Hello, I wanted to get this up before the end of the year, so I hope you guys like it. I will keep this short and sweet, I do not study mythology professionally, so this is all coming for personal research and interpretation.
I dont own RotG
Tyler watched on in confusion as his sister stared at a random crack in the road with look of sheer horror on her face. His parents had warned he and their grandmother that she had been acting strangely, hallucinating and spewing nonsense about a dream she had when she was in the coma. He just never expected her to jump out of his moving truck on the side of the highway and run towards nothing in a panic. He sighed as he stopped his questioning, resigning himself to the fact that she wasn't going to respond anyway. He gently put his hand on her shoulder to draw her attention back to her and she slowly turned to look at him, the panic still on her face. "Let's not do that again, okay?" He asked and she distractedly nodded and allowed him to guide her back to the car. Hopefully this trip would help his sister get back to her normal self, one that never jumped out of moving cars.
As they began once more driving to the sound of sting flowing through the cars speakers Madylyn looked back reached into her bag and pulled out her notebook and began scribbling down what she had seen. So far the woman had the rock creatures, and those weird scorpion men that Lyn knew of, how many other she could have is unknown, but they seem to be popping up all over the place, which means this woman is planning a full on attack. She needed to talk to her grandma and find out exactly who she is and she needed to find out as soon as possible. She looked ahead at the road, counting down the seconds till they arrived at their grandma's house. Lucky for her the rest of the drive went quickly and uneventfully and soon enough her brother was pulling up into the driveway. Lyn waited till the car was completely stopped before jumping out this time and grabbing her suitcase from the trunk before dashing to the door without saying a word to her brother.
She happily knocked on the door and waited for a half second before her grandma opened the door with a large smile, "Madylyn, it is so good to see you." The old woman exclaimed, pulling her into a tight hug.
"Its great to see you, grandma."She responded, wrapping her arms tightly around her as well, "It's been too long since I've been here." She said as she pulled away and her grandmother dragged her into the house, Lyn hearing her brother lightly snickering behind her.
"How are you feeling honey?" Her grandmother asked and Madylyn groaned in her head, she was sick of hearing that question.
"I'm fine, happy to be here." She said before fake yawning, "But that flight did take a bit out of me, do you mind if I nap before we do anything?" She asked, making her way to the guest bedroom.
"Oh of course, this trip is for you to relax so you can do whatever it is you like." Her grandmother responded sweetly. "I'll be here when you wake up." She said turning to her brother, "Tyler will you be here for dinner?"
"If I can get away from the office in time, yes I will be." Her brother responded with a smile.
"You can bring Sandy." She said and Madylyn stopped and looked at her brother with a dopey smile.
"Who's Sandy?" She asked suggestively and her brothers glare at her.
"She's just this girl I've been seeing." He said nonchalantly.
"You have a girlfriend?" Lyn squealed and her brother opened the door.
"I'm heading out." He said as he walked out of the house quickly, Lyn laughing the whole way. She turned and smiled at her grandma before turning and disappearing in the guest bedroom. But right at the door she stopped and turned back to the woman.
"One more thing grandma," She said and her grandma turned to look at her, she pulled out the little children's book and showed the picture of the woman to her grandma, "Do you know who this is?" She asked.
"Oh that's the goddess Tiamat." Her grandmother answered.
"Tiamat." Lyn repeated quietly, "Thanks." She smiled before hurrying to her room and closing the door behind her. She sighed as the door locked behind her and she quickly threw her suit case on the bench at the foot of the bed on pulled out her notebook. Tiamat. She had a name. Now all she needed was everything else. That was easier said than done as her smart phone had broken in the accident and she was temporarily using an old flip phone her family had on hand. So she resolved to taking a quick nap and then sneaking off to the library later to check out books on the mysterious woman. She laid down on the bed and hoped that she wouldn't have any more nightmares as her eyes slowly drifted shut.
She sat in the clearing. It was bright. Brighter than it should be at any point in the day. She looked around the area and saw trees reaching high to the sky, shooting higher even now; unable to reach the light they depended on for life. She seemed to be alone; there were no red eyes, no laughter, no flames and no lifeless forms surrounding her as she sat helpless to do anything. Suddenly a bright ray of light lit in front of her and a voice sounded from the sky above her.
