Adventures of Jacko the Conjurer
Page 16
Chapter 11
He was in a large room with stone walls. Various weapons decorated the walls, or stood in racks: sword, axes, battleaxes, iron balls. The bed, he lay in, was tough and itchy, and smelled moldy.
A thick ray of light blared across the dark gray and dusty room. He walked over and looked out the window. Outside, the worst weather, he’d ever seen in his life, persisted.
The clouds were so heavily packed in that he could not see the sky. Several floors below, the ground looked like a frozen version of the sky: covered in a thick icy gray, blanket of snow. Enormous fist sized granules of snow balls, instead of flakes, rained down, slamming and spattering into the ground.
He observed, more fully, the walls on the outside of the building, in which he stood. It was a tall gray castle closed in with extremely tall trees that stood, maybe, a 100 feet away.
The image of being inside the cherub, which was blown apart, and him falling through the air made him wonder if Lucem had saved him and brought him to that place.
There was a noise behind him. He turned and saw a girl stood across the room, watching him. She couldn’t have been more than twelve, but Jacko knew immediately by the ghostly appearance of her form that she was no girl.
“Jacko,” it said without opening her mouth.
His heart pounded.
“It’s alright, you’re safe.”
“Explain,” was all Jacko could get out.
“You are wrong. I was, and still am, a god, but I have moved on and this is the form that I chose for our meeting because of its ease of moving through the world. But, if it makes you more, comfortable,” and the girl became as clear as water with blue-green eyes.
Jacko wondered if she were taunting him, as her new form was not easier for him to view.
This time, she spoke with her mouth, “The world is in chaos, natural disaster. Your mother told you about this sort of affect before, don’t you remember? The elements are tied into the emotions of the gods. When they fight, so does the world.”
Jacko said nothing.
“I’m Gaia. You met my former lover, Ouranus.”
“If he was your lover, then what am I doing here? Why don’t you try to kill me?”
“Don’t you remember your mother’s tales? I am the Earth goddess. Ouranus thought he could rule me, rule my creations; thought he could trick me because he was young and handsome, and, I, old and lonely.”
“You are the daughter of chaos. Ouranus tried to rule you, but you cast him out. I remember,” he mumbled to himself. “Why did you bring me here and where are we?”
“We are in the Norse Mountains, a peak no one man has seen in millenniums, for I keep it hidden so that I may come and think. I brought you because I knew you’d be safe for the moment, until I released you; that and I wanted to give you a message.”
“There are some things I don’t understand. How is it that you are the Earth, yet you stand here? How is it that Ouranus is a planet that talks?”
“I am like mana, omniconsciousness, omnipotent, and omnipresent. What I am is what all gods become, as you’ve seen. First they harden and turn white, and then clear, and then into consciousness as their bodies fade away. If their consciousness is strong, the consciousness will grow and, finally, they will become orbits in the sky. I have, long ago, completed this cycle and am now Earth as you see it. I am very old, Jacko, older than all the planets in this solar system, and many outside it. During the arch-eon, I was one of the first gods of this universe, born out of the chaos of another universe, past, that no longer exists. I am beyond, yet I resonate as this planet that you call Earth. Like the hamadryades in the trees, I am one with the Earth. If it dies, I will cease to exist. I am Gaia; I am the Earth,” she paused. “I know of your troubles and of your concerns. I’ve brought you here to warn you that if you do not seek the orchard’s blessing, you will lose your battle. You will die and so will your family. You cannot defeat the demons. What you will discover, shortly, will distract you from your mission, but you must not let it keep you from your course too long, or you will lose your chance to win the war against the demons, forever. I feel that I must warn you that things will be much worse, if you do not reach the orchard soon.”
“Why do you help me? I thought the gods were agreed to leave everything up to fate.”
“Because I don’t want filthy demons turning my beauty into a molten rock of lava. We, gods, harden over the years and lose feeling, but I feel loathing toward the demons. It is the only thing I’ve felt in eons. ”
There was a giant explosion. He turned to look out the window. Despite the thick trees, he could see lightning struck a fire that burned bright, some miles away, and he could smell wood burning.
Additionally, the sky didn’t relent. Snow balls burst into flames as they fell from the clouds; they pelted and flurried down to the ground where they died in the wetness of the snow, leaving ash behind.
“Isn’t there anything you can do to stop natural disasters from happening to the Earth?”
“The end of times battle has begun and there is nothing I can do about it. The war prophecy allows a war for the Earth, but not with the Earth.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means I cannot interfere without interfering with the prophecy, everything must be played out.”
“Is the rest of the world like this?”
“Mostly.”
Further reading Jacko’s mind, Gaia made a television appear in the air so that he could have a news report. The whole world had, indeed, gone to hell. Raining sulfur and fire seemed to be small compared to the land slides and flooding the news reflected in various parts of the country. One report claimed the ocean was rising and showed pictures of beaching whales.
“Can you tell me where my family is?”
“That is for you to find out.”
“Why won’t anyone help me!”
But Gaia was unmoved.
Jacko closed his eyes and told himself to calm down, but then he reopened them and asked, “Do you know if my father is okay?”
“I do not.”
“How could you not know? If you are everywhere like Ouranus?”
But she simply stared.