Chapter 14: The Highway that Once Was?

“That’s it?” Rex asked Renenutet as they lay by the tree.

“Yesss that it is it,” she replied.

“What happened to Spiculus? What happened to Nero? What happened to your child?”

“You wisssh to know more?” she asked him. “I figure I take a break and sssee if you were ssstill paying attentttion. Usssually you humansss fall asssleep after telling of sssuch talesss.”

The Citrus tree still provided shade from the hot sun that permeated the highway. The burning tank in the distance, along with the dead bodies of the fallen, was around the area. Ryujin had put his crystal away as he looked in the distance as he was in deep thought.

“Thingsss did not work ssso well for me,” Renenutet commented to Rex. “I waited for four yearsss in the desssssert for my child to hatch. Ssshe finally did and crawled out of the dirt. Her name would be Kahi, who is still alive today.”

“I can’t believe that Satan is in your ranks.”

“Wasss...” she remarked as she shifted her body and her coils. “He wasss our main blacksssmith before the bombsss fell. After that, he disssappeared. One of my other daughters hasss taken over the role happily sssince then.”

“Hmmm,” Rex thought out loud. “So, what happened to the rest of the story?”

Renenutet’s eyes looked down at the dirt. “I tried to sssummon Ssspiculusss to witnessss the hatching of our daughter. It was 68AD, and I wasss unable to do it. I did not learn until much later on that Nero killed himssself when the Sssenate declared war on him. Nero tried to have Ssspiculusss come to help him kill himssself, but the people sssaw him asss an enemy and lapdog to Nero. They killed him.”

“I am so sorry,” Rex shook his head.

There was a small tear on her eye. “It wasss my fault too. I could have done more, but I didn’t. We godsss make missstakesss too. He gave me what I wanted, and now I have it. Kahi isss a wonderful daughter and in her human form looksss very much like her father.”

“Interesting,” he remarked. “What about the slaves?”

“I never sssaw them again. I did try to teleport sssome gold to Rassshida, but I don’t know if ssshe ever got it or not. I tried to find her eventually, but ssshe vanissshed long after Nero was dead.”

“What about everything else?”

“After Nero died, I took Kahi as we walked around Rome to try out her human form for the firssst time. It wasss a beautiful placcce.”

“You had mentioned about Cataclysm. You said that a lot of the deities were lost or killed from it. Is everyone from your family, alright?”

There was a long pause as Renenutet looked away and back to the dirt. She was quiet as she thought about it. She seemed hesitant in answering that question.

“I lossst four children that I had sssinccce I told you that story. Wadjet, Nehebkau, Kahi, and another child named Meretsssegar named after another fallen Egyptian Goddess that I had with another human being alive. I am alssso a grandmother too.”

“This other man, is he still alive?”

She shook her head as she closed her eyes. “He died of old age eight yearsss ago. He died happy, though.”

“That actually sounds recent. He must have been a good man for you to be with somebody like that.”

She opened up her eyes and looked at him. “Yesss, but that isss another tale for another time...”

Not far from Renenutet and Rex, Estrella was recovering as well from the recent events. Theo looked at her. Then she would look at the environment before looking back at Ryujin. They both heard some of what the snake goddess was talking about to Rex. Estrella was watching Rex as he sat comfortably.

“He looks relaxed,” she commented to Theo. The hot sun was burning down as usual. Estrella was getting close to the edge of the tree’s shade as she sat down to make herself comfortable again. The small amount of grass and dirt was dry due to the weather and lack of much rain.

“He is,” Theo replied. She smiled a little bit as the minotaur’s tail flicked in the air as she sat down to rest in the dirt not far from the two talking. Her towering form was resting comfortably on the soil and grass. She pressed her large four fingers to the earth, feeling the sand below her legs and hooves.

“It is amazing,” Estrella commented. “I just ... I know seeing all of you. I just have a hard time getting used to seeing such creatures as yourself, how you have all gotten away without us knowing it. How did we not know you existed?”

Theo’s bovine eyes looked at her as she was not far from her. “We have had our share of encounters and close calls,” Theo replied. “It’s a matter if anybody came back to tell the tale if we took them in, or somebody saw us, and they either believed them or didn’t believe them. We do everything in our power to ensure that information does not get loose. Some of us believe we should no longer hide anymore amongst you humans and that we should reveal ourselves to you. Some believe that it is not necessary or that you humans have progressed or was ... to the point that you wouldn’t look at us as gods but just other sentient life that lives amongst you.”

