Tasks
"What's all the fuss?" Evil asked. A woman was waving her arms to try to grab Synurix's attention, tears falling down her cheeks.
"A freak wave has just struck. My husband and four others are drowning! Please help them!" She pleaded on her hands and knees.
"Hm, who do we know who's tall enough to wade out to them?" Evil snickered.
"Oh don't muck around!" Good scolded "Let's get our Creature out there as fast as possible!"
Synurix, not liking the use of leashes, called Bairun over. He came running "Mistress, what is it?"
"Five villagers are drowning." She said with a serious expression, which then broke into a smirk "You know what to do. I would do it myself but I'd like to see how you do."
"No! Oh please, no!" Good cried.
Bairun nodded obediently, knowing what his Goddess had in mind. He slid down the small slope and into the water, which only reached up to the beginning of his hooves. He grabbed one of the humans tightly. The human gasped for air but screamed as he was thrown further out to sea into deeper water. Bairun did the same with two others, enjoying the smack their bodies made as they hit the water and the gargles as they began to drown again, and came to the second last one, the husband. He raised his hoof high above the drowning man's head and brought it down in a powerful stomp that made the water ripple and create a small wave that crashed and nearly caught more people. The sea turned red from the man's blood but no one saw his body as it was embedded in the seabed.
"Sayonara, suckers!" Evil laughed as the last man was eaten by Bairun.
The wife was speechless and fell to the ground sobbing. Synurix raised her hand, swiped at her, and sent her flying through the air and into the sea, along with her death on impact. Bairun returned to the shore, blood dripping from his jaws and his wet hoof.
"What did you do with the last villager, Bairun?" Synurix asked.
"I felt a bit peckish." He replied.
"You killed all the drowning people!" a man shouted in anger "And you killed my sister, you horrible beasts!" he was obviously referring to both Synurix and Bairun. Insulted by his remark, Synurix lifted him up in her hand and crushed him; he had no time to cry out. She let his body crumple and fall to the floor with a thud, twisted beyond recognition.
"Leader… There seems to be a big wooden structure on the beach, just behind those gates. Should we investigate?" Good suggested, trying his best to ignore the horrid situation of the mutilated corpse.
Synurix turned to her Creature "Bairun, feel free to do as you please, I am going to investigate what that large structure is beyond those gates."
Bairun nodded and set off into the village to learn about using the village store and other useful knowledge. He too had seen the strange building before and was curious to what it was. However, he decided it best for his mistress to have a look first.
She flew through the big, wooden gates and saw the strange construction was an unfinished boat. In front of it were three men sitting in a circle. As she drew nearer, she noticed they were signing a song.
Oh! We've got this notion
That we'd quite like to sail the ocean
So we're building a big boat to leave here for good
We're not keen on sinkin'
So we're all sitting here a thinking
'cause we built it too big and we've run out of wood!
Eidle eidle eeee…
Eidle eidle eeee…
We simply can't leave till we get some more wood!
We're not keen on sinkin'
So that's why we're sitting thinking
'cause we built it too big and we've run out of wood!
Synurix found the song so grating she had to cover her ears.
"How dare they leave!" Evil growled "After all we've done for them!"
Good raised an eyebrow "What have we done for them exactly? Let's help them out, it might be nice."
"I'll put them out of there misery, if that is what you are suggesting." Synurix snarled. She grabbed one of the men and hurled him inland where he disappeared behind a mountain.
Another man gasped "You killed my shipmate! Outrageous!" He soon met his fate by being flung out to sea.
"Oh my God! You killed Kenneth!" The last sailor said. He tried to flee as Synurix made a grab for him but he was caught. The Goddess took him to her village center and crushed him with a rock. Followers screamed and hid in their houses. She pounded him repeatedly, over and over, until his remains stuck to the rock like gum.
Bairun dared not ask the reason for her actions.
"Yeah!" Evil cheered "You killed all the explorers… But I can't get their stupid song out of my brain."
"I'm surprised you even have one." Good muttered.
"Shut it, Beardy!"
"All you listen to is your stomach!"
"Oh yeah? At least it's smarter than you!"
"I hardly think anything of yours can amount to my intelligence!"
"Both of you, please, calm down." Synurix laughed at their quarrelling.
"Your eminence!" A voice shouted. Synurix turned from her sailor smashing to a young boy by the age of twelve.
"Yes, little child?" She said, venomously. Bairun, curious as to what the little villager had to say, walked up beside Synurix.
"The Old Hermit, as he is known, who lives by the quarry through the pass, has been mocking you, your highness." The boy was quick to bow and show respect as to not end up like the sailor.
Synurix's tone changed to a soft, almost enchanting one "Tell me, little boy, what has he been saying?"
