REVELATIONS FROM AN UNKNOWN PLACE
Zeus turned watching as Aphrodite appeared in a blast of rose petals and pink light. He turned seeing the concern in her eyes. "Artemis told me there was a disturbance in Potidaea." Aphrodite breathed in painfully. "There was but the creature who tried to take the person was not successful, it was killed." She brought up her hand only to stop as a sensation ran down her spine, she turned as green and blue light blasted outwards as the werewolf forest god Christos made his presences known. His white fur gleaming in the low light as his huge black antlers rose skywards their veins of green and blue shimmering.
His orange eyes narrowed as he shook his head causing his goat like beard to flow. His huge black hoofed feet smashed the ground as he tensed the anger as clear as day in his eyes as the bulls tail flicked. His voice hit the air hard. "Which one of you sent that ugly five eyed bastard monster to the city of Messene? Because who ever did, is going to have to answer to me right now!" He paused adjusting his gold and silver gauntlets as his long elaborate gold hanging cloth swung. "This is the second time! The first time was in Delphi when my people were trying to ask for the Oracle for assistance only for her to be taken away!" Aphrodite raised her hand as she walked towards her friend. "Christos, please calm down."
Christos turned to her feeling his teeth grind together as he shook his huge mane. "I just had to fix the damage this monster did, I'm not feeling calm right now!" Zeus looked up sharply. "You killed it?" Christos raised his clawed hand. "No it keeled over as if it had a heart attack." He watching as vines and ferns grew out of the ground all in huge mass as they became bigger and wider revealing that they had something huge inside. He opened his clawed hand watching as the huge dead monster was flung out it landed next to the long table close to the throne its white dead eyes staring in to nothing. It had huge oddly deformed jaws which had four sections but it only had three legs the other was missing. Its black body had faded tribal symbols and it had a thick band of yellow fur going down from its head to its tail.
Zeus moved closer staring at the nine foot creature he turned to Aphrodite. "Is this the same as the one you saw?" Aphrodite moved closer looking at the four sectioned jaw. "It's similar but the markings are the same, Ares said he had seen them before on a man who was from the land of Australis." Zeus narrowed his gaze. "He was with you?" Aphrodite raised her hand. "I needed his help he didn't interfere in any way." Zeus looked at the huge jaws watching as the vines disappeared as Christos eyed them both. "My son is right these markings are from the land of Terra Australis which is ruled by the serpent god Ngalyod."
He put his hand on the jaws prying them open watching as two huge long tongues rolled out. "He's the god of dreams and when I say dreams I do mean dreams. In his land anything is possible as the very fabric of the dream world spills through on to the very land itself." He turned looking at Christos. "None of us brought this to you Christos, this creature what ever it is, isn't one of ours." Aphrodite blinked. "Is Ngalyod the true god of dreams?" Zeus stood up slowly. "Yes he is they even call him the Rainbow Serpent, very little is known about him only that he's looks similar to Quetzalcoatl just as Manaia does. The Aztec gods as you already know are the first gods and all gods are descended from them."
He breathed in deeply. "The elder god C'thulon created the Aztec gods as his children and as a gift he created the dream world. It was a god's playground where they could home their skills because they could imagine anything. The Aztec gods grew up though and lost interest in this dream world though and left it." He put a hand through his beard. "More gods came and all had an interest in this dream world, but none could harness it or mould it, none had the power. The dream world is very difficult to control and even harder to manipulate, until Ngalyod came along. He was able to harness the dream world itself."
He shook his head. "Ngalyod was not evil though he didn't want to keep the dream world to himself, he was very gracious he created tunnels and streams that stretched the length of world so every god in every land would have a piece from the vast dream world. He kept the source in his home land. From then on Ngalyod used these streams to give mortals dreams all over the world. Later gods were born who could control the dream world like Morpheus who has greater control over the part he owns."
He narrowed his gaze. "Ngalyod though is the most powerful dream god off all and always has been, he swims in the dreams of mortals as if it's a sea, he does the huge job of filtering dreams and nightmares and because of him dreams flow." Aphrodite lowered her gaze. "What else do you know about Ngalyod?" Zeus looked up slowly. "Nothing more, he's a recluse who keeps himself to himself, if there is anything about him then it'll be in the library." Aphrodite blinked. "Do you mean the Olympian library?" Zeus nodded as he looked up. "Yes, I can't tell you anymore as I know so little about him in general."
