Today was like any other. I woke up at first light next to my beautiful wife. I rolled out of bed and kneeled in front of our mural of the eight great gods. I start everyday in prayer, giving thanks to the 8 gods. Thanks that he and his wife were alive. Thanks, they were thriving in an ever growing village. And thanks especially for the great man that was Mazliu. For without him, they would surely be dead somewhere in this frozen hellscape.
Once done, I walk to the front of the building that is a worksop area for my Smithy. I opened up my shop to start work for the day. Mazliu had requested I forge nails for the buildings popping up around so that we could continue to build houses for more people as they came. Suddenly as I was about to begin work I felt a deep sense of pressure. Pressure that pushed me to the ground with no hope of retaliation. I couldn't tell who it was coming from, but whoever it was was able to suppress a peak iron like it was nothing. I needed to get up, My wife was only copper and would not be able to handle this force so easily, but trying to stand up strained my aura to its absolute limit, my muscles screamed for me to stop and lay on the ground. I had fought for what seemed like hours to a low squatting position with sweat drenching my body when as suddenly as the pressure came it left and the force I had been using to stand had propelled me into the air like I was a slingshot that had just been let go. Once I regained my footing I sprinted to the kitchen in the back of the house where I knew my wife would have been making breakfast for us. I found her lying on the floor and quickly picked her up and cradled her in my arms. She was luckily unconscious, I don’t think she would have survived if she had stayed awake through that. I layed her in our bed and quickly ran outside to see if I could catch a glimpse of what had caused that.
Outside I saw people still lying unconscious in the road and those slowly getting up to help others, but when I looked to the sky my heart dropped. It was a purple dragon. One of the 8 great gods of this world. If it is the purple one then it must be Inike the god of water. He looked like he had massive wings of metal with scales of iron running down his body. But not for the first time my heart would drop again as I saw another dragon. This one with blue scales running down its body. This left him confused, he did not remember any of the gods having blue scales. It almost looked like they were talking to each other and as I thought this they both flew off deep into the woods.
The two dragons would land on the ground and transform into their human bodies. The purple dragon was a muscular man with long purple hair and dark skin. His hair was unkempt and his gold eyes showed with exhaustion like he had been without sleep for a few years.
“Inike what are you doing scaring the mortals like that. You know they can not handle that level of aura emanating from you, even if it was miles away.”
“I was trying to get your attention brother, No one has been able to contact you in years and we have news. We have a new baby brother who has just turned 8 years old. Mom and Dad wish for you to meet him and show him the ropes.”
“They mean they want me to raise him.”
“….That is.. Most likely true.”
“They wish for him to grow up well like you did. It is not too hard to understand that they don’t want Sorlus to influence another one to the point of hating them like some of the others.”
Mazliu lets out a long breath and sighs. “Fine, I will go see him, but I need time to prepare my people for my apsense. I will visit in a year from today.”
“Thank you Maz, Mom and Dad will appreciate it.”
“Ok, Enough with that, come to my home and meet my family.”
The two start walking back through the woods to Mazliu’s home while they continue to talk.
“Family? What do you mean?”
“I have a wife and son in this village”
Inike in a grave voice says “You know that if Sorlus knew of this she would kill everyone here. She hates you more than ever, especially since no one has been able to find you.”
“.. I mean…You found me.”
“You're right I did, and if I can that means Sorlus can and when she does she will kill these people. You must declare yourself and claim your territory. You know once you do, everyone else will and that means Sorlus can not so easily try and hurt you, because it would mean angrying not just you but all of us, especially those of us who support you and were raised by you.”
Mazliu stopping for a moment to pick some mushrooms from the ground sys “I do not wish to be worshiped as a god anymore. I love my family, I love my village. I do not wish for them to see me any differently than they do.”
“Maz they already see you as a great man they can count on. That would not change with the revelation that you are a god.”
“Maybe not, but I fear they may not open up to me as much as they have. I can confidently say these people are my friends and some I would even call as close as family. I do not want them to fear speaking up against me or in offending me lest I smite them down.”
The two continue to walk as Mazliu finishes picking the mushrooms.
“Ok, but if you do not do this then those very people you call family will die, and it will be your fault because you could have done something for them. If these people you call family love you so much, trust them to continue to do so even after you reveal who you really are. In order to protect them the god of lightning must return.”
Mazliu yet again releases another heavy sigh. “You..You are right. I will do it when I meet our new brother. What is his name by the way?”
“Cascul.”
“Strong name. Can you set up a meeting with all of us in a year when I meet Cascul.”
“Of course.”
As they finish their conversation they arrive at Mazliu’s house.
