The Trinity

Chapter 2: The Creatures


Kraken, Volvaiga, and Magmosia were standing near the three shaman trying to decide how best to rule over the island since the prayer had actually been intended for a single god rather than three. Sindra made a vote for having the three gods battle for supremacy over the land, but the other shaman objected heartedly, saying that such a battle would quite possibly destroy the entire island even worse than the disasters had!

Malkian proposed that all three gods shared the land evenly, but Strolgar objected with claims that a single island couldn’t be shared between three omnipotent beings for very long before somebody made a move for supremacy.


The debate had been going on for several hours now that the disasters had been calmed, until finally Kraken spoke up, causing the three shaman to hush when they heard his voice and awaited his godly wisdom.


“It is obvious that your prayer went answered the wrong way, and I do agree that while it may be the more peaceful solution, we three can not share the entire island. But I do have one idea.” said Kraken, causing the shaman and even his fellow gods to lean in and listen to his idea.

“It appears that there are three tribes each living in various locations on the island. With different climates for each. As I saw with Magmosia, we don’t seem to have much power outside of our natural element, so I propose that the three of us split the island into three separate territories in which to rule over.” said Kraken. The other two gods began to think it over before Volvaiga cheerfully agreed by bobbing up and down in mid air, her cloud dress crackling with energetic static. Magmosia simply nodded with a grunt.


“I shall go with Malkian to rule over the shores where the tides are at the greatest, there I can use my power to keep the seas from rising up again. Volvaiga could go with Strolgar to rule over the barbarians of the north where the storms rage across the mountains. We’ve already discovered she has quite a knack for electricity. And of course, Magmosia shall go with Sindra to rule over the tribes of the jungle where she can be at home with the molten volcanoes and earth, thus having her power be at it’s strongest.” said Kraken. The two goddesses agreed to such terms, but the shaman were a bit skeptical. Strolgar was kind of worried over his people being ruled by such a spastic god who looked to be no more than 9 years old, and Sindra was suspicious over whether Magmosia was up to the task of a warrior goddess.


They did manage to agree however, and so the pact was formed that the island would not be ruled by a single god, but by a pantheon of multiple gods! Weeks went by as the gods quelled the occasional disaster for the month and the tribes began to erect temples and religious teachings about the gods that ruled over them. Magmosia’s war tribes soon became almost Amazon like, females holding dominate rule in their society while males were put to work as either slaves or took on the roles that most other tribes would usually give to women. Sindra was surprised how quickly their tribe flourished under the earth and fire goddess. Although the rest of the tribes were terrified as they heard that Magmosia had taken up the art of human sacrifice in order to fuel her miracles and her tribe was often reported for having sacrificed males to the goddess with the aid of a massive bonfire. Because of this, the rest of the island now completely avoided the amazons for fear of being sacrificed.

Kraken was a somewhat more peaceful god who ruled through wisdom and peace rather than war-like brutality. Although nobody could say he was a pure good entity, he often choose the path that equaled the least amount of strife whenever possible. His people offered him tributes of fresh crops which he would often feast with the very mortals who worshipped him thus making him a very respected and loved god. Malkian had even managed to get the sailors to construct a massive cruise ship in Kraken’s honor which was large enough to hold at least 100 humans on board. It even had a moderately sized shrine inside it for praying to the god which would allow Kraken to board the ship and sail around the entire sea outside of his influence on Solstice island!


Volvaiga was proving to be a rather skilled god among the barbarians despite her age and excited ness. She proved to be a kind and loving god and often held several celebrations with her worshippers to boost their morale. The tribes of the mountains were still warriors by heart, but they tended to be more cheerful and carefree rather than thuggish brutes, she helped turn their lust for bloodshed into a love of sports by having wrestling and sparring matches between her worshippers to help relieve anger and satisfy their love for battle. She often visited Kraken when he was supplying rain to his worshippers and would sometimes play around with him by sending small bolts of lightning down as if to remind the people of the seas that Kraken was not the only god on the island. Kraken was often frustrated with this as she occasionally caused an accident with her lightning, but she managed to keep herself under control to some degree.


After a full year of ruling the island, they had become known as the Trinity, and the three shaman who had summoned them called them back to Mt. Storm Fury declaring it to be an urgent message. The three gods quickly traveled to the holy mountain to see what was so urgent, only to find the shaman smiling at them.


