What It Means When a Man Falls From the Sky

The god of ants (Ant) is angry because the goddess of rivers (River) divided a stream, and one of the new streams washed away a small anthill the god of ants liked. He approaches other gods and goddesses, such as love and vengeance, but they dismiss him, seeing the issue and the god himself as insignificant. For 500 years, Ant tries to get revenge—e.g., by adding dirt to slow the rivers. River just washes away his efforts and laughs, as she thinks these are just pranks.

After seeing one of his colonies’ queens stuck in the mud, Ant decides to send ants with pebbles to drop into her source river. It takes 1,000 years to alter the current, but River is too distracted by her new twins to notice. After all her well-wishers leave, River feels that her power has waned, so she leaves the twins in the care of her sister while she investigates the cause. She comes across the little dam, not knowing Ant created it, and sends a wave at it. The dam repels the wave back to River, pushing her over. Angered, River uses all her power to knock the wall over. This time she succeeds, but she ends up flooding half the world, which includes the largest of Ant’s colonies.