The Gods Among Us

Chapter 45 - Our World Began To

Our world began to make sense after we moved here. It had taken years to get here too, moving slowly along the River Nile that spills into the Watersea where Egup is our home.

I remember after the Ibex stole away from me on the cliffs where the salt gathers, where I hunted it so many years ago with my little son Clevis, and Mary popped her head over the edge of the cliff and said, Missed him again? Clevis climbed on my back, and we reached the top and stood before my sister.

Blondie, she said before I could say anything, Father is dying, and Momma is expecting you soon.

Don't call me that, I said, a hundred times, don't call me that. But Momma says that's what you are, she said, looking up to me. I stood at least a head above her. I had my father's heavy, broad nose and strong jawline but with thick, curly blond hair, and my skin was light in those days.

You know how I hate being different than others, I whispered to Mary. At least you have dark hair, and your skin is darker.

Mary looked down at little Clevis with her sparkling blue eyes and smiled at him. You shouldn't talk like that in front of your boy, she said. He will start feeling the same way, and he is far fairer than you or I.

Momma says that it will all change over time; that our blood will mix, and everything will change in ways we can't even imagine.

As we walked, I held my son's hand and said, Look how big old Clevis is, he is only four. I swung him and let him roll into the tall grass. Then I said, You're right, Mary, but sometimes the others look and talk behind my back.

She stopped and stood with her mouth open. The others look up to you, Dork.

Clevis ran back and pulled at my hand, More, Dada, do me again.

This time, I picked the boy up high over my head. He screamed with joy,

Throw me, Dada. Throw me. I let him drop but caught him before he hit the ground.

And break that little head of yours? What would Mamma say to me?

She would say, 'Do it, Dada.'

I put the boy down and gave his rear a kick, Go and tell Julie we are coming.

We followed the stream that leads up to Julie's home by the cliff, the eternal fire, and the stone on which she would pass. The Sun was setting, and it cast long shadows around the encampment. We approached our mother as she sat in front of the eternal flame, as she called it. The yellowing Sunlight hit the cliff, and it seemed to sparkle like an evening sky full of stars. There were hundreds of our clansmen gathered around the Eternal Fire as they do on Sabattas for storytime. They were quiet. Some were humming mourning songs, others looked pleadingly at me for guidance or wisdom, neither of which I had at the moment.

Julie sat poking at the fire with a long thin Ibex horn that spiraled like a helix, and little Clevis came out from inside the hut eating a lemon, his face puckered and tortured. In his other hand, he held a bunch of figs.

Momma, said Mary, you're going to ruin your Ibex charm if you keep using it in the fire.

Don't worry about me, she said. It's mine, and if I want to burn it, I will. She motioned towards a large basket of fruit. Have something to eat. You must be starved after all that hunting. She chuckled and said something neither of us could hear, and she smiled - two of her once beautiful teeth were now missing. She worried us when she did things like that - laugh or talk to no one. I think, now that I am older, she was talking not to herself but to the Ori.