National Novel Writing Month Pt 13

Away with us he's going,

The solemn-eyed:

He'll hear no more the lowing

Of the calves on the warm hillside

Or the kettle on the hob

Sing peace into his breast,

Or see the brown mice bob

Round and round the oatmeal chest

For he comes, the human child

To the waters and the wild

With a faery, hand in hand

From a world more full of weeping than he can understand

    My head is pounding and I try to slow my breathing but the pounding in my head just gets louder and louder. Then it hits me. I need to take a shit. Staggering to the bathroom I stub my big toe on my left foot. Dancing a bit I almost fall while pondering the pros and cons of motion activated underbed lighting. I don’t have the agility for this in the morning. I manage to make it t the toilet and let it fly. The pain! It is like fire coming out of my ass. It burns and hurts. Did I eat glass or something. The burning just keeps getting worse and worse. Now it is stuck. What is the chance of something to dig it out with? Trying to breathe through the pain. I am sweating very badly and search desperately for something to read. Something to take my mind off the pain. The first one finally drops but there is so much more. Why does it hurt so badly? I need some lemonade or something. Why does this happen? I am in complete agony there are tears in my eyes. It feels like this turd is really tearing me a new one. I didn’t even eat anything spicy but the glass filled turd just won’t drop. It is slowly inching out as if it is not wanting to leave. When I feel like I can’t bear it any more it finally drops. By the gods wiping hurts! The pain is just too much. My asshole is on fire. I don’t want to wipe but I have to. There is no other option. The tears are really flowing fast and hard. I just want the burning to end. Maybe if I had an ice pop so I could shove it up my ass and make it all stop. How would I get an ice pop? Something anything to make it stop.

I stagger out of the bathroom and fall on the floor just outside the door. Curling up in a ball and moaning I rock to try and stop the pain. Slowly it starts to fade and my skin cools. My eyes slowly close.

The gods are angry, the priests are dead, the buildings are on fire. Why, why did we have to anger them? We understand now that we are not gods. Can’t this punishment end? They have stripped us of our wings, taken our glory, and still they rage. We understand the error of our ways and will never reach so high again. Can’t the burning stop? The nations are gone, the rulers have fallen all that is left are the common people. Maybe it is the common people who have least offended the gods. The stars have been falling from the sky and and landing in the water causing so much steam for stars are very hot. None of the machines work any more. We have no food and only a little water. The gods won’t be happy till we all die awful deaths of either thirst or starvation. Despite the fires the nights are very cold for we have no where to sleep any more. There are no buildings left that are fit to occupy. Worst of all is hearing the children cry. They cry for their mothers. They cry for their fathers. They cry for want of food, water or warmth. Never in the last two hundred years had a child gone hungry. These are terrible days.

The sun doesn’t even come up any more. The moon is hidden from us as well. What will we do? How will we make peace with the gods? There have been many sacrifices to the gods. Many people are willing to give up their lives to end this but the sacrifices go unnoticed by the gods. The streets run red with blood. The water is fouled and all we can do is pray for it to end. We can’t even leave the island as all the boats have been sunk. We are trapped here and we will die here. The question is just how long will that take? There is no light, life, and love here anymore. Only death, sorrow and destruction.

Finally one of the gods came down and told us that the gods had deliberated upon our fate. That we would never again live in the light. That we would never again think ourselves the equals of the gods. That we would live for the rest of eternity under the waters of the world as the fish do. I am very scared. I know that the gods are powerful but to be able to do such things would be only within the power of the gods. A bright light shines above us too bright to look at and all the brighter for not having had light for days. The land shakes and I am thrown to the ground. No one would be able to maintain footing with such shaking going on. What remains of the buildings falls and people are screaming all around. The ocean is rising up to meet us. We will soon sink under the water. I try to run from the rising water but there is too much debris in the way. I climb the nearest pile desperate for escape. I am not alone. Many are climbing with me. None of us know what to do. Why can’t the gods just forgive us?

Something strange is happening. People are trying to swim but can’t they are being sucked under and will drown. Others try to pull them out but only get sucked into the water. There is no where else for me to go. No where higher up to run. The water is up to my ankles and rising fast. It will take me soon. I am full of fear and dread. Drowning is always a very bad way to die which is why our people have wings. If you can fly you can not drown. Tears run down my face as the water rises and forms around me like thick clay. I can’t get my ankles out and now the water is up to my knees. I cry out and beg the gods for mercy but they only laugh instead. The gods are cruel and merciless. Soon the water will have me too. Many people are struggling and a few have accepted their fate waiting for their death to come.

Taking my last breath I gulp as much as I can fearing when my next breath will come. Everyone’s eyes are wide with fear and they are frantically trying to swim. It is no use. No one can move much let alone reach the surface. My lungs burn but I can’t let my breath go. I think I am crying but when you are under water it is hard to tell. Filled with sadness, fear and regret I release my breath and take in water. This burns my lungs worse than the air they once held. So this is what it is to drown. I always knew it was a dreadfully painful experience but I never thought I would have to endure it myself. Coughing I expel more air and take in more water. This time it doesn’t hurt as bad and my head starts to clear. I can breathe water? Is this what the gods have done to us? My fingers and toes are now thickly webbed like the fins on a fish. Are we to live as fish? The land keeps sinking and the water keeps piling on top. Slowly people began to breathe the water and notice webbed hands and feet. Some panic. Others accept this in stride.

The land finally hits the bottom of the ocean with a thud. We are no longer moving downward and the pressure of the water is no longer increasing. We are now sea people. The buildings reform almost as before but more in the style of what is found under the sea. So the great buildings are not made out of stone but of coral. The great gardens are now cultivated seabeds. It seems that the gods want us properly banished but banished in comfort. These are strange gods.

    I wake up with a start. Why am I on the floor? Did I fall asleep outside the bathroom? Why does my stomach hurt? No time for questions now I have some heavy duty stinking to do.