People say that the last thing you see is light. And yeah, I did see the light. Just there were two of them and a big ass truck behind them. The last thing I heard was a car horn.Well, I'm a gazillion percent sure it was not that truck. If you are driving in the opposite highway lane, you got too big balls to spot the road, not to say anything about the little horn of yours.

I am curious to know if it was me, but who else?

But there are worse ways how to go. It was quick, lights, horn, BAM and silence. Then I'm here lying on the shore. On the left is water, and on the right is a tree. Sorry, It's a Mother of all trees. If I ever wanted to be a tree, I want to be this Tree.

Of course, I want to be the Father of all trees but tomato-tomato. Who cares about the gender issue? I already kicked the bucket.

The pressing question is, what happened to my cats?

My little cuties, now I'm sad.

"What happened to them?" I know They are dead, the same as me. I hope we are in the same ... whatever this is.

I grunt while I'm getting my ass from the ground. I'm confused as I can see, even though it's a night, Milky Way over my head, I'm staring mouth agape. "Ohhh...beautiful." No moon, no light smog, so how?

"They died too." I spun as I heard a voice behind me. A girl sat on a rock, fifteen, maybe sixteen years of age.

Ashen pale, Raven black hair, and her eyes blue, deep Ice blue, the same as my cats.

And her clothes are just simple snow-white linen tunic, and that's all. No shoes, nothing.

She sat there on the rock swaying her legs, looking at me.

"Good quick death, I hope. Where are they? What will happen to them?"

She smiled. "Here. They were and are asleep. They don't even know that they are dead."

"Shouldn't you worry about yourself first?"

"Nah, I'm here walking, talking."

"I will manage, but I have a question, why are we here? Wherever this is."

"Hahahaha." She laughed. "This is one of the main reasons you are here because your first questions are why and how."

"That is how you became a genetical engineer, I think."

"The answer is because I have use for you. I will give you a new chance for life extended to your furry balls. If you are eager to be my employee for a time."

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

"The other reason you are here is that you should know what, who and where when I say this is the Nav."

"Son of Slava."

She jumped from the rock and walked to me as she finished talking.

"Hmm." I started to dig into my memory, and no, neither of my parents was named Slava. It's the word for Glory/Freedom, depending on the country and time and where the name Slavs originated.

Soon all grandma's stories came to my mind.

Nav... Nav is Slavic Underworld.

"If this is the Nav, then this tree is the World Tree."

I pointed to the gigantic Tree and turned to the lake.

"This Lake is Gate to Nav, and you ...."

I stopped talking as I looked in her direction as she walked towards me. All the grass under her feet was overgrown. Now she looked old, not old, ancient.. the ancient crone.

Step, and she turned back to that girl. It was not instant.

It was a process but quick, as when you pour tea into the mug, it needs time but only a moment.

The grass taken over by hoarfrost died and withered away.

Another step, now she looked like a woman in her prime, the hoarfrost melted away, and the grass regrew.

The grass was a mirror of herself. The youth needs energy and devours everything, while in the late years, the energy leaves you and returns to nature. A cycle, as everything is. And direct revers to her story.

"And if I can guess, you would be Morena. The goddess of Winter, death, and harvest." She was directly in front of me. I could feel the temperature plummeting.

She smiled. "And You are correct."

"What? Won't you fall on your knees?"

"No awe, no prayer? Nothing?"

"You asked me to be your employee. I won't bow to my employer. I'm Slav, not Asian."

"There is no man or god that I want to bow to. But if you can bring back my little fuzzy torture machines, I can kowtow."

"Hahaha. No, people worship me by burning and drowning my idol.

"I never wanted people to bow to me. I don't rule. I have no scripture. The only thing I want from people is to live a good life and die a good death. My motto is don't worry, be happy."

"So what employment you have for me?" she laughed again. Her laugh was chirping like a sound, like running one icicle over the others.

"To live, of course."

"I will give you three and a half companions for your journey. The two furry razorblade storms of yours. The third will be my Bes Aton. And at last, the "half" is an acorn of this World Tree. It needs time for acclimatization to the environment of the new world."

"The longer, the better. So the longer you will live there, the better for me. I want you to have it with you until your death. When you die, it will sprout from your carcass. It doesn't need to be with you all the time, but it will always find a way to return to you."

"Bes is a demon in our folklore if I remember correctly. Why do you want to send a demon to some new world with me?"

"Nope, Bes is a spirit without elemental affinity. And don't use the word demon as a bad word, even the racist pigeons that people call angels are a kind of Bes. They don't like to be put in the same category."

I scratched my head in confusion and shrugged.

"Okay, can you introduce us first, maybe?"

Morena laughed and waved her hand, and four black half-transparent spheres appeared next to us. Two were fuzzy balls; the third was the acorn, and the fourth moved to the ground. When it landed and opened, there was just a crystalline rainbow-like ball big like my fist.

Then the "ball" moved and stretched its legs, all eight of them.

'I'm Aton, and I will be your guide.' It was no words not said at last. It was delivered directly to my mind. But the "voice" was female, girlish even.

Aton was stretching and looking around. It was a crystalline arachnid. When Aton moved, all the rainbow colours were playing around her body. I started for some time, my mouth open. Then I shrugged, squatted and started to scratch her cephalothorax.

She wiggled cutely under my relentless attack.

"Who is a cute little spider who likes the scratches? Who?" I blabbed.

When I looked up, Morena had this expression of pure shock.

"What?"

"She is cute."

"Hahahaha." Morena was laughing so hard that she was crying.

"Good, let's get to work. Lie on the grass, face to the heavens."

I did as she told me. She took one last step closer to me. The crone crouched next to me. She put her hand on my chest. It was As if someone dumped moulted iron on me, frozen me, and again and again. Repeatedly, endlessly.

And then silence for a moment. It was absolute, no noise, no emotion, nothing.

And then there was pain.

And a cry of a Baby.

My cry.