Immortal Genesis

by Kevin D. Blackmon

  I ran through the city to some raspberry bushes where I began picking them to throw at her. She screamed and took cover behind another bush. I stood up to throw a berry just in time to see her throw one at me. Instead of ducking, I opened my mouth to eat it only for it to bounce off my cheek. We both laughed and continued throwing raspberries at each other, drawing the attention of many others. Elves and fairies of all ages soon began gathering raspberries and other small fruits, and for most of the afternoon, the entire city was at war!

  Growing tired of battle, Jinxie and I slipped away to wash fruit juice from our face and arms. A simple spell removed the stains from our clothing.

  “Would you like to come with me to check my traps?” I asked Jinxie while she sat in the grass, brushing her radiant orange hair.

  “Traps? What kind of traps?”

  “I trap small animals to study,” I answered. “I check them every few days.”

  “Okay,” she nervously agreed.

  I took her hand to help her stand and led her to the tall hedges that surrounded Lylandria. I pulled back the limbs to allow Jinxie to slip through the hidden, narrow passage that I had secretly trimmed through the green wall. I followed, releasing the limbs to close the way behind us. We stepped out from the hedges into a snow-covered land. Bare trees dotted white, rolling hills, and a light snow blew on the wind.

  Jinxie gasped at the sight. “It’s frozen! Is this where you’ve been coming when you say you’re going for an evening walk?”

  “It is. What do you think?” I asked proudly, taking a deep breath of the bitter air while I magically added a thicker layer of clothing.

  “It’s cold,” she answered with a shiver. “Why is it so bleak and dreadful?”

  “This is the real world. Out here, the world cycles through warm and cold seasons. Lylandria would look like this if it wasn’t augmented by magic.”

  Seeing that I had already added clothing, she did the same before I led her to one of my animal traps not far away.

  “This is it,” I said, bending down next to a hole dug in the ground. “Oh, this is a good catch!”

  Jinxie looked over curiously while I reached into the heap of snow that nearly filled the hole. “What is it?”

  Feeling over the cold body, I located a leg to take hold of and pulled the stiff carcass from the snow.

  Stepping back, Jinxie was preparing herself to be disgusted. “What is that?”

  “It’s a fox,” I answered, placing it on the ground next to us and reaching back into the hole for a second animal.

  Surprised, she asked, “There’s another?”

  I laughed a little and laid a partially eaten, frozen rabbit next to the fox. “Yeah, how ‘bout that? I caught two animals in one trap.”

  “The hole isn’t very deep. Why couldn’t they have just jumped out?” she asked curiously.

  “After digging the hole,” I began to explain, scooping out the snow, “I placed a bit of food in to lure a rabbit.” I then pushed snow away from the edges and began tracing a line in the dirt around the hole. “I cast a spell over the hole allowing things to enter but not escape. The fox tried to take my catch, but he, too, was caught before the spell wore off.”

  “Now that you have them, what do you plan to do with them?”

  Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath and carefully placed my hands on both animals. “I can bring their bodies back to life,” I whispered as they began to twitch. “I can see glimpses of their memories,” I continued, struggling to understand. “But I still can’t recombine the two.” I opened my eyes and pulled my hands away from the dead animals, sighing in frustration.

  “What’s holding you back?” Jinxie asked softly.

  I rubbed my head, giving her question serious thought. “Whether it’s been months or minutes, dead is dead.”

  She placed a hand on mine. “You’ll figure it out. You just need time.”

  “Time,” I repeated. “Time will run out for us all, if I don’t.”

  “Then I’ll help you.”

  Surprised, I asked, “But what if we’re both banned from Lylandria?”

  “Then we’ll be banned together,” she answered sweetly, kissing me on the nose.

  “We have a lot of work to do,” I told her with a smile. “We’ll get started after dark.”

  I stood to leave, but Jinxie stopped me. “Wait! We must help these animals return to the earth.”