“Thank you. Do you smell that? I believe Eveylnn has some breakfast ready. Come on in and eat with us.”
Inike grabs him by the arm. “First, I must ask. Do they know your true nature?”
“Evelynn does, yes, but I have not told my son yet. I was going to tell him when he was fifteen but that time table has been moved up it appears. I will take him out and talk with him soon.”
The two walk in and Mazliu asks Evelynn to make a little more than normal as they are having a guest. “Already done, When I felt the presence earlier I thought we may be having more people eat breakfast with us.”
“Eveylnn, meet my brother Inike.”
“Oh”, she said, surprised. “I did not think I’d ever meet any of the” she stops and catches herself “His siblings.”
“It is nice to meet you. I am Evelynn, and this boy who is only now waking up is Arterus, our son.”
Inike gasped, “his…. Hair.. is so black.” Inike says while clearly looking at Arterus’ blue skin.
“Hahaha, yes it is,” Evelynn says.
“It's nice to meet you Arterus, I’m Inike your uncle.”
Arterus, still groggy, asks “why do you have the same name as the god? Is that not heresy or sacrilegious?”
“Ah… um, no it's not because… you could say I’m devoted to him and his will.”
Surprisingly, Arterus accepted that answer, though Evelynn suspected it was because he was still groggy from just waking up and did not have the energy to press further.
“How many eggs would you like Inike?” Evelynn asked.
“Three will do thank you.” Evelynn scooped three eggs and some cooked deer meat onto a plate and handed it to Inike. Then served the other two their breakfast as well.
“Ok everyone, let's sit down and eat.”
Inike, as they all were eating, would think they looked like a happy family. A tinge of Jealousy for his older brother sparked, but he squashed it quickly. He deserved to be happy. Especially after everything Sorlus put him through. They talked while they ate for a long while and Inike would tell stories about Mazliu, though they were incomplete and left out details that would label him a dragon or a god. Arterus was especially infatuated in these stories, as it appears he looked up to father. Once Inike had finished eating he nodded to Mazliu and said “I think I will get going, I have a long day of travel ahead of me.”
“Thank you for the food Evelynn”
“You won’t stay for a while? We really don’t mind your company, and we would love to hear more stories about Mazliu from your childhood.”
Chuckling Inike “Yes I am sure, I’m sorry I must cut our meeting so short but I think you will see more of me and maybe some other siblings more regularly from now on.”
Evelynn would reluctantly let him go, “Ok I will pray for your safe travel.”
Inike would smile and say “thank you.”
A few hours later after Arterus was walking back from the woods to the house having completed his daily chores for the day with this stack of wood. Mazliu walked outside from the house and saw Arterus, and shouted "Do you want to go on a run?" Arterus looked over and quickly agreed as he enjoyed training with his dad. It was much better than studying like his mom would make him do when he finished his chores.
They started running towards the forest, Arterus had never gone this way before and they ran much farther away from the village than he was used to. Normally they stayed in a circle around the village but this time Dad was leading them in a straight line miles away. After a little over 10 miles he would stop in a clearing somewhere in the middle of the woods. Arterus was a little winded from the run but nothing a moment of rest couldn’t fix.
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“Arterus.” Mazliu would say. “I know I told you we were going on a run, but I really took you out here to speak with you.”
“Ok? What is it dad? You’ve never been this serious before. Have I done something?”
Laughing, Mazliu responded “No, goodness no. I had planned on talking about this to you when you came of age at 15 but yet again my plans need to shift. I thought I had more time to practice this conversation before we had it so I don’t know how to tell you this.”
“Arterus, What do you know of the 8 great gods of this world?”
“Mom taught me they were the gods who ruled over this world and that they are ancient immortal beings of immense power.”
“That is what is taught, good job.”
“This morning did you feel your Aura being suppressed?”
Arterus put his hand on his head and shyly said “No, I was sleeping” and quickly followed up with “but some of the townspeople had told me about it when I was out doing chores. Apparently there was a huge creature in the sky that some like the blacksmith Eric are saying was one of the gods. Then as soon as this god showed up another unrecognized one had showed up and they disappeared along with the oppressive field around the village.”
“The creature in the sky. It was what people refer to as a god. The dragon Inike.”
“Inike, like uncle Inike?”
Mazliu chuckles, “Yes like Uncle Inike.”
“Uncle Inike is a god?” Arterus said with bewilderment.
“Your uncle Inike is the dragon Inike. One of the 8 gods of this world.”
Arterus’ mind whirling quickly spoke “Wait, but he was a man, The creature in the sky I was told was a huge dragon with purple scales.”
