“Are those your conjoined names?” asked Goddess Terra with surprise.
“Why, yes. Why do you keep sounding so surprised at that?” asked Urtish.
“Because they’re the wrong names, you fool,” answered Luna without looking up. “Sheesh.”
“What are the given names of your host and visitor, Urtish?” asked Goddess Terra.
“My host is named Urnest, and my visitor is named Satish,” Urtish replied.
“Then your conjoined name should Saturn, from Satish and Urnest,” answered Goddess Terra. “You are the heroes’ guide and teacher.
Urtish’s, or Saturn’s, eyes opened in disbelief.
“And your names?” she asked, pointing toward Stavius.
“Staven and Mark,” answered Stavius.
“How did you manage to get Stavius out of that?” Goddess Terra asked with a puzzled look.
“OK, Staven and Marius, but my visitor hates the name Marius,” answered Stavius with a groan.
“Well, either Mark or Marius works because your name should be Mars from Mark and Staven,” answered Goddess Terra.
“Then I suppose my name should be Venus from Veronica and Nusera,” said Versera.
“And that means I’m Luna from Luciana and Nancy,” added Nariana.
“But what does that make me?” asked Elisa. “I could make Terra, from my two names, but we already have a Terra, or two if we count you.”
“Oh, you are definitely Terra,” Goddess Terra assured her before turning to face the other Terra. “Based upon your age, your true conjoined name must be Ops.”
“Who the heck is Ops?” blurted Versera.
Urtish/Saturn softly answered, “She was Saturn’s wife.”
Terra/Ops turned pale and quickly sat down.
“Well, now that we have that straightened out, can one of you please explain what you mean by Mearth?” asked Goddess Terra.
“That’s simple. We call the visitors’ planet Earth and the hosts’ planet Mearth, which is short for Magical Earth,” explained Janus.
“That is just terrible,” complained Goddess Terra.
The four young people simultaneously shouted, “It was Stavius’ idea!”
“Hey guys, thanks for the support. I’m sorry I didn’t come up with a better name, but it was too confusing to call both places Earth,” complained Stavius.
“Fair enough, but then you should refer to this planet as Terra,” answered Goddess Terra. “After all, it is my world. And, you seven need to start using your proper names. No more of this Stavius and Elisa nonsense.”
“Well, that’s just great,” grumbled Stavius. “Now you want us to use the same name for you, this planet, and Elisa. I can’t wait until you try to explain what we’re supposed to do with that confusion.”
“He has a point,” chuckled Luna. “Perhaps these kids aren’t as stupid as we thought.”
“I kind of like Mearth,” added Venus.
“No one asked you,” muttered Goddess Terra, who apparently cared deeply about what people called her world.
“Besides, you guys still don’t get it. This isn’t a different planet. You are standing on your planet Earth. You just happen to be about ten thousand years in your future.”
“Yeah, we were just discussing that,” muttered Elisa.
“What?” shrieked Goddess Terra in shock. “How did you manage to figure that out?”
“Yup, these kids are all right, Terra,” chuckled Venus.
“L. Janus thinks that we’re really still on Earth, but thousands of years in the future. So, what if we called this future Earth, Fearth?” asked Stavius/Mars.
Goddess Terra leaned her head back and screamed, while Luna fell off the rock with laughter, and Venus snorted.
“Sorry. That was very unladylike,” Venus said before a second snort erupted out of her nose. “Oh my.”
Goddess Terra glared at Stavius/Mars and shouted, “Why is Mars always such a pain in the butt?”
“I’m sorry, but using the same names for things is just confusing to me. And, while we’re at it, making us use your names will be even more confusing,” stated Stavius/Mars. He then quickly added, “And for the record, this is all Marius’ doing. I’m perfectly happy calling this world either Earth or Terra.”
“Guys, you still don’t get it,” moaned Goddess Terra. “You’re conjoined now. There are no visitors and hosts. You are each one entity. But OK, I’ll let you call this world Mearth until we come up with a better name which doesn’t confuse you. And you can use your crazy old names when you’re around us, but you have to practice using your real names after we leave.”
