The murmur of the spring water, rippling in the valley, sounds so alluringly around, but nature seems so cold and so careless in front of this fairy-tale sound, which is springing as if from the depths of the life-giving earth, but which blesses the alive beings too, who are living their eternity above the tired body of Planet Earth.
But the same enchantment can be seen above the water too, which passes through the woods on Kyllini Mountain, for that divine color is given by the breath of the trees, by the flight of the birds through the air, that mirrors for a moment the birds'bodies in that miraculous mirror, but also by the rays of the gentle sun, which penetrate through the tangled branches of the trees, only to wash their faces into those waters.
And everything around seems asleep because, for 7,000 years since the Cyclops have left these places, nobody else dared to stand up to the Titans and settle on these lands.
So, nature, feeling in control of itself, was freely acting up and it spread up the mountain ridge, slowly covering it with a brown-green vestment, which not only was covering the mountain, but it made the old, weary mountain more enticing than ever.
But not everything was only a miracle and life around. From time to time, over there, a strange spirit was passing, unseen by others, but whose presence was felt till deep in the serum of the trees when he was passing next to them, heading to the ridge of the mountain, where were heard weird whispers from, which were reminding about curse and pain, but whose source nobody ever dared to find out.
And those feelings were unique, in their way, because, in the beginning, only a gust of playful wind was felt, cooling the surroundings, playing with the small branches of the secular trees, dancing in the rhythm of the leaves, as later, that current of air to go down to the ground, ruffle the spiky hair of silky grass, and make it bent to the ground in front of that unseen being, who was passing at that moment through those places.
But what the trees didn’t know was that that being wasn't a stranger to those places, but she was known as the Fourth Moirae, the one who took her first breath from the depth of Arkadia Grotto and who was often passing over there, to fill her body with life-giving energy because that mountain wasn’t only her home, but it was also the fountain which was filling her heart from, with a strength that was making her pulsate of happiness.
And Parca's footsteps slowly moved on the stony ground, covered here and there by wild herbs, raised at will. Yet, the Titanide of Fate did not seem at all bothered by this.
On the contrary: she smiled when the thread of a rebellious grass, which did not even want to submit to her magical power, raised its head and looked up, trying to see the face of the stranger. But instead of a gentle look, it saw only the blue expanse of the sky, for the Titanide had the power to pass unseen, at will, through places where only the enchantment of nature reigned, and her face and body took on different forms only when she was among men.
A barely heard squeak made her stop and look around, but only the vacuum of the air kept her company there. However, it didn’t deceive the Titanide at all, who uncovered her head by the hood of her long, gray frock and she revealed her body to the world.
Seeing her, the trees started to whisper her name, but it didn’t amaze Parca because she did it before too and some of the creatures, who were living on that mountain, were used to her presence there, as Parca knew each soul living on top of the mountain. But that squeak seemed strange and weird to her and she decided to be careful and listen to everything that happened around her.
For a few seconds, nothing happened. But later, nature hardened as if a soul full of power sprouted its breath over nature’s body.
That's why, amazed by that sudden change, Parca stretched her hand in front of her, but nature kept that hardening, and, thus, the Titanide understood that a being much stronger than hers was approaching, someone who she never met before, at least not in a battle, and she decided to wait.
The gust of the hardened wind started later to pulsate around Parca. Thus, the Titanide looked around, but she saw the same view as a few moments ago, but only her ear could catch a barely heard noise, approaching her on the ground, as if it was a flying arrow thrown toward her.
Parca instead didn’t move from her place. Per contra, she waited for a few moments for that noise to approach more, till was about to touch her heel and then she jerked in the air, transforming her body into a bird and, letting herself float on her big and skilled wings, she overflew the surroundings, but she again didn’t see anything.
„What Magic is this?” Parca wondered while her shadow was descending on earth, overshadowing the hardened blades of grass. „It seems to me that somebody is playing a prank on me and this is something that I dislike,” and, in her voice, a trace of anger and irritation was heard, something that Parca felt each time some stranger stepped on her territory without her permission.
„If on Earth is quiet, then the anxiety comes from the sky,” she continued her thought. But when to look at the sky, her glance caught the movement of a white bunny coming out of its den and sneaking around while it was sniffing the horizon. „Only a living soul in this kingdom of stone?! Only one devilish soul can create this view. Cronus!”