He hesitated "He said he isn't impressed by you because he thinks you don't have a Creature."
"Really? I shall go see to him now." Synurix said, quickly disappearing through the pass and up a small slope to a lone house. A man, the hermit, sat in front of it. He stood and walked up to Synurix as she landed gracefully.
"As I see it, there ain't no reason for me to bow before you. I ain't seen diddly from you that impresses me one iddy bit! God's have huge Creatures, that's what ma momma told me. And until I see a big enough one, you don't mean nothin' to me!" He sneered and mocked her. This enraged and hurt her deeply.
"Oh, don't leave him as a lost soul." Said Good "Show him your Creature!"
"Oh let him die alone! It's what he wants, the hick." Evil shrugged "You don't have to justify yourself to him. Aw, c'mon! You got better things to destroy!"
Synurix called Bairun using telepathy. He responded immediately and hurried to his mistress' side. When he reached her, he was concerned "Why did you call me, mistress?"
"This, hermit low-life is not impressed by me. He wants to see you."
Frowning, Bairun walked up to the hermit.
"Ha! Ain't the largest beast in the land is he?" The hermit mocked.
Bairun held his head in shame. Yes, he was small still but Synurix only chose him yesterday.
Angered immensely by the hermit's mocking words to her and her Creature, she flew over to his house with a heavy boulder and dropped it on it. Now he would have nowhere to live.
"Not my cotton-picking hut! It's my only possession! Leave me alone!" he sobbed on his knees. His mourning was cut short by his scream as Bairun's jaws were already upon him.
"You killed him!" Good shouted aghast "You insane, horrid, mean God!"
Alas, her conscience's words didn't affect her. She praised her Creature for devouring the hermit and made her way back to her temple.
On her way back she heard a small ringing sound. It was coming from far behind her temple. She flew over the stone-throwing area and to a little outstretch of land where three stones sat around each other in, what looked like, a circle with gaps in it. A hut stood beside the uncompleted circle and was surrounded by trees.
Sensing Synurix's presence, a man with long hair and a grey shirt walked out "Neat stone circle, huh? It's a bummer that some are missing. The stones play a scale, that's what we need."
"Hm, sounds like we can help there." Said Good, observing the circle.
"What? Help this deluded sack of burnt-out neurons?" Evil laughed aloud.
"Tap a stone to hear it's note." The man added.
"Singing stones, that is what they are called, right?" Synurix asked her conscience. They both nodded "Well, I will find the rest but, first." She dove towards the man's hut and made the trees around it, collapsed on top of it.
"Oh no! Not my hut, man, uncool!" Said the man in protest. Synurix lashed out at him, lifting and throwing him across the valley. She saw his faint silhouette crash into a mountain and splatter, leaving red marks strewn across the rock face. To her this resembled paint on a canvas. She liked how it looked and memorized the bloody piece of art so it could go in her gallery. Good shook his head in disappointment at his leader's actions.
"Now, back to the singing stones." She said and began her search.
One she found just beside the valley under a slight overhang on rock, another behind her village's graveyard, another atop a piece of jutting out land with a little river trickling down from it, another in the Old Hermit's Quarry, and another in the same place but near where the sick brother had died. Two other stones were duds, these were located, then destroyed by Synurix, among a circle of mushrooms near the stone circle, and the other on a long stretch of land like a pier that stuck out into the sea.
She arranged them all in the right order from lowest to highest in a clockwise motion. As the scale played fully, the sky darkened and rain began to fall. The stones began a different, far more complex tune.
"Something is happening." Said Good "The stones are singing together again."
Suddenly, a bolt of lighting flashed down through the middle of the circle, startling Synurix and her conscience, and left in the bolt's wake was a miracle dispenser. It was the miracle for food. Nothing exciting, so, Synurix destroyed it much to Good's surprise.
Later that evening, she and her Creature sat in the pen outside her temple and talked. She enjoyed just talking and getting to know Bairun. She felt him and her were best friends. Her eyes were there beautiful and piercing green. She had been surprised at how quickly Bairun had understood her alignment. She thought he would be reluctant and hesitant to kill a human and be evil. However, he was fine with it. He now felt it as a natural urge to eat a villager when he was hungry.
Suddenly, Bairun heard something and stood up.
"Bairun. What is it?" Synurix asked, concerned.
"There is a human calling your name, at the entrance to that valley over there." He pointed. Just behind her temple was an opening to a large, flat valley that led out into a huge pass. In front of the beginning of the valley was a human, desperately waving his arms and calling Synurix's name.
She told Bairun to stay put while she went to investigate.
"Speak, mortal." She hissed, obviously not in the mood for games as her eyes stepped back into their gravestone grey.
"Your magnificence! There is a huge Creature in the valley beyond!." He turned and pointed "We are all terrified!"