“Where are we going?” Ari asked him. She had finally agreed to the ‘mini vacation’ that he had suggested.
“Remember that island I was telling you about? No one’s on it, so we’re going to go ahead and hop on over there.”
“Where is it?”
“Somewhere in the middle of the ocean. I know where it is – I’ve been there a lot. Its hard to describe.”
“And no human has ever been there?” Ari asked him.
“If they have, it has been simply like you are now; a friend of the gods.” Arkonel said, shrugging. “But like I said before, not too many gods befriend or otherwise feel for mortals.”
“And how exactly do you feel about me?” Ari asked him, eyebrows raised.
“Time to go.” Arkonel said, changing the subject, grabbing her hand and lifting off into the air. “Close your eyes?”
“Nope, I’m not missing this again.” Ari said, and with that final note, they took off. Halfway around the world in three to four seconds.
The two landed gently in a patch of grass just above the shore line of the island.
“You can open your eyes now, dear.” Arkonel said, amused.
“All I did was blink! Its over?” Ari asked, genuinely surprised. “God damn it!”
“Aw, come on now. Don’t ruin my day by using Christian expressions.” Arkonel said to her, laughing. “Christianity is a sensitive subject in Olympus.”
“Why? Is it okay if I explore?” Ari asked him, stepping away from him momentarily to do a complete circle, examining her surroundings.
“Of course. Forgive me if I follow you; but there are large predatorial creatures. I haven’t been here in probably fifty years myself, I don’t know what has grown and evolved and flown in.” Arkonel apologized. “If you were immortal, I’d let you go freely.”
“I know I’m not a goddess. You don’t have to rub it in.” Ari said, smiling at him and trekking towards the dense jungle inland. “How big is this island?”
“You know, I’m not really sure. Island sized? A few miles by a few miles? Basically, you won’t get bored exploring. Just keep in mind that you only have a few hours until we have to go back to the beach.”
“Really, why?”
“Well, you want to see a tropical sunset, don’t you?” Arkonel asked her. “This one guarantees the best view you’ve ever seen. Short of traveling to Olympus.”
“Can you take me there, someday?”
“Maybe.” Arkonel said, thinking of a day in the near future, where he would happily take her there. “Just keep in mind that you’d either have to be dead or immortal.”
“Well, that does put a damper on things, doesn’t it.” Ari said. “Well, by the time I’m dead, you’ll probably have found a goddess-wife or whatever to keep you company for eternity.”
“I doubt it; unless you’re my ‘goddess wife or whatever to keep me company for eternity’.” Arkonel had mimicked Ariana’s voice – exactly – making her turn around and glare at him.
“You do the weirdest things sometimes, and its kind of creepy.” Ari teased him, listening in amusement as he mimicked her yet again.
“I can get weirder. Do you want to see yourself?”
“That’s what a mirror is for.” Ari said, shaking her head and starting to turn around.
“Ah, but a mirror is still interfered with by your opinions. Seeing yourself – an actual model – one you can touch – may surprise you. Even as self confident as you are, you’d be surprised.”
“Fine. Show me.”
Arkonel nodded and then disappeared momentarily to do a once-around of Ari’s form, making sure to memorize each curve and perfection – in her eyes – imperfection – before formulating her body. A moment later, Arkonel reappeared, an exact copy of Ari. Dark hair, light eyes, same height, same weight, same distribution of muscle and fat. He twirled around to show her that ‘she’ was real, and then stood still, in the exact same pose Ari was – intrigued, all of her weight shifted to one side. Arkonel projected his voice out so as not to freak her out by using her own voice.
“See? You look a little bit different than you see you.” Arkonel’s voice came from nowhere and everywhere, and Ari nodded, speaking outloud.
“Speak through her voice? And can I touch?”
“This form is just as solid and as functional as any of the other ones I’ve taken.” Arkonel said. “I didn’t adopt your speech patterns or your body language – I still have my own, and unless I concentrate, I automatically fall back into those.”
“Wow, I sound a lot different than the way I hear me!” Ari said, surprised. “My voice is a lot higher. I don’t think this is supposed to happen to a human! Its mind boggling.” Ari reached out to touch – basically, herself. “Can I really touch you? It won’t make you uncomfortable?”
