The bell signaling the festival of rebirth rang. Kate let the white robes slip from her body as she and hundreds of other willing participants stood nude. Another bell rang and the crowd marched out of the mouth of the cave. Fields of dying flora greeted their eyes.

The crowd spread out finding good spots to stand, sit or lay. Kate walked off finding a more private spot than the others and layed on the ground. Sighing, she rested her head on one of her arms, letting her bare body bask in the sunlight.

She smiled at what was to come, perhaps a little too widely. To pay tribute to the great event that defines their civilization was a privilege, though most did not see it that way. Something that must be done, an inconvenience. Not her--she confessed only to her closest friends-- she felt a a great joy from participating.

A hand slid slowly down her body; perhaps this would be the year she dared express her emotion fully, perhaps... the sun turned green as the bodies of the participants froze. Locked staring, smiling at the green glow she felt her body harden as she and hundreds of other turned to stone.

"Oh well," she sighed. "Next time..."

As the green glow turned to red, the temperature began to rise and rise until the world burst into flames. Most were asleep by now, a few of the stronger minds witnessed the event and wept behind stone eyes. Kate felt the fire and infernal gale as a soft warm breeze, her stone body hardened against this hell. As a cloud of steam obscured the sun already fading back to its gentle golden hue, the rains began. For the next three months, she will enjoy watching the charred world return to life. All but one would awaken in a verdant world a mid field of blooming flowers. But only one would have savored it happening.