Alexandra and the Gods of Earth: Book One
Geek Love
"When your mama was the geek, my dreamlets," Papa would say, "she made the nipping off of noggins such a crystal mystery that the hens themselves yearned toward her, waltzing around her, hypnotized with longing." —Katherine Dunn, Geek Love
Alex tore through the air with a speed she rarely ever used. The Atlantic Ocean flew by only a couple of miles beneath her. On the distant horizon, she could see the shining lights of her hometown growing with each passing second. Despite the terror of the things she had just faced and the fear she had felt, Alex could do nothing to stop the light giggles bubbling up from her throat. Her scalp was still sore from the abuse it endured, but she was other wise unharmed. She did a few barrel rolls and slowed her speed when she crossed over the borders of New York City. Alex really hoped she had not lost her mind and was only suffering from the throes of an adrenaline high.
She reached the roof of her warehouse and dropped down to unlock the window in the glass dome. The lock clicked up and she opened the window with an unnecessary flourish. Alex dropped inside and bounced when she landed on her pile of pillows and blankets. She laid on the fabric mess with her arms out wide and took a few calming breaths. The smile was stuck on her face and it was not going anywhere.
The room around her was dimly lit. The old mason jars that hung between her windows were filled with glowing rocks she had collected from some caves in New Zealand. They emitted a very low amount of light and cast neon green hue across the walls of the room. They were bright enough for her to move around the room at night, but not give away her presence to someone walking by the warehouse.
Alex sat up and swung her bag off her back. She pulled her journal from the front zipper pocket and threw the bag away. It smacked against one of the pillars and the leather strap caught the brass hook. She flipped through her journal until she found a blank page and began sketching the human-esque creature from before. Alex did not like drawing from memory, but she had to work with what she had. Graphite scratching against paper were the only sounds that filled her home.
Alex had no idea what that thing was. She had never seen it before or read about anything close to its description. She had also never met anything that could knock a person out of the sky with their voice. That was a move straight out of a Black Canary comic.
Once she finished shading in the dark cloak and wrote a brief description of the encounter, she flipped to the next page and began drawing the Harpy. She made sure to make a note of its projectile bone needles hidden in its wings.
When she finished, Alex flopped onto her back and watched the stars through her grimy, glass dome. She really needed to clean that sometime soon. Alex closed her eyes and went over her day in her head. The Harpies, the weird granny/banshee thing, fighting Golems, explaining to Jack the mysteries of the Phoenix. Her eyes popped open as a sudden realization washed over her.
The whole point of her flying out that way was because she needed a Phoenix feather for Ben…and she had completely forgotten. Alex groaned and covered her eyes with her hands. She let out on 'OOF' as the journal smacked against her face.
Great, I'm forgetting things all over the place. she thought.
Alex huffed and pulled the journal away from her head and examined her drawing of the Harpy. It was a pretty accurate portrait in her opinion. The black and white took away from the horrendous red eyes, but she had noted that next to the sketch. The eyes reminded her of the Wargs and she flipped back to the drawing she had done a week ago.
The sketch was rough and had been rushed. She had gone back over it once she had returned from her flight with Jack. It probably needed to be completely redone. Alex glanced back up to the glass dome when movement caught her attention. Several shadows zipped across the night sky and for a second, Alex wondered if the Harpies had followed her home.
She pushed herself up and peeked through the dirty windows. They were definitely Harpies, but they did not seem to be looking for anything. They soared across they sky fast and mindless of the city below. They were headed for something and it was not her. Alex dropped back down on her bed pile and chewed on her bottom lip. In the 22 years she had known of their existence, she had never seen mythical beings so active and moving in plain sight. She briefly wondered if they were looking for the Nibirus Relics, or whatever it had been that the Banshee creature had been talking about.
Alex furrowed her brow and looked down at the sketches in her journal. The Guardians knew about the Harpies and the Golems, but did they know about the Wargs or the screechy, old thing she had fought? The creature had mentioned that the Harpy flock was only one of many. Did they know how many of these things were flying around?
Alex took in a slow breath and let it out audibly. She did not know how the Guardians would deal with what was happening or how informed they were, but she assumed they would need to know there was an army of predator birds waiting on the words of a wrinkly opera reject and its faceless master.