“Touch away. Its kind of sexy.” Arkonel said, laughing at Ari’s absolute amazement. She ignored his comment and reached out to touch Arkonel’s new chest and stomach and curves.
“Wow. Just…wow.” Ari said, then shook her head and stepped away from herself. “Change back? And go into the closest thing to your natural form? I like the dark haired Greek you, but the golden Olympus you was beautiful.”
“I thought guys were handsome?” Arkonel said as he switched forms.
“Yes, guys are. But you, my dear, are beautiful, and amazing.” Ari said, grinning as he switched into her favorite form. “You better be glad I don’t think too hard on all of this. I would probably end up committing myself to a psychiatric hospital. In fact, I would have already if my mother wasn’t in on the craziness.”
“I thought you already accepted the fact that I existed? Blah blah, because of your background and religion and acceptance of those things which you cannot usually see?”
“Its still a little hard to comprehend. I accept your existence, sure…but my mind accepting you, is another story. Obviously my body does, or I would be seeing right around you.”
“Well, its not like I took the form of a unicorn.” Arkonel said. “Except for the whole changing forms, there’s nothing about me that can’t be accepted as normal by the general public. You know?’
“Definitely. So…what’s the most interesting thing you’ve found here?”
“Creature? Or place/object?”
“Either?”
“Most interesting creature…they’re mostly small animals. There was – speaking of unicorns – a unicorn or two when I was growing up, but I’m not sure if they’re still around. Even around gods, they are shy, and we try not to demand the presence of too many creatures, especially here. We come here to experience mortal life.”
“Unicorns?”
“Maybe I’ll show them to you another day.” Arkonel said. “You wanted to explore?”
“What’s your favorite place, here?” Ari asked him.
“There’s a waterfall in the depths of the forest. I can bring us to it straight away, or we can walk. Just keep in mind that the time zones are different here – at home, you have another nine hours before the sun set. Here, maybe three or four.”
“But you can get us out of here if it gets dark.” Ari argued, and Arkonel nodded.
“Yes, but I want to show you the sunset. So we don’t have that much time to explore. At least for today. If you want to rise at two in the morning, your time, we could spend a full day here.”
“Oh. Well, do you know the way? Can we walk to the waterfall?”
“I think I can find it.” Arkonel said, laughing. “But there isn’t any path except for that which the animals have made.”
“That’s okay. I see the path.” Ari said, a thin line of sweat already appearing on her brow from the humidity. Ari pointed towards the tree line, where a small opening was. Arkonel nodded.
“Lead away, Ari. All paths lead to Rome.” Arkonel gestured. He was vastly amused by Ari’s fascination. He had already explored every inch of the island, and she had chosen a relatively good path. If they followed it all the way, it would lead them straight to his waterfall.
“Ari, can we talk as we walk?” Arkonel asked her, and a slight nod of approval gave him all the permission he needed. “I really care for you. Your intelligence and curiosity fascinates me, and I think I could spend eternity with you. Now I know you were uncomfortable with it before, and this is incredibly fast, but the change…the change to make you immortal and preserve you…wouldn’t change a thing, if you didn’t want it to. You can keep your life, here on earth.”
“If I can keep my life, here on earth, then why do you want me to make this decision now?” Ari asked him, ducking under a branch.
“Because when death comes, it changes people. If you stay here, as a complete mortal, through to your death, you will grow old and die. If you die, you cannot be an immortal in the same sense as I am – you cannot be removed from the cycles of life and death when you are dead; being dead is the opposite of being alive, in a way you cannot comprehend. Although consciousness exists, you and I will not be able to be together – we will speak, but no more.”
“But I’ve got a long life ahead of me.” Ari argued. “Are we going the right way?”
“Yes, we are. And you do have a long life ahead of you, but if you accidentally die – in a car accident, etc, and they can’t save you, then I lose you for a long period of time; and then you get reborn, and your memories are erased until you reach death again, and all of this will have to happen again.”
“And you’re afraid that the second time around, the love won’t be as good.”
