The Fallen Gods

I had been in a deep sleep and oddly enough, I was aware of it. 

Returning to my senses took a lot of effort. For some reason, I felt like I was still falling. I wasn't even sure if my eyes were open because everything all around me was pitch black. 

The horrible events that happened—what? how long ago was it? I had no clue—were haunting me. I couldn't stop replaying that awful scene in my mind. The more I thought about it, the sicker I felt. 

My life was over. That creature took it in its clawed hand and crumbled it to dust right before my eyes and I'd been helpless and powerless to stop it. I was a Dragon. I was one of the most powerful creatures to ever exist. 

And I'd been defeated in the space of ten minutes. 

The thought of my family dead sparked something inside of me. I could stand my defeat, but theirs? I'd wanted to run earlier on. Find heat. Stability. Safety. Now that it was all over and I'd lost everything, I realized that I would have gladly laid down my life for them. I wasn't sure what came over me. 

I'd failed them in every conceivable way.

An anguished sound left my lips. It tore through me, ripping me further apart. The sensation of falling persisted, and I finally understood why. 

I was still falling through the crack. I'd been thrown over the Edge and was now falling to certain death. I would reach the cold pit of Etros, where only Venturian Cows thrived. 

I closed my eyes, steeling myself for what would come. How long had I been falling for? Hours? Days? It was impossible to tell. I found comfort in the fact that my anguish would soon come to an abrupt end. I was ready for all of this to end. 

I'd already lost everything. There was no point in surviving. 

When I came to an abrupt stop, my eyes were still closed. For a moment, I became convinced that I'd reached the bottom. I steeled myself for the biting cold that would kill me instantaneously but it never came. 

"Is he alive?" a voice asked. 

I opened my eyes. I was still in the dark, a darkness so expansive that it was impossible to know where it ended or even began. 

"Yes, he is," another voice said, cheerfully at that. "Dragon, are you awake? Can you hear us?"

I parted my lips to speak but no words came out. 

"Dragon?"

Only a groan left my lips. I heard something that sounded like the clapping of hands followed by a sigh of relief. 

"Alive!"

What was happening? To whom did these voices belong to? Where the fuck was I?

A cold hand touched me and I hissed. "He's been stripped."

A gasp. "How awful!"

"Herdeos has been waiting for centuries for this opportunity," one of the voices said. It was a masculine voice. "He wanted to avenge his Fall."

A scoff. "Like he didn't deserve it. How is it fair that he could trap us both here yet when the same thing happened to him, he went ballistic?"

Herdeos. The faceless creature said it was his name. I remembered that very clearly. In a low voice, I repeated the name. "Herdeos?"

I felt beings shifting closer to me. It was uncanny because I couldn't see anyone. They were all around me, though, whatever these things were. I was very sure of their presence the same way I was sure of who I was. 

"You can talk still. That means we still have some time left."

"Time for what?" I managed to ask. 

"You recall what happened in Etros, don't you?" the masculine voice asked. "Your family was slaughtered by Herdeos, the god of death."

"The gods are dead," I said as a response. 

Everyone knew that.

I'd grown up hearing this. My father would tell me tales about how only Dragons were left, and how despite the fact that we weren't immortal, we might as well be. A millennium was a long time to live. He never told me details, though, and I was never curious enough to ask about them. 

Why, I wondered? Why hadn't I cared enough to ask?

A giggle. I was starting to associate this voice with a woman. The voice just sounded very feminine and high-pitched to my ears. "We were imprisoned by Herdeos a long, long time ago. I'm not even sure how long."

"Wait," I said. I tried to sit up but found it impossible. It was like I was suspended in the air horizontally. "You mean to say that you're gods?"

"Tenea," the woman said. "The goddess of love and happiness and any positive thing you can think of. Long ago, the Etrians would pray to me for happiness and abundance. Peace, too. Now, I've been forgotten."

"And I am Panthe, the god of life in every shape or form," the man said. "Tenea and I ruled Etros once before. That was before Herdeos overtook us and made Etros a tomb."

When was this? I wasn't sure I'd ever heard this history before. "I never heard any of this. Or of any of you."

Tenea said, "Herdeos made sure to wipe our names from existence when he tricked us and trapped us here. To simplify things, we ruled Etros before Herdeos took control. And when the Dragons came, justice was served and Herdeos was sent to the pits of Etros. To the cold place."

