A Realm of Gods

Hanging there I looked around and saw pillars of stone jutting out of the tops of clouds and a plateau above us that tapered up and up out of normal sight. We needed to get to the plateau, so we climbed with our hands and swords and slowly found our way to the shelf. The air was sweet and summoned memories of better times, of youthful games and holiday foods. It distracted all of us for a moment before we regained our senses.

"You have to give the Gods one thing, they sure know how to plan scenery." Mathew spoke looking around at the pillars of stone and the top of the clouds. It was impressive, as I pulled myself up over the lip of the plateau I was able to look around, sitting there the realm seemed to have no end. Some realms were nothing more than a circle of life floating in the void between realities, others were entire planets, the realm of the Gods seemed to be a universe unto itself. Looking at the skyline it didn't appear to have an end, it's dark purple horizon was being speckled with pink,red, and orange as the sun rose over the horizon. Far off in the distance what looked like two tiny little horses and a golden chariot was flying up into the sky with a long silver line behind it attached to the sun. The night appeared to be running away from the chariot and its bright companion. Before the sunlight chased away all the shadows from the peak above the plateau, a sleepy looking man in a night gown ducked into a cave in the face of another cliff of the mountain. Two mighty doors of onyx shut behind him, one side had the face of the full moon and the other door the stars of the night sky, all twinkling in the coming sunlight like diamonds. The skies around us were filled with singing birds and great winged dragons, a flock of fox that pranced from cloud to cloud, a number of bat like creatures that have heads that looked furry, faces sitting on top of long snake like necks, as well as many other fantastic animals that didn't exist anywhere else in the fey realms.

"I don't know half of these animals up here." Robbie had a bird like creature on his shoulder, where its beak should have been, there was instead a trumpet shaped horn protruded, as it sang a low rumble of a fog horn sounded in the distance. The horn came from the bird's mouth but it threw the sound far away from it. Robbie was stunned but amused. Karen walked up to the bird and was able to pet it before it flew off and joined a flock of its own breed up in the sky. "Where do you think they nest?" Karen was looking at the bird as it flew away. A beautiful woman emerged from a tall bush further up the hill. She looked like she had just woken up, she had dark smudges below her eyes and her hair was disheveled. She walked up the path to the point of the peak, about half way up she vanished from sight.``I guess we're headed that way." I spoke as I started up the path the tired looking woman had just walked. Up we walked in double file, each of us checking on weapons and supplies one more time. I feared that we might have lost something in the underwater battle. Then we dismissed our weapons, it would have been rude to appear in front of Gods armed as if we were walking into a battle. The first of us approached the place where the woman disappeared and walked out onto a vast marble slab with stairs ascending up to large columns and above them a stone peaked roof. The walk up took less time than it would have in our human forms, our large, long legs took three steps at a time. Each step was deep, each almost a meter deep with a low rise. Reaching the landing at their top the columns seemed even larger than they had at the bottom of the stairs and the roof looked like a horizon, or a white, gray, and blue skyline from the landing. Human figures walked by, a minotaur sat in a corner of the breezeway, an elf looking man passed by shifting and changing into a variety of beings laughing as he told a story. We saw a large, robust man sitting on a settee eating grapes, fruits, and drinking from a giant bowl of win. Faunes danced playing pipes and flutes, groups of women danced around them. Deep into the building there were more beings walking around five majestic thrones. A pit in the corner set into a low floor had a spit turning with roast pigs and hens turning slowly on them. The charcoal sizzled when fat dripped down, thick smoke bellowed into the air carrying the smell of charred meat. A gong rang out as we walked into the room, the deep ring filled the chamber and bounced off of walls. All the faces in the room turned and we felt the force of dozens and dozens of Godly eyes pressing down on us. "The weight of the ocean was more bearable than this feeling." Steven broadcast out to us along our closed telepathic loop. We each nodded in response, I agreed with him of course but I'd be damned if I let the Gods in this room know our discomfort at thousands of God eyes staring at us.