“I have heard something about this legend, but what I learned was a different variation. Don’t the leaders you speak of need all four elements, earth, water, air, and fire, to gain access to the garden? From what you said, the newAdam and Eve only have three of the elements.”
“Yes, you are right,” the zebra girl responded. “But, the leaders are the missing element. They are fire.”
“Who are these leaders?”
“They are Shaul and Aver Hainsworth,” the giant said.
11
I choked on the water in my tank. My mind was spinning. Shaul and Aver created all of these crossbreeds! All of these underwater warehouses were theirs. How could Shaul not tell me about this? My emotions flipped and flopped between hatred and love. Was he just using me as part of a selfish plan? No, it couldn’t be possible—it just couldn’t. There was some reasonable explanation.
“Are you Ok?” the zebra girl asked.
I wasn’t Ok, not even a little bit. My mind was racing in a lot of directions trying to make sense of it all, but I nodded to the zebra girl, anxious to hear the rest of the story. I wanted to get as much information out of her as possible. As best I could, I tried to put my feelings aside and focus. “I’m fine,” my heart was racing and I felt the blood rising in my cheeks. “I’m just not used to being trapped like this.”
“You better get used to it,” the giant grumbled and then continued with the story, “Our leaders, Lord Shaul and Lord Aver…”
I choked again on the water. ‘Lord Shaul and Lord Aver!” This was just too much. How could any of this be true?
The giant was still speaking, “…they are the direct descendants of the devil. These brothers are the two serpents alive today who each possess half of the soul of the devil who seduced Eve into eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Either serpent can enter the garden with the genetic abominations that they created of Adam and Eve.
“The problem is that the leaders created genetically matched parents—the mother was half human and half butterfly while the father was half human and half fish. These parents, Telly Belle and Zikron Baro, were assigned to care for their Eve tri-breed in one of their bigger cages. They did the same for the Adam tri-breed, with other genetically matched parents, but those caretakers did not rebel. As the story goes, the female tri-breed’s parents fell in love and escaped with their genetically matched daughter.
“But, shortly thereafter, the serpent people found them. Telly and Zikron were banished from returning to the facilities and forced to live their lives apart. Telly was confined to Aurora Springs, a land of the same crossbreeds. They call themselves faeries. And Zikron was banished to Azkelon. They are never permitted to see each other again.
“The leaders sent a serpent woman by the name of Patravia Dressemme to take the Eve tri-breed from Telly Belle and raise her as her own daughter. They felt that the Eve tri-breed would be better taken care of by one of their own…”
I was shocked at what I was hearing. My mother was a serpent! It couldn’t be. She was a religious fanatic, bent on destroying the serpent people. Was that all a guise for her true intensions? Could it be true that she wanted hell on Earth? Does she care that I would become a tortured slave for all eternity?
What a liar she was and in so many ways! My entire life had been an illusion and Patravia knew this all along. Oh, how I hated her!
The pain in my heart was so great. Shaul, Aver, my mother were all terrible traitors. I wanted to cry and scream. I wanted to throw up, the betrayal was too painful, but I had to cover my emotions so that the giant and zebra girl would continue giving me information. Oh, how could I bare so much betrayal? I had to stay calm. I just had to.
I felt my lip quivering lightly. I wanted to hit myself, to make the pain physical rather than emotional. But, with whatever mind control I could muster up, I held the rest of my face still with no expression whatsoever. Aching inside, it didn’t look like they suspected anything.
The giant cleared his throat of phlegm and continued, “Another problem manifested for the serpents though. Zikron was bitter about losing his lover and child, so within the last year he has been calling the possessors’ of the four elements to him with the song of the siren…”
So the music in our minds is coming from my father in Askelon like Telly said. At least that part of the story was true.