At that moment, from that far too distant kingdom of heaven, a hawk, high as a kite, rushed to the ground and passed like an arrow past the great, white bird, which seemed to be a Phoenix bird, in which Parca transformed her body, and the hawk attacked the poor bunny, which hadn’t any chance to survive when it met the sharp claws of the big bird.
As long as the hawk enjoyed its prey, Parca was floating above him, lurking on each of the bird of prey's movements and waiting for the moment when it will finish enjoying the sweet taste of the fresh bunny’s meat because Parca felt, deep inside her bones, that something will happen after that meal. And this happened very soon.
When all that was left of the fluffy, little animal was its white fur, the hawk rolled its eyes around, as if looking for someone. But not seeing anyone, it slowly stepped on the ground, and its beak slightly closed and opened, making no sound around.
It seemed weird to Parca because even if the hawk seemed to talk to someone, she couldn’t understand to whom it was sending its message. But when she felt a rumble approaching her, she looked up and she saw other arrows heading toward her - Cronus’s hawks, 6 in number, which started their attack on her, with a single aim: to finish with her life.
But Parca decided to face them and, waiting till the 6 hawks, which had thrown themselves toward her, were just a stone’s throw, and then she jerked in the air and she passed them, through a hole left between their bodies while hers was so thin, with her big wings stuck on her body, something that made her seem like a white arrow.
Reaching outside the enemy group, Parca spun in the air, uncovering her body of wings and, stretching them wide beside her, she rushed down again, targeting the hawks that were fiercely searching for her around, not understanding where she had disappeared.
But when her body pounced on them, fluttering her huge wings over their bodies, a small hurricane was made around, but the hawks didn’t scare and, with their sharp beaks, they deeply tweaked from her feathers, leaving, on their white color, small beads of red blood.
However, Parca wasn't as if she was going to run away. So, she didn't let them overwhelm her with their attack and small, white birds like her appeared around her, but in much larger numbers than the hawks and, at Parca's command, the six hawks had been attacked while the small, white birds were flying around them, fiercely beating from their wings and tweaking deeply from the hawks’flesh.
But the danger was not over, as the battle wasn’t ended, for, as soon as she saw herself out of the attack of the six, Parca felt approaching her, from behind and climbing above her, the seventh hawk, the one which had enjoyed the bunny’s flesh.
Yet, this one could not be defeated with cunning and Parca felt it in its imposing shadow, which completely covered her.
His attack, however, was late to come and the Titanide couldn’t understand why it was acting like this. So, she decided to dare and look into its eyes and, climbing at the hawk’s level, which was floating on place above the fight for life and death between its brothers and Parca’s birds, created from her illusions, it waited till Parca was at the same high as it was and then Cronus’s thundering voice could be heard talking to her.
„You've kind of intensified your way to your sisters'lair, Sister Parca, and that smells like conspiracy to me."
„Do you think so, Cronus?! For me, it’s just a visit to my sisters and nothing more. And more than that, my being was born from the energy of this mountain and I can’t live a long time far away from it, as the sun can’t live forever in the shadows.”
„And still, your being showed up in this world due to the Titans’kindness, of which you are abusing because your presence here is stealing from our life-giving breath and it’s also taking power from us.”
„You told the Cyclops the same words, 7 thousand years ago, when they were still living on these lands. But this mountain is empty till today because no shadow of Titans is living here. That's why each time someone is stepping on the back of this mountain and he is trying to receive his blessing, you show up and you are asking for your rights. This is what seems to me as being avarice and fear of being defeated. Correct me if I’m wrong, Great Cronus.”
Parca’s voice slowly trembled, but not because of fear, for she was trying to send to Cronus her decision to continue and from now on to step on that mountain and feed her body from its energy, even if Cronus was against it because Parca wasn’t thinking to be submissive in front of a mad Titan, whose fate was to be defeated by his own son.
„What's planning your evil mind now? I don't like when you're silent. You better talk to me!”
„I’m not sure you’ll like my talk, what will seem a sad and threatening prophecy to you.”
„Are you trying to inspire fear in me?"
„No, of course not. I’m just trying to warn you, for is the time to end your avarice and be more kind to the people who surround you because it will come a time when you will need their help, but everybody will turn his back on you then, just as you are turning your back on them now.”
