Beneath The Mantle by Kerp Ahimsa

Author:Kerp, Ahimsa [Kerp, Ahimsa]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Publisher: Severed Press
Published: 2015-03-03T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

I have read a lot of travel blogs, but not a single one that started with something like this: today I witnessed a demigod fall in battle to two others. I grabbed the staff of one of them and shot fire at it until it flew away in the sky. I punched a different demigod in the junk, and seconds later, he was burnt to a cinder.

There were blogs like that out there but they are full of stories of chem-trails, mind-controlling fluoride, conspiracies of aliens, and inter-dimensional beings. Crazy people talk. Is that what I’ve become? A crazy person?

That word no longer seems particularly relevant. Everything since I got to Argentina has been crazy, and that’s especially true these last few days. Hmm. I can’t really say days. It’s always the same here, that purple sky. Truth is, I have no idea how long we’ve been down here. We’ve slept, walked, eaten, fought, swum, walked again, and yet it could be two days or ten. When I think about the people we left on the ship, I worry. But their fate seems far away not connected to me, to us. Like when you hear a flood in Bangladesh just killed a million people. It’s sad but not on a personal level.

I threw away the staff of Ra after using it to drive away our enemy. I felt dirty, sick from using it. But Keshav has it now. He argued—not wrongly—that it was better to have it and not need it than the other way around. Many are the perils of this land, and we are otherwise unarmed.

After the battle, we were all tired, sick, and in shock, but it wasn’t exactly the kind of place you hang around. We left, walking slowly. With the wandering boots on, we could inherently find the way. The forest grew thicker around us, and we all felt the eyes of unseen beasts on us. We could here birds talking, creatures growling, things scurrying in the underbrush. We stayed on the path, though, and nothing confronted us.

There was some thought of going back. The aspects of Ra left their ship. But somehow that made it all seem so meaningless. We must reach Graben. What will happen there is anyone’s guess. But they must know we are no threat. Hell, we’re not even knowledgeable enough to be pawns.

Keshav and I talked about it on the walk. We’re not entirely sure we’re on the right side. Or that there is a right side. The agents of Ra, well they did lead a golem army against Selvage, but those golems weren’t really alive. They did kill Nala and drove away Ek Chuaj. But only after each attacked them.

I wish I knew more about Ra. Not that our myths would be super helpful knowing about Omphalos. But is he like Zeus—blustery and hot-tempered but a dependable guy? Or is he like Odin—a sinister god, a plotting Machiavellian dude?

I just re-read my last paragraph. Maybe I am going crazy, if these are my thoughts.

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