“Your holinesses, we have spent a year worshipping you and have finally managed to regain our island to the way it used to be before the disasters. However there is one last thing that you must acquire in order to truly be seen worthy of godly status!” said Sindra, causing the three gods to look surprised at this statement. Surely their unusual appearances as well as their obvious magical abilities entitled them to godhood?


“The time has come for you to claim a creature for yourself, all gods in Eden possess a creature, so once you have one, it will certainly mark you as full fledged gods!” said Strolgar while pumping a fist holding his war hammer in the air.


“What’s a creature?” asked Volvaiga curiously. Still being so young, the shaman had acted as advisors to the three gods and had spent the last year training them in how to be divine rulers, but now that the gods were used to their abilities, they had come to rely less and less upon their teachings. They had even learned to harness even more powerful miracles by now.

“A creature is the avatar of a god, the physical representation of your being upon the mortal plane. As you currently are now, you are completely immortal. Creatures can be killed of course, but when done so, they shall simply regenerate from death back at the current temple in which their god resides. The only true way to kill a creature is to kill it when it has no godly master, thus halting it’s ability to regenerate.” said Malkian as he pointed down the side of the mountain to a valley leading to a coastal island just off shore.


“Creatures begin their lives at around eight feet tall, but as they grow in power and age, they can become titanic. We’ve heard stories from far off lands of creatures who are several hundred feet tall and can single-handedly destroy an entire army!” said Sindra, “And there are perks too, since creatures are the mortal representation of their god, they too can cast miracles of godly power. Any miracle that their god has knowledge to, the creature may also perform.” she added.

“Come, let us go to the creature’s island and you may select your mortal avatar and complete your godly training!” said Strolgar. The gods picked up their advisors and began to fly towards the indicated island, although Volvaiga had to clutch onto Strolgar’s cape, having not the body size required to completely hold him properly, despite her godly strength easily being able to do so. The three gods made it to the island within minutes and were surprised by the site of what they found.


A multitude of monsters were roaming the island, trying to play together or find food. Most looked like animals, but there were others who looked like actual monsters! It was difficult to choose only one creature.


“Most creatures are animal based, my lord. But some gods find it fitting to choose a more monstrous creature. Some evil or tyrannical gods find comfort in choosing the Ogres. A somewhat stupid creature, but none are better suited to annihilating a city, if you should choose to do so.” said Strolgar as he pointed towards a lumbering Cyclops who looked almost human except for his hulking muscles, one eye, and horns protruding from his forehead.


Kraken approached the creatures who seemed to notice him and stand to attention, eager to be accepted as an avatar. He looked them over and tried to determine what would best suit his style, finally laying his sights upon the perfect avatar! A large land turtle! Like the rest of the creatures, despite it being animal in species, it had human-like characteristics by walking on hind legs and having it’s front legs developed into humanoid arms and hands. The shell protected it perfectly like a suit of natural armor and it had a personality like that of the calm and gentle seas, yet Kraken could sense that if it needed to, this creature could unleash the fury of a raging typhoon to defend itself. It was also somewhat intimidating as it stood 10 feet tall at the moment and it’s thick muscles making it look like a powerful fighter despite it’s calm personality.


“I shall choose the turtle to represent me…” said Kraken as he reached to pet the turtle, no sooner had he touched it, than a leash appeared around the creature’s neck and attached to his wrist, much to his surprise.


“Don’t worry my lord, that leash will allow you to direct your creature as you see fit. You may release the leash to let your creature rest at any time, but let us wait until the other gods have chosen their avatars.” said Malkian, not at all surprised by the water god having chosen a water based creature.


Next, Magmosia stepped up to claim her creature as Kraken stepped back while the turtle followed close to him peacefully. She scanned the area and for a moment had considered choosing the brutish ogre, but then decided against it. In a tribe completely dominated by females, a hulking male ogre would be bewilderingly confusing for the representation of the goddess. Instead she scanned over until she found something which she believed hat suited her perfectly!

