Angels and Magic

by E. J. Bennett

  She sighed deeply, wondering again just what she was doing here. Why had she agreed to do this even, and with no supervision for that matter? She felt the anger start to grow once more. She was angry with herself, angry with her mother, she was angry with the humans and the entire forest for needing her help. A tiny voice of reason managed to reach through the tumultuous affair that was her psyche and she felt herself calm down somewhat.

  She could do this. She could do this right? The uncertainty that flooded through her lent pause to her motion and she contemplated her next move. Her mother's words resounded in her head, 'never act until you are sure of what exactly you intend to do. Mistakes are not condoned in what we do". She sighed and shook her head. She was at least glad that she had been allowed to change her clothes. Imagine going on her first mission dressed like some oversized bean plant, she shivered at the thought, once again admiring the clothes she wore. She'd made it specially, fashioned a dress made from the clouds and wind, a dress worthy of Mother Nature as far as she was concerned.

  She was Mother Nature right? Her mother had said she needed her to be a better Mother Nature. She couldn't be that if she didn't step up and act without fear could she? What was the worst that could happen? A few damaged crops tops and that was even if anything did go wrong. She mentally prepared herself and then she floated to the middle of the amazon.

  She lifted both hands into the air and opened her palm out wide. Her wand, the first gift her mother had ever given her, slowly materialized in her open palm. She admired the object, its intricate design spoke of her nobility and she knew it. She had seen some wands belonging to some of the lesser gods. They came nowhere closer to how sleek and well-made hers was. She had been using practice wands while her wand had been kept in a special case in her mother's residence. She had brought it out and presented it to her just before she left the skies and descended down to earth to perform the duty given to her by the heavens.

  She could feel the power brimming within the wand and she could not wait to see what it could do. With one final word of encouragement to herself, she lifted her hands and swirled them round in the sky, performing her spell.

  Nothing happened.

  She looked at her wand. She'd felt power leave it hadn't she? What was happening? Had she done something wrong?

  Suddenly, the air shifted she tasted electricity in the air. Thunder boomed then and lightening flashed quickly behind, slicing the air into two. Ariel broke into a smile.

  The clouds above began to develop a grey tinge, darkening the entire area and giving the previously bright and sunny day a dull, overcast look.

  Then, as she floated, smiling in the skies, unseen by all below, the rains began in earnest.

  CHAPTER TWO

  The rain poured from the sky continuously and Ariel laughed reveling in the feeling of the water as it cascaded all over her. The rain she had created. She felt the pride swell within her and she floated around, doing a little dance in the sky. She rolled and twisted her wand in the air marveling in the sound the thunder made at her behest. It was truly beautiful to see, especially from her vantage point. The trees below were encased in what looked to be a single sheet of steadily pouring water and she was happy with herself.

  To think she had been having second doubts. In retrospect now, all her doubts seemed terribly unwarranted and unnecessary. She could handle this, she was definitely Mother Nature material. What had even made her doubt herself so before? A little anger? Hadn't her mother shown on more than one occasion that her anger and wrath burned bright and were all consuming in their intensity? They were not very much alike in that regard. Not if one really gave it any thought. She rolled her wand again and a small wind picked up, causing the rain to increase in its intensity and laughed with glee.

  Yes. This what the people wanted wasn't it? Water for their crops and for their rivers. Her first day on her own and she was already doing so well. She felt extremely proud of herself and floated down into the dense forest, brushing aside the wet branches and dripping leaves.

  The pitter patter of the leaves played background to her inspection and she smelled the petrichor as the rains watered the earth. The earthy smell wafted up to her nostrils and she took them in lung full's. Is this what her mother felt all the time? Was this what she called love of life? It didn't feel like she loved life. No, not really. It simply felt like she was proud of what she achieved. It was just a grander feeling of the way she felt when she conjured lightening during their outings together. She always felt a small sense a fulfilment. She liked being able to control nature. There was no end to what she could achieve with just a little bit of imagination was there.

  The rains poured heavily and her wand dissolved from sight, waiting for when she would recall it once more.

  She looked to the sky, wondering how her mother would choose to reward her for a job well done. She would probably agree to let her stop wearing that unsightly vine dress. The thought pleased her and she admired her creation once more. She floated higher up and emerged above the dense canopy. She could feel her connection to it all. The trees, the wind, the rain itself, they all spoke to her. For the first time, she felt just how connected to the forces of nature she was. Was this what her mother meant when she told her not to control the weather but instead try to guide it where she wanted? She couldn't be sure, but for the most part, her work here was done.

  She cast one final look around and then prepared to make her way home.

  Aren't you going to find out the people's reaction? A tiny voice stopped her mid travel. She thought about it for a second. It made sense. She had been overtaken by the feelings of joy she got as she admired the rains that she had conjured that she had forgotten the main part. The most important part. The praise.