  She placed her hands over the animals, but instead of trying to bring them to life as I did, the animals caught fire and quickly collapsed into small piles of ash that she covered with snow. We then followed our tracks back to my secret passage into Lylandria and headed home.

  As the last rays of sunlight receded, giving way to starlight, Jinxie and I watched the clouds roll by while lying back on a carpet of moss. Jinxie held her hand out for me to take in mine. I gladly took it.

  Turning my head to look at her, I asked, “How did I end up with the most perfect woman in existence?”

  Looking into my yellow eyes, she answered, “Because you are you, and I am me. We’re only perfect together. I love you more than anything in the universe.”

  Glancing up at the night sky, I commented, “From here, it appears there’s not all that much out in space.”

  Surprised by the remark, she rolled over on me and began tickling me. “Ambros, you’re so mean!”

  I couldn’t speak from laughing while futilely protecting sensitive areas. She poked, prodded, and gouged until I could no longer breathe!

  “Had enough? Had enough?”

  I shook my head no, so she continued tickling me a bit longer. She then took my face in her hands and kissed me. “The universe of the mind is limitless and full of wonders beyond reckoning.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry,” a small voice said over us.

  Looking up, we saw a fairy with her back to us. Her blonde, braided ponytail reached all the way to her feet.

  “It’s all right, Alana,” Jinxie told her. “What is it that you need?”

  Without turning around to look at us, she said, “Kronyx requests to see Ambros.”

  I thanked her for relaying the message, and she flew off into the darkness. “I wonder what he needs to see me about,” I thought aloud.

  “Well, he just returned from a meeting with the World Council,” Jinxie mentioned while still sitting on me. “He may have news concerning Ashwood.”

  Propping up on my elbows, I told her, “That’s what I’m afraid of.”

  She kissed my nose before getting off of me and helping me stand.

  I ran my fingers behind her neck and through her soft, orange hair. I suddenly saw the flesh of her face dissolve away, revealing the muscles beneath, and I closed my eyes.

  “Ambros,” she called. “Ambros, you’re having one of your visions, aren’t you?”

  I nodded, and she held me close. “I’m sorry,” I whispered.

  “It’s okay. I’m right here, and I’m perfectly healthy.”

  Embarrassed by my problem, I pulled away from her. “I suppose I should head on to see what Kronyx wants to see me about.”

  “All right, but if you’re not back soon,” she shook her finger, “I’ll come save you from the mean ol’ dragon,” she teased, pulling me close for another kiss.

  “I’ll be watching for you,” I pointed at her before walking through the dimly lit garden to meet with the city guardian in his dwelling.

  After sunset, the elves of Lylandria hung fairy fire lanterns at the entrance to their homes. It was a tradition that symbolized life and how it will pass through darkness to see the sun again.

  I walked down the stone steps that led deep into Kronyx’s borrow. The staircase opened into a large room with walls constructed of thick glass. It was illuminated by large, white crystals positioned around the room on glass pedestals. Even tables and shelves were made of glass. The floor, though, wasn’t dirt like in most dwellings but a thick carpet of moss. With eyes shut and legs crossed as if sitting
on an invisible chair, Kronyx floated within the center of the ring of crystals meditating.

  Kronyx was a Yellow Dragon but took the form of an elder Light Elf. He had long, silky blond hair that drifted like smoke around his head, and he wore a white robe with gold accents that ran like a vine through the material.

  “You called for me?” I asked, but he did not respond. “Kronyx?”

  “The humans believe they are the center of the universe, that their lives have meaning,” he finally spoke while remaining in a meditative state. “They believe godly, humanlike beings are concerned with their day to day struggles, but they lack the ability to see the bigger picture. Their lives do have meaning, but not in the way they believe. My time with the Light Elves has shown me that they are not so different. Like the humans, they fill in areas of the unknown, namely the period of time after the body dies, with how they envision an everlasting perfect day with their ancestors in the Sun.”

  “And what do you see?” I asked, interrupting his monologue while rubbing a hand over one of the glowing crystals’ facets.

