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Home Index of Tales of Strange Adventures
"Call of the Dragon, Part I"
"Call of the Dragon, Part II"
"Ruins and Hopes"
"Shield Maiden" Cornell #3
"Warrior Eternal" Cornell #4
"Childhood of a Fighter"
"The Pledge" Cornell #5
"The Rock of Discontent"
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"A Tale of the Gods"
- Read in HTML (from Part One)
"The Miracle of Solstice Day" Cornell #6
"Life's Values"
"Tangled Elves"
"The Pilgrims' Trial and Faith"
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by
Marc H. Wyman & Chris Bogues
“Wants
to shut me in, does he?” Maidoyú grinned victoriously and greeted the
coming day with a whooping cry of joy. She was standing by the creek
rolling through the hills outside of the Eternal City, the one that
Mannannan had tinted with green. Ah, yes, a few hours earlier, that pesky
god might just have been listening to her and once again pestered her
about purpose this, purpose that.
Not
now!
Decirius
had ordered the gate closed, so that all the gods were to stay inside the
Eternal City. “Forgot about somebody, didn’t you?” Maidoyú propped
her fists on her hips and glared towards the glistening city walls. She
had been lucky, she knew that. When Decirius had talked to Haguen, given
the guardian the new orders, Maidoyú had been in a nearby house, watching
the conversation between Darawk and the stranger. She had been wondering
whether she should have asked who that old man was – he intrigued her,
was somebody new, and Maidoyú really wanted to talk to somebody else.
Just for a change, mind you. Only to find out how somebody else felt about
all this purpose stuff.
But
she hadn’t quite pulled her courage together – and then she had heard
of Decirius ordering the abode closed off.
Now
that was something she just didn’t care for. She needed to go to
the mortal world every now and then, play at being one of the mortal
creatures! She really, honestly needed that. As much as she loved
the Eternal City, there were too many of her fellow gods about, and they
were all so serious, so… ahhhhh, purposeful!
So,
after hearing Decirius’ words, Maidoyú had hurried off to the gate and
rushed out. It had felt so good standing outside the walls, preparing
herself to jump to the mortal world and assuming once more the guise of a
gargoyle, to soar through the skies. But just when she had been about to
leave the divine area, Maidoyú had realized that she couldn’t leave the
gate open. That would have been a clarion call to Decirius that one of the
gods had gone missing – and she really didn’t want the chief god to
find out very soon. He’d only try to track her down, she was sure. And
then he’d be raining another tirade down at her that she was
irresponsible.
No
way she would accept that. Neither then nor now. So, she had angrily gone
back inside and barred the gate again. Slamming a hand against one of the
valves, she had cursed the fact that only Haguen and Decirius knew how to
open and close it from outside, then Maidoyú had quickly hurried off to
the midrealm, to the elven forest. She had stayed only a few moments, then
jumped over to the mortal world, back to the heavens, over to the
midrealm, then to the doors of a foreign divine abode, sticking out her
tongue at the trio of gods standing guard, only to leap to some other
location.
Maidoyú
herself had lost track of all the places she had gone to in a very short
sequence, and that alone was proof to her that Decirius would have an
awful time trying to follow her. Then, as a coup de grâce, she had
come to the Eternal City’s area – sure that this would be the last
place Decirius would ever start a search.
And,
she whooped again, she had been right!
The
gate was still closed, although the light of day was filling the area with
colors. Haguen hadn’t resumed his guard position, and with a sneaky
grin, Maidoyú thought that he might be trying to pursue her right now.
“Hah, try he might!” she said smugly and imagined how Haguen would
spend a long time searching each of her visiting points for a clue where
she had gone next or what she had done.
Whatever.
A fun image, all right, but now there were important things to do. The
mortal world, Maidoyú reminded herself. Finally, she could enjoy herself!
Not
caring to wait any longer, Maidoyú propelled herself on to the skies of
the mortal world, reappearing there with the rocky wings of a gargoyle,
already spread to fly on the winds. Bright sunlight shone down on her,
Lonapal’s blessing warmth creeping through the cold of her stone body.
Yes,
this was it! She shrieked, her voice now a harsh and grating sound
that seemed to run the course around the world. Far below her she could
see the land, a brown and gray mélange of rock and dirt, suitably
enhanced by the mound of a volcano slowly seeping dark red flows of lava
down its sides. The smell of sulphur rose into her nostrils, its
refreshing burn rushing up straight into her silicone brain.
Another
shriek, then she swooped down, circling towards a nice patch of jagged
rock, a precipice over a stream of lazy lava. Her claws found easy
purchase while she tugged her wings in and looked around whether any other
gargoyles were in the area, perhaps feasting on the tasty morsels the
volcano was spewing.
None
were around, despite the fact that there were quite a few of the still
warm rocks around. “More for me!” Maidoyú laughed. The words were
barely understandable, distorted as they were by the gargoyle throat she
now possessed. But Maidoyú enjoyed that sound all the same, particularly
when she didn’t have to worry about anybody else reminding her to speak
better. Oh, right, just imagine Mannannan now! “You are a goddess,
child. It does not matter which form you take, you must always behave like
a goddess.”
Very
un-divinely she threw herself at one of the rocks, hacked it into
maw-sized pieces with her claw and scooped them from the ground greedily.
They were terrific. Filling and nutritious. Forget about nutritious, she
wanted more!
For
a while Maidoyú hastened about the rocky ground, searching for more of
the special stones with the singlemindedness of a true gargoyle, focused
only on more food. But then she started to feel sated, and only indulged
herself with a few pounds more. Enough to give a real creature a
bellyache, but goddesses didn’t have to bother with that kind of a
nuisance after all.
Eventually
she dropped down on an oblong piece of rock, carved out by streams of lava
years ago, spread her body out fully, the tips of her wings drooping over
the edges of the rock, her head propped up just so on the front. “Take
that, Decirius,” she muttered, enjoying the warmth and the sulphuric
vapors around her.
The
claws on her hindfeet lazily scratched patterns into the rock, while she
looked around – and froze all of a sudden. “Now this is different,”
Maidoyú whispered, gathered her body up again – the pesky body
protesting that a couple more rays of sunshine wouldn’t have hurt –
and leaped a couple of yards off from the rock.
She
landed on dirt ground, muddy from recent rain and not yet dried. Not all
the way, at least. Right before her, there was something very intriguing
and strange.
Footprints.
Footprints
that looked much like those of a god. Except that this one must have had
long claws, on both ends of the foot. And they were pretty big, too.
Maidoyú
changed back into her usual form – and regretted it right away when the
vapors started to choke her and send bile up her throat. With a curse she
forced down the urges – she was a goddess after all -, then she
carefully put one of her bare feet into the print in the mud. The print
was a goodly two inches wider on each side.
But
the shape was roughly the same.
Which
creature of the mortal world could have left this print? Not gargoyles or
dragons or any of the others she had seen so far.
Maidoyú
whooped with joy, switched back to her gargoyle appearance – better
suited to this environment, anyway – and started to follow the
footprints. There was something new to see, something new to play with!
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