Chapter 3
“What do you mean you were there when he was born? Are you saying you saw a goddess, or perhaps, he was given to you by Atlas himself?” Looking at Argath, and rolling her eyes dismissively, Saram began recounting the entire incident. “During the tribe’s hunt, we were blessed, and found a new herd of high necks. Following their trail, we were able track them into a hidden valley we had not encountered before. The trail they took us down was surrounded by sheer cliffs, and was extremely well hidden. The only way in, and out, was the path the herd took. Following them in, we found a beautiful, pristine virgin valley.
There we found enough diverse game to last our tribe a lifetime! As we continued our hunt into the heart of the valley, we finally approached the high necks, as they were grazing on the trees of a temple dedicated to Gaia and Uranus. There, we fought and killed an old female at the temples gates, fighting her for over 3 days, before she finally collapsed from blood loss and exhaustion. After dressing and cleaning her, we dedicated the best cut of the kill to the gods of the temple, and were preparing to leave, but the temple began to shake, and the front door opened.
Going inside, we discovered a massive mound of earth in the center of the temple, surrounded by the decaying body of a gargantuan dragon, and the remains of a massive giant! This was no normal giant though." "He was easily three times as tall as I was, and much bulkier, judging from his frame! A Titan!!! Their bodies were positioned in such a way that showed they were obviously in battle before their demise. The giant’s massive long sword was plunged deeply into the dragon’s chest, and was even taller than I was by a half. There it laid, forever stuck into the dragon’s corpse, perpetually fighting its master’s last battle. The dragon looked like it was spraying the giant with his fire and its claws looked like they had pierced deep into the giants body during its last attack.
Walking over, the temple began to quake and rumble. Afraid it would collapse we were about to run out. However, looking towards the dirt mount, I saw a newborn baby, being pushed out from the ground, still with an umbilical cord attached to him and the earth. Unsure if he was alive or dead, I quickly rushed to him and grabbed hold of him. Turning around to run away, the sword of the giant somehow dislodged and fell straight towards me. Afraid of the child getting crushed, I held my hand out as a shield. However, before the sword hit me, it began to shrink until I felt the light, elegant sword fall into my hand. Grabbing the sword, I had no time to process what had just occurred. I took the sword and quickly cut the child’s umbilical cord running out as the temple collapsed around us.
Coming out of the temple with the child many of the tribesmen began to praise him, worshiping Uranus and Gaia, and praising the child as the last of Uranus and Gaia’s children! The last Titan! After collecting my thoughts I took the sword that was from the temple and went out to hunt once more. I was able to take down a bull high neck with the sword in only a few hundred swings!! Something that usually takes days and sometimes weeks, took only a few hours with the swords aid.
After the hunt, we gave another offering of the beast’s heart, and organs, cutting up the rest to take back with us. There was so much food, that we had to make massive sleds, to pull the giant carcasses back with us. We were all excited to go back, and especially about the new hunting ground we found, but after leaving the valley, we found that we could not re-enter it. It had simply vanished. In its place was a good valley to hunt in, but nothing like what had been there before. The temple itself was gone as well.
This is why we need to take this child. He may be our salvation. You know the old gods are in despair. They cannot help us. The new gods have destroyed the order of the worlds, and treat all reality as their play things. They divide us into camps and then incite us to fight each other, having us waste our strength. They know, generation after generation, our bloodlines are beginning to weaken! Being pushed out into the mortal worlds, with no places to restore our blood and power is draining us.
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We are already fighting with the dragons, and new enemies keep coming up everywhere. Almost like something is doing it intentionally. We need a strong leader, if anything is going to change for the better. Not only this, but, we are aging Argath. We have tried to have children many times over many years and prayed to all the gods to give us a child, and now they have answered!
This is Gaia’s answer to us. Think of it Argath, our child could change the world. What else could you ask for? That would be more honor than we have any right to ask for as his parents. But, even if nothing happens, and he grows up to be a regular, average giant, would that really be the worst thing to happen in the world? Worst case scenario, we end up with our wish granted, and get to raise a healthy, happy baby boy to continue our name. Isn’t that what we wanted to begin with?"
Argath took a deep breath while looking at her…. Time went by as the seconds passed. However, after around 30 seconds he began to speak again. “Do you truly think we have what it takes to raise him?” Looking downcast towards Saram, her face lit up like a Christmas tree as she happily responded, she walked towards Argath pulling him in with her free arm into a hug. “You will be a great father. Come now, at our age all our friends have already become parents. It’s our turn as well”
Argath looked at her and then down at me in her arm. “Well, I wish you could have given me some warning, instead of bringing home a new church, mascot and all.” Looking at me gently as he smiled. “So, what’s his name?” Saram looks at me and pulled out a necklace attached to my neck under the blankets. “He doesn’t have a name yet, I was thinking of calling him Anom.
He had this pendant on him when I brought him out. I just don’t know what it means though. Perhaps he already has a name” Smiling lightly, Argath spoke facing the child. “Anom sounds like a great giants name.” "and if someone doesn’t like it than they should have written it in giant." "Ha!"
Saram showed the pendant to Argath, but he too seemed to have no clue. The pendant was gold, but seemed to have platinum and other mysterious metals mixed in as well. Not even Saram could bend it with all her might. The front seemed to depict a giant towering over dragons and other giants with other smaller creatures below those giants
. The right side of the pendant showed a massive creature that seemed to be some kind of spiked dinosaur much, much larger than the other creatures fighting the big giant. However, despite their numbers and sizes they all seem to be being easily beaten. The giants face even seems to be mocking his enemies.
Argath looked at the pendant, commenting, “How domineering” Slowly accepting the reality of this new son that came from out of the blue. The look on his face went from rage and anger into reluctance and acceptance then eventually into a gaze of love and acceptance. However, that face soon began to change again into a look of deep worry.
“Saram, if everything you said is true then if anyone discovers Anom before he is raised, and they are against us." "They will know what Anom could mean to the balance." "Not to mentions the other giants who still have hatred for the titans for their ancestor’s deaths; but if the dragons were to catch wind of what is going on, and the possible return of a titan and the old gods." "They would summon every dragon in the primal realm to come and wipe us out before it was too late.”
Slowly the noise from their conversation calmed down, and once again the sounds of multiple giants worshipping outside the tent pierced through the silence like a knife cutting through butter. Not a second later, Anom saw both of his new parents faces freeze up, with the realization of the possible consequences of the prayers being said aloud.
Turning white as a sheet of paper they both quickly ran outside to stop them. It wasn’t until much later that they came back inside, knowing they would no longer have that particular problem. However, they did have to agree to let the tribe members come once a month to see the child, and allow them to create a new church in Uranus’s name. "Why do I feel like a Buddha all of a sudden?" "Are they going to want to rub my head and belly too?"