  “I see infinity in all directions.”

  The room suddenly went dark, and I pulled my hand away from the crystal thinking I had done something I shouldn’t. Twinkling starlight began to show on the walls as if we were viewing the night sky. I stepped closer to the center of the room and looked up in awe as the cosmos whirled overhead, a maelstrom of beautiful chaos and simplistic order. I saw the very heat from stars stripped away by invisible forces while others lit unknown worlds. Debris coalesced in the darkness to form new planets and join their brothers in a long dance around their sun.

  “I see the birth and death of stars, their scattered remains repurposed by the universe. What seem like random occurrences are actually unseen forces at work, for the universe is God. Or to be more precise, will be God. As life emerges and spreads throughout the universe, God becomes more and more aware of himself.”

  The stars around us faded, and the white crystals once again lit the room. Kronyx slowly lowered to a pillow that was on the mossy floor below him, and his closed lids suddenly opened to reveal the gold, reptilian eyes within. “Don’t you see, Ambros? God is made of us.”

  Standing before him, I asked, “Has life spread throughout the entire universe?”

  “No, but this planet has been visited by life from other worlds.”

  “How do you know this?”

  “I met with the World Council and spoke with the new guardian of Ashwood…”

  “Wait a moment,” I interrupted. “The new guardian? What happened to Magnus?”

  “Magnus,” he hissed. “The traitor murdered the heads of the council and was cast into the Abyss of the Dead.”

  I laughed, “Sounds like a holiday.” I turned to walk away.

  “You jest?”

  “You’ll have to excuse my dark sense of humor.”

  Kronyx placed his feet on the soft mossy floor. “You were named after Ambrosius the Yellow, were you not?”

  “Yes,” I answered, watching a worm push its way through the rich earth on the opposite side of the glass wall.

  “He raised you, did he not? Do you still miss him?” he asked probing futilely for a glimpse of my memories.

  I nodded, seeing Kronyx’s reflection in the glass. “Of course, I miss him. He was the only family I ever knew. He was like a father to me.” I worded my answer carefully.

  “Did he ever tell you the story of the great Dragon King Shadowrath?”

  “It was one of many bedtime stories he told me,” I answered, turning to face him. “Shadowrath died in combat with a powerful creature called a phoenix, didn’t he?”

  “Yes. Arethil was the creature’s name,” he said, walking over to pull a scroll from the shelf. “I’ve been working for centuries piecing the legend together. When Lylandria was in need of a new guardian, I felt it would be a great opportunity to hear the old tale from the Light Elves’ perspective.”

  “What did you learn?”

  “Arethil was described as taking many forms. Her most common form was of a bird but unlike any bird from this world,” he said with a bit of excitement.

  I walked over to the table where he unrolled a painting of a brightly colored bird with big eyes and a beautiful woman with very long, strawberry blonde hair.

  Pointing to the woman, I asked, “Who’s that?”

  “This is the other form she took. Stories told that she could augment her size and become intangible at will, pass through solid objects, and travel great distances in an instant.”

  “This is very interesting, Kronyx, but what does all this have to do with me?”

  “I would like you to help me fill in the gaps of this story.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “No, I believe you do,” Kronyx said circling around me. “I believe you were there.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “I have reason to believe you are Ambrosius reincarnated.”

  “That’s ridiculous,” I laughed, remembering Pop’s work on regeneration and the materials he used to create me. I could not reveal how I was given life to this serpent. “I believe that it’s time for me to be heading home.”

  I turned to leave, but vines quickly sprouted from the mossy floor to restrain me. “Is all this really necessary?” I asked, glancing down at the vines.

  He stepped close to me. “You will answer my questions,” he said in a stern tone.

  “Have you asked a question?” I joked.

  “Are you Ambrosius reincarnate?” he yelled in my face.

  My eyes squinted and my head turned away from his hot breath. “I wish I were Ambrosius; I would burn your ass where you stand,” I cursed with a laugh, my patience wearing thin.