Alex snapped her journal closed and stood to grab her bag. She stowed the journal in the front zipper and put the bag on her back. She needed to tell Jack what was happening.
Well, the Guardians need to know, but it's the same thing. She thought. Only I have no clue where Jack is.
The Guardians needed to know as soon as possible. Jack spread winter all over the northern hemisphere and was unlikely to be staying in one place. She could take a chance and fly all the way to Burgess on a whim. The longer it took to deliver the information, the longer all the dangerous creatures she had seen had to do…whatever it is they were doing. She had no idea what a Nibirus Relic was, but if the bad guys wanted it, then it could not be good.
Alex wrapped her hands around the strap across her chest and huffed. She may not know where Jack would be at any given moment, but she knew of one Guardian that had to stay in one place during this time of the year. She smiled and pushed herself back into the air and up towards the glass dome.
I'm going to the North Pole.
She locked the window behind her and shot off into the night once more. Alex may not understand what she was getting herself into, but she pushed on towards the North anyway. This was something bigger than her and bringing the information to the Guardians would ensure her involvement. Her smile widened as she flew higher in the air. This was one adventure she was not missing out on.
300 miles west of the Caspian Sea, a man paced and grumbled to himself, beneath the protection of a large, sandstone boulder. Winds breezed through the flat, desert area, and swept up spirals of sand. Dunes surrounded the border of the area and, formed an almost perfect circle separating the desert waves from the smooth plot. The boulder stuck out at an angle, just at the eastern edge of the border, guarding its sole visitor from some of the harsher pulls of wind.
The man, who looked completely out of place in the environment, continued on with his quiet, angry mumbling, as he waved his arms around vigorously as if gesturing to an invisible person. His eyes were cast to the ground, his muscles clenched, as he swung around and paced in the opposite direction. His voice, regardless of the bitter and sharp words it made, sounded light and smooth as it carried across the empty space. A long cloak of dark red wrapped around his tall, thin frame despite the heat. Honey brown hair was slicked back from his olive toned face. A gold belt wrapped twice around his narrow waist and held a slender scepter of black wood. The ice white stone held in its grasp was dull and colorless.
Prometheus ground his teeth together and put his hands to his temples. His voice grew louder with each furious step.
"Taking so long!"
He flipped around and faced the other way, as if he was talking to someone behind him
"Should have gone myself!"
"Useless! Waste of energy!"
"Worthless! Time squandering…"
The stone atop the scepter began to glow with a dark red light before it returned to its original icy white. Prometheus stopped in his pacing and took a calming breath. Of course they were idiots; they were only Golems. They knew nothing but the orders they received, brought to life by the energy Prometheus infused in them. He took another slow breath and looked across the landscape. He had made it this far; a few more hours would not hurt him.
At the thought of waiting for hours, he clenched his fists and paced under the boulder once more. This would not take so long if he had known about the Nibirus Relics beforehand. He could have gotten their locations out of Ganesha's mouth, rather than having to search through his elephant of a brother's library. That had taken a year by itself. The great Spirit of Knowledge had been quite the recluse. Of course his library would require its own pocket dimension.
Days would pass in that place just browsing an aisle of the enormous book collection. It would have taken Prometheus a lot longer than a year without the help of his scepter. Hidden behind enchantment spells and multiple fakes, Ganesha stowed a scroll, forgotten by time. Inside its aged papers held valuable information of the Nibirus Relics, and their necessity in opening the Tartarean Pit. Curse his brother for wasting his time.
"Prometheus please! This is not right! He will tear apart this world and devour everything in sight! Do you think you are special? He will leave nothing alive and that includes you-"
SMACK!
The scepter whipped across Ganesha's face in an arc of red, blue, and green light. The Spirit of Knowledge's trunk broke on contact. Silver, shimmering liquid streamed down his tusks in the place of blood. Ganesha coughed and fell to the marbled floor. He moved his arms in front of his face to protect himself, the fear in his eyes-
What was that?
Prometheus stalled mid stride.
The memory, from centuries before, pulled itself to the front of his brain and demanded attention.