  She was Mother Nature and she had just done them a great favor by calling down the rains. No doubt, by now, they were singing her praises at the top of their lungs. Didn't she deserve to bask in the much needed praise? Her mother had been praised for long enough. Now, it was her turn to take the spotlight. Ariel, Mother Nature. It did have a nice ring to it.

  She smiled as she changed her mind and slowly made her way towards the settlements that littered the amazon. According to her mother's lessons, there were more than a few, and new ones were popping up every other day. She felt delighted at the prospect. More people just meant more praise, and everyone knew she needed a break. All her life she'd struggled to fit in with the rest, acutely aware of just how different she was from the rest of her fellow gods. The high born gods watched her as one would watch a snake, all too aware of her very short temper. Like she needed the constant reminder of the anger she felt inside constantly. She shook her head as she felt the anger threaten to take over from her temporary feeling of euphoria. Of course she knew that by the time she returned home, after the feeling of euphoria at the successful completion of her mission had died down after having run its course, the anger would return.

  She constantly had to battle with her compulsions. Over time she had assumed they would get easier to handle or suppress, but they had proved to be more resilient than she could ever had envisioned. She just couldn't bring herself to feel any love for nature or anything it spawned. In fact the feelings she was feeling right now were just happiness at doing something she'd doubted she couldn't do, laced with anticipation of the praise she was going to get. She knew she had not suddenly developed a love of nature because she conjured rain over a region. But then, she was willing to take it, if it meant she didn't have to fight with the anger that threatened her very being and completely overwhelm her.

  Her mother was the only one who treated her normally despite her constant barely respectful comments in the goddess' presence and she knew that she was just being infinitely patient with her. She was grateful for it however, it helped her when she truly felt alone and misunderstood. The responsibility she was being prepped for hadn't made things any easier.

  She couldn't count how many snarky comments she
'd heard about how she would never make a good mother nature. She'd eventually grown immune to the constant back talk and just ignored it completely, after all, what did it matter if she listened to them? She was the one who ended up losing either ways.

  She breezed through the amazon, weaving through trees and dodging low handing branches. Her sky themed dress clung to her features nicely and she admired it once more glad that she'd been allowed to wear it, once more. She wondered if her mother was watching and concluded she was.

  Of course the mother of all nature was watching her, she rolled her eyes. Gaia was probably just monitoring her progress to see if she would misbehave in any way. She scoffed at the thought of an anxious Gaia looking down at her and fervently hoping she didn't mess up. Her actions reflected on the high goddess and she knew it.

  She reached a particularly dense portion of the forest and stretched her hands towards the trees, her wand appeared instantly in her hand and the trees parted, creating a path in the middle which she flew through. Her wand dissolved out of sight once again.

  The wind and rain drummed in her ears and she imagined how the people would praise her. Sure enough they were going to attribute it to Gaia, but the name didn't matter for now, all that mattered was that they praised the action and saw it for what it was. A perfectly carried out job of a benevolent goddess. The name issue could be sorted out with a simple apparition to the spiritual heads of the village. It could be in the form of a vision, but once it happened, the people would soon realize just who they were supposed to be directing their thanks to. For now, she would accept her thanks under her mother's moniker. She couldn't be picky. The spiritual men of the various villages, towns, cities and other settlements were the messengers of the gods. Since the gods had stopped physically manifesting themselves to mankind, they had discovered the need to occasionally rely some information to the people. When that need arose, the appointed messengers proved infinitely useful. They were the mouthpieces with which the gods communicated their will to the populace. They were specially selected and imbibed with the special gifts which allowed them perform the duty they'd been put on the earth to perform.

  As she exited the forest, she came across some farms and paused to admire the work the rain was doing for them. It seemed to her that some crops had just been planted and she knew that the rains would facilitate their growth. Of course, whether they grew big and of good quality was still up to the nature spirits, but the rain did its part.

  Majority of the villagers were farmers. She flew over their farms, admiring the various ways in which they cultivated the fertile land that they had been afforded. Despite being a destructive lot, when it came down to it, one could really tell just how similar to the gods they were in the way they manipulated the things that had been put around them. It was somewhat adorable watching them subconsciously take after their makers without even realizing they were doing it.

  She couldn't hate but dislike them however. Despite all their redeeming qualities, half of which she didn't even agree with, they irked her to know end and as she flew towards the village, she wished she had been sent on a mission of destruction rather than the one she was currently on. That would have been fun.

  She caught sight of the first village not too long after she exited the amazon forest. It was a small village and from what she could tell, it did not have up to a thousand people living in it. She could spot a small spread of houses around. Hut was the more appropriate word for the living quarters that she encountered. She stared at the desolate conditions as the rain poured down. Everyone had resigned into their houses as far as she could see and as far as she could tell, there were no praises being sung.

