Lilith's Blessing 15

15. Land of Ahkana

Surrounded by darkness, Trevor blinked, unsure if his eyes were open. Nothing reflected off his iris’. He felt restricted, but nothingness surrounded him. Anxiety filled his soul as the overwhelming pressure of being lost in a void suffocated him.

“Where am I?” His eyes rolled back as a previous life flashed before his eyes. From birth to death, repeating until…. Clouds appeared around him. He felt weightless; unrestricted, zoomed away, trying to find. Anything.

A land mass came into view, the familiar shape of the Pacific Northwest. Its massive green peninsula and white tipped Olympic and Cascade Mountains filled Trevor with hope. Maybe, just maybe, all he had to do to get home was die.

A ball of flames the size of Kansas entered the atmosphere, slamming into the northern pole. A surge of super-heated gases melted the glaciers, displacing millions of tons of water. Trevor watched the water uproot trees, shatter buildings, churning everything it contacted into a massive sludge, ravaging the landscape at 1000 miles an hour.

Dark again. Trevor contemplated the last vision. I’m dead, right? “Right?”

Kira appeared, her image faint, but she smiled. Her eyes filled with tears, Trevor tried reaching out to her, but no hand extended. He tried to speak, no vibrations formed.

A door manifested behind Kira. The doors opened, the light blinded him, enveloping Kira’s body. The light vanished, leaving Trevor in darkness and alone.

“Kira!!”

It was not a dream. But where was he? How did he get here? He looked up as a rush of colors washed out the background. Replaced by blue skies, bright white and grey mountains dot the background. A cool breeze streamed through the curtains as he rose. He felt the cold marble when his feet touched the floor. He tiptoed to the balcony. A dark-skinned woman stood overlooking the city below.

She gazed down at the reddish three-sided pyramids dotting the landscape, mixed in with lush fruit trees. She always said dawn was her favorite time of day. He slid his arms around her waist, drooping his head over her shoulder. Her poofy hair tickled his nose, but he didn’t mind. She smelled of summer.

“Akor.”

A young boy, snapped out of a trance, looked up at his crimson-faced mother. Her jet black hair hovered in space, defying gravity. The giant man behind her with dark black skin smiled, patting him on the head. “You're ready.”

Excitement filled his heart as every young man endured a challenge to become a man. One similar to his father. Akaana, the king of Ahkana. He looked forward to it his whole life. Years of training; Akaana drilled the art of weaponry, trained him to survive on his own. To protect Ahkana.

“Akor, Did I tell you why I was in the jungle for 1000 years?”

He heard rumors. Anytime he asked, his father told him. One day. Akor perked up, ready to ingest the story of his heroic father. The one he looked up to. Just as Akaana reached out. Everything went black.

“Akor.”

He opened his eyes. The darkness gazed back with piercing golden eyes. They drew closer and closer. He closed his eyes. He still saw them. They engulfed every part of his vision.

The background lit up, a blue ball zipped toward him. Or was he moving? He did not understand. The blue marble, the seventh planet in, he zoomed past the moon. Ships of varying kinds zip around its surface, disappearing into the darkness of space.

The planet looked familiar with its blue hue, with white clouds and dots of green landmasses. Where am I now? He sighed. Water covered the vast majority of the planet and each pole. He expected to see ice. But ships flew to and from. Cities filled the valleys. While the hills were lush and full of life. Where was he? How could he move around with impunity? Whatever, it was better than the void, or being alone.

He flew everywhere. Land mass after land mass, nothing but giant creatures unfamiliar to him. Until he noticed a small settlement along a river tucked in a valley. It seemed out of place as its structure towered over the surrounding hills. He tried to enter one building, but the glass door did not open. Was this not a lucid dream? How could he move free, but this door… Someone approached. It whooshed open as a giant black-skinned man with long dreads. Trevor recognized the man. He called out to him. No response. He looked angry; unhappy, exhausted. His face told a thousand words with its expression. “What happened?” But he walked right through him.

Trevor realized he wasn’t there. He’d heard of it before. A conspiracy channel. Something about watching from afar.

Inside, the elders bickered. They seemed frustrated with Akaana, debating what to do with him. Trevor got the impression the elders favored his younger brother, Eballa, as all Akaana did was “…turn water to dust.” No one stood up for him, as one proposed banishing him from the tribe. But they needed a valid reason, as incompetence was not.

Time passed, and Trevor felt the tension grow. He could not figure out why everyone hated Akaana so much. He tried hard, helped people. Sure, he was clumsy, but he meant well, making up for his mistakes. But the elders still saw him as a burden. In their exasperation, they concocted a plan.

First, they promised him a wife if he completed the task. One could only integrate into a tribe if he had a wife that could bear him a child. The settlement counted on intelligent people to procreate. But thought Akaana too stupid to procreate, the elders always denied him the rite. But to get him to cross the line. They would do almost anything.

They tasked Akaana to hunt a basilisk. Once completed, he would marry and grant him a plot of land. Akaana saw this as his change. Without question, he obliged, leaving the village in haste.

When Akaana returned after completing his trial, dragging the Basilisk’s head behind him in triumph. Trevor rushed to him. How would he find out? What would he do? His heart raced as Akaana’s father awaited at the gates.