“Since the siren song began,” the giant continued, “the leaders have lost all control of their emotions and are constantly drawn to the sounds of his trap. They can hardly keep themselves from swimming right into the light and into the porthole of Azkelon. Zikron could destroy their plan to enter the Garden of Eden. He could trap them in Azkelon forever.
“We have all seen it. Lord Shaul and Lord Aver have lost control. Adam tells us; we sense it. The music has made them fall madly in love with the Eve tri-breed and they may even lose further control and surrender to the siren song of Azkelon.”
“And you know all of this from Adam?”
The zebra girl untied the knot in her long red hair and shook it wildly. “Yes—even though we do not like him because he calls us abominations, apparitions in opposition with God, we know he is honest. He is incapable of lying. It is in his genetic makeup. One of the crossbreeds escaped, but before he fled, he gave us Adam’s charts to clarify our years of speculation.”
“How did Adam convey all of this information to you? He isn’t even in the same room.”
The giant and zebra girl laughed heartily.
I looked at them, feeling perplexed. “I don’t understand.”
“We are all connected through the mind,” the zebra girl said. “Where have you been?” She looked at me with confusion in her eyes. “Don’t you know that?”
“What?” My eyes widened.
“You must have lived a sheltered life—how unusual you are.” She laughed lightly. “All crossbreeds can communicate telepathically with each other if they so desire.”
“So can Adam hear what we are thinking and saying right now?”
She looked at me mischievously which I found perplexing, “Not unless we want him to hear us. We didn’t call him to our conversation, so our words are private.”
“From rumor, I had heard that the Eve incarnate possessed only the elements of water and air and that the devil incarnates possessed the elements of fire and earth,” I said, hoping I wasn’t revealing too much. “Religious dogma says that if one of the devil incarnates consummate with the Eve incarnate and together they produce a son, that son will be the soul of the original man. This child is the key to the Garden of Eden. With this child, any of the incarnates can gain access and either eat from the Tree of Knowledge or the Tree of Life or both. With that power, they can create either heaven or hell on Earth depending on which tree they chose to eat from.”
They both nodded and the giant spoke in his low frightening voice, “We read about that version of the prophesy that you mentioned. Both ways achieve the same goal. If the serpents kill Adam, they can have you for themselves and produce a son with his soul.”
The zebra girl interjected, “Originally, Lord Shaul and Lord Aver thought it was disgusting to mate with another breed. They wanted their offspring to remain genetically whole. Serpents know that crossbreeding is a sin and though they relish in committing crimes against God, they consider the serpent genetics to be superior to all. At the time of their decision, they would not even consider breaking their genetic line.”
Shifting his large body in his seat, the giant cut in, “But, now with the siren songs controlling their desires, all they want is to breed with the Eve tri-breed. They cannot control their passions.”
“But why have they not killed Adam considering he must be a romantic threat to them? He was the husband and soul mate of Eve after all. Adam must be her rightful partner.”
The zebra girl answered, “I am sure they want to terminate Adam, but they probably want to wait until they produce a son with the Eve tri-breed. If they are not
successful, they may need the Adam tri-breed in order to complete their task.”
“So you’re saying that once they have a son with Eve, they will kill the Adam?”
The zebra girl smiled, “Yes, at least I hope so!” She and the giant laughed again.
I thought it was strange, sociopathic behavior to want Adam dead just for telling them what he believed. People are like that too. For some reason, very few want to know the truth. Most just want to do whatever the hell they want and bend reality according to their own desires. I could relate in that sense actually. All I wanted originally was to go away with Shaul and leave the world both a mixture of good and evil so that we could enjoy our lives together.
Their desire to wish Adam dead made me think that his story was true. The crossbreeding of two or more species must defy the universal laws. It’s not as if he wanted that to be so—he was a crossbreed himself, after all. If it was just nonsense, why would they hate him so much? If it wasn’t true, then they would likely just think he was a fool, maybe they would even pity him. Maybe his talk could even annoy them. But, no—they think he should die.
