Happy new year everybody! We’re still alive!

 

 

 

 

“There, easy now. I got you.”

Oteo’s heart sank as the woman’s voice vibrated the air around him. He was clenched uncomfortably in her hand, his arm having been pinned behind him, as the Titan carefully drew him out from the ventilation shaft and into the light of the spaceport.

He’d been so close to freedom. For the first time since he’d left Avalon, Oteo thought he’d made free of the demons that held him prisoner. As he had many times since he’d foolishly left his home in the Frosted Valley, he cursed the series of foolish decisions that had led him to this point.

There was a jolt followed by a mechanical rumble as the enormous being lowered the platform she’d been standing on to try and capture them all. Oteo didn’t move, didn’t react as the golden haired one lowered him into a cage held by another female demon, which was quickly locked behind him.

“Welcome back. Have a fun little adventure, did you?” The other human occupant asked snidely. “Where’s your friend?”

“Hopefully getting far from here, Lishda.” Oteo snapped. “I can accept my fate if it means that Mihiya was able to escape these demons.”

“Demons?” Lishda chuckled. “What are you on about?”

But Oteo didn’t respond. He stared out through the grating of the cage as they were carried through the spaceport.

He never expected to be so far away from his home. He never expected his visit to Atlantis to turn out this way.

All he ever wanted was to see the gods…

Oteo had grown up in a village located at the far northern edge of Aventine, almost to the border of the unexplored Northern Territory. He had grown up hearing tales of the gods that walked in Atlantis and protected that holy city. His whole life Oteo had wanted nothing more than to see the divine beings, to experience what it was like to stand in their presence.

Of course he heard rumors that the “gods” were nothing more than maculate beings of enormous proportions, but Oteo was sure that couldn’t be the case.

When he reached his adulthood, Oteo elected to make a pilgrimage to Atlantis, where the gods walked the streets.

A slight jolt brought Oteo back to the present. The giant being that held their cage lowered herself into a seating position and placed their container on her lap.

Oteo sighed. Though she looked like one of the gods, he knew that couldn’t be the truth. The stories mentioned that demons could take a similar form to the gods, but their actions would always reveal their true nature.

Oteo was in a cage, and gods did not put people into cages.

*.*.*.*

“Step back!”

Oteo turned towards the voice, even as the crowd surged around him and pushed him back away from the street. At first he was confused as to what was going on, until he felt the tremors in the ground.

He felt his mouth go dry and his heart rate increased suddenly. There was only one thing Oteo knew of that could possibly be causing those tremors he felt beneath his own feet. He craned his neck in anticipation; finally he would glimpse one of the gods.

He wondered excitedly which it would be. Rixie the protective warrior? Zara the gentle caretaker? Perhaps Taron, the builder?

Maybe he would see the Queen of Heaven herself.

The ground beneath Oteo rumbled again and he could hear the muffled sound of a giant voice echoing through the city, though he could not yet make out the words.

Within minutes a shadow fell over the street, and Oteo found himself in the presence of a divine being. The first thing Oteo saw were the sandaled feet carefully picking their way through the city street, ever mindful of the people around her; though the populace was obviously keeping a respectful distance from her.

The goddess wore green pants that came down to about her claves and a pink shirt tied up to reveal a pale pink midriff, in a style that was common to Atlantean youth. Her hair was long, curly and the color of a setting sun; and on her body she wore metallic silver jewelry that glinted in the sunlight. Over her shoulder the carried a large brown bag that looked to be the size of Oteo’s childhood home.

“Whew.” The goddess sighed. She set her bag down on the ground, sending another muted rumbled through the dirt beneath Oteo’s feet. “That walk from the mountain sure doesn’t get any shorter.” She lowered her hand to the ground and, much to Oteo’s surprise, a woman with dark hair hopped down from the palm of her hand.

The human woman said something which made the goddess grin.

“Easy for you to say, I carried you the whole way here.” Another response came from the woman, which Oteo didn’t hear.

The goddess knelt and opened her bag, rummaging around in it for a moment. Now that the spectacle of the enormous being moving through the city was finished, many of the other spectators seemed content to continue about their day; a fact which Oteo found unbelievable.

“Please sir.” He asked a passing man. “Which goddess is this?”

“Goddess?” The man blinked in surprise. “Who… you mean her? I think her name is Myona or something. Don’t see her very much, usually comes by to tweak the holos.”

Oteo nodded in understanding. Although he had no idea what a ‘holo’ was, heard of Myona before. Though she didn’t appear very often (at least in comparison to some of the other gods) Myona was considered to be a Goddess of Magic among Oteo’s people. She was friendly and cheerful and had blessed the holy city with many wondrous gifts and visions.

Oteo thanked the man and allowed him to move on. Instead he turned back to the magnificent being in front of him. She and her companion had paused in front of a large metal plate that was fixed into the ground. As Oteo watched, she took a long rod that was taller than he was and inserted it under the plate. A moment later the plate lifted from the ground and Myona carefully set it on the street beside her.

Oteo was, once again, amazed. The plate probably weighed twenty times what he did but the giant woman just lifted it like a piece of paper.

The goddess and her human companion (who Oteo assumed to be some sort of priestess or hierophant) conversed although nothing they said made any sense to Oteo. He would occasionally catch a phrase or term from their conversation, but things like “processor bank;” “light refragmenter” and “flux capacitor” meant nothing to him.

Still, he was quite content to bask in the presence of the divine being. This, after all, was why he’d come to Atlantis in the first place.

After about an hour, Myona leaned back on her heels. She reached behind her to grab the large metal plate, which she lowered back into its original position. “Alright Shaar, I think we’re set.”

“Right.”

