LEGEND OF THE GODDESSES
polar rainforest, 18,295,296 years ago
Since the day that blast of magic had turned her eyes an ethereal blue, the tiny black serpent had been growing steadily. Not only had she gained magical power, but it couldn't have been plainer now that she was immortal… and she was fairly certain that she would never stop growing.
In the space of a million years, she had grown from a diminutive four inches to an impressive sixteen feet, but hadn't stopped there. After more than six and a half million years of traveling the world a hundred times over, the serpent who now slipped between the trees of the lush tropical jungle found at the south pole had a length of over a hundred feet. Her four flippers were still rather large, but hadn't grown quite as much as her body; they couldn't possibly keep her aloft now, but the serpent still retained the ability to fly by use of magic.
Now, her long and pointy snout sniffed the moist air of the rainforest as she floated out amongst the treetops.
"Nature," she hissed disdainfully. She reached out with her forked tongue and plucked a spiny fruit from a tree. "Ssso coarssse and unattractive," she sneered. "What good is the earth'sssss way of desssigning thingsss?"
She held out the fruit and opened her mouth wide. As she exhaled, a spray of gray dust burst out of her mouth and enveloped the fruit, modifying its shape until it became a perfect gray cube.
"A cube," the serpent said with perverse delight. "Flawlesssss. Why doesss nature not ssssstrive for sssuch perfection?"
Suddenly, a light appeared from above, bathing the serpent in a gold-and-silver glow. "Hold fast, goddess," said a voice. "We would have a word with you."
The serpent dissolved into nothing.
A second later, she found herself floating in a void of black. Her eyes darted around suspiciously.
"Greetings, goddess."
Blue lights appeared on the floor, row after row of perfectly straight blue lines that ran as far as the eye could see. A glowing figure approached the serpent.
The figure was like nothing that existed in the world—little did anyone know that its basic shape, that of a hoofed mammal, would someday be the standard for intelligent life. Though not identifiable at this period in time, this individual's species would someday be recognizable as a macrauchenia. Its fur was silver and glowed like starlight; its mane and tip of its tail were so white that they appeared to be two-dimensional. Its eyes were solid blue orbs not unlike those of the serpent, though the serpent at least had pupils, and the creature was draped in a filmy lace peplos.
The serpent lit up at the sight of the macrauchenia, bowing down to her. "Ssstellarisssss," she said grandly. "Queen of the Old Godsss and ruler of the sssssun, moon, and ssstars. 'Tisss an honor."
Stellaris nodded once. "And you honor me. We have taken note of you, young goddess—never before has our world been graced with a mortal who became immortal. Join me."
Stellaris walked along, and the serpent floated alongside her, her head level with the queen's and her immensely long body trailing far behind. The endless lines of blue faded away, and the two were suddenly in a tunnel, though it was also lined with similar blue lights.
"I would hardly call myssself 'young'," the serpent said. "I've been immortal for jussst under ssssseven ages. Why sssssummon me only now?"
"Yes, well, seven million years isn't as long as you might think," Stellaris mused. "Why do you suppose we're called the Old Gods when there are no new gods? Some of us predate the world itself. And to the world, seven million years is not such a long time."
The serpent nodded, understanding.
"Well, no new gods… until you," Stellaris clarified, giving her a sideways smile. "That's an immense alteration the likes of which the world has never seen. We must decide what must be done with you."
"Done… with me?" the serpent repeated, blinking.
"Indeed," Stellaris said. "Oh, don't be nervous, we merely want to become acquainted with you and learn of your future endeavors. Hold on a moment…" She held up a hoof to block the serpent's path. She looked straight at the tunnel wall. A portion of the wall vanished, leading into a void of darkness. The serpent found herself drawn into the strangely heavy void.
"Ohhhhh, Stellaris, what have you done?" said a rumbling voice, with a subtle hiss beneath its words and a deep echo. "Who is this?"
Stellaris glared into the gloom. "Well, it's not as if you have any right to know, but this is the world's newest god."
"Is that right?" said the sinister voice. "A new pawn in your game?"
"The game is over, Beast," Stellaris said coolly. "Your loss was all-consuming. This one is as much a god as you or I, she is no pawn."
An eye appeared in the darkness. The eye was perfectly round, with a bloodshot yellow sclera, a green iris, and black lines in the shape of a pentagram for a pupil. "Oh? Well, best of luck to you, 'new goddess'. Let me get a look at you." A leg extended from the darkness, a long black leg shaped like a crooked archway, ending in a sinister hook rather than a foot.
"Don't look at him!" Stellaris urged, turning the serpent's gaze away. "As for you, be silent!"