„So, an uprising then."
„A prophecy, Cronus, but your eyes are too blind to see anything else around than your crown and your power.”
„Because there is nothing else worthy to see around here. Only a Titanide of Fate meant to die.”
„Do you think that I don’t know my fate, Cronus? Do you think that I don’t know how I’ll end my life?”
„I doubt. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have talked to me like that now.”
„Here you are wrong because even if we both are meant to die by the hand of your offshoot, each of us will have his own death. But while I’ll never see the light of the day again when everything will be finished, you will be forced to see how others are ruling in your place, forever, the kingdom that was meant to be yours, but which you've lost, due to your stupidity and avarice.”
These words made Cronus’s eyes blink with anger and, from a hawk body, he took his Titan form, but he continued to float in the air.
Parca did the same, but she kept the distance between them, even if she had stretched her hand toward him: „if you want you can see by yourself what the stars predicted to you.”
„I’ll better pass. Knowing your nature, I’m sure you planned something misleading to deceive me. But it won’t be that easy because I already planned your defeat, and it won’t be harmful to me.”
„Do you mean my copies sprouted all over the Earth?” Parca slowly whispered while, on her face, a smile had been sketched, but it amazed Cronus so much that he looked with fear into her eyes. „You forgot whom you are dealing with, Great Titan. Not for nothing, Father Chaos gave life to me because what happens around me is mirroring in my soul and what others are trying to hide from me it’s sent to me like a revelation because inside me are living Good and Evil alike and they can’t hide from each other.”
„And still, Parca, as long as I exist in the world you will have no peace because you are the only being thinking to dethrone me and my father, but none of us will allow it to you. Neither my grandfather Chaos will allow it to you.”
Parca sadly smiled. „You are such a fool, Titan if you think that I’m your only enemy in this world. You are one of those who will defeat and kneel you and it will be so soon, and if you haven’t in mind to attack me today, then I’ll leave because I have more important things to do than to stay and talk to you.”
And Parca turned her back to him, intending to soar in the air, like the Phoenix bird. But she stopped at the moment she could hear Cronus’s thought: „What is she having in mind this time? Should I fear and, for this, try to end her life here or wait and see how things will evolve from now on?”
But he had been so amazed to hear the same thought he had which returned to him as an answer from Parca: „look deep inside your being for the roots of your own hatred and you will see where the Seed of Evil sprouted because your hatred for the entire world is starting from there.”
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Flying toward the horizon and spreading her wings wide, the white, gorgeous bird floated above the woods and headed toward the ridge of the mountain, where new, weird sensations were waiting for her because Parca felt that that day’s attack of Cronus was only the beginning and that everything around would change soon, turning into her enemy, because as Cronus had a lot of enemies, of whom he had to think about, while he was standing in the same place and watching the bird’s leaving, the same thing Parca should do - to find out the names of all those who wanted her loss and ask her elder sisters to weave the thread of their life and death, for all of those who fought or will fight against her.
***
The master bird named Parca continued to float above the woods. The trees, which till then stood hardened and looking in the distance, were trembling their leaves now, a sign that Great Cronus, the one with a stone heart, stingy and cruel by nature, left those lands and turned back into the Sky, where he was dreaming to rule over the immortality from.
With outstretched wings and a heart pounding in her chest, the Titanide of Fate succumbed to the gusts of wind that carried her like a small, paper airplane, and that flight, unbalanced and dangerous at the same time, reminded her of a strange carousel, in which one decided to climb his body to feel strong sensations, but who, in the end, had simply decided to give in to immortality and risk everything.
7 thousand years ago, when the Cyclops and Chaos decided to bring her to life, Parca has been born from an egg, similar to the ones made by birds, and that egg, from which her body took form, was unusual because it hadn’t an ellipsoidal form like the eggs, but it was a little bit flattened on both sides, as if it was Planet Earth a little bit flattened at its both Poles, which were attracting and rejecting each other at the same time, like a magnet.
That's why, the first thrill of life of the Titanide of Fate had been a slight hammering into the eggshell, which was floating right in the middle of the Rophion Forest, in Mannar’s Glade, which was changing its view from dead nature into a green forest in seconds, and this change of contrasts was which was giving the necessary warmth to the egg to conceive a new life.
