Young God [GirlxGirl]

3. Girl Meets God

Nice to meet you, where you been? // I could show you incredible things // Magic, madness, heaven, sin // Saw you there and I thought // Oh my God, look at that face // You look like my next mistake // Blank Space, Taylor Swift

Ash, being only a couple hundred years old, had never ventured beyond the familiar realm of her own planet. In fact, very few gods ever did. If one ever planned to leave Athena then they would be expected to become a Wanderer, which usually took at least a century of rigorous training and research. Ash had always liked the idea of travelling the universe; of breaking free of the chains that bound her to the Kingdom of Light. Alas, her father had forbidden it. He'd said it would have distracted her from her duties, and that she'd have been unprepared for leadership if she spent all her time among other species and on other worlds.

So Ash let the dream die. She stopped fantasising about the Land of Giants, where the inhabitants grew as tall as skyscrapers, and of a distant world where the creatures had three heads and were said to have psychic abilities; she stopped dreaming of the enormous intergalactic space hub of the Spectrum galaxy, where species from countless planets were welcome to rest their heads and refuel their ships before setting off on their long journeys once more. This had especially amazed Ash after she had read somewhere about the 'Dome,' which was a circular chamber at the heart of the hub where members of each different society could meet and exchange stories - all thanks to the translator chip each visitor was implanted with. She could only imagine the kind of tales one might hear if they were to visit such a place.

But over the years, the wonder and imagination that had once consumed Ash was now replaced by a bitterness born out of boredom and restraint. She was certain she would spend the rest of her life in the confines of her world, so she stopped seeing the point in fuelling the hope that she might one day be freed. And, in doing so, she ceased to care about whether or not she would ever leave Athena, and no longer saw the marvel of experiencing new cultures and other-worldly traditions. She knew this pleased her father, which is why the last thing she had expected was for him to send her down to a foreign galaxy on a strange planet without a word of warning or a second of preparation.

And yet there she lay, right at the centre of a ten-foot deep crater, and when she finally managed to peel her eyes open she found that she was staring up at a coal black sky which had only one small moon and was completely clear aside from the odd star. And then, all of a sudden, her view of the sky was blocked by a pale face and a mess of long, electric-blue hair. Ash, who was taken aback by the sudden presence of this foreigner, was on her feet immediately. Unfortunately though, it didn't last very long. Apparently, she was still dizzy and disoriented after her descent - not to mention the fact that she wasn't used to the atmosphere of this world - and so she fell right back down almost instantly.

"Hey, are you all right?" Came Violet's concerned yet mildly wary voice. This shocked Ash. She hadn't anticipated being able to understand the language of the natives. But then something dawned on her. She looked Violet up and down with amazement, rendered speechless by just how much she resembled the gods, and suddenly she knew exactly where she was. It was the only existing planet upon which the residents bore a striking resemblance to those within Athena.

"Is this..." Ash's voice came out as little more than a croak. She sat up and cleared her throat. "Is this Earth?"

In response, Violet stared dumbly back, bemused by the question. This entire sequence of events made zero sense to her. First, she thought she saw a falling star crashing into the woods, and then she falls into an impossibly deep and impossibly wide crater, where she finds a naked girl who doesn't even know what planet she's on. Violet questioned whether or not she was even awake. Eventually, she came to the conclusion that this girl must have been on one hell of a bender.