A Story of Forever

Part 3

One day Mamon decided to escape. And they asked Naia if she wanted to come with them. Naia said that she was too afraid of what the Uzras would do to her if they caught her escaping. She longed to escape. She longed to with all her heart. But she could not find the courage to. But she wanted Mamon to escape. She wanted them to at least be free.

So Mamon did escape. And they changed form to be a fish and swam through the rivers until they found a great forest with trees standing impenetrably strong. As if their trunks were made of iron. And there they saw that Puri was still alive in this wild enclave of the earth. And there they decided to make their home.

Mamon hid inside the forest. And there they met another young runaway, who had found this piece of Puri and made a home within it. This girl was named Mira and she was one with the wood. Mamon was one with the fire. And Mamon thought it very ironic indeed that they should be friends. Mira was pregnant with three infant babies she had to give a better life to. Mamon helped her give birth on the forest floor. The two teenagers raised the babies as best as they could, and they both loved and took care of the children as their own.

One child was named Wolver, and he was a wolf puppy who was sweet and playful. He had great might and strength, and his power grew each day. He was gullible and easily trusting. One child was named Harimon, and they were in between boy and girl, and they dwelled in the places in between borders. They dwelled in the cracks in the wall. They were a serpent who twisted and turned. One child was named Oella and she was a beautiful girl. Half of her was a beautiful girl and half of her was a skeleton.

All three of the children were adorable and childish and filled with life. All three of the children were children. They were different, yes. They were what the Uzra would never expect, never accept, never accept. But they were young baby children and they were bundles of joy and love.

Mira and Mamon were the best of friends and their children were free as they grew. Mamon knew that they would have to free more people. They did not know how.

The Uzra were enraged that their servant had fled. But look as they might, they could not find them. And so they continued on with their plans to dominate the world. What was the loss of a couple of Yemars when the Uzra had all the rest?

Karkion wanted to know what the future was of the golden, gilded empire of the Uzra. An empire made of blood, though he didn't think of it as that. So therefore Karkion used his magic to bring up a Yemar wise woman and seer from the dead. He demanded that she tell him the future of his kingdom.

She did not want to tell him anything. But he bound her with his magic and therefore she was forced to tell him whatever he wanted to know. She was very enraged at him and his hall. He could bind her, but she would not be scared of him. Why should she be scared of him when she was already dead? He could not kill her again.

So she was defiant to him and treated him rudely. She held her head high and looked him in the eyes, her own eyes blazing with anger. She mocked him and belittled him. And there was nothing Karkion could do about it because she was already dead, and therefore he could not punish her.

He did however force her to tell him the future. And therefore, with much reluctance, she told him of the truth. She told him that there will be a Great War that no-one will be able to prevent. The final war between the Uzras and the Yemars. All the Uzras will die but their children will live. Generation upon generation will fight.

Karkion heard this and he felt a great terror in his heart. He did not want to lose his kingdom and his immortality. But he was satisfied that his descendants would inherit the world and would come to rule it just as he did.

What the wise woman didn't tell him was that this new world would be changed.

Karkion unbound her from his spells and sent her back to the world of the dead. And she sank down into the heather and melted into the ground. Back to Oellon. Back to her all-consuming sleep.

The Uzras combed all the wild lands for any Yemars that had escaped. There they found Mamon and Mira, and the three children they were raising. They were each four years old in this time. Not four human years. Four cosmic years.

The Yemars and the Uzras measured their time with cosmic time. And cosmic time was much different than human time. It stretched out much further and longer, like taffy being pulled. The Yemars and Uzras grew and aged in cosmic years, years that sometimes stilled infinitely.

Karkion saw that the children of Mira and Mamon would grow up to yield huge amounts of power. And he feared that they would join the battle against the Uzras. He feared that the Uzras would not have any chance if these children joined the battle against them.

And so the Uzras took the children away from their parents. The children were crying and screaming and reaching out for their parents. But the Uzras had no pity. The Uzras had no remorse. They ripped the children out of their parents' arms and they took them away.

Hari they threw down into the sea. The child kept falling and falling and sinking and sinking until they reached the bottom of the sea. But they did not drown. This was not a mercy. The pressure of the waves over their body and heart, the tonnes and tones of water, it weighed heavy on them and crushed them, holding them down.

Little Oella, Karkion threw her into Oellon, the land of the dead.

Oellon was not the land of all the dead. There were two lands of the dead. There was Forkava, where the Uzras and honourary Uzras go. For there were a select few Yemars who betrayed the other Yemars and got accepted as Uzras. There were very few. The Yemars who were not traitors went to Oellon. Forkava was a land of vast wealth and abundance and plenty. There were feasts there every day. But in Oellon there was only poison, and all the dead were in deep sleep.

Wolver the Uzra took a liking to. In the way that someone likes their pet dog. Even though Wolver had understanding and thought and sentience. The Uzras took him to their palace, and raised him there, away from his parents.

Before the Uzras left, they bound Mira in many chains. And they tied her to a wooden stake. They set her on fire, just as they did Gylla. But Mira burned and she burned. She burned until she died.

Mamon was devastated. All their children were being tortured and their dear, good friend was dead. Lost in eternal sleep. They did not know what they would do. How they would go on. They were about to give up.

But then they remembered a memory. When Hari was a year old, they were very small. They had to slither away fast to escape the predators in the forest. Not that there were many predators in the forest that bothered them though. But as Hari grew older, they grew and grew. Until they were big enough to take scare away the predators and they were the ones running instead.

Mamon knew that Hari would continue to grow and grow. And one day they would be big enough to simply rise up out of the sea. Mamon drew strength from that. Drew courage. Drew the will you go on.

And so they went, in chains, to the lands of the Uzras.

———

If you like this piece check out my Mastodon my account is FSairuv@mas.to and I post about human rights, social justice, and the environment.