Thus, the first shy hammering had been followed by the other two, but nothing happened, and it made nature around anxiously breathe because nothing around understood what was happening and how exactly that egg showed up in that Glade or who brought it there.
And there was something else strange in that flattened, spherical shape - the fact that it was floating in the air, at a height of almost two meters, and its movements on the axis were unusual as if the egg was standing above a hot magma breath and not of cold air, pierced sometimes by cold gusts of wind.
But what neither the trees nor the nature around knew was the fact that the egg was floating above Mannar’s prison, and he unwillingly saw himself as an unexpected witness to the creation of that new life.
And, when the egg showed up for the first time above him, Mannar didn’t understand what was going on, but he just noticed a small current of multicolored air slowly floating corkscrew above his cell and his being felt a slight, warm thrill piercing his bones after it entered through his nostrils.
Then the warmth moved quickly through his veins till it got to his heels and it tickled him a little, and Mannar slowly laughed, but it passed along his heel soon, like a nice tingling, and this made Mannar quickly move his leg, trying to chase it away, but seeing that nothing was happening, Mannar started to hit the leg on the ground.
But even so, the tingling didn’t disappear, and it made Mannar nervous and he puffed smoke through his nostrils, tapping with his hoof against the ground and throwing sparks all around the cell.
It made a slight itching pass all over his body and Mannar fought with it for a short time to chase it away and, for that, he started to spin around, rubbing his body with his hands, or lying on the ground and rubbing his body against the stone surface of the place where he was.
And that movement calmed him a little and, lying this way, on his back and watching at the sky, he saw how through the transparent walls of the bubble-cell passed a white, fluffy feather, similar to those of the peacock and, floating in the air, it was heading toward his nose.
Mannar stretched his hand and easily caught it in his palm, but instead of lightly sliding on the skin of his palm, as the usual feathers do, or being blown by the wind, the naughty feather melted like a snowflake, and the created water entered through the pores of the skin and mixed with the devil’s blood.
„What kind of devilish thing is this?” wondered Mannar, scratching the back of his head and, standing in a sitting position, he stared at his palm, which caught the feather and whose warmth had melted it.
While staring at the palm, as if he was a fanatic looking at his idol's picture for a long time, Mannar has been amazed to see a small, red thread coming out of his palm and it raised up, till it got to the center of the upper vault of his cell and, passing through it, the thread joined the multi-colored bubble, which had been formed above him, but which hadn’t the red color in its component.
Then, when the last color completed the bubble, it took the shape of a flattened egg and Mannar's cell began to steal energy from the devil, giving heat to the egg.
Feeling this, Mannar stood up and stepped to the center of his cell, still watching the egg, which was feeding with his devilish warmth, but he didn’t dare to loudly ask what kind of madness was that, being afraid not to awake a bigger evil than he was already living in that cell, in which Gaea closed him a long time ago.
And this reminded him that the first time he had been closed by Gaea in that cell, he dared to try to steal her pan flute, which was opening the Gate of Aeon, and he did it at Eris’s command, who hoped to escape from her prison this way and rule over the Universe.
But Mannar had been outed by the pan flute, which felt his devilish presence approaching Gaea’s garments, left on the shore while she was swimming into the river, and the instrument started to blow by itself.
Listening to her pan flute, Gaea came out of the river and, moving its waters with her inner force, she threw them above Mannar, who, being in flames then, had lost control in contact with the water, and, this way, the Titanide could easily close him in that cell.
Feeling trapped, Mannar modified his voice and started to ask for mercy.
But Gaea was used to his changing nature. So, she didn’t fall into his trap and she swore to him that he will be closed there for 7 centuries until he will give birth to something.
Yet, Mannar didn’t understand then what it could be. Now instead, after 49 days of the egg floating above his cell when he heard the first hammering, he remembered what happened then and he understood that he will be set free very soon.
„Finally, the time of my freedom is approaching,” Mannar slowly growled, rubbing his palms and happily grinning. „Mother Nature, you had cursed me to be the captive of this bubble for 7 centuries and I was so bored for a long time. But you made a big mistake then because, promising freedom to me, you will lose something precious for you, and I’ll start my revenge with that chick, that will exit the egg soon because I’m not intending to leave free and alive a soul born from my evil thoughts, something or someone that can defeat me one day,” and his aloud and devilish voice could be heard all around and namely the strong volts of his laughter broke the eggshell and, at the same time, the transparent walls of the cell fell apart, which were keeping Mannar inside it, like a captive.