The scepter bashed into Ganesha again and knocked him flat on his back. The weakened man rolled to his side, trying to protect his face and body. The scepter arced down, repeatedly on the broken form of his brother-
Prometheus gripped his face with both hands and narrowed his eyes. He did not remember the fight being that violent. None of the battles were. He had done as Ranamorr instructed and absorbed their energies into the scepter's stone.
Right?
He clenched his eyes shut and tried to force the memories away. He needed to focus, he needed to-
Pachamama was thrown to the ground, out of breath. Her black braids tangled around her neck and chest in the Bolas, her own, used against her.
Hunahpu stood amidst several split and burning palm trees. His shark toothed club lay at his feet. An orange, gleaming liquid streamed from the many lacerations covering his body. His eyes were heavy with unshed tears.
"Traitor! Snake!" Ma'at gripped her Khopesh blade in one hand, the other around the wound on her stomach, leaking a pulsing purple fluid. Anger was drawn across her face and in her screaming voice.
"You will meet justice for your crimes!"
This was retribution, rightly deserved! They had all backed away at the single word of their brother in the Moon, like soldiers, like dogs…
Like pets!
They pushed him down and shut him away when he had only been looking for what they all craved.
A chance to leave this planet. To go home!
Why was he being tormented by these visions? He had done nothing wrong!
Long hair, yellow as corn, shrouded the kneeling girl before him. Her palace destroyed without much resistance. His favorite little sister had never been much of a fighter. Her milk white skin seemed ashen. Her voice quivered and hiccupped with barely held sobs. Terpsichore raised her large eyes to the glowing stone held aloft by the black wood scepter.
"Why?"
Prometheus fell to his knees and gripped at the sandy earth beneath his fingers.
"I did nothing wrong! You should have listened to me! I deserve this!" He shouted, bowing his head closer to the ground.
A pain began to build in his chest. He moved a hand over his heart, but there was no wound.
No wound he could feel.
"I deserve this."
The scepter stone lit up with a dark red light and pulsed in time with his heart. His hand dropped from his chest to grasp the scepter from his belt. He leaned back on his knees and focused on the stone, watching it switch from color to color.
Red, then purple. Brown, then orange. Green, light blue, pink, gold, and royal blue; all with a hue of the dark red at its center.
The ache in his chest slowly went away with each change of color. Prometheus carefully climbed back onto his feet, still cradling the scepter in both hands. The sun had set long ago, throwing the desert into darkness. The only light came from the scepter, the moon, and the stars.
"I deserve this."
A patch of earth cracked and shifted near the large boulder. It fragmented and rose from the ground, forming a Golem, much smaller than Prometheus had originally made it. It lumbered over to its master and waited quietly for his word. The Golem maker turned and glanced at his creation, before he stowed the scepter back in its place. He left the stone creature and walked into the desert clearing.
"Only one of you came back? Did the other get stuck in a sink hole again?"
The Golem did not answer, but followed its master through the flat area. They came to a stop at the exact center of the clearing. A stone circle, 25 feet wide, lay in the middle of the area. Twelve square holes littered the inside edge of the flat stone, each equally distant from the others. Nine of the holes had obelisk shaped objects placed in them, holding them tight.
"I am starting to believe the shadow creatures are a better investment over my own creations. They have successfully brought me six of the nine Relics. I think I may be losing my touch."
Prometheus held his hand out for the tenth Nibirus Relic. The Golem simply stared at his open hand.
"Well? What is taking you so long? And where is the other? I do not waste energy making you in pairs for one of you to get lost along the way."
The Golem twisted its head and answered in the harsh, stone on stone sound. It did not move or gesture to help with its story, but Prometheus seemed to understand regardless.
"What do you mean you do not have the relic? Why would an ice sprite pick battle with a Golem…and win?"
The harsh sounds continued without hesitation.
"A crooked staff? Ice sprites do not…"
Prometheus' eyes narrowed, looking at the Golem in doubt.
"Jack Frost? You're saying Jack Frost attacked you?"
The Golem, once again, did not answer; it did not need to. Prometheus leaned back on his heels and sighed. He cast his eyes to the sky and picked out the half full moon in an instant.
"Oh, why can you not go quietly, brother? It would be a lot easier if less people were involved."
