The Age of the Gas Bag

The land was relatively quiet. The sun was high in the light blue sky. Birds flew lazily in the warm air. Suddenly there came a hideous belching. The birds landed and huddled nervously in trees. The sun still proud in the sky didn't seem quite as bright. The belching spewed forth again and again. It seemed to be joined by other foul guttural eruptions. It was as if prehistoric beasts of the long dead past were filling the very air itself. Over the green but now darkening horizon came huge bloated shapes. They were floating in the gentle air, filling it with terrible sound and fury. As their shadows blotted out the sun, the sheep quivered nervously in the pasture. The farmers and the city folk came out and were mesmerized by the noises that curiously appealed to their inner-most darkside. Men and women who once stood for something were cowed into silence. Large groups of normally sane people were wearing funny hats with tea bags hanging from them. Fearsome overweight felines traveled the land. A new age had begun.