„Now it’s my turn,” he said and he jumped up, intending to catch in his black hand the little white chick, who was floating in small circles, waved by the warm currents of air.
But when the devil’s hand was about to catch the chick, it jerked in the air and, from the little bird, a gorgeous one showed up, with a long tail, like the peacocks, with multicolored eyes on each long feather because those eyes were made from the colors of the bubble that formed the egg and it meant that they could see the fate of the creatures created by her elder sisters, but only that bird had the power to decide if the thread of someone’s life will be cut or not.
Namely, one of those feathers, with a black eye on it, has been caught by Mannar’s hand and he remained with the feather in his palm when the white bird, with the name Parca, jerked from his grip, singing her name all around while she was flying toward the horizon, beautifully colored by the shade of the dusk.
Watching that black eye, Mannar at first didn’t understand what it served for. But soon, when the eye opened and blinked at him, the devil deeply looked into that glance because the eye on the feather was a devilish thing and he couldn’t understand what he caught it for and why it tore itself so easily from the bird's tail while the other feathers remained in place.
„I came back to you, Master,” the eye talked to Mannar, making the devil twitch when he heard a strange voice talking to him. „I’m the evil from inside you, which gave birth to another one, which had jerked to the Sky now. But till it will be able to join our battle, you should be extremely cautious and not fail because if it happens, we will be lost forever.”
„Should I not fail? In what way?"
„I meant to stay hidden, Master Mannar because the evil inside you is like an avalanche of hot magma capable of swallowing everything in its path when what we need is to spread our roots all over the earth and conquer its surface.”
„And… do you think Eris will agree with this?”
„Who do you think is controlling all this? It’s already the time to step into a new era, you, the devil with 7 fire tails because those who are against us are already planning their victory while we are still so weak.”
„Then, we should get stronger too.”
„Yes, but we still don't know how."
„The one born as a bird, who is she?"
„Her name is Parca, and they called her the Fourth Moirae."
„One of the weavers? But how is this possible? No, wait… Moirae is by our side. With this fourth power…”
„No, no, no. You are wrong because this Fourth Moirae is different. She has inside her Good and Evil alike, and the one who has her by his side is meant to die because the Balance, hidden inside her soul, will be automatically inclined in the part of the one who seems to be defeated and then the loser will be the winner."
„Then let's make them think we're interested in her. Thus, Dike and Mother Earth will try to make her fight by their side, not knowing that they are the ones who dig their own pit,” and with these words, two high-pitched laughers have been heard around, and Mannar, putting that feather in his pocket, left the place where he had been a prisoner, having, in his mind, so many methods of bringing the evil on that Earth.
Behind him, Gaea showed up from behind a thick trunk and watched in the distance, how Mannar’s silhouette disappeared and she smiled: „unwillingly you told me the biggest secret of Eris. Thank you for this gift, Mannar because thus we will know how to better prepare our fight to have fate by our side,” and, turning her back to him, she went in the opposite direction.
***
Parca descended on the ground, right in front of Arkadia Grotto, sunk in the weak sunshine of the dusk at that moment, which was coloring the sky in bloody red, as if a great battle had been fought on the surface of the sky, which was mourning its loss.
Then, the Titanide transformed into a beautiful virgin again, how she used to walk around the world, and she turned her back to the entrance in the cave, watching the sky: „it’s so beautiful the dusk,” she whispered, and, miraculously, on her right, Gaea’s silhouette had been projected, who was looking in the same direction.
„Nothing is more beautiful than the sky in the dusk. Not even the sunrise.”
„But the sunrise means a new life, Mother Nature. Namely this time of the day you should love the most,” Parca said, without watching her interlocutor.
„Why should I love a part of the day more than the other, or a season more than the other one, when I can enjoy them all, Parca? Even if you create destinies, I have the fate of nature in my power, a fate that you can’t influence.”
„I am just happy only with one of the people and of the Titans. It's funny this way."
„Of course. I already witnessed your funny meeting with Cronus today. What does he want this time? Don’t tell me that he wants you as his wife.”