"We have many forms." The male voice said in a soothing tone, "Some of us are good, some evil, and some are even neutral. But we all have made mistakes and choices that have shaped this world into what it is now." She looked on in wonder as the ray of light receded and a man in a glorious white suit with silver hair stood before her, his posture straight and a halo seeming to glow about his head. He smiled softly at her and slowly stepped towards her, and she found she was frozen in wonder at the sight of him. "We all have fought battles we shouldn't have and destroyed life's that we cannot replace. And sometimes those life's and the life's of those around them come back to unleash a heinous revenge."
"What are you talking about?" Lyn asked quietly.
"This is not your war, yet you have been given the weapon to end it." The man responded, looking at her earnestly. "Weapons can be used in many different ways, the spear can provide the same damage as the arrow if used properly and the sword and the club will have the same effect when in the right hands, but at the end of the battle it is the same weapon. It has but one purpose and one outcome." Lyn looked on in confusion as the man began walking around the clearing, looking fondly at the trees. "Such beauty from such a heinous creature." He muttered. "Histories have truths in them, even if they are looked on as myths now. Powers and forces do not go away because belief does, it is simply recycled." He turned back to her and looked her up and down with a scrutinizing gaze, "Do not waste the powers and gifts that were once revered by the entire world." He said accusingly, "Do not allow yourself to place desire above duty." His voice began to turn angry as he advanced on her once more. In fear she began backing away from the man until her back hit a tree and she stared on in horror as horns began to break from his head, creating a massive crown like appearance, his suit shimmered and fell away in a rain of gold that halted around his waist and flowed into a wrapped skirt of white with gold leaves hanging from the bottom. From his back began to spread wings, four magnificent golden feathered wings spreading forth and encompassing Lyn's vision, blocking out the light and encircling her in darkness as the man continued to get closer to her. She fell to her knees as she began to see soot falling from the sky and smoke overtaking the air around them. She covered her ears as the sinister laughter began to once again fill the clearing, the sound mingling with the words of the man as he continued to accuse began to prick at her eyes so she shut them and tried to stop them from falling. Suddenly she felt a cold hand on her chin slowly drawing her face up; she slowly opened her eyes, expecting to see the red again, but instead found herself staring into bright blue pools.
Everything stopped. The soot and ash that had been falling seemed to freeze in place and float suspended in time, the laughter went silent, the words of the man faded away into a spot far in the back of Lyn's mind. Her tears froze from falling as she looked into the swirling pools before her.
"Jack?" She asked softly and the eyes crinkled in a smile. And slowly the rest of his face came into view, but it wasn't the happy face she knew, it was bloody and bruised, though he still wore his happy lopsided smile filled with mischief. "What happened?" She asked desperately.
"You failed, ran away, all because you thought you could find a different way to fix this. There was only one way, and you know it. You knew it all along. But you were selfish. You killed us." He said in a deep monotone voice, his face not reflecting his words at all as his smile continued to stretch across his face. Lyn shook her head as slowly he was overtaken with smoke and she began to feel the tainted air fill her lungs, forcing her to cough and choke and her eyes to water.
Suddenly the laughter and accusing words were back, screaming and echoing around her. She desperately looked around the clearing trying to find Jack again. "Jack!" She screamed, trying to have her voice heard over the sounds of everything else, "Jack, Please!" She fell to the ground on all fours and struggled to lift her head, "Please." She choked out, pleading for him to come.
Her vision slowly went black and she saw the outline of a body, a shepherd's hook hanging over his shoulder, and as she fell to the ground and her vision faded completely she heard Jack's final words echo in the clearing, "You killed us."
Lyn shot up out of bed, panting and gasping as she felt she still had to expel the smoke that had filled the clearing. She looked around the small room anxiously before rubbing her eyes and groaning; she then threw her legs over the side of the bed and looked at the nightstand with her phone sitting on it through her fingers. She sighed and reached over to grab it, and looking at the screen noticed that she had about seven missed calls from her mom within the last hour and close to forty-three texts. She decided to just ignore those and looked at the time; it was barely past 2:00 in the afternoon, so with a groan as she moved her sore body she got out of bed. As she stretched she glanced back at the bed to make sure that her body came with her and smiled when she saw the bed was empty. She slowly walked out of the room and towards the kitchen to get a glass of water, these dreams were getting weirder and more intense, though this was the first one where Tiamat hadn't spoken and taunted her, but who was that man? Every time she felt like she was getting closer to figuring this out she was thrown back to square one. He kept going on about some weapon, and how she possessed it, but she didn't have anything but a spirit that didn't want to stay in her body. As she walked into the kitchen she saw a not left on the table so she picked it up and read it.
