The Neo-American Pantheon

Into The Woods We Go

Dahlia hadn't run like she was now in ages, her lungs burned, and her arms felt like lead. Poe, her Wendigo had protected her and Demeter from a dart. What happened next she hadn't expected, Poe turned to ash. One moment he was growling and groaning on the ground, the next he was dust on the floor. That was all Dahlia had to see before she got the hell out of dodge. Not before seeing what she guessed was the fire god set their new house a flame, and then dropped unconscious. Each running step she took sent up a flurry of dust and debris, Demeter her cat straggled panting behind.

'It's too damn hot for this.' Dahlia thought to herself as she slowed down. She wore a tank top and shorts but carrying a 200 lb.  man in sweltering Nevada chafed her. She was covered in sweat, not the best idea in a desert, or what passed for one.

She had instinctively run to the closest thing to a forest, which was a dirt covered area with sparse tree growth off of highway NF-047. It was not what she was used to, that was for sure. She was from the mid-west, where a forest was a forest. However, Dahlia did feel the strength of the trees here, and she continued farther in, carrying the boy in her already heavy arms.

Slowly she pressed up the hill, and then down it falling more than a few times before she had enough. She set the fire god next to a tree, she guessed cedar and then plopped her own sore body down near him. The ground was not comfortable; it was hard though it was the consistency of chalk, Dahlia had to move a few stones before she could get comfortable.

When she was able to lay down, it was bliss, her black vine-like hair wet with sweat and tinged with gray from the dirt. Demeter laid down close to her master, but still far enough away that neither could feel each other's body heat. It now the height of the day, and the heat of Reno, Nevada rose with every second. Dahlia's eyes were closed when she heard coughing and movement. Lazily, she opened her eyes and looked over to where the fire god sat. His eyes were now open though heavily hooded.

"You up fire guy?" Dahlia asked tired and envious; he didn't have a drop of sweat on him.

"Yeah, I think. Damn, I feel like shit," he said rubbing his head with his hands, "Where are we?"

"Don't know, away from those guys with guns. So that's good enough for me. This whole god thing is a lot more work than it's worth. I mean really." Dahlia responded bitterly, "You're welcome by the way. Not immune to your own flames?"

Jeffery quirked an eyebrow, "They shot me up with something. It was the first time I felt hot in a while. It was weird as hell."

Dahlia pricked up after his first sentence, "They shot you with a dart?"

"Yeah, it put me to sleep too and made me numb. I still can't feel my fingers all that well," to accentuate his point Jeffery shook his hands.

"They tried to dart me too, Poe got in the way. He died though." Dahlia said calmly closing her eyes again.

"So... we already down a God?" Jeffery said a little forlorn, "I thought the whole point of being a God was that you were immortal?"

"Well no, Poe wasn't a God, he was a monster, a wendigo. One of the ones that have been rising and what not. He was a nature spirit; I'm the Goddess of Nature or something like that. Anyway, I controlled him, and when they darted him, he disintegrated. Poof!" When Dahlia said the last part, she slowly raised her hands and made a mock explosion with them, using jazz fingers to resemble dust.

"Nice description," Jeffrey responded chuckling. Dahlia gave a slow perturbed glance to Jeffrey in response. They sat there in silence for a bit before Jeffery spoke up.

"So, where's everyone else?" He asked.

Dahlia looked at him like he was stupid for a good few moments before responding, "Probably captured, or dead, or both. You did burn down the house, it helped for the escape, but if any was left, they were probably burnt to crisp."