The Godsend Backfire: The Beginning

by Harold Straugh

  There was a little dew forming just before the sun started to rise. Derium wiped it off the tall grass and rubbed it between his fingers and smiled, “Oh how I have missed this. I feel the sleep coming upon me, I must go now brothers, I will actually enjoy this sleep. I will catch up to you tonight after awakening and feeding. No need to tell me where you’re headed, we are linked again, I will find you.”

  With that, he disappeared into the remaining, night sky. I looked and Yura was fast asleep, as was Mylicous. It was literally right before the sun came up that they had fallen asleep. I shrugged and watched as the sun came up. It wasn’t a majestic sunrise, unlike many cases before, it was kind of boring. There were no mountains for it to creep over, the mountains were behind us. It was just open field ahead of us. I reminded me of seeing the sunrise in Judea and Jerusalem, except it was grass instead of sand.

  I got up and walked around, the black sludge that lined the mountain side had all but disappeared. I could see why Derium liked the mountains, and I was only seeing a part of them. I picked a bunch of wild flowers for Yura and some tall grass and stray wheat for the horses. I kept quiet, I didn’t want to wake up Mylicous or Yura, I enjoyed their company, but I also enjoyed time to myself.

  A breeze blew, and many different, floral scents filled my nose. The breeze made a weird, almost moaning like sound when it reached the mountain side. It whirled up the mountain side, stirring up dust. I could see the cave and thought how so many years ago, I had leapt down that mountain side with Derium’s head and there I was, looking at the cave he was sleeping comfortably in.

  I walked around a few more hours, remembering back and thinking how interesting empty the land was and how it was possibly because of Deruim. I had walked far from the group when my foot hit something hard on the ground. I looked down and used my foot to move the grass and dirt off the object and noticed a black, round like object. I bent down and used my hands to dig it out, feeling the cool earth under my fingertips. I pulled the object out and looked at it. It looked like a bowl carved out of stone. I found it interesting, I wondered how long it had been there. I smiled, Noemi would have loved finding it. I put it back and covered it back up with the dirt.

  I headed back to the group, of course they were still sleeping and remained that way until later in the afternoon. I spent most that time, picking up small rocks and heads of flowers to throw at them while they slept, but the never woke. Not sleeping was truly a curse more than a gift, at first.

  They finally woke up, Yura stretched and smiled at me and I slightly smiled back. Mylicous got up, stretched and released some flatulence, that smelted as if it had come out of Death’s ass itself. Yura and I looked at Mylicous who just shrugged. He was unaware that some of the flower heads I had been throwing, were stuck in his beard. Yura looked at me and smiled.

  “My stomach aches for food,” Mylicous said, “should we hunt before travel?” he looked more towards Yura than myself, but I spoke up.

  “I haven’t seen much around here besides those rabbits you got last night, might have to travel a little before we can eat,” I said, really just wanting to move and not linger anymore.

  Mylicous just nodded, some of the flower heads of purple and yellow, fell out of his beard. He noticed, then shook the rest out and have me a cross look. We wasted no time after that getting on our horses and started heading back the way we came. Yura strode up next to me and nudged me with her foot. I looked over at her, “I’m glad you’re coming back.”

  “Well, I’m still going to try to talk you into leaving, I know where I want to be, and I’d like it if you came with me.”

  “We will see,” she said, and we rode in silence for a while, just enjoying the scenery, even though it was kind of bland.

  The rest of the trip went like before, we traveled, we ate, we ran into vampires. This time though, Derium was with us and he warned them to stop their attacks. There were a few who followed his words and few he had to drain to get his point across. It was at this point, I had the first ever thought of forming The Order, except I didn’t have that moniker. I started thinking, there needed to be a group of people to keep an eye on Mylicious’s and Derium’s offspring, but the thought got lost over time.