“Note that you were the first to bring the love word in to the conversation.” Arkonel said. “And yes, I am afraid that the second time around, I will love you as deeply as I do now, and the human culture will have changed so much that you won’t be capable of loving something that you can’t always see. And by then the Christian values will have set in permanently, and you will not be capable of believe in us Gods.”
“I love you, too, Arkonel. I just don’t know if I’m ready to give up the end of my life for an eternal one.”
“But, that’s what you don’t understand. Death is not an end of any sort – hell, my human forms have died before. Death is just the process of changing worlds. If you become immortal, you will experience a death of sorts the first time you change to your new natural form. I ‘die’ every time I change forms.”
“This is a lot to comprehend. Look, I’m sorry if I’m not jumping on the wagon right away…but it feels so…wrong.”
“How can it be wrong? Ask me questions. I want us to work – forever.” Arkonel said, hoping that he wasn’t coming on too strong for her. He knew he wanted to spend eternity with her.
“Well – what about my mom? I can’t leave her here without an heir.”
“You don’t have to spend time on Olympus to be a goddess. You can spend your time on earth until your mother dies.”
“But…I don’t know. It seems so wrong to abandon her in the life cycle while I am removed.”
“If I could change her, I doubt she would want to. You and I both know love is a strange thing. Because a new god comes about so rarely, it stands to reason that the newer ones – myself, Cadmus, etc, would not have immortal mates. But love is not a right granted only to humans; it is granted to two beings, regardless of their class or form. For compatibility, everyone has a right to change forms, just once.”
“Why don’t you become mortal, then?” Ari asked.
“It would be like…devolving. I know too much and would not fit in easily with mortals. It just doesn’t work like that. Its like a ladder, and I’m on the rung above you. I’ve escaped the life cycle. I can’t go back in. There was no place for me in the first place. I can act like a human and forsake my powers, but I will still live forever.”
“Is this the waterfall?” Ari asked him, pointing to a clearing.
“I’m not sure. I think so. I can certainly hear water running.”
“So you can’t be a mortal, but I can become an immortal. Doesn’t that seem a little…unbalanced?”
“No, not really.” Arkonel said, disagreeing with her. “We don’t become unbalanced – the world could be made entirely of animals and we would not lose the sacred balance. A void has been opened since my birth as an immortal. The eventuality of it all is that all humans will become immortal and escape the life cycle, though perhaps not as gods and goddesses. They may choose to return to the source of life upon a death when they have found their other half.”
“And what of animals?” Ari asked him, pushing her way through the last few feet of brush to reach the waterfall’s edge.
“Animals are the same way. They may become immortal and escape the life cycle, or they will join with their other half and return to the source.”
“What source? This place is beautiful.” Ari commented, looking up in wonder. She hadn’t expected the waterfall to be quite so...large. It was like the top point of a star – with four run off creeks heading in different directions down to the ocean.
“Its fresh water, you can drink it. On the other side of the island is a valley of…springs. That’s the easiest way to describe it. They join into a river, which goes here, to the run offs.”
“What’s the source?”
“The source I was talking of earlier? Who do you pray to, as a true priestess, one who is searching for herself and improving her spiritual journey? Do you pray to a god with a name, like my father Zeus, or my step mother Hera?” “No. I pray to the Lord and Lady; or other names representing that energy.”
“We too, us immortals, pray to the Lord and Lady. The true essence of yin and yang. They are the source. We all have the option of returning to the source through Hades. We are immortal only as long as we choose to be – when we wish to bless existence no longer, for whatever reason, we go to Hades and he shows us the way to the source.”
“It is a place?”
“Of sorts. The gateway is with Hades.”
“So we all pray to a gateway?”
“We pray to omnipotence.” Arkonel said. “Hades, the god of death, and Aphrodite, the goddess of love, are the only ones with knowledge to the gateway, and the ones in communication with the Lord and Lady. Zeus and Hera may rule Olympus, but it is the other two that have the real power.”
“Okay…I’m beginning to understand. But I still feel like…I don’t know. I’ve spent my life praying not only to the lord and lady, but also to the gods – Dionysus, Artemis, Athena, Apollo, Zeus, Hera, Demeter, Persephone, Hermes, Zeus – I don’t feel worthy to meet them. Talk to them, even.”
