An Axe in the Flames

Minnow and Friends

The myths and legends told by mothers to children as they sat around campfires, fathers to sons as they strove to instill morals, priests to their congregation to drive home religious values, they were all close. The teachings, the studies, all of the stories, they had the basic things right, there were two Gods originally. Cor and Shathari, Goddess of life and creation and her direct counterpart the God of death and destruction. They had to exist, for them to not exist would mean that nothing could be, and if nothing could be then what would there be? There had to be two, a balance to the order of everything, scales that were to be kept balanced at all times.

Cor had disobeyed this law and created a people, all in her likeness and blessed them with extraordinary talents. Giving a sliver of herself to each individual. She had created a world, filled with life. From the soil to the skies there was life unabated, grasses and trees. A free people that never aged, and never died. Shathari had watched, and knew what Cor had done, he had waited for her to finish and he took his time evening the scales. He found her world in the endless void and brought upon the life a rot. Grasses molded and died, flowers withered and fell, her people aged and grew diseases. They died and turned to unbalanced emotion, throwing themselves into wars and developing the tools to destroy their race. There had to be a balance, for where there is life there must be death.

Cor, however, was not to be outdone and struck a deal to allow her creations to live longer. Shathari agreed but was soon enraged when he learned she had given them the magics of the Gods. Contrary to legend, he challenged her and they met upon the great Northern Mountains. They fought and when Shathari had the upper hand, she sacrificed her being to trap him within her world. Using her essence to imprison him but shattering herself and parts of him. From their essence new creations sprang, Pigmen born of dark magic and Gods born of both. They roamed the land and fought for balance, each one finding a death in that life and waiting to be reborn. Many of the smaller Gods were forgotten over time, and scholars would never know their existence. The only thing that remained was the prophecy that Cor and Shathari would return.

History has a way of repeating, and with the second coming of the two original Gods, the smaller ones would return as well. Looking for revenge and searching for an endless life, the struggle of power and balance to be played out again. Minnow had seen all of this in his dreams recently, unfolding like watching a play and he was merely the audience. Since he had taken payment from a Brother of the Shadows to start a war against the Emerald Kingdom, the dreams had come at a more frequent pace, delving him deeper into something he was beginning to understand as more than just dreams. He had always had grandiose ideas of ruling more than just his province and being more than just a liege lord, and this was his opportunity. Though, he had also aligned with the Flame Sect and the possibly crazed King Lucan, his dreams might've been telling him he was a God.

Wake up.

The words cut through his dream's visions, a two headed God cleaving down a tribe of pagan witches with a massive one sided axe, like an urgent sharp whisper that faded gradually. It had an aggressive tone, almost as if giving an order.

No, you should sleep and see the wonders we could possess.

That was a second voice. Much different than the first, a different dialect, it was mushed together like speaking with a mouth full of food and not pausing at each word. This was the first time he had heard the second voice and he began to stir from his sleep.

There was a hand grabbing him, Minnow snapped his eyes open. Sunlight flooded his cloudy vision as he tried to blink away the brightness. He raised a chubby hand to his eyes and rubbed them. He faintly heard a muffled voice and saw a shadow standing in front of him, what was happening right now? He wasn't ready to wake up, he just wanted to sleep some more.