Chapter 9: Uluru

It was an hour later when the two mythics would stop in a platform like an enclave in the mountainside. It was a flat stone crevice that formed naturally from the countless millions of years of weather, erosion, and geo formation that the gecko god would come to a stop to look.

“Is this your home?” Vucub-Caquix asked him.

“Partly...” Adnoartina replied. “All of Australia is my home. I have many places where I rest. I have chosen this place to ... rest for awhile.”

“Nehebkau told me a little bit about you before he went to go get you. I heard about your wife...”

The gecko god closed his eyes as he tried not to think about it. He took a deep breath as he walked to into his enclave. His scaly feet pressed to the hard stone floor as he looked around him. There was a place where there was a gathering of stones that lined the floor. Here a fireplace was present.

The Mayan god followed him into the enclave as he watched the gecko god have a seat. His tail curled up a little bit along the floor as he placed his belongings down next to him.

“Sit wherever you want to,” Adnoartina told him.

Vucub-Caquix’s talon feet would click the stone floor as he walked around inside. He began to notice a series of cave paintings that lined the stone walls around him and a set of small pots with various paints and colors.

“You paint?” he asked, looking at it.

The gecko god looked at the wall. “Yes.”

The Mayan god nodded his head as he went and sat down by the gecko god by the makeshift fireplace. “What are these cave paintings that you drew?”

“These consist of many things. What you see is the history of our people.”

“You mean the mythics?”

“No. It is the history of the aborigines. I am part of these people. They have lived in Australia incredibly longer than many people.”

“I remember hearing that the human mortals that are indigenous to this continent have lived here for tens of thousands of years.”

“Longer ... I wish I knew how long I have been alive. It is possible that I am older than the Sumerian mythics.”

“If it were true, then you would be the oldest mythic to be alive.”

“That and the other Australian mythics... , “ he paused. “For once, I am glad to see someone interested in my paintings except for my former wife.”

“You have spent all these months sitting here in mourning?”

He took a deep breath and nodded his head. “She was beautiful ... she was as old as she could reach, but she was beautiful. Never have I found someone that had more respect for the land than her.”

“The human mortals have always been interesting. Mind me for asking but do you plan on remarrying another?”

Adnoartina seemed to avoid the question as he began adding wood to the fireplace. He stirred the ashes as he began to grab a set of stone flints together. “I don’t know,” he finally replied.

“It is not my business to pry into your affairs,” Vucub said as he adjusted his talon feet into a cross-legged position.

“No ... ugh ... I remember my wife always telling me that I need to be more ... talkative to the other individuals. Apparently, I have a way of pushing people away and avoiding others.”

“As I said, it matters not to me.”

“True ... but I have been here for a while. I went and buried her not far from here. She is with her ancestors now.”

“It sounds like she was quite a mortal to be with.”

There was enough kindling in the fireplace. Adnoartina began to strike the flint together repeatedly over and over near it. The sparks started to hit the kindling over and over again. A little bit of smoke began to appear from it. The gecko god would blow into it over and over again as he tried to get a fire started.

“I am surprised that you don’t use a fire crystal to help start a fire in the first place,” the Mayan god told him.

“I prefer this method. It is like a rhythm ... the mythics rely on the crystals too much. It isn’t to say that we use them as well. We may have certain powers and abilities, but even we are a part of the land. Minawara knows this all too well.”

He once again blew into the kindling when it began to create a small amount of fire from it. He began to add more to it to make the fire bigger and bigger.

“You ask me if I plan on remarrying ... I don’t know. My wife was not only special to me but of something that was a part of this land. She knew the area well. She was truly and purely aborigine. She may have been mortal, but love is blind to those things.”

“It does not help that are so few of us that we choose mortals as our mates.”

“True, but it is more than that. Minawara and the other Australian mythics claim that we have to adjust to the times, but even I remain skeptical about this. It was only until the last several hundred years that the white settlers came here and began to push the native people ... my people away.”

