Bed Time Story

“Well, lets see. My father seduced my mother sometime during the Renaissance in England. She was not married at the time. She then bore my older brother, Cadmus. He came out and sprouted horns soon after he was born. She disowned him and Zeus had to retrieve him and bless him with immortality. If he had stayed on the earth, he would have been killed or burned at the stake or tortured before he ever turned into an adult.

“Several years later, my father went back to my mother to let her know how my brother was evolving. My mother refused to talk to my father, as she was getting married. She knew that he was one of many gods – but by the time he returned to her, the Christians had finally taken over her mind and she had become what would be now considered a ‘born again’. My father was unable to even speak to her, so he instead came as a petty traveler, attractive to her eye. According to him, his original intention was only to tell her of her son – he had really cared for her. When he got with her, he couldn’t bare to tell her, and instead ended up seducing her, a few days before she was due to get married.

“This woman – my mother – really loved her new husband-to-be, and knew that such an indiscretion would be met with disappointment. She tried to kill herself at the first sign of pregnancy – a few days after she had been married. God-children grow much faster than mortal children, and the signs were very apparent. With no where to turn and a refusal to contact either the father of her first child or the traveler whom she had gotten impregnated by the second time, she set out onto a river to drown herself.

“My father saw this and saved her. He told her that she did not have to kill herself, he would take the baby, and transferred the baby – me – into his arm to await my birth. And so, I am a full god. My brother, Cadmus, is what we consider a half-god. He is given a title, but he is not the same. He doesn’t have the range of powers that we full-gods have. He has always been angry with me for getting the better draw of chance. Still awake?” Arkonel asked Ari.

“Yes, sir. Fascinating. Keep going?”

“So because I was full-god, I matured before my brother. Because he was the older, he was allowed to receive a title before I could, and he received the title in the 1900s or so, “God of Electronics”. Now, before I continue, you need to understand our personalities. Cadmus was bitter towards me, but towards every other god, a perfect gentleman. He was the teacher’s pet, as you would call it. A suck up.

“I was…not. I was a curious child, and am pretty much a devious full grown god. I have done a lot of things that were not up to moral standards, either ours or the mortal standards. I always performed these actions for a justified reason – I would see a man cheating on his girlfriend, so I would lead her to where it was happening and provide her with the clues to find both the woman he was doing it with and himself, in action. But a lot of times, the people I chose to ‘help’ were ones who also needed anger management. I believe I may have actually caused some of the Middle East fighting in recent years, attempting to correct evils.

“My worst offense lately was doing just that. I was trying to show a man that his wife was cheating on him. I helped him stumble across all of the clues. This man, however, had a bit of a paranoia already built up about his wife cheating, and had already decided that his neighbor was the one performing the dirty deed with his wife. So every set of clues I would offer him – a crumpled note the wife accidentally left on the table, anything like that, he would automatically assume that his neighbor was the culprit. One night when I was off on another adventure, the man decided he had enough. Before I even realized, the man went crazy, went next door, killed his neighbor’s family, then the actual neighbor. To make it worse, he then went home to find his wife kissing the real culprit. Those two also died.

“I was responsible for six human deaths in a matter of minutes. My father threatened to place me on ‘dead duty’ for several hundred years, then sent me away to isolation for a few days. When I returned, he instead offered me this alternative – to keep a young woman and her mother company, guard and protect them. I jumped on board, and here I am. Still awake?”

“Ugh.” Ari moaned. “Not really. I have one question.”

“What’s that?”

“Were you planning to trick me and sleep with me like your father did to your mother the second time?”

“Not at all.”

“So I’m like a baby-sitting job?” Ari sat up, waking up momentarily. “Well, that fucking sucks.”

“No. You’re…special. Originally, you were just a job, a punishment. But I really enjoy spending time with you.”

“What about the kiss?” Ari asked, lying back down.

“Also very enjoyable.”

“How many women have you slept with and gotten pregnant?” Ari asked, turning away from Arkonel.

“None.”

“Slept with?” She asked, her voice muffled with sleep.

“I’m not sure.”

“Great. I’m dating a god who has slept with so many women he doesn’t even count anymore.” Ari threw a hand up in the air and then let it fall limply to her side. “I love my life. Really, Zeus. Love it.” Ari finished her statement sarcastically.

“I haven’t slept with many. And they all enjoyed it.” Arkonel admitted. “Serious. Not full of myself. I always make sure a woman is pleasured. The pleasures I gain from sex are perhaps mild amusement, and whatever pleasure a male body receives. The pleasures I receive from other sources are worth much more than the simple act of sexual intercourse between humans.”

“Love?” Ari asked, half asleep.

“Not yet. I’m searching. But Olympus is only so big, and finding true love in millions of humans is frustrating and disappointing. Go to sleep, Ari. Dream of happy things – I’ll be watching.”

“Come on. You can’t make me.” Ari sat up again, defiantly, and he gently pushed her back down onto the bed.

“I can, but I won’t. Is there anything else you want to ask me?”

“Is love – true love – between a mortal and an immortal possible?”

“Yes, but rare. In that case, they can enjoy it in the mortal’s life, or the mortal may choose immortality and leave all they know behind in order to be with their true love for all of eternity in their current form.”

“So its just like the myths and the books and the stories? True love between a mortal and a god can happen?” Ari asked him, looking up at where his eyes would be if she could actually see him.

“Yes. But why are you worrying about that now? Go to sleep.”

“Arkonel?” She asked one more time, and he sighed.

“Yes?” He asked.

“I’m frightened. Well, no. Its just…since you’re here to keep us company, I’m lonely. Will you…?”

“Sleep with you? No.”

“No, not sleep with. You don’t sleep, do you?”

“No.” Arkonel admitted. “all four hundred odd years I’ve been alive, I’ve been awake.”

“I don’t want you to have sex with me, either. But, will you hold me? Until I fall asleep? And then you can go play god and what not. What’s your special title?”

“I don’t have one, yet.”

“So you’re a powerless god?” Ari giggled. “That’s an oxymoron.”

“Oh, I have powers.” Arkonel reached down to her thigh and ran a finger up her leg, sending thin lines of sexual energy into his touch. “I can give you pleasure you’ve never felt before, and I can give you the same amount of pain. But I am not master of an earthly object or emotion, no.”

“Don’t start something with me unless you’re going to finish it.” Ari said, simply, firmly removing his hand from her leg.

“I finish everything I start. But you need your sleep.”

“Not until you cuddle with me.” Ari protested.

“Fine.” Arkonel gave into her demands. “Move over.”

“Can you be in your natural form? You were sexier that way.”

“The voice changes.”

“That’s okay, that voice was deep and rumbly.”

“Like this?” Arkonel asked, changing immediately. He kept the clothes on.

“Yes, but I mean exactly like you were before.” Ari reached over to flip on her bedside lamp. “Clothing and everything.”

“You want me naked except for a loin cloth, in your bed?”

“That’s right, folks.”

“Go to sleep.” Arkonel changed to the form he had been in earlier and shut off the light as quickly as he could. He crawled into the bed behind her and wrapped his free arm around her shoulders.

“Like this?”

“Exactly.” Ari sighed and pushed back into him. Maybe Arkonel would stay the entire night, even if he didn’t sleep. He could watch her dream.