Chapter 7

Anthuina always had a strange obsession with the little humans she had created ever since she was born. It was something we could never understand but couldn't hold it against her. We didn't need to have a  close relationship or the bond to thrive and be required. After all, she was the one who created them and sent them to paradise when they died. She had a connection with them which was why we suspected and expected it when she fell in love with a human. She walked amongst them every day. And though she was invisible to their eyes, there were some people who generations before them, had made deals with gods and had a 'spiritual eye'. It was unexplained how him, a street rat, someone with no family members and his lineage couldn't be traced could have seen her when she was mourning for a fallen bird. Maybe it was his kindness or the way he accepted her who didn't look like the typical person and helped her dig a shallow grave for the bird. He prayed for its return to the spiritual realm. It was not like he was a fine specimen even by human standards. Also, who could forget the daily beatings and heavy pouring of dirty water on him? The villagers' hatred of this man, whose name shall never be mentioned was so palatable that even Bathra couldn't help but feel pity for him. But I guess that was what interested Anthuina in him. 

It was unexpected, we had thought the interest would fade into nothing, an infatuation, a passing interest but such wasn't the case. In fact, rather than an end to the relationship that none of us could accept, we instead saw it bloom, and soon they were engaged to be married. Maybe it should have been at this point that we all notice something being amiss, but we were happy. She was the last of us and to see her happy, even with a lesser creature, things we had created for our amusement, was enough for our defences to drop. The villagers' change in attitude towards him was drastic. They had gone from the negative end of the emotional spectrum to the positive, and his ease at accepting their newly formed love was strange. Still, nobody wanted to dampen her big day.

Even the war gods and gods of calamities were spotting massive grins on their faces, such was the case for this special day. Anthuina had always hated being the subject of attention which was why the celebration was only limited to the village. After all, being a bride was almost more than enough for her. The wedding was a success and after it came to the move of her husband into her realm. What felt like hundreds of years for them were just five years to the rest of humans, and well eventually he got homesickness. We knew she was sad moving back to his world, but she never spoke, and we never asked. We all chose to ignore the elephant in the room. Even when she started to become an elephant herself, we ignored the signs.

The birth of a son who was both human and god sparked an interest that we couldn't discern as good or bad. We were happy, but many a great folk looked at the baby and proud parents with fake smiles and disgusted eyes. Till this day, none of us can remember what name we gave him but, in our hearts, we know it would have been something great. Oh, how I wish now that we had someone, just one god whose power was to see the future then maybe we could have prevented what happened.

It was many moons later; the seasons had changed before a crumbling Anthuina appeared before us. She was crying, shaking and quaking where she stood and wailed so loudly as she slumped on the ground before us. It wasn't until we travelled back and saw the devastation that we made a connection. It was too great to have been done by a human, only a god. It was her, but it wasn't like her.

Agony, despair, anger and self-loathing in the air, on the grounds and on the bones, were so choking we had problems breathing. We had no choice but to seal the place. We planted fake memories and helped facilitate the rumours of the evil being that lived in that place. In fact, the stories gained so much attention when all the children born that year had deformities. They spiralled out of control that even children several kilometres were also deformed, some said that enemies went to the borders to especially pray for the deformities of some children. What they did not know was how much Anthuina was trying to recreate her child.  

Our anger and sorrow knew no boundaries, and we realized something that day. Humans were wicked, evil and vile little creatures. We might still not know what happened that day, but we hear her cries and can smell the tears on her. Her care for humans was what made her unique and why we loved her. There was no way for us to go ahead with the initial plans, after all, it was all for her, and if she wasn't happy with it, then it was all for nought.

Sent a message back, accepted their terms and thus began the longest moon full of training ever. Absolutely nobody wanted to lose, we all wanted to give it our all and everything. There was also the play of our egos on the line. It wasn't like the fight would just be amongst us all but instead all the gods, even the newly formed ones were to be invited to witness the turning point in all history. We had to abandon our ties to one another; this was a fight to the end, and we all needed to be ready to deliver a killing blow no matter how much it hurt us.

This is a backstory kind of chapter. Enjoy...