Vucub-Caquix gave him a stern look. “You think that your history is special? You do realize that I come from a people that had something similar to that. The Spanish came in and helped wipe out the people that worshipped me and the other mythics. I have learned that there are some things that we cannot control. Then Cataclysm came...”

The fire began to stir more and more as it got bigger and bigger. The heat began to radiate from the fireplace. Smoke pillared into the air and out of the open enclave. Adnoartina perched his leg up as he looked at the fire.

“My situation is this. The people that I came from were pushed from their lands by other settlers. My wife was one of the original people that lived on her land before she, too, was pushed out. I watched as she grew up and operated off the land like anyone else. She was connected to the land more so than anyone else. If I found another aborigine woman, she would not have the same ... knowledge as her ancestors because her way of life had been raised in new environments. Eventually, the aboriginal people will disappear as they become a part of the white settlers.”

“It is no different than the Mayans. They, too, have become something different now. The once-great Mayan Empire has become what it is. The Central and South American mythics were almost wiped out after Cataclysm.”

Adnoartina sighed. “Even the Australian deities are scattered. What makes things worse was that a sleeper temple was found not long ago. All of it dedicated to the Dreamtime Solution...”

“That was actually a source of good news, though,” Vucub questioned. “Why would that be a bad thing?”

“Simple ... I was not a part of that. Many of the Australian mythics had to agree that the idea of using the Dreamtime as a way to fight Cataclysm was not going to work. Now dead as a result of it. I had to encourage others to drop the idea altogether.”

“Yet now we have six new mythics that are a part of us as a result of it. There are more to be found out there, including possible Central and South American mythics that are waiting to be woken up. I am sure that there is an Australian sleeper temple somewhere on Earth. When that happens, you won’t have to feel as alone as you do.”

“Hmph ... if I do, I will make to punch each one on the nose when they wake up...”

The Mayan god looked around at the paintings behind the gecko god. He took note of each of the drawings and what they depicted.

“What are those?” Vucub asked. “At first, I thought your artwork was shitty, but I notice that those stick figures seemed deliberately drawn that way.”

He turned his head to look behind him. “Those are the Mimis. I had to spend some time trying to explain them to Nehebkau when he was here once. He told me that the idea is similar to what the Europeans call fairies. They are sort of spirit folk that lives here in Australia.”

“Hmmm ... odd that I did not pick them up when I entered here. Are you sure they are not just drawings that you made?”

“No,” Adnoratina gave him a stern look. “They are quite real. The Mimis are long and thin and existed on Earth before the aborigine ever arrived in Australia. The reason why you didn’t pick them up is that they live in different realms. They are so thin that the wind can blow them around easily. They choose to live in the rocks until the wind is at the calmest or when I call them out. It was the Mimi that taught the Aboriginals on how to hunt.”

“They could be invited to join the Coalition of Deities...”

“No,” the gecko god shook his head. “It wouldn’t be possible. This is just one of the many realms that they can live in. The realm that we exist is hard for them even to be around. They would more likely just be here and the other places in Australia where they can live quietly in the rocks not to be disturbed.”

“So that brings the question. What am I doing here sitting in this hollowed-out enclave with you?”

The gecko god held out his scaly hand as he had the crystal sitting on his palm. “There is one way that I can resolve the mystery of this crystal. I must venture into the Dreamtime.”

“What?”

“I will go to sleep and try to find the answers needed. It is the only way that I can think of that will even have a chance at answering this mystery.”

“You do this regularly?”

“I used to ... after my wife passed on, I ... disconnected myself from it,” he shook his head. “No more, it is time.”

Adnoartina picked up the didgeridoo that sat on the stone floor. He handed over a set of small instruments to Vucub-Caquix.

“What are these?” the Mayan god asked him as he took them in his hand.

“They are clapsticks. I want you to begin banging them when I begin playing my instrument.”

The gecko god took his finger and put it into his mouth. He coated it with his saliva as he lifted it into the air. He concentrated a little bit as he measured the wind. He seemed satisfied that the wind was incredibly light. He then took his hand as he pressed it to the stone wall where the drawings were located.

