Shards fall from the sky over the glass land Destruction in hurricane season. The denizens, made of glass, often shatter.
Workers shovel bits of glass into giant furnaces and remake people and buildings from the scraps.
Workers reach tongs into the furnaces with wavering hands and arms that quickly grow limp. From the round bubbles of glass they blow lampposts, chairs, flowers, plates, baby carriages, canes, and replacement limbs.
"Everything breaks easily here and makes a satisfying shattering," says Miss Emeline Traveler. "No one depends on anyone or anything lasting."
Smash!, the favored sport, awards points for breaking things into the smallest bits.
Visitors rarely come to this place. Only well-traveled folk who think they’ve seen it all are tempted. They return home soft skins slashed.
“It’s the most inhospitable place, I ever been!” says Sir Edward St. Chilliwack, the explorer.
Denizens of Destruction hurl bats at the glass tower Impulsive, which sits in the center of the land, whenever they are angry.
"Do not judge us so harshly. It’s difficult to live in a state of constant vulnerability,” says the Guide.
The scarred tower Impulsive remains standing. It’s made of very thick glass.
A moat of crushed glass surrounds it. Many denizens of Destruction make a pilgrimage to Impulsive and climb to the tower — 700 winding glass stairs — and throw themselves from the edge.
“To be remade!” they cry.
But it takes the glass workers of Destruction a long time to reheat and blow all of the glass bits. So the bodies lie crushed and unmade for many seasons shining in the sun of Destruction, blowing in tornados.
The Impulsive Royalty who reside in the tower make laws and send down decrees, but the denizens of Destruction are as quick to break the laws as heed them. The Impulsive Royalty gaze into glass balls to see the future. Then they use the orbs for bowling and shatter glass pins with no regard for anyone.
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