With no problem, Aeris sliced the leaf into two. It broke away with a shriek. Blood sprayed out and stained the warlock’s robe as it collapsed to the ground. "This is beneath us."
“If you had not killed that leaf then it would have stormed the villagers.” Rak stabbed an apple that had grown well over twenty feet and formed a mouth with fangs.
The huge god, Kroll laughed, hid his cock, and flew back into the clouds.
"Not even a thank you." The warlock Aeris slayed another leaf monster.
“The gods never show gratitude.” Rak stepped in front of a tree, rose, and landed on a branch.
Aeris commanded the breeze to take him up higher. “And Mother Earth created the warlocks to keep the gods in line.”
“Who knows what Mother Earth wanted?”
“I'm starting to hate this phase you're going through. You've stopped being fun.”
“If you don't want to hear me complain then go fly with your birds.”
“The birds are better company anyway.” Aeris climbed higher, leaving Rak to the tree. Wind tickled Aeris’s bare feet.
Rak walked along the branches. A baby cried off in the distance. Pausing, he focused on the sound’s direction.
Rak turned to the nearest trunk. “Do you hear that?”
The bark's pattern shifted into a stack of straight horizontal lines, which meant yes. Vertical bark meant no.
Rak rubbed his head and patted the tree. “Thank you, kind friend. Do you think you know exactly where this child is?”
The pattern vibrated for a few seconds, but did not move, which meant another yes.
“Can you take me to this baby?” Rak's stomach twisted in knots as the branch lifted him into the air.
The more he rose, the more he knew that he would have to kill the child. No human baby would be so high up and by itself. This would be a creature from Kroll's seed. It would be a monster. Nothing else came from a god's semen merged with nature.
Seconds later, Rak spotted the baby. The newborn’s skin shifted from bark to flesh. Green curls covered the child's head. The strands moved on their own, winding into tiny leaves and unwinding back into green hair.
Rak climbed onto the branch that the child lay on. His breath caught in his throat.
Huge green eyes stared at him.
“You are not normal, are you?” he whispered.
The child sniffled and cried, thrashing from side to side with her legs.
“Calm down.” He frowned. “Too much movement and you'll fall. Too much noise and another warlock will come to kill you.”
The child didn't listen, and in a rush of motion slipped off the branch and fell. Rak jumped into the sea of leaves and captured her right before she crashed.
Scared, the child shook in his arms. A rush of enjoyment spread over Rak as he held her.
What an amazing feeling, to touch another after never touching a person for one's entire life.
“You don't burn when I hold you. I’ve never been able to touch someone,” Rak whispered to the child as she fell into sleep. “Shh, little one. Go to sleep. I'll always be here to protect you.”
Rak kept that infant, and all the others created that day.
The trees directed Rak to other children made from the other god’s sperm. Deep within the waterfall where the god, Tann had thrust his cock into the canyon over and over and bellowed with lust, cried a baby with a turquoise and gold fish's tail instead of legs.
On a rock where the sunlight burned hotter than anywhere on the planet rested a child decorated in violent flames and simmering smoke.
And on a foggy morning where Kroll had dug a hole into the moist earth and proceeded to pierce the land with his throbbing erection until he roared and filled the opening, a small weeping baby formed from vapor.
It was hard keeping the children’s existence hidden. The land whispered about these creatures radiating the goddesses’ feminine magic. The four girls grew into young women, reaching his height and all brimming with their own source of power. They were enchanting to witness, but in his mind, they were young girls, beautiful daughters, not meant for him, but for the whole universe.
My phone rang, yanking my mind out of my fantasy world and throwing me back into reality. When I’d started writing, it had been daylight. Now the sky shaded to black and the full moon hung high. My stomach grumbled as the phone rang again.
When was the last time I ate?
I picked up the phone without checking to see who called. “Hello?”
“How are you doing?” Adrian asked.
Chapter 10
Art imitates life
Carmen
I tensed in my seat and continued to hold the phone to my ear in shock.
“Carmen?”
“Yes.”
“How are you?”
I cleared my throat. “Fine. And you?”
“I’m... good.”
Silence traveled on the line.
“Why did you call?” I asked.
“To hear your voice.”
My chest burned while my thoughts journeyed back to that night we’d made love.