“I call upon you ... all of you to come and help me as I journey to the Dreamtime. The wind is calm. It is safe to come out. I ask that you recreate the music that I play as it will allow me to focus on my mediation and sleep.”

With that, the gecko god took a deep breath and blew into the didgeridoo. The sound was intense and focused as a constant deep rhythm began to reverberate through the mountainside. The music was continuous as Vucub-Caquix started to take the sticks and began to beat the instruments together, producing a drum-like beat to add to the song.

The Mayan god was amazed at the long term pattern of music that Adnoartina was able to do. It seemed like he would be out of breath, but he kept playing nonstop. He could notice that he was doing a form of breathing in while at the same time breathing out technique to produce the tones of the didgeridoo. The aborigines did this regular practice and it was believed that the best players of the instrument could maintain this sound for ten minutes long without stopping. When played with other players, the sounds could become truly harmonic.

For minutes the Mayan god would clap the sticks together. His feathers would bounce around a little bit from the repeated movements that he was making. He began to notice a movement come from the drawings.

Slowly, the drawings began to move as if they were animated but in a series of quick motions and stops. It was like flipping a book to see the still pictures move. The Mimis began to respond to the rhythm of constant music. They began to see that the area was safe as they started to advance in their blocky like pattern away from the stone walls to the floors below.

Adnoartina continued to play his music as he began to produce a series of osculating blows into his instrument while keeping the rhythm continuous. The Mimis started to form an almost three-dimensional pattern as they stood up from the stone floor. They began to move in the blocky movement, almost as if they were dancing to the didgeridoo music.

Vucuc-Caquix watched with some amazement as the once apparent looking stick figures were responded to the music. There were at least ten of them that were all moving together in front of them. They almost gathered in the form of a circle around them. The fire flickered as it burned the wood.

The Mimis finally began to emit a tone similar to Adnoartina’s didgeridoo music. They began to produce different osculations to the music while keeping with the beat of the Mayan god’s repeated stick beats. The gecko god seemed satisfied. There were a constant sound and music that would allow him to commit to his next series of actions. He stopped playing his instrument and heard the repeated music being played back to him by the other mythics around him.

He nodded his head as he rested onto the stone floor on his back. He picked up the dead crystal in his hand as the music continued around him. He stretched his long towering form as he looked straight up into the sky. The clear sky above him showed only one cloud above him. He began to close his eyes and keep his mind was in the right set. He was perfectly calm as the crystal sat on his chest.

With his eyes closed and the rhythm around him. He focused on sleep. His journey was something he knew that was going to be difficult but essential...

There was nothing but blackness around the gecko god. His eyes opened as he could see nothing but the vastness of space. The music would continue around him. He felt different, like he was in another place.

“Darkness... , “ he said.

The blackness of the space would begin to be littered with a series of white dots around him that would flicker around him. The dots would move like a still painting similar to the Mimis was doing.

“Alone but not alone,” he remarked. “I am floating...”

There would be a series of streaks of various colors that would radiate around him. The streaks and stripes would move in front and circle around him.

“I have found it ... I am connecting to the Dreamtime ... the place of our ancestors ... the place where I began...”

He saw a drawing of a gecko in front of him. The gecko would begin to move in a series of still like patterns along with the white dots in unison. It was as if each drum beat caused the animation to move and stop.

“I see myself ... yes ... it is me ... I am reconnecting ... such longing...”

The drawings of the gecko would transform into that of an illustration of a woman. She seemed to be moving in the same pattern along with the gecko. She danced behind the gecko as it turned around and looked at her.

“Lowanna ... I see you again.”

The drawing of the gecko would then turn around as it ran away from the woman. It was almost like he was trying to escape her. It began to move on all fours and revolved in a circular pattern. The woman would follow behind him in a circle as the dots turned to different colors.

“I remember it all...”