“Thank you for your hard work. Sorry to tell you but. Edema only had one maiden to send. She took a liking to Eballa, so we gifted her to him. Sorry Akaana, but it's what she wanted.”

Akaana fell to his knees, clenching his fist as grief filled his body. “It is, best of the tribe.” He told himself as tears welled in his eyes.

Trevor knew all too well the feeling of never measuring up. Whatever you did, didn’t matter. No one cared or paid attention. Akaana sucked up his tears, rose to his feet, and entered the forest. He ran as far away as he could so no one would see or hear. Hear his pain. For forty days and nights, his rage filled the lands far away from his home as he let out pent up anger over constant humiliations.

Akaana returned home, thinking he relieved the tension, but Eballa waited at the gates.

“What do you want?”

Eballa smiled, the same grin Akaana wanted to rip from his face. “Brother, I have good news. Semi is pregnant.”

Akaana gritted his teeth. “Congratulations.”

He tried to walk past him, Eballa wrapped his arms around Akaana. “You haven’t even had sex yet, have you? That's because no woman wants you. You need to be more like me. Handsome and charismatic. You. You are boring, clumsy, dopy. What are you even good for? Get it together, brother.”

Akaana smiled as his eyes glossed over. He grasped Eballa by the throat, lifted him from his feet, slamming him against the ground. Eballa gasped as the side of his skull broke apart from the impact. Akaana picked up the boulder in front of the village, lifted it over his head and with all his might splattered the rest of Eballa's skull. His body flailed, grasping at Akaana’s clothing. His body kept pounding the boulder down again, again and again.

He returned to his senses, realizing what he’d done. He cried out. Guards rushed him as his father bludgeoned him across the head with his staff. Akaana fell to the ground as the guards pounced, beating him until he could no longer defend himself.

The guards held him down, ripping his dreads one by one from the root. “You will never grow your power back. “We Banish you!”

Black. Darkness consumed his soul again as the scenery vanished. Trevor tried to move, but again, he felt shackled by the void. What felt like eons passed as he drifted til his surroundings changed once again.

A bald Akaana emerged from the jungle, recovered from his wounds, looked older, tired. He raised his hand to cover his eyes from the sun. His eyes adjusted to the grassy plain before him. A caravan sped its way across the landscape in a panic. Behind them, a pack of hungry beasts chased their prey.

Just as the caravan entered the middle, another group ambushed the leader cart, killing the lead animals. The cart flipped over, launching the driver into the air. The caravan stopped, now surrounded by growling and salivating beasts.

Akaana dashed from the treeline as the caravan attempted to defend themselves. A member of the caravan noticed the four meter tall man, with blackened skin, rushing toward them. He tried to yell, but his voice failed him as Akaana leapt into the middle, causing chaos. The beasts were used to attacking, but Akaana ripped them apart like paper. Some tried to run, but he chased them down, flinging them into the air across the land.

Trevor replayed what he saw in his head over and over as he floated in darkness. He tried to make sense of it all. Light appeared again, like his eyes opened for the first time. He cried out as the massive man held him in his arms. He smiled down at him. The memory, vague, but he remembered.

Time fast forwarded. Akaana found a home. The people he saved trusted him. As time passed, he told them his sin. He pleaded with them not to forgive him. But his smile brightened the darkest nights. He helped anyone he came across. He became integral to their tribe. But just like his previous tribe, to integrate, he needed a wife and to bear children. Women of the village, well, most feared the massive man. Plus, fearing what they would produce as offspring.

One woman volunteered, unafraid. A priestess of Muu, Amalthea, a follower of Lilith. Fell in love with Akaana. Lilith endowed her the ability to create souls, birthing new Terran gods. Lilith hoped to marry her children with those of Akaana and Amalthea, forging ties between the two city-states.

Amalthea gave Akaana twelve daughters, all hybrids varying in size, from a giant like their father to smaller like their mother. The thirteenth child born, a boy, Akaana, named Akor, or earth god, as he inherited his mother’s size and bronze skin, but his father’s strength and will.

Akor. There it was again. But this time it filled his soul with mana. It resonated within every part of his being. The name engraved into his soul. His mother called his name. Her sweet voice soothed his soul, as he could not remember the last time he heard her.

A young Akor reached out as Almathea picked him up. Laughter ensued as she tickled the little boy. Years passed, Akor grew, and Akaana trained him to hunt monsters and protect the city.

Outside the stunning glass and marble city, Akaana filled Akor with life lessons and his mistakes as a young man. Hoping that his only son would not follow his path.

One day after the spring equinox, Akaana dispatched his only son on his first solo hunting mission. His sisters wished him well as they gave him various gifts to protect him on his journey.

Akor camped atop a cliff overlooking the marbled and glass city. After hunting, he roasted a rabbit as he gazed up at the sky. The moon glistened and shone, illuminating the world around him. An orange streak flew over him and seconds later, a bright flash blinded him. Then the ground rumbled and debris flooded him. The impact threw him from the cliff down the mountain’s southern tip into the crevice below.

Akor awoke buried beneath rubble and earth. He dug his way out, desperate to get to the surface. He reached his hand up, feeling the breeze of fresh air.

Once free, Akor rushed home, or to where he thought it was. Only to find glass. No trees, no livestock, no buildings. The landscape; scarred and broken. Akor fell to his knees as his mana swirled his body. Rage filled his being as he blacked out.