It was a powerful looking crocodile, having slightly human features just as the other creatures, but still remaining mostly reptile. It’s scales looked to provide excellent leather armor, and while it’s defense might not have been as high as Kraken’s turtle, it was definitely going to be very difficult to defeat such a creature in a fight due to the claws and powerful jaws as well as the armored hide. She didn’t even have to ask as she knew it was female, a perfect fit for her warrior tribe of women. The powerful lizard seemed to acknowledge her as it’s ruler, but acted hostile towards the others when they tried to get close to it while it remained at it’s mistress’s side.


Next, Volvaiga stepped forward and within a matter of seconds, she chose her creature, a polar bear who was lazing in the sun as she attached her leash to it. Strolgar rubbed his beard as he considered the secret wisdom of her choice. Indeed, they lived in the mountain regions where it was quite cold, but it went beyond that. A bear was large, a bear was powerful, a bear was strength incarnate! Seeing it along side the tribe would spur the morale of the barbarians even in the worst of times. He watched as the goddess practically tackled the bear and began to snuggle into his soft warm fur, much to the creature’s surprise as it tried to escape the energetic goddess’s over enthusiastic love!


“Very well, now that you have all obtained your creatures, your godhood is fully realized. You no longer need our advise.” said Malkian with a humble bow. “We shall continue to act as priests for you as our gods, but we have nothing further to teach you about the ways of being a god, your creatures and yourselves must learn on your own from here on out, although we shall leave you with this final bit of advice…” he added.


“As you know,” began Strolgar, “Every action you have done over the past year, be it good or evil has effected you in some way. The same goes for your creatures since they are a mortal representation of you. If you are evil, the creature shall transform to reflect that, and the same as if you are good. There is a high chance that these creatures will not look the way they do now by the time they reach full growth.” he finished, causing the three gods to nod in understanding.

With their creatures chosen, the three gods departed from the island and went back to their regions to rule over, unaware of an even greater threat that would soon be upon them. For deep within the caverns underneath the island’s surface, lurked an ancient tribe nearly forgotten by the other societies.


“High priestess, it seems that our magic no longer effects the upholders… they have three gods who cancel out any miracles we try to perform during our rituals. I fear that we will not be able to destroy them as we had planned…” said a member of the tribe as she bowed before the leader. This tribe was actually a coven of witches and warlocks, a tribe made entirely of mortals capable of performing miracles. Through powerful sacrifices and rituals, they were able to perform godly destruction without the use of a god. They believed that by destroying those dwelling on the surface, they could take Solstice for themselves, and rule over it with their powerful miracles for all time. That had changed during the year now.


“Enough… Sister…” said the mistress who was garbed in a solid black robe which covered every inch of her body except the hands which hung out of the sleeves. “If they do possess gods, we shall simply conquer them before our next ritual… bring forth the destroyer at once…” she ordered rather casually as if she didn’t actually care.


She could hear the sounds of furious snarls and roaring as the tribe was preparing to unleash the destroyer upon the surface, the tribe’s own personal creature!


She smiled as she saw the shadow of the massive tiger rear up in the distance, it’s body restrained with several magical chains which were held in place by very powerful miracles devised by the priests themselves.


“Go, our destroyer, go and conquer these so called gods! May you gorge yourself on their worshippers!” she shouted as the beast roared in reply and burst forth from it’s restraints, charging down the closest tunnel to the surface and hungry for blood.


The hulking beast thundered through the tunnels, kept from killing the tribe only due to the powerful magic they wielded, when it finally burst forth onto the surface, it was in a frenzy as it unleashed a thunderous roar into the air which could be heard for several miles around.

As it looked around it’s current area, it noticed that it was closest to a beach, having had the caves to the catacombs being built at the lowest part of the island, it saw one of the coastal villages on a few hundred yards away and it charged straight for them as it could hear the onlookers screaming in terror as the beast charged forth. It was very nearly upon them when seemingly out of nowhere, a geyser of water shoot up from under it’s feet, catching the beast off guard and holding it several feet up in the air where it could see the confused look on Kraken’s face as he tried to negotiate with the creature.


No sooner had the creature set it’s eye on him than it swung one of it’s hand-like claws in a fist, hitting the god square in the chest and sending him hurdling back several feet through the air as he crashed into one of the warehouses used by ships, leaving a massive hole in the wall. The worshippers screamed in fear of what had just happened to their god who almost instantly came bursting forth from the destroyed wall, charging straight for the creature and delivered a returned punch, sending it straight down to the ground like a spiked volleyball!


