Chapter Seven: The Past: For Us, It Is the Snow, Part 1
The night descends and puts the little critters of the day to rest in order for them to have the energy necessary for the challenges of tomorrow. Outside, where dark plains lie beneath fleets of snow and beyond them, even darker woodlands harbor yet a few handfuls of malignant creatures coaxing simpletons to come.
Snow sped up and built up, compacting until it formed sparkling coulees. Coats of snow on the ground had been traced on as if to leave a draw of water or nullah.
Following the flats, the footed tracks—the traces I was talking about—were behind four travelers who trudged against the storm.
Jehovah, alongside Delilah and Michael, strode abroad, with Lucifer at the helm and atlas in hand navigated the group through the wintery spire. The snow gradually trickled down in a wayward spiral and the asymmetry of it all made everything appear as if nothing was ever in one place at the same exact time.
The company was to depart on the morrow, but the message was urgent and apparently, they could not wait. Nothing too serious, they thought, but a paranoid town that kept requesting the kingdom's aid is common. Twenty-nine times is uncommon. And there they were now, east of the border.
The company found themselves in a remote field, for that was the only place they could be. The only thing for about another thousand miles was a white blanket of wide-open fields. In the middle, they set up camp at the eye, with Delilah stoking a small fire that barely survived in its pit as the company huddled so close to contain the freezing cold air constantly pushing against its warmth from the south.
They spoke about their time at the academy, curled up in the fetal position with their knees drawn into their chests—well, everyone but Jehovah. What the others truly relied on the most were face masks covering the lower part of their faces and their thick fur hide coats and gloves. Lucifer chattered his teeth, feeling colder than anyone else should—after all, they were angels. He was not.
He was a half-breed of a demon and a human. The other three had recently discovered his big secret after academy had ended.
Lucifer stuttered out, "The ac-academy do-doesn't prepare you for -15-degree we-weather.” He inched his way closer to the fire and held out his glove near the flames. Feeling the warmth begin to sear the gloves, he pulled them away and patted them on his face, using them as warmers.
Jehovah turned to Lucifer. He was unfazed by the weather; he told him, “There’s a lot of situations that Kingdom can’t prepare you for. This. To brush our teeth every day."
“What is that supposed to mean? I brush my teeth,” Lucifer said, aggravated by the remark and cold. On the off chance he may die out here, he wanted to let them know he hated them all: “I hate you guys.”
Delilah poked the fire with a stick. In her monotone voice, she replied, “The Prince isn’t talking to you, Lucifer. He was speaking to me,” she admitted. "I haven't brushed in months.”
Her teeth, although you couldn’t see them from her scarf being over her face, only her vacant, unfocused gaze set on the fire, were squeaking clean. She had brushed yesterday before the trip and had always done so.
It was difficult to understand her actions, but she took the blame, nonetheless. She had always been a bit peculiar, much like Lucille. It's hard to understand people who don't live conventional lives like others—those two who were the odd ones out. They never seemed to have a single normal day to themselves.
Circumspection, wary, and heedful. Those are the apt words for the two teensters. Always careful. Lucifer had a more progressive mindset, while she did not, but she was more heedful. The way in which they embodied these ideals was nearly indescribable, yet their actions resonated with the fullest extent of their meanings. It is fascinating to consider that they would eventually inspire the very words I use today, “Progression” and "Heedfulness." They were considered to be alternative virtues, much like the consonant 'Y' is to vowels, where it is applicable to both sides—the good and the bad. It wasn’t that the consonants or vowels or ‘Y’ themselves were evil; rather, it was the way they were aligned that was interrupted by such revelations. Like how the virtue of temperance is replaced with the sometimes 'Y' traits of judgment, where judgement becomes a virtue itself. Well, in this case Lucifer's progressive ideologies can be exchanged for the virtues of peace and prosperity. Delilah's heedfulness could replace a virtue like forbearance. The term heedful, came from the congregation of words, "scared of the dark, scared of evil."
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Jehovah: “I wasn’t talking about either of you. I was just saying that the academy doesn’t teach you."
Lucifer: “There! Right there. That’s what I’m talking about!”
Jehovah: “Talking about what? Brushing our teeth…"
Lucifer: “You keep pausing at the end.”
Michael shook his head under his scarf and thick fur hood and said muffled, “He kept doing this to me yesterday. Ignore it. He is trying to insinuate... I have no idea. I haven’t figured out that part yet.”
Lucifer: “He’s saying the obvious. One of you isn't brushing your teeth. And I’m going to figure out who it is.”
Delilah: “What if you're the one not brushing your teeth? Jehovah shouldn’t be involved. He asked the question, " She looked towards Michael, who shrugged his shoulders. “Right?”
Lucifer: “He’s not asking for anything!”
Jehovah snickered, releasing the laughter he tried to muffle behind his hand. He said, “I was just joking. You take things way too seriously, Lucy.”
“That's not even a joke? And stop calling me Lucy. I hate that.”
“You hate everything.” Jehovah said, blowing hot air from his mouth. Clashing with the cold, he saw his breath. He huffed and puffed till he got woozy, forming clouds of mist. This wasn’t all loss for him. He achieved what he set out to do, filling until the stem from his mouth, from where he was sitting, encompassed Michael's face.
“Wh-why is he doing that?" Lucifer's thoughts were cold too. Lucifer tried to argue back, but the snow piled over him, and he was covered in a large snowball or fitted as the midsection of a snowman. He shivered, and that shook the snow off of him. “I can’t relax. I'm literally freezing over.”
Michael took the scarf off his nose and mouth to speak. He said to them, “We’ll be able to relax once we get to Ellenstein. How much further have we gotten anyway?”
Lucifer searched for his bag, which was already in the snow. He placed his hands where they should have been and put them in the snow, grabbing his sack of things. He opened the bag and took a folded map out. “The storm should subside at noon." Lucifer said, “Around 12:00 or so. We’ll be able to make out the plains before then.” He unfurled the map to find where they were. He said, “We are here. The town of Ellenstein is southeast—approximately 1,250 miles. We should be able to fly there in no time. We could do it tonight if we wanted.”
“Not tonight, too many demons.” Jehovah shook his head at Lucifer's last response.
Lucifer: “The last thing I want right now is a fight. Why don't we just fly again?”
Delilah: “Too many birds in the sky.”
Lucifer: "Cacodemons, you mean?”
“Yep.”
Michael: “Instead, we’re sitting ducks.”
“You mean Leercher demons, don’t you?" Lucifer turned his head from side to side, paranoid about the topic of demons. “I know a Leecher is somewhere close.”
Michael: “No, I mean, we are literally sitting ducks in this open field.” He spread his arms out, putting everything out in the forefront for him to see, pointing out the obvious to Lucifer.
“That too.”
Jehovah's body relaxed as he listened to the others bicker and talk. His eyelids grew heavier, and he yawned. Slowly, he went limp and slumped to the side, sinking into the snow as if it were a mattress. His body split perfectly vertically in half, with one side submerged in the snow and the other half out.
Michael: “He’s okay, right?”
Lucifer and Delilah said together, “He’ll be fine.”
Afterwards, the company started to fall like flies from their endeavoring travels.
Lucifer drifted off to fantasy land, where pirates became kings. Across from him was Michael, who followed suit. Jehovah had a bubble the size of a baseball coming from his nose as he slept. Delilah, however, remained awake and on watch, her gaze fixated on the expanse of snow, then back towards dying fire.