At the Moon's silence, Prometheus shrugged and turned his gaze back to the unopened Tartarean Pit.
"Well, if your pets want a fight, fine. It will not be difficult for me to get the Relic back, I have an army behind me. You have five pawns ready to be cannon fodder and I have no problem collecting snacks for Ranamorr's awakening."
The once God turned back to his Golem, his head cocked to the side in confusion.
"But why is there only one of you. Surely Jack Frost has not become that powerful."
The Golem remained silent, but lifted his left arm. Prometheus leaned forward as its fist opened. A small chunk of rock, charred black beneath a layer of frost, dropped from its palm and into Prometheus' open hand. The frost that held the rock together instantly melted in his warm hand and the rock disintegrated into a small pile of ash. Prometheus' eyes widened as he picked at the ash, moving it around in a circle with his fingers.
"Is this all that was left?"
The Golem was silent, once again, but Prometheus did not need an answer. He crushed the pile of ash before he released it as dust into the wind. He cast his gaze back to the night sky.
"Well, it seems you have a surprise up your sleeve. I have to admit, the thought of you fighting back is a bit exciting."
He waved his hand and the Golem crumpled and disappeared back into the desert floor. Smoke, red like fire, seeped from the sand and absorbed into the white stone of the scepter. The smoke turned a darker red before fading out, the stone turning a dull white once more.
Prometheus folded his hands behind his back and sighed.
"Hopefully, you can do a better job than Mahrem. His attempts were pathetic at best, but he is family."
It did not matter how hard his brother would fight. Prometheus will win. He will collect his final brother after he finished with his little tantrum and they would all go home.
As a family.
Alex knocked her head against the thick wooden bars and sighed. Not five minutes at Santa's Workshop and she was already in Christmas Jail.
Alex had reached the North Pole in record time, despite the weather, and found the lavish toyshop rather easily. She was honestly disappointed in herself for never venturing up this far north before.
The mountains, standing tall and rising into the clouds, had split into many curving canyons, the bottom hidden by clouds of ice and fog. Structures, built right onto the sides of the many cliff faces, were more noticeable the closer she had flown in. Bridges and towers connected several dome-topped buildings, with warm lights shining from all windows. The main building, Alex had guessed by its size and central position, blended in almost perfectly with the snowy mountain around it.
The closer she had gotten, the more Alex could see the large, burly creatures, covered head to toe in fur, that manned the watch towers and moved back and forth across bridges. Those had to be the yetis Jack had told her about. Santa's workshop was way cool and had to have been way cooler on the inside. Unfortunately, she had never gotten a good look.
The second she had landed she was immediately accosted by several of the yetis and dragged through a tunnel carved into the ice. They had taken her bag from her and threw her in a cell. Alex sighed once more and sat on the bed. She had to admit, for a prison, it was not that bad. Santa knew how to treat his prisoners.
The cell was hollowed out of the ice and closed off with thick wooden bars. The bed was hidden under layers of thick, patchwork quilts. There was a large woolen rug on the floor and a wooden chair in the corner.
Alex examined the bars of her cell then looked down at her hands. With her new exploding-light-wave thing, she could probably get out of there in a few minutes. She put her hands beneath her thighs and sat on them to resist the temptation. Destroying Santa's prison cells would probably be a quick way to get on his bad side, and she did not want to be on the naughty list for her entire immortal life.
Alex flopped back onto the soft quilts and made herself comfortable. There was no toilet or sink in there. Hopefully, she would not be stuck in there for too long. Besides, she had just arrived at Santa's workshop and everyone went immediately into panic mode. Someone had to be alerting the big man. She would be out of there soon, right?
Jack knocked on the door of the room where tiny owl spirit had taken command. He opened the door and stepped inside once he had received the okay from the saw-whet. The room was a mess with very little space for the winter spirit to move around in. The bed had been pushed up against the door to make room for the valuable papers that littered the area on and around Aanka's desk. There had to be over a hundred books and scrolls lying around in teetering towers and organized piles.
Jack surveyed the room before they landed on the small form of the owl. Aanka stood on top of the desk, vigorously studying the map he had shown the Guardians earlier.
