"A curse? What kind of curse?" asked Freddy. The overhead light glinted off his many facial piercings, making him look more sinister than he really was. Blacky was still apparently unconcerned.
The girl sat up and blinked slowly, taking in her new surroundings. Suddenly the bus began to move and she looked scared at first.
"Where are we going?" she asked., She had a surprisingly deep voice for a girl.
"Wherever our next gig is, and don't worry; none of us is going to hurt you." I assured her. Great, first Guppie the murderer, then Guppie the drummer, now I'm Guppie the parent. What next? Guppie the mime? I thought sarcastically.
"M-My name is Ranekaera. I came here through the portal I set up to get away from my uncles. I guess I got cold and just… fell asleep." She said, wrapping her arms around herself. Freddy reached over and yanked a spare blanket out from under a pile of clothes, papers and microphones. He's very unorganized.
"Here, wrap up in this. You look half dead." He said grimly. She managed a weak smile and took it from him. She shuddered.
"You created a portal? What, like a door?" I asked.
"I guess I should start from the beginning, huh?" she muttered to herself.
"Please do." I invited. She sat up a bit straighter and cleared her throat.
"Throughout history, from the very beginning of time, there were five deities. One for earth, air and fire and two for water, always twins." She began.
"Why twins?" asked Kou.
"There's more water than anything else on this planet so it takes more than one person to properly maintain and control it." She replied. She didn't sound drunk.
"The deities lived well for awhile, created all the life, so it could evolve into what exists now, but there was a problem. From the fatigue of creating so much, their life forces were depleted and they began to age. They were no longer immortal. They had no choice but to interbreed with their own creations to save the bloodline. Every eight generations, a new deity is born, one for each of the four elements."
She continued. I tried to store this in my mind in a way I could understand. What did all thins have to do with her?
"My brother and I were the new deities of water for the eight generation of 1988."
"Woa, woa, woa, time out. Are you on drugs, Ranekaera?" ejaculated Freddy.
"No."
"Hey, I remember now! Remember all those stories about the sea goddess dad used to tell us, Aid?" blurted Kou. Adrian looked as if he'd rather not reminisce. All eyes were on them now. I folded my arms, all four of them, and leaned against the side of the bus, waiting.
"What about them?" asked Adrian.
"Oh, nothing. Her story reminds me of them, that's all." He said.
"The water monsters would know the story, of course. They're the only elemental ones who are still close enough to the water to remember the old legends." said Ranekaera.
"So lemme get this straight. Every eight generations a god or goddess is born to each element?" asked Freddy.
"Yes."
"You and your twin are water?"
"uh-huh."
"Where is he? Why are you all covered in bruises? What portal? How?" he nearly screamed in exhasperation. I could tell that these questions plainly tormented him.
"The fire that killed my family also killed my brother, I told you before. I buried them myself and later found out that the fire'd been set. The place'd been flooded with gasoline at my mother's end and the baby'd already been dead before the fire was started." She explained.
"What are you trying to say?" I asked uneasily. I thought I knew where this was going.
"My mother suffocated Asheline. She set the fire that killed my brother and sister." She said.
A stunned silence followed, then Blacky burst out laughing.
"Oh, please! What melodramatic bullsh! You'd be very good in the movie industry." He laughed. Ran looked affronted and it could've been me, but I swore I saw her odd colored eyes flash a bright white.
"I'm not making any of this up." She said quietly. Her voice was cold and Blacky stopped laughing immediately.
"When my brother died, he transferred his "powers" to me, making me stronger both physically and…well…Goddess-ie, if that makes any sense."
"It doesn't." I joked.
"As Sea Goddess, I control everything from the lowliest mud puddle to the water contained in your bodies. I can affect blood flow, I can stop severe bleeding and I can easily go between both worlds as I please." She said.
"Why, because your ancestors created them?" asked Adrian. He was getting interested.
Outside, it was getting very dark and we were somewhere in the middle of the country now. The equipment trucks were ahead of us and the bus was towing Blacky's huge truck.
"I guess you could say that. I escaped here because at home, my uncles…beat me. One is Schizophrenic and the other is his caretaker. I …they don't like me. Actually, no one in the human world likes me because I'm not human. I was born human, but thanks to some friends, I mutated into this." She explained.
Freddy whistled and Ran shivered again. It struck me jus then just how thin she looked.
We drove on in silence, digesting her information.
"What happens if one of them dies, again? I forgot that part." said Kou, probably remembering old stories his dad told him when he was a kid.
"If any of the deities should die before their eight generation prodigy has been born, depending on their element, the world will end." She said. This sounded a bit Old World to me, like 'the sky is falling' or 'the devil is my dad'. It sounded absurd. I was an atheist, but even this sounded a little odd to me. As for the fire…I believed that, I had to believe that. I shuddered inside at my own memories of fire. My mother…I shook my head and gave myself a mental slap.
Freddy and Blacky both laughed and Ran glared.
"My existence, my very well-being affects the weather and the water. If I died or blacked out or something, my perception of what weather is right for the climate, of what is natural, would go haywire, resulting in violent thunderstorms. From bright sunshine to sudden, unexplainable water typhoons. From slightly overcast to torrential downpour in seconds. If I died, the landmass would be enveloped in tons of seawater. Only the ones with gills would survive." She explained hurriedly. She sounded so absolute, so…serious, that we were all taken aback. She wasn't kidding?
Looking rather nervous now, Freddy swallowed and asked "So, uh…You're the Sea Goddess, you came here through a portal you made to get away from your uncles who beat you? I got that right so far?"
"Yes." She replied. I sighed and snaked a tentacle behind Freddy into the porta-cooler. I grabbed a cold can of soup and a can opener and got to work, grabbing a bowl out of the little cupboards Blacky installed himself. I threw it in the microwave on board and,. Seeing the look on my fellow band mates' faces, said "Soup for her. She looks half starved."
"Oh." Said Freddy. The soup dinged, I gave it to her, she said thanks and I leaned against the wall once more. I wasn't sure whether to believe her or not. She was convincing enough..
From the looks on the other guy's faces, they didn't know either.