You can read minds but it 's too noisy in the city . You move to the mountains to learn what silence was . Then you heard something deep beneath the ground . [ WP ]

*Jupiter approaches again, the magma runs too slow... * 
 
 My eyes widened. Ever since I moved to these mountains months ago, I've been hearing thoughts - they are faint but vast. There is a cave in my mind, and this voice echoes inside endlessly. Usually, the thoughts are incomprehensible; meaningless chatter that I had gotten used to. But tonight, I've been hearing words. Fragments elusive and strange. 
 
 *Who are you? I can hear your thoughts*, I willed silently. I used to transmit my own thoughts onto other people, as a sort of joke - no one would understand where the foreign words came from, or how to respond to them. 
 
 *Hello, little one. * It sounded almost surprised, but not really. As if it had been waiting for someone, but he had come later than expected. 
 
 *Who are you? Why do your thoughts fill my mind's volume, like a heated gas? * 
 
 *Your people have called me by different names throughout the eons. * It sounded gently amused. 
 
 *What name would you prefer? * 
 
 *I believe Gaia would be one quite familiar to you. * 
 
 I gasped. That means I was speaking with... oh my God. *This is a great honor, Gaia. * 
 
 *It is certainly a pleasure for me. I can not recall when I have spoken with one of yours - and so directly, too. * 
 
 For a few minutes, I was silent. I was bursting with a million things to ask. But what to say first? Suddenly, with a lump rising in my throat, I realized what needed to be said. *Gaia, I know the apology of a single, little human must mean nothing, but I am so sorry for what we have done - and what we still do - to you. We have hurt you for centuries... * 
 
 This time, she did laugh, a strange thing to hear reverberate through the wells of my mind. *I accept your singular apology, but I must inform you that it is quite misdirected. * 
 
 A pause. *I do n't understand. * 
 
 *Your kind has done almost nothing to me. Nothing that will remain for a long time. * It seemed to heave a huge, contented sigh here. *I have experienced much more damage - asteroid bombardment, the moon tearing its body from my injured one, sudden gravitational tugs from stormy black holes that core the center of this galaxy. * 
 
 I began to see her point. *But then... who would I properly apologize to? * 
 
 *Yourselves. * 
 
 What? I was baffled. *??????????? * 
 
 *The damage your kind has done, the carelessness they have wrought - I will survive it. I have weathered far worse. In a mere thousand or million years ( it is all the same to me ), nothing will remain of my old scars. * 
 
 It suddenly began to dawn on me where she was going with this. I felt a shiver run down my spine. 
 
 *It is your kind that will suffer. You will ruin the land, and yourselves. And then you will perish, a speck, a mote in the annals of time. * 
 
 Silence filled my mind as I pondered deeply about these words. I had always known them, truth be told. But hearing it from her made it too real. She must have sensed my despair, for she added: 
 
 *Or perhaps not. Perhaps your kind will realize in time, and save yourselves. But remember one thing, little one. * 
 
 `` Yes?'' I croaked out loud. *Yes? * 
 
 *I will always remember you - all of you. Your existence has been so ephemeral, so fragile - but you have glowed. Yes, even in so little time, you have shone brightly. And I will remember this light well. *