  Derium stayed with us until the it was time for the boat. Mylicous told him where to find us and we headed back to the Arctic. We then made our journey back and was met our first night back by Derium

  Derium stayed with us for a couple of nights, but claimed finding food was too hard for him. He thanked Mylicous for his generosity and left. I stayed as promised with Yura and I would ask repeatedly over the years, for her to come with me to my place, where I wanted to live. I always got the “maybe one day,” response. After four years in she gave me a proposal.

  I was up one night during the full moon. Mylicous had recruited two more people to the pack. Amurk who was a beefy guy, with short curly hair and broad shoulders and Linn who said she had traveled from a place called China. They both had stories, but Linn had stories about a lot of fighting, which intrigued me. The normal full moon activities were going on, while Yura stayed in with me. I was drinking on Mylicous’s drink he made, which had grown on me, when Yura approached me.

  “Marry me, and I will go with you,” she said, catching me mid-drink, causing me to spit some out.

  “What?” I asked, shocked, wiping my face.

  “Marry me and I will go with you,” she smiled at me, “Usually the man asks the woman, but I didn’t think you were ever going to,” she eyes gleamed in the fire.

  The response came out of my mouth before I even thought about it, “Okay,” I said, not that I regretted saying it, I just didn’t want to say it yet. I loved Yura, and if marrying her would get me back to Ireland, then that’s what I wanted to do. I know, not the right reasons to marry someone, but it was what it was.

  “Should we tell Mylicous?” I asked.

  “Well, yes, he’s going to do the ceremony,” she said.

  “Ceremony?” I asked confused, throughout my many years of living, I never paid attention to the customs of man and woman joining together.

  “Mylicous will use a blade he forged and cut our hands, we will then join hands and let our blood mingle, keeping our hands down and over a chalice filled with Mylicious’s drink, the blood will drip in, then Mylicous will say prayer on our behalf. After the prayer, we will then drink from the chalice, but we do not swallow, we kiss, and exchange fluids, then we swallow.”

  “What happens after that?”

  “We are together, then we spend the night together, like many before, only we are bonded.”

  I smiled and didn’t even realize it, the thought made me happy. She had some tears in her eyes, I did not, I just felt happiness. She put her head on my shoulder, her heart was racing, so I put my arm around her and squeezed her.

  “We will tell Mylicous in the morning. This is the first year his children were able to perform in the rituals of the full moon, so I don’t want to overwhelm him too much,” Yura mentioned.

  I had forgotten this was their first full moon, I just hoped they remembered they were brother and sister after transforming. I heard the howls that let me know the night’s activities were coming to an end and they pack would soon be coming back inside. I threw more wood on the fire, because it was the dead of winter and I’m sure they’d be cold.

  Mylicious’s daughter was first down the steps, she had a hateful look on her face, until she saw me, then smiled. She was quickly followed by Amurk, who put his hands on Amka’s shoulders. Amka turned around and quickly squatted his hand off her shoulder.

  “I told you from the beginning I wasn’t interested, and you tried anyway,” she said and stormed off.

  “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to, it just happened!” Amurk yelled, throwing his hands up in the air as took the last step.

  “Lesson to learn,” Mylicous said, coming up behind Amurk and shoving him to the ground. “When a female in the pack says no, it means no. Next ti
me you won’t get just a bite from me, I’ll take your head clean off, in fact, you don’t get to sleep in here with us tonight. You can go sleep outside.”

  Amurk, didn’t even respond, he walked past the rest of the group with his head down. Yura looked at me and I looked at her, “I think tomorrow is definitely a better time to tell him,” I said.

  “Yes, I believe so,” she agreed.

  We then retired to her room, where we would lay together, until she fell asleep. I would then get up and wonder about. I stoked the fire some more and was watching a stick burn when Amka sat beside me.

  “Are you okay?” I asked.

  “I don’t like these full moon activities, I mean the music, katajjag, the drinking and the dancing are nice. I just don’t like the mating part….,” she trailed off, acting as if she had something else to tell me.

  “Go ahead child and tell me what you’re thinking,” I said. Her eyes swelled up with tears a little bit.