"North wanted to know if we have an update on Relic location." he said.
Aanka glanced away from his scrolls when he realized it was not North who had walked into his room. He returned to his scrolls and resumed his inspection of them.
"Unfortunately we have been stalled in our efforts. The Nibirus Relics will reveal themselves to us, but only in their own time." Aanka huffed. "It seems that the eleventh Relic is a bit more stubborn than I thought it would be."
"Well, no new is still good new, right?" Jack asked.
The saw-whet sighed and turned away from his work.
"This map is the easiest way to find the Relics, but it is not the only way. You can bet that if we were able to find a method, then our nefarious mastermind has undoubtedly found a way as well."
"Sure, but if we don't know where the eleventh relic is, then our mastermind hasn't either." Jack pointed out.
Aanka jumped from his desk and sloppily glided across the room. He stumbled onto his feet and pushed Jack from the room with his one good wing.
"Where is North, may I ask? Why did he not come to see me himself?"
"He's a bit busy right now." Jack explained, a little irritated that the owl did not think he could handle being a messenger. "I don't know if you've noticed, but it is almost Christmas. He's got a little over a month left. So, you'll have to forgive him if he can't grace you with his presence every five minutes."
"If he is so busy, then why is roaming the floors with his band of yetis and not in his office like he said he would be?" Aanka replied as he pointed his wing across the workshop.
Jack turned to follow the owl's wingtip and saw that North was indeed following a pair of yetis away from his office. Just a few minutes ago, he had roped Jack into getting an update from Aanka because he 'must finish checking list twice, Jack. Is very important!' Jack jumped on to the wooden railing and flew down two floors to float alongside the quickly moving man.
"North! You were just tattoo deep in the naughty and nice list and couldn't even leave your office." Jack dodged a crate of toys being hefted from one floor to the other and landed to follow behind the large man. North was moving at a speed that seemed a bit dangerous in a place as crowded as it was. "Where's the fire?"
"Is no fire, Jack. Yetis tell me they have just apprehended someone trying to break in to Santoff Clausen."
"Wait, you putting us into lock down wasn't just you stressing about the holidays? Someone actually tried to attack us?"
"Not attack, never got the chance. I have only the best yetis employed in my service!" North said. "and I never stress about the holidays, I just like to know everything is under control. I have never been late for Christmas and I will not be late this time. Golems have nothing on my yetis and the Harpies will run screaming from my reindeer!"
The two followed the yetis into an open-air elevator. It began to move downward as Jack turned to North.
"Was it a Golem that tried to get in?" he asked.
"No, it was a girl, but we must remain vigilant. They say she had a bag of tricks on her. Yetis think it is bottomless!"
"Bottomless?"
"Yes, is very interesting. She had no weapons, but they have pulled a number of odd things from the bag."
"North, I don't think she's going to be much of a problem." Jack sighed as he realized what had happened.
"Do not let pretty faces fool you. She could very well be hiding something dangerous in that bag of hers." North pointed out.
"Well, that I don't doubt."
"Hey! Be careful with that!" Alex shouted.
Her hands were wrapped around the bars of the cell and she could see a pair of yetis rooting around in her bag. Another yeti stood off to the side and wrote something down on the clipboard it had every time they pulled an item from her bag. A small pile of knick-knacks and other things had already accumulated on to a nearby table.
She had stayed quiet while they examined and catalogued several books (the largest of which had been titled Space Travel and You), a classic NES console, a jar of purple goo, a silver skeleton key, a rubber band wrapped collection of Pokemon cards, her Phoenix feather, an old pocket watch that had a series of circle designs instead of numbers surrounding its face, a white kitchen timer that was still ticking, and a slim black box that would not open no matter what the yetis tried.
Now they had gotten their hands on a rather large egg. The shell was black and shiny. Tiny lines zigzagged around it starting at the wide base and spiraled up to the narrowed top. It almost looked like it was patterned in stylized scales.
"I mean it! It may not be fragile but you can't just swing it around like that! It's still cooking and," she examined the kitchen timer for a moment before she finished "it still has a few years left."
She barely acknowledged the sound of an elevator ding from somewhere down the hallway. Alex's attention was still on the yeti whose arm was shoulder deep in her bag. Her eyes moved over to the other yeti who examined a collapsible, brass telescope.