"I didn't know there was a leader before us," I revealed. "I just knew that we took control."

"The Souls were never meant to be a part of Etros," Tenea explained. "They were destined to go to the cold place, the place of no return."

"Only Herdeos ever came back from the land of the dead," Panthe said. "This is no surprise, as gods are immortal. We can be subdued but not destroyed."

All this information was making my head spin and I couldn't make sense of any of it. I suddenly wondered if my father knew about this. I asked, "If the Souls aren't meant to be up there, why are they?"

"Herdeos uses them to inflict fear into his enemies," Tenea replied gravely. "He'd done it for a long time. I mean eons. Keeping them chained to the mountain keeps them closer to Earth. Our close association with Earth allows him access to it, and before his Fall, he used Souls to do terrible things."

"Cause sickness," Panthe supplemented. "Wars. Deaths. He'd use the power of death to scare people. Plagues and plagues were sent to earth, and there was a time when the Dead walked the Earth."

"Earth," I echoed. "What is that?"

"It's the place above us," Tenea explained. "It's where the Souls come from."

"Although Dragons rule Etros, they are not familiar with the history or significance of it," Panthe said. "We are what the humans call the hereafter. Etros is the place where every dead person comes to. The Souls you see were once made of flesh and bone, and they walked the Earth before death knocked on their doors."

"The purity of their souls determine the form they will take once they get here," Tenea said. "The evil and corrupt humans become awful Souls, but the good ones never come here. Those who are good go to a place beyond our understanding. Etros is the home of the wicked."

My head hurt from everything they were saying to me. It was too complicated to fully comprehend. "What does any of this even mean? What were your roles here if that was the case, and what about Etrians?"

"The Etrians used to serve us," Panthe said. "They are harmless creatures meant only to serve. Our duty was to the Etrians. We were never meant to get involved with the Souls the way Herdeos did."

"I thought you said he was the god of death."

"Death of the Etrians, not the people on Earth. However, that was what he did. He meddled into affairs that had nothing to do with him and controlled the Souls and made them do his bidding. This he did by imprisoning the god of human's death on Earth. When the Dragons came, they ended his reign of terror and sent him to the land of the dead. Now, he has returned with a power strong enough to kill you all. The cold is his strength."

"Then he can't be defeated," I concluded. 

"Yes, he can, and he must," Panthe said with urgency. "We have failed Etros, but it is not too late for you, Raphas Dragor. Etros needs you. Earth needs you. There's no predicting what Herdeos will do now that he's back. He will destroy the world and turn it to ashes!"

This angered me. "I can't even help myself. How am I supposed to defeat him? My Dragon was stripped from me. My family was slaughtered!"

"You crossed our path for a reason," Tenea said. "We are trapped here, helpless, but there is still a way out for you."

I couldn't. They were wrong about me. 

"You shouldn't even be alive. Yet, you are. If that isn't a symbol of strength I don't know what is. You're stronger than you think, Raphas, and with your help, we can save the world once again. Only Dragons were able to defeat Herdeos."

"I'm not a Dragon anymore."

"You never stop being one, regardless of whether you were stripped," Tenea said. "Besides, if you're not dead, that means your Dragon isn't dead."

I frowned. "What?"

"He will find his way to you," Panthe said. "Herdeos might have domain over the dead, but not over life. I know this because I am—was—the god of life here in Etros. Your Dragon is not dead. He will find you wherever you are. But you must leave this place at once."

"Where…where will I go?"

"To Earth," Panthe stated. "Earth will need you, Raphas. If I know Herdeos well, he will try to extend his power to Earth the same way he tried years before. His goal is to control both worlds and turn them to wastelands where the Dead rule. Here, you might be helpless, but not on Earth."

"Your body will be different," Tenea said. "The cold will not kill you as easily as it does here. And with the help of your Dragon, you will defeat Herdeos. It is the only way."

A question was forming on the tip of my tongue but for some reason, I was starting to feel very weak. It felt like losing consciousness all over again. 

Panthe said, "We're running out of time. His body is dying. We must act quickly!"

I closed my eyes just as a bright light filled the room. I saw it behind my closed lids. Again, I had this feeling of falling, or maybe this time I was rising. 

Before everything went dark once more, I heard Tenea say, "Good luck, Raphas Dragor. May the light of Etros shine on you."