  “I’m not drawn to any of the males here,” she took a deep breath, “I’m attracted to the females,” she said and sighed.

  I put my around her and gave her a gentle hug, “You’ll be alright Amka, I’m sure Mylicous will understand.”

  She sniffled a little, “Are you sure?”

  “I’m sure, he one of the most understanding people I know, he understood Derium in the past, he will understand you.”

  She took a deep breath and smiled, and I gave her another, gentle hug. She got up and went to her room, I stayed out by the fire a few more hours then went back to lay with Yura.

  She was covered up with a blanket made from Yeti fur and she usually slept naked underneath. I stripped down myself and even though I wasn’t going to sleep, I crawled under the blanket with her. She was naked and laying on her side, her backend end towards me. I scooted close to her. I cuddled her, my member rested gently between the top of her butt cheeks. I brought one arm around her and gently cupped a breast, while laying on my head on my arm. When she felt my touch, she scooted towards me a little, wriggling her butt towards me. She brought her head over to mine and we kissed.

  She was soon back asleep, and I just stayed right next to her until she woke up the next morning. She had big smile on her face. We got up and got dressed and headed out to the main area, where the rest of the pack was already cooking the morning meal.

  Mila was first to notice something different about Yura, I guess werewolves are really good at picking up on emotions and auroras. She smiled and cocked her head in puzzlement, but it was Mylicous who spoke up first.

  “Oh boy, brother, you look like you have something you want to tell us,” he said and plopped down the meat he was eating.

  “That we do,” I said and looked over at Yura who was gleaming, “We’ve decided to spend our lives together.”

  “Will you perform the ceremony for us, Mylicous?” Yura asked.

  There was a shocked looked on his face, then a grin formed. He clapped his hands together, some of the meat in his mouth fell out, “I’d be honored to do that.”

  The rest of the pack, minus Amurka, who was still outside at the time, gave us hugs. We all set down and ate together, Mylicous, Mila and Yura planning out the day, time and everything else that went into the ceremony. I literally had no say in anything and felt left out, as much left out as Amurka.

  As soon as the thought entered my head, Amka spoke up, “We should let Amurka back in, I think he’s learned his lesson.”

  Mylicous gave Amka an odd stare, then yelled out, “AMURKA, YOU CAN COME BACK IN!”

  Amurka must have been waiting by the steps, because he flew down them and the first thing he did was come in and hug Amka, who hesitantly accepted it.

  “I’m so sorry Amka, I swear it was the wolfen side of me, you know I’m not like that,” he stuttered through his words. A thin layer of ice had formed on his hair and the longer stood there, the wetter his hair became as the ice melted on it.

  “You’re forgiven, but next time I don’t think, me or my dad will be so forgiving,” she then glanced over at me and gave me a side smile.

  “What’s that about?” Yura whispered in my ear.

  “It’s not my place to tell, it’s hers. Maybe you should talk to her later.”

  “Okay, I need to anyways, she’s changing so much, I just want to inform her of a few things.”

  “Don’t underestimate her, she knows more than she lets people know about,” I said, I had a feeling whatever Yura was going to talk to Amka about, Amka already knew about.

  The next couple of days were busy, apparently, I had to be taken to the land of green and hunt and elk, which was hard to do with a bow and arrow. It was all the men in the pack that went. Tarkik, Amaruq, and Amurka circled out from Mylicous and me. They, essentially, drove the elk in our direction. The elk was some distance off, but I was good shot. The problem was all the trees, there were many conifers and some maple trees, they all were in the way. After thirty minutes with my bow drawn back, I got my opening and I took it.

  Elks looked different back then, they were much larger than what we have now. Their antlers were coarser to the touch as well. I remember running my fingers over the surface of the antlers of the one I shot and thinking, it could easily take the skin of someone’s face if used in a fashion of torture. Mylicous took a section of the antlers, he told me it would make a good handle for my wedding gift. We then quartered up the elk, each member of the pack took some piece of meat with them as we headed back to our boats.