Goddess Terra looked drained, which is pretty astonishing, given she is a god.
Elisa took pity on her and asked, “So, how does all this work? I mean, how did the right people with the right names sync up to fulfill The Prophecy? Are we really ten thousand years in the future, or are we in another reality? And how are we supposed to use this thing we’re supposed to build to bring magic to Earth? Or is that even what it’s for?”
“I don’t know,” admitted Goddess Terra with a heavy sigh. “Janus is probably the only one who will ever really know that answer.”
“All right, enough of saying that I’m supposed to have all the answers!” yelled Janus. “You’re the gods. You wrote The Prophecy and created this planet. I can’t believe that you don’t know the answers.”
Goddess Terra angrily turned to face Janus and said, “Believe what you like, foolish boy, but I do not lie. We do not know the answers to your questions, and, for the record, we did not write The Prophecy, and we did not create this planet.”
Nariana said, “Wait, I’m confused, Goddess Terra. If you didn’t create this world, then what gods are you?”
Goddess Terra replied, “Oh, we created these worlds, but we did not create the planets themselves. Earth, Venus, Mars, and Luna were nearly lifeless rocks when we arrived. We brought magic here and used it to transform them into worlds filled with forests and magical creatures.”
Venus said, “Terra directs the magic on Mearth. Luna creates the life on the moon, Mars runs Mars, and Venus is mine.”
Goddess Terra’s face grimaced when she heard Venus use the term Mearth, but Venus was grinning from ear to ear.
“You know, Terra, he’s right. It is kind of confusing talking about our planets using our own names,” Venus added with a wink at Luna.
“You do realize that I control the magical plasma on this planet,” warned Goddess Terra.
“You’re right, Terra,” agreed Luna. “I think you’re doing a terrific job explaining everything. I’m going to leave you to it and go out to hunt something.”
“Me too,” said Venus. “In fact, I’m thinking of hunting something with big muscles and tight shorts,” she chuckled.
“No need to hunt. I’m right here,” shouted Mars as he bounced in. “Hey guys, this place is awesome. I forgot how much I missed the warmth, and dragon wrestling is amazing. You have to try it. I’m definitely creating some dragons on Mars when I get back! Is everything straightened out here?”
Elisa tried to bring the conversation back by saying, “So, are you originally from Earth? Did you become Prophecy Heroes like us? Did you fulfill The Prophecy to bring magic to these planets? Are we going to become gods like you?”
“Don’t know, don’t know, don’t know, and yes,” answered Mars as he counted the questions off his fingers.
“Wait, you don’t know where you came from?” asked Elisa in disbelief.
“Hey, we’ve been here for thousands of years. A lot has happened in that time. Do you remember the first few minutes after you were born?” snapped Venus.
Nariana interrupted to say, “Elisa, you’re missing the big point. Are we really going to become gods?”
Luna answered, “I certainly hope so. We’ve always believed that you guys are supposed to be our replacements.”
“Yeah,” Goddess Terra agreed, “and I’m looking forwa
rd to a break. It’s exhausting running everything around here. Be thankful that you’re getting worlds in much better condition than the ones we received. Try doing something with the oceans, though. My mermaids and mermen never really came out right.”
Mars slapped Stavius on the back and added, “Wait until you see Mars. It is totally radical! There are lots of wild beasts to hunt, and everything tastes like bacon! But Terra’s right. We might not appear to have aged, but we’re all ancient and ready for a rest.”
“Don’t kid yourself. You do look thousands of years old,” muttered Stavius.
“Explain yourself, young man,” insisted Venus while Stavius kicked himself for insulting a god.
“Well, your illusions look young, but your Soul Reaper bodies look like thousand-year-old mummies. I’m sorry, but it’s true,” apologized Stavius.
“We are gods, so we are ethereal. We only use these vessels to give us form and substance while we’re on this planet,” explained Goddess Terra. As if on cue, all four illusions disappeared to reveal four Soul Reapers standing in the room.