“They’re just like me. A little arrogant, but perfectly…human, for lack of a better word. A little stiff, some of them, but nothing to be frightened of.”
“But Zeus can strike mortals dead.”
“Yes, but you would be an immortal. And we can all kill mortals, he just has a fancy way of doing it.”
“Oh. But still.”
“Just say yes.” Arkonel said. “Spend the rest of eternity with me. You can maintain your normal life. But I’m only allowed to change one mortal, and I want you. I don’t know…you’ve changed me. I’m actually regretting all of those things I’ve done, even if the reasons have been justified. You make me feel lonely even in the brief moments when I go to report to my father. I know this is real, and I know you feel it, too. We can even have a marriage on earth, if you want. Do this one thing for me, and I will be your eternal servant.”
“And if I say no?” Ari asked, walking back towards him. She had been looking at the clear water, watching the fish swim back and forth while he had been speaking. She turned, pulling his arms forward and around her waist.
“Then all you have to say is you never want to see me again. And I will return to Olympus to sulk for several hundred years until I try to find you once more.”
“Okay. Allow me to think, Arkonel? Please? Stop trying to rush me, especially if I’m going to have all of eternity to regret my decision.”
“I will allow you to think. I will even disappear, and not interfere with your thought process. If you need me, just say my name.” Arkonel said. “I will come back when it is time to watch the sunset.”
“And I will have an answer by sunset.” Ariana said to him as she watched him fade literally into the backdrop of trees.
Ari crouched back down by the water, her legs not quite sore from the exercise. She hadn’t even told her mother that they were going somewhere that day, and she doubted that her cell phone worked. But, then again, she had a feeling that her mother already knew about where they had gone. Arkonel seemed to be on top of everything.
Ariana, a goddess? It was hard for her to even imagine. She had not even mastered the art of astral travel, and here she was offered a pass to navigate just about anywhere, anytime, forever.
“Arkonel? Will I have responsibilities as a goddess? Will I have a title?”
“You may or may not. That depends. Zeus offers titles, but if you come up with one, you can always speak to him about it. Zeus delegates ruling abilities, and he offers the training for it.”
“Okay.” Ari said, assuming that Arkonel had not reappeared. He had not. She sat down and dangled her feet over the crystal clear water. The fish barely noticed. Goddess…
“Can you heal? As a god/dess?”
“If you are trained to do so. We can do just about anything.” Arkonel said. “It depends on your interests. You can do anything in the mortal world, and you can do anything outside of it.”
“Space travel?”
“Sure.”
“Are there other planets with humans?”
“No. There are other life forms, yes, but we do not rule those. Other immortals do; we simply rule life here, on earth.”
“Oh.” Ari said. She pulled one of her legs up and took her sock and shoe off, then repeated the process with the other foot. She dipped her feet in the surprisingly cool water.
“You spoke to my mother already, didn’t you.” Ari suddenly realized. With a father like Zeus, Arkonel would definitely ask permission from a parent before embarking on that sort of quest.
“Yes.”
“Ass hole. Did she say yes?”
“I would not have brought this to you if she hadn’t. She is alright with it.”
“What about children? Can I bear them? Will they be human?”
“It depends on where they are born. If you give birth on earth, they will be mortal with a special gift or two. If you give birth in Olympus, they will be immortal. A child can change to immortal with Zeus’ permission.”
“Okay.” Ari said. “If I want to change back?”
“You may forsake your powers and live as a mortal, age as a mortal. You may take the form of a child, etc. You can experience as much mortal life as you’d like. You may forsake me and go off on your own, if you’d like.”
“I’d have to be pretty pissed to manage that.” Ari laughed. “Alright. I agree. But I want to spend my time here for a while. At least through college.”
“That is fine. You will have to spend some time in Olympus, of course, but you may study as you please.”
“Can you at least say you love me and kiss me, now?” Ari asked, and Arkonel appeared standing in the water, in front of her. He scooped her up, his arms cradling her legs and her shoulders and kissed her.
“Were I mortal, I would die of happiness. I love you!” He said as he kissed her again. “Now I must talk to Aphrodite. Please…you may tell your mother, and her alone. No one else.”
“Promise.”
“How about that sunset? I will speak to my aunt after I take you home.”
