Welcome back, gang. I mentioned Antaeus a few times in my previous stories so this is the time that I finally reveal Antaeus' story to my readers. For Antaeus I mentally cast Kenneth Branagh and for Amaterasu I cast Claire Bloom, they are just the people I think would fit the roles and since Gard is the reincarnation of Antaeus I consider it cheating to use the same actor for something like that in voice acting. Enjoy.
The Judgment of Antaeus
Kit placed a hand on Balor's cheek. As she sat in this hut, ten feet away from the Valley of the Tombs, Kit started to feel saddened. Twice Balor had been hurt because of her.
The first time he tried to protect her from Thomeheb. Thomeheb had beaten Balor until he had been bruised and bleeding so much that Kit thought he had been killed.
Now the second time, Balor had pushed her out of the way of the hunter's hammer. Here he was barely alive but still Kit worried about Balor. What if Balor didn't wake up? What if he did die?
Kit leaned down and placed her head against Balor's chest. She heard his heart beating faintly. It might have been beating but it was so faint that Kit worried that… that it would stop beating that night.
Tears started to flow from her eyes. She sat up and then leaned over again and kissed Balor on the cheek. "Please... don't die."
"No need for tears, child." Kit turned around and saw the shaman woman from Balor's village. Kit pointed at her in recognizing.
"I remember you." The shaman woman nodded.
"My name is Amaterasu and I remember you as well, little girl." Amaterasu kneeled next to Kit. She placed a hand on Balor's forehead. "You worry too much about him. You have faith in your leader, you believed he survived when the others did not."
"How do you-"
"I have my ways of finding out these things." Amaterasu held out her left arm and wiped away the tears from Kit's face with the sleeve of her robe. "Why do you not have the same faith for Balor?"
"That's different." Amaterasu turned her head and looked down at Kit.
"How?" Kit stuttered. She didn't know what to say. "It is good that you have faith in your leader but you must have faith in others as well. Balor will live he like any other evabon does not die easily. We are not invincible however. There are only so much injuries that we can take until we succumb to our wounds. You have a right to worry about Balor but you need not worry now, he will live." Kit took Balor's hand and held it in hers. Amaterasu reassurance that Balor would live had made her feel better.
Balor touched his cheek. Unbelievable, he could feel even as a spirit. This was strange and it caused him to worry a bit.
Balor looked up at the stage. There stood Antaeus, or at least the figure that had been made in his image. Three others stood there. Evabon woman was what they looked like.
"Mistress of Birth, Mistress of Architecture, Mistress of Beauty what brings you here to a lowly warrior such as myself?"Antaeus starred at the women. "Why do you three leave the mountain across the rainbow bridge?" There was a diadem on the Mistress of Birth's head, an aegis was worn by the Mistress of Architecture and in the hands of the Mistress of Beauty was a mirror. Balor took note of each of these and knew how to identify them.
"We come for you to judge us." The Mistress of Birth placed a hand on Antaeus shoulder. "Which of us three is the most beautiful of the Celestials?"
"It shall be me of course." The Mistress of Beauty spoke with so much confidence.
"Choose me and I your wife shall bear the strongest sons and the most beautiful daughters." The Mistress of Birth still had her hand on Antaeus' shoulder. Antaeus then removed her hand.
"You have no real power like that." Anataeus starred into the Mistress of Birth's eyes. "The only reason you have your title is because of the number of children you gave birth to: sixteen, all of them by Sotark, the former bearer of many titles some now held by his sons. I will not choose you." The Mistress of Birth stepped back and the Mistress of Architecture stepped forward.
"Choose me and the walls of the city you shall come to build will be so powerful that your city will never fall." Antaeus shook his head.
"If I come to build a city then it must fall so it must either be rebuilt or the inhabitants must go on to build a new city." Antaeus pushed the Mistress of Architecture back. The Mistress of Beauty then stepped forward.
"The power of beauty is everywhere." The Mistress of Beauty walked right up to Antaeus. "In the plants, the rocks, the curse of death, the blessing of life. Beauty is the other half of violence and that is what a warrior needs. You will choose me." Antaeus shook his head.
"If I were to stop being a warrior I would become a shaman." Antaeus pushed the Mistress of Beauty back. "I do not need violence, I'm perfectly fine without war. I have chosen none of you, leave me to my vigil!" All three of the women glared in anger at Antaeus.
"Your judgment does not please us, for this insult you shall have to face our vengeance!" All three spoke in unison. Balor was frightened by this and his fright caused his body to shiver. He did not know why but there was something about their voices that got to him.
"You three are unarmed, you three never fought, I have nothing to fear of you three." Anateus' comment caused the three women to leave angrily. With their figures being made of clay, Procyon had decided to become artistic they crumbled into dust and blew away.
Gard looked up at the moon. He started to walk away from the valley as the other evabon and the ThunderCats discussed if Rotherham had what it took to be leader. While Gard walked away, he heard footsteps. He turned his head and looked down at Kat.
"Leave me alone, Kat." Gard turned his head and looked out at the wilderness. The Hunter had retreated into it. He would find the Hunter. "This isn't something for children."
"But I want to help!" The boy was practically begging. Gard wasn't sure if he heard guilt or not in Kat's voice but he didn't care. "I was the one who wanted to go into the tomb, he followed me just to keep an eye on me. Him and Kit followed to keep an eye on me. It's my fault that he got hurt."
"You're not coming, Kat." Grad still didn't turn to look at Kat. "Stay here where it's safe, go talk to Osric."
"But he's insane!"
"And harmless, now go!" Kat groaned as he walked away. Gard left the valley, not unnoticed. Zuvowang and Dalv both watched as he left.
Zuvowang knew what Gard was doing. He was going after the Hunter. It wasn't worth it. Revenge never was. Gard was going after the Hunter to kill him all because the Hunter had nearly killed Balor. Balor was alive there was no reason for Gard to get so vengeful.
Asaji looked at the records. There were three whole volumes about Sotark and she didn't like what she was reading. Sotark had many titles and all of them had the word 'master' in them: Master of the Sky, Master of Thunder, Master of Lightning, Master of Law, Master of Order, Master of Justice, Master of the Sea, Master of Earthquakes, Master of Mounts, Master of Fire, Master of Metalworking, Master of Stone Masonry, Master of the Art of Sculpture, Master of the Dead, Master of Riches and Master of Terror. He really was fond of the word 'master.'
According to the records, Sotark had been born centuries before Leir had been buried in the Valley of the Tombs and imprisoned before the valley had even received its name.
A decade before his imprisonment, Sotark had forced a city named Harapa into worshipping him. It was the only city that he forced into worshipping him. It is the only city that he hadn't plagued with suffering. Harapa had been a diverse city with races other than Evabon in living in it. The only race that did not submit were the Evabon Sotark's own race. Sotark killed every Evabon in the city. Sotark had ordered that the city's warriors go out and take prisoners from towns and villages. The female prisoners were to be sacrificed to him and the male prisoners were to be put into an arena, unarmed, to be torn apart by wild beasts.
One would have expected that Sotark's order would have been stopped after he had been imprisoned. It hadn't been. Harapa had become as terrible as Sotark himself, any good in it being in an impossibly small amount.
Sotark had left a mark on Third Earth. So had others, Evabon, Cats, Rats and a demon from the stars.