Kraken made sure to notice that this creature was several years older than his as it stood nearly 30 feet tall, three times the size of his. But where it came from and why it was so enraged was not yet known to him, and although he hated a situation that resulted in bloodshed, the creature was obviously too far enraged to have any hopes of conversing with.

“Tsunami, come to my aid!” shouted Kraken as he called for his creature who no sooner had the call been given than it came bounding towards it’s master. Kraken grimaced at the thought of fighting such a powerful beast with such a weaker one, but if the fight continued in his fully god form, the entire village might have been obliterated in the attack. Attaching the leash to his creature, Kraken felt an almost harmonic bond with it, as if they had become the same being and the creature began to fight while reacting towards his desires as it hurled a punch at the downed tiger’s stomach and caused it to bruise.


The tiger was reeling from the punch from a god, but not so dazed as to be unable to return fire when the turtle punched it’s stomach. The tiger roared and swatted at the turtle, knocking it across the beach sand while the tiger stood and began to trace an unusual pattern in the air.


“Is that… a miracle?” asked Kraken as the creature rubbed it’s head and stood up only for the tiger to blast it back down again with a fireball to the face! Kraken gasped in shock as his creature was caught full force and engulfed in flames, causing it to fall back in agony which he too could sense due to their harmonic bond with the leash and he instantly set about creating a small rain cloud over his creature to douse the flames before it managed to die.


“It can cast miracles!? Is there a fourth god around here!?” demanded Kraken as the tiger was on the move again. It was just about to finish off the turtle with a second fireball when it was suddenly blasted in the back by a crackling bolt of lightning which set the creature aflame and brought it to one knee with a roar of pain.


Kraken looked behind the creature to see the cheerful Volvaiga behind it while aiming a single finger towards the beast which was crackling with electricity. Kraken was surprised that she was here in his realm, but then remembered that she could see the entire island from her mountains and that she had probably saw the battle going on and decided to help.


“Thank you Volvaiga, your help is much appreciated!” said Kraken as he performed a healing miracle on his creature to try and mend it’s burns as the creature moaned in pain while still laying prone on the ground.


“Don’t worry, we a pantheon, and a pantheon are supposed to help each other, right?” replied Volvaiga as she sent another bolt of lightning into the tiger, but this time it ignored the pain and leapt to both feet while turning and swatting at the child goddess, sending her hurdling out to sea where it hurled it’s second fireball at her in mid flight!


“Volvaiga!” shouted Kraken as the fireball slammed into her back and exploded, sending her plummeting into the sea. Kraken knew that it couldn’t kill her, but if it was anything like what happened to Magmosia, she would need his help immediately to get back to shore. He had to decide between saving his fellow god, and saving the village nearby.


“Creature, go save Volvaiga, I’ll handle this beast…” said Kraken angrily as he released the leash and his creature climbed to it’s feet and nodded before taking off into the ocean and swimming straight towards the crash site of the thunder goddess. Kraken turned angrily to the tiger and began to channel his own version of an offensive miracle.


“Lets see how you like being blasted!” said Kraken as he flung his arms forward to unleash a hail of dagger sharp ice crystal which lanced forward and began to slice and stab the mighty tiger and causing it to stumble backwards in pain while guarding it’s face from the attack. Kraken frowned as he realized such an attack was not nearly enough to bring down this creature, he would need something much more destructive, but anything that he could use which resorted to such methods might actually destroy the village he was trying to protect. There was only one being on the island who might have enough destructive power to effectively defeat this monster without resorting to obliterating his villages, but he couldn’t possibly get to her at the moment without sacrificing his village.


Kraken knew in his deep wisdom that in order to save all of the villages, he would have no choice but to sacrifice one of them, no matter how painful the situation would be. He turned towards the volcano and sped off through the air just as his miracle was ending and the creature shivered with nearly a dozen ice shards lodged in it’s arms, legs, and chest. It saw the god fleeing from battle but paid no heed as it turned it’s sights back towards the terrified villagers who screamed in fear as the creature unleashed a third fireball right into the center of town!