Last Gods

There weren’t always dragons in the Valley. Sure as hell felt like it though.

Scorch marks blackened the once vibrant landscape. Ohin still remembered what it had been like before. Thriving towns. Lush fields and forestry. Bird calls and the aroma of flowers filling the clear air.

His home…now reduced to this nightmare.

“Hey, Ohin,” a voice chimed from a few paces back. “Are we ever gonna stop? I’m beat as a rug...or a beet! Oooo! Do we have any beets?”

That was Merq for you. Annoying. Incessant There were days he’d rather try his luck with the dragons than have to deal with her whining falsetto.

“It’s a two days’ journey to the Core. We need to ration our time and our supplies.”

“Yes, but I’m sooo so hungry now. My feet may fall off before we get there. Can’t walk without feet, ya know?”

“You’ll manage. Or I’ll drag you.”

“Pleeeease, can I at least have a snack? Just one beet?”

“And why, pray tell, would I bring beets to this dragon-infested hellhole? Of all things.”

“Ohin! You should be ashamed. Calling the Sacred Valley the ’H’ word.”

In that moment, Merq looked very much the child she wasn’t. What, with that pouting lip and those pleading, blue eyes – her black hair hanging long and wild over youthful features. Hard to believe that she was actually an ancient god.

The last god.

Ohin sighed. “There’s an old village up ahead. We’ll stop and rest there.”

“A village! Thank Merqandra!”

He raised an eyebrow.

“What?” Merq asked with the most innocent smile. “I’m allowed to thank myself. I’m the only god left now, after all.” She skipped off toward a charred stretch of trees.

Sometimes…he had to wonder if she was for real. Or any of this, for that matter. These past five years, everything had seemed progressively more akin to a nightmare than reality. The arrival of dragons. This red sky, permanently scorched with the haze of their flames. Humanity at the cusp of extinction. Even those survivors who managed to escape the Valley, like himself, were just barely able to make it in the world beyond. It was the dragons’ world, after all.

Then there was Merq. A god. An actual…god.

“Hey, Ohin! Come look what I found.”

He sighed.

Someone kill me now.

“Lookie here! Dragon shit.”

Well. It was shit. Not quite to scale though – the droppings were mere pellets. Also, if it were dragon shit, they’d be smelling it from a hundred yards.

“You do remember what dragons look like…don’t you, Merq? Specifically, how big they are?” He had to ask.

“Sure! About the same as other kinds of people, I s’pose.”

“People…right…”

“Well then, what kind of shit is it? Great Red? Maybe a silver drake? Ooooo, could it be a purple dragon? They do have those, right?”

“It’s elk.”

“Elk shit! Way out here, in the middle of nowhere?”

It was odd. Though elk had once been common tenants of the Valley, dragons had quickly ravaged their population down to nothing. Every population, really. It was hard to imagine anything surviving out here on its own.

“Looks like it passed not too long ago…” He noticed the tracks now, leading toward the barren tree line. So easy to follow. “Have you ever tried elk meat?”

“Yeah, it’s like that chewy…tangy stuff. Sort of purplish?”

“Uh…not at all.”

“On a scale of one to beets, how good is it?”

“No comparison.”

“That bad, huh.” Her mouth twisted in distaste.

Ohin sighed. “Can we get off the ‘beet’ thing? You do realize beets are disgusting, right?”

She gasped. “Blasphemy!”

“Merq, I promise you. One bite of elk and you’ll never want another beet in your life.”

“Hmm, I guess I can trust you.” Her eyes lit up suddenly. “Oh! I have an idea, let’s go ask the elk if we can borrow some! For comparison."

“Right…well, how ‘bout I go ask him, and you stay here.”

“With the shit?”

“…Yes. Stand guard with the shit.”

She grinned excitedly. “Aye, Sir! It would be my honor,” – with a mock solute.

“Great. Just lie low. Call if you see anything dangerous. Specifically with wings.”

“So, beetles? …Birds?”

It was probably a bad idea to leave her alone for any amount of time, but their supplies were running low. Beyond that, he could honestly use a break from that…lovely voice of hers.

The tracks led him straight into the scorched trees. Five years, and this forest still showed no signs of recovery, courtesy of the burned-out sky – the lack of rain.

Ohin unslung his bow, nocking an arrow to its string. There was no wind here so he shouldn’t have to worry about the elk catching his scent. That would, however, make it easier for sound to carry. He stepped lightly, careful not to disturb the lifeless underbrush.

This place… Part of him felt so much at home with it, despite the obvious abandonment. For a moment, he could almost imagine himself in another time. A phantom wind stirred buried memories. Its earthen scent filled his nostrils, warmth tickling his skin as sunlight filtered through the lush canopy overhead, bird calls sounding across the sway of trees…

Just a memory.

Ohin shook it off. Such thoughts got you nowhere but miserable. These trees were gray and dead as they come. No sense in pretending otherwise.

He arrived at an old riverbed, one that had long since dried up. The elk seemed to have taken this as a change of course. Its tracks skirted the river’s edge, and then…

Ohin’s breath caught. There it was, maybe a hundred yards off. That was much sooner than he’d expected. He crept another twenty feet or so, sighting down the arrow’s shaft as he went.

The elk was a buck. A big one at that, though obviously deprived of food in recent days. The poor creature seemed to be searching for a drink in the old riverbed. Its desperation reminded him of his own thirst. Ohin swallowed it down, along with a sudden twinge of empathy. This was the way of the world, even before the dragons came, turning everything to hell. You either accepted death or became victim to it.

So just shoot.

“Ohin! Wait!”

