I was born as a proud Odoe, under the shade of our tall golden tree. I was blessed to be born as a Winged-Odoe.

Rapidly, so much that I never noticed it happening, I grew up and grew taller, but nowhere near as tall as the Odo tree. And as I did, I came to understand the significance of that tall golden tree.

With a proud grin on her face, my mother told me what it was and whose gift it was. Seeing her smile, I looked up at it and understood what I wanted.

At the age of fifteen, I received the first blessing and became a maiden-valkyrie. Being the youngest, I became the "Eldest" of the next generation of maiden-valkyries. Donning my golden visor, I led ceremonies for the departed, guiding them to be reborn into new life. Through my blindfold, I see that I made my mother proud. I regret nothing.

In no time, another seven years passed, and as the golden tree grew taller, the next batch of blessings ripened from the Odo tree. It was time to go. Consuming my second blessing, I allowed myself to finally join my sisters in our duty to tend to the Odo tree.

Warmth swiftly enveloped me. It felt like sleep but completely different. Unlike sleep, there was no instant waking up to the next morning. There was only silent rest with no end.

I saw nothing, smelled nothing, felt nothing, remembered nothing, but I knew that while there would never be a morning, there was faintly, in the faraway or perhaps close distance, the presence of my sisters, the valkyries who came before us, and of course, our beloved Matriarch. I was not alone.

Stolen novel; please report.

And then, in another instant, I felt something closing in on me. It murmured a few words, and I understood.

In the next instant, I felt something: my body meeting the floor. I smelled something: a wooden and sap-like perfume. And I saw something. Gathering myself up, my eyes fell upon a sight I had never expected to see: another morning.

I walked up to the edge of the surface I was standing on and saw a large city spread beneath me. It was the city I was born in, played in, and grew up in. The same city where I looked up at the Odo tree. Today, I was looking at it from atop the Odo tree.

But while the city remained the same, with the staves surrounding it, it was no longer the same city from my memories. Large buildings now littered the place, countless colourful housings spreading far and wide. To that sight I was both familiar and unfamiliar with, I understood what had happened.

I felt sad, but as I looked to my side, I saw someone whose presence dispelled my feelings of emotion. Like me, she was a fellow valkyrie, and just like me, she was bare. I looked to my other side and saw yet another valkyrie, also naked.

They noticed me, just as I noticed them. From their gaze, I knew that they felt what I felt – that the city beneath was no longer the city that used to be ours. Unconsciously, I knew that they knew. And just like they knew, I knew: We knew what needed to be done.

The one to my left summoned her arachnid-leg-like appendages and began her descent from the Odo tree. The one to my right simply jumped into the emptiness.

As for me, I spread my golden wings and took flight, soaring towards the southern horizon, beyond the 4th and 6th staves.

For what purpose? To return to the Odoe tree what had been stolen from them, preventing the inevitable ascendance of the Matriarch, and the Odoe race as whole to godhood: immortality.