I looked at the giant trying to catch a tiny fish in his aquarium with his hands. “Can I ask you something?” I asked hesitantly.
He turned to me abruptly. In a loud snappy voice that almost sounded like a roar, he said, “What?”
“I was just wondering about you.”
He caught the fish and gobbled it up. “What about me?” For a moment he looked around. I imagined he was looking for another fish to eat.
“It’s just that aside from another giant that I saw, everyone else in this facility is a crossbreed of some sort. Are you?”
He and the zebra girl both laughed heartily again. “You don’t know who he is?” The zebra girl said. Her blue eyes looked at me sharply. I hoped she wasn’t going to light me afire.
“Uh, well—no, actually.” My body tensed as I waited for her reaction to my response.
To my surprise, she simply smiled and said, “He is Goliath!” They both laughed again.
“Who?” I paused for a moment. “Oh, are you referring to the biblical character?”
The zebra girl rolled her eyes. “Of course. Who else would we be talking about?”
I didn’t want to come across as ignorant, but I must have been day dreaming during that bible study class at Patravia’s church. (I couldn’t call her mother anymore—not after learning she was just a ploy in the serpents’ plan. “Didn’t one of the Hebrews kill Goliath?”
The giant growled at my statement. I sure was glad he was trapped in his cage and couldn’t get me. “That arrogant David, under the name of God…” he said, “As our fight was to begin, he somehow used Godly power to make me stick to the ground like I was nailed down. Then I couldn’t raise my spear. And the pompous slayer shot a stone from his sling into my forehead. That measly midget cheated. How could I fight when I couldn’t even move! Grrrrr…” Goliath, as he called himself, shook his mane of hair angrily at the memory. “When I fell, he cut off my head with my own sword!”
“Calm down there, Fatso,” the zebra girl said harshly.
But, Goliath turned to her and stared at her until she stiffened like a statue. I thought it was ironic how he tapped into the dark forces to immobilize her while he was complaining that David used Godly power to immobilize him. What a hypocrite!
Then he turned to me and I was afraid he was going to do the same to me, but he didn’t. The dark magic started to wear off on the zebra girl. Not for long though because he turned back to her with his stare and she froze back up.
With his eyes still directed on her, he continued in his grumbled voice, “I was a powerful warrior. Nobody was stronger than me. But, now look at me—trapped in a cage in a dim room.” He shook his head again and let up on his powers directed at the zebra girl.
Slowly, she came to and collapsed to the bottom of her cage. This time she didn’t fight back. I think she was afraid of what he might do to her if she did.
Goliath seemed slightly calmer now. “Before the Economy Crash and Great Sun Scorch, the United States government owned these underwater warehouses. They used them as research facilities where they hid and experimented on the archeological findings of giants’ bones that they were hiding from the public.”
I was surprised by what he was saying. “You mean the U.S. government knew that giants were real and they lied to everyone about it?”
“Yes,” he moaned. “They wanted to hide evidence of giants because their existence disproves evolution. Not only did they find bones, but they actually found live giants in countries like India and Egypt. From the bones and live giants, they were able to use their genetics to recreate more. They were able to take mutations and create a giant race that could live and breathe in either water or on land. The underwater giants they stored here and the land giants they kept in Washington.
“After the downfall, the serpent people confiscated these government structures with their entities. Lord Shaul and Lord Aver retrieved the skull of Goliath and with incantations and from the bones, they were able to recreate me with my former memories. They want to use giants and crossbreeds in their hell on earth. We are naturally gifted in the black arts.
“Are giants a rightful breed according to the bible?” I asked.
The giant looked at me carefully for a moment and I feared that he might hurt me, but to my relief he just scratched his healing arm wounds and continued. “Adam said that God flooded the world because of interspecies breeding at the time of Noah and his ark. God does not look favorably on that kind. There is legend that giants are the product of fallen angels who mated with human women. We are also an abomination under God. For now, we just wait until our time of glory rises. We wait for hell on Earth.”