The gecko drawing finally stopped as the woman did. The gecko finally took its front legs and began to smash it into the ground that it was seemingly walking on. The gecko appeared to display anger in his face. The woman then began to move closer and closer to the gecko. A hand from her then pressed to the top of the head. The gecko finally stopped hitting his hand to the ground, and it began to calm down.

“The anger ... so much anger ... I feel it in my veins. Utter hatred. At least until you found me, Lowanna.”

The drawing of the gecko looked up at the woman. The face began to show happiness in its front. Anger was replaced with content and peace. The illustration of the woman started to press harder into the gecko’s snout and face.

“I wanted to hurt things. The white settlers, they were abusing the people already here. I could do nothing. I was bound by the laws the Coalition established. The other deities wanted to keep a balance between themselves. They would have stopped me. My anger ... that was my anger ... I couldn’t do anything.”

The drawing of the woman finally backed away from the gecko. She then rested on her back, and she then opened up her legs. The drawing of the gecko got on top of her and pressed his crotch to hers.

“That was until you showed up ... Lowanna, you were perfect in every way. I would have made love to you if you were twenty years old or a hundred years old. My anger ... any anger was gone after we mated.”

The drawing of the gecko and the drawing of the woman vanished. The gecko was standing upright now. It now had its arms stretched wide open as the woman disappeared. There was a look of anger in the gecko’s face.

“My disconnect from you ... nothing but sheer anger. My anger is back. You are gone, passed away from the cycle of death. I have no control. You are gone, and nothing can be done to bring you back.”

The drawings began to change. There was anger in the standing gecko. His front feet turned into fists as he looked up at the sky above him. The dots began to radiate a red color.

“I did not want to reconnect to the Dreamtime ... I did not want to be reminded of your death ... I am ... sorry. Forgive me, Lowanna...”

The dots began to radiate a blue and green color. Streams began to circulate the drawing of the gecko as it stood. Finally, the arms of the gecko shifted as if reaching out to others. There was a hand that appeared that was holding each side of the gecko. The anger remained in the gecko’s face.

“I don’t know, Lowanna ... I had my reasons for keeping a distance in the last few months or any of that for that matter. I don’t know if I can ever find somebody like you again.”

The hands would shift. There was another arm that appeared behind the gecko. It was as if a hand was caressing the back of the gecko. It wrapped around in front of it. The anger of the gecko began to disappear.

“Is that what you are telling me? That you will always be a part of me? Ugh ... if only it were that simple...”

The drawing of the gecko then showed the anger dissipated as it went back on its four feet again. It flipped over onto its back. There was a drawing of another woman. This one was different as it rested her belly onto the belly of the gecko. She was kissing the neck of the gecko as the gecko, in turn, was looking away from the woman. The anger began to form into a look of content. A drawing of another woman but the same woman that he saw awhile back appeared. She was now kissing the mouth of the gecko as the new woman was pleasuring him.

“I understand ... you want me to find another and continue this cycle. You will always be a part of me even with the others that I find ... alright...”

The drawings disappeared, but there was a series of swirls and more dots that would vanish in front of him. Colors would change and flicker around him. He began to take a deep breath.

“Unfortunately, that will have to wait for a while. I came here for not only you but for another reason ... you know of the reason.”

He held out his hand as the dead crystal floated away from it. It floated endlessly into the void of black and colors as he watched it.

“This crystal ... I must know who made it. Who sent it?”

He watched as the crystal began to glow. Finally, it shattered in front of him as a series of streaks and dots started to form in the cluster of the other dots and stripes. The streaks began to develop into that of a gecko and a dingo. There was a look of anger in both faces of the animals as they stood apart from each other.

“No ... that is impossible. I killed him. He made that crystal, yet he is dead?”

The drawings showed the gecko and the dingo fight one another. They began to chase each other in the form of the circle. The dingo finally began to slow down as it stopped. The gecko was on top of it, eating it.

“That is what you are already telling me! I killed him. You are telling me that I did, and yet he still made this?”

