The Fallen Goddess

Running, Working, and Googling

The next day, Koreena still seems pissed.

I don't say a word as we leave the hotel, both having showered and laundered our clothes (kind of).

We walk along the sidewalk, still silent. We are able to walk until we are close to the edge of the little town, at which point I notice the sign on somebody's front lawn. I point it out to her, speaking the first words said all morning.

"Look. That sign," I say, literally pointing "says that the owners of the house need their lawn mowed and they provide the mower."

Koreena nods briskly. "Yeah. You should see how much they're willing to give you."

Not wanting to to argue again, though desperately wishing I could, I walk across the road to the house. I knock on the door once I reach the front porch and a very elderly couple answers.

I explain what I'm there for and they smile, and show me where the mower is. So I get to work.

An hour later, after finishing mowing the couple's large yard and being generously paid, I go back across the street to where Koreena is simply standing.

"You could have gone into a building or something," I say to her, smiling.

She gives me a withering look and coldly asks, "How much did you get?"

"A hundred bucks."

And she starts heading briskly down the sidewalk again.

"Okay, first we need to get a lift, and we need to go to the nearest library so you can look up any public landmark that hovers."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," I say, putting my hand on her shoulder. "Why are you in such a rush?"

She stops suddenly now, and I can feel her shaking with fury.
"Maybe because my sister is hunting us nonstop, and we've only managed a single city in three days, and the only perk is that when we finally reach this River I can leave you behind," she says swiftly and coldly.

She again rushes off down the sidewalk, trying to wave cars down.

"I'm not that bad!" I yell, following her.

"Say that to all the people that know you," I hear her mumble after a catch up with her.

"Okay," I say, finally letting my anger vent. "Why do we have to keep catching rides like this? Why can't you use your stupid powers to move us from place to place? Are you just so weak and idiotic that you never thought of this before?"

"No, I didn't!" She screams, matching my volume. "But neither did you! And if I'm such an idiot, why don't you wise up and show me the freaking way!"

"Just use your powers!" I bellow, ignoring her previous comment. "You must be recharged by now or whatever you have to do to get your powers to work!"

"I can't!"

"Why not?"

"Because I can't control it you dunce! I might send us right back into her clutches and I can't risk that!"

I don't have anything to say to this, so I stop shouting, but I'm still as angry as ever. She begins waving down cars again, and before I can tell her to knock it off, a car pulls over.

A petite woman is driving, and she kindly asks us if we need a lift. We gladly accept, and, upon request, she brings us to the nearest library. We express our gratitude and walk inside the library, not talking and keeping our distance from each other.

I immediately make a beeline for the computers, whereas Koreena rushes off towards the actually books.

I sit down, log in, and go straight to Google. The first thing I look up is "famous hovering objects", and the best I get is a few advertisements for some hover boards.

Next, I look for "unique landmarks", and find interesting backstories for some really famous structures, but nothing more.

I keep looking and searching and typing and still nothing. I find nothing of significance and with every failure I lose confidence.

The searches get feebler and more vague the more and more I look for something important, and finally I am out of ideas. I turn the computer off and put my head in my hands in defeat, not wanting to go tell Koreena of my failure.

Just as I am about to go find Koreena, I hear her voice behind me.

"Find anything, dipstick?"

I try with every bit of my body and brain to suppress my laughter, but it bursts out before I can take control, and I get several dirty looks from other occupants of the library.

My laughter dies quickly, but when I turn around to actually face Koreena, I'm happy to see that she's smiling too.

"Are you still mad at me?" I whisper, standing up and smiling.

"No, I guess not. I suppose it was fair to ask whether I was happy in Orathne," she says, blushing a little. "So, did you find anything?"

"Unfortunately, no. The best I got was a couple cool backstories for perfectly normal, grounded landmarks."

She shakes her head and beckons me out of the library. Once we are outside again, she says, terror evident in her voice, "What do we do now?"

I shake my head, not knowing how to answer.

"Do you even want to go back?" I ask, knowing I probably shouldn't but also having to bring the subject up again. "Are you happy with Orathne?"

"Yes," she responds quickly and quietly. "It has its quirks, but my family is there, and... I can't just leave."

I nod, letting this soak in. I don't believe that she really wants to go back, but I know better than to press her, so instead, remembering something that I promised, I ask, "What mythology are you from, Koreena?"

She smiles, seemingly remembering that conversation in the diner a couple days ago as well, and she answers, "It's an ancient mythology believed by a secret people that live under the sea that I know, for a fact, people have no clue about. Except you, obviously."

"Are you serious?" I ask, baffled and curious and surprised all at once.

"No," she says, smiling even wider.

We begin walking down the sidewalk again, no longer worrying about where to go or what to do next. I know the preoccupation shouldn't and can't last long, but I'm happy to have it while it lasts.

"What exactly are you the goddess of?" I ask, finally realizing that I had never questioned her about this before.

"We don't have specific powers like the Olympians and Romans and Egyptians and others; we are just born with some kind of power, so any of my siblings could have the same as me, and, as you have seen, some of them do."

"Wow, that's..."

But I never get to finish my sentence, because suddenly Koreena touches my arm and I am whisked away into nothingness.

I again get the feeling that the spinning will never stop, but, just like last time, it does.