“Oh, great gods!” screamed the Soul Reaper standing where the beautiful Venus had just disappeared. “What have you done with our bodies, Terra? They’re hideous!”
“They reek!” complained Soul Reaper Luna. “Is it too much to ask you to take them out to be cleaned every few hundred years?”
Mars added, “And maybe take them to a gym or something. These things are just skin and bone with no muscle tone at all!”
“How about visiting a spa once in a while,” added Soul Reaper Venus. “You could at least invest in some moisturizer. This skin is like dried-out leather!”
“I’m sorry, but I’ve been busy,” whined Goddess Terra. All of them had switched their illusions back on but were rubbing their bony arms with Mars, Venus, and Luna glaring at Goddess Terra.
Goddess Terra sighed and agreed that her body was also itchy and that she wanted a hot bath. Janus informed the gods that there was a hot tub down the hall, and all four faces brightened as they raced out of the room.
“Well, that was bizarre,” muttered Janus after the gods had left.
“Yes, I must concur,” said Urtish/Saturn.
Chapter 9
We Shall be Gods
December 28, Earth
We are going to be gods. We are going to be gods! Oh my God, I’m going to be a god!!! Oh MYSELF, I’m going to be a god! Man, this is great.
These are the thoughts that won’t stop running through my head. It’s funny how Stavius is intimidated by the idea of becoming a god on Mearth. Here, I find it amazing, incredible, and stupendous! Six months back, I was a geeky, unpopular, twelve-year-old boy. Then, I became a hero, prophesized, to save the world. And, now I’m going to become a god! How do you do that?
“Stop bouncing around while you’re clearing the table, or you’ll drop a dish, Oh Mighty One,” yelled Mom from the kitchen.
My career path might involve becoming a god, but for now, I still have dish duty. I don’t care, though. Everything is awesome!
We spent our last week on Mearth getting to know the gods and, well, I think we’re going to be much better than them. Euryale claimed to know the gods already and wasn’t thrilled to have them as house guests. She claimed they had voracious appetites and terrible manners. I pointed out that they were merely ethereal beings using the Soul Reapers as bodies. Everyone knows that Soul Reapers don’t eat anything, and all-powerful gods should be expected to be somewhat rude to mere mortals.
Euryale grunted, “They’re idiots. Hmm, I wonder if they’ll eat that leftover mastodon. Can you believe how much meat is on one of those things? Everybody’s sick of it, and Saiph had to move the rest of the carcass to the snowdrift outside to keep it from rotting.
“The only benefit of the gods’ arrival is that it motivated most of our guests to leave. The only ones left are the men who are in love with Juice’s indoor light garden, but at least they spend all their time squabbling and mucking about back in their man cave.”
We all agreed with Euryale’s assessment by the end of the week. The gods are idiots, and they’ll eat everything in sight. Mars thought that frozen, “mammoth meatsicles,” as he called them, were the greatest invention of all time. This would throw Goddess Terra into an explosive rage as she tried to educate him that “this is a mastodon and not a mammoth, for the six-hundredth time!”
Goddess Terra and Venus spent most of their time hogging the hot tub. That was the only place where Venus could get warm, and Goddess Terra claimed she deserved it for everything she did to run the world. Mars and Luna spent most of their time working out in the gym they had us build, and all four insisted on receiving daily beeswax and spice massages.
They periodically removed their illusions to proudly show off the progress they were making with their physical forms. The Soul Reapers were now clean with a pleasant aroma reminiscent of the leather chair in Dad’s office. You see, the gods eventually realized that no amount of moisturizer would repair the Soul Reapers’ dry, brittle skin. Then, Janus joked that they should try using a leather conditioner, and they did. The Reapers still had dark, red-brown leather for skin, but at least it was soft, supple, and, most importantly, it didn’t stink.
The Soul Reapers had also put on weight and no longer appeared to be desiccated, leather-covered, walking skeletons. They looked almost human. They were still frightfully skinny, but their eyes and cheeks were no longer sunken, and their joints were no longer the thickest parts of their arms and legs. Mars and Luna had even built up some muscle. They were always boasting about being “totally ripped” with “zero body fat.”
