by
Marc H. Wyman & Chris Bogues
She
could not recall how long she had been racing across the mortal world. She
had been in an ocean, then she had flown over it, the sun drying her body.
A sandy beach had appeared beneath her, a giant turtle burying its eggs.
She had turned herself into a turtle as well, tried to cozy up to the
mother animal. But it had been so slow, getting closer, and the other
creature had ignored her gradual approach.
Then
she had given up, returned to her ordinary form and run across the beach,
trying to find another distraction. Something! Anything! Don’t think
about it, she had told herself.
It
hadn’t worked. The beach had been so empty, and her mind only conjured
up sights of the man-like winged creature that had attacked her. The one
that she had destroyed. Killed. Sent back to the midrealm where it came
from.
No!
That didn’t happen! she had screamed to herself, then she had taken
flight and rushed onwards, as far away from the beach as she could.
Who
was she? A goddess, yes. But what kind of a goddess destroyed life?
Koultirsp never thought twice about it, yet she wasn’t Koultirsp. She
was different, she was… She didn’t know.
A
jungle was beneath her, a river crossing through it, its waves covered
with leaves from the trees. Small creatures climbed over the leaves. Ants,
she surmised as she dropped down to the river and alighted on its watery
surface. “Who am I, really?” she wondered. “My name is Maidoyú, but
that doesn’t mean anything at all. Is that the purpose they talk
about?”
She
scooped up a leaf from the surface and sent it spinning towards solid
ground. The ants on top scurried about in confusion, but once they touched
down, they quickly left their vessel. “Have fun, little ones!” Maidoyú
cheered. “See, I can help! I am not a taker of life! That isn’t…”
She hunched her shoulders forward. “That isn’t my purpose,” she
muttered.
Then
what was? What was it that she did?
She
marveled at the fact that this had never occurred to her. The river’s
water seeped into her clothes, and she rose an inch higher. There was
nothing that made her be someone. Really, who was she? A goddess
who spent her days in empty search of fun? That was nobody. That was
anybody. All she could say about herself was, “I have killed.”
That
wasn’t what she wanted to be. Why had she never chosen anything? Why had
she never pointed at something and said, “That is like me, I will take
care of it. I will nourish it, I will guide it.” Why had it never seemed
important?
And,
did it now?
She
looked about herself. There was the jungle, teeming with life. Plants,
animals, all filled with their own purposes. The ants were seeking their
way back to their hive. A leopard was stalking prey. A flower just
blossomed. Was any of that important to Maidoyú? Important enough that
she wanted to make it her purpose?
“No,”
she muttered bitterly. The creatures were nice, she liked them, but they
did not matter much to her. Not enough to fill a god’s existence with.
There had to be something else, something that was for her alone.
Maidoyú
lifted herself into the air, rose over the treeline and wondered where she
would go. There were a few birds in sight. A swarm of parrots rushed over
the trees, to an unseen destination. She watched them amusedly, until they
were gone, and behind them –
Suddenly
she dropped down into the top of a tree, scaring small creatures into
panicked flight. They were almost as scared as she was herself. There had
been somebody in the sky! A figure much like her own, with two legs
and two arms. Flying, without any wings.
Another
deity!
But
one from another abode, or from her own? Somebody sent to recapture her?
Haguen?!
“No,”
she reasoned after a moment. The figure had not worn a cuirass, and its
shape was unlike that of tall, broad Haguen. Really much like her own –
which meant that it could be a goddess. Alyssa? Taurkémad? Or Koultirsp?
If
it was Koultirsp, then Maidoyú had better get as far away as possible.
That goddess was permanently in a bad mood, and Maidoyú had never liked
her, anyway. Alyssa? No, there was no way Decirius would entrust her with anything.
Taurkémad? That was more likely, but not much better.
Taurkémad
had always berated her on finding a purpose, as if there was nothing
better to do! Do something worthwhile, in a million variations on
the theme. So boring, so…
“But
I want a purpose, don’t I?” she asked herself, amazed at the new idea.
It might be good to talk to someone about this. At least Taurkémad might
understand a little. Maybe she wouldn’t force Maidoyú straight back to
the Eternal City and talk to her a bit before.
The
goddess hesitated. She didn’t want to be locked up. On the other hand,
she had found the mortal world less pleasant than before.
Before
she quite realized that her thinking was done, she was flying again,
rushing towards where she had last seen the other deity.
Taurkémad
shook her head sadly. Before her was a small clearing in the forest, with
the remains of bushes hacked to pieces on the ground. Berries had been
scattered about and now were quickly devoured or gathered by small
rodents. “Oh, my little dwarvies, what have you done here?” the
goddess wondered. “Eating berries? In the cave you had all the food you
could ever desire! I took care of that, don’t you remember?”
But
saddest of all was the tree at the edge of the clearing. It was a giant of
a tree, twelve feet wide at ground level. Its bark was hewn off in rough
strokes, as if the tree should have been felled, but the blades had not
been strong enough to carve out more than a few chips. “Stone axes,”
Taurkémad muttered. “You have the gadnú, why don’t you use
it? With your good axes, you would have cut through the tree in a scant
hour.”