  She turned as she caught sight of some children playing in the rain. They jumped and ran around, engaging in a game of their own making. The way they looked, struck a chord in her. She knew they would not be able to see her, so she floated towards them, mesmerized by their seemingly unending innocence. Humans could not see the divine beings unless they were allowed specifically, and they were hardly allowed. Only messengers received that privilege and even then, based on the caliber of the god, they had to shield their eyes slightly as the divine essence usually proved too sharp for human perception.

  The children ran around playing and their bored mothers sat a distance off in front of their houses, occasionally screaming out comments about how they would catch a cold and end up at the healer's place. She tilted her head in wonder, wondering how that was supposed to deter them. If they were just going to get healed, why bother stopping their play? They surely seemed to be enjoying themselves.

  She looked around and saw that a slowly growing river gently flowed not too far from where the children played. She recognized the river as the Blue-water River. Her mother had specially designed it to have a rare bluish tinge at various times of the day. She often commented how future generations of humans would pore over it and discover various treasures she had hidden within. She had turned the earth to her very own intense game of hide and go seek.

  She caught sight of a house even as the children ran towards their mothers who, by now, were on their feet and screaming hysterically for the children to get out of the rain.

  The house caught her fancy. It was a small house and looked like it had been hastily built and was definitely not properly maintained. She shook her head and ignored the irony of her thought path. She had just thought of how the humans arranged each other according to levels, classes...hierarchy. But wasn't it the same way with her people as well? There were high gods and goddesses, there were middle class gods and then there were the lower gods. The high gods and goddesses made up the bulk of the ruling council of their abode in the skies, along with some representatives from the middle and lower gods. But then, they were divine, what did the humans have over each other? Their brains functioned the same way. There were just differences in the level to which they used them. Was that sufficient to declare themselves higher than the other?

  She contemplated this question, floating closer to the house. Her curiosity had been piqued and she definitely needed it satisfied. She was still vaguely aware of the distinct lack of praise from the people and it was honestly, starting to bother her. She felt the anger bubble within her and the small feeling of euphoria struggled to keep it in check. It wasn't doing a very good job. She cleared her head, focusing on the task at hand. The house was roofed, and as the rain pelted the roof, the entire house seemed to shake.

  Thunder boomed from behind her, quickly followed by lightening. She reached the house finally and floated in through the wall. It definitely came in handy that she couldn't be seen, she could ascertain if their praises were true or not.

  Her eyes didn't find it hard adjusting to the dimly lit interior of the house and she was not surprised to see it looking as shabby as she had imagined. What was going on here? She wondered as she took a quick look at the dilapidated room. There wasn't much to see however and it barely took a second to fully assimilate the look of the entire room. How could one live in such a place? She wondered. The walls had all but crumbled and there was hardly any furniture to speak of. She looked round and again her mind reminded her of the hierarchy. The huger ups kept the lower downs that way, so they could stay higher up. All fingers could not be equal. She had no doubt that there were more refined living spaces, even within that same village.

  She looked up as she realized that despite being inside, the rain still touched her and her eyes grew to the size of orbs. What was going on? She could have sworn she saw a roof when she'd been flying in. as she looked now, it seemed like the roof had suddenly disappeared. The rain poured into the room in torrents and there was almost no difference from being outside the house and in the actual rain. She floated closer to the roof to inspect it and she realized that the roof while being badly built from the beginning, had sprouted several leaks, the purpose of having a roof over the house was more or less defeated. How could one live in such terrible conditions?

  For a s
econd she marveled with a hint of contempt, at the mere tenacity of mankind. People who were much better dead and in the afterlife clung to life with everything they had. What was so wonderful about existing in a place such as this? A place where the elements were above them and their environment in general was almost always against them. Granted, they had done a lot of good carving out little civilizations for themselves despite this sometimes, stubbornly unyielding environment, she could not help but wonder what made it all worthwhile for them?

  For one, she knew that they never would have gone as far as they had if not for the occasional help from the gods. Most of the troubles they'd surmounted, while some actually took the ingenuity that they'd been created with, a large percentage was as a result of the gods and them stepping in to assist. They softened the mountains just a tad so the humans could carve their way through. They calmed the seas when the humans tried to cross them in search of places unknown. They had been created with an unquenchable curiosity, hence the gods were very patient and willing to help when their curiosity took them through some perilous encounters.

  The afterlife would suit a lot of them better, she surmised, but they just didn't know it. The only way to reach the afterlife was to die and every god knew that was the human's worst fear. When they'd been created, Gaia and the other gods had wanted them to last and so, they'd put an acute fear of dying into them. This fear brought forth some predicted results and even some that the gods could not have foreseen.

  They had dedicated a lot of energy into not dying and ironically, that more often involved facilitating the death of other life forms and even their fellow man. The fear of death was the inspiration behind gong to search for new, more livable locations and one could not really fault them for that could they? They were slaves to their own nature, but as far as they were concerned, their survival made them 'fittest'. She chuckled. Before man, there had been enormous beasts on earth and the gods had known that mankind would soon be rendered extinct if those beasts had been allowed to thrive, and they had wiped out majority of them.