He turned looking at Christos. "We did not send anything to your city, we would never do such a thing you are a friend of the Olympian gods you helped to rid us of the curse which was the Titans armours Horn Hind and Iseron." Christos blinked he lowered his gaze seeing that this was bigger than what he'd first realized. "My deepest apologises, I get ahead of my self I am still new to all this, I was an old werewolf once who was waiting to die and now I'm an immortal god and I still haven't grasped the scope of the immortal world."
Aphrodite walked up to him putting a hand on his chest. "Its okay stud muffin, don't worry yourself about it, you've helped us by bringing this dead monster here. We couldn't take the other one there were two many people around and they would have seen it vanish.". Christos put his large clawed hand on hers. "Where was the other one killed?" Aphrodite stepped back. "Potidaea." Christos shook his mane. "Gabrielle's family lives there!" Aphrodite raised her hand. "Everyone's fine Christos Gabrielle was there with Xena and they were able to bring down the monster, there's no need to worry." Christos nodded seeing the truth in her eyes he slowly turning to Zeus as a thought crossed his mind. "You said Rainbow Serpent is that name anything to do with rainbows?"
Zeus nodded as he met his orange gaze. "Yes why do you ask?" Christos breathed in stepping away from Aphrodite who smiled warmly at him. "Because before the Oracle of Delphi was taken by a monster like this one she said she was seeing rainbows in the clouds all the time she even asked my people if they'd ask me if I'd seen them, which I haven't." He shook his head. "She also told them that her vision wasn't clear and she wasn't seeing everything correctly. She couldn't even see that king Lycaon was dead despite that it happened well over a year ago." Zeus turned meeting his gaze. "You say she had no sight?" Christos nodded. "Yes, my people told me it was if she couldn't recoil things important."
Zeus looked up sharply. "This much worse than first I thought, for her not to see, means that there is something wrong in the dream world itself at the source." Aphrodite stepped forward. "What would happen if both the dream world and the real world collided?" Zeus shook his head. "I do not know for sure. I heard a story once about a god from another land who was arrogant enough to allow the dream world to crash in to the real world." He put a hand through his beard. "The consequences were never fully listed but he lost two thirds of his mortal population with in the space of a week the god also lost control over his tunnel as Ngalyod had to fix the problem and was not happy with the other god's arrogance and hence forth he denied the god power over the dream steam."
He shook his head sadly turning to look at Christos and then Aphrodite. "I need to ask something." Aphrodite breathed in deeply. "You need someone to go to Ngalyod's land, don't you?" Zeus nodded meeting her uncertain gaze. "Yes I need to know what's going on, because I will not risk the deaths of any more mortals in this land. We've already suffered a loss's when our underworld went out of control because the great up evil in the lands of Mexica." Aphrodite breathed in deeply meeting Zeus's gaze. "Why send me why not send Ares or Athena, are they not more suited to this?" Zeus turned slowly to her. "You said it yourself Ares is in no condition to go places, Athena as much as I care about her has a terrible habit of manipulating situations to benefit herself. You on the other hand do things for others without ever asking anything in return and I need Ngalyod to see that."
8
Herodotus stepped in to the front room it was now morning and it felt like it had been a very long night on so many levels. He breathed in deeply as he walked up to the front door seeing that another note had been slid underneath it. A moment ago he'd seen Xena leave the house not that, that surprised him it had been a long night for his daughter's lover. Lila had now taken over in watching Gabrielle he breathed in deeply it was now time to tell Eudora and the others about the will. Hecuba was still asleep and so was Ophelia and her partner but they all needed to sleep. He picked up the note opening it slowly reading it only to feel himself breathe in sharply.
He closed the letter fate had now played its final cards as he'd expected it would. He moved in to the front room seeing that Eudora was awake and so was the blonde haired man who had a hand on his shoulder and was talking in to her ear softly. The others were still asleep he breathed in again he could see that the action was not one of a friend he could tell by how she was responding to it. Clearly his bastard father hadn't had control over everything there had been some things which had slipped his notice. He had treated this young woman in a disgusting manner as if she was property and not a person. He'd also heard Lila say that he'd beaten her if she refused to what she told and the thought of that made him sick to the stomach.