They
must have left the axes for some reason. Yet she had not found a trace of
the gadnú, only the strangely doubled set of footprints. How could
there have been eight sets when there were only four dwarves in the
whole world?
“Taurkémad,
I’m… I’m here. And you can take me back, all right? Just… not now,
please!”
The
goddess jerked her head up, swiveled it around to her back – and saw
little Maidoyú hovering in the air behind her, a humble and pleading
expression on her face, along with the reddish tint of embarrassment.
“What are you doing here?” Taurkémad muttered. “Look, child, I
don’t have time to waste with you. My dwarves need me.”
Maidoyú
blinked. “You’re not here to take me back?”
“Why
would I? You’re free to waste your existence as you please. Now
go back to being a gargoyle or whatever you want to be right now!” Taurkémad
waved her off, returned her head to its normal position and started to
follow the dwarven trail once more.
Unfortunately
Maidoyú stayed right behind her. “You mean you don’t know? You
really don’t?”
Groaning,
Taurkémad stopped to face the other goddess. “And what is it that I
don’t know? Be fast about it.”
“Well,”
Maidoyú shrugged, then took a quick step forward. “Decirius has ordered
the abode shut down for sixty days! Nobody is allowed to leave, or to be
outside. Except for me! I went out right before, and I hid from him, so he
wouldn’t find me, and he didn’t, and so I thought that you were sent
to fetch me back, but you weren’t, and –“ She abruptly leaped
forward to wrap her arms around the very surprised Taurkémad. “I’ve
killed somebody! I’ve killed! I didn’t want to but he attacked
me, and –“
Stiffly
Taurkémad brushed Maidoyú from her. “Slowly, girl!” she shouted and
held the arms of the other goddess well away from herself. “Whom have
you killed? And how? You’re not strong enough to harm anyone of our
abode, or was it a foreign god?”
Tears
crept into Maidoyú’s eyes when she said, “It wasn’t a god, but…
It was a he, I’m sure of it, and I killed him, I –“
Taurkémad
hurled her violently up into the air, spinning her several times, before
the other goddess righted herself and hovered in the air confusedly. Taurkémad
flew up to her and held out her hand. “I hope you’re calm now, girl.
Start from the beginning. You did not kill a god, right?” Maidoyú shook
her head sullenly. “Good. But, since you cannot kill in the midrealm,
that leaves only the mortal world. Little one, there are no sapient
souls here, no he or she, only the animals. And you don’t want to start
such a ruckus over slaying an animal, right?”
“But
you say that we shouldn’t,” Maidoyú muttered.
“That’s
right,” Taurkémad groaned. “That’s still no reason to act like a
dragon pup that can’t find its mother! Look, the animal is now in the
midrealm, and it’s feeling a lot better. Animal souls don’t change
much when they’re sent back. If it had been a sapient soul, that’s
different. But there are none of those here, right?”
Maidoyú
bit her lip.
“Right?”
Taurkémad repeated.
Shyly,
Maidoyú asked, “Well, aren’t you looking for the dwarves here in the
mortal world?”
The
other goddess abruptly dropped a few feet and had to get her bearings
again before rising back to her old position. “My dwarvies?” she
yelled. “You didn’t kill one of my dwarvies?”
“No,
no, no!” Maidoyú hurried to say. “It wasn’t a dwarf, I’m sure of
it! He was bigger than me, and he had wings, like leather, and there were
horns on his head, and fangs, and –“
Taurkémad
held up her hand, grimacing. “That’s enough, girl, be quiet.” To her
surprise – and relief – Maidoyú did stop speaking. “That sounds
like one of Shenaumac’s playthings. The harsnetts or whatever he calls
them. But they’re supposed to be in the midrealm, too. Like my dwarves.
Are you sure that you killed the harsnett in the mortal world, not in the
midrealm?”
“Of
course I’m sure!” Maidoyú hollered. “I was being a gargoyle
when I saw the footsteps of the – the harsnett. I followed, then he
attacked, and I… killed him.” Her fury waned quickly. “I don’t
want to kill, Taurkémad, really I don’t, but it happened, and I… Yes,
I’m quiet.” The last words were spoken demurely, after a very clear
look from the other goddess silenced her.
Taurkémad
drifted a couple of feet away, to gaze down at the jungle. Her dwarves had
left the midrealm, and so had the harsnetts. Neither had been supposed to.
At least the harsnetts were better equipped to deal with the mortal world,
and honestly she didn’t care much about them. Nonetheless this was much
of a coincidence. Add to that the odd tale about Decirius locking down the
abode, and things were decidedly odd. Did that have something to do with
her dwarves? Perhaps Decirius had known the dwarves were leaving
the caves? Perhaps he was behind the four new pairs of feet?
“Come
with me, girl,” Taurkémad muttered and headed back down towards the
trail. “We’re going to find my dwarves now, and hopefully some
answers. I hate being kept in the dark around here.”
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