Short Stories

Gladiator

The boat rocked and moved with the aggression of all the sea creatures. It was the worst time to be on a boat and to make it worst I was not the only goddess on board. Athena, in all her wisdom, had pissed off Poseidon, transfigured one of his lovers into a gorgon, and then decided, oh let's go on a boat ride to get to Odysseus. Why the Greeks ever called her wise I will never know. She was a drama queen that threw down legendary tantrums. She got pissed off that a girl just because she was able to weave better than Athena. Literally, Athena is the reason we have spiders. If there was anything I didn't want or need in my life, Athena gave it to me. Spiders and a pissed off Sea god, oh the joyful journey we had.

While my feelings towards the goddess of stupid wisdom was irrelevant, I was not going to die on a boat for her brilliance. I sat there in the hull praying for Ra to save me from the storms. This goddess just needed to find her pharaoh who decided that Roman was the best place to visit without protection. Love makes you do dumb crap, and I was glad I had yet to deal with it. The sea moved and rocked aggressively, and the storm's wind wiped fiercely. If gods have an afterlife where we get to meet there will be a conversation about the intersectionality of travel plans and causing another culture to lose their gods over stupidity.

The storm was not the worst of it. It was her constant critique. She was mad about the storm, mad about the wind, mad about the rocking motion of the boat, mad about me getting sick. Honestly, it was her fault that the storm and sea were angry, but yet it was her fault. She was just complaining and cursing out Poseidon. I was not mad at her. It just sucked because I didn't handle being on a boat well and I definitely didn't enjoy the sickness that came with it. Ra knows I have done plenty of dumb things especially as a younger goddess. It was made even worse when the gods of the north came down. Odin, Frigga, Loki, and Thor had been good company. Athena on the other hand was the worst.

Oh, and if we are going to be completely honest, Odysseus also pissed him off. Great this was a new realm of stupidity. I honestly hated the Greek gods and all their drama. Some heroes became gods' others wound up on the wrong side of the underworld. Everyone was overwhelmingly related to each other. Most being the bastard offspring of Zeus with almost everyone besides Hera. That woman desired a gold medal for the amount she put up with. It didn't go much better with Roman gods. They were just slightly meaner versions of the Greek ones. Still did plenty of stupid and their followers, while brilliant were equally dumb. Let us conquer a new land and then let us burn the library that holds over a million lifetimes of knowledge. Thoth was inconsolable. It was almost as bad as the boat. Both were worse than death and I suffered a thousand times over when Thoth could not remember which books he left in the library. We spent hours trying to figure it out and that was when cataloging and tables of contents were born.

After 8 days of being loss, having sea sickness, and weathering a storm, we finally kicked Athena off the ship. The last few days of the journey was smooth sailing. There was no love lost between leaving her and finding my pharaoh. It was amazing how many people were able to get into trouble just because the gods could not help themselves. Poor mortals suffered under their god's stupidity. I dragged my wet, aching bones up the hills away from the shipping yards and ports which lined the coast. It was a hike to the gates of Rome. Being a goddess in a foreign land was like being a candle in a wind. The further we went from our homeland, temples, and the followers, the strong the wind blew.

I climbed up and found the palace. I could smell the stupid, hormonal, woman and was coming up the stairs. After charming the guards, the way Aphrodite once taught me, I moved easily through the grounds. I found Cleopatra and hauled her ass out of bed. I was cursing up a storm as I dragged her out the palace. She screamed, pounding her fists, and kicking the floor acting worse than a child. She opened her mouth, called on the gods of Rome to fight me, and that was it. I was detained by the gods. Detained and then through in the ring with other fighters. Needless to say, I was pissed. Here I was strong but not as strong as I could be in my own temple.

"If you are truly my goddess, you will fight for me. My goddess is beyond strength and will die for my devotion versus dishonoring me with losing." She screamed down from the palace sets in the dumb theatre. It was oval shaped and called the Colosseum. A stupid name for a place built on bodies and that only functioned on bodies being constantly feed to it. It was a building and structure devoted to Mars. A sickly, terrible, build that I wanted to crumble. If I could tear it down I would, but I was a goddess in a foreign land with no hope and no one to call on. I did not know these gods and I was not ready for this level of insubordination.

I fought no problem. It was a fun exercise and practice in my human form, but I really was annoyed by her behavior. It was no way to treat a goddess and not the way a follower should behave. She could have been so much more the Caesar's whore but who was I to judge. Girl had more lovers than braincells. I served my time as a gladiator. Ra was too far away to see me or hear my prayers for strength. I made sure to make my cell as comfortable as possible. A trail of bodies, widows, and fatherless children were left in my wake. A tidal wave of blood yet again covered me and my blades. It was who I was, and it was who I was meant to be. I loved every moment of it.

Blood and sweat dripped freely from me. Mine, theirs, and the world around me. I wanted it all to be a crimson tidal wave. I sphere dripping with blood. That was my original purpose and my duty to Ra. Turn the people back their gods. I was feared in the arena and most importantly as my arms, teeth, and body dripped with blood, she knew me. She knew me, she saw me, and she was stricken with fear. I was her god, I was possessive, and this was only the beginning of my carnage. I raged on and on, each opponent falling like dominos. It was a beautiful sin that only lasted a week. A week to cover the Colosseum in blood. The red sands of Set's desert could not company to the ruby floor I had created. Man, beast, slave, or gladiator did not matter. They were dead on arrival; from the moment they touched the sand their lives had been sacrificed to me. Their souls already banished to the underworld before I drew my blade.

When the week was over and my pharaoh came to her senses, we left back over the sea. It was calm and safe to travel. Poseidon in all his courage didn't try to delay my journey. It was all over for now. All was calm and there was nothing spoken between me and Cleopatra. Princess I had to save as on of Isis' many anointed children. She was the goddess with the most amount of children from all the royal families and I got to handle them in distress. She got praise and I had the wonderful moments of cleaning up their messes. Needless to say, I was not welcomed in Rome for a while, but it was worth it. When we came back to Thebes, she found herself in my temple worshipping me. I came to see her one last time and told her to never call on me again. She did not deserve my aid, did not heed my warnings, and was brought back only because her people were suffering.

My followers found me in the temple and I was happy to see them again. They were worth all I had suffered. All that Egypt had gone through and all that was about to happen was because of Isis and Cleopatra. I had no fear as I moved my followers far away from that toxic place. Far from the places of our birth. Bast came with me and I told some of the other gods where I was going. I moved them to safety because I loved them and they loved me. I went back and crafted my shabiti, became dormant after breathing life into them, and waited for them to all return to me so I could become whole again. Egypt died because some stupid goddess pissed off her uncle and a princess needed to get laid even though she had all she needed here. My people could have died if Bast and I had not moved them. I hoped that when I woke up she would be there and I would see her again. She was my sister, my best friend and the only one who might still be alive.