The drawing shifted as the landscape turned into a large mountain. It wasn’t just a mountain; it was the most important mountain in Australia. The gecko disappeared as the dead body of the dingo began to radiate red over the mountain.

“Uluru ... the mountain that connects to the heavens. I watched him bleed all over the mountain. It was how it turned the color that everyone knows.”

The drawing of the gecko disappeared, and then there was a new drawing of a dingo. This one had its eyes open. No longer was it dead but alive. Its jaws were a crystal.

“Uluru ... he is waiting there. The one that killed my first wife ... yet he lives.”

The drawing of the dingo shifted as it threw the crystal up into the air. The illustration of the dingo instead focused on Adnoartina himself. There was a look of anger in his face. It stood up on its hind legs and put his forward paws to his sides.

“Lowanna ... I understand. I must face him again, and I will kill him. I will do it again and again if I have to. I must kill the fucker. My anger ... forgive my anger, but I will kill him as I did before. There will be no forgiveness for him. There will be no reprieve. I will kill him.”

The drawings all vanished. The colors and dots around him began to disappear. In the end, he saw nothing but a solid blackness of the void around him.

“Thank you...

There was a flash of light as the gecko opened up his eyes. As he stood up, the music ceased. The Mimis that were generating the harmonic sounds were gone and back on the wall above him. Vucub-Caquix, surprised at the sudden shift around him, stopped beating the sticks. The place had become silent once again.

The gecko lifted himself as he looked around him. He had a stern face to him as he looked upon the Mayan god.

“Anything?” Vucub asked him.

Adnoartina got on his feet. His tail slapped the stone floor as he walked over to the paint bowls he had by the wall. He picked up the one that had the white pigment and walked back to the fireplace. While he stood, he began to apply the white paint to his scales.

“He is alive ... the fucker is alive somehow,” the gecko god told him.

“Marindi is alive?” he said as he stood up. He wiped the dirt off his feathers as he looked at him.

“Yes. I don’t know how, but he is waiting at Uluru. He left that crystal for you to find it. He is challenging me to a duel, and I am going to kill him.” The gecko god continued to create patterns of white on his snout and scales.

“I will notify the Coalition of Deities about...”

“No!” Adnoartina interrupted him. “This is a fight that I must do. I don’t want a collection of mythics waiting for him. He might flee if he sees a group, and if he doesn’t, then it will remove the glory of me snapping his neck. I want him dead! The piece of shit deserves to die. I don’t want the Coalition of Deities showing up to give him some invitation to join the group. I know the rules, they will offer the fucker reprieve to make him a part of the group and forgive him of his past sins. He killed my first wife! There is no forgiveness.”

“I see,” Vucub said as he continued to watch him apply more and more paint to himself. “What are you doing?”

“Preparing for battle. He wants a fight; then, he will get one. I will make the heavens quake if I need to.”

“If you are going to go and fight him, then I must come with you.”

The gecko god stopped painting as he pointed his finger at him. There was a look of ferocity in his face. “Listen, parrot god! I am going to face him. I don’t want any interference in this fight.”

Vucub-Caquix simply smirked at him the best his beak could show to him. “You think I am going to stop you? I will join you in this fight.”

“I don’t need any help! I must be the one that kills him.”

“I won’t deny you that opportunity. Adnor, you do realize...”

“Don’t call me by that name!” he interrupted. “All of you mythics keep calling me by that name like shortening it will make it easier to call out to me!”

“Fine ... Adnoartina. You do realize the history I have,” the macaw deity said, displaying ferocity in his face. “I am the demon bird of the Mayans. I am the father of Cabrakan! I pretended to be the moon and the sun to the people. They revered me, they feared me, and none could stop me ... all except Hun-Aphu. He used his mystical blow dart to shoot me off the tree that I perched from. In the wake of my pain, I managed to sweep down and rip one of his arms off! I have learned to take life as that. I fight in the Coalition of Deities because I have to. I share your feelings and your desires to kill. You want to go beyond the Coalition of Deities, then so be it, but I am coming with you. Seeing another will not make him flee. We always go in teams to back each other up. You are a part of the group, and so am I.”

