THE GOD'S UNKNOWN

CHAPTER 3--AGREEMENTS

Caleb led Xena and I quite a ways a way to a clearing in probably the deepest, darkest, most dense part of the forest. In the center of this clearing there was a gigantic temple. It had white walls, with grand pillars each brimmed with gold at the tops and bottoms, there were three doorways but no doors, and there were three huge windows one above each doorway. At the very top there was a huge round stone carving of some sort with beautiful intricate designs carved in and laid with silver so that it gleamed in the sun. I was truly amazed at the sight for I had never seen such a beautiful building… and it only got better as we went inside. The inside had the same beautiful white walls as the outside, but the floor and the ceiling were made of a gorgeous black marble that was so shinny you could see yourself in it, the main room had only an elegant table and eleven chairs around that table, and on the three remaining walls (besides the wall with the three doorways) there were four entry ways on the walls to the right and left and three directly from the front doorways to the back wall leading to more hallways equaling eleven hallways, and lastly over each hallway there was a tapestry depicting one element or natural substance. It was a palace the Olympians would have envied!

Once again I didn't realize how obviously I was staring until…

"You seem impressed.", Caleb whispered into my ear with a smile.

"It's just…. WOW! I mean Xena I can't speak for, because she's seen some amazing places, but this is truly the most elegant, most extravagant, most stunningly beautiful place I have EVER seen. Did you and the other's build all of this?"

"Actually no. A small group a very devoted, very talented, worshipers built this all for us. Amazing really, they threw this place up in under a year! Xena! Do you like what you see so far?"

"The place is nice… but I'm still not…"

"Convinced?"

"Yes… convinced."

"Well then lets let you met the other 'gods of tomorrow'."

I didn't like the way he said 'gods of tomorrow', it sent a chill down my spine. There was definitely something iffy about the whole thing but decided to just ride it out and wait and see. Caleb clapped twice and from eight out of the eleven hallways emerged one person dressed divinely and matching their tapestry and element.

"Form a line to great our guests.", instructed Caleb in a booming voice that rang through the large room.

Six did as instructed but two hung back… it was two of the three we had sort of… met… earlier. The man with the flaming hair and eyes and the tall woman with almost white hair and blue eyes were the two that didn't do as the others.

"Kol, Mirra, it wasn't a suggestion.", said Caleb in a stern tone.

After a moment they did as they were told.

Xena and I looked at the people and I thought they surely did look like gods for all of them were strikingly beautiful and handsome as well as, well dressed… but I need to remember looks can be deceiving. I took a quick glance at Xena and she seemed unimpressed still but there was something flickering behind those crystal blue eyes of hers. Though her face was unchanging showing no kind of emotion I knew that she was soaking it all in, calculating, figuring out what the right thing to do was.

Caleb slowly moved down the line introducing each one by element or natural gift and then by name.

The first he introduced was a woman… she seemed slightly older than the rest but still young, just mature. He introduced the blonde haired brown eye woman as the 'goddess of water' or Jana.

Next he came to the big mountainous man with dark hair and deep set dark eyes Xena and I had seen before with the man with fiery hair and the fair haired woman. He was the 'god of rock or stone', Jerick.

Three more men were introduced next one the 'god of day', Lucas who look alarmingly similar to Iolus with dirty blond hair and hazel eyes, the 'god of sun', Gregory, typical macho man but very dreamy, and the last out of the three was Zanner 'god of the night'. He was the one that gave me the shivers when I saw him, nice man and good looking, curly black hair and piercing black eyes, but there was an air, an essence about him that sent off the wrong vibe. I could tell Xena sensed it too.

Moving on to another girl who look much younger than the rest… a late teen at most. She was the 'goddess of the sky'. Cute girl with a child like demeanor. Kili.

Lastly were the two we'd (Xena and I) had met more than once already, Kol and Mirra, aka the 'god of fire' and the 'goddess of wind'.

When the introductions were done Caleb gave a waive of his hand signaling the dismissal of the others, most just turned and left but Zanner and Kol hesitated glaring at Caleb in equally disturbing ways. Then Kol turned on his heel and left as Zanner stalked off into his own hallway with the tapestry of stars above it.

After meeting everyone Xena looked a little less skeptical… but I wasn't sure if she had seen some of the looks I'd seen.

"Any more convinced?", asked Caleb.

"A little… one question though. You currently only have nine 'gods of tomorrow' and yet you have eleven hallways. Why?"

"Simple… even though we are all truly gifted in our own ways we cannot foresee the future so we turned to an oracle to predict how many of us there would be."

Xena raised an eyebrow…

"Sounds silly I know. Oracles now a days are considered, hacks, nut jobs, sometimes down right crazy, but I have never gotten a false prediction from one and I trust them. The last oracle I went to said that there shall be eleven gods then eleven gods there will be. So far, with the new girl we have yet to obtain making ten, we're getting pretty close to that prediction being right."

'Interesting', I thought.

"So…", Caleb continued, "will you be helping with the girl? Or do you still need more? Because I can assure that we have everything to make the girl comfortable and you met the others."

"Can ya' give us a sec? I just wanna discuss it with my friend.", said Xena putting an arm around my neck and leading me just out of hearing range for Caleb.

"What do you think Xena?"

"I'm not sure… it seems safe and comfortable. I just get this feeling from just looking at some of the others here…"

"You felt that too? I thought it was just me."

"There's definitely something about some of the people here that's off but I just can't put my finger on it."

"So you're thinking no, we shouldn't bring the girl here?", I asked rather confused at Xena's unusual indecisiveness.

"I dunno…"

Xena thought for a minute.

"What if, if Caleb and the girl agree, we stay here for a little while and watch over things. You know kinda spy for a while but yet make sure the girl ends up ok."

"I guess that could work… but what if this girl really doesn't want to come here? What then?"

"Well we'll have to wait and see then now wont we."

"So you do want to try and bring her here?"

"Yes. Might as well. I don't think it would hurt her, and like Caleb said you could see she didn't have the greatest control over her 'gift'.

Xena and I walked back over to where Caleb had been standing watching us like a hawk.

"And the final decision is?", Caleb said with a grin.

"We'll help you get the girl …",replied Xena.

"SUPER!", said Caleb.

"BUT! Under one condition…", I chimed in.

The grin immediately disappeared from Caleb's face and became serious, "And that would be?"

Xena continued for me, "That if the girl wants to come here willingly we stay her for a few days and make sure everything goes off ok."

"We really only need you to get her for us… we usually do just fine getting people adjusted and they usually enjoy it here after a while."

"Well sorry Caleb but those are our terms… take it or leave it.", said Xena.

"Fine. Agreed, your hand on it."

Xena and I both shook, little did we know that this was going to be a much bigger ordeal than planned that could take years to resolve.

TBC...

Author's note: Well sorry if that was rather long... and boring. I needed a chapter to introduce more of the characters and this was it. LoL. Hope y'all at least enjoyed a lil'. Please review! :)