“Yes this is true, dragons can shift their forms from the true form, which is the one the people in the village saw, to those of many other creatures, like humans.”
“Is Inike really your brother? Like brother by blood?”
“Inike is my younger brother.”
“So are you a god?” Arterus said with a questioning look.
“I am a dragon, but not a god anymore.”
“What do you mean?”
“I chose to not be worshiped by others as a god as I no longer believe that my siblings and I are any better than humans or even worthy of worship.”
“But.. you are a god?” Arterus started pacing back and forth in front of his father.
“What does that make me? A half-god, demi-god. Will I have cool powers like gods do?”
“Well this is a harder question to answer. No you are not half-god, the term god in the first place is not actually true. We are just beings that are unfathomably stronger than humans, not gods, but because of our strength we are worshiped as such.”
“You, you are something unique. The first to be born from a human and dragon’s union. I do not know where you fall. I do know because of your lineage you will have an easier time than most ranking up until you hit Duke, the rank right below Transcendent.”
“What is a Transcendent?”
“Transcendents are the highest rank of power one can reach and is what my siblings and I are.”
“Are all your siblings gods? Like Inike?”
“They are all Transcendents, Yes. and they are all seen as gods except the youngest who was born only recently and me who chose not to be seen as one.”
“You have a sibling who was just born?”
“Yes, that is what Inike had come to tell me about.”
“Why are you telling me all this? You had said earlier that you would tell me when I turned 15. That is only 3 years away. What caused you to tell me sooner than you wanted to?”
Looking up and taking a deep breath Mazliu said “Inike made me realize that I couldn’t hide my life here anymore and that a few of my siblings will not like me minglings with humans and especially having a family with one. In order to protect you and your mother I will need to reveal myself and claim this land as my territory, but if I do that then everyone will know I am a dragon and a god of this world. When I do this all my siblings will claim a territory to rule which will make it much more difficult for the siblings who would try to harm the ones I love to do so since they would be invading my land if I didn’t invite them.”
“When are you going to do that?”
“In a year I will go and meet my new sibling and split the world into territories for my siblings to rule and after I will bring back Cascul my youngest brother. I will eventually reveal myself to the town, but I wish for the village to grow more before I do so. I still do not wish to be worshiped as a god, but since I am claiming this land as my territory it will come out that I am one whether I want it to or not.”
“Wait, you are bringing him here? Why?”
“Well, that's a longer story, but a brief summary is that my mother and father wish for me to take him under my wing and help him grow. If they let Sorlus, one of my siblings, do it like they have for some of them then Cascul will just end up hating them and Me.”
“You can think of him as a younger brother. I believe he is 8 years old right now, so only a handful of years younger than yourself.”
“Ok, last question and then I think I am good.”
“What is it?”
How old are you?” Arterus said with a gleam in his eye.
Laughing hard Mazliu said “That's a great question. I believe I am 1745 years old, give or take a few years.”
Arterus dumb founded could only say “wow, that's old”
“That it is.”
Mazliu with a mischievous smile said “Well since we are out here, you want to do some light sparring?”
“Yes!” Arterus said with excitement.
It is a week later and Arterus is in the outer parts of the woods collecting wood as part of his daily chores. With this he will be done with his chores for the day. He starts to walk back when he sees a group of boys playing what looks like hide and seek and decides to step out of his shell and ask to play.
He thinks all this but he can’t seem to stop pacing back and forth right outside the tree line trying to get up the courage to talk to them. This would be the first time he interacted with anyone his age. He had talked to adults in the village all the time to get supplies for mom but has never had the chance to talk to other kids. “Why do I find this so difficult? I can lift a massive boulder over my head but I can’t simply talk to another kid.” he says exasperated.
Determined, he places the stack of wood he was able to collect on the ground at the edge of the woods where he is, and walks over to the one counting with his head on a tree.
“Hi, Im Arterus what is your name”
The kid who had his eyes closed was startled at the sudden voice behind him.
Looking at Arterus “Geez you scared me, I’m Markus.”
“Everyone come on out and meet Arterus.” three other boys would come out of all of their hiding spots in the woods. Markus began, “this is Ronnie, Elijah and Alex.”
They all gave their pleasantries.
Arterus, gaining some steam from the successful interaction with the boys, asked “is it ok if I play with yall.”
Markus looked at him, but specifically his skin. “I mean yes, but you would have an unfair advantage with your blue skin. You’d be able to blend into the environment too easily. What about this? You can be the seeker and we can all hide.” Arterus quickly agreed.
“What should I count to?” Arterus asked.