The gods were self-centered and utterly devoid of knowledge. None of them knew who wrote The Prophecy, what would happen once it was fulfilled, or even where they came from. They seemed to remember arriving on a nearly barren world and shaping magic to create everything currently living in it, but they weren’t sure.
Versera wanted to know why the gods couldn’t just magically fulfill The Prophecy themselves. The useless spiritual beings explained that they were unable to cast spells. However, they can shape magical currents, and are the only ones who can tweak genetics at the cellular level. This meant that they can create plants and animals or destroy them, but that they are utterly incapable of helping anyone. Mars and Luna couldn’t even build their own gym, so Janus and the girls had to construct their weightlifting equipment and treadmills for them.
Nariana asked if they could at least use the Soul Reapers teleportation abilities to help them steal the remaining talismans. Her idea was for the heroes to teleport into the guarded rooms where the talismans were stored, grab them, and teleport away. Luna declined, explaining that the Soul Reapers could only teleport a few times before they needed to rest – often for several years. The gods wouldn’t even have enough energy to return to the other cave for several months. This announcement nearly brought Euryale to tears.
Mars did admit that there had been a Mars who had tricked the Soul Reapers into teleporting the talismans once, long ago, but he couldn’t remember the details. This caused Elisa to ask if anyone had ever collected all seven talismans and, if so, how they managed to do it. The gods remembered heroes succeeding two or three times, but their stories made no sense because all the heroes had the same names. Even Goddess Terra agreed that the practice of using the same names for gods and heroes was, perhaps, not the best idea. She suggested asking the dragons for the details because they remember everything. That is what we’re going to do when we get back.
Our Terra eagerly switched her name to Ops to keep from being confused with Goddess Terra and, potentially, Elisa/Terra. Urtish changed his name to Saturn because, well, Saturn is a much cooler name than Urtish. The added bonus of his new name is that it doesn’t remind his wife of how much she hates Urtish every time she calls him. Mr. Narwani now remembers Mearth, and I think that Ms. Datta/Terra/Ops seems to have forgiven Urtish/Saturn. The rest of us are keeping our origi
nal names, despite what the gods want.
✽✽✽
Today is Saturday, and Club S&M is meeting at Children’s Hospital to screen candidates for our prosthetic arm science fair project. Saturdays are when outpatients like me have group physical therapy. It’s more fun than personal physio because we spend most of the time playing games instead of just doing exercises.
We brought our design schematics and the nerve sensor band. Shontelle has been fitting it on kids who are interested in participating, but we aren’t having much luck. A couple of kids managed to light up the LEDs once or twice, but Shontelle thinks those were just accidental. Candice is the only one who can reliably control the band, and she’s a jerk. I really don’t want to use her, but Dr. Price took us aside and gave an explanation that we couldn’t argue against without sounding like jerks ourselves.
She said, “Kids, I know that Candice can be a little rude and selfish but think about what she’s gone through. She lost her hand less than a year ago and can’t do many of the things she used to enjoy. She’s probably self-conscious and scared about what people think of her. Being rude is one of the many ways people deal with tragedy and loss. Perhaps having a partially-functional prosthetic hand will help her through her emotional issues. This could be what sets her in a more positive direction. You could be changing her life in a major way. But the decision is up to you.”
I mean, how do you say no to that? We measured her arm and left the sensor band with her so that she could practice while we built the hand. She merely grunted, “whatever,” but her mother assured us that she would make Candice practice. We weren’t convinced, and the saddest part was that other kids truly wanted us to build them a prosthetic, but they just wouldn’t be able to use it.
Malik and Ethan did decide to go ahead and print a prosthetic for a second-grader named Abdo, who lost both of his hands when he was just a baby. He and his mother are refugees from Sudan, and he is an adorable kid who is happy to be here, even with all the problems not having hands brings. Ethan explained that they could print a plastic hand for him but that it wouldn’t work like the one we were building for Candice. Abdo was so busy smiling and thanking us that I don’t think he really understood, though. I just hope he isn’t crushed with disappointment later.
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