Stellaris raised a hoof, and the glowing tunnel wall reappeared. Just as soon, the tunnel around them faded, and they were now inside an immense cloth tent, with alternating stripes of pure darkness and the now-familiar blue glow.
"Who wasss that?" the serpent inquired.
"He is 'the Beast'," Stellaris said solemnly. "He is not like the other Old Gods. He is… pure evil. For crimes against the biosphere itself, he is imprisoned here until further notice. Should he step out of line again, we shall have to take more drastic precautions."
A small portal of spinning orange fire opened in the air in front of the serpent, and a creature's head poked out. It was covered in scaly maroon skin and had a long, crooked neck. Its eyes were slanted and white, and it had a long black hooked beak filled with sharp teeth. On the back of the creature's head was a huge, pointed black crest.
"What do we have here?" the creature said in a loud, nasal voice. Two other portals opened beneath it, and two long skinny arms emerged. The hands at the ends of these arms each had two long, clawed fingers and a hooked thumb, and the serpent noticed that rather than a left and right arm, both arms appeared to be right.
The hands cupped the serpent's face. "I've had my eye on you," the creature said. "You're into symmetry and smooth surfaces. Kind of freaky, but we can work with that. Good to have you on board, I've felt for a long time that we needed some new blood here in this god crowd, you know? Isn't that right, brother?"
He vanished in a puff of red smoke. Another two portals appeared; out of one came a head, the same color as the other, but this one had a jawless circular mouth like a lamprey's, lined with black lips and filled with rows of teeth. Its eyes were black circles, and a row of spines ran down the back of its head. The single arm that accompanied it was similar to those of the first creature, but with seven fingers.
The hand stroked the serpent's skin. "Mmmmm… smooth," it said in slurred speech, before vanishing just like the first had.
The beaked creature's head appeared behind Stellaris, and its hands grasped the sides of the queen's neck. "Please tell me she gets to live, Stellaris! You wouldn't be so cold-hearted as to drive all the great prospects of the first new goddess ever so unceremoniously into the ground?"
"Her fate is her own, of course," said Stellaris. "Unless she starts acting like you two, that is."
The creature's two hands went up in the air. "Aw, don't say that, Stellaris, my lovely peach, my delicious rib bone, my moon and sun and stars. Did we introduce ourselves? I don't believe we did."
He popped out of sight, and five portals appeared directly in front of the serpent, the two faces and three arms poking through them and gesturing grandly and wildly.
"Weeeee arrre the secrets of the world!" said the beaked beast. "The truths of the universe! THE LORDS OF FLAMES AND TERRORRRRRRRR!"
They vanished again, and a large portal appeared up above. A single creature dropped down onto the ground. Indeed, the serpent was only mildly surprised to realize that both of the strange creatures inhabited the same body.
"Kane!" the beaked head declared.
"Aaaaaaand Boll!" said the lamprey-mouthed head.
Kane and his two arms were on the right side of the body, Boll and his seven-fingered hand on the left; Kane's long neck caused him to tower a head over Boll. Their body was lizardlike, bipedal but hunched over. The leg on Kane's side was a four-toed talon, Boll's a black cloven hoof. Their back was covered in a mess of long black quills, and their long and stiff tail was lined with white spikes.
Most alarming were the two spots on their chest, just beneath their two throats: bright red masses of tissue, as if their two hearts had been ripped out and the wounds never fully healed.
As the two-headed Old God posed, their circus-tent-like surroundings vanished. Kane and Boll looked around wildly at the nothingness.
"What just happened?" Kane asked. "Who killed the lights?"
"Do ignore them," Stellaris assured the serpent. "They have not yet earned the right to speak to you—they're not nearly as bad as the Beast, but they, too, are imprisoned, at least for a while."
Stellaris and the serpent wandered away from Kane and Boll.
"They don't look imprisssoned," the serpent observed, turning her head back toward them. Boll was flicking the spines on her back as her lengthy body continued passing by him.
"Trust me, they are," said Stellaris. "Nothing horrendous, they just have a fondness for creating worldwide nightmares and setting people on fire. But that's why you're here… so I may determine what kind of goddess you are. Are you the sort who wishes to torment the mortals and leave the world in ruins? Or are you the other sort, like we who shall be looking you over, who simply want the world to continue turning precisely as it is?"
"Isss there a third kind?" the serpent asked evasively.
"Not that I can think of," said Stellaris. "Unless you wish to live among the mortals, guide them somehow? But what sort of god does that?"
The serpent shook her head. "No, that'sss not the life I want," she said. Under her breath, she added, "Ssssso I'll have to take a fourth option."
The blue light that occasionally permeated the nothingness in which they travelled now solidified into a landscape of grass and dirt.
