Chapter Nine - RaW

  I burst out laughing at that, can’t help it, her giving me that line on top of a mountain beneath a black hole? Gods. Alright. I’ll hear her out, even with the fact that she is over there grinning the snarkiest “I know exactly how to manipulate and motivate you” grin I have ever seen.

  That, more than anything, helps me to drop any plan, any act, any idea of what i’m ‘supposed’ to be doing, and just be myself here… Besides, it is actually pretty validating to have a goddess ask for your help.

  I waggle my eyebrows at her while wisely stroking my beard, “Ah yes, and what can this, your humble servant, do for one such as you?”

  She throws a grape that bounces neatly off my forehead, rolling her eyes at me, “Oh nothing really, I just need you to be my representative in a little game that will determine the fate of all known life in the universe...”

  I choke at that, losing my playful stance and shoot her an alarmed look, “Seriously?”

  She nods and gives me a sad smile, and this time I actually see her, exhausted, scared, desperate, the weight of the world pressing down on her shoulders, “I’m afraid so, and… It’s not just your life on the line, but mine as well.”

  The idea that this god's life depends on me? That all life does? THE FATE OF THE UNIVERSE! I… Wha… No. No, no, no. That makes no sense! Who am I? No great man! No Hero! Not even a fighter really! She must be messing with me, she… But… No. Oh Fuck! She’s serious.

  I burst out laughing again, better to laugh than cry, easier, but even as I lose it I still watch as she reaches into the picnic basket and pulls out a ripe and juicy looking peach. She rolls the peach on her palm, each pass on her palm causing the fruit to look more and more like a planet as viewed from space…

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  The peach quickly gains an ocean, then an unbroken continent surrounded by many small islands bursts from the sea, and I lean in closer and closer as I watch rivers flow, lakes fill, forests grow, and life begin to thrive on the peach planet.

  Syn’s voice flows over me as I watch thousands of years pass in seconds for the peach creatures, which start slowly rising from the muck and creating civilization from nothing, “Once upon a time, there was a little planet in a galaxy who was all, all alone.”

  Stone-skinned lizards crawl out of the swamps around the base of the gigantic mountain that dominated the middle of the continent. I watch in fascination as they quickly evolve to stand on two legs, become tribes, and move up to the caves for better safety from the forest below.

  Again the goddess’ voice comes, “Never knowing their creator, the little Myn on the lonely world learned to love themselves above all.”

  Faster and faster, other races of creatures… Did she call them Myn? Start sprouting all over the land, forcing me to dart my eyes quickly over the peach just trying to see all of them! A flotilla of fish-folk floats along the western coast. A massive Crow-monkey? city built into towering redbarked trees. Stone walls and underground networks for the Stone-lizards. Great stretches of grass land patrolled by pillbug-elephants? I swear I keep catching sight of a dragon flying around but It’s only ever out of the corner of my eye!

  The goddess voice booms in time with the fires of war as the different Myn races begin meeting and fighting each other, “Conflict became their shared language! Strength as self! Power as safety! Domination as validation!”

  I watch in horror as the lizards burn down the cat-frog’s cities, taking them as slaves. As the fish-folk fight the octopus-whales to a bloody truce. As the crow-monkeys slaughter their crow-wolf cousins, leaving both Mynfolk? Weak enough to be conquered by the bear-rhinos.

  Syn’s voice whispers like blood through dirt, “Justice, Honor, and Divine Right on every tongue.”

  Thousands of years pass, war constant, growth burned for glory, whole peoples snuffed out so that those who remained could KNOW that they were right. And suddenly? It stops. Or… Wait. No. Not stopped, just, not sped up anymore.

  The goddess stops spinning the peach, letting a great nation built into a sprawling mountain range face me. It’s on the brink of collapse, at war with multiple foes, and seems to be made up of many races…

  Her voice comes over me again as I watch two armies clash over a valley fortress, “These creatures, these Myn, are about to discover something that will change the face of war. With it, they will either save, or destroy their planet.”

  I look up from the Crow-Wolf whose squad had been killed, fighting alone, to see the Goddess staring into my soul.

  She smiles, “I want you to help him.”