. It also asked, "What's your favorite food? When did you wake up? What do you trade for knowledge?"

It was rather bothersome, since it required her to ask someone to take her photo.

--

"Perhaps the reason so many species are coming to an end is that the humans are hogging the available lifeforce within the sea of life that fills this world?" Tanwen speculated.

"That's ridiculous. People and animals can live in outer space, they aren't tied to the planet," Chris argued.

"Dragons are tied to the planet," Tanwen countered.

Chris couldn't prove her wrong, because he didn't know if any dragon had actually gone into space yet, but he couldn't help wondering if it wasn't just that they ran out of air to lift themselves through when they got too high.

"Weren't prehistoric creatures all a lot bigger than the ones now? What if it's not just humans, but all of the species on Earth? What if she's right and the amount of lifeforce is limited, and that's why plants and animals have gotten smaller over time?" Anne asked.

"Amaru said that the strings are fading, but he never mentioned anything about everything dying off. If living things were suddenly going to die when they reached the lifeforce capacity of the planet, overpopulation would never really be a problem right?" Chris replied reasonably.

"Who knows? I doubt that the elders knew that the time for the world to turn over was coming so soon when they settled into sleep. Anne could be right," Tanwen argued.

"What if that's why? Why the virus can't be stopped, and can mutate to infect other species so fast? Because the rivers of life are fading and everything is going die soon?" Anne asked nervously.

"Everything will not die," Tanwen assured her kindly. "There are obviously many species that have survived the reversal of the world before, and my teacher has even lived through several."

Anne suddenly turned and stared toward the door. "He's back!"

The door opened a moment later and Tanwen dropped her human form in a flash and dashed over to greet Amaru in her own compressed form.

Chris recovered from his surprise and greeted Amaru with questions instead, "If the world runs out of lifeforce when the strings fade, will the unweavers get stronger? Will people get weaker and die because there isn't enough lifeforce to sustain them?"

The elder dragon laughed. Amaru stepped inside, politely closed the door as Mac had taught him, and then followed Tanwen's example. He shifted into a compressed version of his natural form, and briefly touched noses with the smaller dragon.

Chris wondered if it was a customary dragon thing that neither of them had mentioned to him, or if it was a more private little ritual.

While he was hesitating, Amaru replied to his question as usual, "I do not know if the unweavers will thrive as the energy carried within the strings disperses. It is an interesting idea, but life is stronger than you think."

"See, everything will not die!" Tanwen repeated.

"Where does the energy go?" Anne asked.

"And where does it come from in the first place? Does drinking from a living heart provide lifeforce because that is where it is generated?" Chris added.

Amaru gave them all a draconic shrug. "The energy carried within the strings is not vanishing, it is merely dispersing, like water into mist. It is more like the pull of the world that is weakening."

"Gravity is not weakening," Chris immediately refuted the elder dragon. But a moment later he asked, "Is it? I wonder how that's measured?"

"The physical pull of the world does not change when it turns over,"Amaru affirmed.

"But if life energy is dispersing won't living things grow weaker, or even run out of energy completely?" Anne asked again. Everything that she was learning about sensing the strings or streams of life and absorbing energy from the pools would be useless if they vanished.

"No. Perhaps it is even the reverse?" Amaru speculated. "I think this is a time of abundance as living things respond to the strength of the song of the world."

"Then the strings are pulling lifeforce away from living things?" Tanwen asked doubtfully. "But a strong lifeforce pulls them toward it."

Amaru stretched his clawed hands as he explained, "The energy of life flows like water flows, and when the world vibrates with the song of growing, the energy scatters out like rain storms. But when the world settles the energy forms streams and pools again."

Chris frowned. The analogy seemed to support Tanwen's theory that the lifeforce available was finite, but that didn't fit what he knew of the scientific theories about the formation of life itself, because at one time nothing had lived on the planet.

Amaru continued though, "Plants and animals alike can be energized by the world's song. The unweavers might also be strengthened, but living things which carry the energy of life within themselves definitely grow stronger and reproduce more often. And perhaps, like the flow within the strings, the flow between the world and the life that populates it can change directions and replenish the energy of the world when it weakens. It is not something that can be seen clearly even with true sight."

"The world is a giant battery?" Anne asked incredulously.

"Actually, yes. At least in theory," Chris replied with sudden amusement. "There have been people who have wanted to charge up the Earth itself so that free electricity could be distributed worldwide."

Anne and Tanwen stared at him disbelievingly, but Amaru simply nodded. Perhaps the dragon had read about the idea. Oddly, the theory settled his own worries about the finite nature of life energy. If the Earth could act as a storage device, then the circular flow could be explained without the energy itself being limited to the single container's capacity.