  “HAHAHA! I anticipated you wouldn’t give information to me freely. I am well aware of your distrust of my kind.”

  I twitched, feeling Kronyx probing my mind again. “You won’t find anything in there but cobwebs and dead things,” I uttered.

  “You must have a powerful mind, Dark Elf, to keep one such as me from hearing your thoughts,” he declared, circling around me. “But no matter; these crystals not only enhance my vision into the cosmos, but they also enhance my telepathic abilities to see into the mind. I’ll learn all of yours and Ambrosius’ secrets soon enough.”

  The vines began pulling me to the center of the room where Kronyx had been meditating. I was still standing upright, but my feet were not touching the mossy floor.

  “The guardian of Ashwood is looking for you,” he said to me as I was positioned within the center of the ring of crystals, “and I would like to know why.”

  Kronyx sat on the floor in front of me. Once again, I felt him reach into my mind. He began floating, rising to become eye level. Light within the crystals dimmed, and I felt bolts of energy sparking along my scalp. He slapped me on the side of the head, and a vision of him slapping me appeared on the walls around us. His head jostled, too, at the moment of impact.

  “That’s better,” he said aloud. “We’re now connected.”

  He was quiet for a moment, taking long, deep breaths. And then he began to speak. “Centuries ago, my father created a looking glass that allowed him to peer deep into space. He realized that he wasn’t just looking at distant worlds but actually looking through time itself. I continued his work to find that I could use living creatures to see a sort of lineage deep into the past.”

  The walls depicted scenes from my memories. I had no control over what he could see. I saw myself holding Jinxie within our enclosed bed of vines. I saw my journey to Lylandria with Goat. I saw Eve hug me goodbye outside my home in Ashwood.

  “I told you the truth, Kronyx. I am not Ambrosius.”

  “Oh, I believe you, young elf, but I intend to look beyond you,” he divulged. “By using you as a focal point, my enhanced telepathic ability will allow me to see deep into the past.”

  Around me, I saw Magnus bite Ambrosius. I tried closi
ng my eyes but could still see him drained of blood. I then saw Pop creating another like me only to pass to them his consciousness during meditation. I saw him do this over and over.”

  “Ah, I see Ambrosius did in fact live for millennia by growing himself new bodies, but for some reason, he chose not to use you as he did the others.”

  I saw elves mining a cave. They chipped a wall of stone that broke away to a shaft into a volcano. A fair-skinned Ambrosius used a magical gauntlet to absorb the heat from the lake of magma below to create solid stone.

  “Within the fabric of time,” he began to explain, “lies a record of every creature that has lived, every deed that has been done, and every word that has been spoken. Reaching that information is exceptionally difficult, unless you have a physical link connecting the present to the past.”

  “Are you also capable of seeing the future?”

  “The ocean of time is immeasurably vast, and the currents leading into the future are treacherous and too unpredictable to produce a clear, singular vision.”

  The walls showed Pop casting a powerful spell on a black obsidian chest that entrapped the charred remains of a dragon and a large, colorful bird. The chest was cast into the Abyss of the Dead.

  “So that is why she needs you,” Kronyx presumed, thinking aloud. “Since Ambrosius locked Shadowrath and Arethil within the chest, she believes you can release them. Then she must also believe you can resurrect them.”

  “But I…”

  He opened his reptilian eyes, the vertical pupils narrowing to focus on me. “Don’t think I sit idly down here with my eyes shut to all beyond these glass walls. I know of your late night walks to the city’s border,” he revealed. “I’ve seen you butcher woodland animals only to call them back from the dead.”

  I remained quite as he began pacing the floor.

  “But which of the legendary creatures does she plan to resurrect, I’m not entirely sure.” He continued, his mind working to piece together what he knew and what he believed to be true. “She must have the chest!” he finally blurted out.

  “Perhaps she just wants to know how I’m doing,” I mentioned sarcastically.