At Gaea’s remark, Parca just smiled, but her smile was so sad, just as everyone's future was uncertain because, for the first time in those 7 thousand years of her existence, the Balance, which was in her soul and which never before unbalanced, did it that day, making her be anxious and unsure.
„You can't marry the one you're afraid of, and Cronus is afraid of me."
„He’s not afraid of you. Cronus is afraid of Fate because his plans to dethrone Uranus seem unfulfillable now when you are more powerful than him because, in his limited vision, you can destroy his future and thus destroy his plans.”
„But that is not in my power."
„Yet, he doesn’t know it. Nobody actually knows that we are the masters of our own fate, even if the Titanide, who has the Balance of Life in her power now, plans part of our existence.”
„Maybe we should tell him about this. Thus, he will stop his madness and the Fate of the Titans won’t ever end.”
Here Gaea turned her back to Parca and, with the hands grabbed at her back, she stepped in front of the Grotto, bending her head and, with a thoughtful voice, she said: „the Titans were meant to die a long time before to be born, as the men have written in stars their death before being born because it is the law of nature and it is leading our existence.”
„But still, Mother Earth, nature has been born from your being. You have in your power the stopping of the time,” Parca told her while following her.
„No, Parca. I lost that power a long time ago. Long before you were born when I used Black Magic for the first time to kneel the evil. Then Chaos punished me and a single word of his has been enough for the Balance of Time to leave me.”
„And in whose power is that Libra now?"
„In the power of men. But men are blind and they can’t see this, for being moved by avarice, by evil, by conquering when, for surviving and for being happy, they need so few: only friends.”
Gaea lowered her head even more and a deep sigh came out of her chest and, squatting, she took a white stone from below, which she squeezed in her hand while still squatting, with her eyes piercing the sky. „Why can't we be similar to the stones, abiding? Thus, we won’t have so many wars, people will be prosperous, and we will live a long life, seeing our children and our grandchildren growing up and bringing new lives on Earth.”
„Because nature would stand still then and the Balance of Time would be destroyed."
„What about the sky? How can it stay in place and not destroy itself? Although at dusk it looks like a battlefield bathed in the blood of the victims, the sunshine can look so fresh, as if it was reborn from its own ashes.”
„And still there are also gloomy mornings, rainy mornings, stormy mornings when the sky is poured out on the earth, so as to wash away its sins.”
„But what about us, Parca? What about us? Why can’t we stop the evil not to continue its destruction of the Earth and turn it back to its womb?”
„Because we can’t control Time, Gaea. Time is controlling us. We are vulnerable and looking for relief in small or big things, but we are never strong enough to win without using tricks.”
Gaea sadly smiled. „You know the reason why I came here to see you.”
„As I know what Eris is planning for me, using my elder sisters. And still, I can’t oppose it because the Balance of Equilibrium, that exists in my soul, can’t stay still without measuring and very soon it will be inclined not in the lightened part, as you wish.”
„I know, Parca, as I know that hard times are coming and that we will never meet on the battlefield in the same camp, but as enemies.”
„We will also meet outside the battlefield as friends and allies, Gaea. Don’t forget that the Balances were made from One and all the time they’ll tend to join again.”
„There is still such a long way to go."
„Not that long because the war that will start soon is necessary, as the betrayal is necessary, to see the light of the win because none of us is strong enough or capable to plan everything that is perfect, to win without victims, who are sometimes necessary and unavoidable.”
„And yet my soul weeps. It seems, for those victims of whom you so easily speak, and who are my children."
„My soul weeps too, Gaea. Don’t forget that not the whole world has been born from you. Many dead people will be in my consciousness and many of those who will leave this world have been born from my body. But still, they are meant to die, to be born from ashes again.”
Gaea said nothing else and she slowly bent in front of the Titanide of Fate, who also answered her with a bent and, turning her back to Gaea, she entered the paunchy depth of Arkadia Grotto because since Shiman and his people have left those lands, the place stopped to illuminate the surroundings and, from the depth of the cave, it was coming out a stinky and unbearable scent, but which seemed not to bother Parca, who proudly entered in the cave, looking forward, even if her palms were squeezed in fists, and, in her mind, plans were weaved, plans about how to defend herself if necessary.