“Your mother, she is like you?”

“Yes, she is. She is the goddess of labyrinths, among other abilities. She can create whole mazes for you to traverse and solve.”

“That is amazing,” Estrella commented.

Theo smiled. “That is true. She always had fun putting me in her mazes and watch me try to resolve them. Of course, there were other abilities she had, as well.”

“What type of abilities?”

“She is the goddess of wine, the goddess of weaving, and the goddess of fertility. She also became the recent goddess of...”

“Weaving?” Estrella interrupted her.

“Yes.”

“Yes, she can craft cloth from her hands with ease. Not to say she is the only one that can do this, all the deities and even some other non-deities have some form of magic they can use. If we don’t, we usually have magic crystals, which can help provide for some abilities here and there.”

“I bet your mother is proud of you. What about your father?”

“He is an older man now. His name is Toha Smith...” she paused as she was in a wave of nostalgia.

Estrella had already heard a little bit, but she decided to change the subject.

“Let me ask you something, Theo.”

“What is it?”

“I see you eyeing me,” Estrella commented to her. “You have been scanning me a lot. Do you have something to tell me?”

“No ... no,” the bovine shook her head. “I just think that you are beautiful.”

Estrella blushed a little bit. “Thank you.”

Theo decided to change the subject a little bit.

“Tell me. You have been alive for over sixty years. You actually saw what life was like, and yet you don’t age. What was it like to live and watch things change all this time?”

Theo thought about it for a short bit. “I remember many things. I saw the time when the Great Depression happened. I saw WW2. I joined the Coalition of Deities, but I was not ready to go into the fight or serve on the missions yet. Korean War was the first chance I had to see a little bit of action as we began to search for the shards.”

“Korea?”

“Yep, I was training with another team. I was with two others as we went through the area in search of the shards. Another team also scouted the area as well. They were to train me as well.”

“How do you end up serving in the war?” Estrella asked.

“Well ... we don’t actually go to war. When you humans begin to fight each other, it creates a magical disruption that we pick up. The problem is that those disruptions are the same as the Lintarsha shard when they are unearthed. It is our responsibility to find all the shards, and that ends up causing us to appear in your wars. Of course, we do our best to stay out the way and not interfere. Sometimes though, others that want to bring ill harm participate in conflicts to complete some deed or accomplish something.”

“Wow, so like every war there would be what? ... teams like yourself that travel around in a warzone to find these crystals? What about the Mexican Revolution?”

Theo thought about it for a moment. “Let’s see, Quetzacoatl and Uttu were in one team, and another was Chalchiuhtlicue, Ammit, and one of her sons in another. I can’t remember her son’s name; she has so many kids now.”

“The Aztec deities...” she remarked, hearing some of their names.

“And Mayans,” Theo corrected. “Sad that not many of the Central and South American mythics made it after Cataclysm, but they help when they can in those regions.”

“Incredible...” Estrella said, playing with a leaf on the ground. She looked back at her as she was in deep thought. “So ... all you gods or mythics as you call yourselves ... is there a beginning?”

“What do you mean?” Theo asked cocking her head. The feathers on her hair shook a little bit.

“I mean that every religion has some belief in what came first. A lot of them all believe that life came from one way or another. How did the gods come into existence?”

Theo nodded as she tried to make sense of the question. “Ah ... you mean, is there some fundamental belief that we feel what came into existence? Well ... with so many of us, we all have our beliefs. I was told never to bring this sort of information to humans. It could influence...”

“I understand,” Estrella interrupted. “I ... well I guess it doesn’t matter much anymore. I had my beliefs until the bombs fell. Then all of that got turned upside down. I just wanted to hear more about what you mythics believe.”

Theo scratched the back of her neck. “I guess it’s alright to tell you since all of it will change anyway. Perhaps we will have this conversation again anyway if I can undo the damage that Frieshutz did. So be it.”

Estrella shifted herself to sit cross-legged. She brushed an ant that tried to crawl up her leg.

“We mythics all have our beliefs. Mine was easier than most. I came from my mom and dad. If only that were easy for the other mythics. There are other children born from the mythics together with mythics and mythics that bonded with humans. Those stories are easy to tell. The question you ask is what came before that. The fact is that some gods will say that they birthed the world or created it in some fashion. Some gods will say that they brought forth the other gods and that they are right and the others are wrong.”