The zebra girl was swimming around and kicking her legs. She was probably trying to loosen her joints and muscles after being unable to move for so long. “Because you too are a crossbreed…” she said, standing still for a minute, “…you will have power over the humans too when hell on Earth arises. The serpents will be the rulers, but we will hold prestigious positions and be able to have our way with the humans as our slaves.”
“Oh,” I said hesitantly. I didn’t know the proper way to respond to her horrible talk.
“‘Oh’?” she said mockingly with an spark of suspicion in her fire blue eyes. “Has not anyone told you of such?”
It appeared as if I said the wrong thing. “Sure, I’ve heard stories, but now that you are telling me, I know the rumors are true.”
“Rumors?” She asked, looking at me fixedly. For a moment she swam around the cage and then she tucked her hooves under her lower torso upon the ground in what looked like a resting position, but she kept her eyes fixated on the tiger fish that slept in its aquarium. After a short time she fell asleep too.
When I looked over at Goliath, I saw that he was starting to fall asleep too. He was slumped over in his chair, muttering lightly with his eyes closed. Moments later he was snoring, fast asleep.
I was alone now and there was so much to contemplate. If only I could escape from this cage. Now that I knew that everyone I loved, betrayed me, I was certain, I wanted to find a new home far away from Seneca Mountains and far away from this lake.
But, then, I thought about my genetic mother and father, Telly Belle and Zikron Baro. Though I hardly knew Telly and I had never met Zikron, according to the story, they loved me and each other. They had wanted to escape this place as do I and they had risked everything for their pursuit.
I knew that the community leaders and the serpent people could find me in Aurora Springs if I was to live with Telly there. But, it sounded like Zikron was gaining control over Shaul with his siren song. He seemed powerful. Zikron might protect me. In fact, he probably would. If I find a way to break free from this cage that is where I will go.
Now as I swam around the cage in the dim light, I thought about Shaul and Aver. I was crazy for feeling such love f
or Aver. He was truly evil. My yearnings for him and the empathy I felt for him shamed me. I was glad he was dead. Now that I was away from him, I felt relief. It shocked me how deeply I had fallen for him when I didn’t even know him at all. I didn’t understand it. The desire was unfathomable.
But, Shaul and I had spent so much time together in the dungeon while we were locked away. He treated me very well. He made our time there even magical. I wanted a life like that. I wanted to be with someone who even in horrible times, could make life beautiful.
My heart yearned for Shaul. I just couldn’t believe he was evil like the giant and zebra girl said. I loved him. And that was what made me feel so mixed up. Did I only love him because of the siren song playing in my head? Or did I love him in truth? Did he love me?
Oh, he was truly evil. He was the incarnation of the devil. How could the devil not be bad? But, he didn’t want to be evil. I knew that. He did so many heroic things. I could tell he was always trying to control himself from his selfish desires. He couldn’t help it if he was just bad. He didn’t create himself. Maybe I could reason with him. Maybe I could change him. Maybe I could make him good.
But, I was so angry with Shaul for lying to me. He didn’t tell me about these warehouses, the crossbreeds, or the giants. And what about the Adam crossbreed? Shaul didn’t tell me about him. But, that made sense actually because if Shaul did love me, Adam would be a threat to our love. My heart warmed at that thought. That must be why he didn’t tell me the truth, why he didn’t tell me the alternative scenario for entrance into the Garden of Eden.
Now with the information I had learned, I wondered what would happen to Adam and me if Shaul put the DNA of the original apple only on the Tree of Life. Would Adam and I cease to exist, would we become slaves damned to a torturous existence, or would we be like Goliath and the zebra girl said—the second ruling class beneath the serpents, but above the humans? I didn’t want to be evil like that. I didn’t want to enslave humans for my own power. I would rather die than that.
Girl Enchanted (Book 2 of The Girl Trilogy) Page 8