The young woman deserved so much better and he was going to ensure that she got it. She deserved to have a normal life free of pain and suffering. It was clear she had a partner but no doubt the relationship they had was hidden and not public to others. No doubt because she was terrified of the conscienceless of being found out and couldn't break the pattern. He stepped in side the room watching as she looking up sharply the man behind her with drawing his hand in a lightning fast motion. He moved closer watching as Eudora looked up uncertainty and fear playing across her face as though she'd been caught in the act. Herodotus slowly kneeled down in front her speaking gently. "Have you been up all night?"
Eudora lowered her gaze feeling unsure of herself she wasn't used to anyone asking her about how she felt or what she was doing apart from Agapios. She looked down nervously. "Most of it, I had a terrible nightmare and I couldn't get back to sleep." Herodotus looked up slightly. "What was is about?" Eudora lowered her gaze to the floor. "About being beaten." Herodotus eased on his hand putting it on her shoulder feeling her flitch. He knew it was an involuntary action which she couldn't help. "That won't happen to you here, it would never happen and I would never allow such a thing under my roof."
He paused as he pulled his hand away gently looking at the blonde haired man. "What's your name?" Agapios looked up realizing he was being addressed. "My name is Agapios master." Herodotus shook his head. "I am not your master my name is Herodotus and in my house you are not a slave you are a free man, that goes for the others as well." He breathed in deeply. "You should wake up your friends there's something very important I need you all to hear." He watched as the confusion appeared in the man's green eyes a he nodded then turned shaking the others, watching as they groaned then bolted up right more so out of rough teen than anything else.
Agapios sat back down watching as Ceto rubbed her eyes sitting up right while Thaleia shook her head. He eyed them for a long moment. "I'm sorry to wake you both but Herodotus has something important to say, to all of us." Herodotus eased open the paper looking at them all. "Typhoeus is dead he died last night." Eudora breathed out feeling a sudden weight lift from her shoulders a weight that had been crushing her for what felt like most of her life. "How…how did he die?" Herodotus looked up slightly. "He coughed on his own blood it was a painful death but if you ask me a very fitting one. Ixion on the other hand has woken up but he's bed ridden and he'll be crippled for the rest of his life, his days as a warrior are over."
Agapios breathed sharply at long last the old bastard was dead he turned slightly feeling a dark thought cross his mind as he spoke. "Whose name did Typhoeus put on the will?" Herodotus eased out the other piece of paper unrolling it seeing the fear and uncertainty appear in all their faces he knew why it was there. All of them feared becoming property of Ixion as he was just a bigger bastard as his father. He watched as Eudora took hold of Agapios's arm he could see that she was afraid to loose him. With his father dead she could now take her own path but Agapios couldn't. He breathed in deeply. "I have the will here and you need not worry Ixion's name is not on it, it appears before his death he had a rethink."
He turned the paper around seeing the utter shock as it appeared on all their faces. "As his last act on this earth before he went to Tartarus he wrote Gabrielle's name on the will." He felt a smile form. "Once she's well I'm sure she'll make it her first order to free you all from slavery. As you already know she doesn't condone slavery of any kind." Agapios blinked as he tried to recompose himself. "What does this mean for Ixion?" Herodotus folded both papers slowly putting them away safely. "This means that Ixion has nothing as he lived of my father's money and has saved none of his own he is also not married. He now has two choices he could ether beg for Gabrielle's forgiveness and hope that she gives him a small sum."
He raised his eyebrow. "Or he can go and get work, despite his crippled leg and ruined hand he can still do certain jobs. Then he'll need to change his act so that he can marry, though I don't see that happening. As no woman will want to be in the company of a man who treats her as property and has no respect for her. So for him it will be a very hard life and he will suffer but it is a just existence, considering how he's treated you all."
End of part 28
Silvermoonlight
Thank you everyone for your kind reviews and feedback.
Terra Australis is the ancient name for Australia.
Ngalyod is also referred to as Borlung, as well as the Rainbow Serpent.
