Young Writers Society

Anam’s older brother Alta once asked him why he let Ilal boss him around. To be honest, he was a lazy god, and having Ilal at his side made him do godly things, which was important because a god couldn’t be lazy. It was a mutual relationship - Ilal ordered him around, and he learned godly responsibilities from her. Yes, he viewed Ilal as a female, and this view made for a fun joke with Alta because Alta viewed Ilal as a male.

Both of the gods never said their references out loud in front of Ilal, of course. Her drill of logic was more terrifying that Alta’s poisonous spear.

Using his Will, Anam gave a mental nudge for his ring to spin, providing him energy. The object was as much a part of him as was his other body parts. Why, when the Queen bore him out of her Will, he came into the world with a ring around his godly baby body! She gave him the name Anam, which meant ‘possibilities’, and told him when he could comprehend divine language that there was never an instance of a godly baby born with an ungodly body part. Since then, he boasted about the ring as a sign of his uniqueness among the deities.

A purple ring appeared in front of them, which enlarged into the size of a portal. They went through it and ended up at the same sky where they had been this morning. What laid in front of them was shocking.

There was a huge crater on the ground, starting from the field to the farmer’s house. The area Ilal had watched was gone, leaving behind it a huge hole which seemed to be a single story deep. Silence accompanied the air; their eyes were glued to the puzzling situation. Eventually, they flew to the crater.

‘Could a human be the cause of this?’ Ilal asked with a measured voice. Perhaps seeing her servants turned to zombies was more horrifying than seeing this crater.

Folding his arms, Anam shook his head. ‘A human can’t do this. Even if they could, the effect won’t last long.’

He inspected the crater. The hole was smooth, shaped as if someone took a scoop of it and put it on top of their ice-cream. He’d seen an ice-cream vendor before; the shape of their scoop was a perfect semi sphere. The lack of red gas around this void presented more confusion. He turned to Ilal, too lazy to think by his own. ‘What are we going to do now?’

‘We have to fix this. Get Terna,’ Ilal said. ‘I’ll guard this place.’

‘Are you sure?’ Anam asked, raising an eyebrow. ‘I mean, even if you’re a deity -’

‘It is precisely because of that I’m going to guard this place,’ Ilal cut in. She stared at Anam. ‘I know what you’re thinking, but if my assumption is correct, the enemy has left this place already. They have achieve their objective.’ She turned to an elegant woman, thus increasing Anam’s suspicion about them being a female.

‘And that is?’

‘Spreading confusion. Making themselves known, yet undetected.’ She - yes, the pronoun was definitely accurate - turned to the gap. ‘I’m going to investigate this place while I watch. Go.’

‘Alright, your Highness.’ Anam made a bow, but realized Ilal couldn’t see him. He carried the same process with his ring and went through the purple portal.

While he searched around their parents’ palace, he considered the current situation. Someone did this on purpose. The farmer being the possessed one wasn’t a coincidence; surely the entity knew the human was under Ilal’s supervision. Also, today was Deshar, the day used by Ilal to go to Rof Itwah to deliver announcement, warning, or other kinds of godly messages. That meant the entity had been watching her for a long time. The most important question right now was: why? Why did the enemy do this to them, Children of Creation? Surely -

‘Brother?’ a feminine voice greeted him. ‘Are you looking for someone?’

He turned around and saw the tall, female body belonged to Terna. If he wasn’t attracted to gods, he would’ve been lusting for her right now. Her pale face with panda eyes was pleasant to see unless she wore a depressing expression, which she usually did.

‘Yes,’ Anam said, smiling at her, ‘I’m looking for you, in fact. There’s an earthly manipulation on, er, Earth. Ilal ask for your assistance.’

Terna looked down to the floor and uttered a low curse, prompting Anam to raise both his eyebrows. She looked up and noticed his expression. ‘I was about to meet Yalir. Now that our relationship is known, I don’t have to hide it any longer.’ She paused. ‘Though, of course, it was she who insisted for it to be so. She was a refugee goddess.’

Anam wanted to say he didn’t ask for this sort of information, but considered it to be rude, and most likely would offend Terna. Knowing her, she wouldn’t want to talk to him for months - not that she ever actively talked to any one of the Children. She could also neutralize his magic underground and in ocean, though he couldn’t comprehend how she did that, which was not surprising since planet composition wasn’t one of his interests. He was more to manly, sparkly stuffs.

Terna scrutinized his face. ‘Oh, never mind,’ she said, dismissing him with a wave of her hands. You wouldn’t understand. Gods are childish in nature.’

Anam took it as a complaint rather than an insult and let it passed him like a hot wind. He opened the purple portal. Terna adjusted her braided hair before they went through it.

There, Ilal looked up and greeted them - Terna, specifically. ‘Ah, sister. You’ve arrived.’ She spread her hand to the crater. ‘It seems an unknown entity has punctured the ground. I am still figuring out if there is a relation to the grass Anam and I found earlier. I do notice the disappearance of the sheep.’

Trust Ilal to have a pair of feminine eyes, Anam thought, smiling as if it was by default.

‘The sheep? What are their relevance in this?’ Terna descended to the crater.

‘That is yet to be known, but everything else in this place is undisturbed. This crater,’ Ilal said, pointing to the hole, ‘was originally the place for the sheep.’

Anam nodded, confirming Ilal’s observation. ‘Whoever did this, they covered their tracks, and made their action known. It is as if they are testing our wisdom.’

‘I thought so too,’ Ilal agreed.

Terna let out a sigh. ‘This would take a long time,’ she whispered, caught only by Anam’s ears. ‘Before we proceed on discussing the mystery, I want to fix this mess. I’m sure there’s nothing left to gain out of it?’

Ilal shook her head. ‘None, sister.’