The street lights that lined the sidewalk flickered with a red and blue light. Oteo’s eyes widened in surprise as shapes began to form in the air around him. Light seemed to coalesce into fully formed horses and. The animals cantered in the street for a moment before suddenly blinking out of existence. The lights shone again and a flock of brightly colored birds swooped down from the ether. The flock swirled in front of Myona’s smiling face before they also vanished back into nothingness.

A crack appeared in the middle of the street and then, as if time had suddenly sped to a blinding pace, a green shoot rose from the break in the road. The vine grew taller and taller until it was higher than all the buildings around it before the top burst open to reveal a red and yellow flower that cast a shadow over the entire area.

And then, like the birds and horses before it, it vanished from the world. Not even the fissure in the road remained.

Oteo swallowed and took a deep breath to try and calm his thumping heart. He had just witnessed a miracle. It could be nothing less than that.

He was enthralled with the giant woman. Oteo became gripped with a sudden obsessive madness. He had to know what was in the bag the goddess carried. What secret treasures she possessed.

After checking to make sure he wasn’t being watched, Oteo snuck over to the satchel, which towered over him and engulfed him in its shadow. The stitching was large enough to use for hand and footholds and in almost no time at all, Oteo had scaled to the opening of Myona’s bag.

Unfortunately, he wasn’t the only one who was interested in it.

“All right Shaar, I think we’re finished here.”

Myona reached for her bag as she pulled herself to her feet. She didn’t notice the comparatively small human clinging to the side of her bag, and she didn’t see him slip and fall into the opening.

“Come on, if we hurry, we can catch the transport back to Valhalla.”

*.*.*.*

“I’m sorry we were unable to locate the other one ma’am. From looking at your tracker there, she’s made it onto the tram. By now, she’s kilounits from here.”

Oteo’s heart rose at the news that Mihiya, at least, had managed to make it away from their captors. He would endeavor to escape again, especially now that he knew it could be done.

“Can’t be helped.” The giant being holding their cage sighed regretfully. “Hopefully she’ll find somewhere safe.”

“Well, she had a friend with her. I saw three humans.”

“Three? Only two escaped from me.”

“Weird, right?” The woman who captured Oteo chuckled. “Maybe some other pet slipped from her cage too and has been living in the walls.”

“I hope not. Maybe you were just mistaken.”

“Yeah.” The other woman replied in a weary tone of voice. “Maybe. Well, have a safe trip ma’am.”

“I will, thank you.”

*.*.*.*

After what felt like hours of constant movement, Oteo’s world had finally settled. After checking himself for any injuries, (of which there were none, miraculously) he began to climb out of the bag. It took him several minutes to pull himself to the ring of light at the opening, but when he pulled himself to the edge he discovered that the bag was not on the ground. It was on a high shelf, and the goddess was nowhere to be seen.

He tried to be careful, climbing back out of the bag, but about a third of the way down his foot slipped free of the hold he’d been using right as he’d put his full weight on it. Oteo flailed wildly trying to reassert his hold on the leathery fabric, but to no avail.

He fell into the open air and plummeted to the grey carpeting on the ground below. The wind was forcefully knocked from his lungs and Oteo was left lying on the ground. He was still unconscious but stunned.

On the edge of his vision, he saw a massive form walking towards him.

“H…” He tried to say but the only sound he could force from his mouth was a gasp.

“Oh my!” The light above was blocked as a giant form bent over him. It wasn’t Myona. This goddess had tanned skin and long dark hair. Brilliant orange eyes widened as they beheld his prone form. The being reached a hand out and gently rolled Oteo’s body into her palm.

“Don’t worry…” The giant whispered to him. “I’ll take care of you.”

*.*.*.*

Oteo snorted cynically as the memory faded from his mind. “Taking care” had meant putting him into a cage and shipping him off to some strange place with dozens of other caged humans. They’d called it a shelter, but Oteo knew the truth. By climbing into Myona’s bag, he’d crossed a boundary. The gods were punishing him.

He’d been in that shelter for weeks, months perhaps. People would come and go, apparently at the whims of the enormous beings who held them prisoner. Despite being punished, Oteo could tell the gods still showed them mercy. Though he was held against his will, the demons were prohibited from doing them harm.

Then, one day, one of their “caretakers” had arrived and placed Oteo, Mihiya and Lishda into a cage. Before any of them could figure out what was going on, they were taken from the shelter. They were taken to the “spaceport” to await transportation to somewhere else.

Oteo didn’t know where they were going, but he hadn’t wanted to wait around to find out.

When Elena had arrived to free them, he and Mihiya had jumped at the chance.

And now he was back in the cage. His time in this place was not over, the gods had obviously willed it.

At least Mihiya had been able to escape. Perhaps the gods had decided to show her mercy. Maybe one day, they would do the same for him.

The world around them pitched sideways as the giant who bore them made a sudden turn. Though he tried to prevent it, Oteo stumbled over the floor of the cage and into his cellmate.

“Watch it.” Lishda growled.

“Sorry.” Oteo muttered.

“I’m sorry to be so late ma’am, we had a small emergency to deal with before I could meet with you. I hope your trip went well.” The voice of the woman who carried their cage thundered above their heads.

“Well enough, thank you.” Oteo was surprised by the new voice. He peered out through the bars of the cage. Before them stood a dark skinned Titan woman whose cold brown eyes met his own. The woman was shorter than the woman who’d carried them thus far, but that was relative.

“Weren’t there supposed to be three?” The newcomer asked, bending down to peer into the cage.

“I apologize, but that’s partly the reason I was so late. One of them escaped.”

A slight frown marred the woman’s icy beauty. “No matter.” She said, standing up. “These will suffice.”

“Good.” There was another jolt as the handle of their cage was transferred into the other woman’s hand. “I hope you have a pleasant return trip, Miss Miroppi.”