The first ant that had poked me in the back was skittering away now. It must have gotten back on its feet and realized what a terrifying warrior I was! Or it was going to ask its older brother to come beat me up, which seemed more likely. I decided to put a stop to that.
I chased after the insect as it sprinted through the forest, dodging trees and thorny bushes. It leapt over a fallen log, then used its hind legs to kick the log backward at me.
The rotten wood exploded in a cloud of moldy wood chips and termites. I brushed the creepers off of me as I ran, keeping the gi-ant in my sights.
I chased the insect down a flat path with the slopes of a hill rising on either side, as if someone had leveled this stretch of the land and left the surrounding hill intact. Ahead there was a dead end with a wall of exposed rock.
Before long, it was clear that the monster had chosen this dead end on purpose. It was, indeed, going for help. Not just from one older brother, but from a whole team of them. A series of six gi-ants carried a large white cocoon on their skulls from an archway in the rock that led to a cave. They dropped it when I arrived.
“Combined,” I said, “the seven of you have thirty-eight more limbs than I do, so you should at least let me strike first.”
No dice. All seven insects charged at once. I waited for them to get closer, then dropped to a crouch and swung my spear across the ground.
All seven gi-ants tripped and tumbled as my masterful sweeping arc toppled them over simultaneously.
That’s what happened in my mind’s eye. In real life, the pole smacked into the first one’s leg, then stopped moving. I wasn’t strong enough to trip them.
I let go of my weapon and jumped forward. I landed on one’s back, then another as I ran across their hard carapaces like stepping stones. They squealed underneath me, but didn’t seem injured. I was about to run past the white cocoon and into the cave for shelter, but something about the enormous white structure caught my eye and slowed me down.
The cocoon wasn’t the milky white silk of a monster bug. Its surface was a series of flat, semitransparent panels that tapered to a point at each end. And there was a woman inside, trapped in crystal.
In my distraction, a gi-ant caught up with me and grabbed my leg. Then another one. I punched and kicked, but I couldn’t break free.
Their teeth are caught on the clothing. I wasn’t sure where that thought came from, but it had a point. I had ant creatures all over my body, but they hadn’t sunk their fangs into my skin yet. I pulled off my blue cotton shirt and threw it on the ground. The gi-ants couldn’t get themselves free of it. Their sharp fangs were too entangled!
Next I pulled off my pants. The fang end of those creatures’ faces did scrape the skin of my leg, opening a long bloody scratch, but otherwise I was fine. The ants were stuck in a tug of war with each other over my clothing.
I ran back for my spear and started stabbing each creature in the back. One by one, they stopped moving as I eradicated them from this life. Arden the exterminator, back at it again!
As a result, however, my clothing tore to shreds as the gi-ants fought over my shirt and pants. It felt empowering in a strangely barbaric way to stand here, buck naked, spearing my enemies to death, but now it was time to put my clothes back on.
I tossed the lifeless bodies of the ants to the side. My shirt was salvageable. My pants held up, though they had holes in the knees now. Not fashionable at all.
I turned toward the cocoon, lying on the ground and containing a woman with her arms crossed on her chest. The transparent material encasing her clouded when it got toward her waist. The only window was on the upper half of her body.
Kneeling beside this curious find, I stared at the woman within. She practically radiated with soft yellow light. Her lips were full, her eyelashes long. A heart-shaped face tapered to a point at her chin.
Then her eyes opened and I fell backward. The blood rushed to my face. I had been caught staring.
Not cool, Arden!, I thought.
The woman inside that crystal sarcophagus pressed against the upper edge of it and sat up. Her body moved through that barrier as if it were nothing. Maybe it was nothing. Maybe I was imagining all of this.
She looked over at me and lowered her arms. Her breasts were bare. She didn’t bother to pull her long brown hair forward to hide them. I cast my eyes to the side.
“Oh, shoot,” she said. “I always embarrass mortals like this. I keep forgetting how prudish you all are.”
“I’m, uh, not prudish,” I said. “At least, I don’t think I am.”
“I don’t have any clothing at all,” she said. “Clothes are stifling enough on a normal day, but today I’m trying to evolve. I definitely don’t want clothes in the way.”
“Um, okay,” I said.
“I’m Nola, the goddess of clever insight,” she said. “I’m pretty excited my tip about the big ants on your clothing helped. I’m not always fast enough to send thoughts when they’re useful.”
“That was you?” I asked. “Inside my head?”
“Yep,” she said. “It takes me a while to break out of my crystal chrysalis, so my best bet was to hope you killed those insects before they dragged me away. Thanks for the assist!”
“I have… questions,” I said. “This has been a very strange day.”
“Oh?” she asked. She was still sitting with her lower half encased in her crystal, but pivoted from the waist to look around. Then she closed her eyes. Her whole body glowed with that gentle yellow light.
Then her eyes shot open again and she screamed.
I covered my ears until she stopped.
“Laranj is dead,” she said. “And Bilfer, and Zazara.”
“I’m from Meadowdale,” I said. “I used to work in Laranj’s temple. I was there when it happened.”
“You’re not her head priest, are you?” Nola asked.
“No,” I said. “Just an errand boy.”
“I need to evolve as quickly as possible,” Nola said. “Duul has finally risen, and if we don’t work together now, the pantheon will be destroyed.”
“I could use a little backstory here if you wouldn’t mind,” I said.
“Of course,” she said. “Duul is the god of war. Long, long ago – well before I was born, because I’m still very young for a lower deity – Duul ruled over this world. He stoked the flames of ire and enmity, forcing man and elf and beastkin to battle in an endless cycle of death and destruction. The more of the world engaged in war, the stronger he became.
“Slowly, he destroyed everything the Great Mother had built. The humans built bombs to blow holes in the mountains. The elves crafted spells to kill the living and raise the dead. The beastkin started eating the other races. It was pandemonium.
“Back then, all of the gods ruled their separate spheres and stayed out of each other’s business. The Great Mother changed that. She rallied the gods and goddesses together and stripped Duul of most of his power. He remained the god of war, but he could barely manage to cause a fight between husband and wife, let alone between kingdoms and empires.
“I have a psychic connection to the family of the gods. Duul has been quiet. Some of us thought he had finally accepted his fate, but others thought he was biding his time, storing up his godly energy until he had enough to launch a war again.
“I never dreamed it would come to this though. He not only reignited mankind’s passion for blood, he has declared war on the gods themselves. He’s killing minor deities now, and absorbing their light to feed his own. He’s casting a curse on the men of the free cities, and probably the other settled regions soon, to turn their hearts black with a lust for war. I can’t pry yet into his designs on the women he’s left behind.
“I feel the death wounds of my brother and sister gods. I hear the words they cried as their energy was taken from them. It’s agonizing. Laranj was like me, a young goddess with the potential to grow and take on more roles as she evolved. Now she’ll never have that chance.”