GODS OF ASEROTH: The Prodigal Son: A monster is born (2 page)

    
She picked him up and threw him out of the heavens, onto Thraenus. The mystical child, the majestic being, was brown in color with black eyes. He cried while he fell through the skies but a giant raven caught him in its beak and took him to the frozen lake in Gelus. The raven was sent by Asurot and was given the orders to take the child to the outskirts of Gelus. It dropped the child in a peasant woman and her son’s hands and flew away.

    
Asurot, still wanting to protect her baby, told the woman the whole purpose of this and the woman decided to help the Goddess and raised the baby boy as her own. Now, the woman had two sons, one was her own, and one was a god, a god that would bring the world to peace, once again.       

CHAPTER 2

    
“Get up, lazy bums” said Mrs. Adne Poppins, the mother of Leosher and Virgil, while smiling and pulling the rags off of them “You both have work to do.”

    
Virgil was the first one to get up “Mother, it is dawn, why are you waking us up so early?”

     Mrs. Adne smiled
and walked over to her older son “We are all out of wood. You have to go cut down trees and get the wood for our burrow and to sell it in the market as well.”

    
Leosher woke up too “Mother, let me sleep a little more.”

    
“No Leosher, get up.”

    
“Do you have the bread ready for me to take to the market to sell?”

    
“Yes son, and your brother will join you after he sells all the wood.”

    
Leosher nodded and both brothers got out of their stone hard beds and used water from a stream running besides their house, a burrow rather, to wash their faces and their beards. Though the youngest, Leosher, was only 18 years old, he had a thick black beard.

    
Then the older brother, Virgil went on to cut down trees in the jungle and the younger brother, Leosher went on to sell the bread, as his mother wanted him to.

    
He walked on the grassy plains, in the cold, with his rags and a buffalo skin coat on, towards the town center, where the markets were. When he got to the market, he chose a place next to his beloved, Meagon, who was the daughter of Buntius, a low class wizard and the leader of the Union. She was rich but she sold potions just to so she could spend some time with Leosher. She was an excellent potion maker and a great warrior, undoubtedly the best female one in the town.

    
At dawn, both would pack up their stalls and go to the frozen lake that was right beside the town. They would sit at the bank and spend time talking. But this day, the routine was disturbed. The Gelun soldiers came in the market for the tributes. Geluna took children and forced them to work for her and join her army. She also forcefully took money from the already poor people.

     All were scared
, so everyone in the market gave their shares to the leading horseman of the convoy, but Leosher did not. He stood up against them and stood for what was right. He tried to make the soldiers stop taking the tributes but a fight broke out.

    
It was all unfair. The fight was against young Leosher and two dozen of the heavily armed Gelun soldiers but soon after his brother Virgil joined him, they odds became even. Both were very strong, Virgil, because he was a wood cutter and had a keen interest in bounty hunting, but nobody knew why Leosher was strong. He was the strongest in the entire town but he was the most caring one in the entire town as well. When the soldiers had left because the brothers were too much for them, they started packing up the left overs and left for their burrows but little did they know, the soldiers had held a grudge and shot an arrow from far away. The arrow pierced through Leosher’s back and into his stomach but luckily, he was the most favorite young man in the town and help arrived immediately. His brother immediately took him back to their burrow where his mother and the town’s doctor cleaned the wound and put him to sleep.

    
On the other hand, the Gelun soldiers came back, with reinforcements. They were wearing heavy armor with a mark on them. The mark was a tiara made of vines. This was the mark of Geluna, the queen and witch of Gelus, the kingdom in whose outskirts, Leosher and the others lived. She was an evil witch who could control plants and trees. She put life in them and made those pure beings do terrible tasks. The Gelun soldiers destroyed the entire market and took prisoners with them. Nobody was able to help, for the brothers were in their burrow. The town was devastated once again but it was habitual and the residents were accustomed to it….

    
At dusk, evening, Mr. Buntius and his daughter came to the burrow to meet and congratulate Leosher for his bravery.

    
“Oh, Buntius, my old friend, I was not expecting to see you right now, at this time of the day” said Mrs. Adne, trying to hide all the dirt from the chairs near the fire place.

    
“It is not of problem” replied Buntius, while smiling “We are old friends Adne, there have to be no formalities between us.”

    
He sat down on the chair and sent his daughter to help Adne with the tea. Meanwhile, Virgil woke up Leosher and brought him out.

    
“Son, what happened? Tell me the entire story.”

    
“It was not a big deal. The Gelun soldiers were taking tributes and I tried to stop them” replied Leosher, and then he looked at Virgil “if it weren’t for my brother, I would have been dead.”

    
Virgil smiled and got up to help his mother but Buntius kept on talking to Leosher
“We have to do something about Geluna” he said while grabbing the tea from his daughter who was serving everyone “Son, you should come to the Union meet with me tonight. The prophet wants to meet you.”

    
Adne and Virgil were very happy because Leosher belonged to one of the poorest families, but he was invited to the Union. The Union was a group of powerful people in the town and from around the town, that were planning a resistance against the evil rulers of Thraenus. All of them were the believers of Asurot and Dadurot.

   
“Can my brother join me to the meeting tonight?” Leosher asked humbly “I would prefer if he was with me.”
 

    
Buntius smiled at Virgil “Of course he can come. We need a brave young man like him in our Union too.”