The arrow flew true. It would have been a clean shot. Except that the elk jumped at the last second, alerted by Merq’s cry. It took his arrow in the leg, then sprinted off.

“Damnit Merq! What was that? I told you to wait for me.”

“You…you were going to…”

“Yes, we kill to survive. That’s how it’s always been.” Ohin nocked another arrow. “If we hurry, we may be able to catch it.”

“No! We can’t Ohin. Or…or how are you any different than the dragons?”

“I am not debating morality with a god. Humanity just isn’t that simple. Survival is brutal. It’s something you’ll never understand.”

“It’s just not right...”

“Yeah, well neither is letting that poor creature bleed out and suffer. Hell, better to die quickly at my hands than to starve or be torn apart by dragons.”

He didn’t wait for her response, setting off at a jog. The trail was obvious now, marked with splotches of blood. Under normal circumstances, an elk might have run several miles with such an injury. Given this buck’s particular depravity, he didn’t see that happening. If he could just get within fifty yards or so, he might be able deliver some miraculous, running shot…

“Ohin!”

Something crashed overhead. There was a sudden rush of wind, tree limbs snapping, as a blue dragon exploded down.

Out of nowhere.

The beast roared in challenge. Ohin spun about. His bow seemed to fire on its own. His arrow pierced the dragon’s golden eye, eliciting a roar of pain. It swept around, its tail shattering the dead trees.

Ohin dived backwards. His breath caught on landing, but he was able to roll back to his feet, somehow unscathed. Only now there was a twenty-foot dragon between him and his ward.

Separated. The worst possible scenario.

“Merq! Run!”

He saw her back in the riverbed, just standing there, dumbfounded, so small next to the monster that was before her.

Ohin wasted no time. He charged towards the beast, firing off another arrow. This one caught a soft spot between a pair of scales but appeared otherwise ineffective. The dragon puffed its chest in a familiar gesture – poised to blast Merq into a fiery crisp.

Not on my watch.

Ohin leapt through the air. He propelled off a shattered tree stump to land on the creature’s scaled hide, then ran along its back, yanking a chain cable from a loop on his belt. One of the chain’s links fit easily over the embedded arrow as he rushed past it. Ohin threw himself over the dragon’s head, out into open space.

He twisted in the air, even as the dragon extended its neck to unleash a gout of flames. Ohin looped the chain twice around its snout and threw his weight downward. It pulled taut. The dragon squealed in rage. There was an explosion of heat at Ohin’s back, but no flames.

That trick would only work once.

He kept moving. Merq was still frozen in place. Ohin caught her hand, dragging her into a run.

“The trees will slow it down,” he explained between breaths. “Even dead as they are. If we make it to the old village, we might find cover there, or-,”

“The elk,” Merq interrupted. She seemed remarkably calm, not even breathing heavily as they ran. “The elk was bait, Ohin.”

Realization hit him square in the chest. Damn. Should have seen that from the get-go. It was so obvious now – nothing survived out here on its own. They’d been lured into tracking it, so the dragon could attack while he was distracted. Except, why go to such lengths? It could have just ambushed them out in the open. Or gone for Merq when they were separated earlier.

“Never mind that,” Ohin called. “Don’t you think now would be a great time for some divine intervention?”

“The trees, Ohin.”

“Forget the trees! They’re already dead.”

“That’s what I’m saying!” Merq called. “The trees are screaming at me. Dead. I can’t access my power through the disturbance.”

“Seriously, Merq? Now is not the time for your pacifistic bull-!”

The dragon roared behind them. Ohin yanked Merq to one side, pulling them behind the cover of a large boulder. A blast of fire snapped at their heels.

Shit. What to do, what to do-,

“There’s one other thing I can try…” Merq said softly. She pulled her hand free of his grasp as the flames died out, then stepped into the open.

Ohin was too confused to question it – too much in a daze from the adrenaline to even think twice. Maybe he just trusted her that much. Maybe he should have known better.

Instead, he only watched, as Merqandra took three steps, turned with both arms extended, and was engulfed by a plume of crimson flames.

*

For some reason…the dragon didn’t even bother with killing him. It prowled over to confirm that its target was a pile of ash, then flapped off into the gloom.

Gone, just like that.

Ohin didn’t move for the longest time. What was the point? Merq was dead. His mission here, ended. His hope, completely drained. All gone in a flash.

He stared at the scorched plot of earth, ignoring the fires that had started up around him. Merq was…dead. The last god.

“Whew! That was a close one!”

He just about jumped out of his skin. “How in the-,”

Merq stepped from behind the boulder, dusting her cloak in a self-satisfied way. She flared her fingers dramatically. “Illusion…of course, I can still use magic, dummy.” She punched his stomach affectionately. “I’m still a god! …I wasn’t lying about the whole tree thing though. The interference here is insane.”

Ohin just stared. Shocked. His emotions were a mixed jumble of anger, embarrassment, relief…

Mostly relief.

“That was…so reckless! How could you-…how?”

“Scared you, didn’t I?” She flashed a grin. “Let’s just say, I wanted to test your faith. Seems you failed. Miserably, at that.”

He slumped down in the dirt, running a hand through his hair. Then started to laugh. “Gods, I hate you.”

“Careful, now. There’s only one of me left, after all.”

This warmth between them…it was rare, as sunlight between the scorched clouds. Despite everything, Ohin let himself enjoy it. He let himself truly smile.

“Well then,” Merq said after a time. “We should get going. Two days to the Core, right?”

“Yes…” Two days. It was hard to believe. After five years, maybe they’d finally see an end to this nightmare. He stood, dusting off his knees, then took her hand. “This way, Lady Merqandra.”