Luke Swan and the Laistrynians: The Flood

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

~ Is This Heaven? ~

I woke up wondering if I had been shredded to a million pieces.

But when I looked down, I was completely whole. Not even a scratch or a scar.

"Am I in heaven?" I asked myself out loud.

"Well, you are in a kingdom in the clouds. I suppose you would be inclined to call it heaven."

I jumped. It was that female voice again. I looked around me: I felt as if I was in an ancient temple, only the place seemed brand new. Everything around me was either blue or silver, and it glowed with an eerie light. The great, domed ceiling was held up by a score of pillars. There were torches and small statues in alcoves. The room wasn't very big, and it didn't seem to have a purpose.

Except maybe to confine me in.

I heard footsteps behind me. I turned, and gasped.

Think of the most beautiful woman you've ever seen, in magazines, tv shows or even in person, and now multiply that beauty by a tenfold. Her long, silver, glowing hair was braided down one shoulder. A sleeveless sky-blue dress with a silver belt that complimented her bright, electric blue eyes perfectly covered her lithe and graceful frame. A tiara that seemed to be made of molten light was perched atop her head, and her face- that beauty could not be natural: perfect lips, gently curved eyebrows, high cheekbones, and yet everything seemed to be natural. The strange thing was I couldn't seem to place her age. She could have been over twenty, and yet, she could have been my age. The more I tried to imagine different ages, the more she seemed to morph to my imagination. When I looked closer, I saw large, feathered wings tucked behind her back.

"I am in heaven. You're an angel," I said, not quite believing the words as they tumbled out of my mouth.

She shook her head. "You aren't dead, Luke Swan. I brought you here before the Brackell hound could do any lasting damage."

"But... wait, how do you know my name?"

"Everything that travels on the wind reaches me eventually," she said with a faint smile. "What's more important, though, is how you managed to attract such a fearsome creature, especially in your own neighborhood. No mere mortal could do that."

"Are you saying... that you're not mortal?" I said.

She laughed. "No, I'm not mortal. I'm what you may call a goddess."

So much for a normal day.

"You also said that I wasn't just a mortal either," I said cautiously.

"Well, you could be of Laistrynian descent," she said. "What were your parents like?"

"I don't know."

She was silent for a while. I guess she wasn't used to making second guesses. Finally, she said: "I know how you feel. My parents were the wind and sky. I grew up on my own. Most Laistrynians are like that: they are often born from elements and other things, and become the patrons of them. Take me, for example: born from air, goddess of the sky."

"Are you saying that I'm a god?" I said in disbelief.

She pondered this for a moment. "No," she decided at last. "If you were a Laistrynian, you would have been born here."

"What is a Laistrynian anyway?" I asked.

"A citizen of my kingdom," she said. "Follow me."

I rose unsteadily to my feet. I didn't have any scratches, bruises or missing limbs from my attack with the spaniel/hellhound, but I still hurt all over. I followed the goddess out of the room, limping slightly, and she stopped at a window.

I looked through the glass: below us there was a lush garden with exotic flowers and vegetation, and beyond that was a huge, platinum gate. And beyond that... I couldn't have prepared myself for it. My eyes didn't believe it. They slunk back to the garden, something less extraordinary then what was beyond that gate.

Look up, my head said.

Roads snaked their way across miles and miles of green fields. Every once and a while the roads ended at gigantic palaces and massive temples. Other, smaller buildings were dotted here and there on the huge plain, which had grasses of many different colours other than green. In the distance, I could make out cities old and modern gleaming. And in the centre of it all... a huge, multicolored tower rose up to a gargantuan height, and at the very top a fiery ring shone so bright it was painful to look at. The place seemed to go on for hundreds of miles.

"Welcome to my kingdom and home," she said. "This, Luke Swan, is the enchanted land of Laistrynia."