  Once we got back early the next morning, everything started zipping by even faster. The elk was cut up even more, the women of the pack went to get flowers, Mila said she knew of place not too far from where we were hunting. After they left, Mylicious took my measurements and started his work on fashioning me a robe for the ceremony. I was left by myself as everybody was hustling around. I felt like I was standing still as everybody else sped past me.

  I blinked my eyes and when I opened them, it was dark, and the rest of the pack had gone to bed. The fire was dwindling down, so I done my nightly duty and added more wood to the fire. I took my normal seat next to it and poked at it as I had done over the years, many of times. There was something comforting about fire, the way the flames always danced around.

  I started thinking back, which was something I do too often. I thought back to Jesus on the stake, I thought of how I never got around to killing Pontius, then back to my travels with Noemi. As I poked the fire a few more times, I felt a tap on my shoulder. I looked up and there stood Mylicious, practically naked.

  “Thinking about spirits?” he asked as he sat down.

  “I guess you could say that, just thinking is all,” I said as I poked the fire.

  “You know Derium can see spirits?”

  “No, I didn’t know that at all,” I looked over at Mylicous with wonderment.

  “He told me they haunt him sometimes, one haunted him the whole time he was separated. It was one of the people he fed from. He couldn’t see it though, because his head was so far away, but he could feel it touching him. I’m glad I don’t have that curse upon me.”

  “I’m glad as well, I’m still baffled at all our differences. I’m also baffled that we are the only Nephilim around. I haven’t run into any other kinds around.”

  “There are more, but this Earth had things like us, long before we came around. I’ve heard rumors of large flying lizards around the area you like so much. Small, winged flying humans. You know of the witches, so much is out there, brother, yet Jehovah, just wants us to believe in him and that he is the only one.”

  “Speaking cross of Jehovah?” I asked puzzled.

  “Mila opened my eyes to the ways of her people. I realized then that this place had long been around before Jehovah showed up, it’s magical, it holds powers. Powers I’ve tapped into as well and me having powers of my own, I’ve enhanced myself, I’ve become better from within. You might want to try it sometime.”

  “I’ve had my run in wi
th witches, some pleasant, some not so much. I don’t have any issues with them, they leave me alone, I leave them alone.”

  “Just don’t want you going down a dark path brother, those are the hardest to come back from. I fear time will turn you that way, I just hope you find inner peace before it does.”

  I was lost at why he was talking to me about inner peace, I was at peace, or at least some kind of peace. He patted my shoulder and got up, it wasn’t until a few hours that I saw him again.

  The women of the pack had made their way back with the many of flowers they had picked. They carried them in by the bushels full. There were little blue flowers, red flowers, pink flowers but one that caught my eyes they most were a few bushels of black flowers.

  The decorating started as soon as morning meal was finished, I wasn’t even for sure when the wedding day was, but from the way it looked, sooner than I had expected it to be. They started tying some of the flowers to twine and stringing them up. They had brought in some long, vines that Amaruq wove together in an archway. The black flowers that I liked so much, got added to the archway. Blue and yellow flowers were hanging in drooping lines, from the ceiling and lined a walk way that led to the center tunnel from the archway.

  I didn’t see much of Yura and when I tried to help, I was told no. Mylicous disappeared, Tarkik told me was out forging, but when I went out there, I couldn’t open the door and was told to go away. I was annoyed but I believed it was all for a good cause.

  The day was over before I knew and the pack went to bed before their normal time, which left me alone even longer. I tried to go to Yura’s room but found myself locked out. I ended up walking back to main room, to where what I would say, the kitchen would be and started a fire there. I went to the meat storage room and got me a slice of meat, I wasn’t hungry, I was bored. I cooked up the meat, being this was the first meal I had ever cooked for myself and ate it. I was not impressed, I knew nothing of spices, and it showed in my cooking.