Chapter 5

It took a while to connect with reality after I had woken up. The effects were hurting, and with what felt like bruises around my arms and the headache I was sure I didn't have before sleeping all gave me better reasons to go back. Though the fear in Arthy’s eyes made me rethink sleeping. He had tried shaking me awake, which explained the bruises; the god sometimes couldn’t control his strength, but I was unresponsive for a long time. He would have thought me dead if not for the slow rising and falling off my chest. His fear was funny and scary. It wasn't like this was the first time it had happened, but every time I had a coma-like dream, something terrible would happen.

The last time was about three moons before they found us. This happening now obviously put us in a state of unrest. And as usual, I could never remember anything. But we had no time to waste, we had bigger fish to fry. I had recently learned that I don't necessarily need another person to help complete destiny. If the gods kill themselves, it's possible to wipe one another's existence from reality. Take, for example, Jacilis and Bathra fight one another. Because their powers are almost equal, whoever that wins can ultimately remove the other from existence.

It was perfect, and that helped speed things up. Now we had gotten over the hurdle of them dying, we needed a plan to kill them. I couldn't give them enough time to see through us or else I would fail, but I also couldn't see a way to kill them at once. I was between a rock and a hard place. Arthy was unfortunately of no help whatsoever. He kept on thinking of gathering them in one place and instructing them to kill one another. He called it a gladiator's fest.

‘Gather every god who has a grudge against you in a place. Instruct them that if they don't want their plans destroyed, then they should fight to the death and let one god win. That god will carry their hopes and wishes to see humanity rot and fight you. Play into their egos and inflate it a bit. Then you would see how vicious they can be when their feelings of pride are in question.' But there were still a lot of holes in his suggestion. How sure was he that they would agree? And even if they do agree, won't that mean that the person I'd end up fighting would be a whole lot tougher than all of them combined? It seemed to spell more trouble than a solution to me.

But it was better than anything I had come up with. I had thought of killing the gods one by one. Being all stealthy. But then that idea had been shut down because it was almost impossible to kill a god with my small hands. Also, even if Arthy is powerful, it would be almost impossible for him too. I had even thought of reasoning with them. Maybe we could work something out that doesn't lead to the destruction of my people, but that idea didn't see the light of day before being shut down. He still didn't tell me why the gods hated us, but he did say that the crimes committed were too grave a sin to be forgiven. I was curious, but he seemed so tight-lipped about it. I couldn't help but keep my questions to myself.

I did wonder whether my people and the others were aware of the crimes we might have committed to warrant the eradication of us as people. From the stories he had told me, through the pictures he had painted, I could see how much both sides loved each other before. How much we worshipped them and how they strove to protect whoever was under their care. But if there was so much love between both parties, what could have caused this much bad blood? Any other idea I had didn't leave my mouth before being rejected. The gladiator's fest was the best and our only option. The only thing left to do was send the message and wait for their response.

We had a plan, an important message to be sent to the gods, but we had no modes of communication. Both sides had a kill on sight code, and technically they would kill me even before I say I had a plan. Now, at this point, a human would say, and this is what I believe, reminding you that I have not had real contact with them, 'just send Arthy. He's a god, albeit one that sides with you and they would also probably kill him on sight'... now you are catching my drift. I didn't want to die and didn't want to kill my only friend, so the only option left on our hands is sending a bird with our message. Now reading this you might have the same look of astonishment, and utter surprise as Arthy has, but just wait a minute.

Since Arthy can change into animals, he would turn to a bird with the message attached to his beak, drop-down near one of their domains, slide it through and hope someone does see it. In a moon's cycle time, we would have an all gods battle. Sometimes the best plan is an easy plan, said no one great. Most of our success is riding on the simple fact that maybe someone will see it, so we decided to help our odds. Distributing it to all the gods, including those not involved in the battle will help goad them into the fight.

The one thing I learnt from living in unreasonably close quarters with them is that their egos are easily inflated. Just a few pretty words and bam! They are eating out of your palms for as long as you keep boosting their feelings of pride. I guess that's why they are easily trapped in the human realm despite all their power and forced to depend on the worship given to them.

Arthy did what I expected of him. For one moon cycle dropped the notes near their domains, and we prayed. We still were living in the waterfall with the former god's decapitated head and body at the front. Our mode of enjoying ourselves while simultaneously preparing for the greatest battle of all time was practising, fishing, hunting and most of all sleeping. He would sometimes tell me stories, and even if I had heard them before, I feigned renewed interest. He was still so tight-lipped about the reason for the debacle and no matter what I said or the methods I used to try to force it out of him, he never spoke about it. I just had to stop working.

I never did dream in the way that most likely would have given Arthy what he calls a 'heart attack.' Have no clue what that word means but the look on his face seems to be an abject description of the name. And like that, the moon had gone from no show to a full and round object in the sky.

This time next month, I hope to be done with this and on to the next. I knew that winning or losing, there was still a long road ahead of me. Just defeating gods won't instantly bring back the peace we had before. Obviously, it stands within reason that some of the other gods wouldn't be pleased with us. Might think that with the 'big gods' out of business they can do whatever they want, whenever they please.