Dear Readers: Let's check back in with Atria in Mesopotamia...
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Scene 5: The Avatar
2020 B.C.
She had slept well. As well as one could sleep, when dreams were of slaughtering thousands of people with a pair of scissors.
At least the threads that she had cut, on her last visit to the Cave, had been of strangers. In that sense, it’d been no different from her routine snipping, in the time before Ananke had sent her daughters down to earth. The deathly Fate could just stay blind, play deaf. It was just business, as per usual. That was probably best.
But there would be something gratifying in snipping the thread of a soul that she knew was a dark one. Someone evil she encountered here on earth. One whose death would help to save her mother’s life.
Gilgamesh had to be one such man. And since his sin seemed so egregious, with such a widespread effect, surely his death would mark great progress toward diminishing human darkness. Right?
Waking up in the same bed, this time, was an interesting feeling. It made her feel more human, which was revolting and exciting both at once. Before leaving the rest-house, she haggled with the innkeeper for a bite to eat. His price was a peek at her breasts. Fair enough.
Atria inquired for directions to the Cedar Forest as she continued down the road. All the men she asked urged her against venturing there; some even refused to give guidance, on the grounds that it would be too great a tragedy, for one so young and beautiful to walk into a death trap. But there were some women who whispered the way in her ears, as if eager to send her to her doom, so that their sons and husbands would stop staring.
When she at last reached the edge of the forest, she stopped for only just a second. She had been warned by many that these woods teemed with all manner of man-eating beasts and poisonous plants.
But that was of no matter to her—only the human in her hesitated, before forging ahead. She was mostly still a goddess. The deathly Fate, no less, who couldn’t fear death even if she tried.
The forest turned out to be deep and dark and daunting indeed. The cedars blotted out the sun, steeping the whole space in shadow, shielding from view any creature that might suddenly attack. Had she been any more human, she might’ve actually turned back.
But she did not. The shadows felt, in fact, familiar—reminding her of all the shadows in the Cave. Her home. She blended so well in the shadow that potential predators probably couldn’t even see her.
After some indeterminate time, the pervasive darkness started to lighten, as she forged on. There had to be some sort of clearing in the forest up ahead. Either that, or she’d already reached the other end—she doubted it, given how vast the forest was supposed to be.
Sure enough, she eventually emerged into a glade. The cedars in this sunlit circle had been felled, it seemed—apparently, so as to build a grand palatial temple, now standing proud amid surrounding trees.
Gilgamesh. This place reeked of his hubris. She had arrived.
“Stop!” one of the sentinels standing by the structure barked as she approached. “Stop! Who are you, and how have you come here?”
“I am a woman, and I walked,” she stated. “Where is Gilgamesh?”
He gawked at her. “Walked—through the Cedar Forest, all alone?”
“She must be a goddess…” the guard beside him marveled.
“Maybe so,” she impatiently indulged. “In either case, shut up and take me to your leader.”
They obeyed. Led her to a large room overlooking a courtyard, where she waited for a while till a very handsome man arrived.
Compared to Shulgi, he was small—but that was true of nearly anyone on earth. By any other standard, he was perfectly well-built, muscles rippling beautifully beneath his bare bronze skin. His face was similarly chiseled, with brooding eyes and features that struck a breathtaking balance between rugged and exquisite.
Atria wondered, for a minute, whether he was actually a god…
Behind him came a group of men in robes, most of whom looked somewhat older. Each of them was also well-built, and doubtless had been quite attractive in his prime.
“A woman, flesh and blood…!” one marveled as they came closer.
“It’s been too long since last I saw one…”
“And I’ve never seen one so fine…”
The leader with the beautiful bare torso reached her first, waiting to speak until he stood before her. He bowed humbly in greeting. “Welcome to the temple of Gilgamesh.”
She stared at him. “Are you its namesake?” she inquired.
He nodded, and then gestured toward the company behind him. “At present. Though in truth, all of us are.”
Atria furrowed her brow. She was not a fan of riddles.
“I am the current avatar of Gilgamesh,” he explained. “The man who most recently reached the center of the Cedar Forest. Upon arrival at this temple, I earned the honor of the hero’s name.”
“Avatar?” Atria snorted. “So this is all some great big hoax, right?”
His mouth curved into a good-humored, patient smile. The men behind him, for their part, flashed ill-humored and insulted frowns.
“It is no hoax. The hero is real,” one of them retorted.
“I am the original Gilgamesh,” the eldest among them proclaimed, stepping forward with a self-important stride. “King of Uruk, conqueror of the wild, killer of a thousand beasts. These feats I did accomplish, in my time.”
“Oh, did you now?” Atria queried. “And what of venturing to and from the underworld? Winning the elusive prize of immortality?”
The supposed hero scowled. “Man embellishes myth as he will.”
“Then let me guess the sad reality, behind this embellished myth of immortality,” Atria hazarded. “The original hero started sprouting gray hairs. Hid among the cedars so that none would see him aging. In this dark forest full of fearsome beasts, where those who came to find him would be killed. But each of you has made it to the temple. And instead of scurrying back home, to spread the news… you all have stayed. Claimed your turn to assume the avatar of fucking Gilgamesh.”
“This impertinent bitch—” the old man barked.
“Do you deny it? Any of it?” she demanded.
“No,” a gentler voice broke in; the bare-chested beauty, of course. “None of it. You have guessed rightly.”
“Then why in hell’s name would you choose this life?” she asked. “Alone here in the woods, with nothing to your name but empty fame? The so-called honor of a legend based on lies?”
“Reaching this temple alive is no easy task,” one of the men contended. “What with the vicious, venomous species that abound in the forest. By virtue of arriving, we have each accomplished a feat of heroic proportions. The legend is true, and the honor deserved.”
“Why don’t you tell that to the people back at home? The families and the countries you’ve abandoned and deceived?”
“Don’t you see?” another man chimed in. “Collectively, we give the myth its truth: the hero does not die, when each of us in turn assumes his name. That is the immortality he claims.”
She shook her head. “That is a hoax. A sorry joke.”
“Figures a woman would respond this way…” the eldest sneered.
“Am I the first?” she inquired.
“The first woman to find us, of course,” one of the men sniggered.
“The first soul to reach this temple and revile what it hides?” she spoke over the useless comment. “I highly doubt it.”
A tense silence followed her words.
She took a fearless step toward them. “Tell me what you’ve done, to those who’ve come here and refused to be a part of this.”
“Oh, we won’t tell you…” the eldest rasped.
The burliest of the men stepped in, encircling her slim upper arm in his fist. “…We will show you.”
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So what'd'ya think of the many 'avatars' of the 'immortal' Gilgamesh...?
Any guesses what's going to happen to Atria now? o_o
Next scene, we'll be back at the Mega Bretania for Cloe's dinner date with Eldor... And if you liked this one, please don't forget to vote! :)