“How about a hundred. Should give us enough time to get to any hiding spots we want.” Markus said with a wicked smile.
“Ok!”
Once Arterus closed his eyes and started counting Markus turned to the others and had them get in a big circle around Arterus and hide behind trees while they made snowballs.
Arterus finished counting and said “here I come.”
Then Markus signaled the boys to start throwing the snowballs they had made.
Arterus’ vision slowed to a crawl and his fight instinct kicked in. Seeing this as a threat he started cycling his aura in his body and dodged all the snowballs without any effort even though he was surrounded on all sides by the boys who were throwing them as fast as they could.
Mazliu’s head perked up suddenly while he was talking with a villager. “That is Arterus’ aura”, having a bad feeling he quickly located his son and said “Sorry Alice something has come up and I must go.” and started running.
Once the boys had run out of snowballs to throw they all were left baffled as to how he was able to dodge all of them. Markus, with wonderment in his eyes, began to ask how he was able to do that, but was quickly cut off when Arterus looked at him. His eyes had begun to glow, and for the first time Markus noticed their golden hue with the intensity of a predator. I need to run. Markus thought to himself. Arterus looked at everyone else as well to assess the threat and that's when the other boys saw what Markus did. The eyes of a predator. The three boys all bolted quickly. Markus, seeing his chance to run as well, broke into a sprint towards the village.
Arterus, still in fight mode of fight or flight saw Markus who was the closest and caught up to him with no effort by cycling his aura empowered body. Arterus as soon as he caught up jumped through the air and brought his leg down on the boys turned back. The hit had blown the snow up into the air making it hard to see. He felt the hit land hard, so he knew he did well, but when the snow had cleared his father was standing there holding his foot in his hand only inches from the boy's head.
Mazliu took his son's foot and started swinging him in a circle around his head and threw him far into the woods. Mazliu told Markus “I am sorry for my son's behavior, please run home and tell your parents to come see me later.”
Markus was dumbfounded, those two were monsters. How could they be so strong? As soon as he thought this Mazliu had disappeared without a trace.
And how are they so fast?
Arterus, still reeling from being thrown almost a mile into the woods, began to get up out of the mini crater he had made with his body. He was in quite a bit of pain and wouldn’t be surprised if he had a few broken bones. When he sat up Mazliu was standing there in front of him.
“So, you find out your father is a god and you decide that makes it ok to hurt those weaker than yourself?” Mazliu said with scorn in his voice.
“No, that's not what happened. They-” Arterus quickly said but what caught off.
“Oh, that's what it looked like. You had never lashed out at anyone like that before, so why would you do it now?”
“Well I had never talked with anyone my age before either!” Arterus said, gritting his teeth.
“So you wanted to test yourself against someone your age?” Mazliu said with his eyebrow raised.
“No, please let me explain.” Arterus said exasperated.
“Ok, go ahead, but for your sake I hope it is a good reason.”
“I was in the woods collecting wood like mom asked and I saw the boys playing hide and seek.”
“I asked if I could join and they said yes. I end up being it and start to count with my eyes closed. After I finished counting they all turned on me and started throwing snowballs at me.”
“In the moment it triggered something in me to fight when I saw a threat. Which is when you found us. It wasn’t my original intention to hurt them, and luckily it didn’t come to that with you there but when they started to attack me I felt I needed to defend myself.”
“I see….. This is partly my fault in the end.” Mazliu said with a sigh.
“Why's that?”
“I’ve kept you so busy with training and chores that you never got the chance to play with other children your age to realize what that even meant.”
“Those boys weren’t attacking you, they were just having some fun. They were playing. Those snowballs even if you were unranked could not have hurt you. Especially thrown by unranked children.”
Shaking his head Mazliu asked “Did you try and sense their ranks before attacking?”
“No..” Arterus said with his eyes downcast.
“Those boys could all wail on you all day and all night and never even scratch you, but today you almost killed a boy because he threw a snowball.”
“I think this upcoming year of training should be spent understanding others and honing your precision in order not to hurt others.”
“That means making friends your age.” Mazliu said with a sad smile.
“so you can control your strength against different levels of opponents and to ingrain the habit of sensing the aura around you to see how strong someone is.”
“You are close to being the second strongest in the village, even among the adults. When I leave you will be among the strongest and you will need to be one of the ones protecting the people and inspiring confidence that they are safe from any threat.”
“Go talk to those boys and apologize. Tell them what you thought was happening and make amends. If you are lucky they might forgive you and if you are even luckier they might still be your friends.”
Arterius nodded his head and said “Thank you dad” and began to walk back to the village.