"Listen, you don't want to look through that telescope. You're not going to like what you see."
The yeti narrowed his eyes at her and grumbled in a language she was not going to try to comprehend. It lifted the smaller part of the telescope to its face and looked through the eyepiece.
"I'm serious, you'll regret it!"
The yeti was silent as he tried to comprehend just what he was seeing through the looking glass. It took in a deep breath and began to shake before it released a terrible howl and dropped the telescope in fright. It put its hands to its furry face and ran out of the room. Alex sighed and rolled her eyes.
"Told you."
One of the remaining yetis picked up the telescope and pushed it until it collapsed to a smaller size. He looked from the telescope to the girl and raised a single furry brow.
"What? I told him not to, you all heard me. Just put all of my things back into my bag and no one else will be traumatized today." she tried.
"Prisoners don't get to make demands." a voice laughed.
Alex turned away to from the yetis to see Jack casually leaned up against the bars outside of her cell.
"I leave you alone for a few hours and you end up in the clink. It's amazing that you've even made it this long in life without me."
"Jack! Quick, make them put down the egg! They're going to cause abnormalities in the fetus or something." she demanded as she shoved her arm through the bars and pointed accusingly at the yeti still holding her black egg.
It growled out untranslatable words and placed the egg on the table next to the pile of her others things.
"I am guessing this is your friend?" a large man behind Jack asked.
"Yes! Friend of Jack's, that's me! Now can you get them to unlock the cell? They're desecrating my bag and messing with my things." Alex pleaded.
Jack pushed off the bars and walked over to the table as the man retrieved a set of keys from one of the yetis. The man unlocked the cell and pulled the door open for her. Alex walked out of the cell and dusted off the front of her hoodie.
"Thank you." She said to the large man, then quickly turned to glare at the yeti still holding her bag. "Drop it."
Jack took the bag from the steaming yeti and tossed it to Alex. She snatched it out of the air and rushed over to the table.
"It seems that there has been mistake." The man explained to the yeti with the clipboard. "We are looking for Golems and shadows, not little girls."
Alex started with the books and placed them, one by one, into her bag. Jack examined the large egg and moved to pick it up. Alex slapped the back of his hand and he snapped it back.
"Sorry, but your hands are freezing!" She apologized as she pulled the egg into the safety of her bag. "It's bad enough that it's been out on a table in the middle of an ice cavern. It has to be kept in a controlled temperature."
Jack's hand quickly snatched up the silver key from the table and moved back before she could decide to slap him again. When she did not get hostile, he examined the object more closely.
"Is it really important to keep all of this stuff with you? Your bag has to weigh a ton." he said.
"This is barely a fraction of what's inside, but the bottomless capability also helps with the weight. And yes, all of the things inside my bag are extremely important." Alex explained.
"Even this?" Jack asked as he turned the key in his hand.
If he looked closely, he could see tiny circular designs had been etched into the metal of the key. The same circular designs that decorated the face of the pocket watch Alex had just tucked away.
"Especially that, hand it over." she said and held out her hand.
"You're very bossy today." the winter spirit smiled and dropped the key in her waiting palm.
"I'm not bossy. I'm irritated that I've been held in a foreign jail while strangers rooted around my things. You'd be a little ticked if it had happened to you."
"Yetis are over cautious. You were breaking into my workshop, after all." The large man said.
"I wasn't breaking in, I had to come up here and," Alex paused with the NES console still in her hand. "I'm sorry, did you say your workshop?"
"Yes."
Alex placed the game console calmly into her bag and pulled the cloth top closed over it. She pulled the bag onto her back and straightened her hoodie.
"I apologize for the way I've been acting. That was a terrible first impression." Alex said with a very sincere face.
Jack rolled his eyes at how serious she was. The man in front of her just laughed.
"I like this one, Jack. Very polite! She could teach you thing or two about manners." he laughed in a very jolly tone.
So jolly, in fact, that Alex turned to Jack and nudged him with her elbow.
"Santa thinks I have good manners." she smiled.
"Are you going to be like this with the others?" Jack replied with a groan.