Dear Ms Lady Demigod: Twelve Days To Doom

5 5 A God Could Love A Monster

He's beautiful.

I remove his coarse clothes, his skin seems to be shining bright. I can't believe I have a God in my bed. Will he listen to my prayers? Will he free me? This must be destiny. His lips are dry, cracked and pale. I touch his black glass eyes, they fall off. It seems it was just protection since underneath, he seems to have eyes just like mine. 

I looked at the coverings on his feet. I removed them and looked at them in amazement. Suddenly, Beth entered my room, "Nataniel, must you-..."He stopped and dropped the stone shovel from his hands, "Who-Who is that?"
I quickly closed the door, "Beth, you'll never know what I found,"

I told him of my secret misadventure. The excursion that led me to a
"A god? Him?" 
"He got locks of gold and golden skin. Just like we read in our books, he matches all descriptions of a god,"
My brother was hesitant and looked quite frightened. But I assured him that helping a god could only do good. His blue eyes looked into mine, "If he turns out to be a demon, he'd take our souls down to asylum,"

"Let no fear cease your heart, dear brother. I assure you, my heart can never lie to me,"
I assured him to lay his confidence in me and I expected him to do the same. While he stayed with the god, I left to get some firewood. I took a metal bucket and his leg coverings along with me since I believed those must be weapons or some armour to protect his feet, I might use them to travel faster. I wore them and got on the icy lake. They had sharp, metal ends and it took a while for me to balance myself in them, but once I started running in those, I went faster than ever. They glided across the ice as if I was running on water. 

I had never felt that freedom before. The cold breeze made my face older, but I didn't know how to stop. So, I dug my nails into the ice and turned my feet. Upon doing so, they created a huge spark and lit a dried tree on fire. I jumped back, "Magic! These really are weapons of god!" 

I removed the gear, collected some wood, and warmed some water inside the bucket. I carried it back, leaving the tree behind. Beth was waiting for me, my dearest brother. I dipped a clean cloth inside the water and tended the god's wounds. His skin was very warm, his cheeks turned pink. "The warmth seems to make life crawl into him," Beth observed. I covered the god with his clothes to keep him warm and rub his fair feet with the warm cloth. 

We walked out of our room, dawn was approaching. We had to leave or we would be punished.  We grabbed our red books and walked down the icy halls with our red books. The ice chandeliers above me, and the ice carpets underneath my feet, mother sitting in her chair, tending to my little brothers, while Mrs Fritzgerald nursed the newborns. This was our kingdom. 

We sat and had lessons about magic, gods, music and art. Drama and theatre were important subjects that my mother taught and all of us were expected to be great dancers. Some of us wrote books, others made music or sculptures while others, elder brothers helped mother teach the younger ones, "Mother!" Drek barged into the study hall and disturbed mother, "What must be this relevant to disturb my preoccupations-"

"The woods are on fire!"

She got up and ran out with him. I left to tend the god. I reached my room and looked at him, sleeping peacefully on my ice bed. The bed was cold, so it turned his body cold too. Heat transmits and balances out temperatures to create an equilibrium. I had learned this year of observation. I must create some sort of an insulator. 

I ran down the stairs and decided to go to the woods again. But when I walked out, I saw a huge mountain of fire. It was approaching quickly. Everyone was throwing ice at it. I saw mother, standing amidst the fire. She chanted a spell and the fire began disappearing. But suddenly, she stopped. I looked at her as the fire engulfed her. 

"HELP!" Sherlem caught fire and ran towards the door, Drek threw snow at him, "Stay still!"
But he wouldn't stop screaming. I ran towards mother, "Mother, why aren't you stopping this?!"
She turned towards me, "I think...I think some of you should die," She smiled as she said this. Monster. 

"No... I think we all should die," 

I remembered that monster. 
The red blood on that floor, I remembered it all. But I decided to maintain firm ground. I was ready to stand up against her, 

"...You have been the cruellest woman I've ever met. You destroy everything good. Everything. And this fire will destroy everything that you didn't"

"Yes, yes I have to destroy everything before it destroys me!" She yelled as the sky roared. I can't forget it, all the blood bursting out from her skin as it burnt and shrivelled like a raisin, she was dying before my eyes.

"I'm exhausted" She whispered as we both burned in that red fire of passion and pain, "I'm tired of creation," A single teardrop ran down her eyes as she looked at the sky. My mother looked weak, frail, old. Her hair turned white, her skin turned dark, her eyes were still blue. She was my mother. I loved her.

"I've only ever bled red," She spoke kindly, softly, I was ready to forgive her if she stayed, "But you, my love, grow tulips on this dried brown blood and yet they still always ever bloom in you. Blue. Blue is my colour of love. My green veins, southern valleys, your pink cheeks, my dawn memories. And your name defines my love language,"

I could see her bones. 
I couldn't keep my tears back, "Mother!" 
Don't leave me.
Don't go.

"Don't die," I crawled into the arms of my burning mother and she squeezed me in gently, "Nataniel, why must you weep? Shall you think I was immortal?"

She left. 

Yes, she was a monster. 
But I didn't want her to go.
Because I was one too. And only a monster would accept another monster. 

Or a god.

-To be continued

Beth 
Dear Ms Lady Demigod