    When he finished his tea, he got up and started to lead the way to the place where the Union was set to meet. He left his daughter in the burrow to help the old woman take care of her chores and took the brothers with him. They walked on the stony roads through the rain, towards the burrow of the prophet, Lamfari. He was very wise and the whole Union consulted him for guidance.

    
When they got there, they were warmly welcomed, for they were with the leader of the Union. Buntius got Virgil and Leosher registered as the members of the Union, and took them to the bed chamber of Lamfari. There, he lay, weak, weary and tired. He had been like this for over ten years. He was blind and his eyes were grey. There were no pupils in his eyes but he still looked majestic and glorious, even though he wore rags. His hairs were silvery white and his face was wrinkled with dirt stuck in them. His beard was long and had a mustache. He was brown in color, just like Leosher, just a little lighter than him.

    
Virgil and Leosher went close to him to sit but suddenly, Lamfari started smiling. He got up and sat up in his soft bed. Then, everyone in the burrow gathered around and sat down to listen to Lamfari.

    
“I have found the perfect lad for this journey. Does anyone have any objections or questions?”

    
“Yes!” said an old man from the back, with a pipe in his mouth. He was the greatest wizard in the entire kingdom of Gelus “Who is the lad?”

    
“Leosher is the chosen one. He has a pure heart and a will to protect the ones who cannot do so for themselves. He also has a secret that no one other than I know.”

    
Virgil looked at Lamfari “What do we have to do, because where my brother goes, I shall go and that is final.”

   
“Let me tell you the story of what happened in the beginning first, and then I’ll tell you what you all have to do.”

    
Lamfari told them the story of the gods, the son of Asurot and Shamaun. He also told them about the three rulers and how they were to be defeated. All of them knew about their own queen, the evil witch of Gelus, Geluna but only a few knew about the other two.

    
Leosher had been thinking after the story and had many questions and when he could not hold them back anymore, he broke in “I am a god?”

    
“I did not say that” said Lamfari while smiling “What makes you think you are a god?”

    
“Virgil and my mother found me on the lake and I am brown in color just like the baby. That’s what makes me think I am the god, son of Asurot.”

    
“Very well then” said Lamfari in a loud voice “We have found the son of Asurot. The gods told me that Leosher was the diety but I had been waiting for the right moment to announce it and today, I think is just the right moment.”

     The council was shocked but very happy as well. They all congratulated but it all stopped when Lamfari dismissed
them. He held back Virgil and Leosher and after all had left, he began talking to them

    
“You have to kill the three rulers but to kill them, you shall find the hidden valley which holds the weapons. And after you have defeated the rulers, Thraenus shall be yours. There is one more thing the gods expect you to do,”

    
“What is it?” Leonidas asked hastily.

    
“You are expected to find Samael and kill him as well, after you gain control over entire Thraenus. After you finish these tasks, you will fulfill the purpose that Asurot sent you to Thraenus with.”

     Virgil
smiled and asked “I assume we are going to have to defeat Geluna first, but how exactly are we supposed to do it? Many have tried but all have failed.”

    
“Like I said, you will have to find the hidden valley. The valley holds the weapons of destruction. They hold the power to desolate the rulers and their empires. Many have tried to find the valley, claiming to be the son of Asurot, but all died, for the journey was overwhelmingly hard.”

    
“What weapon are we supposed to use for Geluna?” asked Leosher.

    
Lamfari got up with his staff and walked up to Leosher “You will have to figure that out for yourself.”

     “I understand everything but there is only one more question I shall ask, where is the valley
?” Leosher asked “I have to know where we are going.”

    
“Why do you think its called the hidden valley? Its because no one knows where it is” Lamfari laughed “But I know the general area you could try to find it in. To get to the area, you will have to go over the misty mountains, through the black forest and into the caves. And only then, you would be halfway done. Then you would have to go through the land of the dead but beware, for if you turn around, you will turn to stone. After you cross the Land of the Dead, you will reach the great sea, cross the sea and you will see mountains, mountains that only you can see. That is the valley, but when you get to the valley, you’ll have to find the weapons in its bosom.”

     Virgil was little suspicious for Lamfari was contradicting himself “I thought no one knew where it was, but you seem to know exactly where it is, where the valley is.”

     Lamfari smiled “The gods told me.” He paused and thought about telling them more about their journey but he had already told them everything he knew “Yes, that is all. Now, you are going to need companions for your journey, to train you and to protect you. Do you have any in your mind?”

     “N
o, I am sorry, I do not have anyone” said Leosher but then Virgil looked at him “Yes you do. What about Usere and Urey?”

    
“Ah yes. Let me go and write a letter to the brothers.” Leosher parted from the Union and Virgil followed him.

    
Lamfari sat alone in his burrow but then one man came to visit him. He was the same old man with a long, white beard and a pipe in his mouth. He was in the Union. He was the greatest wizard of Gelus, Azar. Lamfari sensed his presence and finally talked “I have a favor to ask from you, Azar” he said “Will you do something for me?”

    
“Yes, Lamfari” replied Azar “Anything for you.”

    
“I want you to give proper supplies to the brothers. They are peasants and have nothing, therefore supply them with proper things.”

    
“Lamfari, I will do that and may I ask you something?”

    
“Yes, go on.”

    
“I would like to go on the journey with them to train and protect them. After all, Leosher is the prince of the gods of Aseroth. He has to have some skills to go against everything he is meant to.”