"Now is the time to introduce you to the three Old Gods who are currently in my favor and free to make their own decisions," said Stellaris. "I expected the twins by now, and Carto should arrive soon after. Are you familiar with them?"
"No, only with you," the serpent admitted.
"Well, then I should warn you, the twins were born in an era when the universe was at its most chaotic, and it shows. Ah, here comes one now."
A swarm of gigantic orange scorpions came rolling across the landscape, stopping reverently in front of Stellaris.
"Greetings, my queen," the swarm said in one voice. "And to you, new goddess. I am Hukwurm."
The serpent stared in disbelief as every individual scorpion transformed into a red-and-black tarantula. The spiders started scrambling over each other in an attempt to get a better look at the serpent.
"Hukwurm is but one individual, but he takes the form of this swarm," Stellaris explained. "A swarm of any manner of primitive creature, depending upon his mood."
"Yeah, but he has some control over it," said a cheerful female voice. "Me, not so much."
The serpent looked around frantically, her eyes setting upon a tiny green frog. The frog waved to her, and its outline wavered and swirled just before it abruptly turned into a huge alligator.
"Hello! I'm Shifter," the alligator said in that very same cheerful voice. A second later, its image blurred once more and transformed into a dimetrodon. "See? Epitome of chaos. Can't get a hold on it."
"I think the newcomer is a bit perturbed by us, sister," the numerous spiders who made up Hukwurm noted.
"Can't blame her," said Shifter, who was now a coiled python, which transformed immediately into an enormous tortoise with a long, hooked beak. "She used to be a mortal. She doesn't see all the energy of the universe like we do. How sad!"
The serpent snarled.
"At ease," Stellaris said gently. "Ah, and here is the last of our number. My sister for all intents and purposes, she is called Carto."
The final Old God floated slowly into their midst, a relatively small creature the color of dust. In the future, the shape of her face would have identified her as a pony, though no such creature existed at the time. Her body, however, was like nothing that would ever exist: her four limbs and her tail were long and boneless paddles, which she flapped very slowly to move through the air. Her face was covered in nicks and scratches, and where her eyes would be there were veiny flaps of burn-scarred skin.
"Greetings, sister," said Stellaris. "It's good that we're all now gathered here to meet…" She paused, and turned to the serpent. "Have you a name, goddess?"
"No," the serpent admitted.
Stellaris smiled at her. "Well, then perhaps now would be a good time to give yourself one."
The serpent nodded. "Allow me a moment to think it over."
Carto placed a flipper on the back of Stellaris' neck and leaned in. "Styellaris, my syister, heed my wyords—thyis gyoddess shyall be tryouble."
"How so?" Stellaris whispered back.
"Her hyeart is full of blyackness," Carto said. "I see her dyesire for pyerfection tyaking her to a tyerrible place, to the ryuin and dyestruction of the nyatural order."
Stellaris frowned, observing the serpent's thoughtful expression.
"It is not our way to destroy creatures for what they might do," Stellaris said. "For almost seven million years she's done nothing but observe. What evidence do you have that her pattern will ever change?"
Carto shrugged. "Only whyat my dryeaming eye syees."
"Well, duly noted," said Stellaris. "We'll keep an eye on her, but now is not the time to act against her so hastily."
"Mitgaeard," the serpent decided. "My name isss Mitgaeard."
"Mitgaeard," Stellaris said thoughtfully. "The Matrix?"
"Hmm, no, I am not the Matrixsss," the serpent muttered. "Make it… Sssssørmur dï Mitgaeard."
"'Serpent of the Matrix'," Stellaris said, nodding. "A good name."
"Byeware," Carto said gravely. "I syee nyo gyood syigns."
"Understood," Stellaris muttered back to her. "Very well… all of the gods are now acquainted with one another. Fare thee well, Sørmur dï Mitgaeard. We shall return you to the world now."
"Shall our pathsss crosssss again?" she asked.
"Oh, no doubt about that," said Shifter, now a huge red salamander which was on fire. She quickly became a feathery gray velociraptor, then giggled and disappeared in a spray of rainbow sparkles.
"After all, we've got all of eternity," Hukwurm agreed. The tarantulas changed into bright green millipedes, which scattered in all directions, vanishing in similar sparkles all around the landscape.
Stellaris waved her hoof at Sørmur dï Mitgaeard, and she too disappeared.
"I lyike it nyot, Styellaris," said Carto. "We invyite our dyeaths from thyis one."
"And what do you intend to do about it, Carto?"
Carto shrugged. "We're the Old Gyods. We dyon't ryeally do anythying."
Stellaris chuckled. "Quite, and I rather like it that way. Let's hope that any and all 'new gods' uphold the tradition."