“Ugh!...” the gecko god waved his hand at him.

“If you won’t let me be a part of this, then I will go and warn them about Marindi. There will be a party to greet him, welcoming him to the Coalition.”

The gecko god clenched his fist and teeth in frustration. “Fine! You can come and fight but remember, I deliver the killing blow!”

Vucub-Caquix nodded his head, seemingly satisfied with his answer. “Very well.”

The Mayan god continued to watch as the gecko god covered himself in a white like paint. The scales and natural patterns in his soft scales were now overlapping with patterns of white dots and lines. He looked like an aborigine warrior.

“I trust that you have the weapons that can injure and kill a mythic?” Vucub asked him.

“Of course I do. What about you?”

“The finest weapons that can be crafted.”

“This will be a war of melee combat and basic throwing weapons. No magic and no guns.”

“Very well. Would Marindi have access to firearms, though?”

“No ... he shouldn’t. He was dead way before humanity ever developed them. Even if he did, he wouldn’t have access to the ability to make mystic silver to make the bullets.”

“Odd, that would explain why I never saw him before. He is supposed to be a dingo mythic correct?”

“Yes, he is as strong and tall as I am. I killed him long ago before the Coalition was ever made. He is equal in strength and combat abilities.”

“Seeing that you are, I will be ready.”

It was starting to get later in the day. There was still plenty of sun that shined over the mountain of Uluru. The great rock was a towering monolith of the Northern Territory of Australia. This island mountain had an elevation of almost 3,000 feet. Formed by an alluvian fan from three other peaks, the sand that consisted of arkose sandstone lined the surface of the mountain. To the Pitjantjatjara Anangu people, the mountain had not four but five seasons that reflected the passing of the year. At the right time of the day, the towering peak that overlooked the arid landscape below gave a reddish appearance. Below the mountain, trees, shrubs, and various forms of wildlife continued to thrive.

It would be the top of the mountain that would provide a suitable arena. While unsteady terrain, the rocky surface was mostly smooth. Various juts from the surface could elevate a person, and there was plenty of room to maneuver around. The time of the day could reveal all to a person. There was seemingly nowhere to go except the center or the gullies and cliff sides that led below. Legends say that people that remove the rocks from the top of the mountain were cursed and that some individuals try to return them to undo them.

There was a teleport flash near the dead center of the vast top of Uluru. Adnoartina stood in place as he walked and staked the area. He held a spear in his hand as he marked the surface in his mind. Vucub Caquix stood in place as well, holding an obsidian sword. The large wooden paddle had a series of sharp obsidian blades that lined the other edges of it. He also had a round Mayan shield that he held in his other hand. He looked around and saw no one around the vast orange top. There was so much space around them. The only catch was the occasional winds that blew into them. This would even cause Vucub-Caquix to reset the wings on his back to avoid getting caught from it.

“At least if I somehow get thrown from afar,” Vucub commented. “I will be able to take flight.”

“There is too much room to prevent that from happening. Nice sword, by the way.”

“Thank you. I made this a long time ago. I figure an ancient fight like this will be perfect with my oldest weapons.”

“Trying to make a friend out of me?” he asked with a look of annoyance.

“Nah. I just miss the old days like these.”

“Just remember that you are support in this. The kill is mine.”

The gecko god walked forward with his spear in hand. He looked around and started to get impatient. Minutes went by with nothing happening.

“Maybe we are wrong. Perhaps he was afraid to fight you,” Vucub said.

“Where is he?” Adnoartina asked out loud. He was getting more impatient as his tail slapped the sandstone below his feet.

“Maybe ... you are wrong,” the Mayan god antagonized him.

“Argh!...” the gecko god showed a look of anger. “Marindi! It is I ... Adnoartina! I have come to face you. Show yourself!” he yelled to the top of his voice. He lifted his spear with his one hand in the air. “I challenge you! Fight me, fucker!”