Sweetie, you seemed to need sleep so I wanted to
let you know that I ran to do some errands and do some
babysitting for a close friend, I will be back later tonight,
if you go out I just ask that you let me know.
Love you, Grandma
She smiled at the note and set it back on the table before walking to the fridge and pulling out the gallon of milk and taking a long drink from it before sighing and putting it back in the fridge. She looked around the house for a moment before taking a deep breath and running back to her room and grabbing her bag and her notebook and bolting out the door and down the street towards the library she had seen them pass on the drive from the airport. She quickly pulled out her phone and shot a text off to her grandmother notifying her of where she was going. As she walked down the sidewalk she let her eyes scan the town around her, it looked different than the last time she had been here, more so than seemed logical. But she assumed that that made sense if her hypothesis was right and the two worlds were being somehow pushed together. From what she could tell, this town was turning into Burgess. Which she was trying to consider just coincidence, but that seemed farfetched. As she turned to walk into the library she froze as she looked across the way and saw a group of children playing in the snow. She knew them. She saw Jamie running around with his friends and she felt her breathing stopped as she scanned the area carefully, trying and hoping she could find Jack. But he wasn't there. She sighed and made her way into the building.
She was greeted softly by the woman at the front desk asking her if she needed anything. She smiled but shook her head as she made her way to the computers, intent on finding out all she could about the woman her grandmother identified as Tiamat. So she sat down and pulled out her notebook and pen and set about researching, she found multiple books that she could check out and read through and after she had found them all she took them to a table tucked away in the corner and began going through them. She had everything from basic Babylonian Mythology books to the Enuma Elish and every book that had Tiamat in the title. She found herself with stacks and stacks of books to go through and she began carefully looking through each and every one
Hours had passed, she looked again at her phone and saw that the time read 8:00 pm, she knew that she need to leave, and the library would be closing soon anyways. She rubbed her eyes as she looked down at the tenth book she had looked through that day. Most of them did not prove to be useful, the mythology book and the Enuma Elish seemed to be her best bets. She grabbed them off the table and stuffed her notebook and pen into her bag and walked to the front of the library where the quiet woman still sat and she wordlessly handed over her card and checked out the two books. She thanked the woman and made her way back to her grandmother's house, hoping that they hadn't sounded alarms yet as she emerged to the dark night. She knew she had told her grandma where she was going but she was there for six hours, so she wouldn't put it past her family to freak out with everything going on. With that thought in mind she quickly made her way down the street, pulling out her phone and texting her grandma that she was heading home. She got stopped at a light and pushed the button to allow her to walk and she waited. She looked around again and saw on the other side of the road the path that leads down to the lake. She glanced towards her grandma's house before turning and crossing the street to the lake. She made her way down the path and stopped at the water's edge. Unsurprisingly the lake was completely frozen over, she looked out across the frozen surface, unsure of what she was looking for but she simply sighed before turning back to walked up the path. Almost on autopilot she made it back to her grandma's house and walked through the door, turning to shut it behind her she called out to the house.
"Grandma, I'm home." She said as she turned back to the house and saw her grandma asleep on the couch. She smiled softly and walked up to her and pulled the blanket she had around her waist up over her shoulders. She patted her head and turned to the kitchen to find some food, choosing to make a sandwich before heading off to her room. Once in the room she pulled the books out and sat on the bed, continuing her research, notes now scribbled all over the pages of her notebook as she would write things down, then cross them out, drawing arrows connecting things and trying to decipher the mystery of what was going on. As she ate her sandwich she turned the page in the mythology book and froze as she saw a familiar sight, the scorpion men we depicted on a tablet, she quickly read the description and discovered that they were one of eleven monsters Tiamat had created to seek revenge on those that killed her lover.
"Eleven?" She asked to herself, that means there were so many more. She continued to look through those pages and began jotting down all the monsters and their descriptions, she looked at her notebook as she realized that she wasn't going to be able to do this on her own. But she didn't know who she could ask to help. She didn't know if the Guardians existed anymore, and even if they did, how was she supposed to reach them before Tiamat did? She put her notebook down on the bed and continued to read and take notes late into the night until before she realized sleep took over and she was out with the books still open on her bed.
I hope you guys enjoyed that, I want to wish everyone a happy new years and hope that everyone ahs survive this year relatively unscathed and healthy. I hope to see you all in the new year still active and reading and writing pieces of your own. Please leave me a review of what you think of the story so far. Until next time my loverlies!
-Badjuju out